Sartorelli Name History
Information on this page comes from many sources. The accuracy of the information has not been verified. I would like to thank everyone who has helped supply information for this page.
While the exact origin of the Sartorelli name isn't known, it is thought to have originated in the far north of modern Italy in the regions called Veneto and Trentino, close to the Alps mountains.
The name itself means 'Little Tailor' (sarto=tailor).
Historically in Italy some family names related to artisans (or cities) were given to people of Jewish origin that for some reason decided to embrace the Catholic religion.
Often these reasons were discrimination or persecution. This does not necessarily mean the name does have an ancient Jewish origin, but it may have been something that happened around the 16th or 17th centuries.
Augusto Sartorelli puts forward the following in support of a non-Jewish origin for the name, and I must admit that I agree.
- The smaller cities of 11th and 12th century Italy contained a collection of non jewish family workshops devoted to particular crafts;
- The family workshops gave rise to self-help organisations based on craft or trade which evolved into medieval corporations or craft guilds;
- Many artisan surnames originated from such organisations;
- In addition to their economic and educational functions, the corporations or guilds provided religious (Christian) and social activities for their members. The guild was usually associated with a patron Saint, and the local parish church might have a chapel for the Saint maintained by the members and used for commemoration of deceased members. The guild might also serve as a religious confraternity and burial society for the members;
- Although there were Jewish artisans, most prominently in Sicily, and occasional farmers, still lending was the principal occupation; no other large-scale option existed (was allowed),
- Jewish loans often kept farmers, artisans and merchants solvent. For this reason, the economic recession and failures of 14th and 15th centuries could be easily ascribed to Jews, a view increasing the motivation for expulsion and attacks.
- The Italian surnames of artisan origin represent about the 10% of total surnames. A very partial list of these is the following:Argentieri Barattieri Barilai Bottai Calzolari Cimadori Fabbri Falconieri Fornari Lanari Maestri Molinari Muratori Orefici Sarti Soldati Scudieri Tintori Trombadori Vaccari Vasari, etc.. Among the Italian surnames of artisan origin, only Cimadori, Fornari and Orefici can be associated also with Jewish persons.
I would conclude that:
- there were few artisans among the Jews
- the Jewish artisans very rarely took (or were allowed to take) surnames of artisan origin.
It seems that many of the existing Sartorelli families can trace their roots back to areas in Northern Italy.
While the name is not that common now, there are many Sartorelli (and Sertorelli) families living in the towns of Bormio and Livigno in the Valtellina valley (Sondrio province), Italy. There are also Sartorelli families in America, Brazil, Canada, England, Australia and New Zealand.
From Augusto Sartorelli, I obtained the following:
My family roots are in Trentino where my ancestors arrived from Vicenza at the beginning of the 16th century (1523). The name of the place is Telve (near Borgo di Valsugana, about 40 kilometers east of Trento) where the descendants of the original nucleus lived until last year. In 1998 Adriana Sartorelli, the last descendant, died at the age of 92.
Probably at the end of the 16th century, a group of family members crossed the mountains separating Valsugana from the Fiemme Valley and settled in Tesero and Cavalese.
Apart from some general information retrieved many years ago by a local historian, I have traced back the sequence of my ancestors going up to the end of the 18th century; unfortunately it is impossible to go back farther since the parish registers have been destroyed during the 1st World War (Telve was just behind the Austrian lines, near the No-Man's-Land!).
The most common professions of my ancestors were: magistrate and judge, doctor, pharmacist and botanist.
Apart from the origins, there seem to be no connection with the Sartorelli families in Veneto. At least in the traceable past, no member of my family left the Trentino area (which has been a part of the Austrian Empire until 1918).
Please email any comments about the information on this site to Kevin Sartorelli 
