L'Italo-Americano

L'Italo-Americano Roaming for Treasure: Sicily Memory Roamers Mission to Restore We are so used to casually glancing at people's lives via social media that we don't often t a k e t h e t i m e t o l o o k a n y - more. We rarely track back to see what our lives were like in 2008 on Facebook, let alone consider what our families were doing nine centuries ago or what life was like for our grandpar- ents. However this is the mis- s i o n o f t h e C a t a n i a b a s e d dynamic duo, Orietta Piazza and Loredana Grasso and they even have physical books, bound and fastened together to prove it. Sicily Memory Roamers offi- cially began in 2001 and from the very beginning it was a cul- tural association like no other, working as a tour operator and genealogy business all in one. Though they answer the same questions that have been asked f o r m i l l e n n i a , w h o a m I a n d where do I come from, Orietta and Loredana do far more than j u s t p r o v i d i n g i n f o r m a t i o n , dates, names, places and statis- tics; they link up Americans with their long-lost Sicilian rela- tives and organize once in a life- t i m e f a m i l y r e u n i o n s w i t h unique, personalised tours. T h e y a r e d i f f e r e n t f r o m o n l i n e g e n e a l o g y w e b s i t e s because most of their work is offline. They go off the beaten track into the streets of small villages, rural towns and urban cities. Their information lies behind the doors of neighbours and relations who want to tell more, in the voices of the elderly who have stories that so many of us no longer have the patience to sit through and deep into the h e a r t s o f S i c i l i a n c o m m u n i - ties. Each case is considered THURSDAY, JUNE 25, 2015 www.italoamericano.org 4 ELISABETTA SANTI individually and it takes months to process because of the care that is put into the end results. They do not just draw their information from the archives – b u t f r o m t h e p e o p l e . W h e n asked where their office was b a s e d , O r i a n n a p a s s i o n a t e l y insisted that their office was not in a physical location, but rather with the people: 'Il vero ufficio è negli archivi ma sopratutto per la strada con le persone'. She w e n t o n t o s a y , " T h e m o s t important thing, apart from the archives, is to talk to people…to go personally and directly to the small towns and speak to peo- ple." One of the most beautiful things that Loredana and Orietta p r o v i d e i s a M e m o r y B o o k . U n l i k e t h e e n d l e s s d i g i t a l archive that is Facebook, it is "sempre personalizzato, sempre d i v e r s o . " H a n d m a d e , h a n d crafted and bound in leather, it contains all of the information that they have meticulously and lovingly compiled. It contains information, gleaned from the official archives, but also "la storia vera e propria" - personal a n e c d o t e s , t o l d i n S i c i l i a n dialect and then translated about the family that has been found. It also includes a section on the name of the family and its sig- nificance, its origin and the vari- ous nicknames or 'ngiuria the family were known to have. T h e d u o o f t e n f i n d t h e m - selves carefully leafing through ancient church records, because town archives only go as far b a c k a s 1 8 2 0 . T h e s e a r e often "libroni ammuffiti, scritti in latino, scritti a mano, non in ordine alfabetico per cui bisogna andare foglio per foglio." They are also arranged by first name rather than last name, so one must go page by page to find the name they are looking for. No mean feat when there are reams of Salvatore's, Antonio's and Giuseppe's to sort through. T h i s i s t h e w a y i n w h i c h Orietta and Loredana operate – going page by page through a person's ancestry until they find the treasure they are seeking; the furthest back they have gone is 1450. They do not give up, and look forward to the moment that makes all the work worthwhile: reuniting people. When asked w h a t i t ' s l i k e w h e n t h e American and Sicilian families meet, Orietta answers: "It's a very, very emotional moment…they become family immediately. It's very emotion- al for us too. We find ourselves i n t h a t m o m e n t t r a n s l a t i n g between languages and emotion. And all the while everyone is crying, everyone is looking at each other, everyone looks like each other. And they're taking pictures. It's beautiful. Seriously beautiful." Aside from the positive expe- r i e n c e t h a t S i c i l y M e m o r y Roamers provide and the peace, reconciliation, unity and closure that their research delivers, they remind us of an important les- son. "La cosa più importante… è p a r l a r e c o n l e p e r s o n e " t h e importance of staying connect- ed. We are all intrinsically wired t o y e a r n f o r c o n n e c t e d n e s s , hence why we are so eager to join up to social networks in the first place. However it's the talk- ing, the face to face, body next to body interaction that opens the gates to real truth and civili- sation – this is the connection that leads us to internal resolu- tion. It's only by talking to people that we can really find out who we are. Sicily Memory Roamers offi- cial website: http://www.sicily- genealogytour.com Orietta Piazza and Loredana Grasso, founders of Sicily Memory Roamers, link up Americans with their long-lost Sicilian relatives and organize once in a life-time family reunions with unique, personalised tours Browsing church archives

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