The Quilietti Family

Giuseppe Brattesani and Lucia Coffrini are my great great grandparents and my own direct line.

Giuseppe was born in Borgotora in Parma in the year 1841.  He was one of several brothers, Angelo, David, Lorenzo, Giovanni and Giulio and one sister Maria. There were also cousins with the very same name of Giuseppe.

Giuseppe married in Parma on 1st April 1864 Lucia Coffrini.  Lucia was from the same region and her parents were Dominic Coffrini and  Maria Delzan.

Interestingly enough and not unusually at that time Joe’s brother David married Lucia’s sister Anna Maria Coffrini. Several branches of the Brattesani family travelled to Scotland settling throughout the country from Aberdeen to Fife and of course to Edinburgh. There were also cousins of the Brattesani boys who also settled here in Scotland as well as travelling to the New World.

• GIUSEPPE BRATTISANI married LUCIA COFFRINI.  Lucia’s parents were Dominic Coffrini and Maria Delzan.  They married in Parma before going to Paris where they had a business.   It was here that Valentina was born in the year 1870.  followed by Rose in 1871.   From here they travelled to Edinburgh but kept on their business in Paris.   The couple frequently travelled to and fro the two Capital Cities and their children were born in different cities.  They settled in Edinburgh circa 1875, one of the first Italian families to settle in the City.

CHILDREN OF GIUSEPPE BRATTESANI and LUCIA COFFRINI

VALENTINA BRATTESANI 1869 born Paris, France

• VALENTINA BRATTESANI was born in Paris France on 22nd July 1869.  She married Emilio Quilietti in St. Mary’s R.C. Broughton on 29th April 1892.

They had six children over the next nine years, of whom four survived, Julio, Leonardo, Valentina and Joseph Angelo.   The couple worked very hard and striving to make a better life for their children Emilio had no less than eight premises in the centre of Edinburgh where they carried on their ice-cream and restaurant businesses.  Unfortunately her life was to change so dramatically when Emilio died in January 1898 at the family home at 24 Greenside Place, Edinburgh, after a bout of typhoid fever.  This was three days after the birth of their son Joseph Angelo.

After the death of Emilio The Quilietti family moved to 9 Greenside Place, a large flat above the shops where they remained  with their Brattesani aunts, uncles and grandparents.  Lucia Coffrini Brattesani died in this house on 5th October 1900. This was not a good decade for the family.  Lucia was buried in Easter Road Cemetery, Edinburgh where her infant children had been lain to rest already.

;Valentina’s cousin Sante Brattesani who was residing in the flat on census day 1901 with his uncles amongst other family members. They married on 30th April 1901, just shortly after the census had taken place at St. Mary’s Cathedral, which was virtually just over the road from the Brattesani flat. They were first-cousins. Not good for Valentina or Sante as their four children all died at or shortly after birth.Valentina died in the year 1905 with complications due to a difficult birth.

ROSA BRATTESANI 1871 born in Borgotora, Parma, Italy

• ROSA BRATTESANI was  born 1871 in Parma in Italy.  The family had moved back to Borgotora from Paris between the years 1869 and 1871.   As we know the family came to Edinburgh in Scotland in the 1880s .  In Edinburgh Rosa met Giulia Giulianotti whose family were from the same region in Italy as her own.  They married on 18th October 1892 in St. Mary’s R.C. Church in Broughton.  She and sister Valentina remained close over the next few years as did their husbands. Giulio was witness at Emilio Quilietti’s sad death in 1898.   The Giulianotti family then moved to Aberdeen where the family ran their confectionery and fish and chip businesses for many years. Giulio Giulianotti went on and well established in the trade and was a pillar to the Italian community in Aberdeen.  They had twelve children over the years many of their descendants still live in the area today.

MARIA BRATTESANI 1878 born Leith, Edinburgh

• MARIA BRATTESANI was born 1878 in 5 Middlefield, St. Cuthbert’s District, Edinburgh.  Mary went on to marry an Irishman called John Fusco. He was born in Dublin of an Italian father and a Dubliner called Elizabeth Magennis. His father was either Iacopo Cheverine or John Fusco. Both Italians

John was born in Ireland and had been adopted into the Fusco family there.  His parents were Louigi Fusco and Margaret Chavraine Magenness.   Mary and John married in St. Mary’s R.C. Church, Broughton on 25th October 1898.  By the year 1901 they had returned to Ireland and we find them living in  Main Street, Bangor, County Down in Ireland with John’s parents and their two children, Elizabeth who was born in 1901 in Newtonards in Ireland  and Luigi who had been born in 1899 in Edinburgh.  Sometime soon afterwards the whole family travelled back  to Edinburgh, at first in St. Mary’s Street in the Old Town where their son Giuseppe was born.  They then moved into Portobello and had a premises in the High Street where they lived and also ran their fish and chip business from this address.

All their other children were born here and it was not until 1924 when their last son Noel was born that their address had moved to the new permanent address at 9 Bath Street. This was to become the family home for many generations.  They had another ten children all born in Portobello.  One of their sons became a Priest, another a musician.  Their daughter Elizabeth married into the mighty Demarco Clan and one of their sons is the Edinburgh Artist and founder of the world-famous Edinburgh Festival Ricardo Demarco.

FILOMENA ROSA 1881 born Paris, France

It is believed that she was returned to Italy and brought up by other members of the family. She married Ernesto Giagapazzi whose family were from the same village. They emigrated to New York and had their family of six there before being divorced sometime between 1920 and 1930. She however remained in the USA where she raised the children herself. The documents above are the only proof that we have the correct Brattesani. But on her death line in the USA in March 1969 her birthdate was given as 1 August 1880. If any of the Jacobs family can help here then I would be very much appreciative. Helen [author] has DNA Hits with two or more members of the Jacobs family from Santa Barbara

JULIA BRATTESANI 1885 born Paris, France

Julia was born in Paris in France. Once again the family had returned there. However her life was short lived and she died in the flat at 5 Middlefield, Leith Walk on 6th February 1889. She was the Twin of Minnie.

MINNIE BRATTESANI 1885 born Paris, France

Minnie was born in 1885 in Paris, France. We are unsure of how she progressed in life but believe she did return to Italy.

DOMINICO GIULIO born 1885 and died in 1898

LOUISA MARIA 1887 born Leith

• LOUISA MARIA BRATTESANI was born in 1887 in Middlefield, Leith Walk.  Louisa played a great part in raising her nephews and niece Quilietti after the death of their mother in 1905.  It was she who took on the role of their mother and we know from word of mouth through the generations that she was a well loved step-mother.  On Joseph Anjelo Quilietti’s death certificate it is Louisa who is named as his mother.Maria married Pietro Costella in St. Mary’s R.C. Broughton, Edinburgh on 20th December 1916, during the First World War.  Lorenzo Brattesani was a witness at their wedding.  He emigrated to New York and raised his family there. The Costella family were from the same region in Parma as the Brattesani family and the two families were entwined through various lines back in Italy.

Louise and had two children. John Joseph who was born in 1916 and Louigi who was born in 1923. The family were raised in the flat at 9 Greenside Place, Edinburgh.

LOUIE born 1898 in Leith

LOUIE BRATTESANI born 1898 in Edinburgh and died in 1903. He is buried in Easter Road Cemetery in Edinburgh

Giuseppe Brattesani died at 9 Greenside Place on 17th September 1905.  But his legacy lives on through his descendants.  He was one of the first of the Italian immigrants to settle in Edinburgh and we dedicate this page to him.  He lies with his wife Lucia in Easter Road Cemetery, Edinburgh.

During the early 1900s to 1925 the Brattesani family owned many premises in and around the top o’ The Walk.  They manufactured ice cream and had refreshment rooms as well as restaurants and fish and chip shops.