Welcome to the Tampa's Sicilian Genealogy Blog

This is a story that began many years ago. While planning a trip to Sicily I thought it would be interesting to visit the towns of my ancestors. What began as simple research has turned into a passion for my ancestral roots. Funny, I have not yet made the trip to Sicily but nonetheless I have enjoyed the journey into my family’s past.

So let’s get to the point of this site. I have collected a lot of information over the years. Most of which has little to do with my direct lineage. For some time I thought it would be interesting to share this information. My hope is that other Tampa Sicilian’s will do the same. Tell me about your family and I will post the information to this site. Together we will put the pieces of the puzzle together and bring our rich heritage to light.

So let’s begin. At this point I have traced both sides of my family into the 1700’s. I am half Sicilian and half…well I can’t really say, my father’s side of the family predates the Revolutionary War and is more than likely of English decent. This site honors my mother, her family and the many Sicilians who left Sicily at the turn of the last century and immigrated to Tampa.

My journey started in a neighborhood of Tampa called Ybor City and leads back to two towns in Sicily located just a few miles apart. They are Santo Stefano Quisquina and Alessandria Della Rocca. As quoted in The Immigrant World of Ybor City ( a must read) “Santo Stefano Quisquina accounted for approximately 60 percent of Tampa’s Sicilian population at its height and virtually all of its earliest settlers.”¹

My Grandparents, Vincenzo (Jimmy) Castellano and Rosalia (Rose) Sciortino, were both born in Tampa in the early 1900’s. Their parents all immigrated to Ybor City about the same time. The Castellano’s from Santo Stefano and the Sciortino’s from Alessandria Della Rocca. This is where I begin….

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¹Gary R. Mormino and George E. Pozzetta, The Immigrant World of Ybor City, (Gainsville, FL: University Press of Florida)