Recently Andy, a 68 yr. old retired businessman from Boston and his wife Nancy, contacted me about finding Andy's mamma's grave in the Sicilian town of Marsala (yes, where the famous wines are made). You see, Andy's mom, Maria Rosa, died young (at 28) when Andy was just a baby; he was then taken to the U.S. by relatives, and Marsala, along with mamma, became something he only heard mentioned at the dinner table. Andy had no photographs or keepsakes from his mother- just an imagination of her. Eventually as we get older, we develop a need to close certain gaps in our lives, resolve certain conflicts, and try to bring issues to closure. As an ex-social worker in Cleveland and now a family history researcher in Sicily, I was more than happy to help Andy with his pilgrimage.

So the quest began. I picked up Andy and Nancy from their hotel in Palermo and we drove to Marsala, a pretty and historic town on the north-west coast of Sicily. We immediately found the cemetery, and since we had the date of death the custodians knew approximately where to look - and so we all looked together. An interesting thing about Italian/Sicilian cemeteries is that most tombs have a picture of the deceased on the tombstone. As we searched, the silence and tension began to build until Nancy froze and called out "I found her!" At that point, we all froze as we became oblivious to everything around us while gazing at the picture of this pretty 28 year old woman - Andy's mamma. Andy slowly approached his mother as the tears began to flow- he than wept openly as the rest of us shared in his emotion. Photos and film clips were taken of Maria Rosa's tombstone and picture, while Andy wept all the while - he finally met his mamma.

I think most Italian Americans, including myself, have a need to discover whatever we can about our family history- to find out more about where we came from, who our ancestors were, and to even learn a little more about ourselves. We may all be Americans or whatever, but we were Italians first.

Emilio Terrazzino is a professional genealogist and tour escort based in Sicily. Please contact him by email or visit his web page for additional information about his services.