DONATI Pietro 1838-1907 BRUCCIANI line
The Donati line family.http://serchiovalley.net/t/descend.php?personID=I3301&tree=serchio
This branch of the Donati family lived in the hilltop hamlets and region around Barga in beautiful Tuscany.
Our own relationship with the brothers Donati is through Antonio who married Annunciata Ricci in Italy circa 1830. We know about three of their children although there must have been more.
All residing in Brighton with occupations as Plaster Figure Makers.
Through the communal Brucciani line the family is linked to clans such as the Conti, Giovanelli, Rocchi, Menchini, Caproni, Tortelli and many many more, family links which are intertwined through the last four centuries.
There was a great exodus from Italy and many from this region of Carrara around about the year 1885-1888 and many skilled craftsmen masters in the skills of marble left home to escape the hardships of the unification of Italy.
Many took up their art as figurine makers. Pietro was one of these men as were his nephews Emilio and Augusto who had emigrated with him. He taught them many skills and when Augusto died in 1904 it was as a Master Plasterer he was documented not one of confectioner
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Pietro Donati
1838–1907
BIRTH 5.APR.1838 • Treppignana DEATH 27 JUL 1907 • ‘The Assylum, Rosslynlee, outside Edinburgh, Scotland.
marries
Maria Domenica Clementina Elisabetta Brucciani
1852–1917
BIRTH 1852 • Castelvecchio Pascoli, Barga, Lucca, Toscana, Italy
DEATH 1 NOV 1917 • Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, Scotland
[2nd great grandaunt]
So in-between being in Brighton 1861 and Edinburgh 1891 Pietro Donati had returned to Italy and married on 17 FEB 1873 in Barga, to Maria Brucciani [Maria Domenica Clementina Elisabetta Brucciani] 1849-1917. They had several children in Italy, Vittorio, Adolfo, Giovanni, Ermenia and Annunziata. Then in Scotland they had another who died in infancy. On their arrival in Scotland c 1888 he had acquired premises and started his business in Chambers Street in Edinburgh as Stucco, Marble Polishers and Plasterers and his nephews Emilio and Augusto Quilietti worked with him.
The couple had five children who were born in Barga and we found them at first in the Scottish 1891 census with their youngest daughter Nunciata [mis-spelt] as being born in the year 1886 in Italy. We know that the family travelled from Italy circa 1887 and travelling with them also was my own great grandfather Emilio Quilietti and his brother Augusto. The places of their children birth give us the clues as to when they emigrated. Last birth in Italy 1886. Also with them was Pietro’s sister Annunciata Donati. She was a witness at Emilio’s wedding in 1892.
Shortly after the evening of the census which was 5/6 April, they had another baby who was born on 1st May 1891 in their family home at 137 Canongate, Edinburgh. The child only lived for one year. She is interred in the same plot as my great grandfather Emilio Quilietti in Easter Road Cemetery in Edinburgh.
In 1901 we find the family having moved from the historic Royal Mile in Edinburgh, which buildings were really slum tenements at the time to an address further up the hill at 10 West Preston Street, Newington, Edinburgh. The family consisted as follows
- Pietro age 62 statue maker
- Maria age 43? teacher
- Ada age 19 – no occupation – she became a nun
- Emma age 17 shopkeeper
- Annunciata [Teresa] age 15 – teacher
- Romola Pacine ? age 23 Shopkeeper [adopted son]
They lived here for a while later moving to 5 Keir Street, Edinburgh. Maria Brucciani Donati was described as a teacher as was their youngest daughter Annunciata. Emma was given the title of shopkeeper and we can assume from this that she manager her father’s shop. He was still in the Stucco business at the time.
Children of Pietro and Maria
Vittorio Donati 1877-1950
VITTORIO DONATI, 1877-1950 never married. On his arrival in Scotland and residing with his family in the Old Town of Edinburgh at 137 Canongate, his profession was one of Figuremaker in 1891. In 1911 he was living in Kirkcaldy with another Italian family helping in their business as restauranteurs.
Over the years he changed his profession to a Stovemaker and moved to Glasgow in the west of Scotland where his sister had gone to live after her marriage. His residence was 224 Renfrew Street in Glasgow. He enjoyed a relatively long life and but was put into a care home in Greenock before his death. He died in 1950 age 74 with an acute cerebrial hemorrhage after seeing two World Wars in the UK.
Adolfo Donati or Giovanni Adolpho Camillo 1878-
GIOVANNI ADOLPHO CAMILLO or ADOLFO 1878-1922. He married Annie Loughlin and they had a large family of ten or so of which one son, Pietro became a Priest. The stone below is in Mount Vernon Catholic Cemetery in Edinburgh
- ANNUNZIATA DONATI 1899-1899
- Mary Donati 1900-1979 – Married Francis Connor
- ANNIE DONATI 1901-1993 – remained a spinster – schoolteacher.
- WILLIAM O’REILLY DONATI 1902-1902
- PETER DONATI – REVEREND CANON 1904-1983
- IDA DONATI 1907-1968 – never married – died in Haddington.
- Adolfo Donati 1909-1974 – married Janet Muir Orr – two sons Ronald and Edward.
- EMMA DONATI 1912-1912
- TERESA or ANNUNZIATA DONATI 1914-1978 – married James John Hickey. They had three children Pauline, Peter and Valerie.
- WILLIAM O’REILLY DONATI 1915-1916
MARIE EMMA CONCETTA OTTAVIA DONATI 1883-
Maria Emma Was born in 1883 in Italy. In the year 1910 she married LUIGI SANTE POMETTI. Luigi was also a confectioner by trade and his family had settled just outside Edinburgh in a village called Newtongrange. His address was given as 5 Loan Road, Newtongrange. There are no births or deaths in Scotland with anyone with the surname Pometti. Assumptions are they returned to Italy. The only other Pometti was his sister ? Annunziata who married Bugari Quinto in Fife in 1910.
ADA or IDA DONATI. 1885-
ANNUNZIATA DONATI 1886-1972
Annunziata was born on 2nd February 1886 in Italy. Her father’s profession in Scotland was lucrative and he earned enough that she might have a good education. She became a schoolteacher.
In the year 1911 she married to another Italian whose name was Colombo Arcari. His family were from the Picinisco area of Italy. They at first left Italy heading for Dresden in Germany where Colombo was born in 1878
Colombo, like a lot of the new immigrants including my own great grandfather took up the profession of confectioners and ice cream manufacturers. They married at St. Columbas R.C. Church, Upper Gray Street, Edinburgh, on 29th August 1911. His branch of the Arcari family had settled in Glasgow and his address was given as 487 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow. There were however brothers of the Arcari family who settled in Edinburgh and Glasgow and they had much social interaction with other Italian families including Demarco’s. Columbo’s father was Archili Arcari, Confectioner and Maria Assunta Faccenda.. Annunziata died on 3rd March 1972 at Glasgow Western Infirmary. She was 86 years old. Her usual residence was given as 10 Hillhead Street, Glasgow.
10 Hillhead Street, Glasgow. It was an extensive building. She had a housekeeper. 
10 West Preston Street, Edinburgh
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