Our Family
Genealogy
In Loving Memory of My Cousin Peter & Joan Bellanti
We have traced our family genealogy since 1986 and have developed an extensive data base for each branch of our family.
On Peter's side of the family, our search takes us to the Island of Sicily. The search splits, basically into two Communes, Sant' Elia and Montemaggiore Belsito..
Sant' Elia
The search for my Paternal Ancestors, the Bellanti's, takes us to Sant' Elia and the adjoining towns of Porticello, Santa Flavia, Solanto and Bagheria. We have tracked all the names that have married into our family and within a short time we realized we were recording most of the surnames that originated from these towns. Other names include Tarantino, Busalacchi, SanFilippo, Alioto, Galioto, Machi, Arcoleo, Cefalu, Colla, Sparacino, Balistreri, Speciale and more. This search took us back to the late 1600s and early 1700s.
Montemaggiore Belsito
The search for my Maternal Ancestors, the Buscaglia's, takes us to Montemaggiore Belsito. Again we tracked all the names that married into our family. These other names include Pellegrino, Sciarrino, Pasquale, Giallombardo, Muscarella, Genco, Traficante, Incao and many more. This search took us back to the year 1703 AD.
Joan is of French Canadian Ancestry. The search for the name LaJoie takes us to French Canada, several small towns in Quebec. At this juncture we found that the name was originally Gerini and then transcended to deGerini, deGerin, Gerin and finally to LaJoie. Tracing the Noble name of Gerin, took us to France and finally to the City State of Firenza (Florence, Italy) in the year 1180 AD. There are several other lineage's within the LaJoie family Tree which includes the surname of Enos.
So now, lets start our journey, is it Sicily
or is it France through Quebec, Canada? 
Or you can search the selected family lineage databases of Bellanti Buscaglia LaJoie by clicking on the family name.
Often times we enter discussions regarding
genealogy or relatives and we hear such terms as 1st cousin, 2nd cousin, 3rd
cousin and beyond. Further complicating the descriptive relationship we hear
"once removed", "twice removed" and so on. We hear these
descriptions often and, perhaps, some of us use them not knowing fully what
they really mean. Another site that will be prove to be helpful is entitled
"COUSIN AND OTHER RELATIONSHIPS".
To go there 
Other site's of interest:
Cousin Joseph A. Buscaglia's Web Site
Cousin Mario Alioto III's
Web Page
Cousin Anthony Alioto's Italian Legal Web
Page
The Story of Charles McCarthy (Angelo Buscaglia) By Joseph A. Bellanti, MD