Success! YAY!!!

[bonval]

Can you all see my bgi grin? I am doing such a happy dance!!! I received a lovely surprise email from a sweet gentleman attempting research on his wife's family She is third cousin to my husband. The bigger surprise - they live TWO MILES from us! We met that same evening and shared our files. By a preponderance of evidence I knew this branch of family fit in and whhere but did not know this whole third and fourth generation! Now we have proof of how they fit with all the dates and sources. Plus at 80 she is able to tell us much history on that branch while we are giving her the connections back to Italy! But you cannot imagine how wonderful it was to find they moved right here from NJ without knowing about family here! My husband has so craved family here so I am so blessed to have accomplished just a little part! We now have 10 generations to the tree - 800 plus individuals on paternal line . They found us through our Rootsweb page.

[elba]

Oh that is awesome... I can honestly say I am really envious.
I traced some (very distant) family members - the only ones left alive, wrote to them and they ignored my letter totally. So my search (sigh) stops there - unless I can find another branch somewhere!

[wldspirit]

That's fantastic.... Congratulations on your success. Like Elba, I have family that totally ignores any connection to our roots past or present.
Sad...they live right here in the same town yet we don't even speak...
wldspirit

[bonval]

It is sad when family loses touch. This group were quite a few members from one line that immigrated to same city. They all descend from the brother of my husband's grandfateron the paternal line.We have heard some snippets here and there that they suspect some squabbles might have encouraged distancing. But within last two years we have made contact with 3 twigs from this branch so it is good everyone wants to reconnect.
Now if I could only find anyone from my mother in laws family.We know Nono Valentino Pannozzo was born about 1865 in Campodimele, moved to Itri, married Cristina Marciano. She was born abt. 1870. HHe died abt. 1958 when hit by a speeding car while walking home from his farm in Itri! But I cannot find anything more! Strange because he never left Itri.

[uantiti]

Hi,
do you mean you already tried to contact people having surname Pannozzo (12 on telephone directory) and Marciano (10) in Itri? And already asked Itri and Campodimele for birth/death certificates? and didn't get anything?
BTW there are also 17 Pannozzo in Campodimele.

Ciao Ada

[JeanR]

BONVAL:

"We met that same evening and shared our files."

That's a wonderful story. I'm so happy for you.

Jean

[bonval]

Most of both paternal and maternal lines still live in Itri- Valentino,my hubby, is still close with family. But for some odd reason- mostly because Nono Valentino was no longer close with family - so there just seems to be a lack of family knowledge? The records for Campodimele were kept in Itri but WWII and later a fire ruined many. The cemetary in Campodimele is overflowing with Pannozzo, Pannozza, Pannozzi, and of course Pannozze! We spent a day in the cemetary and I have transcribed almost all of the gravestones there. It is a matter of a missing link that ultimately makes all the puzzle pieces fall into place. Once I found a positive ID on a couple DiCrocco's, it began to go together. I keep surname lists and I notate when they pop up just in case they later turn up to be ours.
One of the neatest things from that habit...
I found a female Crocco married to a particular gentleman in Itri area and street name sounded familiar so I kept copy of their baby's BC. A while later I found this same couple registering another birth ...husband's name, occupation, age, his dad's name,, address were all identical. Same for her information except for one tiny item...her name was now written di Crocco! And same for subsequent family records!

[tonyric]

I have a similar, but not so impressive of a story.

When I started researching this past July, I started digging up family members that I had not seen or spoken to since the 70's (I was ~10 years old at that time). Over the past five months, I have spoken with and met at least a half dozen of these family members and am set to meet with a couple more after the holidays. Also, like you, I have come across and reached out to a few (some are children of those I have met or am to meet soon) that have (apparently) no desire to reconnect with the others in their family. I wouldn't (and won't) stop attempting to contact these family members from time to time. I am just happy with the connections I have made so far. Some of these family members have started family trees of their own and have hit walls that I have fairly easily broken through and we are helping to complete each others work. It has been a great experience so far.

Tony

[nuccia]

Its always nice to hear about people making contact with members of their extended families. I was lucky as well with some branches of my family, and not so lucky with others as well but still we move forward and keep trying until we finally find that missing link/person that can make all fit.

[bonval]

I suspect but of course can't prove that when economic times are not as we want, we tend to stop chasing materialism andlook to 'cocoon' with family. Some of us (genealogyfans) know family matters but others regret losing touch and yearn to reconnect. For me it is nice to see 2nd and 3rd cousins looking for family. In the past extended families were the norm and family tended to not stray far - until we hit those great waves of immigrants.

[bonval]

We have continued for the past few weeks to work on this branch of the family - it is well documented as family direct lineage now - and the woman and Val (my husband) are actually second cousins - there was a little confusion over people with same names - mother and daughter and then a father and son whose names were 'Americanized' identically! No one seems to have an answer why on the men's names! He! Anyway now this week we will all be having dinner together again - and we get to meet another of the sisters who is visiting here in Florida! We are so happy to be able to meet and continue nurturing the new friendship with these folks!
This is good healing for us because we lost an elderly brother-in-law this past month and last week, we lost a very close cousin (Teresa) up in Rhode Island. Her passing was expected but it was difficult for us because of our emotional ties to the family there. Teresa's sister Liz was the first to welcome me to the family - and became godmother to our sons. She set the tone for me of what to expect from my new in-laws to be. How loving and welcoming! One of the best characteristics is their open honesty with each other. Even when angry or upset with one another, they speak directly to each other and never allow old wounds to fester into ugly unhealable (is that a word?) sores. It is bittersweet to find and meet new family as we say goodbye to others.
For me researching is not ignoring the present of getting lost in dusty old books. It is a living breathing family. There is a wonderful quote I saw recently ..."A generation which ignores history has no past and no future." (ThinkExist.com Quotations. “Robert Heinlein quotesâ€

[tonyric]

Bonval, what a wonderful quote. I hope you don't mind if I lift it for my website. It is very appropriate.

I am sorry to hear of your loss, I lost a great-aunt this week at the age of 94 and this was the third loss of a close family member in the past 12 months. It is never easy. Lost loved ones, lost stories and remembrances. At least you have a growing family to make new ones with.

Tony