Where in Independent Sicily would you have lived?

[alfieb]

Before the Provinces came to exist, for literally a millennium, from the period of the Emirate of Sicily in the 800s to re-unification with Naples in the 1800s, Sicily was ruled from Palermo, but was divided into 3 districts called a vallum (derived from the Arabic word "wilayah", a land ruled by a "wali" and related to Turkish word "vilayet").


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/Sizilien_und_Malta_1808_9113.jpg
Click on the image to see a much larger version.


The Val di Mazzara was centered around Mazzara (later Mazara del Vallo for obvious reasons), and consisted of all of Trapani, all of Agrigento, most of Palermo (except the Cefalu area), and the Western part of Caltanissetta.

The Val Demone was centered around a town called Demenna which no longer exists anymore, but was located near Alcara Li Fusi in Messina. It contained all of the current Province of Messina, the Province of Catania north of the city of Catania, and the Cefalu area of the modern Palermo province.

The Val di Noto was centered around Noto and consisted of the Southeastern part of Sicily, Malta, and Gozo. It included all of modern Syracuse, Enna, and Ragusa, as well as most of the province of Catania and the southeastern part of the Province of Caltanissetta.

Based on this information, anyone of Sicilian or Maltese ancestry shouldn't have a hard time figuring out what jurisdiction their ancestors belonged to. If you're still unsure, you can ask, or just check the map for yourself.

[Sikeliot]

I am very surprised Malta was not part of Val di Mazzara.

I have both ancestry from eastern and western Sicily, but mostly from Messina so that'd be Val Demone.

[alfieb]

I am very surprised Malta was not part of Val di Mazzara.

This map doesn't show Malta as part of any (because at that time it had already been conquered by Napoleon, but it was legally and legitimately ruled by the Knights Hospitaller as vassals of the King of Sicily) but they had previously been part of Noto, yes.

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140413/life-features/Centenary-of-the-Maltese-Franciscan-province.514982

The Times of Malta references this period thusly:


As the centuries passed, the Observant Franciscans in Malta formed part of the Province of Val di Noto e Malta, one of the three Observant Sicilian provinces (the other two were Val di Mazzara and Val di Demone).

[Faklon]

New Jersey

[alfieb]

New Jersey

Isn't really all that Sicilian. Originally, the south was Swedish and Finnish, and much of it still has a large Swedish footprint. Jews and Irish are everywhere, blacks in the cities, Indians in the center, and Hispanics, Koreans, and Filipinos in the North.

The Sicilian/Italian association with New Jersey is overblown. Connecticut and Rhode Island have higher Italian percentages.

[Faklon]

Isn't really all that Sicilian. Originally, the south was Swedish and Finnish, and much of it still has a large Swedish footprint. Jews and Irish are everywhere, blacks in the cities, Indians in the center, and Hispanics, Koreans, and Filipinos in the North.

The Sicilian/Italian association with New Jersey is overblown. Connecticut and Rhode Island have higher Italian percentages.

Island of Rhodes then.

[Scandalf]

No ancestry from there but I have a special feeling for Syracuse and that part of Sicily in general. I loved visiting Ancient Noto too. Ancient not modern, it's just a series of ruins. I visited an abbandoned monastery there, was so cool!

[alfieb]

No ancestry from there but I have a special feeling for Syracuse and that part of Sicily in general. I loved visiting Ancient Noto too. Ancient not modern, it's just a series of ruins. I visited an abbandoned monastery there, was so cool!

Orecchio di Dionisio and Teatro Greco are places everyone should see if they go to Sicily. I loved Syracuse, and if I were dictator of Sicily, I would make the city of Syracuse autonomous of Sicily as a Byzantine relic, like the Vatican within Italy. Syracuse had briefly been the capital of the Byzantine Empire before. To make it the capital of a new (mostly fictitious, but in name anyway) Byzantine Empire would be a great tourist trap.

Greek language needs to be protected there, and it currently is not. Messina has rightfully taken steps to do that in their city though.

[Scandalf]

Orecchio di Dionisio and Teatro Greco are places everyone should see if they go to Sicily. I loved Syracuse, and if I were dictator of Sicily, I would make the city of Syracuse autonomous of Sicily as a Byzantine relic, like the Vatican within Italy. Syracuse had briefly been the capital of the Byzantine Empire before. To make it the capital of a new (mostly fictitious, but in name anyway) Byzantine Empire would be a great tourist trap.

Greek language needs to be protected there, and it currently is not. Messina has rightfully taken steps to do that in their city though.
The thing that inspired awe in me was the fact that all of the latomie (not only the one of the archeological park) were huge underground caves that the prisoners claimed were a sort of Hell. What you see now is the result of collapsed underworlds.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/Latomia_cappuccini.JPG
http://www.galleriaroma.it/Siracusa%20din/Foto/Pagine/Latomie/1-Siracusa-Latomia-del-Para.jpg

[Piccolo]

The Sicilian part of my ancestry hails from Palermo. My grandmother likes to say we are descended from Normans but I doubt it because the Sicilians in my family are all very Mediterranean looking other than my great grandfather who had red hair.

[alfieb]

The Sicilian part of my ancestry hails from Palermo. My grandmother likes to say we are descended from Normans but I doubt it because the Sicilians in my family are all very Mediterranean looking other than my great grandfather who had red hair.

I had a Palermitan great-grandfather with blue eyes and red hair myself. While the Norman ancestry in Palermo is not the majority of our DNA, it is a significant enough minority to change how the province looks.