More Family History: The Basilicata Branch

As a child I was told almost nothing about my family’s story, not to mention about the historical context or any relatives across the ocean. Not even the names of ancestral hometowns were provided. Over the years I put together details from my mother’s side of the family. But my father’s side remained a complete mystery — that is, until consumer DNA testing made it possible to uncover some of the basics.

        In earlier times their homeland was known as Lucania, north of Calabria in Italy. It had two coasts, gateways to the Ionian and Tyrrhenian Seas in the Mediterranean basin. Starting in the late eighth century BC, Greeks had established a settlement there. DNA testing also indicates that at least 12 percent of my heritage is linked to the Aegean islands. This reminds me of the only clue my father ever offered: that some of our ancestors were “sailors.” If so, they definitely moved between Cyprus, the Greek islands, and southern Italy.

        On the mainland, the first contacts between Lucanians and Romans date from the latter half of the fourth century BC. After the conquest of Taranto, a Spartan colony in southern Italy, in 272 BC, Roman rule was extended to the whole region: the Appian Way reached Brindisi and the colony of Potentia (modern Potenza) was founded. In English, it means power or strength.

        In the 11th century, Basilicata, and much of southern Italy, was conquered by the Normans. The Swabians were ousted in the 13th Century by the Capetian House of Anjou. After that, Basilicata began to lose its importance and drifted into a long decline. 

        In the 1400s, however, it became the base for a plot against King Ferdinand of Naples, known as the Conspiracy of the Barons. In 1442, King Alfonso V of Aragon, who controlled Sicily, took the Kingdom of Naples. He was succeeded by his only son, Ferdinand, known as Ferrante. But the previous Angevin dynasty, a royal house of Anglo-French origin that ruled England and France in the 12th and early 13th centuries, still had significant support among the nobles. 

        Ferdinand ruled with a strong hand, attempting to strengthen his position against largely pro-Angevin barons, who began to actively revolt in 1459. The King prevailed but the resistance continued.

        In 1485 the nobles again conspired against Ferrante. This time it resulted in a civil war, during which rebels took the city of Aquila and hoisted a papal flag. The Pope backed them; Ferrante was supported by Italy's princes. On September 30, 1485 a temporary truce was signed in Lucania. The following year, on August 11, King Ferrante and Pope Innocent VIII signed a permanent truce. 

        The deal deprived the rebels of crucial support and King Ferrante proceeded to suppress the revolt, confiscating property and incarcerating his opponents. By January 1487 the rebellion was completely suppressed. Later, Charles V stripped most of the barons of their lands.  After the formation of the Neapolitan Republic in 1647, Basilicata rebelled again, but that revolt was also suppressed. 

        In 1735, the region came under the dominion of the House of Bourbon, a European dynasty of French origin. On August 18, 1860, during a Potenza insurrection, Basilicata declared its annexation to the Kingdom of Italy. My great grandfather, Pasquale Guma, was six years old at the time, the offspring of an Italian peasant.        

The Italian State confiscated and sold off vast tracts of Basilicata's territory that was formerly owned by the Catholic Church. But the new owners were another small group of wealthy families. Average people saw no economic and social improvements after unification. Widespread poverty continued unabated. This gave rise to the phenomenon known as brigandage, which eventually became a civil war with guerrilla fighting. Both Bourbons in exile and the Catholic Church encouraged peasants to rise up against the Kingdom. The opposition movement continued for years. Sometime during this tumultuous time, Pasquale met Theresa Guidetti. 

        Actually, there were two Pasquales on dad’s side of the family. One was Pasquale Guma, born in Potenza, the provincial capitol, in September 1854 to Donato Guma and Rose Bonamo.  Donato was born in 1828 to Rocco Guma and Anna Maria Gannelli. Donato and Rose had three children; he passed away on August, 25, 1874 still living in Potenza. Pasquale eventually married Theresa and they had seven children. 

        My other great grandfather on Dad’s side of the family was Pasquale Diorio, born in Castelluccio, a small village nearby, on August 1, 1858. He married Rose Schiavone, born on October 1, in the same town and born in the same year. 

        I haven’t yet pinned down exactly if and when they all emigrated. But Pasquale Guma had arrived in the US by 1889, more than a decade before my other grandfather, Bruno Lupia. Pasquale and Theresa Guma were living in Corona, Queens by the time their son, my grandfather Florrie, was born in Manhattan on Sept. 9, 1889. Theresa died prematurely in 1905, when Florrie was about 16.

         By the time my grandfather was 19 he met Fandina Diorio, known as Fannie, who was born in Italy in 1891 and arrived in New York City before she was ten. They met there, both still teenagers, married on April 12, 1908, and moved to Astoria. He worked on the garment factory floor during the same period when Bruno, who had come to the US in 1902, worked as a tailor, clothing designer and eventually successful manufacturer.

        Grandma Fannie’s mother Rose died in 1917. Pasquale Guma passed away on Feb. 28, 1936 in Corona and Pasquale Diorio died in 1942. I never met or heard a thing about those great grandparents. Fannie passed away in 1975, and Grandpa Florrie, who worked in garment factories for most of his life, followed her in Dec. 1976. He was still living in the same part of Queens. I did know them and grew up about 14 miles from there.

        Florrie William Guma Jr. — my father, who disliked his first name enough that he turned it into an initial — joined the family in February, 1911. By the late 1930s, after driving trucks, hustling pool and attending night school at Fordham, he became F. William Guma, Jr., Esq., attorney-at-law. He ran for New York’s City Council in 1939 as a LaGuardia-leaning Democrat — before meeting my mom, getting through World War II, becoming a Republican leader, and making it to Deputy Secretary of State and the New York Supreme Court bench. 

        For the other side of the family tree, go to Bruno and Lorenzo

Guma family tree (partial); Robin Lloyd, mother of Jesse,
should appear to left of my photo.