The Iob surname is common to Cunevo, Flavon, Lover, and Sporminore

Large groups of families with the Iob or Job name are found in Trentino's Val di Non villages of Cunevo, Flavon, Lover, and Sporminore.  My research has led me to believe that Cunevo is the origination point of the Trentino Iob lines. 

 

The Iob (Job) surname is also common in the provinces of:

Udine -- villages of Dignano, Gemona del Friuli, Cervigano del Friuli, Tarcento, and Tolmezzo.  Within Tolmezzo's frazione of Illegio, 62% of the residents bear the Iob surname; and
Vergania -- village of Omegna

At this point, it does not appear that the Iob's from these villages are related to those of Val di Non.

Although there is documentary evidence of the presence of Iob's in Cunevo since the 15th and 16th centuries, I have (so far) been able to document my direct Iob lines only to the mid-1700's.  In August 1802, a fire occurred in the nearby village of Terres.  The fire spread to Flavon the next day.  There are two theories on how the fire spread:  one states that sparks in the air ignited the houses, and the other states that there were smoldering fires in the possessions brought to Flavon by the residents of Terres.  Nevertheless, the fire destroyed most of Flavon, including the church archives which contained the records for Cunevo, Flavon, and Terres.  As a result, church records, including microfilmed copies for these villages, are available only for periods after the fire.

A Few Early Iob References

• Year 1409 -- Baldessare de Ioppis resided in Cunevo

• Year 1554 -- this date appears on a tomb of a G. Job at the church of S. Lorenzo in Cunevo

• Year 1568 -- Archduke Ferdinand of Austria conveyed a coat-of-arms upon Gaspare and Antonio Job of Cunevo;  additionally, in the year 1604, Emperor Rodolfo II conveyed a coat-of-arms to other Iob's.  Drawings of these coats-of-arms appear in the side panel.

• Year 1594 -- the church records in Sporminore mention the Apr 1594 marriage of Iob del Iopi to Orsala Spaur

• Years 1595-1601 -- a Iob de Iopis was a "notaio" (notary or legal official) in Cunevo

• Year 1687 -- the Dercolo church records refer to the birth of Batasar Iob, son of Joannes Iob from the village of Lover

• Years 1679-1680 -- Joannes Andrea Iob served as curator of the church at Campo Denno

• the first Iob (Job) name I found in the microfilmed Sporminore church records was Joannes Bapta Job (1706-1766), a native of the village of Lover, who married Magdalena Sandri in 1725.  Since the church records do not show any reference to a Iob (Job) in Sporminore prior to 1725, this indicates that the Sporminore Iob's may have originated in Lover.  However, other researchers have found inferences that Iob's from Cunevo emigrated to Sporminore c. 1550.  Emigration from Sporminore to the US began in 1886 when 54 persons travelled to Vulcan, Michigan to work in the copper mines.

If you have any information about the Iob (Job, Yob) name and would like to share it, please contact me either through email or this site's guestbook.

 

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Branches and Second Surnames "sopranomi"

As is often the custom in smaller villages, families with the same surname intermarried.  Due to the many Iob branches in Cunevo and Flavon, a "second" surname or nickname was often added to distinguish family lines from each other.  Some families did not need a sopranome because there were too few persons with that name to cause identification problems.  Only when the family expanded into many branches was the sopranome needed.  This second name was often acquired by reason of marriage (e.g. the wife's surname was used), occupation, heredity, place of birth, etc).  Many times, this second name is the only means to determine which person is referred to in a document (especially because of the limited number of first names used).

The second surname was generally written with a hyphen ( - ) or by use of the word "detto" (also known as).  For example, my main Iob line is Iob-sicher (or Iob detto sicher).  I have found references to this branch into the late 1600.  I am also descended from the Iob-remus branch (this sopranome has been in use since at least 1793).  Other Iob branches I have found in Cunevo and Flavon are: Iob-perotel, Iob-bran, Iob-brun, Iob-bottes (in use since at least 1715), and Iob-bertel (in use since at least 1691).

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Iob Emigrants to the United States

Many Iob's from Cunevo, Flavon, Lover, and Sporminore emigrated to the United States in the late 1800's and early 1900's.  A common departure point was the city of Trento, where a ticket could be purchased for a ship leaving from ports in France and England.  For those travelling to the US, the voyage usually ended in New York, where they would board trains to their final destinations.  Many of the Iob's from Cunevo and Flavon settled in the coal mining areas of Colorado and Pennsylvania.  Iob's from Sporminore and Lover tended to settle in the mining areas of Michigan and Wyoming.

I have provided listings of emigrants from Cunevo ,and  Flavon.  These listings include many Iob's and show the person's name, year of emigration, and in most cases where they settled.  The data is only a portion of the information available about these pioneers.  If you have any other information about their life in the new land, please share it.

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Resources:

Cunevo e Le Sue Chiese Nella Storia del Contado di Flavon, by Livio Job, 1999
a history of Cunevo, old documents, photos, and details of many families - in Italian)

Il Paese di Cunevo by Ermanno Rossi
(history, culture, and lifestyles of village of Cunevo, prominent families, - in Italian)

Microfilmed records of the churches in Cunevo, Flavon, Lover, and Sporminore

Tridentinita Transoceanica, by Giovanni Amistade