Kanetti Genealogy and Kanetti Family History Information

From the Dictionary of Sephardic Surnames

Canetti/Caneti/Kanetti/Kaneti/Kaniti Toponymic: Cañete, España. Porto Alegre, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Buenos Aires, Paris, England, Rousse, Bulgaria, Greece, Edirne, Smyrna, Turkey.

Listed Sources:

Arie, Gabriel. Genealogie de la famille Arie (1766-1929), 1929. Armony, Paul. Apellidos Sefardies mas frecuentes obtenidos de los cemeterios Avellaneda - Lomas de Zamora - Ciudadela (Acis y Aysa) - Tablada Sefarafi y Bancalari, em Toldot n. 11 - Buenos Aires, 2000. Lista da diretoria do Centro Hebraico Riograndense, Porto Alegre, 1998. Chevra Kadisha de São Paulo, lista de sepultamentos, São Paulo, 1997. Covo, Joseph. The Jewish Community and family names of Sephardic Jews in Ruschuk (Rousse) Bulgaria, em Etsi nº 15, vol. 4, Paris, 2001. Cohen, Dov. List of 7.300 names of Jewish Brides and Grooms who married in Izmir Between the Anos 1883-1901 & 1918-1933, Israel, 1997. Eizirik, Moysés. Aspectos da Vida Judaica no Rio Grande do Sul, Caxias do Sul, 1984. Enciclopédia Judaica Elnecavé, Nissim. Los Hijos de Ibero-Franconia del Mundo Sefaradi desde los Origenes hasta nuestro dias, Ediciones La Luz, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1981. Missistrano, Claudio. El Tiempo, 1890-1891 et 1894-1897, em Etsi nº 14, Paris, 2001. Carasso, Jacques (editor). La Lettre Sépharade, Gordes, France. Menda, Nelson. 1748-1948: 200 anos de presença sefaradi no extremo sul do Brasil, originais, Rio de Janeiro, 1999. Perahia, Klara; Toledo, Suzi de; Danon, Suzi; Ender, Fani. Erensya Sefaradi (Proverbos y Diças), Istambul, 1995. Rahmani, oïse (editor). Los Muestros, Brussels. Sachar, Howard M. Farewell España. The World of Sephardim Remembered, New York, 1994. Wolff, Egon and Frida. Sepulturas de Israelitas S. Francisco Xavier (RJ), Rio de Janeiro, 1976.

Family Tales

My grandfather Josué Salvador Canetti used to tell us that our original name in Spain was Cañete and that, after the expulsion from Spain in 1492, the family went to Italy. Before migrating to the Ottoman Empire (the Sultan issued a formal invitation to Jews expelled from Spain and Portugal), the family would have stayed in Italy for a century, where the family name was italianized to Canetti.

A part of Canetti family stayed in Italy. Another part followed the invitation from the Ottoman Empire to settled down in Turkey, as well as in Greece and Bulgaria.

Until the generation of my grandfather, the language spoken among the family was Ladino (Judaeo-Spanish), written in Aramaic / Solitreo alfabet, as in this postcard sent by my grandfather in December 1912.

The family name have changed to Kaneti or Kanetti in Turkey, in the 1920s.

By Patricia Canetti