Northern Italy - The Motherland

We just got back from a wonderful 10 day trip to northern Italy and Switzerland. We went primarily to visit our good friends the Price's who live in Zurich, but while we were there we visited the two towns my great-grandparents were born in. My great-grandpa left Dro, Trento, Italy right before the first World War, trying to avoid being enlisted in the army. He moved to Nevada City, California and became a gold miner. There he met two men from a little town only 10 miles from where he was from: Pomerolo, Trento, Italy. They told him they had a sister back home who wanted very much to come to the United States as well. My great-grandpa told them to bring her over and they'd get hitched! And so came my great-grandma to Nevada City. My family has been there ever since. We visited Dro first. My great-grandfather's last name was Benuzzi and we hoped to perhaps meet some Benuzzi's while we were there. My great-grandpa had 6 sisters, but all died young. Only one survived to 23 and was actually married and had a little girl before she died. We know this girl immigrated to Mexico though, so there are no close relatives still living in Dro. Only my great-grandpa's father remained in Dro when he left. He owned a farm, which was left to my great-grandpa. When great-grandpa died his cousin asked my great-grandma to deed him the farm, which she did. We hoped to be able to find the farm, but sadly could not track it down. I imagine it looked something like this one we saw in Dro though. Maybe this was it!

On our drive out to Dro we passed by the beautiful Lake Guarda. It is HUGE and gorgeous. It was fun to imagine my ancestors going there for holiday. It's not too far from where they are from. When we got into Dro I was amazed by how beautiful it is. It's a very small town, only about 2500 people living there. The first thing we did once we got into town was head to the church. It was built in the 1820s and I know my great-grandpa was baptized there and served as an alter boy.This past summer I did a lot of genealogy up in Salt Lake at the Family History Center. Most of my research was done with the microfilmed records that came from the church in Dro. How the LDS Church has all the birth, marriage and death records back to the 1500s from a TINY town in northern Italy baffles me. What an amazing work we are engaged in! Seeing the church where all the records I researched came from, where all MY ancestors went for the major events of there lives was awesome. We met a Priest who only spoke Italian and kindly helped answer a few questions for us. When I asked him if there were any surviving Benuzzi's in the town he said, "Molti! Molti!" At first I was thinking that meant they are all dead (muerto is dead in Spanish) but then I realized he was saying many. Apparently half the town are Benuzzi's. Crazy! After the Church we wandered around town and looked for the cemetery. We asked 3 ladies on a bench where to go and then I asked them their last names. All were Benuzzi's! The oldest women, probably in her 80s, reminded me so much of my grandma. Her looks, mannerisms etc. It was amazing. She kept talking to Jay and calling him, "Bambino" She was really taken with him. After talking with them we found the cemetery and we also found a TON of grave sites with my family's names. We didn't find my great-great-grandpa's grave, but I'm sure the whole town isn't necessarily buried there.

After seeing Dro we headed on over to Pomerolo. Pomerolo is only about 10 miles from Dro, but it takes about 30 minutes to get there because there aren't any roads directly connecting the cities. These towns are in the Alps, so the mountains make creating roads a little difficult. Pomerolo was just as beautiful as Dro. Makes sense! I imagine it must have been very hard for my great-grandparents to leave such beauty, but I'm sure settling in Nevada City made them feel more or less at home. Once in Pomerolo we went to the main church. Again, over the summer I used the records from this church to do some genealogy. The records from Pomerolo aren't quite as good as the ones from Dro, but I was still able to get some information from them. After visiting the church we went to the cemetery, which was just across the street. There were SOOO many Gasperotti's buried there (my great-grandma's maiden name). There were also several living Gasperotti's in the cemetery visiting their loved one's graves. How incredible to be in the middle of my personal history. I am so glad I was able to visit these important places and I only hope to be able to go back again someday with my mom!