Cher Hale from the Iceberg Project, a website dedicated to Italian language learning and all things Italian, contacted me recently to do an interview about ORIGINS ITALY, Italian genealogy, and learning Italian as a second language. I was thrilled to speak with Cher and hardly ever need an excuse to chat about Italian family history research or Italy in general! Click here to hear ORIGINS ITALY’s feature on the Iceberg Project Podcast. I hope you enjoy it! Cher Hale does…
World Nutella Day, 5 February 2014, is the official holiday of ORIGINS ITALY! We are celebrating Italy’s favorite hazelnut-chocolate spread today with other Italians around the world. How can you show your love for Nutella today? Here are some suggestions: 1. MANGIATE LA NUTELLA! Eat Nutella! 2. BALLATE! Go ahead, dance! If Nutella makes you happy, express it through some traditional Italian soft shoe. If you don’t know any Italian dances, then just move to the music! 3. FATE OPERE…
The best part of being an Italian genealogist is traveling to Italy on behalf of clients to conduct research using Italian records that are not online, microfilmed or easily accessible from the United States. Being enchanted by the land and its people is an inherent benefit of professional Italian genealogy research. In 2013, I took two trips to Italy spending about three and a half months in beautiful Italia. The more I see of Italy, the more I love this…
(Click here to read “Retracing Noni’s Footsteps – Part 1”) Sometimes one’s family history comes into unexpected convergence with world shaping events. My grandmother Loredana Tedesco (nee’ Stenech) was a young girl living in Rome when World War II broke out. She remained in the city throughout the war. It was a difficult period for the Italian people and for my grandmother. Many lives were lost. Families were disrupted and destroyed. Prior to Rome being declared an “Open City,” buildings…
My grandfather, Edward Tedesco, was born in the small Calabrian community of San Pietro a Maida, Italy. It is an ancient town surrounded by lush green mountains covered with thousands of the most beautiful olive trees you have ever seen. So enchanting is the scenery that you can sit entranced for hours imagining how wonderful life is. But beyond this ambient serenity, few outside the region are aware that from these lovely family groves comes a rare secret olive oil…