I see now that just as the Babylonian communities or any other
community wouldn't have made someone Sephardic or Ashkenazic until
a later period when the two major rites of the Yerushalmi and the
Bavli spread so the Kalonymus Family, of which I am also a
descendant, was in Italy too early to be anything but PreSefardic so
Rashi on his mother's side could not claim Sefardic descent >from the
Kolonymus family. Later the original Italian Jewish community
descendents are lumped like all NonAshkenazim as Sefardim by
outsiders.

Yisrael Asper
yisraelasper@comcast.net
Pittsburgh PA