Thanks nilesite for the Challenge.  When I think of “Pure energy” in my life (no, this won’t be about babies (really!) I think of the picture that is on top of my Blog.

(But this time I am IN the picture, instead of looking at it from the outside)

The village where my grandfather (Michaelangelo Fastiggi) was born.

I began searching and researching in 1996.  This was about a year or so before Ancestry.Com existed on the internet, as we know it today.  Most of my research was done “by hand”.  Going to (LDS) Family History Centers & the Seattle Branch of the National Archives (lucky me)  looking up info on micro-fiche.  I love the show “Who Do You Think You Are” but get peeved when all these “celebrities” have their own private archivist, walk into a huge library (devoid of any other people) with the exact record from 1685/etc on said celebrities ancestor.  I KNOW how much work it takes to find that info.  But, in remembering my own experience, it was also “Pure energy”.  What an adrenaline rush the first time you see the name of your ancestor in one of those records.

I met others on the Internet whose ancestors were from the same town.  With a population today of 5,042 and in its heyday probably not more than 15,000,  we immediately knew that we were all “cugini” (cousins) and formed an immediate bond.

It wasn’t until 2009 that I met some of my first “cugini” in New York.  Kind of like an OS meet-up, except that we really were family. 

But my dream was to actually see the town.  I had studied it and its history for 14 years.  I had my lineage back to about 1600.

This, to me, was pure energy!

I have written of this trip on Open Salon.

The true highlight was the first night in town, we were asked to meet “Luigi” at a Gelato shop in town, as he wanted to present me (& my cousin from NJ) with our Family Tree.  I wasn’t sure what Luigi was going to show me that I didn’t already know, but we went to the Gelato shop, and there, right there on the street, sat tables and tables of people that (it turned out) were actual people on my family tree.  Actual relatives that I didn’t even know existed.

This was the trip of a Lifetime and culmination of 14 years of research.

This picture was from the window of our apartment on the day we arrived.

All Photos © 2010 Marlene Dunham
Calitri, Avellino, Italia