I have an ancestor who was born in 1790 in Rapallo, Italy and died in 1850 in Marseilles, France. I have no information beyond that and his name (Ambroise DeBarbieris). Eventually, his family moved on to New Orleans, LA.

Can anyone with French/Italian knowledge in that time period tell me anything that might give me context for his life?

Apparently France captured Rapallo in the late 18th century, annexed it to the Appennins departement in 1805, and then in 1814 the English freed it and it was given to the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont the following year.

I'd appreciate any information, but I'll throw out some questions:

• Would those events have made it easier for people to travel between France and Italy? Would it have been lucrative to make that move?

• Would his moving indicate anything about his level of affluence and/or profession? For example, were there a lot of poor people moving from Italy to France in order to find new opportunities? Were there any jobs in high demand in France that would have been tempting for foreigners to come take?

• Does his moving indicate that he had moderate wealth (I'm assuming it wasn't cheap to just pack up and move)?

• That side of my family is Catholic. I'm assuming he likely would have been as well? Or were Italians in the late 18th - early 19th century predominately another denomination or faith?

Those are only ideas of what I'm looking for. Like I said, I'd appreciate any information. I realize that none of you can give me definitive information about HIM, and that you'd only be using knowledge of the time/area to make educated guesses. That's totally fine.