Early in July, I wrote a piece on My True Ancestry.  Here’s an update since I did the upgrade to King, which adds some extra features.  First it gives you a chart that shows your DNA in relation to ancient and current DNA populations.  Second, you can create custom timeline charts.  They do offer a free trial where you can upload your GED from various other companies. Explore your Ancient past using your DNA…   Ancient DNA – Real History 5000 years of history at your fingertips – compare yourself to thousands of ancient DNA samplesfrom real archaeological sites!   Compare yourself with ancient people Direct analysis – find your ancient relatives. Perform DNA breakdowns of 250+ ancient peoples, modern nationalities and ethnicities Here’s  a link to the first post.  My True Ancestry Review. Click here to join our Facebook Group PCA (Principal Component Analysis) is a statistical procedure that lets you visualize relationships in sets of data.It is ideally suited for visualizing genetic distance and relatedness among samples and populations. Your DNA is the red star.Ancient samples appear as dark blue crosses.Modern populations appear as light blue circles.   You can also create custom time lines based on time periods, sample data and CM’s. Here are mine from 3 different time periods.  Based on my dad’s maternal grandmother’s family, which I have been able to trace back to around 500 AD pretty confidently, these all make sense. 5000 BC to 40 BC 40 BC to 1015 AD 1064 AD to 2019 AD These are some answers from My True Ancestry FAQ’s. Samples are retrieved from archaelogical digs (e.g. a tooth from human remains) and the DNA is scanned in a complex process aligning the data with the human genome. Samples which are of high quality can then be processed as Ancient DNA samples. By combining the latest archaeogenetic techniques with powerful admixture algorithms and cloud computing, MyTrueAncestry can accurately compare anyone with a wide variety of Ancient DNA samples. Via data triangulation and clustering, one can be categorized and compared with ancestors separated by thousands of years. Unlike other companies which try to cater to target audiences pre-conceptions about their identity, MyTrueAncestry focuses in accurately determing one’s closest match based on tens of thousands of data samples.  

The featured photo above looks like a Duomo but no, it’s The Gesu Church. The entry to the University campus in Napoli. Reasons for Dual Citizenship Ciao amici ! I’m happy to report I received much positive feedback on the last blog about why I moved to Salerno Italy.  Thank you all, and especially to those of you who are interested in obtaining your Dual Citizenship (herein referred to as DC, because, well,  I’m lazy…and those extra keys really zap me of all my energy in this heat).  Everyone has a different and personal reason for wanting their DC.  Some want it for the emotional and sentimental attachment to their ancestors who they may or may not have known.  Some for practical reasons like, their retirement funds are not going to last very long in the States unless they move to Florida, eat dinner at 4:00 and start wearing white belts with matching white shoes (and those are the men).  Some of them are fed up with the medical system with astronomically high rates for an unexpected day in the hospital.   But, as my very wise friend Greg said, “it’s more important to move towards something, than away from something.”  So even though I did list many negative reasons for leaving, I also wanted to move towards a very personal dream I had for decades.   I have been blessed with so many wise friends, but the one who left the biggest impression on me was my Renaissance friend Ed, who is no longer with us.  One of his many dreams/accomplishments was to live in Paris part of the year, which he did.  He told me that on his deathbed he never wanted to regret the things he did, but the things he DIDN’T do.  That always stuck with me.,,,that and this visceral desire to live in my ancestral country.   Through my mother’s heartfelt stories of living in Abruzzo from the time I was a little girl, I fell in love with her hometown, Caramanico Terme.  Although she loved America, I can now understand why she told her stories to me with such a wistful look on her face. She was forced to abandon her life in Italy because of crazy political dictators who threatened her safety and that of her family.  World War II took away her dreams for the future.  But she never forgot her sensory memories of the first eighteen years of her life, which she thankfully passed on to me. But I digress… Click here to join Italian Genealogy Group on Facebook Patience, Focus and $$ Whatever your reasons are for possibly wanting to or thinking of obtaining your DC, three things you need off the top of my head:  patience, focus, and a few thousand dollars, depending on how many prior generations you need to obtain documents. Then, you need to go to your State’s Italian Consulate website. (I can only speak from my experience with the Italian Consulate in Los Angeles.  You can also obtain your DC with other European countries of your ancestry-Irish, German, whatever, whose immigration laws most likely are different). This website was invaluable to me because it spelled out very clearly whether I was eligible for DC, and what documents were needed. I thought for sure I could obtain mine through my mother, but I was wrong…because by the time I was born, she was already a U.S. citizen. So I looked to my father’s side and by the time he was born in NY, his father was not yet a US citizen. Lucky me.   And so the process began.  I was eligible through jure sanguine, which simply means through the bloodline. Because I went back two generations (parents and grandparents), I needed approximately fifty documents.  Mamma mia!  These included birth, death, marriage, naturalization for paternal grandparents and my parents, baptismal (for me-don’t ask=I had to revise my birth certificate to match my passport-that was a nightmare), translations on all American documents, an Apostile for all the American documents (this is just a certification that the information is legal and correct).  There are also forms to fill out from the website for your appointment.  I also had a problem with my grandfather’s dates of birth and marriage (another don’t ask) and these needed to be substantiated with help from an LA immigration lawyer and the State of N.Y.  My cousin Gianrufo in Caiazzo was a tremendous help in obtaining my grandparents’ docs-mille grazie Gianrufo!! Once you obtain all these ORIGINAL documents either through your family or through a service who will research and obtain your documents for you through church records and/or the commune of the city or town your ancestor came from, you need to go to your Consulate to present all your hard work.  BUT THIS CANNOT BE DONE WITHOUT AN APPOINTMENT. FIRST I WOULD RECOMMEND THAT YOU CALL THE NUMBER ON THE WEBSITE TO MAKE AN APPOINTMENT TO PRESENT ALL YOUR DOCUMENTS.  THIS APPOINTMENT MIGHT NOT BE AVAILABALE FOR A YEAR OR MORE AS WAS THE CASE IN LOS ANGELES.  SO IF YOU MAKE THE APPOINTMENT YOU HAVE ALL THAT TIME TO GET YOUR DOCS IN ORDER (NO PUN INTENDED).  YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR THE CALL (mine cost about $30.00), BUT I RECOMMEND DOING THIS BEFORE YOU START THE PROCESS OF OBTAINING THE DOCS.  IF YOU FIND YOU NEED MORE TIME FOR THE APPOINTMENT, YOU CAN ALWAYS CHANGE IT ON THE CONSULATE WEBSITE.  NO CHARGE.  My appointment was a year out.  I couldn’t believe it because all my documents were ready. Your situation might be easier than mine.  Maybe you have only one generation to go back to or maybe your family in the States has some of the original docs.  I had no original documents and had to start from square one in New York and Italy, which was very time consuming. And then you wait.  And wait. And wait some more. After three months, I thought for sure I’d be receiving it any day.   I then began to follow up with emails, phone calls and more emails and more phone calls.  I begged, I pleaded for any information they might have as to the status of my DC.  We know nothing, they kept saying.  Your paperwork is in Rome.  (I thought of hiring a thug, but…. Instead at the six-month mark, I hired an attorney… they couldn’t help but knew of an attorney in Rome who specializes in these cases.  Did I want his number. DUH. Ultimately, you guessed it…no luck.  So I put it out of my mind for a while, and then just decided to start de-cluttering my place and strategizing THE MOVE. After I took her picture she shooed me away. I was supposed to drop money before the photo, not after. Padre Pio is very popular in the south, to say the least. Don’t be discouraged If you were able to read all the above without getting too terribly discouraged, I suggest you take it in parts.  It’s a lot less daunting that way.  Make the appointment, make a list of what you have to do.  I know someone who put it all on a spreadsheet, but that was way to hi-tech for me.  The information-gathering process became a kind of game for me.  I became a woman obsessed.  I’d like to say too obsessed where I stopped eating, but I always draw the line at food.  I really did stay very focused and was so grateful to anyone either online or on the phone who was able to help in any way.   As I was planning my exit from Los Angeles, as crazed as I became over all the details, eventually I realized I still hadn’t received the DC.  This affected what kind of plane ticket to purchase-one way or round trip, which clothes to pack and for how many seasons.  It affected how many months of prescriptions I might need, and most importantly, how long do I book the airbnb – for my three-month tourist visa or longer??  It was now around December.  What to do.  Hmmm.  I decided to stop being a control freak and to forget about the DC.  Make a one-way reservation, pack for three months, (a few winter clothes, mostly spring and a few summer pieces in case it got hot early.)  The airbnb I chose was available for three months-lucky me.  Everything was starting to fall into place once I let go of trying to control the things I had no control over.   So now I’ve arrived, I’m living and loving my new home, my new city, my Italian school and all my excursions to the Amalfi Coast and other nearby beautiful locations.  Two months pass and I realized I don’t know what my future holds (does anyone really?)  Where is this  damn DC already.   I learned about a patronato, which is a person who can help with legal and other issues for immigrants at no charge.  I found one subito, who unfortunately was not able to get the information locally.  I consulted with a local attorney who told me I could get my visa stamped in the UK to stay legally in Italy for another three months, but it was too complicated.  Not to be discouraged, I went to another Commune office in Salerno, and after waiting a couple of hours was told that the papers are in Rome, they couldn’t help me.  I’ve now got about three weeks till my tourist visa expires and I’m really getting nervous.  I plan to go to Rome to see if I can force my way into the appropriate office wearing a tasteful but low-cut blouse.  The patronato gave me all the contact information and I make a plan for the following week.   In the meantime, I’m wondering, where am I going to go for the three months that I have to be out of the European Union?  I didn’t want to return to the States because my Italian skills were progressing (my verbs moved into past and imperfect tenses) and I didn’t want to lose all my hard work.  One of the Swiss students at school told me about Ticino, Switzerland, which is an Italian-speaking area in Switzerland near Lago Maggiore, bordering Italy.  I frantically try to find a place to live that’s not going to break the budget.  Good luck to me because all of Switzerland is extremely expensive.  Not to mention that I got differing views on whether or not Switzerland is in the EU.  Mamma mia!  Every day was another adventure.  OK, so maybe I’ll go back to the States, but where?  This starts a whole new panic.  And then the miracle happened about a week before I was planning to leave Italy.  My DC comes through in an email.  I was so excited, I couldn’t believe it and had to read the email several times to make sure I was reading it correctly.   Living it up in Salerno I was walking on air for a couple of days and telling anyone who would listen to my broken Italian of my new status.  Within a day or two, I had to go to the Commune in Caiazzo (which is near Caserta, which is near Naples) to get my Codice Fiscale, Italy’s version of a social security number.  Success!  It didn’t take all day.  My cousin Gianrufo was kind enough to help me throughout the process of getting the necessary documents for my grandparents and now was part of the final stretch.  We celebrated by going for lunch and having the best pizza in town.  My Italian citizenship has changed my perspective on Italy overnight. I now look around my city to see how I fit in.  Do I look American or more Italian now 🙂  I feel more of a sense of stability, like I can plan a little bit more for the future.  I joined a gym, I’m in the process of starting a book club, I was invited to an international cultural group of people who want to brush up on their English and enjoy lectures and art events in English, I’m still trying to finish my online certification course for teaching ESL here in Salerno.  I was lucky enough to meet Gary and Bill from Little Rock, Arkansas who have become good friends and can also recite their favorite Seinfeld quotes.  It doesn’t get any better than that.  I hope this incredibly long dispatch was helpful and maybe even inspirational to those of you straddling the ‘should I or shouldn’t I do this already’ line.  Please feel free to comment, ask questions and definitely share with your friends.  Salerno is a great place to start out if you want to make the Big Move but don’t know where to start.  Plus, selfishly speaking I need to increase my social circle. On that happy high note, I’ll include some photos of another day trip to Naples, a dinner in Maiori on the Amalfi Coast, another photo of Nutella for relative comparisons, a terrible video I took of artist Bill Pappaleo creating a piece to some avant-garde music (very cool) from my new English speaking cultural group, and a slightly better video from a little fishing town called Cetara (famous for anchovies) on the feastday of San Pietro Apostolo.  Specially-chosen devoted parishioners carried around the statue, hopping not walking, and then dipped themselves and the statue into the water three times (ankle deep), walking backwards towards the beach each time. After prayers over the statue and some singing (them not me), we returned to our blankets on the beach for the best fireworks I think I’ve ever seen (at midnight-but why is everything so late here )-we ate our goodies from town-no anchovies for me, thank you very much. My first festa- I was definitely feeling a little more Italian that night.  Stay tuned for more blogs on dating, food, miscommunication, stupid superstitions, beach atrocities and other odd observations in my new homeland. Ciao for now, amici !      At the top of the convent. Naples, Salerno and Amalfi Coast This emblem has the Fleur di Lis which is the symbol for Florence. However the French ruled Naples for 200 years. This is unbelievable. Pastries with Rum. I thought the two points in the middle were Madonna’s famous bra from a tour. Once again, wrong. Mt. Vesuvius in all its pastry glory. And this was a surprise in the metropolitana subway. Mosaic lighting! Best fireworks ever. Carrying the statue to the beach. Cetera, before showtime. Bill Papaleo, American artist and Salerno resident, painting to some very contemporary beyond jazz-type music. Look closer at this façade of S. Gesu chiesa in Napoli. Penance takes on a whole new meaning And that moon kept following us around town. When I took this photo, I was thinking of the scary movies I’ve seen with the solitary car in the isolated parking lot. Danger ahead😳 But not this night. Tranquil and delicious as it can get in the Amalfi Coast. Two ceiling frescoes in the commune (city hall). I would go in person to pay a parking ticket if I could look at these beauties. Another fresco Archival books and manuscripts inside the cloistered library. The ceramic-designed courtyard in a Napoli convent. Fine Italian design does not stop at toilet bowl cleaners. This from the museum bathroom. I 💋l’Italia ! Guarda la luna! Who remembers that movie? … yes…Moonstruck. The grandfather walking the dogs. Anyway, this is in the sweet little town of Maiori on the Amalfi coast…the day after the lunar eclipse. Fyi…the Italian word lunatico means a goofy/crazy person. A man without a name… a pop up exhibit on loan from the Naples Museum of Archeology. And in our very own Salerno piazza! Short video of Bill Pappaleo painting to some eclectic vibes.

Click here to Join Italian Genealogy Group on Facebook So far I have found twenty-two saints that are direct ancestors of Maria Caracciolo Di Torchiarolo.   Saint Louis is her 18th great grandfather and my 21st great grandfather as indicated in the chart at the bottom of the page. Louis IX, also called Saint Louis, (born April 25, 1214, Poissy, France—died August 25, 1270, near Tunis [now in Tunisia]; canonized August 11, 1297, feast day August 25), king of France from 1226 to 1270, the most popular of the Capetian monarchs. He led the Seventh Crusade to the Holy Land in 1248–50 and died on another Crusade to Tunisia. Louis was the fourth child of King Louis VIII and his queen, Blanche of Castile, but, since the first three died at an early age, Louis, who was to have seven more brothers and sisters, became heir to the throne. He was raised with particular care by his parents, especially his mother. Experienced horsemen taught him riding and the fine points of hunting. Tutors taught him biblical history, geography, and ancient literature. His mother instructed him in religion herself and educated him as a sincere, unbigoted Christian. Louis was a boisterous adolescent, occasionally seized by fits of temper, which he made efforts to control. When his father succeeded Philip II Augustus in 1223, the long struggle between the Capetian dynasty and the Plantagenets of England (who still had vast holdings in France) was still not settled, but there was a temporary lull, since the English king, Henry III, was in no position to resume the war. In the south of France the Albigensian heretics, who were in revolt against both church and state, had not been brought under control. Finally, there was ferment and the threat of revolt among the great nobles, who had been kept in line by the firm hand of Philip Augustus. Louis VIII managed to bring these external and internal conflicts to an end. In 1226 Louis VIII turned his attention to quelling the Albigensian revolt, but he unfortunately died at Montpensier on November 8, 1226, on returning from a victorious expedition. Louis IX, who was not yet 13, became king under the regency of his redoubtable mother. The queen mother’s first concern was to take Louis to Reims to be crowned. Many of the most powerful nobles refrained from participating in the ceremony, but Blanche was not a woman to be discouraged by adversity. While continuing her son’s education, she vigorously attacked the rebellious barons, particularly Hugh of Lusignan and Peter of Dreux (Pierre Mauclerc), duke of Brittany. Without support from King Henry III of England, the baronial coalition collapsed, and the Treaty of Vendôme gave Blanche a brief respite. She took advantage of it to put an end to the Albigensian revolt. Louis’s troops were sent into Languedoc, where they forced Raymond VII, count of Toulouse, to concede defeat. On April 11, 1229, the king imposed the Treaty of Paris on Raymond, in accordance with the terms of which Raymond’s daughter was to marry the king’s brother Alphonse, and, after their deaths, all of Languedoc would revert to the royal domain. As a political debut it was a magnificent success. When the students at the University of Paris revolted for a trivial reason, Louis, on his mother’s advice, closed the university and ordered the students and professors to disperse, thereby strengthening the royal authority. The problem of the Plantagenet holdings in France remained. Supported by Peter of Dreux, Henry III landed in Brittany and attempted an expedition in the west of France. Louis IX, though only 15, personally commanded the troops. He ordered the château at Angers to be rebuilt and pushed toward Nantes, where Henry was based. There was not even a battle, for, after a futile ride to Bordeaux, Henry withdrew. Truces were renewed, and Peter of Dreux submitted to Louis’s authority. When Blanche laid down the reins of government in 1234, the kingdom was temporarily at peace. Louis IX could now think about marriage. He was a splendid knight whose kindness and engaging manner made him popular. And he was a just king: although he exacted what was due him, he had no wish to wrong anyone, from the lowest peasant to the richest vassal. He often administered justice personally, either in the great hall of the Palais de la Cité, which he later endowed with a magnificent chapel, or in his Vincennes manor, where he assembled his subjects at the foot of an oak, a scene often recalled by his biographer Jean de Joinville, the seneschal of Champagne. He was also a pious king, the protector of the church and friend of those in holy orders. In 1228 he founded the noted abbey of Royaumont. Although respectful of the pope, he staunchly resisted unreasonable papal demands and protected his clergy. Blanche had selected Margaret, daughter of Raymond Berenger IV, the count of Provence, as Louis’s wife. The marriage was celebrated at Sens, May 29, 1234, and Louis showed himself to be an eager and ardent husband, which made Blanche intensely jealous of her daughter-in-law. Louis and Margaret had 11 children. After subduing Thibaut of Champagne, Louis IX had to set out again for Aquitaine. This time the rebel was Hugh of Lusignan, who had married the widowed mother of Henry III. Once again Henry descended on the Continent, this time at Royan, with a powerful force. The majority of the nobles in the west of France united with him. An almost bloodless encounter at the bridge of Taillebourg in 1242 resulted in defeat for the English, and Henry returned to London. After his victory over the English, Louis IX fell seriously ill with a form of malaria at Pontoise-lés-Noyon. It was then, in December 1244, that he decided to take up the cross and go to free the Holy Land, despite the lack of enthusiasm among his barons and his entourage. The situation in the Holy Land was critical. Jerusalem had fallen into Muslim hands on August 23, 1244, and the armies of the sultan of Egypt had seized Damascus. If aid from the West was not forthcoming, the Christian kingdom of the East would soon collapse. In Europe the times had never been more propitious for a Crusade. There was a respite in the great struggle between the Holy Roman Empire and the papacy; moreover, Louis IX’s forceful attitude toward the Holy Roman emperor, Frederick II, had dampened the latter’s enthusiasm for war. The kingdom of France was at peace, and the barons agreed to accompany their sovereign in the Seventh Crusade. The preparations were long and complex. After entrusting the regency to his mother, Louis IX finally embarked from Aigues-Mortes on August 25, 1248. He took his wife and children with him, since he preferred not to leave the mother and daughter-in-law alone together. His fleet comprised about 100 ships carrying 35,000 men. Louis’s objective was simple: he intended to land in Egypt, seize the principal towns of the country, and use them as hostages to be exchanged for Syrian cities. The beginning was promising. After wintering in Cyprus, the expedition landed near Damietta, Egypt, in June 1249. The king was one of the first to leap onto land, where he planted the oriflamme of St. Denis on Muslim territory. The town and port of Damietta were strongly fortified, but on June 6 Louis IX was able to enter the city. He then pushed on toward Cairo, but the rain-swollen waters of the Nile and its canals stopped him for several months. It was necessary to capture the citadel of Al-Manṣūrah. After several attempts, a pontoon bridge was finally built, and the battle took place on February 8, 1250. The outcome of the struggle was for a long time undecided, and the king’s brother Robert of Artois was killed. Louis finally gained control of the situation through his energy and self-possession. But the army was exhausted. The Nile carried thousands of corpses away from Al-Manṣūrah, and plague struck the survivors. The king had to issue orders for the agonizing retreat toward Damietta. Louis IX, stricken in turn, dragged himself along in the rear guard of his disintegrating force. The Egyptians harassed the fleeing army and finally captured it on April 7, 1250. After long negotiations, the king and his principal barons were freed for a high ransom, and Louis rejoined his wife at Acre. The Crusaders would have preferred to return to France, but the king decided instead to remain. In four years he was to transform a military defeat into a diplomatic success, conclude advantageous alliances, and fortify the Christian cities of Syria. He returned to his kingdom only upon learning of his mother’s death. The saintly Louis enjoyed immense prestige throughout Western Christendom. He took advantage of this to open negotiations for a lasting peace with the English king, Henry III, who had become his brother-in-law. The discussions extended over several years, but the treaty was finally signed in Paris on May 28, 1258. The terms of the treaty were generous with regard to the Plantagenets. Although Louis could have stripped Henry III of all his Continental holdings, he left him Aquitaine and some neighbouring territories. In return, the king of England acknowledged himself to be Louis’s vassal. In Louis’s eyes this was the most important point, for in the 13th century the power of a sovereign was measured less by the extent of his possessions than by the number and importance of his vassals. A just and equitable ruler, Louis also wanted to create goodwill between his children and those of the Plantagenets. The king’s reputation for impartiality was so great that he was often called upon to arbitrate disputes outside France, as he once did in a violent dispute between Henry III and his barons. He took advantage of his authority to reorganize the administration of his kingdom. Some of his officials, profiting by his absence, had abused their power. Louis IX appointed royal investigators charged with correcting abuses on sight and with hearing complaints. Two well-known ordinances, in 1254 and 1256, carefully outlined the duties and responsibilities of officials in the royal domain, and Louis closely supervised their activities. Royal officials were forbidden to frequent taverns or to gamble, and business activities such as the purchase of land or the marriage of their daughters could be carried out only with the king’s consent. Further ordinances forbade prostitution, judicial duels, and ordeal by battle. The king imposed strict penalties on counterfeiting, stabilized the currency, and compelled the circulation of royal coinage. In general, his measures strengthened royal justice and administration and provided a firm base for French commercial growth. Louis should not, however, be portrayed as a stained-glass figure. Like all men, he had faults. He was quick-tempered and sometimes violent, and he had to struggle against his gluttony. He made his decisions alone but knew how to choose wise counsellors, and his sincere piety did not prevent him from curbing the abuses of the clergy, sometimes brutally. The king devoted attention to the arts and to literature. He directed the construction of several buildings in Paris, Vincennes, Saint-Germain, and Corbeil (to house relics of the “True Cross”). He encouraged Vincent of Beauvais, his chaplain, to write the first great encyclopaedia, Speculum majus. During his reign, foreign students and scholars flocked to the University of Paris. The king was very high-spirited. Nothing would be more inaccurate than to imagine him entirely steeped in piety. After meals, he gladly descended into his gardens, surrounded by his intimates, and discussed diverse topics with them. There each one indulged in quodlibet, or in talking about anything that pleased him. Throughout the latter part of his reign, he was obsessed by the memory of the Holy Land, the territory of which was rapidly shrinking before the Muslim advance. In 1269 he decided once again to go to Africa. Perhaps encouraged by his brother Charles of Anjou, he chose Tunisia as the place from which to cut the Islamic world in half. It was a serious mistake for which he must take responsibility, and he eventually had to bear the consequences of it. Ill and weak, he knew that he risked dying there. The expedition landed near Tunis at the beginning of July 1270 and at first won a succession of easy victories. Carthage was taken. But once again plague struck the army, and Louis IX could not withstand it. After having entrusted the future of the kingdom of France to his son Philip, to whom he gave excellent instructions (enseignements), asking him especially to protect and assist the poor, who were the humblest of his subjects, he died in August 1270. The Crusade dissolved, and Louis’s body was brought back to France. All along the way, through Italy, the Alps, Lyon, and Cluny, crowds gathered and knelt as the procession passed. It reached Paris on the eve of Pentecost in 1271. The funeral rites were solemnly performed at Notre-Dame de Paris, and the coffin went to rest in the abbey of Saint-Denis, the tomb of the kings of France. Without awaiting the judgment of the Roman Catholic Church, the people considered Louis IX to be a saint and prayed at his tomb. Pope Boniface VIII canonized Louis IX, the only king of France to be numbered by the Roman Catholic Church among its saints, in 1297. CITATION INFORMATIONARTICLE TITLE: Louis IXWEBSITE NAME: Encyclopaedia BritannicaPUBLISHER: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.DATE PUBLISHED: 21 August 2018

I have found some interesting videos to help you find Italian records.  Some are better than others and some are quite long, but you can usually bounce ahead to something  that interests you. This first video by Ruth Lapioli Merriman, from Family Search is about an hour long.  Ruth goes into how to find records and some really good information on understanding the content.  You can also download the video, slides and course content, plus she gives you hyperlinks to all the sites she references.   A very good resource for beginners.  Great story about Giovanni Martino ( John Martin ), who survived “Custer’s Last Stand”. I can’t preview this one, but click the button and a new window will open. Basic Italian Research These two by Michael Angelini are not quite as polished, but he does give some more detail on how to find the records on Family Search and how to search the Antenati. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziXRp-Aftw8 Click here to Join Italian Genealogy Group on Facebook This video is for records post 1875, that are on a printed form.  Matt explains what to look for and how to index for your own records. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4238IDlZMs This video by Crista Cowan from ancestry.com on how to trace from the US back to Italy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kesi-1ZQJek How to start your Italian research by Margaret Fortier. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6lPsSFVteY

I thought it would make sense to do a DNA comparison across the companies where I sent my data.  I did two tests, Living DNA and Ancestry.com.  I have also sent my data to My Heritage and GED Match.  I may one day try the test at 23 and Me.  You can Hyperlink to any of these sites, to see their deals.  So far I have found that Living DNA gives the best data, and for the same price it gives you full family, mother line and father line.  I also think that they give a better breakdown and you can select 3 ways to view your test.  I have not yet tried to upload data to Nat Geo or Family Tree.  As far as network, Ancestry has the most so far, however I have found several more people by loading data into GED Match and My Heritage.  GED Match is good for finding matches, but their tools are not as robust as some of the others My GED match number is DQ4673189.  I like My Heritage the best for building trees, sharing results and collaborating with others.  My Heritage allows you to invited people via email and allow them access to your tree at no extra charge. As you can see the DNA comparison is a little different, based on their algorithm.  I feel that Ancestry took a step back with their latest update. I also sent my results to My True Ancestry that compares your DNA to that of DNA found in ancient archeological sites.  Pretty neat.  They give you a free sample and you have 48 hours to upgrade.  I have done one upgrade so far and you can see my results below. Living DNA Combined Living DNA Fatherline Living DNA Motherline Click here to join Italian Genealogy on Facebook Ancestry.Com My Heritage