Unintended Consequences

 I've said it before - there are no coincidences in family history! So here is part one of a continuing saga of my Italian ancestors:

A few years ago, as I was serving in our church's temple in Atlanta, Georgia, I felt, rather than heard, my late grandmother say: "What have you done for my people?" (And that's exactly how she would have said that!) Well, Italian research is not easy. Although Italian culture stretches back thousands of years, Italy as a nation was not unified until 1861. Before that time, records are primarily found in the Catholic Church. I did have a great deal of success back in the late 1970s by writing to the local mayor in Cento, in the Province of Ferrara. But beyond that, I haven't researched much more than that. On paper, my surnames from Italy are: Guidetti, Fortini, Tassinari, Campana and Tosi. So I set that thought on the back burner and continued research on the other branches of our family's tree.

Just after last Christmas last year, I came across an envelope of my Gramie's newspaper clippings. As I sorted through them to determine their genealogical value, I found the obituary of her first cousin's husband, Humbert Pirani. He married Lucy Guidetti, daughter of Umberto and Louisa (Ardizzoni) Guidetti. 

I added Humbert to my familysearch tree, and as I usually do with new relatives, added him to my ancestry tree as well. Boy, did that make the green leaves bloom! I finally created a separate tree in ancestry just for Humbert and his family. Now I have over 2,000 names in that tree!

A few interesting developments have come from building Humbert's family tree:

• There are many other surnames in my DNA match list beyond the names on my paper tree, and many appear in the Pirani tree: Balboni, Breveglieri, Tangerini, Cavicchi, Gallerani, Ferrari, Pacheco and Barbieri. 
• One of my great-grandmother's brother came to Massachusetts, a previously unknown fact.
• Often on pages of documents relating to the Pirani tree, I would find names from my own tree. Now to connect the dots and see how they relate to me.
• One of my best friends in high school was Donna Marzilli. That name shows up in the Pirani tree.
• I have a good friend whose last name is St. Onge. He's from Haverhill, MA. Some of Humbert's relatives married St. Onges.
• Recently I was given the wedding guest book of my great-aunt's wedding in 1937. Helen Dorothy Smith was my grandfather Edmund Smith's sister. She married Amerigo James Guidetti. His sister Mary married Edmund. Confused yet? But in the wedding guest book I found more linked surnames from the Pirani tree: Gallerani, Ferrari, Baldi, Malaguti, Alberghini and Bergonzoni.
• I've always known that Ferruccio Lamborghini was also born in Cento. Now the Lamborghini name appears in the Pirani tree ten times!

One of the best things about this research has been learning more about my own Italian ancestors. It seems that the vast majority of the Italian immigrants who came to Plymouth as my great-grandparents did worked for the Plymouth Cordage Company. I was able to visit the museum at the former building while we were in Massachusetts last summer. I learned how it was that so many of the people from the Province of Ferrara came to Plymouth. 

So like Forrest Gump's box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get! Stay tuned...