Introduction
The Ruggeri Laderchi family, coming from the union of the two surnames Ruggeri and Laderchi, came to be in 1897 in the person of Paolo, awarded by Motu Proprio of Umberto I, sovereign of Italy, with the title of Count for his personal merits on the field of battle and for the fact of his descending from a family that had given to the Fatherland both soldiers and patriots.
Paolo Ruggeri, son of Cesare Ruggeri and of Caterina Laderchi, not only exemplified in himself the glorious legacy of families that for many years had been at the head of public life, but was also the only representative of a line of the Laderchis which after having given exiled patriots and soldiers was becoming extinguished. In the end, through marriage, Paolo Ruggeri intermarried with Russian families who themselves offered in their own country uncommon examples of courage, of abnegation, and of culture.
Some of these families are now extinct, others are dispersed, while others still, following revolutions and wars, have changed nationality. The memory of all these families is fading, the history vanishing, while persons who truly made their families shine in the fields of literature, the arts, the military, and of progress now fall into oblivion.
In the writing of these memories it has been my objective to gather as much data as possible about the families from which we come and, with coats of arms, genealogical trees, and photographs, and to do it in a way the these memories will live on, not for the vainglory of the nobility, but so that our children understand the duties associated with a name that was carried by many honest and hard-working men, true “Gentlemen,” that which we must be in all the eventualities of life.
In my intentions, the history of the Ruggeri-Laderchi, must comprise of two volumes: the present titled Birth of a Family and the second volume titled Life of the Founder, Paolo the First, so the first volume would be maimed without the second and, while it offers the possibility of obtaining information on the birth of this family and on their descendants, it is missing an important, informative portion regarding the Ruggeri-Laderchi people, or their non-relatives, who were among the generation of Paolo I and those for example of Alessandro II and of Paolo III, as well as that of Francesco Paolo, of Daniel and of Giorgio II.
In Life of Paolo the First, the Ruggeri-Laderchi history continues into the current day and the various components of the family will be presented to you with photographs and descriptions of the principal facts of their lives. The painting will then be complete, waiting only for someone who wants to follow it.
While the first volume goes to press, I don’t know if and when I will be able to do the second volume equally, even though I have already compiled and supplied much photographic material that I find very interesting. Either way the second is also all ready for publishing and … we will see what happens!
My descendants, in the widest sense of the term, to whom I consign a copy of my first volume, will notice that the cover given to my work is much more important that what one would normally use for similar memories and that is why I am publishing it by less “economical” means, even if that means there are fewer copies to distribute, with gold-detailed leather binding made by a top tradesman. In fact my work is coming from the renamed “Gozzi Boutique” in Modena where, to use the words of a commemorative booklet, “the finest Moroccan leathers are used without exception; and the paper is of the best quality.” Now this cover wasn’t just a random desire of mine, rather a deliberate effort on my part to leave young Ruggeri-Laderchis not only a book, but also a jewel, something to keep and display in their libraries, something to always keep in sight to remember who they are and from whom they come.
Reconstructing the genealogical tree of the Ruggeris was not easy since the Italian Civil state only began in 1866 when the first census was taken, and only living persons were counted that year and, naturally, in successive years. The Civil State, from which I obtained many of the indications contained here, is that of Codogno (Lodi).
The General Ludovico 11°/X Laderchi, who lived around 1900, compiled a record of the Laderchis based on news and documents gathered during a visit to his Laderchi cousins who still lived in Faenza. I have take much of the information on the Laderchis from this record.
The information relative to the Palazzo Laderchi in Faenza comes from my consultation of articles, pamphlets, etc. kept in the Public Library of Faenza, where there yet exists a vast Laderchi archive.
The color photographs of the Palazzo Laderchi and of its internal decorations were taken by me on the occasion of my visit in 1986. They are therefore original and unique.
Also in 1986 I made an inspection of the locality where the Castle Laderchi and the Tower of Laderchio once stood. The “Derchia Estate,” constructed upon the ruins of the disappeared castle is overseen by the family of Visani Irenea, whose address is: Via Limisano n. 9 – Laderchia – Riolo Terme (Ravenna).
The photographs of the Italian ancestors are reproductions made by me of photographs, paintings and prints in my possession that belonged to my father (Paolo Primo) Ruggeri Laderchi. Parts were contained in leather albums, and some of them were collected in the albums that Paolo Primo began in 1895, one for photographs of the family and one for the military photographs, kept up-to-date year after year.
The photographs of the Russian ancestors are reproductions of photographs, paintings, etc. existing at home and of other photographs contained in a record compiled in Russian by my cousin Wolodia Zweguintzov, which was translated into English by my sister Nora Robert H. Klein. The coats of arms of the Russian families are taken from the French, Polish and Baltic heraldic books that the National Library of Paris possesses. These were sketched and colored by my cousin Lala Zweguintzov Countess Hendricov, who also took care of the English translation
The various Laderchis are indexed by a fractional number following the baptismal name. The numerator (arabic numeral) indicates the progressive number of that baptismal name and the denominator (roman numeral) the columns to which they belong (the Laderchi line is subdivided into various columns laid out in a joint table that gives a complete vision of the Laderchi Family.) (See “table of the colonels” at the beginning of the pages about the Laderchis.)
The middle name between the first and last Russian names, are the name of the father of the person of which one is speaking. This is to index them better. There is added to the father’s name the suffix “ovich” or “evich” to indicate a man, and “ovna” or “evna” for women. So Feodor Alexandrovich Andrault de Langeron means Feodor son of Alexander, and Alexei Nikolaievich Olenine is the son of Nikola, while Olga Nikolaevna Stael Holstein means that Olga is the daughter of Nikola.
The Russian nobility is divided into two periods. The period before Peter the Great, in which the most ancient and — at that period — “illustrious” families were cataloged in special books concerning which families descended from the most ancient lines; and the period after Peter the Great, when Russia adopted western heraldic titles and conventions. Consequently the Russian families without heraldic titles can be more noble than those that have “titles of nobility.”
The Ruggeri-Laderchi Family 