| Finding Roots… |
This holiday turned out to be a little heaven for my mother and her sisters, as my grandmother’s older sister told us many new details about the family origins. We all knew the family arrived at the 18th century from Italy to Mogador, Morocco. But we didn’t know where in Italy and how much time the family been in morocco.
Turns out that our family (Karoutchi) is originally from Livorno (also known as Leghorn), Italy, which is just next to Piza in Tuscany. Apparently, The family been in morocco for 2-3 generations (half of the family came to Israel around 1900 and the others about 50 years later). One of my mother’s cousins went to visit Livorno but wasn’t really trying to find any traces of our roots, so the talks now are that the sisters (my mother and her sisters) will arrange a trip there to find more details. I was assigned to do the research work on the net.
We also ran a google search for Karoutchi and I was surprised to find out that almost all results are really our family members. Well, the majority of the results were on and about Roger Karoutchi, a cousin of my mother which happens to be a French Senator. We also found his brothers and some of the younger generation (seems one of the young ones - jeffrey karoutchi - is racing in BMX contests!). We also found some links to Mike Karoutchi, a musician, which most of his close family is now living in Beer-Sheva (Israel).
However, since we couldn’t find any Italians with this name, and as far as I know this name is not very rare, I have a feeling that the Italian spelling is different. I just don’t know the correct one. I’m currently trying to find someone from Italy to ask about the correct spelling of the family name.
Update
The way we write the family name is Karoutchi. The Italian way to write it is Carucci. Thanks to JGFF search I’ve found someone that claims of a family that lived in Livorno named Cucce. I’m guessing, but this might be the original name from which the family name evolved. I’ve emailed the women who registered it (her family name is Kuce which can also be another version) and am currently waiting an answer. It would be great to find out if we’re related! 
Update - 01/11/2003
We have reasons to believe the family didn’t live in Livorno and might only have passed there on the way to Morocco. A family member I didn’t know - Igal Assaf - has contacted me on this page using the comments and directed me to the book “It’s not the same home” (translation from the hebrew name) by Uziel Hazan (Bitan Publishing house). The book suppose to tells about Jerusalem through Joseph Karoutchi (a cousin of my grandmother) which came to Israel at 1914.
Spelling:
We use - Karoutchi
In Italian - Carucci
Possible origin - Cucce
Some links I might be needing later:
The Virtual Jewish History Tour - Livorno (Leghorn)
Jerusalem Italian Jews Association
Jews in Leghorn (mostly in italian)
Genealogy sources from bob cassuto
The JewishGen Family Finder (JGFF) (a good search tool!)
Jews In Italy
Virtual Tourist: Livorno, Tuscany, Italy.
American Family Immigration History Center (Ellis Island)
Persons to check:
Rusa Carutchi (possible family member?)
9 Comments so far
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well well well - starting to be interesting in your family life, isn’t it?
b.t.w - tell your mom that u need a lot more milk than she thinks to eat your Cornflex
CAN YOU PLEASE GIVE THE EMAIL ADDRESS OF THE PERSON WHO VERIFY
AND WROTTE THIS INTERESTING
ANALYSIS ACCORDING KAROUTCHI’S
FAMILY ROOTS.
I MYSELF BELONG TO THE FAMILY FROM MY MOTHER SIDE.
THANKS
TO ALLTHE KAROUTCHI/ CARUCCI
JEWS WHO BELONG to the descendants of the Italian- MOGADOR
family, I want to recommand you
a very new and interesting book
which give the history of jerusalem through JOSEF KAROUTCHI
a family member 94 YEARS OLD who MADE HIS ALIYA in 1914
from Mogador to JERUSALEM VIA
FRANCE ,TUNISIA ,LIBYA & EGYPTE
THE NAME OF THE BOOK IS :
It’s not the same home /Uziel HAZAN -BITAN PUBLISHER
THE BOOK IS IN HEBREW
Bonjour, je viens de faire une petite recherche sur Google (France)et apparement on est de la même famille !!
Salut a toute la tribu Karoutchi de Mogador!
J’ai trouve le site du cimetiere de Mogador ou on peut voir et downloder les photos de deux tombes des karoutchi.
Ci joint le site
IL FAUT CLIQUER SUR LA LETTRE K ET CHERCHER DANS LES DEUX PREMIERES PAGES!
LE SITE
http://www.mygenealogy.ch/cemetery/search.php?byfirst=1&condition3=a&condition4=a
Karouchi Abraham M 7 February 1950 Tuesday 20 Shevat 5710* 82 1868* Pyramidal shape of the stone D
Karoutchy Haviva W Monday 5 July 1937* 26 Tamuz 5697 Meir’s wife in Hebrew, dirty H
http://www.houseofnames.com/xq/asp.fc/qx/carucci-family-crest.htm
http://www.jewishgen.org/InfoFiles/Italy/italian.htm
http://www.waort.org/missions_romelondon.html
Hi Civax, I happened to come across your website, when i was searching about my last name Karoutchi. That’s my mother’s maiden name, and her name is Valy Karoutchi, daughter of Isaac Karoutchi and Elsie Belisha. The family is from Casablanca but they migrated to Israel in 1957. My grampa resides in Haifa. Do you know them? As for me, i was born in Malaga, Spain but i lived in the US for almost 18years. Let me tell you, that i was i shocked to find so many interesting things about our last name. if you happen to read this, e-mail me if you can. Perhaps you know my family and that will be cool. All I know is that my grandfather had 14 brothers and sisters and that guy Roger Karoutchi from France is also a cousin of my mother.
Hope you are doing great
Venessa Drai Karoutchi
Hi, my name is Maurice Drai Karoutchi and my sister told me about many people or family related with the last name Karoutchi, i would like to contact some family and learn more from our background and history.Hello Venessa