De Bechis Cathalanis — Riva presso Chieri, Torino
Four hundred years of a Piedmontese family, in one man's hand
Between 1916 and 1944, Capitano di Vascello Aldo Bechis traced his family — the Bechis, called locally Catalan, Cattaran, Catalani — back to a 1372 oath of fealty sworn in a church in Riva presso Chieri. This is his research, as he left it, alongside the chart it produced and the tree that continues it today.
The Research Dossier
Five folios in Aldo's own hand, each an original page followed by its transcription. Together they carry the Bechis Cathalanis from a 1372 oath of fealty to Riva's line through the 1930s, plus a separate, explicitly "inductive" reconstruction of five medieval generations for which no direct document survives.
The 1943 Chart
Aldo's dossier condensed onto one sheet: the Bechis Cathalanis from Tomaso Becho (d. before 1578) down through the branches that stayed in Riva and the branch that moved to Torino, ending in the generation born around the 1930s. Drag to pan, scroll or pinch to zoom — it rewards a close look.
The Family Tree, Continued
A later, illustrated tree rooted in Carlo Bechis (1847–1902) and branching out to descendants born into the 1990s. It picks up roughly where Aldo's 1943 chart leaves off.