Hi. I'm helping my best friend find her ancestors in Italy and her family here in the States. I got so excited when I found her grandparents' marriage banns or marriage record that I forgot to introduce myself. *blush*

My real name is Ingrid. I got hooked when I began looking into my own family history and found the gorgeous valley in Norway where my family had lived from the earliest written records to the 1860s when they came to the US.

After listening to my enthusiasm about what I was finding (an 800-year-old church -- originally Catholic -- where my ancestors were Lutheran priests, complete with original paintings *DROOL*), she asked me to help her look into her own family story. My username here is Alma because it's one of her favorite names.

So far we've found that marriage bann or marriage record. We're really excited about what else we may be able to find. We found the bride Lucia's nephews who are still alive here in the US. We're really looking forward to tracking down their father's -- Lucia's brother's -- birth record and sending them a copy. They would be so pleased! It's so nice to find a forum of people who share the excitement of finding our family stories. Thanks for setting up and running Gente di Mare.

Hi Alma/Ingrid.

Welcome to Gente! It's nice to have you here. Hopefully we can help your friend with her search. And please, feel free to post about researching Norwegian ancestry - we could all learn something new.