A Trip to Moiano

A DAY IN MOIANO, BENEVENTO, CAMPAGNIA, ITALY

A Visit to the home town of my Grandparents

Janice DePalma Simpson

                                                                       June 28, 2012

I have been fortunate in my life to be able to travel extensively, and as part of our journeys, my husband Rich and I found ourselves returning again many times to Italy.  It has been a special place for us because of its beauty, the wonderful Italian people, its fascinating ancient history that is a part of everyday life and of course, the food.   It has been even more meaningful because of my own Italian heritage through my paternal grandparents who immigrated to the United States in 1913.

In all of our previous trips, I never took the time to gather information about where the town my grandparents came from was located.   I knew it was somewhere in the southern part of Italy  near Naples, but never thought it was easily accessible or anywhere near where we had previously traveled.   When we decided to return to Italy this June as part of a Mediterranean cruise with our college alumni group, Naples was listed as one of the port stops.  

I decided to explore where exactly my grandparents’ home town of Moiano was and if it would be possible for us to make a side trip there.   Of course, Naples was a one day stop for our cruise ship, so I thought the chances of Moiano being within our reach for a day trip were slim.    After some online research at MapQuest I found that Moiano was 25 miles from Naples.   Now I knew that Rich and I could actually make such a trip in the time we had in port at Naples.

Our family is fortunate to have third and fourth cousins living in the U.S. who immigrated from Moiano in the 1950's. John Palma from Topeka, Kansas, provided a lot of information that helped me identify specifics needed to make sure I was going to the right area and was also able to identify places in Moiano specific to the Palma family.   He still has immediate relatives in Moiano and has visited many times since he left.

I also went to the web to www.ancestry.com and found a lot of details in census records, ship manifests, military records,etc.   I found the ship’s manifest for my grandparents when they left Naples on November 8, 1913.   The manifest was for a ship named the Ancona which left the Port of Naples, Italy and arrived in Philadelphia on November 23, 1913.   On that manifest were four names of Palma family traveling together with the destination of Waterford Works, New Jersey:  My grandfather Pasquale Palma, age 24; my grandmother Maria Palma, age 20; my aunt Angelamaria Palma, age 1; and Pasqual’s sister Angela Palma, age 19.   The manifest said that the family was from Moiano, Benevento, Campagnia, Italy and their destination was to live in Waterford Works, New Jersey with Pasqual’s brother, Vincenzo Palma.  

Italian Ship Ancona Informtion
Career
Name:	SS Ancona
Owner:	Soc. di Navigazione a Vap. Italia, Genoa.
Port of registry:	Italy
Route:	Naples, Messina, New York
Builder:	Workman, Clark & Co., Ltd, Belfast
Launched:	1908
Maiden voyage:	.
Fate:	Sunk,8 november 1915, off Cap Carbonara,
General characteristics
Tonnage:	8,210 gross register tons (GRT)

   The Italian Passenger Ship Ancona

Information About Moiano from Italian Internet Site
— Comune —
Comune di Moiano
Moiano Location of Moiano in Italy
Coordinates: 41°5′N 14°33′E / 41.083°N 14.55°E / 41.083; 14.55Coordinates: 41°5′N 14°33′E / 41.083°N 14.55°E / 41.083; 14.55
Country	Italy
Region	Campania
Province	Benevento (BN)
Frazioni	Luzzano
Government
• Mayor	Pietro Palma
Area
• Total	20.20 km2 (7.80 sq mi)
Elevation	271 m (889 ft)
Population (Dec. 2004)[1]
• Total	4,115
• Density	200/km2 (530/sq mi)
Demonym	Moianesi
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code	82010
Dialing code	0823
Patron saint	Saint Peter Apostle
Saint day	29 June
Website	Official website

Moiano is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Benevento in the Italian region Campania, located about 40 kilometres (25 mi) northeast of Naples.

______________________________________________________________________________

I began gathering additional information wherever I could find it, including contacting my sister Pamela and first cousins who like me, had memories of talking with our grandparents that gave bits and pieces of information about details of their life before coming to the U.S.    My sister had even “interviewed” our grandmother on tape many years ago.   Some information came from a few of the family, but it was evident none of us knew a great deal about our grandparents experiences in the “old country”.

Basically, what I gathered before our trip was the following:

Pasquale Palma, my grandfather, was born on May 2, 1889 in Moiano, Italy

                His parents were Michele Palma and Angelamaria Iuliucci

                At age 17 he came to the United States for the first time alone in 1906

                                  arriving in New York, New York to live with his brother Vincenzo

                                  in Waterford, New Jersey and apparently stayed about a year.

  He returned to Italy and served for about 3 years in the Italian Army prior to
                    World War I,  apparently at some point in battles at Tripoli.

                After his military service, he returned to Moiano where he married Maria Parrillo, my

                                  grandmother, in 1912.  

Maria Parrillo, my grandmother, was born in 1895 but no exact birthdate can be found.    She also

                 was born in Moiano.     (There has been some confusion about her last name,

                                  whether it was Parrilla or Parrillo, although records found in Moiano verify

                                  Parrillo was the correct maiden name.)

                Her father was John Parrillo.   Her mother’s name is unconfirmed but it is known she died

                                  in childbirth and that our grandmother was raised by a step-mother.  It
                                  does appear her birth mother's first name was Madelyn, but her maiden
                                  name is not clear.

About a year after Pasquale and Maria were married and with a new baby and Pasquale’s 19 year old sister Angela in tow, they went to the Port of Naples and boarded the Ancona for the trip to the Port of Philadelphia.    The trip started November 8 and ended November 23......15 days.

Although the family name on arrival in Philadelphia in 1913 was clearly written as Palma, at some point DePalma became the name of the children in the family.    Census records from 1920 and 1930 clearly record Pasquale and Maria as Palma, although the children began being listed as DePalma at some point.  Even Pasquale’s draft registration in 1942 during World War II show Palma as his name, clearly written in his own hand as seen in documents online.  The same year my father enlisted (1942) and his name was DePalma on his military paperwork.   So it is not clear  how this change in surname was acquired.      

The Visit  to Italy…..

   We arrived in Naples on the Crown Princess

Rich and I arrived at the Port of Naples on the Crown Princess cruise ship at seven a.m. on June 28, 2012.  It was a beautiful clear day looking out from our ship.   The views of Naples with the morning sun enhanced the warm red and orange colors of the city buildings and red tile roofs rising on the hillside.  This scenery set against the blue of the Bay of Naples was mesmerizing.   If I looked off our balcony to the opposite view, I saw Mt. Vesuvius in the distance.

                                                    City of Naples from our Ship Cabin

         
                                                       View of Mt. Vesuvius from the Bay

We hurried to get off the ship at 8:00 a.m. to meet our guide with car we had hired for the day.    We maneuvered our way beyond the tour buses lined up to take ship passengers on day trips to Naples, Sorrento, the Amalfi Coast, Pompeii and Herculaneum.   We walked through a huge modern ship terminal the size of many U.S. airports with people hurrying everywhere to catch not only cruise ships but smaller tour ships going to Capri and other islands as well as ferries coming and going with commuters to the city.  

When we finally walked the entire terminal from the back where we were docked to the front entrance, we saw a young man with our name written on a white piece of cardboard.    He introduced himself with a long Italian name we found almost impossible to pronounce but then said “just call me Ivo”(pronounced EEVO….as he reminded us i in Italian is pronounced e).    He was a very nice gentleman from Naples and we were immediately put at ease with his charming personality and ability to speak English much better than we spoke Italian.   He took us to a nice air-conditioned sedan that was to be our car for the day and plopped me in the front seat next to him so I could see better as we started our journey.

While driving out of the Naples ship terminal, he talked to me about our goals for the day, going to Moiano and visiting the church where the Palma family worshipped and where my grandparents were married.   He already knew a bit of our history as I had been emailing with his company about where we wanted to be driven and what we wanted to see.   As we pulled out of the ship terminal, he drove us by an old building that he said was the original ship terminal where those immigrating to the U.S. in the early 1900’s would have passed through to board their ships.    This was the path my grandparents would have gone through for their trip from Naples to Philadelphia.

                                                       Port of Naples Old Ship Terminal

As we drove through the old part of Naples leaving the ship terminal, we started to see not only the beautiful old part of Naples but the industrial parts which became a huge part of the scenery on the major highway that would take us to the outskirts of Naples.   It took about 30 minutes to get outside the city, and then we started a drive toward a mountainous area and started the climb on narrow two lane roads through towns that looked Medieval.   In fact, in one area between Airola and Moiano, there were castle ruins on a hillside that could be seen.

        Medieval Castle ruins on hillside between Airola and Moiano.

 

We were on winding, narrow roads with continuous small towns running into each other.   These towns were built right up against the road with only a sidewalk between the road and the front of the buildings.....obviously built for days when carts and horses were the transportation.  Behind these towns were steep hillsides covered in grape vines, fields of vegetables, even corn fields, leading up to the base of the mountains.   Ivo said that southern Italians are known as farmers and gardeners.    Everyone grows something if they have access to any land.   They love growing their own wine grapes, flowers, vegetables, and canning and preserving their own food.   This was so reminiscent of the great gardens my grandparents, aunts and uncles as well as my father always had.  

As we drove, Ivo answered questions and gave some history of the area.   This area was originally part of the Roman Empire and in some of the towns we were passing through there are Roman ruins and monuments.    Moiano is only 2 hours from Pompeii and a little over an hour from Hurculaneum, both Roman towns founded before the birth of Christ.   However earlier than that, the Greeks controlled what is now southern Italy.   During the Middle Ages to late 1800's, Naples was a Kingdom with great wealth and was fought over by many invaders due to that wealth.

Ivo also talked about how my grandparents would have traveled in 1913 from Moiano to Naples…..by horse and cart or carriage.   The trip that would take us about an hour by car due to narrow roads and traffic in the small towns would have taken them between 8 and 12 hours by horse and carriage.   While trains would have been available in major cities, small mountain towns like Moiano and its somewhat larger neighbor town Airola would not have been likely to have had train service in the early 1900's.

The towns we passed through as we were winding up into the mountains were quaint, old looking, stucco buildings about two stories in height with upper balconies hung with both blooming flowers and drying laundry.   People were out everywhere, lots of car traffic and old buildings interspersed with gas stations and mini-marts.   It was all so Italy…..

Of course the question came, why did so many Italians immigrate to the U.S., Canada and other places during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s?   This area seemed so beautiful and quaint, why would droves of Italians leave their ancestral home?    Ivo immediately said that Naples and surrounding areas and hill towns like Moiano were originally part of the Kingdom of Naples, a very rich and powerful city/state in the middle ages and beyond.   He said Naples was originally one of the richest areas in Europe because of its ports and shipping, along with wine and food production and stayed that way for a few hundred years until in the 1800’s when it suffered from invading forces.  Eventually the country of Italy as we know it now was formed by unifying many smaller kingdoms/countries that had originally covered the area.   When this happened Naples’ wealth, political power and influence shifted to Rome, which became the capital of the newly formed country. 

The new Italian government was dominated by northerners, and southerners were hurt by high taxes and high protective tariffs on northern industrial goods.   In some of my research I also read that Southern Italy also suffered from a scarcity of cultivatable land, soil erosion and deforestation, and a lack of coal and iron ore needed by industry around that time. 

My research also indicated that natural disasters rocked southern Italy during the early 20th century. Mount Vesuvius erupted and buried a town near Naples. Then Mount Etna erupted. Then in 1908 an earthquake and tidal wave swept through the Strait of Messina between Sicily and the Italian mainland, killing more than 100,000 people in the city of Messina alone.

By the early 1900’s the economy of Naples and its surrounding smaller towns was collapsing.   Jobs were not available, farmers in hill towns like Moiano could not find land to grow, transport and sell their crops, jobs were not to be found in the areas closer to Naples, and unemployment was rampant.   There was not a bright future in sight for young people to earn a living, start a family, or have any resources to support themselves.   Immigration to the U.S.  and Canada became a promising alternative.   Many young Italian men were sent to find work in the U.S. and send funds home to support their family, thinking that the move to the U.S. would be temporary until Italy's economic and political situation improved.

Part of the research on the history of Moiano I had done before leaving home indicated that families would send an oldest son to the U.S. to find work and a place to live and then additional family members would follow.   This would be similar to what appears to have happened in my grandfather’s family, when his older brother Vincenzo came to the U.S. and settled in Waterford, New Jersey.   I haven’t found any information about why Waterford was chosen as a place to settle, however other articles I found indicated that Waterford, New Jersey became a destination for many people from Moiano, and early in the 1900’s Waterford became known as a “little Moiano”.   One can only surmise that as one or more families sent sons to settle in Waterford and they found housing and work, extended family and friends would hear of their success and more would immigrate with the promise of family and friends already settled and waiting in Waterford.    Most of those in our family appear to have gotten initial employment with railroads in the south New Jersey area when they first arrived in the U.S.

     Moiano                     

                                                                          

Moiano City Sign

                                                            One of the main streets in the oldest section of Moiano

A Winter Picture of Moiano I found.

We arrived in Moiano about 9:05 a.m. and Ivo said we should start at city hall to look for records.   I was sort of startled by this as I thought we would drive through the older parts of town, look at the church, San Pietro Apostolo (St. Peter the Apostle) where my grandparents and family had attended for generations, then that might be it for the visit.   Ivo said, no, we are going to find their homes where they lived!   I was doubtful, but he led us into the city offices and asked where the registrar was.   Three offices away down a hall, we entered a dimly lit office that looked on the small side for housing records for a town now of about 5,000 residents (this must count the rural surrounding areas because the town does not appear large).  It had an L-shaped counter at the front and woman at a desk farther back behind the counter.   She was talking non-stop in Italian to a couple who were signing documents of some sort.   She and Ivo talked briefly and then he said she would help us as soon as she finished with the other couple.  

I was not hopeful we would find records in this office.   There were only a few file cabinets, stacks of papers everywhere, and the office didn’t look large enough to hold anything other than a few current records.   I saw no computers of any sort.   In fact, when I had been doing my research originally, I looked for city websites for Moiano and while there is a basic website set up it does not hold much information other than the name of the mayor (Pietro Palma), one or two pictures and a description of the size of the town and location.

When the registrar finished with the other couple, she and Ivo talked in rapid Italian that was totally over my head.   Although I speak and understand a little Italian and took two years of Latin in college that I thought might be helpful, I quickly found I am an incompetent in conversational Italian.   I can read Italian more easily (albeit slowly) because of my Latin classes (my college friends will remember the 7 a.m. four mornings a week Latin classes we endured from Ms. Lewellen our freshman and sophomore years at Baker University).  I also have an extensive background in French, which comes much more naturally to me now than Italian, but neither Latin nor French were helpful when Italians started speaking so fast and with local dialects. 

It began to look as if the registrar was about to search for records for us when everything came to a screeching halt.   Rich and I were confused as the registrar left and went in the next room.   Then Ivo explained it was espresso break time!  The registrar returned with four small cups of the aromatic dark liquid.  Every day the work halts all over the building as fresh small cups of espresso are served to all……employees and visitors!   I can only imagine that this routine is repeated all over Italy daily.  (Ivo also told us that most Italians, especially in smaller towns, still observe siesta, which causes shops and businesses to close between 1:30 and 2:00 p.m. daily and not open again until after 4:00 p.m.  While in Rome a few days before starting the cruise for this visit, siesta was still observed with everything except restaurants and hotels closing for business.   Lunch is serious business in Italy and not to be rushed).

After our espresso break, we returned to business and the registrar, now known to us as Angelina, went to an area behind the L-shaped counter in her office and pulled out a stack of three huge very old looking record books.   These were about two feet by three feet in size and each was engraved on the front with years the records inside.   The old pages were unattached and deteriorating, very yellowed.  Pieces of breaking off paper from pages fell  around on the counter as she sorted through them.  She stated she only has records in her office back to 1700.

                                       Registrar's Book at Moiano City Hall with my Grandfather's Birth Record

                                                                               
As she looked at the books, she picked one and showed it to Ivo……it was for 1850to 1900.   This book and the others were lying loose at her fingertips under the shelving of the L-shaped counter top.    She thumbed through pages looking for May 2, 1889, the date of my grandfather’s birth.   After several minutes she found the hand written record registering his birth.   I asked to take a picture of the book with the page but she would not allow it “privicio” she said….privacy laws would not allow her to let me photograph the book because records of others were recorded on the same page.   She did make a photocopy of it for me and then dutifully cut out the sections not referring to my grandfather before giving me the copy.
                                                          
                                                         Angelina looking for records.

                                                                              

                                                                                      

Ivo immediately looked over this document, because as he could read in the Italian on the page, it gave the names of my grandfather’s parents and the address of their home, the most likely place for my grandfather’s birth.    There it was….parents Michele Palma and Angelamaria Iuliucci Palma residing at Via San Pietro #10.   This was a residence in the Piazza across the street and to the side of the church, San Pietro Apostolo.

More animated conversations between Ivo and Angelina and out comes a record book of the same huge size and ancient look as before where the registration of the marriage of Pasquale Palma and Maria Parrillo is found.   Again a photocopy is made.  

Angelina looked without success for records of my grandmother’s birth.   But then, I told Ivo that my Aunt Mary as she was called in the U.S., was born in Moiano also.    Another huge old record book produced the birth registration of my aunt in her full name, Angelamaria Palma.   On this record, the address of her birth (the residence of my grandparents after their marriage) was written….Via Pietrarola #23.   Down the street and up a small avenue about 2 blocks from the church.

I told Ivo we had imposed enough without an appointment on Angelina and she said she did not think she had anything further that could help with information about my grandmother or her family.   I feel sure that if we could have looked at all the old books in that office for many hours, we could have found much more.   However, I was delighted with our experience and we said our goodbyes to Angelina. 

As we said our goodbyes, Angelina said something to Ivo which he related to Rich and I.   He said that Angelina thought I was from Moiano when I first walked into her office because she said I look like a lot of people in Moiano.   She did not realize I was not from there until Ivo spoke to me in English.  She also said that she knows Palmas currently living in Moiano including Roberto Palma and knows Roberto’s brother John Palma (both of whom are my fourth cousins) , who lives in Topeka, Kansas and returns to Moiano to visit his family there.

                                                                San Pietro Apostolo

We then returned to the car and drove to the oldest part of Moiano where San Pietro Apostolo stands.   A beautiful old church and bell tower in peach and sandstone colors.   It looked very old and we anxiously approached the church steps only to find it locked.    I began taking pictures of the exterior, feeling this might be all we would get to see.   This was the church of my Italian ancestors in Moiano and where my grandparents were married.

      Wall plaque outside the church

     

Ivo began walking down the street talking to residents asking where the Priest lived.   After about 10 minutes, from down another street comes a man running in black trousers and white shirt with a clerical collar.   It was the Priest for the church, Father Valerio.   He told Ivo he had gotten my letter I sent to the church in May discussing my family’s history in Moiano and that my husband and I would like to see the church if it was convenient on the day our ship was in port.   I had told the Priest the day and approximate time we would visit Moiano, and in fact we were there about 10 minutes before the 10:00 a.m. time I had given in my letter.

Father Valerio  was very welcoming and opened the church for us to enter.   On the outside, the church is beautiful but certainly not imposing or overly ornate like many churches we’ve seen in our travels.  I expected that a small town church would also be rather understated on the inside.   I was very wrong.   As the doors opened and our eyes adjusted to the light, we saw before us a smaller version of some of the ornate, artistic and magnificent churches we’ve seen in Europe.   Gorgeous domes with gold detailing, Venetian glass chandeliers, beautiful alters with gold and silver candlesticks and chalices.   Statuary and alters in marble, beautiful stained glass.  A breathtaking small version of what we’ve seen in huge cathedrals.

                                                       Main Sanctuary of San Pietro Apostolo

                            
                                                 
      Main alter area of sanctuary

                       


                                                           Venetian Glass Chandeliers

Marble alter at side of main sanctuary.

                                                             Another view of main sanctuary

The Priest explained with pride the various beautiful features of the church including a baptismal fountain in a separate small area that he said was several hundred years old and would have been used at the time my grandparents were baptized in the church.    He also showed us a large glass rectangle in the main sanctuary floor which covered old stone stairs leading from the floor level of the main part of the church into an area under the main sanctuary.   He produced a flashlight and showed us that below that glass and down the staircase, there were several seats carved into the walls.   During the 1700’s the bodies of town dignitaries would be placed sitting up in the seats after their deaths instead of being buried and their bodies would decay there.   What we could see were piles of bones in each seat.   He also told us that all of the priests from this church were buried under stones in front of the main alter.

                     

                                                                     Baptismal fountain
               
               

I asked Ivo to ask the Priest about something my cousin Joyce had told me about our grandmother.   Apparently, she had talked many times to Joyce about the Black Madonna and a yearly procession she remembered as a child of the statue of the Black Madonna being paraded on a cart through Moiano.   Apparently this was a very vivid memory for my grandmother of her home town in Italy.   The Priest ran into his office near the front entrance of the church and came back with a large, old looking iron key.   He then went to double doors on the right side of the main sanctuary of the church which were covered with iron gates.   He opened the iron gates, pushed open the double doors and there was a smaller chapel, every bit as ornate as the main sanctuary, with a large Black Madonna statue centrally placed in the main alter.   He explained to Ivo that the statue was very old and very revered by the town and many in Italy and the U.S.   On September 8 every year for hundreds of years there has been a procession through town of this statue and a celebration for the Black Madonna who is believed to perform miracles.   I was given a small booklet with pictures and several pages written in Italian to keep which I have yet to translate, but will write more about later when I’ve had time to learn more of the significance of the Black Madonna of Moiano.

                                                                                            Alter of the Black Madonna
                                              

Janice, Ivo and Priest in Chapel of the Black Madonna

Rich, Father Valerio and Janice

More pictures were taken as the Priest showed the many beautiful decorations of the church.   He talked about how many Americans with Italian ancestry today send contributions to support the church and how some of the beautiful statuary and gold were gifts from American descendants of Moiano families.   I asked about the age of the church and the Priest told Ivo the bell tower was built in the 1700’s as an addition to the main sanctuary.   He said he wasn’t sure about the age of the main sanctuary building, but I found information online that said documents were found which referred to the church in 1310.   I am not certain if the current structure is the original or not.

The Priest then took us outside the church and walked to a very old building across the street from the church.   It was grey with peeling stucco and stone archways for entrances along with stone edged window openings on the two story building.   He asked us to come closer to the building and pointed to the keystone over the main arched doorway to the building.   There in the keystone was carved at the top a simple version of a palm tree and below it was carved “Villa Palma 1790”.   Apparently relatives of our family built and still own and reside in this residence.  The palm tree is the Palma family “crest” according to the Priest.

                                                                                Villa Palma

                                             Keystone over doorway which reads "Villa Palma 1790"
                                                           Unfortunately the light, its deteriorated condition and its age
                                                                                                did not make it photograph well.

Like many homes in Italy, it is rather old and run down looking on the outside.   Inside through the main archway entrance, the Priest told Ivo is a beautiful courtyard surrounded by the house and second floor balconies overlooking the courtyard.   No one was there at the time and I am not sure who lives there currently from the family or how they are related to our branch.   However my fourth cousin John Palma who lives in Topeka, Kansas and immigrated from Moiano in the 1950’s when he was in his 20’s and he told me his older brother Roberto lives across the street from the church, so perhaps this is Roberto’s home.   I will check with John about this and write any further information I find.

We re-entered the sanctuary of the church and we made a donation to the Black Madonna and then lit two candles in memory of my grandparents.  We said our goodbyes and thank you to the Priest who hugged me and kissed me on both cheeks.   I tearfully walked out of what I know was such an important place in our family’s history.

Ivo then drove Rich and I to the place where my grandfather’s parents resided across and to the side of the church in the San Pietro Piazza at Via San Pietro #10.   Today in the U.S. we would call the residences a row of townhouses.   They are stone, two story townhouse-like structures with red tile roofs on the second story.   The one that used to be where my great-grandparents and grandfather lived is now a small storefront, but the building is in its original condition and location.  

                                       Via San Pietro #10 (Dark doorway at middle of block)where my
                                                                   grandfather and his parents lived.

Grandfather's family "townhouse" from front (behind trees)

                                                                              
                                                                         

About two blocks away and down a small side street we found Via Pietrarola #23, an apartment building where my grandparents lived the first year of their marriage and where my Aunt Mary (Angelamaria Palma) was born.

                                              Standing in the doorway of where my grandparents\
                                                                   lived the first year of their marriage.   

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Street where my grandparents lived in house above.

                                                                                 

I know my grandmother must have been raised in a home near all of the others.   She told the story of meeting my grandfather because he walked by her home on his way to church and they attended the same church.   It couldn’t have been far away since my grandfather probably walked no further than a block to get to the front door of the church.

                                                          Rich and Ivo on Street with our Car

We took a few more pictures and then Ivo met a man walking nearby who stopped to ask what we were doing and Ivo and he had a conversation.   Rich and I walked up to this man and did a double take.  He looked like my father and my father’s brothers.   He looked to be in his mid-sixties.   He was about the height of my father and his brothers.   He had stark white hair as they did, the rounded face, eyes and body build of the DePalma brothers in their later years.   I told Ivo to tell the man he looked like my father and my father’s brothers.   The man told Ivo his name and said he didn’t have any immediate relatives in the Palma family, but you have to wonder if way back everyone wasn’t related somehow in this town……   He said he knows Roberto Palma and knows where his business is located.   Roberto owns a furniture factory a few miles away and the man volunteered to take us there to meet him.   Unfortunately, we were at the end of the time we had to be in Moiano as we had a cruise ship that would leave with or without us.

I left Moiano amazed at the day we had.   I wish I had more time.   I wish I could speak and read Italian more fluently.   I wish I could have poured over records in those old books myself.  I wish I could have learned more about my ancestors in generations further back.   But overall, I had an amazing day walking in the footsteps of my grandparents.   I owe a lot to Ivo, who encouraged us to pursue more than I thought possible in one day to find.   It was a special day in my life.

   My Grandfather Pasquale and Grandmother Maria on their 50th Wedding Anniversary in 1962

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