Project Description
September, 2023
In early 2019, I came across the website for Southern Italy Travel while doing some research into my ancestors. I reached out to them with the information I had and asked them for help.
Mirella Ammirati responded immediately and began work on my family’s history. Fortunately, she was familiar with the area and was able to fill in a lot of blanks for me through her personal research into local and online records.
Fast forward to late September 2023 when we were finally able to make the trip! Mirella met us in the town of my great-grandfather’s birth. She arranged for a tour around the town with a local historian and then we went out for a wonderful lunch filled with regional dishes. After lunch, we met with the young mayor with the same last name as mine and he took us to the ancestral home where all my ancestors were born.
Sitting outside the old house was his uncle who keeps a home across the street in the neighbourhood. He just happened to be visiting at the right time for us to meet him. Mirella explained what was happening and we were welcomed immediately as a family. We shared stories and photos that I brought with me. Mirella acted as an interpreter and discovered a connection to my cousins as well!
It was an amazing day, filled with excitement and many surprises. My ancestral cousin asked us to return the next day so that we could do a road trip around the area. He took us to the town with our surname (distant relatives may have come from there but there are no records that far back), we had a lovely lunch in the countryside and enjoyed local foods and wine before visiting local Roman ruins nearby.
The photos and the memories I have of that day will be with me always. Without Mirella’s help with the language, her access to the old records, and her expertise in navigating the websites necessary to find information, I would not have discovered as much as I did. In addition, she was able to determine that my fourth-great grandfather and my new cousins’ fourth-great grandfather were brothers!
I highly recommend Southern Italy Travel and Mirella Ammirati as an excellent choice for your ancestry search in the old country. I am extremely pleased with the results I received.
Julie Anne Montagano
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
