This is the introduction of a booklet of Remo Boffardi, telling the origins of our family.
The booklet contained many informations and pictures that were put toeghether (and completed) whit the rest of the tree in this site.
I decided to publish the introduction because it tells the probable origin of our “Dinasty”.
After the booklet was written, i encountered Remo in 1995 and begun to be interested about our history. So, i besided Giuliano in this research and collected data published in this web site.

Mauro

BOFFARDI FAMILIES IN THE UNITES STATES,
by Remo (Ray) Boffardi
Giuliano Boffardi, our cousin from Genova, Italy, is a grandson of Raffaele Boffardi of Genova. He is writing a booklet an the whereabauts of the Boffardi family ‘throughout the world’. He asked me to research the Boffardi families in the United States. I have researched branches 2 6 3. Our cousin, Louis J. Boffardi Jr. of Hopewell Junction, New York, researched his branch (1). A very tedious job since many of our relatives are scattered throughout the U.S.
This booklet will give you a good idea of how we are related. It is based on the responses we received from our relatives.
A copy of this booklet is being forwarded to Giuliano, the master family tree builder. He has authored a number of books dealing with Genova. He is also very involved in Italian politics. In fact, he recently ran for the office of Mayor of Genova. Unfortunately, he lost. He is a representative of Italy in NATO.
Giuliano believes that the Boffardi name originated in France. Also, that the name Boffardi is found mostly in Italy, the United States, and France. That, there are French variations of the name Boffardi, found mostly in a region of France called, Angers. The variations being, Bouffard, Bouffar, Buffard, Buffardin, Buffardi, and Boffard.
Giuliano says that a French noble named, Carlo d’Angio (Charles from the city of Angers), Count of Provenza, Italy, had much to do with our ancestors coming from the town of Nocera Inferiore, Italy. That, based an historical fact, King Louis IX of France, brother of Carlo d’Angio, signed a treaty with Pope Urban IV in 1263. In the treaty, both Louis IX and Pope Urban IV agreed to overthrow Manfredi, the King of the Two Sicilies and replace him with Carlo d’Angio. Carlo d’Angio eventually defeated Manfredi in the Battle of Benevento on Feb. 26, 1266, and there-by became the new King of the Two Sicilies. At the time, the Two Sicilies consisted of the island of Sicily, plus the region of the Italian boot that extends from the toe up to a point just south of Rome. Mainland Sicily included Nocera Inferiore, the town where our ancestors came from. If it weren’t for the breaking up of the Two Sicilies years later, we Boffardis would all be Sicilians. But, because of the break-up, we are all Napoletani (Neapolitans).
Because Carlo d’Angio needed help in governing the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, he imported many of his friends from France to assist him. Most of them came from Angers, the locality in France where many individuals had names with the various variations of Boffardi (Bouffard, Boffard, etc.). That among these friends there were nobles, officials, soldiers, and other individuals whose names, with the passage of time, were ‘italianized’ to read, BOFFARDI.
Carlo d’Angio and his followers, the Angionis (people fram Angers, France), chose our ancestor’s home town, Nocera Inferiore, as their military headquarters because of its strategic military location. Giuliano states that the French meaning of the name Buffard is, ‘a pipe with a lang stem’. Also, that Bouffard means, ‘the man with the big pipe’. Both referring to a pipe that is used in smoking.
Giuliano will most likely add rare historical data when he completes his findings. A number of names, dates, occupations, etc., were left out because of lack of response. If the omissions are relative to you, try to fill them in so that future generations of Boffardis, upon reading the enclosed data, could get the best picture possible of his or her relationship to the Boffardi family as a whole.
Let’s just view this writing as the appetizer that precedes the main course and dessert that Giuliano will forward to all of us when he completes his findings regarding the Boffardi family ‘throughout the world’.