Hi, I just found you guys. Congratulations on such a fine website. It seems very, very friendly here, I am glad I stumbled onto you people. I recognize many names from the Italian Genealogy website.

I have been doing Italian genealogy for about 5 years now. Mostly I have been looking through civil records on film from the Calabrian towns of Caccuri and San Giovanni in Fiore. I have finished tracing my maternal line back as far as the civil records can take me and I am now in the process of writing it down in a family history. It is such a slow process, I just hope I live to finish it!

Outside of the language that I have picked up reading throught the civil records, I don't know much Italian. I would be very grateful for help from time to time from the experts here. And of course, if there is anything that I can do to help out, I would be glad to pitch in.

Donna

Hi Donna,



It's really nice to have you here with us on "Gente" and you're so right - we are a friendly bunch.

Nothing gives us greater pleasure than being able to help 'newbies' and 'old hands' solve problems and their seemingly baffling puzzles. Among our family we have some really experienced and worldly wise genealogical researchers, and many (like me) who are still a little bit wet behind the ears. So help and advice is available, and on offer to anyone who might need it. The secret is - to ask.

Do tell us a little more about yourself and your quest. We would love to hear all about it.

charliemis wrote:

Welcome Donna --- I am not quite sure where San Giovanni in Fiore is located, but for some reason ome of it's records shared the same reel reel of microfilm with san Giorgio Albanese

Some of the films were done in alphabetical order Charlie...thats why some of my films have Cosenza towns beginning with M.
Welcome Donna!

Hi Donna!

It's nice to see you here. Yes, there are a lot of our friends from IG here. This is where we come to get goofy I guess. I'm glad you like the site and we look forward to having you here with us. Relax, grab a coffee and get silly. You'll be just fine!

Hi Donna and welcome to Gente!! Hope you enjoy being here and if you need help, just post and everyone here is glad to help.

Ciao, Donna!

Welcome, to the Gente family.

Best,
Biff

Benvenuta!

Welcome to Gente .

Thank you all very much for the warm welcome. I really enjoy being here. Props to all of you for making this site so special!

Donna

A couple of you have asked to know a bit more about me and my ties to Calabria. At first I thought that you were probably just being polite but after spending some time here and visiting a few of your regular poster's websites, I have decided that you might actually like to know. So here it is in a nutshell.

I am researching my mother's family who had their origins in Calabria. My father's family is from Abruzzi. I am currently writing a book which traces my matrilineal line back through the following surnames: Oliverio, Bartolo, Iaconis, Manfreda, Dardani and Gigliotti. All from the village of Caccuri. Caccuri is currently in the province of Crotone but until recently it was part of Catanzaro. They speak a variation of the Cosentino diaect there. There is a wonderful website about the town which includes a dictionary of the Caccuri dialect. Here is a link for those of you who are interested:
L'Isola Amena
If you are interested in seeing the dictionary of the dialect, follow the links from "il mio paese" to "Dialetto" to "Dizionario del dialetto". It is the best I have found on the web.

So, there is my nutshell. Thanks for asking!

Donna

Donna,

Here's another dictionary of Calabrian dialect from San Mango d'Aquino. The village is in the province of Catanzaro near the border of the province of Cosenza.
www.sanmango.org/vocab...o/home.asp

Biff

Hi Donna - welcome from another newbie!

Hey Donna,

That is a nice website. As for Cosentino dialect..I have that down to a fine art..Its ALL I know how to speak since my Italian is just horrible. Having Simy come to visit me 4 times I figured I would learn some real Italian and her English, but the only thing that happened was I taught her Calabrese.. But it was still fun!