Domilici family — Bagheria & Carini

Great-grandfather Simone Domilici's family. His daughter Sadie R. Mayole is the paternal grandmother of the Maiale line. The flagship lore-vs-records story is the Simone investigation.

What's in the name

Domilici is not in the Dictionary of American Family Names. It is a rare Sicilian surname. Geneanet treats it as a name likely given to one original household — people who carry it are probably distant cousins of one another. This documented branch is from Bagheria, just east of Palermo. The spelling is stable in American records.

🔴 Debunked Do not collapse it with Dominici, a common Italian patronymic from the given name Domenico / Latin Dominicus (“of the Lord”), concentrated in Lazio and Umbria. The extra l is not a casual misspelling of that name. Sicilian Dumìnicu (Dominic) is a real given name and surname stem; turning it into Domilici would still have to explain n becoming l. That is the weaker fit.

⚪ Unverified The better working etymology is agglutination: southern Italian do (“of the”) + Milici. Milici is in the Dictionary of American Family Names as a southern Italian habitational name from places called Milici in Messina province, including Rodì Milici. That is a hypothesis about the word, not a parish proof that this Bagheria household came from Messina.

The household

🟢 Documented Nunzio Domilici (b. ~1820) → Vincenzo Domilici (b. 1844) → Simone Domilici (1885–1940, emigrated to NYC) m. Girolama Tomasello (1891–1964).

🟢 Documented Domenica Mineo (b. 1826, Bagheria) — 3rd-great-grandmother, married into the Tomasello family, part of a 400-year documented Mineo lineage.

Carini cluster (deep, 1535–1690s)

🟢 Documented Real parish-register-depth documentation, exact dates, 150 years continuous in one small town before the family shifted to Bagheria: Alfonso Mineo (b. ~1535) → Vincenzo Mineo (1562–1648) → Francesco Mineo (~1642–1697) → Leonardo Paolo Mineo (1669–1728) → … → Bagheria shift ~1690s → Carmelo Lodovico Bartolomeo Mineo (1746–1831) → Rosario Mineo (b. 1787) → Domenica Mineo (b. 1826).

Also from Carini: Taormina, Cusimano, La Fata, Lo Grasso, Amato, Lo Piccolo, Lo Geloso, Pellerito, Ventimiglia, Randazzo families — all repeatedly intermarried in this one town for ~300 years.

Possible cousin household (unconfirmed, not contacted)

🟡 Plausible A Nunzio Domilici (1925–2017, Bagheria → Brooklyn) is a plausible generation match to a cousin of Sadie's. Same rare surname, same hometown. Not contacted; living descendants are not named here.

Notable hometown connections (no blood link confirmed)

Renato Guttuso (painter, 1911–1987) and Giuseppe Tornatore (director, Cinema Paradiso, made the 2009 film Baarìa about growing up there) — both born Bagheria.

Ruled out

🔴 Debunked "Baron di San Carlo" title on Giovanni Calogero Amato (Carini, 1510–1597) — no corroborating source, doesn't fit surrounding ordinary-villager context. No confirmed link to Sal Mineo, Manfredi "Al" Mineo, or Settimo Mineo — common Palermo-province surname only. See Ruled Out.