My mother's maiden name was Carlotta Valentini, and she married my father, Carlo Pinamonti, in Trinidad, Colorado, in May of 1920. They both came from the village of Rallo in Northern Italy. Rallo is in the Val di Non in the Province of Trento. Carlotta's parents names are Rosa Valentini and Silvio Valentini.
In the village of Rallo, I have three first cousins named Silvio, Aldo, and Narciso Valentini and their wives and familes and the widow of Ottorino. Also living in Rallo is an old penpal, Ezio deMichaeli and his wife, Pia. We have been writing since 1949. Pia's brother Georgio and his wife Imelde Berti live in Lago di Garda. We visited them all in 1984. The Val di Non is a beautiful little valley with the breathtaking view of the Dolomiti Mountains in the background.
My father, Carlo, came to America by himself at the age of 15 and had $15.00 in his pocket. Due to the new website (http://www.ellisisland.org) that the Mormons worked on so diligently for the past five years, those of us who had parents and grandparents come through Ellis Island, are able to find out much information. My nonna, Carolina (Odorizzi) Pinamonti came over with her daughter Josephine (who married Fred Dalpiaz) in 1901 and they each had $50.00. I have been unable to locate my nonno, Giovani Battista Pinamonti or uncle Abelardo Pinamonti on the Ellis Island website. My papa, Carlo and his father worked in the coal mines in southern Colorado (Trinidad, Starkville, and Ludlow) and then went north to a coal camp in Radiant, Co. Eventually, they opened a saloon in Radiant, which was near Coal Creek, Co. The camp is no longer there due to strip mining. Carlo married my mother's sister, Josephine (Guisippina) Valentini and she died about a year later from blood poisoning after having a tooth extracted. Nine years later, he married my mother, Carlotta Valentini. After three children were born in Colorado they decided to move to California. The full story about them and their life can be found on the index page under the title of the Immigration story of Carlo and Carlotta Pinamonti.
I am the youngest of six children. Guido, Mary
Josephine (Josie or Penny), Johnny (died in April 1959), Albert & Carl.
The three oldest, Guido, Josephine and John were born in Pyrolite (at one
time also known as Radiant and Kentwood), a coal mining camp in Fremont
County, Colorado and the last three of us were born in Southern California.
Albert was born in Los Angeles, Carl and I in Inglewood.
Guido and his wife, Louise (Pilon) live in
Portland, Oregon. Josie and her husband Gale Jackson, live in Palmdale,
California. Albert and his wife Flo (Harkey) live in Fallbrook, California.
Carl and his wife Peggyanne (Weickgenant) live in Del Mar, California.
Art and I live Lake Forest, California, which is in Orange County in California.
I went to St. John's Inglewood grade school,
St. Agnes High School in Los Angeles on Adams and Vermont. I graduated
in 1947 and went to work at Loyola University, in Los Angeles (now called
Loyola Marymount). I worked there until 1949 and then went to work
for Douglas Aircraft in El Segundo. I met Art in June of 1951
on Catalina Island when I went there with a group of friends from a social
club, one of whom I still have contact, Opal (Noyes) Scott. Art was stationed in San Diego at that time and went to Catalina
with three of his Navy buddies. We were married the following year,
January 12, 1952 at St. Anselm's Catholic Church in Los Angeles.
Some of the names in our genealogy book besides
the Pinamonti and Valentini names are: Giuliani, Maistrelli, Giovannini,
Bertagnolli, Martini, Coraradini, Menapace, Odorizzi, Pilati, Quen, Bentivoglio,
Bella, Borghesi, Lorenzoni, Guarienti, Torresani, Cortesi, Dalpiaz, Michaeli,
Zamboni, Berti, de Michaeli, Manfroni, Valentine, Zenoni, Zenonani, Bergamo,
and Tabarelli.
Other related names are Rivas, Gorham, LaMarche, Carasco, Wurster,
Holcomb, Paris, Kulp, Schoeman, Curry, Clemens, Geary, Graham, Grindler,
Jackson, Zeigler, Cortesi, Findley, Paine, Poston, Wilks, Santos, Theriault,
Fichter, Witty, Kimpton, Telch, Wilson, Eccher, Anderson, Gloady, Elsner,
Burroughs, Milan, Boudreau, Kania, Breen, and Caligaris.
The names of our old family friends are: Migliazzo, Santoni, Gleason, Desert, Grimm, Pilon, McCarthy, Garissi, Fink, Reinig, Beebe, LaBranch & Heberger.
I have also found Riccardo, Giorgio & Marco Pinamonti of Tuscany, Italy. Giorigio emails me quite often.
Sabrina Pinamonti and I chat on the MSN instant messenger a lot. She is a pediatric nurse in Trento, Italy. Roberta Pinamonti sends me emails also and she is still attending the University of Trento.
LINKS TO ITALIAN WEBSITES