The Missing Link

Yesterday I posted a quick start guide for the Antenai.  It’s a great resource, and as I said, the more you use it, the better you get at research and understanding Italian.  I was doing great finding my mom’s family in Bari, there are a lot of records already indexed for many of those towns.  I hit two brick walls on my dad’s family in Naples.  

First the Sorrentino family — Based on the naming convention for Italian children and knowing that my grandparents followed this exactly, I knew that my great grandfather had to be Achille.  Nothing was coming up for him remotely close to that name.

Second the Piromallo Family — Based on the records of noble families, and confirmation from my cousin, I knew that my great grandparents were Nicola Piromallo and Emilia Caracciolo, I was able to find several records for Emilia, but nothing for Nicola and his family that would confirm that I was looking at the right family,

As I searched around on the internet, I came across Bella Italia Genealogy they offer 1 hour free consultation with a guarantee of giving tangible results.  Their fees are quite reasonable and after exchanging and email or two with Alessandro, I decided to take a shot on the 1 hour consultation.  Alessandro sent a few documents that confirmed that they were bonafide researchers so I took the next step and signed up for 10 hours of research for $500.

The first drop of records gave me detail on the Piromallo family that I would not have been able to find.  You can see some of the records below.  The second drop gave me Sorrentino information.  

This is only one small part of what I received.  Bella Italia sent me over 200 pieces of documentation, that later allowed me to continue to research and find more records, based on names included in these two drops that I would have never found on my own.  In addition to record research, Bella Italia also provides tours to meet your distant cousins in Italy and help to get Italian citizenship.