Since registering the domain "galgano.com", I regularly get email from various Galgano's. I guess everybody types their name into the browser at least once! As I've monopolized the domain for our family's name, I'll provide a place for all Galgano's. I hope this turns out to be a nice place, and a resource for all Galgano's.
UPDATE
January, 2001
Since first posting this site in August of 1999, I've learned quite a lot about my heritage, and many Galgano's from around the world have contacted me. Here's the story, as told in an email to Marlene Dunham, founder of the Calitrani Connections, Mario Toglia, who researches immigration records of Calitrani immigrants to the USA and has posted them on his They Came By Ship site, and Jason Gervase, founder of the Calitri-L mailing list, (now hosted on Yahoo Groups) and keeper of the flame. Jason is quite a remarkable man. He has documented the genealogy of more than 20,000 descendants of the village of Calitri.
I have had very little family history. My fathers family was not close, and I only have occasional contact with a few first cousins. My grandmother grew up in an orphanage, and there is no 'keeper' of our ancestry. Out of curiosity, I've searched the net for Galgano's from time to time, and in fact, it was Mario's passenger list that came up, a couple of years ago, the first time that I saw the Calitri pages. I looked for likely ancestral candidates, but didn't find my great grandfather, Salvador. I looked at all of your site, and thought, "how nice, what these people are doing," although I thought that it was unlikely that there would be a direct connection between my family and Calitri--there must be hundreds of Galgano immigrants from dozens of little towns, what are the odds?
I put up the Galgano site around this time, thinking of the Calitri site, and the idea of a place where "Galgano's" can meet would be nice.
Six months ago or so, I revisited Mario's list, to check again, and saw that more new Galgano's were on the list, and Piermont, my father's hometown, came up a couple of times. I decided to join Calitri-l, and sent a note to Jason. His response was remarkable. Within a day, he linked my great-grandfather to Calitri, and sent me 8 generations of family history. Boom. It's like the story: Yesterday, I couldn't spell Calitri, now I am one! I'm very pleased. Overnight, I went from having very little heritage, to having a great group of cousins, and a home town in Italy. It doesn't get better than this...
This is what the internet is all about. This nice story is a direct result of your site, Marlene and Mario. It works. Thanks so much. I've wanted to write up this story nicely, to thank you, and post it on our sites, but the time...I'm too rushed to be eloquent at the moment. Anyway, you have my heart-felt thanks for your great work.
This has been a very heartwarming experience for me. And it's not a unique story--Marlene had much the same experience when she contacted Jason a few years back, and I know many others have as well.
SO, if your name is Galgano, I encourage you to subscribe to the Calitri-L list. Jason will receive the subscription request. Include some information about your ancestors, and ask Jason if he might have a link to your ancestors. I suspect that if your name is Galgano, and your family immigrated to the NY metro area, particularly Rockland County, White Plains, Hartford, CT, Brooklyn, or Montclair NJ, it's quite likely you are of Calitrani descent. You'll may meet near and distant cousins, uncles, aunts, and friends. I have.
Updated, January, 2001-- What little I know about Galgano Genealogy and the Galgano Surname
Although there appears to be no direct connection between Saint Galgano and the Galgano surname, I've become fascinated with the history of Saint Galgano
This is a postcard of the ruins of Abizia di St. Galgano, in Sienna, near Florence, Italy.
Updated, January, 2001--What Little I know about San Galgano
Here's a link to all the photos I have of San Galgano
Here we can put links to other "Galgano-related" sites. There are a million sites related to genealogy, so this list will just concentrate on directly related sites, and really good starting points for genealogy.
More and more passenger manifests are making their way onto the internet. Send me links if you find more...
Please email me with any ideas for the site: peter at galgano dot com