Domenico Colloraffi, son of Biagio and Maria Teresa Gumina, married Giuseppa Zingales Botta in Sant' Agata Di Militello on November 10, 1837. This is my father's grandmother, who came to live in the Bronx, New York, with the majority of her children. The Zingales Botta Famiglia of Sant' Agata Di Militello seems to have been associates of Biagio and Maria Teresa. A Vincenzo Zingales, age 31, a farmer , comes forth as a wittness for the death record of Biagio in 1887. Vincenzo is most likely a nephew of my great-grandmother, Giuseppa, whose father's name was Vincenzo.

This family, with the interesting name of Zingale Botta, has memebers that contiinue to live in Sant' Agata Di Militello. I have heard the oral family tradition of how the name originated from a "Zingales " descendant, living in the United States, who has first cousins that live in Sant' Agata Di Militello, and who told him this story. It seems that the Zingales family of S.A. Di M., originated in the mountains. Botta or butta is the Sicilian slang for frog or toad and people who live by the sea are called by this nick-name. Thus, this branch of the family became known as the Zingales Botta, to distinguish them from other branches. Quite by accident, I came upon the civil records of the community of Longo, which is in the mountains above Sant' Agata Di Militello and just a few miles away. It is most probable that this is where our Zingales Botta branch came from. Of the first 100 or so names that I read in these records, over 70% were Zingales!

In the civil records of Sant' Agata Di Militello, this family is usually referred to by the double surname, but sometimes the same person in a record is called Botta and sometimes Zingales. I believe that my own grandmother was commonly known as "Botta" in New York, but her brother's descendants, who settled in Cleveland, Ohio, go by the name "Zingales". The last "s" is often dropped from this name, especially if it is used only as "Zingale" in both the United States and in Sicily. On The ship's manifest for the Nord America, on which Giuseppa, her husband and grand daughter, three year old Rose Piscitello, came to New York on October 28, 1901, her name was clearly stated in it's entirety.

The Zingales Botta family in Sant' Agata Di Militello is one of the few marrying into the Colloraffi family in any community in Sicilia who are fishermen. You can read this in the records which follow. They may have know the family in Librizzi, also, as we have records of the Botta and Butta family marrying into our family, as you can see in the Family Tree Section of this book.

The name may also reflect the Spanish influence in Sicily and is the only surname that I have even seen that does not end in a vowel. However, I have also seen it mis spelled in civil records as "Zingale", sometimes for the same person who is a "Zingales" in another record, at another time. My father had forgotten the name of his grandmother and for this reason, when I returned from Sicilia in 2000, I tried to research this branch of the family, also. There is more work to do on this family tree, but the following may provide a start for other Zingales Botta descendants to begin to learn more about their heritage.

` We welcome any input from other Zingales Botta family members!