Your experience sounds familiar. On a tour of Sicily several years back, two different American families came hoping to meet relatives. One couple said the whole town turned out, with tables set up in the street for a huge meal and were overwhelmed with the love shown to them. Another couple noticed a family name on the wall of a church in the town where a bar scene was filled for "The Godfather." The guide spoke to the priest and quickly the priest brought them to the church's records and dozens of names and dates were found. La familia is never stronger than in Italy!
Wow, how wonderful (and lucky)! Not all living relatives are eager to be found, and church records can be less than forthcoming. Thanks for sharing a beautiful story!
What a fabulous story!!! I feel the inclination from Italians regularly to make a connection. Today at the cemetery, two inquired about my roots (German) and they were disappointed. Then I mentioned my adopted nonno from Milano and they lit up. Not Sicilian but... Lino Polo is still a good name and then they welcomed me to sit with them at their family’s mausoleum. All of which is to say, I’m not surprised they welcomed you so warmly and were genuinely interested in getting to know you. ❤️. How wonderful! 🇮🇹
What a wonderful story and thank you for sharing it, Cheryl. It's encouraging me to do some of my own research, but I'm not sure where to start.
Glad you enjoyed it! Where is your family from?
Gosh, I've been meaning to look up how to say 'great aunt' for ages. Thanks for saving me the trouble, Cheryl! (prozia)
All very complicated stuff! I got to learn sorellastra too (and by extension, fratellastro).
Your experience sounds familiar. On a tour of Sicily several years back, two different American families came hoping to meet relatives. One couple said the whole town turned out, with tables set up in the street for a huge meal and were overwhelmed with the love shown to them. Another couple noticed a family name on the wall of a church in the town where a bar scene was filled for "The Godfather." The guide spoke to the priest and quickly the priest brought them to the church's records and dozens of names and dates were found. La familia is never stronger than in Italy!
Wow, how wonderful (and lucky)! Not all living relatives are eager to be found, and church records can be less than forthcoming. Thanks for sharing a beautiful story!
Fascinating read, thank you.
Thank you, glad you liked it!
so happy for you, cheryl.
Such wonderful connections. Maybe it was a good thing to let some time pass between generations!
Who knows, but I wish I started all this research many years sooner than I did!
Beautiful!
Wow. I can't believe we have family I never knew about. Thanks for being our family historian and finding all this out!
My pleasure!
What a fabulous story!!! I feel the inclination from Italians regularly to make a connection. Today at the cemetery, two inquired about my roots (German) and they were disappointed. Then I mentioned my adopted nonno from Milano and they lit up. Not Sicilian but... Lino Polo is still a good name and then they welcomed me to sit with them at their family’s mausoleum. All of which is to say, I’m not surprised they welcomed you so warmly and were genuinely interested in getting to know you. ❤️. How wonderful! 🇮🇹