One of the most interesting things that I learned about this process is really learning my heritage and the culture that a lot of us come from.  There's a lot to talk about in this section, so I'll start with some of the things I learned about old world culture that helped me find information on my ancestors.

Il Duomo

Very Catholic, everybody was Catholic.  Seemingly, every town all around Italy has a main church that everyone goes to called "Il Duomo" which I just learned translates to "The Dome".  "La Chiesa" is the chruch, FYI.  I grew up Catholic as well and reaching back to my childhood I do remember that, even in my own scholastic records, Catholics remember everything.  Only way to do that is keep good records!  

I had a name discrepancy on my GGF and GF birth certificates.  I wanted to make sure that I found some supporting documents to send in with my application just in case.  I figured when my GGGF and GGGM lived in Sant'Aresenio, they most likely went to Parrocchia Santa Maria di Maggiore.  I attempted to get some information on my family.  I went to the post office and got a book of International stamps

Local Catholics

Keeping that ideology in mind, I took that idea to where my family went in the US.  I knew that my GGF grew up 121 E Lutton Street in New Castle, PA (apparently with numerous other people).  I looked on the map for the closest Catholic church that they most likely went to which lo and behold, St. Vitas Cathedral, right down the road!

I Found Their Church!  Now what?

I called a couple times and talked to a couple people asking for information they may be able to share.  At the time I wasn't sure how much information I'd be able to get, if any at all.  I think it was only the second call when the led me to the Diocese of Pittsburgh which had a department just for genealogy.  Here's a link to the wiki that will lead to various diocese to get information, including the Diocese of Pittsburgh.

I believe this solidifies that the documents of the people I submitted were actually those people.  Here's an example of one of the letters I got back:

Naming conventions

I read somewhere that Italians have the reputation of naming their first born after paternal grandpa, and the second born after the maternal grandpa.  I remember saying to myself, "Man, if my family was like that, it would be easier to find names.."  Then I took a gander at my family tree and it is a lot like that!  My paternal grandfather is Joe and his brother was Frank, their paternal grandfather was Francesco, and their maternal grandfather is Joe.  I'm not sure how it works with girl children, but I was the second born of my nuclear family and I'm Frederic named after my maternal grandfather who is also Frederic.  In my case, it's not confirmed and might just be coincidence, but I have seen other people's lines match up like that.  If you're missing a name, you may want to do your searching on familiar familial names.

Everybody Loves Raymond

Also one of my favorite shows, I found a lot of similarities in some of the writing and old world Italian stuff with the distant relatives that they go to see and come and see them.  Although the names don't follow the convention (of course I don't know if Frank & Marie's father's names were Robert and Raymond respectively, then it would!), but then Geoffrey or Micheal, one would be named Frank.

Two of my favorite episodes are the ones where they go to Italy.  There's a lot of rich culture and language from the relative's native speaking to the son's careful speaking.  I should probably make a section just about shows with Italian stuff.  Maybe I'll do that.  Now I'm thinking of Tony Shalhoub's role of Antonio Scarpacci who drove the cab on the show Wings.

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