Today we traveled to Termini Imerese, the birth place of my great-grandparents on my mother's side. We spent about three hours at the local government office where the records are kept. We were able to find all of the official information about Giuseppe Rinella and his wife Francesca Facone. The most interesting of all of the things that we found out is the fact that my great-grandmother was actually 15 years old when she married Joseph. It seems that she lied about her age and told the parish that she was twenty. Amazingly, we found the very house where she was born. We have copies of all of their official records: birth certificates and their marriage license.
It was quite moving to see my mother stand in front of the house where her Sicilian grandmother was born. We could have spent two to three days in Termini Imerese digging up more information and even some relatives that might be still there, but we needed to move on and visit Palermo in the afternoon.
That's fascinating. Thanks for letting us know what's happening and thanks for the photos.
ReplyDeleteAndrew