Hi Aggi!
Yes I do remember you from way back when and I now have two babies. (a
1yr old and a 2yr old) Time flies! In truth I haven't actively done
any more research. I think I sent you all I had a while back. Not much
has changed. I did hook up via email with someone who did some
passenger list searching and so forth for me. I'll have to dig it up.
From memory though I found no links to the information I had or
nothing
new anyway. The other problem was that it is all in hard copy and I
never found the time to transfer it all to my computer. I will dig it
up eventual and when I do you can be sure I'll send you the info.
I do remember having some initial email conversations with a guy called
Keith Ratamess who said that his grandfather confessed on his death bed
that his real surname was Carideo and that he had changed it to escape
the mafia! He said he made up the surname Ratamess so I guess any
Ratamess people in the US are actually linked to us! As usual I sent
him all the info I had but then he stopped returning my emails. I'm not
sure if he maybe lost interest or changed his email address or something
but I was very disappointed as we always are to divulge all our findings
but receive nothing in return. That's always the risk I guess.
I did also at one time converse via email with Henry Carideo a doctor in
Vineyard NJ (I think?) and his sons Brian and Richard. Brian was
studying at the time and was also quite a musician/de jay from the
sounds of it. I also had phone conversations and wrote to his elderly
and sick uncle and aunt Joe and Angela living in NJ. Actually from
memory they were cousins with Brian's dad Henry. They were also cousins
with Frank Carideo the Notre Dame quarterback of the 1920's The two
families weren't on speaking terms and I think felt uncomfortable about
my asking about and knowing so much about their family.
I have had the pleasure of encountering and sharing some information
with a Concetta and a Giuseppe Carideo in Pennapiedimonte Italy.
Funnily enough they are great friends, share the same surname but are
not or know not how they are related. They said that there are 3
distinct Carideo families in Penna. but they don't know how or if they
are related. Most of the records and manifests I've come across from US
Carideo's trace back to Penna. and the surrounds. Even my branch
although to some neighboring towns in and around Naples.
Besides them, you and to a lesser extent Keith Ratamess I have yet to
come across a Carideo truly interested in tracing their roots. Most
people I come across have a passing interest but have done and have
little interest in doing any real research.
Lets hope all that changes and we get some more genuine researchers on
the list.
Ciao!
Eufrasia.