La famiglia è originaria di Anversa (Belgio). S.M. Umberto I con motuproprio 8 marzo 1885 concesse al conte Edoardo il titolo di marchese di Torre Alfina trasmissibile ai mpr. Nel 1866 Giuseppe fu investito del titolo di conte (mpr.) E’ iscritta nel Libro d’oro in persona dei figli di Edoardo, nipoti di Giuseppe: Teofilo e Ugo. Motto della famiglia: Deus mecum nihil timeo Altro ramo. Umberto I re d’Italia, con moto proprio 8 Marzo 1885, e con altro decreto 19 Aprile 1885, concesse al conte Edoardo Cahen il titolo di marhese di Torre Alfina, trasmissibile ai suoi discendenti legittimi e naturali, maschi da maschi in linea, e per ordine di primogenitura. La presenza del motto nella bibliografia documentata della famiglia ci conferma l’avita nobiltà raggiunta della casata. Infatti l’origine del motto risale a circa il XIV secolo e deve essere ricercata in quei detti arguti che venivano scritti sui vessilli o bandiere dei cavalieri, esposti alle finestre delle locande in cui questi alloggiavano, in occasione dei tornei, e durante i tornei stessi. Motto della famiglia: Deus mecum nihil timeo.. Riguardo a questo cognome abbiamo ritrovato ulteriori informazioni storiche in altri archivi. Purtroppo in lingua originale Inglese. : This Last Name was from the Hebrew word KOHEN meaning a priest. Priests are traditionally regarded as members of a hereditary caste descended from Aaron, brother of Moses. Not all Jews bearing the name Cohen belong to the priestly caste: when many Jews were being forced to join the Russian Army for 25 years, a number modified their last names to Cohen because members of the clergy were exempt from service. When traditional Jews were forced to take family names by the local bureaucracy, it was an obligation imposed from outside traditional society, and people frequently took the names playfully and let their imaginations run wild by choosing names which either corresponded to nothing real in their world. No one alive today can remember the times when Jews took or were given family names (for most Ashkenazim this was the end of the 18th century or the beginning of the 19th) although many remember names being modified after emigration to other states, such as the United States and Israel in recent years. During the Middle Ages, when people were unable to read or write, signs were needed for all visual identification. For several centuries city streets were filled with signs of all kinds, public houses, tradesmen and even private householders found them necessary. This was an age when there were no numbered houses, and an address was a descriptive phrase that made use of a convenient landmark. At this time, coats of arms came into being, for the practical reason that men went into battle heavily armed and were difficult to recognise. It became the custom for them to adorn their helmets with distinctive crests, and to paint their shields with animals and the like. Coats of arms accompanied the development of last names, becoming hereditary in the same way. The name is found in Ireland in the Anglicized form of the Gaelic O’Cadhain. In many parts of central and western Europe, hereditary last names started to become stable at around the 12th century, and have developed and modified slowly over the years. As society became more complicated, and such matters as the management of tenure, and in particular the collection of taxes were delegated to unique functionaries, it became imperative to distinguish a more complicated system of nomenclature to differentiate one individual from another….
Noble title: Marchesi
Coat of arms: Partito: con un filetto d’argento; nel primo di rosso alla torre d’argento merlata di 5 pezzi alla guelfa, e sormontata da una pianticella di alfa sradicata di oro; nel secondo d’azzurro al leone illeopardito, tenente un’arpa il tutto d’oro, con la bordura d’argento caricata di 8 quadretti d’azzu…