Aspeta, I'm Sicilian!
Well I am now back from our Sojourn to Italy and I have to say all in all it was a fabulous AND productive trip. Remember one of our main reasons to travel to some of the destinations, such as Sicily and Reggio Calabria, was to find relatives. And we did find relatives in Corleone, Sicily.
In Italy, and all of Europe, many Americans are now traveling back to their parents and grandparents homelands. We want to know about our past. My parents never spoke about their father, mother or grandparents - I only know a little bit about where we came from and what my grand parents did. And boom that is the beginning of my family tree. Well I think I am like most people, it would be nice to know more about our families. And if we are lucky enough, sometimes we can find living relatives in our families homeland!
So when planning your visit to find your roots I cannot stress enough the importance of bringing documentation from the country of origin such as birth certificates, or any other government document, as well as family letters and photos. If we did not have this information for me I would be writing another story. I guarantee this type of documentation will open doors, and of course it goes without saying if you do not speak the dialect you MUST hire an interpreter.
In Sicily we asked our concierge for a guide and interpreter to take us to Corleone. The next day a wonderful young woman, who is from Palermo, took us in search of relatives. We had birth certificates, marriage certificate, lots of photos both past and most importantly present. Even with all this information it still took us time to find any shred of information about my family. After going to the local recorders office we were told to go to the "new" market, which is the only market in town, and inquire of a gentleman who owns the market and has the same last name as my great grandmother. He was kind and so were all the other local men who were quite curious to see who the three American women were trying to find. But nobody knew who anyone was, it was too many generations ago. But once we took out the photo of my second cousin - we were given names, addresses and the doors opened. We have been told part of the problem so many people have in trying to find relatives is that we're trying to find people from an older generation, and the younger generation who we are inquiring of don't really know much about the past - so when showing my great grandmother's and great grandfather's birth certificate and marriage license, this information only gave us access to the streets they were born and raised on. However, by a miracle, my second cousin Helen was able to find her first cousin whom she met over 25 years ago!
You see we followed up on the lead from the distant relative who owned the "new" market and went to meet his sister who owns an Agricultourismo (like a B&B but in the agricultural area and her place was a vineyard). We were warmly welcomed and we went over and over photos, with her asking relatives if they knew anything, and honestly they wanted us to be relatives but she was related by marriage only. But one of the workers had just happened to come in for lunch and he overheard a name he knew, so he came over to see what we were discussing and immediately he recognized my second cousin whose last name is completely different than the family we were trying to find. It truly was a miracle - and these types of occurrences happened a lot while we were in search of our family roots.
After leaving Sicily we headed to Reggio Calabria, which is located in the toe of the boot when looking at a map, and is a short 30 minute ferry ride from Messina, Sicily. Here we stayed in a beautiful village called Parghelia, located on the Tyrrehenian Sea with eye poping views of the Aeolian Isles - which is where you will find the most active volcano in the world - Stromboli. Again we hired a guide an interpreter, this time a wonderful Belgium women who fell in love with this region of Italy and moved here five years ago. It was amazing how this self taught woman had a wonderful command of Italian and the Calabrese dialect. The reason it is important to speak the dialect is that there are words and meanings the small towns have and use that are not used by say an Italian from Rome. This will be true anywhere in Europe as most towns and areas still maintain most of their ways from long ago.
We did meet the family we were trying to find and even though they were not related to my grandfather, we were told that the family came from Sicily.
On my next excursion back to Italy I will be headed for Sicily and Reggio Calabria once again. Yes I would like to find more about my family, so this time I will have much more information. And next time I will want to stay longer in these areas for two reasons. I would like my children to see where our relatives came from, and to see what kind of lifestyle they had AND both of these areas are truly the places to see now before they become overcrowded with tourists like Venice, Florence and Sorrento has.
Remember when searching for your roots it is like being on a treasure hunt. In order to have success you first must have accurate information. And when you start searching know that you will most likely be on adventure every step of the way. What you were told by family, might not be true... so keep an open mind and realize that when one door closes another opens.
Hope everyone who is contemplating a trip to find their heritage found this article helpful. If anyone has any questions please contact me and I will give you as much information I can so that your adventure will be fruitful!
Joyce Craddock
jc@incrediblejourney.net
