WWII photo help please

Hello all,

The photo here is of my Grandfather in WWII. He was in the Italian resistance fighting against the Germans and was also taken prisoner by them as well.

My Italian is limited .. and I also can’t make out some of the letters on the back of the photo. I was hoping someone would be able to help me figure out what is written on the back of the photo.

I can make out the word in the middle - Partigiano - which means partisan (resistance). Any help is greatly appreciated; especially since I’ve been putting in a bunch of work building a family tree on ancestry and all.. Thanks in advance!

 

That must have been quite a life, Kosmo.
@aaroncab can you help with your knowledge of Italian, please?

 

Unfortunately I have letters from my own Italian relatives who's handwriting I can't make out either! I'll take a stab here although I'm not coming up with much. Also there could be some variations in spellings/entire words based on differences in local dialect...so yeah

So my interpretation of the spellings goes like this:

linghrie per darine?
WC - minnie or vinnie e
cappsule
---------------
Partigiano
Negrini

The first word looks like "linghrie" which means "railings" - but I'm not sure given the handwriting. Then we have "per" which is usually "for". After that I can't make out anything that seems to be an actual word but maybe "darine" - which doesn't mean anything to me.

The next line starts with WC - which pretty much universally(in Europe) stands for "Water Closet" meaning a toilet/shower more or less. I don't know if in this context it means something else. Now we have another word I can't quite make out. Looks like "minnie" or "minnio" or "vinnie" or vinnio" none of which make sense to me.

Now we have "e cappsule" - so "and capsules" - I assume "capsules" could perhaps mean "small rooms".

Then we have as you said "Partigiano" in this case used as a title for a resistance fighter. and then underneath I'm assuming is your family name? Negrini?

Probably not giving you a lot of help here but that's about all I can make out. Good luck - and that's a great picture by the way. You're lucky to have it

 

Thankyou!
The family name is Benne. His dialect was always hard to understand from the Italian I learned in school. He was from Northern Italy... a town called Orco Feglino in Savona

 

Amazingly enough - my ancestors/relatives are from Carcare area - Savona province - less than 10 miles from Orco Feglino it seems! I don't believe we have any Benne's in my family tree though. Sorry I couldn't nail a whole lot down for you.

Interesting that it appears to say "Patigiano Negrini" if that is not your grandfather's name though...

 

The photograph could have been taken by partigiano Negrini, of your father, and sent or given to him as a memento of their time together.

 

Could be. I know he definitely was in the resistance since he told me some stories; I also still have his membership card for a club of former partisans.

Small world! The Benne part of my family has been there at least since the early 1800s .. I was able to find an Italian website that compiles birth and death records.

 

My family is from Ripalimosani. A Province in the Campobasso region.

Could you please share the site you've mentioned about compiling birth and death records? Assuming it's not Ancestry or the like, that is...Thanks

 

http://www.antenati.san.beniculturali.it/?lang=en

The site is in italian (some English). Once you get used to the ways to search different towns / states there is a ton of information on here.

 

Sweet! I'll check it out. Thanks, Kosmo.

 

When I opened the first image, it took me to a website that wanted to add me to some list. Please - if you are going to post pictures here, don't use a link like that.

 

The pictures are posted onto postimage an image hosting site and the link is copied to the forum. It’s really the only easy way to post images on forums because most forums have limits on file size. It shouldn’t go to any other website. When you click the image it should open the picture on the link so you can view it in more detail.