Biase Antonio Pezzotti

Father of Evaristo Dante. Italian first name Biase (dialect form of Biagio / Blaise); the family later Hispanicized to Blas on emigration. Documented identity hinges on primary records yet to be retrieved — see 2026-05-24-pezzotti-cosenza-attack.

Miguel: "Never heard him referred to as Biase, always Blas." The Hispanicization happened on emigration to Spanish-speaking countries (Colombia, DR) and was propagated to all descendant memory.

Birth conflict

• S-004 (Ancestry): 1856 Lappano, Cosenza.
• S-005 (MyHeritage): ~1850 Cosenza (generic — could be Cosenza city or anywhere in the province).
• The 1870 Scalea marriage to Rosa Maria Salterucci (b. 1854, age 16 at marriage) places Biase at age ~14 per S-004 or ~20 per S-005. The Calabrian male marriage-age norm of ~20s makes S-005's ~1850 more plausible than S-004's 1856. Resolved only by the atto di nascita in either Lappano or another Cosenza-province comune.

Marriages and children

Marriage 1 — Rosa Maria Salterucci (Miguel's line)

• 1870 Scalea.
• Children:
  • Giuseppe Antonio Pezzotti Salterucci.
  • Evaristo Dante Pezzotti Salterucci (b. 7 Apr 1885 Scalea) — Miguel's great-grandfather.

Other Pezzotti children with non-Salterucci maternal apellidos

Per S-005, Evaristo Dante had 4 listed "siblings" of which 3 carry non-Salterucci maternal apellidos:

• Isabel Pezzotti Almanza (married Carbono) — maternal apellido Almanza.
• Blas Antonio Pezzotti Sierra — maternal apellido Sierra (same first-name combination as the father → name reused down a generation, common).
• Delia María Pezzotti López (married Ponsón Tache) — maternal apellido López.

Almanza, Sierra, López are all Hispanic apellidos — strongly suggests these half-siblings were born to women Biase met during his Colombian period (mid-1880s to 1903). Biase may have had a second family in Colombia (Magdalena region), with these children born to a Colombian woman or women.

This hypothesis is consistent with:

• His death in Ciénaga, Magdalena, Colombia, 1903.
• Rosa Maria Salterucci staying behind in Scalea.
• The pattern of Italian male emigrants forming second families in the Americas during long absences (well-documented for the Italian-Argentine, Italian-Brazilian, and Italian-Caribbean cohorts).
• The Hispanic naming pattern of the half-siblings' maternal apellidos.

Alternative explanation: MyHeritage data-quality error (apellido fields confused or trees conflated). Must be tested.

If confirmed, Colombian-side half-relatives — descendants of Isabel, Blas Antonio (the Colombian one), and Delia María — likely living today in Colombia, particularly the Magdalena / Costa Caribe region.

Open questions

1. Birth year and place — primary record needed. Lappano 1856 vs. Cosenza-area ~1850 conflict.
2. Father's name — captured nowhere yet. Should be on Biase's birth record + marriage record + Evaristo's marriage record (where the groom's grandparents are sometimes named).
3. Confirm Rosa Maria Lifrieri (b. 1817 Zumpano) is the mother. Possible alternative: she might be a generation further back and Biase's actual mother is someone else from Lappano.
4. The Colombian second-family hypothesis. Test via:
   • Colombian civil registers (Magdalena, Ciénaga) for Isabel / Blas-the- Colombian / Delia María births.
   • Any Colombian wife in Biase's 1903 death record (often names spouse).
   • DNA: descendants of the Colombian half-siblings would show as 3rd–4th cousin matches to Miguel on AncestryDNA / MyHeritage if any of them have tested.
5. When did Biase emigrate? Marriage 1870 Scalea → Evaristo b. 1885 Scalea → Biase d. 1903 Ciénaga. He must have departed for Colombia between 1885 and 1903.
6. Why Magdalena, Colombia? Late-19th-c. Italian emigration to the Colombian Caribbean coast was small but real — connected to the banana trade (United Fruit Company in Santa Marta from 1899), coffee export, and Italian commercial houses. Ciénaga specifically was a major banana zone.