Rampone sisters link Kelowna families
Three Rampone sisters are the link between the Dapavo, Lanfranco, Turri, Casorso and Risso families in Kelowna: Melania, Enrichetta and Annetta.
Although Annetta was the only one to actually make the trip to Kelowna, the families of all three ladies came here during the 1900s.
It all started in Frinco, Asti, Piemonte, Italy.
Placido Rampone (1830-1892) married Candida Mellana (1833-1931) and raised a family of four children: Eugenio, Melania, Enrichetta and Annetta.
Melania Rampone married a Tonco native, Luigi Rampone (no known relationship) on January 31, 1872 in Frinco, Asti, Italy.
In 1893 Luigi left Italy upon an invitation from his home town friend, Giovanni Casorso, to come to Kelowna to help him on his new farm.
Luigi left Melania and their three children, Giuseppina, Domenico and Camillo to look after their land holdings in the Frinco area while he journeyed from Cherbourg, France to Ellis Island, New York and then by train to Sicamous and finally Okanagan Mission.
Domenico was sent for in 1904 and Giuseppina in 1907.
Somewhere along the line Melania made the decision not to follow and, as she did not want to be alone in Italy, Giuseppina’s stay was short lived and she moved back to Italy clearing the path for Camillo to make the trek in 1908.
Melania and Giuseppina remained in Frinco and looked after their families six holdings.
Enrichetta Rampone married Germano Dapavo in 1882.
In 1901 the first of their family to arrive in Kelowna was daughter Rosa Dapavo’s husband, Giovachino (Joe) Lanfranco, and in 1905 he made his second journey with Rosa.
In 1904 Enrichetta’s daughter Catarina Dapavo arrived with cousins Domenico Rampone and Antonio Risso.
She married Louis Casorso in 1908. Daughter Maria Dapavo, who married Samuele Turri, arrived in 1905 and son Davide Dapavo (Dino) made the trek to Canada in 1927. In 1934 Dino married Rosa Gaspardone.
Two of Enrichetta’s sons, Giovanni and Eugenio, remained in Italy.
Annetta Rampone, the only one of the three sisters to come to Canada, arrived with her husband Vincenzo Risso in 1902.
Here they had two children, Chance, who died at age four and Gaspar born in 1908.
Some of the numerous cousins and in-laws that joined or married into the Rampone families in Kelowna are Antonio Risso, Antonio Borgnetta, Mario Dapavo, Sergio Bertolami, Luigi Guidi, Antonio Zazzara, Joseph Joyal, Silvio Vacarro, Pasquale Barrera, Pasquale Alimonti and Louis Constantini.
In celebration of the 125 year Kelowna history of the Rampone, Dapavo, Risso, Lanfranco, Turri and Casorso families, we will be gathering for a family banquet and a family and friends picnic on the August 2018 long weekend.
Don Rampone, the great grandson of Melania and Luigi Rampone, is a retired teacher-librarian and is a member of the Okanagan Historical Society, Central Okanagan Heritage Society and the Kelowna and District Genealogical Society.
This article is part of a series submitted by the Kelowna Branch, Okanagan Historical Society.