Family tradition tells that Giuseppe Maria v. Fumetti, born in Tuscany, moved to Düsseldorf with a daughter of the House of de Medici as a financial advisor in her marriage to the Elector of Palatine.
My Fumetti line of descent from my sixth great-grandfather:
Giuseppe Maria v. Fumetti, ca.1670 Tuscany - bef.1730 Cologne
Johann Ferdinand v. Fumetti, 1701-1757
Franz Joseph Anton Nepomuck v. Fumetti, 1739-1799
Johannes Justinus "Justin" v. Fumetti, 1790-1861
Franz "August" Robert v. Fumetti, 1823-1891
Julius Francis "William" August von Fumetti, 1866-1936
Edmund August Von Fumetti, 1901-1988
Cyril William Gene Von Fumetti, 1930 - 2012
Karla Jean Von Fumetti
The following is from the "Genealogisches Handbuch Des Adels, Adelige Häuser B Band III" [the Genealogical Handbook of the Nobility. Aristocrat houses B Band III] by C. A. Starke, 1958 citing Walter Rau: The family von Fumetti manuscript, 1955, the property of the author in Stuttgart:
Translation: Catholic. The family comes from Italy, probably from the Tuscan nobility, and came to Germany in the 17th century. The family line begins with Giuseppe Maria (v.) Fumetti, died before 1730, Kurköln. Banker in Düsseldorf. Belonging to the nobility was not objected to in Prussia.
Giuseppe was considered Tuscan nobility when he went to Düsseldorf which at that time was an Electorate of the Holy Roman Empire. Nobility were people who had titles bestowed on them which were hereditary such as Dukes, Counts, Earls, and Barons but were not royalty. Although it seems acknowledged that Giuseppe was a noble from Tuscany, it is unknown what his title was when he went to Düsseldorf. Based on the crest of a Count's crown which adorns the Fumetti shield, Giuseppe was given the title of Count by the Electorate of Palatine. There is no other mention in the family history or papers of any other title, so Giuseppe may have been a Count in Tuscany, or the Elector may have only recognized the title bestowed on him in Düsseldorf.
While I have not found proof that Giuseppe Fumetti escorted her; Anna Maria Luisa de Medici, the daughter of Cosimo III, Grand Duke of Tuscany, did marry Johann Wilhelm, the Elector of Palatine on 29 April 1691. The House of Medici was the Italian banking and political family that ruled Florence for three centuries. Anna Maria Luisa left shortly after her marriage, by proxy in Tuscany, for Düsseldorf, the capital of the Electorate of Palatine.
The timing of the marriage of Giuseppe Fumetti to Anna Sophia Christina Coppels (Kappels) in 1696 in Düsseldorf lends some credence to the family lore as well the information given in the Handbuch Des Adels.
Beate v. Fumetti b.1917 is a great-granddaughter of Justin v. Fumetti in the lineage at the top of the page. Research done by Beate prior to 1990 and translated by Lisi Fruhling, at that time:
When Anna Maria Luisa de Medici had sent for merchants, artists, workmen and bank-clerks from her house, the Toscana, Giuseppe Fumetti came from there as one of the bank-clerks to Düsseldorf, who had to care for the finances of the sovereign, as the banks of Florenz were said then to be standard in money-matters.
The Fumetti family is demonstrable up from the 12th century. They had lived near the upper Italian lakes, Garda, or Como Lake. They were against a ruling party of the Viscounts. After a battle against them the (Fumetti's) had to fly and there lived in the Toscana. Giuseppe’s parents are unknown. He probably lived in Florenz before removing to Düsseldorf, he was the first v.F. in Germany.
Taking the account of Giuseppe von Fumetti's life from the Adels book, I turned to Horst Reschke in 2000 who both translated and explained Giuseppe's notable accomplishments:
Giuseppe was a diplomat, or ambassador, for the Electorate of Cologne at the court of Palatinal-Zweibrücken.
An electorate was a state ruled over by an Elector. An elector was one of only a handful of German princes whose obligation and privilege it was, to elect the Kaiser or emperor.
Cologne - not just the city, but the territory around it - was ecclesiastical territory as early as 313/14. It first became a diocese, when Cologne was conquered by the Franks, in 459 A.D. In the year 794 it was elevated to the status of an archdiocese. In the 12th century the archbishop of Cologne became one of the electors. The secularization of the territory of Cologne began in 1801, when France annexed the area west of the Rhine. It continued in 1803 with the assignment of the area east of the river to several secular states and was wholly completed in 1806, when the Holy Roman Empire of German Nation ceased to exist.
The first time the Palatinate and Zweibrücken were associated with each other was in 1390, when the lineage of the Counts of Zweibrücken became extinct and its possessions fell to the Palatinate. Zweibrücken pretty well remained in the picture all along, but always as a component of a slightly different name combination. The actual designation Pfalz-Zweibrücken came into existence in 1611, when the (convoluted) territory was split three ways. The other two sections were named Pfalz-Moschellandsberg and Pfalz-Kleeburg.
Giuseppe v. Fumetti and his wife, Anna Coppels, had eight children. My immediate family is descended from their third child, Johann Ferdinand v. Fumetti. Giuseppe died about 1730 in Koln (Cologne) and Anna died 1739 in Düsseldorf, Prussia, though their exact burial locations are unknown.
At the christening of his children from 1697 to 1711 in the St. Lambert's Catholic Church in Düsseldorf, the father's name is given as Giuseppe Maria and/or Josephus or Joseph Maria Fumetti, rather than v. Fumetti which would indicate nobility although it is unclear if that was simply a preference of the recording church.
All of Giuseppe's children used the title of v. Fumetti during adulthood which indicates that Giuseppe may have been granted his title of Count after 1711, if not before.
The Fumetti shield has been in existence at least since the time of Giuseppe's move to Düsseldorf and may have been used prior. The shield, as used by the direct descendants of Giuseppe v. Fumetti also includes a crest of a Count's crown.
Photos and information below are provided by "J. Siebmacher's grosses und allgemeines Wappenbuch, III. Band, 5. Abteilung; Der Adel des Herzogthums Oldenburg; Author: M. Gritzner, Ad. M. Hildebrandt; Publication: Nürnberg: Bauer & Raspe, 1872".
Wappenbuch, translated to English means Heraldic Book. Siebmacher's Wappenbuch is considered the definitive work on Germanic heraldry.
Translated from German:
This Italian family, which came from Tuscany at the beginning of the 18th century, was a member, then a privy councilor, of the Cologne electors. His sons turned to Hildesheim and donated the lines that were flourishing in Hanover and Oldenburg. Here the official assessor of the register belongs to Oldenburg Edmund Ludwig August v. F.
W .: In the (oval) g. Shields a descending b., Straight, continuous point, marked with 3 (2.1) stars and each marked with a cross (?) On the shield, which is held by 2 twisted snakes, rests a crown with 9 prongs that have 3 blades. 6 pearls in between.
The shield shown in this book, is the one that has been used by every generation descending from Giuseppe v. Fumetti. Upper left corner. Siebmacher's 1872.
The earliest family evidence of the use of the coat of arms in my possession is from a hand created rendering on the seal of a document by Johannes Justinus v. Fumetti, the great-grandson of Giuseppe v. Fumetti. Estimated before 1822.
This image of the family crest below was drawn by my great-grandfather, William v. Fumetti in 1886 at age 20. Note that the image below had an addition to the coat of arms, an attached lion's head within a roped embellishment. Family account says that the lion's head was added to our line's coat of arms representing the marriage in 1822 between Johannes Justinus v. F. and his English wife, Katharina Diggles. The lion is a traditional symbol for England.
Several heirlooms exist within my extended family's direct line that carry the v. F. coat of arms or Count's crown.
When my grandfather emigrated about 1880, he brought with him a wax sealing kit in a small wooden box with a sealing tool that is called a petschaft, a form of siegel, or a seal. It is about 4" tall with an inverted copy of the v. F. coat of arms sealing plate is made of metal and attached to a handle. The seal can sit upright in a small, matching wooden cup. It was made after the marriage of Justin v. F. as it reflects the lion's head.
At the time that William emigrated he also brought stones of several types (agate, jade, bloodstone) that had the v. F. coat of arms etched into them. Two are held within my father, Cyril Von Fumetti's, line of descent and one is in the possession of his sister, Phyllis', descendants. Other stones exist among descendants of the emigrants to the U.S., William v. F. and of his brother, Johann Wilhelm Bernard v. F.
Other pieces of jewelry also exist among the extended family including pendants and cufflinks. This belongs to one of my sisters.
William also brought, or inherited from his parents, some silverware and silver hollow ware which has been dispersed through the family. This is one of the spoons that he had as part of the set of silverware and has the Count's crown engraved on it:
Looking at the above pendant and the green jade ring, the armorial markings for color are fairly obvious. Dots are the standard representing the color gold in the shield, horizontal hatching indicates blue, and though it is not clear from the small images the stars are gold and the crosses are red. It is noted in descriptions of the shield that the crosses are unusual. They may reflect special meaning to the family at the time the crosses were created. They have radiating lines from the upper half of the crosses and a pearl or cabochon in the center, with a dropping straight arm ending in a small round shape. This pendant was made from a casting of the petschaft. The petschaft was created ca. 1822-1880 and may be the truest representation we have of the original coat of arms.
Shapes and colors used in heraldry are meant to represent different attributes of the person or family. Crosses can indicate religious steadfastness or faith; stars, divine quality. The color red suggests military strength, a warrior or military duty, possibly a martyr; gold expresses generosity, wisdom, glory and faith; and blue, to represent truth and loyalty.
The Count's crown reflects 9 pearls, 3 standing on each side of the center blade, and one on each of the 3 blades. Markings on the crown are a combination of crosses and diamonds believed to be black and blue in color respectively based on a letter from Victor v. Fumetti in 1998 describing his father's artwork. The color black, or sable, suggests wisdom, constancy, prudence and grief.
The serpent embellishments are gray serpents with red tongues. They are not considered to be part of the shield, but an adornment.
The dropping lion's head has a gold face with black mane, and the enclosing tapered rope is gold. This is not considered to be part of the shield, but an adornment added to reflect the marriage of Justine and Katharina (Diggels) v. F.
There can be confusion over who is entitled to use a coat of arms. Generally, it was worn by the individual it was awarded to or by a direct line descendant, traditionally male, from the person that was granted the original coat of arms. Modern interpretations include descendants of females with the family surname Fumetti.
The ranks of nobility are no longer a legally recognized class in Germany since shortly after the end of WWI when the Weimar Constitution took effect in 1919 and all Germans were declared to be equal. The use of von (.v) commonly remained as part of the surname of these families and is still an indicator of which families in Germany descended from noble lines.
Today in the world, the Fumetti surname is found in Germany, Austria, Corsica, Italy, and the United States.
I am working on a One-Name Study of the surname Fumetti. It is mostly in the research and DNA identification phase but a description can be found at https://one-name.org/ if you type in Fumetti in the box at the top of the webpage that says "Is your surname here?"
There is also a 1 minute video describing what the Guild of One-Name Studies mission is that can be found here https://vimeo.com/561265778
© Karla Von Fumetti Staudt
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