Carascon

Carascon is an Italian family name of hidalgo or noble Spanish origin. The surname was originally spelled Carrascón (In this form it is still found in Spain and Latin America). The surname was Italianized as Carascon in the early 19th Century. The founder of the Spanish House was Doctor Don Garcia Fernandez de Carrascón (ca 1480-1533), a wealthy Spanish cleric from Ágreda, Spain who was a protonotary apostolic and personal doctor to Pope Adrian VI as well as a canon of the Cathedral of Toledo, Spain. He left his fortune in the form of a mayorazgo or family trust to his nephew Don Pedro Carrascon and his descendents. Doctor Carrascon is buried in an elaborate chapel in the Church of San Miguel Arcangel in Ágreda.

The founder of the Italian branch of the family was Don Francisco Carrascón (c. 1710-1780), a high-ranking military commissioner (Commissario di Guerra) of the Royal Spanish Army, and Senator of Messina, Sicily. Don Francisco was married to Donna Rosa Diez, believed to be the sister of Don Antonio Filareto Diez e Palermo, a Sicilian Nobleman and Senator of Palermo in 1745 and 1764. Don Francisco and Donna Rosa had two sons and four daughters. His eldest son, Don Bernabe (or Barnaba) Carrascon was a Colonel in command of the Provincial Regiments of the Kingdom of Naples, and later Commandant of Lucera. His second son, Don Antonio Carrascon, was a Lieutenant Colonel and Governor of the Fortress of Vieste on the Adriatic Sea. Of the daughters, Donna Maria Giuseppa Carascon married Don Berlingiero Scoppa of Lucera, Donna Marianna Carascon married Don Orsino Scoppa of Lucera, Donna Berardina Carrascon married into the noble D'Espinosa Family and was godmother to General Don Gabriele Manthoné, a leader of the 1799 Naples revolution. One other daughter, Maria Concetta, married Cavaliere Gaetano Pistorio of Messina.

Don Bernabe's son, Don Francesco Carascon (1771–1820), married Donna Isabella Monarca, a noblewoman from Sessa Aurunca and eventually reached the rank of Major in the Neapolitan Army. He fought in Calabria, Spain and Rome under the armies of King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies, Joseph Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon, Joachim Murat, brother in law of Napoleon, and once again of King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies after the fall of Napoleon. He died in Messina during the peak of the Sicilian Revolution of 1820. His wife, Donna Isabella died five years later leaving behind seven children. Their youngest son Alessandro Carascon (1814–1870) moved to Sulmona in the Abruzzi and became a Caffettiere or Cafe-owner.

Their descendants have lived in such varied places in Southern Italy as Messina, Naples, Vieste, Sessa Aurunca, Rome, Sulmona and Pacentro. It is a very rare surname, with only a few descendants in Italy, Spain, England, and the USA

Sources

• Archivio di Stato di Napoli, Sezione Militare
• Archivo Historico Nacional, Madrid, Spain
• Fundacion Navarra Cultural, http://www.fundacionnc.org/contenidocarrascon2.htm