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Hello cousins, beside thanking you very very very much for your replies :-) we might well name ourselves so if the story goes on to fit as it is doing...
The first Valtortas in Italy were documented in Milan and Venice in the XV century. No earlier origin is available, but there are at least two locations named Valtorta here in Northern Italy that took their own name AFTER Valtorta families living there and NOT the other way round. One third and larger location is the village of Valtorta in the Alps (www.valtorta.info, great ski resort for those who like it!) however no Valtorta family has ever lived in the area. Conversely, I have reconstructed a Gaussian distribution curve showing that modern Valtortas come all from a single XV century estate in Milan. Such families spread along the river Lambro north of Milan (ancient commercial road) and along the canal Martesana east of Milan (artificial, built about 1457). These two water courses join in the area of the ancient estate. By the way, my own branch comes from the canal.
Linguistically, there are in Italy two families linked to Valtorta and bearing Northern French double surnames. One Regazzoni Barron born in the village of Valtorta about 1300, and one Johannes de Regariis de Valtorta registered about 1430 by the Republic of Venice at the border with Milan. Barron might be Anglo-French while Regazzoni is still nowadays the most endemic surname in the Village of Valtorta while this family's arms carry in the lower side a partition recalling the white and red stripes of the Vawters. Other families endemic there have similar heraldic patterns as it can be seen on the walls of the parish church and of the former Venetian town hall. The other one, de Regariis de Valtorta, is a Latin adaptation of the French word "regaire" which indicates a temporary fief of a Bishop in Brittany (...) while the village of Valtorta was itself at that time a fief of the Bishop of Milan... Additionally, all these people were officially registered as noblemen and especially landlords. However the documented blazon of these XV century Valtortas is per quarterly argent and vert, therefore totally different from Vawter's. For this reason I think some change in lineage must have occurred. However I do not think a dramatic change in genealogy, more likely some families allied with others and all together took some new blazon along with the surname already in use. In fact they all together built a second church (gothic, by the way...) in the village of Valtorta and a short later a bell tower too, which are still visible and under the protection of the Italian Department of Arts. Inside the church, the arches belonging to the XIV century are painted with white and red stripes while the floor, dating to the XVI century, look checked white (argent) and green (vert) pattern in an old picture before refurbishment into a different colour.
All that said, I am not sure that the surname Valtorta in Italy comes directly from the village of Valtorta. The time, datation, and migration routes fit with the hypothesis that some ancient Norman families visited Italy and perhaps remain in contact with their homeland for some time until the village took their name. Later, the story repeated when some Valtorta left the Alps and founded other homonimous locations in the lowlands.
Therefore we might be not all cousins in genealogical terms but, given the population size of the village of Valtorta, its remote geographic position, and the number of generations (20-25) for sure we are at least members of the same clan unless all relatives due to repeated lineage mixing through marriages in a restricted area.
I would have much more to tell but I do not want to bore you too much. Just a few facts about the success of the Italian branch. We have produced so far:
1) in the XIV-XVI century, the church mentioned above;
2) in the XV-XVI century, a noble family ruling the city of Brescia as municipal members;
2) in the XIX century, the Catholic mystic Maria Valtorta (www.valtorta.com and/or www.valtorta.org) who wrote an impressive work titled "Poem of Man-God"
3) in the XX century, a First World War hero (Lodovico Valtorta);
4) again in the XX century, the catholic missionary Enrico (Henry) Valtorta who was the first bishop of Hong Kong (www.valtorta.hk) and had to face the communist Chinese regime from the former British dominion.
5) finally, myself... www.valtorta.net if you like to hit my own homepage.
I hope you have enjoyed the story. I will be extremely pleased to share information with you all and, why not, exchange links between our respective websites :-)
Also, I am planning to visit Trematon Castle in Cornwall the coming summer...
Be well and hope to hear from you again!
Giovanni Simone Valtorta
www.valtorta.net
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