A volcanic eruption and my Italian ancestors

Last year I managed to learn a lot about my Bellotti ancestors in southern Italy. Recently I closely examined what I thought was a strange coincidence.

Three of Stanislao Bellotti’s great-grandparents died in 1822. Coincidence? Perhaps something else was involved.

Donna Veneranda Florio, her husband Don Giovanni D’Amato and Donna Veneranda Vincenti all died in 1822. I searched for reasons that this might have occurred. No disease outbreaks, food shortages or similar. Then the other day I thought about the fact that they all lived in Naples. What about a volcanic eruption?

On 26 October 1822 Mount Vesuvius erupted. I now believe that this was the reason that they all died in a cluster. Fortunately their children (Donna Francesca D’Amato and Don Giovanni Gaetano Bellotti) were in Crignola, Foggia far from Naples.

Modern Naples essentially surrounds Mt. Vesuvius. The idea that an eruption killing a lot of people in Naples makes sense.

Vesuvius eruption, 1822 by George Poulett Scrope.

So there it is – not only surviving disease outbreaks and food shortages or malaria was involved in my ancestral history – but also natural disasters.

More later…