After many years of wondering about the Venuti family origins, it is now possible to trace the family name through at least nine generations – from my children living in Massachusetts back to our early eighteenth century Italian ancestors.

Until recently, the story had very few details and ended with the vague knowledge that my paternal grandfather, Thomas Venuti was born somewhere near Naples and immigrated to the USA as an infant. I knew even less about my paternal grandmother. Oddly enough, it was during an online search for information about my grandmother when I stumbled upon the website of a distant cousin Bruno DiVenuta and the pieces of the puzzle began to come together. Much of the information I now have came either directly from Bruno’s website or from clues I got from reading his site. For this I am enormously grateful!

The known history begins in Altavilla Silentina, a town within the province of Salerno within the Region of Campania – of which Naples is the capital.

Although little else is known about him, the family tree begins circa 1720+ with –

* Nicola DiVenuta (First Generation). Nicola married Camilla Raverio and had six children. The oldest of these six children:

* Laurenzio DiVenuta (born circa 1740+) (Second Generation), in turn, married Carmina Cuozzo and had four children. The oldest of these four children:

* Simone Giovanni Antonio DiVenuta (born 1763) (Third Generation) had three children by his wife Carmina (last name unknown). The second of these three children:

* Michele DiVenuta (born 1793) (Fourth Generation) and his wife Antonia Santangelo had six children.

* Lorenzo DiVenuta, the second of their children (born 1829) (Fifth Generation) apparently had two wives: Rosa DiMasi (from ~ 1866 to ~1870) and Sinforosa Cennamo (from ~1883 to ?).

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