Stories Served Served Around The Table
Around The Table
I have been searching for my Sicilian roots. Tracing my American family line from the dawn of the 20th century is easy. Grandparents and great grandparents arrived in New York with the flood of immigrants. Many stories were told around the family table. From listening, I learned why they left their homeland, who they left… Continue reading A Family Reunion Sicilian Style
Last week I bemoaned the challenges faced in searching for my Sicilian ancestors. Names repeated and tangled into each other, providing generations of the same name. Many Italian-American families, like mine, christened their first-born sons with the paternal grandfather's name. Second born sons were given the maternal grandfather's name, and the third sons wore their… Continue reading Sweet William
I am writing a magical realism series, The Eyes of the Strega, that was inspired by Sicily’s rich history and my mysterious ancestor, Margherita, whose story has been passed down through generations of family women. I have been untangling family legends, names, nicknames, and centuries-old Sicilian traditions. With the help of genealogical documents and a… Continue reading Untangling Names
A search for my maternal great-grandfather's mother, Margherita, pulled me down the genealogy rabbit hole.
Dear Patient Readers, Remember me—the absent writer? I have plenty of excuses—family drama, constant distractions, health issues, and the cat marching across my keyboard and sending the computer into a spiral dive (the W key may never recover). Despite the cat insisting on rubbing against the touch screen monitors and everything else, I am moving… Continue reading The Absent Writer
