I know very little about my grandmother's family but that is slowly changing. I have but a handful of names with only seven surnames - Gabbai, Taranto, Cori, Huri, Palazzi (Palacci), Arditi & Rodriguez - that I am aware of. I know that they were Sephardic Jews, of Italian nationality, and were domiciliated in Livorno, Italy (this is certainly the case of the Gabbai, but I am not certain of the other names). My grandmother's great-grandparents, Mair Gabbai (son of Haïm Gabbai) and Ester Taranto, lived in Izmir, Turkey (I believe they were born there but I can't be certain), where the following two generations (at least) of their family were born.
I know of seven children they had - Haïm, Isacco, Leone, Naftali, Zaffira, Elia and Jossua.
I know that Naftali moved to Livorno, where he was a merchant and married Rachele Cori (b. 1864), of whom I know nothing. I do know however that they had a son, Avraham (b. 1866, d. 5 Aug., 1941), who is buried in Izmir. From records in Izmir, it would appear they had four other children but I know nothing of them.
All I know of Jossua is that he married Rachele Gabbai (b. 1866), possibly related considering their same surname, with whom he had six children. Rachele was possibly the daughter of Yacov Gabbay, an opium merchant. If this is correct, she died very young on December 6th, 1901 in Izmir. The reason I am not sure is that there is conflicting information about her father. Another source seems to indicate her father was called Abramo, hence the confusion.
Isacco (b. 1849) married Ester Palazzi (Palacci). They had three children. Salomon (b. 1879) has the sad distinction of being the first Gabbai I became aware of who died during the Holocaust, at Auschwitz. Zaffira (b. 1883) was their second child and Mazalto (b. 1885) their third. Cemetery records from Izmir possibly suggest that they may have had two other children - Nesim and Matilda - but I can be in no way certain at this stage.
Concerning Zaffira (b. 1864) and Elia (b. 1869) I have no further information about at present.
I know that Haïm (b. 1846) married Sarota Cori, undoubtedly related to Rachele Cori mentioned above - "two brides for two brothers"??? Haïm apparently died during the war of Abyssinia. They had eight children: Behora (b. 1869) and Jacobbe (b. 1871) both of whom died at a young age. The remaining children were David (b.1878), Vittoria (b. 1880), Rachele (b. 1882), Gad (b. 1884) who married Sara Huri, Rahamim (Clemente - my great-grandfather - see below) (b.1886) and Pinhas (b.1896) who lived in Alexandria I have been told and I believe worked for Barclay's Bank there. With the exception of my great-grandfather, I have no information about their descendants.
I also believe that Mair and Ester may have had another daughter, Leah (Liya), (b. 1860, d. 9 Dec., 1936), but I am not completely sure of their connection.
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