I found the naming tradition in both mine and my husbands family.

My mothers family used it so much so..that nobody cant convince me that my grandfather has 2 brothers before him..only, I cant get that information without their names. I tried, because I know what the names should be, but I think whomever opened my letter, in Italy, knew what I was up to. Of course, I had to ballpark the dates. Anyway, I am this certain because once they used up the grandparents names, they started on saints. My grandfather, antonio..was born on june 13...therefore, there HAD to be 2 before him.

Okay - need to do major MAJOR happy dance! YAY!!! Today after I wrote my blog post to be uploaded tonight, I went to the FHL with Valentino (see how we spend Valentine's Day??) - anyway I worked a twelve hour shift overnight but we were there immediately at opening this morning. Spent four hours trolling through films while even the head volunteer John searched through their sites to see if we could begin to find our missing Maria Veneranda. Well as I explained to John it was almost as if Maria V. was upset that we were acknowledging Clorinda - after all poor Maria V. is the first wife and now someone else would obviously be raising her 4 or 5 year old son - our direct ancestry line. We were at five minutes literally to closing time and suddenly - the film showed an index list indicating it had Marriage Banns for 1835 - soooo - John granted me five extra minutes and there it was! The promise to marry - and the notation later by the church that the marriage had indeed taken place - Filippo was getting married and his parents? Raffaele and Maria Veneranda! Better yet the ages, dates, and addresses all match to the other document for Raffaele's second marriage 4 years after Filippo was born in 1814. Interestingly as I track all the addresses, I even find where the family moved into the mother's family house address instead of the paternal house address. Also true - because we know when that took place as sons each took a house! So we were able to prove three complete generations via dates, names, and addresses! And yes - this time I made copies, saved to flash drive -- and have now entered sources in my database!

Congrats on your find. I am sure you are thrilled. I know how excited I get, when I find something. What a great feeling to have on Valentines Day. An extra gift!!

OH Bonnie! That's awesome. It looks like this is a great weekend for finding that missing link.

I have been looking for the names of my great great grandfather's parents for over a year and a half now and have had absolutely no luck. I told Riccardo and her went nuts. Even when our writing away to Italy didn't help and I was ready to give up, he was relentless and finally, on Friday morning he mailed me the marriage act of my great grandparents which gave the names of my Rocco's parents! I couldn't believe it. I don't think I ever remember being so excited in a long time.

And as for spending Valentines Day in the FHL..it doesn't matter where you spent it, as long as you were together and doing something you both enjoy. I spent mine cleaning but now, almost everything is done and I can finally sit down for a few and look through all my files.

Happy dance for Bonnie!

Even bigger happy dance this morning ...next week Val and I are celebrating 32 yr! This has been a rough year with the economy in general, working, grandbaby emergencies, elderly parent crises,etc....but last night combination Valentine's and anniversary we were handed 2 roundtrip tickets to Italy for April!!!!!! I have been fighting crying happy tears even now! We plan just to just sit at the family town and savor family! And of course do research while there.

Wow! that was a great Valentine Day! I'm sure you'll enjoy your trip to Italy!

What a wonderful gift and I'm sure there is no better way to recharge your failing batteries than to sit awhile 'at home' in Italy...

What a pity it is so far from me, or we could have said 'Hello' - but maybe some other time. Just soak up that atmosphere and ENJOY!

What a great present and congratulations on 32 years of marriage!! Enjoy yourselves and enjoy your family in Italy.......happy researching.

OMG..how wonderful! Congrats on both the anniversary and the trip. You must take lots of pictures to share with us.

We already mapped who we want to concentrate on in his mom's familyto break the wall down...we do not know for sure who ggrandfather is..we"think" it is Luigi...and I already warned poor Valentino that I am photgraphing him near all of his haunts from his childhood and then making a slideshow with audio ..both him talking and music background for gifts next Christmas(it will take me that ong to splice and edit I am sure!). Gee...I only have 1 month to pack....let's see...laptop, blank CDs 2 or3 flashdrives, rechhargeable batteries for the digital camera....hmmm how much paperwork should I pack? Val thinks I will leave his clothes home in favor of the tree research !

WOW! Congratulations on 32 years together! In this day and age that is an amazing accomplishment! What an awesome gift! I'm sure you will have lots of fun.

Wow..what a great gift!! Enjoy!!

Awesome news on your trip to Italy and congrats on your 32 years together. It doesn't get any better than that.

Is carbonaro or charcoal maker the same profession as carbonaio or coal dealer? Just curious. Were there coal mines in this village?

You have to love those handwritten documents that show up out of order and blow your mind. I was looking through some film that was supposed to contain pubblicazioni for a period of years. And right smack in the middle of it I found the handwritten death records from 1809-1810. Even the town hall in the comune doesn't have these records. It was a remarkable find.
Donna

Valentino tells me that his owner father also worked making the charcoal - the men would be up in the mountain area, and make the charcoal from wood someway -not sure the particulars, but will try to get more information from family about it. I do know that later years Papa Francesco had lung cancer and that was not uncommom to these fellows.