Anna's Genealogical Reserches on request - Happy ending stories

• Paul Tiscornia's family from Pontori -

  Val Graveglia area, inland of Gulf of Tigulllio - Genoa

Mr. Paul Tiscornia from USA contacted me in 2024, saying he was born in Manchester area U.K. and that his family had Ligurian origins from a smal village inland of Genoa, probably called Nè. From his surname I rekoned the village was a good clue as a start for looking for his ancestors. Paul also gave me the name and birth date of his great grandfather, Antonio Tiscornia, from whom all my research originated and developed. Through the memories in his family, Paul knew that initially three brothers left this small village in Graveglia valley on 1863, in order to emigrate to England. They took a boat leaving from Genoa port and heading to U.K..

Definetely a demanding task for me but eventually, after a few month of research among the old books in three different local churches, I was able to spot out the birth records of the three brothers. They unespectedly were mentioned in the books of a middle of nowhere church placed in a small fraction of the village of Nè, called Pontori.

But that wasn't the only lucky discovery, according to the church books Antonio Tiscornia had 3 more brothers and 1 sister, who evidently spread out their families in different places in the world up to now. Finally the 7 siblings were defined this way in order of age:

Angelo the eldest, Antonio, Giuseppe, Luigi, Agostino, Giovanni and Angela.

After a few researches Paul made in his native region close to Manchester, he was able to put together further details about Antonio's life history. It came out that Antonio, after arriving to Manchester area, tried to settled down but after a few attempts to work he got upset with the poor treatment of two different bosses and decided to go back home. After an adveturous trip back to Pontori by foot he eventually got married there in 1872, had his first child in 1873, a baby girl, but a year later he wanted to give himself a chance again going back to Manchester with his wife and child.

There eventually he made his family in Manchester area, having 8 more children.

According to my further research about the other brothers of Antonio, Angelo Tiscornia, who was with Antonio during the first jurney to U.K., also went back to Pontori and got married, but he decided after a while to emigrate again to New York. Most probably it was 1871, the couple settle down in Hoboken and had their first child there. Then they formed their family having 8 more children, all born in Hoboken. About the third brother, Paul wasn't able to give me either the name or news where he ended up, probably he emigrated somewherelse, he told me.

I think his name was Agostino who emigrated to Argentina, according to some clues I've already found on the internet, and had 7 children. Agostino was born in 1857, too young for having travelled to UK with the older brothers in 1863, so I'm more prone to think that he decided to emigrate in the 70s of the 19th century following the example of the other two older brothers.

About brother Louis, who was born in 1854 I've recently found some clues which idicate that Luis and his wife had 7 children, 3 sons and 4 daughters. The parents kept in Pontori but their 3 sons and 2 daughters emigrated to San Francisco California.

Paul ignored all that and he was very surprised to discover, after a deeper research, that the Tiscornia family, originated by the youngest brother Giovanni, was still living in Pontori. Paul eventually came to Val Graveglia September 2025 and met his unknown part of the family.

Personally I was very moved by all that but I also had the feeling that the story of this family bares more than that, and I'm still intrigued by searching about the other siblings' family lines. Giovanni's family members haven't been able to give me any clues on that so far, as they had lost contact with their relatives since the second half of the 19th century, I wonder why.

Maybe too many siblings in the family left Pontori following the 2 big emigration waves occurred from Liguria along the 19th and 20th centuries.

I'm really tempted to sort it out, actually a considerable encouragement is coming by another piece of this big family originated by the 7 siblings. Scroll down and, after the text and photos about Paul Tiscornia's finding Giovanni's family, you'll find something related to the family of Angelo Tiscornia, one of the two brothers who left Pontori with Antonio on the same boat to Manchester, remember? He formed a prolific family in Hoboken USA then, and some still living members showed up after Paul contacted them by chance . . .

Paul is pleased to post the following newspaper article written about his Great Grandfather Antonio Tiscornia who died November 1, 1926, and published the day after his death

Mr. Anthony Tiscornia

The residents of Leigh (Manchester), who have known the name of Tiscornia, well known for its ice cream, will regret to learn of the death of its originator and manufacturer, Mr Anthony Tiscornia, who died quite peacefully at St. Mary's Home, Newton Heath, Manchester in the early hours of Monday Morning. He was 79 years of age and had been convalescent in the home for nine months, being taken there at the commencement of this year.

Mr. Tiscornia was born in a little village (Pontori) in Genoa, Italy in the year 1847 and had very little education at one of the schools in the district. At the age of 16 years, just after the Franco-German war, he decided to seek work, and set out for England (1863) to seek his luck. He at last succeeded in obtaining a position, but through the hardships and tasks put upon him by his employees, decided to go back to his native village (Pontori).

With the exception of the sail across the English Channel, he tramped miles numbering well over the 1000 mark. A number of years later, while he was still in Italy, he was married to Catherine Garibaldi, in the year 1872. Eighteen months later (1874) he again emigrated to England, and settled down in Manchester where he began business as a an ice cream manufacturer. He later came to Leigh, and was the first man to bring ice cream into this town in the year 1888. He had been in the ice cream business in Leigh for 48 years.

He had a very quiet disposition. In religious life he was a Catholic, and since the time he set foot in this time he never missed a service at the St. Josephs Church, Bedford. The internment took place at Leigh Cemetry yesterday (Thursday) at noon. His wife (Catherine) died whilst in Leigh in 1912 and was buried in Leigh cemetery also.

Mr. Tiscornia leaves three sons and two daughters, two of the former, Alexander and Joseph being the only sons in Leigh left to carry on the business in Union Street.

Note: The third son, John Bartholomew Tiscornia, moved to Ashton-under-Lyne where he had a pub called the Horse and Jockey where Paul Tiscornia’s father, Lawrence Edward Tiscornia was born in 1914. John Bartholomew Tiscornia married Aurelia Louisa Talco. The Talco’s were also in the ice cream business in Ashton until 1904 when they began the pub business at the Horse and Jockey which they gave up to John Bartholomew and Aurelia when they married in 1910.

Paul meets his new Italian family in Pontori

Paul among his new Italian family in front of Pontori's church

Paul verifies his ancestor's birth record with the help of the parish priest in Pontori

Antonio Tiscornia' birth record - 10th Oct. 1847

Angelo Tiscornia's family from New Jersey

Angelo Tiscornia was 18 when he took the boat for UK in 1863 with his brother Antonio. Angelo was the eldest of the 6 brothers and 1 sister in the same Tiscornia family.

Angelo Tiscornia' birth record - 24th February 1845

As mentioned above Angelo and his wife eventually formed their family in Hoboken having 9 children. The youngest was born in 1893 and was named Charles. He got married very young, at about 18 years of age, and he had 5 children.

One of them was named Angelo Louis. Angelo's child Louis and grandchild Jude-Anthony went to Val Graveglia in the 90s to visit their ancestor's place and maybe find part of the family. They were unfortunately mislead by some locals and met people not directly from their family, neither they had access to the right church.

Paul had vague news of their trip to Italy at that time, not being in close relationship with them, and didn't do anything about that. Last October, after his personal visit and meeting with the family in Pontori, and especially after having a better idea of the different family lines of his ancestors Antonio and Angelo, Paul got in touch with his cousin Louis and told him about his discover and opportunity to find the right Tiscorna family. Now Paul and Louis are in touch again remembering and sharing lots of details about their two families. Paul is due to come back to Pontori next Spring

Anna Minghetti - Mycornerofliguria.com - avemme@gmail.com