Amazing Discoveries.............

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Thursday May 26, 2011 was a day that had been long in the making. In fact I am not quite sure if the planning didn’t begin many years ago maybe even way back to 1955. As some of you may know Rich is half Irish and half Italian and he really did not know too much about his heritage other than his father’s parents had immigrated to Woburn, Massachusetts before his father was born in 1917. So when we started planning this trip to Italy to show our children their heritage he took on the mission of finding his ancestors. I have to tell you I joked with him quite a bit about the chances of finding anyone that would remember his grandparents that had left in the early 1900’s but he was determined.
He wrote a short note to the town hall of Brienza, Italy about four months before our trip asking for assistance in finding his family. Within a few short weeks he received an email from a gentleman named Nunzio that said he had found some of his family. This is when my suspicion started, I could not imagine that some guy sitting in a town hall in Italy took the time to find some folks in a town of 6,000 that were related to my husband, but I played along. A few weeks went by and he got another email saying “We, have found more family” Abbondanza! Now I was getting really worried. Nunzio said “One of your cousins remembers when he was a child a man came to visit from America with his mother the man’s name was Donald and he was said to be his uncle”. Nunzio asked, Rich if he knew a Donald well folks that was Richard’s father that visited in 1955! So either these folks were great and looking up records or they were really related.
So when Thursday came we were all excited, although somewhat hesitant but we were all up for an adventure. We left the Villa at 8:30am for the three hour drive to Brienza, as you can imagine once again that in itself could be an entire blog the scenery was amazing we were heading into the mountains of Italy further and further away from civilization traveling through tunnels and long lonely roads.
We had been instructed to park in the small town in the parking lot and to call Nunzio upon our arrival. We followed the instructions still feeling somewhat unsure about everything that was about to take place. Nunzio arrived and said your cousin Antonio will be here shortly and before too long Antonio DeLuca arrived. He brought a family tree to show us who he was and how he was related. It turned out that his father and Richard’s father were cousins and their grandfathers were brothers. He had the warmest smile you can imagine, with Nunzio as our interpreter we headed off to see some of the town thinking this was going to be a nice visit and we would see some of the town. None of us knew where we were going but we all followed along. Our first stop was at a small café. We all quenched our thirst and before we knew it, in walked another brother, Pasquale, who also had the warmest smile. Rich was really enjoying himself so I sat back with the kids and watched. As I began to take in what was happening I soon realized that these two brothers both had amazing blue eyes. Mystery solved my two children have blue eyes and for years we have wondered where they came from. We had always surmised since Rich’s Mom was Irish they must have come from her side of the family. It dawned on me at that moment that we had found the recessive gene on Rich’s side of the family and it was ITALIAN!
We now figured that this had been a nice visit and we probably would tour the town a little on our own, but that was not to be. They had planned an entire day for us and our tour began. We met the Mayor of the town and had our picture taken with him, we toured the Town Hall and got family records of births, deaths, matrimony etc. We were quickly finding out that the DeLuca family in Brienza was very well known and much respected. The three brothers, Antonio, Pasquale, and Rafael were all builders and owned a construction company. In the 60’s when jobs were scarce in Italy the brothers went to Switzerland and started a stone company. They learned their trade well and came back to Brienza in the 80’s, married and began a company in their home town. Most of the stone streets, walks, and piazzas in Brienza were built by them.
It was now getting to be around 2:00 in the afternoon and we were all getting a little hungry. Antonio, Pasquale and Nunzio led us to a small restaurant in town we walked in and before we knew it we were joined by another 15 people; sisters, cousins, wives, aunts, uncles, brother in laws just to name a few. As we peeked through the doors to the dining area we saw a long table set for approximately 20 people. This was astounding it seemed they had planned for our arrival for weeks. Before we knew it food started coming out nonstop for 3 hours. I think we all remained with our mouths open. We had wonderful conversations, great wine and endless food. As the meal was coming to an end out came a cake with two flags one of the USA and one of Italy. We told them how thoroughly thankful we were for their hospitality and kindness. We were so honored to be their guests. They hinted that there was plenty more to come.
It was now close to 5pm and we thought they cannot possible think we can eat again! We decided at this point to just enjoy the ride. We had private tours of churches and castles that were still being rebuilt after the earthquake of 30 years ago the craftsmanship was astounding. We could not imagine this ever happening in the US. They are so dedicated to their architecture and history.
To reach the castle we had to walk up many steps, steep inclines, through construction debris, around scaffolding and locked gates to view this amazing piece of architecture that had been standing for centuries. We even walked deep into the basement of the castle to the torture chamber which thankfully was set up with props for an upcoming festival and not really in use, although Jared did get to try them on for size.
By 7pm we were all exhausted and knew we still had a three hour drive ahead of us. Nunzio was still with us as an interpreter and a friend. We were told that we must now visit their homes for more food, wine and more relatives that could not join us during the day. At this point we were really glad that we had planned a pool day at the Villa for Friday.
We drove the short drive to their home which was a three level flat where Pasquale, Antonio and Antonio’s daughter and husband lived. It was beautifully done and they were so proud and honored to share it with us. We had no idea where Talia and Adam were as they had driven with Roseanna Antonio’s daughter and her husband, before we knew it they headed through the door with platters of food! Talia said they had driven all over town picking up food that had been previously ordered, they even stopped for a beer.
We visited with everyone for a little while longer, sharing email addresses and facebook accounts promising to stay in touch. We began to say our good byes and they pleaded with us to stay a little while longer so before we left we visited all the different flats and topped it off with a tour of the basement and the private wine barrel that went from floor to ceiling. Evidently they are also great wine makers!
We drove home and could not stop talking about the amazing day we had experienced, what started out as a shot in the dark turned into a lifelong experience. I can picture my children telling this story to their children and that is just what we had hoped would come out of this journey to Italy.
Beato……….

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Photos

Brienza
Rich, Antonio and Nunzio

Family
Rich and Pasquele

Town Hall
Picture with the Mayor

Lunch
Never Ending Food

Lunch
Cake Joining Two Countries

Church
Renovation

Talia
Oh No

Jared
Yikes

Family
Entire Group

Family Gathering
Night Gathering

Comments

[Larry Callison]

WOW
What a day you must have had! What an awesome experience that must have been for all of you, I can't think of a more interesting way to research the family tree!