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My Italian Family |
In 2000 my husband, daughter, sister and I
spent two weeks in Italy. It was my
dream to visit the town where my ancestors came from. My mother thought our ancestors were from a
town called L’Aquila so that is the town we toured on our vacation. We climbed the hills and reveled in the
beauty.
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Visiting Italy |
This was the moment I knew. I just had to make time to research our
family history.
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Grandfather Gilberto 1910 |
I have 7 siblings. My grandfather Gilberto had 14 siblings. Grandpas mother Elvira had 11 siblings and his
father Pietro had 8 siblings. We had so many
family members through out the world and I wanted a way to reach out to them. I knew my connection would be made via the
internet.
In 2010 my husband and I took a trip to
Utah stopping at Salt Lake City and we went into the Family History
Library. I spent a few hours researching
and my head was swimming with ideas about creating a website and building a
family tree. When we returned home I
signed up for an account at Ancestry.com.
I made my first entries with my family names. Soon I had little leaves shaking at me,
enticing me to “click here”. When my
family tree reached about 300 members I purchased the Family Treemaker software
so I could print out reports and get a visual image of how all these people
were connected to me.
Next I set up a WordPress account and
started my blog at www.delprincipefamilytree.com. It was so much fun picking
a template, designing the site, and writing my first story. It’s been almost two years since my first
blog post. Connecting with new family
members has far exceeded my expectations. I love it when I get a new email declaring “I’m a Del Principe too!” I have discovered relatives all across the
world that I never knew I had.
In 2011 I returned to Illinois for a
visit. New family members and I arranged
to meet for the very first time. We
shared photos, documents, and stories. What an amazing day that was. Some of my new cousins and I decided to hire
a researcher to trace our Italian ancestors through Italian documents, a task I
was unable to accomplish since I couldn’t read or speak Italian. I posted the documents and translations on my
website so all our relatives could share in the thrill of the new discoveries.
And the surprises just kept coming. I discovered family members who live in Pescasseroli,
Italy. It turns out that my great
grandparents were born in Pescasseroli, not in L’Aquila. Darn, this could only mean one thing. A return trip to Italy would have to be
scheduled.
Meet the Storyteller - Phyllis Zeck
Phyllis retired from her customer service
job in 2006 after 28 years of service, and like other retirees she is busier than
ever. She lives with her husband in
Portland, Oregon. They have three children who live close by and they are expecting their second grandchild next March. Phyllis has always loved writing. When the world of blogging started to blossom her eyes lit up and she knew right where she was headed! In addition to her obsession with genealogy, Phyllis enjoys reading, scrapbooking, and traveling. You can follow Phyllis on her blog
at www.delprincipefamilytree.com
and you can find her on Facebook by searching for Phyllis Winike Zeck.