Wisdom Wednesday – Blog Your Stories
06 Jul 2011 1 Comment
in Genealogy Research Tags: Chicago genealogy, Chicago Italians, Fratto, genealogy, Iozzo, Tellerino
A genealogy blog is a great way to tell your family stories, talk about your research (including your problems) and connect with family.
In the last nine months or so blogging on my Chicago Family History blog about the Iozzo, Tellerino, and Fratto families, I have connected with several people.
These families are a complicated mess in terms of trying to explain the family tree. Basically we have two men, Fortunato Fratto and Tomaso Fratto (my line). Fortunato and Tomaso came from the same village of Taverna in Italy. Both men came to Chicago. Fortunato is a good 10 years older than Tomaso. Family story is the men are first cousins, but the vital records from Italy do not show that. But there is likely a connection somewhere. To make it more complicated, both Fortunato and Tomaso’s lines married into the Iozzo line. There were four Iozzo brothers and three married into the Fratto family. Tellerino married into Fortunato’s line.
Well about three weeks ago a woman named Rosemarie, a descendant of the Fortunato side, gathered together many of the descendants at a local Italian Beef restaurant. I brought my family and we spent about three hours meeting new distant cousins, looking at old photographs, and sharing information. And did I mention I also confused a lot of people because of the intermarrying and trying to explain which line my husband’s family came from versus the others in attendance?
Yesterday I received a nice card from Rosemarie with some pictures from the get together. She thanked me again for continuing to research and bring so many people together. I think that is one of the biggest reasons I continue to research. It helps bring families together.
The group is planning another meeting, date TBD, but you can be I’ll be there with my computer in tow, some old pictures and more information to share!
Are you sharing your stories and connecting with family? If not, why not?
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- Follow Friday – Official FGS2011 Bloggers (generationsbiz.com)
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Jul 27, 2011 @ 12:20:09
Thanks for the reminder/inspiration for me to have a similar gathering with my paternal line family. My dad is the patriarch of this clan…and is declining in health and stamina at 88 years. So many cousins are spread across the U.S, and rarely get to see each other. I’m not only the family historian…but have connected more often with all the cousins (family resentments and strife;( — hope to get my geneablog up and running soon — will check back on your wonderful family!