Demetri Cichinelli is the deepest documented ancestor on the Sicilian side of Alex’s family tree — a name passed down by his great-granddaughter Aline in May 2026, and nothing else.
He was the father of Achilles Cichinelli and the paternal grandfather of Ines Valda — the woman who would survive the French Resistance, walk out of a German camp at twenty, marry an American Army doctor in Strasbourg, and raise three daughters in New York City as Madame Jean at the Berlitz School of Languages. The Greek-form given name Demetri (Δημήτριος) sitting on a Sicilian surname is unsurprising — Sicily carries centuries of Greek influence from Magna Graecia through the Byzantine era and into later Greek refugee settlement — but whether this line has a specific Sicilian-Greek connection or is just Italian Catholic with a Greek baptismal-name tradition remains open.