Discovering your past lays out a road map for your future! In this week’s episode, we’ll prove that while reconstructing your family history might take effort, the rewards are priceless!
Podcast co-host Anthony Fasano asked the gang to get together to share their first-hand experiences discovering family history, and how seeking out and finding his own Italian relatives changed his life, as well as that of his children and future generations. The team shares their tips and tricks into how they dove deep into their family histories and how their hard work paid off in terms of unforgettable experiences in Italy that they might never have otherwise experienced. They’ll also share the moving experiences sent in by members of the Italian American Podcast’s “New Neighborhood” Membership group, revealing just how many listeners are undertaking this important research!
They’ll also shares invaluable information on where and how to find important documents, and how anyone can figure out their family history… as long as they have the passion to do so.
In true Italian American Podcast style, we veer off into a conversation on Italian and Italian American culinary traditions and how going back to the Motherland also shows us how family recipes stayed intact, despite getting passed from generation to generation. We also tackle the question “Why go back?” and offer suggestions on connecting with town historians and the value of a home-base AirBnB host.
Finally, we suggest additional resources you can tap into right from home during these long days of quarantine!
What’s the wait? Start your own Family History search today! We promise, you’ll thank us!
Forty Days in Italy Con La Mia Famiglia by Anthony Fasano
Grazie mille,
The Italian American Podcast Team
I very much enjoyed listening to this episode. Documenting my Italian roots has been a passion of mine for 15 years. I’d like to share two online resources I recently discovered for those who can trace their roots to the town of Sassano, in the province of Salerno.
The first is a set of searchable spreadsheets, called The Sassano Project, compiled by three gentleman – Peter Barbella, John Cavallone and Pasquale Cirullo. It includes the ability to search Civil Records (1866-1910) and parish records from the church San Giovanni Evangelista (1644-1945), and comprise baptismal, marital, and death records. These spreadsheets can be found here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1u8rh2ejfQDn2dftkrzV0LFZ62S_rPjlcJRBOO-DVHj8/edit#
I encourage anyone who visits the website to read the introduction before delving into the spreadsheets themselves to get an overview of the project.
Once you find the record you are searching by using the above spreadsheets, you can then use that record number to look at the actual image here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1eH0khXruRTOGJkaTfw8HD4XvYi1pk_Cq
Also among this last source are several “census” records – Stati delle anime – for the years 1714-1722, 1735-1744, 1768-1775, and 1814-1815.
This last source has also begun to compile other records for towns in Campania, including Avellino, Benevento, Caserta, and Naples, but the scope of records for these towns at this time is not as extensive as they are for Sassano.
I hope someone can find something useful from among these sources.
Stay well and please continue doing what you do to keep us all connected. Ciao a tutti!
Ciao Maria,
This is wonderful! Thanks so much for sharing it with us!
~ Stephanie