Thanks to today’s search engines we have been able to do some research on the Lo Schiavo name.
We certainly have not exhausted all the available resources and the research was not in depth.
Nevertheless the information found and presented here helps to piece a “generic mosaic” of a group of people that lived before us.

In searching for the Lo Schiavos we must first understand the reason for their leaving their birthplace and also be mindful that the meaning of the name itself was distorted or amplified as they moved about.
In fact between 1000 and 1300 we find them mentioned often but the references are vague and not supported or well documented in the archives.
It is during this period that not only groups of “Slavs” but also other ethnic groups leave their homeland and roam the Italian peninsula in order to find a better life. In this respect the “Slavs”, the predecessors of the “Lo Schiavos” are no different than the emigrants of today.
The first reference to the name with any historical validity describes a particular branch of Lo Schiavo family as: “An old and noble family coming from Scizia settling in Tromonti near Amalfi and living in the Pontalto Castle c. 1300.”
According to this source, we now have historical proof of a settlement of Lo Schiavos in the Amalfi area who were of noble birth, powerful and are entered in the registries of Nobility.
Other sources also give us precise information stating that they came from Bysantium and settled in different parts of Italy: “…they departed from that most unfortunate of cities when it fell and was subjected to the tyranny of the Turks after the empire was defeated by Mohammed II....".
From the 1300 on, the references begin to be more precise and indicate that at least some Lo Schiavo lines can be found in Southern Italy on the coast line of both Salerno and Calabria (both sides Ionic and Tyrrenian) especially in the Province of Vibo Valentia.
A hundred years or so later we find the first historical references to them on the Aeolian Islands.
In 1420, we find an entry referring to the branch of the LoSchiavos in Salina which names a Jaco Lo Scavo who was cited in an archival document of the Archdiocese of Lipari for taxes.
Unfortunately there are no references or documents found that links our specific branch on the islands and the branches of mainland Sicily and/or to the Amalfi branch.
One theory is that after reaching the Amalfi area, some of them settled there while others (either individuals or family groups) continued on searching settling finally in Sicily and on our islands.
There are references to the Lo Schiavos in the Tromonti area before the 1300 and after this date there is documentation well preserved. In fact one document mentions that on the 30th of January 1308 they received a vassalage from Charles the II then king of Naples and that around 1500 they stransferred to Radicena near Palmi.

Maria Salvi
( Top friend of this website) carefully and kindly translated for you

antonio 7° lo schiavo di S.Marina

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