Welcome to the Calvani Family Website. We hope that you find something of interest on these pages—which are still under construction.
I am the son of Torello H. Calvani (1918-2003), who was the son of Torello Calvani (1872-1946) who emigrated from Tuscany in 1892. The early history of the Torello Calvani Family can be found on this site.
Except as noted below, we did not know much about our Tuscan relatives until 2000 when my wife Sarah and I met Simona Calvani and her husband Federico Gori and Simona’s brother Gianluca Calvani, his wife Monica and their children. On a trip to Pistoia, Sarah called Simona’s father’s house in an effort to learn whether any of the Calvani’s then residing in Pistoia might be related to us. Sarah talked with Simona and learned that we were not related, but Simona offered to help us find something about our roots in the Pistoia area. We exchanged emails. Many months later Simona contacted us having found a Torello in her family’s history. However, the dates of his birth made it impossible for this Torello to have been my grandfather. A week before another planned trip to Italy that would bring us again to Pistoia, Simona contacted us saying that she and her brother Gianluca had a surprise. Arriving in Pistoia, we found that our inquiry had sparked an interest in their own family history. Importantly, Simona and her brother Gianluca had compiled a family tree (a successor of which is located on this site) and found a common ancestor.
The earliest ancestor we have found to date is Salvadore Calvani (circa 1530). Six generations later, Gaetano Calvani and his wife Anna Piagnini had two sons—Constantino and Giuseppe Calvani. Constantino’s grandson was my grandfather Torello. Giuseppe’s grandson Guido was the great-grandfather of Simona and Gianluca.
The exception noted above was a visit to the United States by some members of the Chitti family from Pistoia and a visit by my brother Robert Calvani and his wife Mary to the Chitti’s in Tuscany. We believe that my grandfather’s sister, who remained in Italy, married a Chitti. Regrettably we have lost contact with them, but hope to re-establish it.
I wish to thank my wife Sarah Holter Calvani for being sufficiently curious to start this enterprise and to Simona and Gianluca Calvani for the hard work in researching the family history in Pistoia. We welcome your comments and suggestions.
Terry Calvani, Washington, D.C., 17 April 2007.