The common ancestors
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Giovanni Giacomo Ravelli (1635) was the eldest son of the builder of the chapel. This Ravelli is the common ancestor of all Ravelli’s in the Netherlands. Together with his wife Mattea Andrioli, he had seven sons and three daughters, who in turn also provided for many offspring. Giovanni Giacomo and Mattea had 36 grandchildren and 48 great-grandchildren!
Of all this offspring, four sons, two grandsons, one great-grandson and three great-grandsons went to Amsterdam. One great-grandson went to The Hague. We have depicted this network on the picture opposite.
Start in Amsterdam
Around 1700, Giovanni Giacomo Ravelli (1635–1703) sent his fifth son Carlo Giuseppe Ravelli (1680–1702) to Amsterdam as a merchant. Unfortunately, he died soon. He was buried in the Oude Kerk on June 30, 1702 from his residential address on the Kloveniersburgwal.
A few years later, his older brother Bartolomeo Ravelli (1665 – after 1713) came to Amsterdam. When exactly we don’t know. We do know that in 1706 he testified as a ‘counsin’ at the unfaithfulness of Giovanni Maria Cavallini from Coimo.
The Ravelli’s were apparently doing well. Between 1723 and 1732, the company Ravelli & Co. had an account with the Amsterdam exchange bank. Giovanni Giacomo (1662 – 1732), the eldest son of the common ancestor, ran this company together with his youngest son Giovanni Maria Ravelli (1705 – 1782).
In addition to this branch of trade, a chimney sweep branch was also established. From 1731 Giuseppe Maria Ravelli (1706 – 1795) was active in Amsterdam together with Giovanni Giacomo Borgnis as a chimney sweep. This company was later taken over by his son Giacomo (1746 – 1804) and grandson Giuseppe (Joseph) Maria (1755 – 1836). The latter established the chimney sweep company J. with his son Johannes Antonius on the Singel in Amsterdam. & J.A. Ravelli This company would continue to exist on the Singel in Amsterdam until the 1960s. Incidentally, the company was no longer a Ravelli at that time.
It is striking that almost a hundred years after the first Ravelli was buried in Amsterdam, another ‘fresh’ Ravelli came to Amsterdam from Albogno, Giovanni Antonio Ravelli. According to Harmen Snel of the municipal archives, family members came from Italy around 1870 to practice the chimney sweep profession in Amsterdam.
The Hague branch
And as it still happens today, more migrants from the same village come to the new country once acquaintances live there. From Druogno come Bertina’s, Comaita’s and Andreoli’s. In addition, Pietro Antonio Maria Ravelli (1737 – 1799 will settle in The Hague as a chimney sweep. Pietro is the great-grandson of Giovanni Giacomo Ravelli. In the picture above you can see that it is a generational companion of Giacomo (1746), who around that time takes over his father’s chimney sweep business in Amsterdam.