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Genealogy

Genealogy Research in Southern Italy

WHAT IS GENEALOGY

Often it is important to know where we come from, for a fuller sense of direction in life, in participating to a larger general design. All those who contributed to our genetical map are in a certain sense still living inside ourselves, wherever their physical existence took place. You may answer many personal questions with a bit of undigging in your family's past, in the history, behaviours, customs that your parents passed on to you, and that you maybe unconsciously are transmitting to your children. There's a special reward when you find something that seemed lost forever, and maybe would, if you had not cared.

From the dusty, crumbling papers of documents people who belong to what you now are come out of the mist of time and look at you silently, affectionately, waiting for you to decipher their stories, rescue them from oblivion and pass their as yet forgotten names and stories on to the next generations.

Genealogy, like all research, needs imagination, that special feeling that there must be something somewhere, and just the right stone must be moved, the right person interviewed, to connect the missing link. But each case is different; nevertheless, just to give a rough idea of the work, energies and knowledge involved, we have developed this introduction. We hope it is useful especially for those of you just beginning to undig your family history. There are some dangers in starting a genealogical research, apart from wasting money, losing yourself in a mass of unconnected data or never finding what you are looking for.

  1. First of all... you MUST know that you can become an addict to genealogy!

  2. Secondly, you'll have to work on it No matter how much you ultimately pay if you entrust a researcher with the archive work, you'll have to work on it hard to assemble, reconstruct and connect.

  3. Thirdly, be ready to say it's enough - You must realize that sooner or later research will stop, because no more records will be available, or expected results very scanty.

  4. Last, but not least... Do not expect to find a Baron waiting for you in the mist of the Middle Ages: the aristocracy was statistically a very small percentage of the population and often a very bad beast, exploiting the blood and sweat of the poor, religious, courageous and illiterate peasants that were the ancestors of most of us. It was them that kept the traditions, wrote the songs, passed on the recipes and for whom the frescoes in the churches were made. Most European aristocracy is extinct, because of genetic faults or psychological weakness, while the great-grandchildren of the "bracciali" and "cafoni" are studying in the colleges, obtaining awards, writing poems, raising beautiful kids that will reach the Moon and Mars and who knows what else.
  1. How to start
    2. A guide to help you along if you are just beginning...

  2. Resources
    3. What can be found in archives in Abruzzo and elsewhere...

  3. Surname lists by commune
    4. Spelling often changed because of emigration - check the lists to be sure

  4. Genealogy Postings
    5. Read (and reply) to thousands of messages categorized by province

  5. Postings Archive
    6. Over 30,000 archived messages categorized by province and searchable

  6. Fees and Estimates
    7. A brief sketch of possible fees and free request estimate

  7. Genealogy links
    8. A List of useful links in connection with Abruzzo and Italy

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