When he first set out on a quest to discover the origins of his last name, Hank de Cillia didn’t know what he would find. Like many kids growing up, he regularly searched for his name in unfamiliar telephone directories and continued to do that as an adult while traveling on business.
“I never found one,” says de Cillia.
He did, however, have some rudimentary clues about his grandfather’s immigration to the United States in 1913, and was always curious about what he refers to as his “so called Swiss heritage.”
“My grandfather from Basel was the only member of the de Cillia family to come here — before or since,” says de Cillia, who lives in Bridgehampton. “On Ellis Island, he told them he was Swiss, but they detained him for several days. My theory is his papers didn’t match up with what he was telling them.”
And so began de Cillia’s quest, as many such adventures do — with a mystery. In this case, an unusual last name compounded by questions about a grandfather who never discussed his heritage in any sort of satisfactory way. De Cillia notes that when people heard his name, they would naturally assume he was Italian. No, de Cillia would respond, “I’m Swiss.”
“He always told us he was Swiss and no more,” says de Cillia. “But I always had an unusual feeling.”
It wasn’t until after his grandfather could no longer answer any questions that de Cillia’s search really began.
“My grandfather died, then my father died prematurely a few years later, and he had no interest in any of this,” says de Cillia. “One didn’t talk, the other didn’t care, so it was not discussed.”
So de Cillia mentioned to his mother that he would like to find out more about the family name. That’s when she told him that she had some papers that belonged to Max, his grandfather, that were given to her when he was buried. Those papers identify Max de Cillia as belonging to the German race and with a nationality listed as both “France and German Reich.” No wonder the Ellis Island officials were confused.
“I realized I’m not Swiss, but I seem to be both French and German,” says de Cillia. “I was literally hooked.”
On Thursday, September 24 at 6:30 p.m., de Cillia will offer “A Central European Journey to the Past” a presentation on his genealogy findings at Sag Harbor’s John Jermain Memorial Library (JJML). Despite the shaky start to his search, in recent years, de Cillia has uncovered an amazing amount of information about his family — far more than he could have imagined when the venture began.
Through sources both likely and unbelievable — including priests, a linguistics professor, a New York Times article and even DNA — de Cillia has trekked his way along a winding trail that goes back half a millennium and beyond. In addition to photos, maps and documents, at his talk, de Cillia will offer advice on seeking out sources for those setting out on genealogy journeys of their own.
Luckily for de Cillia, in the years since he first saw his grandfather’s papers in 1976, much has changed in the world of genealogy — namely the computer. It has certainly been an indispensable tool in de Cillia’s search and he likely would not have gotten as far as he has if not for the way technology has changed in the last decade or more. From letters to phone followed by fax and email, tracking down history has never been easier. The uniqueness of de Cillia’s name may also have been a bonus for finding his familial way back home. A common name, like Smith, or an unpronounceable name that was abandoned at Ellis Island would probably be much more difficult to trace.
Besides finding the name of the ship his grandfather came to the U.S. on and a notice of his detainment via the Ellis Island database, de Cillia’s use of the computer in his quest came through a search of national telephone directories through a website called switchboard.com.
“You can put in your name and it searches every telephone directory in the U.S.,” says de Cillia. “I found one other de Cillia family in the state of Washington. I wound up calling and having a long conversation with the patriarch of their family — Buz de Cillia — whose grandfather was born in Toulouse.”
Meanwhile, de Cillia was exploring how his own grandfather could be considered both French and German. Other documents received from his mother showed there was a place in Bavaria where the family had come from. It took him a while to make out the handwriting well enough to discern it was Straubing, a fairly large city.
“I went on the web,” says de Cillia. “They had opened a city website and had the phone number and fax for the archive. So I sent them a fax. It was a total fishing expedition. I had no clue what I would get.”
Two weeks later, de Cillia received four pages of data identifying his grandfather, great grandfather — Franz de Cillia — and over a century of his family’s life in Switzerland, France and Germany. The de Cillia’s had lived both in Alsace-Lorraine along the Rhine River in France and in Bavaria in Germany. But, notes de Cillia, borders are fluid — the area along the Rhine has been claimed both by France and Germany, at different points in history.
“We’re always applying today’s current political standards around the world,” says de Cillia. “But Germany wasn’t even a country — it was the German empire until 1871, the year before my great grandfather left Bavaria.”
Though Straubing’s records didn’t go any further back than that, de Cillia was told him that he might want to peruse Catholic Church records which tend to predate municipal records. A church archivist, Camilla Weber, helped him trace the family farther back, to the early 1800s.
“They kept records religiously,” says de Cillia with a knowing grin. “Not just simple birth and death records, but jobs people had and so much more. I had this single minded focus of deriving my name back to origins.”
Through church records, de Cillia was able to follow his family back toward the south and east, close to the Danube River. Finally came the connection that most people assume upon hearing his name.
“In the piece of information from the Catholic church, it said in 1798, my great great great grandfather had moved from the Veneto and a place called Siao,” says de Cillia. “I couldn’t find this place on any map, but now I had established the Italian connection. Which would explain the name….maybe.”
In 1997, the mention of a de Cillia in a travel story in the Sunday New York Times led de Cillia, his wife Pat and daughter Amy to take a trip to the Friuli section of northern Italy. Buz de Cillia from Washington, who was planning to go to Toulouse to research his family, cancelled those plans and met the de Cillias in Italy. The families traveled to Treppo Carnico, a little village near the Austrian border where a third of the residents are named de Cillia. Buz was immediately able to establish his connection to the village. Exciting though it was, de Cillia left disappointed, having been unable to do the same for his family.
“Out of sheer desperation, I contacted the archivist in Bavaria who had helped me,” says de Cillia. “I thought I was close, so I said, ‘Camilla, can you help?’ She said ‘I’m going on vacation to the Veneto and I speak Italian. I’d be happy to help.”
In Italy, Weber met with a priest who oversaw five parishes in Friuli. He was able to provide the next piece of the puzzle — and despite living in the computer age, did it the old fashioned way – through a meticulously hand written record in elegant script detailing several generations of de Cillia’s family in his parishes.
“He provided six generations – all the way to the patriarch in the Venetian Republic — Zuan de Zilia, born in 1500,” says de Cillia. “He was the first person to have my last name born in the village of Treppo Carnico. He provides all the connections and dates of birth.”
De Cillia’s research led him to an important understanding about families — they tend to move for a reason. War, famine, financial woes, persecution or political uprising have been among the primary motivators in encouraging people to leave one place for another. In de Cillia’s case, he can match up the time line of several of his ancestors moves with major historical events.
“I feel certain my grandfather knew W.W.I was coming and didn’t want to go in the German army,” says de Cillia. “My great grandfather went to Alsace-Lorraine after the German Prussian war. My great great great grandfather left Italy in 1797, the year the Venetian Republic fell to Napoleon. When the French army came in they divided the region. Friuli was taken over by the Austrians and Venice was conquered by the French. I think he was an actual merchant of Venice and all of a sudden he lost his occupation.”
Though he was satisfied with the discovery of Zuan de Zilia, de Cillia wasn’t sure he was at the end of the line. Soon he began wondering about Zuan’s father and where he came from. That answer came from yet another de Cillia, this one a scholar at the University of Vienna, and it led to yet another country in plotting the de Cillia family history.
But like all good mysteries, the ending will remain shrouded in secrecy here, so as to not spoil the surprise. Those who want to know how it turned out to need to attend de Cillia’s library talk where the rest of the story will be revealed — including the next step in de Cillia’s quest which explores the realm of DNA and something called “deep ancestry.”
For now suffice it to say that Hank de Cillia has concluded his name originated in the 1450s. It would be difficult to imagine going much farther back than that — last names were generally created to describe where someone had originally come from. They were not all that common before the 15th century when families tended to stay put over generations. And for amateur genealogists just setting out on their own journey, de Cillia offers a word to the wise.
“Names are constantly misspelled,” says de Cillia. “My grandfather signs his name twice on his citizenship record and they still spelled it wrong. I couldn’t find some records until I left off the ‘de’. I tell people to search misspellings too. The Internet is unforgiving. If something is spelled differently, you won’t find it.”
De Cillia also recommends telephone directory websites, ancestry.com and newspaperarchive.com as good sources in this country. In Europe and elsewhere, resources can vary depending on where a particular search leads. But when it looks hopeless, head to church.
“I would say there are genealogical societies in Europe, some where English is spoken and they can help,” says de Cillia. “But when you get back this far, it’s all church records.”
To reserve a seat for de Cillia’s talk at the library (201 Main Street, Sag Harbor) call 725-0049.
Top: Hank De cillia in his Bridgehampton home surrounded by the photographs, maps, and genealogy records he came across during his long search for the truth.
