Gaviola - Can anyone give me an idea about this last name?

Question:

Gaviola - Can anyone give me an idea about this last name?

Does anyone here know where the name comes from? I read some place that it's a Basque. But, a friend who's Basque tells me that it's the first time that he's encountered the name (but he's heard of someone named Gaviota). Although, I've read people who're Basque with that same last name. It's difficult for me to do a "Family Tree" since a lot of my relatives are dead.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Just off the top of my head, it sounds Italian.
Here is a gravestone listing
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi...
You could start by trying to find the relatives of these people who passed away, they probably connect with your family, especially if you are located in the United States, because there doesn't seem to be a lot of Gaviolas.

GavioTa could also be related to you, because often when people emigrated to the United States and they couldn't speak English, the immigration officials had to kind of make their best guess as to how to spell names.

Use the search term

Gaviola genealogy
Gaviola family tree
Gaviola genealogical
Gaviola surname

and see what you can find.
A lot of the Genealogy sites have surname message boards, and you can post things there and find good information there. You might post something and hear back from someone even a year later, as they search the same name. You'd be surprised by the connections that can come up. It's like pieces of a very big puzzle and it takes a lot of time.

Good luck!