I am so happy that I had a small role in this documentary about the emigration from the Italian region Valle d’Aosta to South Africa!
I am very grateful to the film maker Joseph Péaquin for involving me in this amazing job!
Here is the trailer of the documentary, whose preview will be in Aosta on March 14th, 2024.
It all started with serendipity: I was doing genealogical research at the Diocese Archive in Aosta last year and I told the archivist that my Customer’s ancestor emigrated from Valle d’Aosta to South Africa.
The archivist told me that a documentary was going to be made about emigration from that region to South Africa, and that the Producer may have been interested in my Customer’s story.
One year later, both my Customer and I appear in the same video!
Despite my shyness and my absolute embarassment and inadequacy in front of a video camera, it was a great experience!
Don’t miss the other documentary about emigration from Valle d’Aosta to the USA, which was made last year.
Every research job shows new challenges: unknown archives to visit, mysterious families to discover, brand new problems to face.
Every customer pushes me a step forward, allowing me to do new experiences.
But among these, ROBERT SORRENTINO (at Italian Genealogy) is the one who really drives me to do frightening things such as… making a video and post it on YouTube!
If it weren’t for him, you would never hear me speaking and probably never see my face: I am too shy for this sort of things! But Robert was wonderful at guiding me through this unexplored territory made of videos and podcasts, so… THANK YOU ROBERT!
I would never have the courage to do it on my own!
The job he had asked me was the analysis of the will (dated 1760) of an important member of Robert’s aristocratic family: his 6th great uncle Gaspare De Riso.
It was a very interesting document with an enormous amount of info about the family members and their wealth, who allowed Robert to get as deep as knowing the ancestor’s psychology and thoughts.
His was – of course – a lucky situation which is more often to be found among noble people, but if your ancestors were farmers or smiths or even foundlings, do not despair! Perhaps, somewhere there’s a document that tells a lot about them the same. Finding it, it’s just a question of patience… and luck!
If you want to watch our Zoom chat and to learn more about the De Riso will and Robert’s aristocrat family, click on the following links.
And if you have an amazing story to tell about your family, get in touch with Robert: he will be happy to drive you to the world of podcasts as he did for me!
E. G. ANCESTRY RESEARCH 