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10. The Cofrancescos of Cerreto Sannita

          So The Cofrancescos of Cerreto originated in S. Lorenzello. The first Cofrancesco who moved to Cerreto with his family, in fact, was born in S. Lorenzello.  This happened around 1740 when Lorenzo Cofrancesco, with his wife Orsula Santullo, “a Neapoli” (i.e. from Naples), moved from S. Lorenzello to Cerreto with their first five children.

          It is not known why they moved to the city. It was probably related to Lorenzo’s profession, which, unfortunately we do not know because the move occurred just before the compilation of the Catasto of S. Lorenzello and in the Catasto of Cerreto the section relative to people whose name is starting with "L" is missing. Anyway we have confirmed his origin and subsequent migration from records of the baptism of five of his children born in S. Lorenzello and two born later in Cerreto.

S. Lorenzello – Rua District (Contrada sopra la Rua), seen from the Square (Piazza),
where the family of Lorenzo and other Cofrancescos lived. Mt. Erbano is in the background

          Lorenzo Cofrancesco was born in S. Lorenzello on 30 June 1705 to Francesco and Giulia Rubbano.  His father Francesco was born also in S. Lorenzello and was the son of Lorenzo and Antonia Farelli. We can only hypothesize about the parents and date of birth of this last Lorenzo. Since it could be contradicted by some new documents, we will not say anything about it at present. Anyway one fact is certain; that the Cofrancescos of Cerreto originated only in S. Lorenzello. Moreover, from the documents in the parish archive of Cerreto, we found that all the Cofrancescos of Cerreto have their common origin in the children of Lorenzo and Orsola Santullo.