One of the reasons we directed our trip to Sardegna is because Brian's great-grandfather ('bisnonno' in Italian) Francesco Michele Tanda, was born in Sardegna in March of 1887. While we have a lot of information about his Great-Grandmother, Maria, born in Falerna (at the tip of the "toe"), we don't know anything about the parents or grandparents (etc) of Francesco Michele. The reading I have done about finding genealogical information in Italy has indicated that the local Catholic Church is a great source of information. While, throughout the history of Italy, records have not always been kept within the governmental offices, they have always been kept in the church.
So, without a huge amount of preparation, we set off for the Cheisa di SS Cosimo e Damiano in Anela (a church, which had been built in 1968, the year of Brian's birth to replace the ancient one which had been there for centuries). Anela is in the northern center of Sardinia and a very small town. We rented a car, programmed the GPS and lovely Alessia drove us toward Anela. The countryside reminded us a lot of California, particularly central and Southern CA. An hour and a half later, we were arriving near the tiny town. We accidentally drove past the miniscule roads toward the church a couple of times before we decided to park and walk to find it. We got some seriously suspicious stink-eye from the locals ("who the hell are you - I know EVERYONE in this town") but no one gave us any trouble.
Once we found the church around 12:30 p.m., we were excited to gather some information about the names and birthdates of Brian, Nate and Sam's ancestors. We finally found the Church, but no one was there. After maybe 10 minutes, a car pulled up to the tiny piazza and a young (30-ish) man in black got out with two bags of groceries. He came toward us with a quizzical look on his face, but kept walking to the small building next to the church. Alessia walked up to him and asked him if he could help us find the records for which we were searching. His response was, "NOW?" We told him we would be happy to go get some lunch in a local restaurant and come back a little bit later if that was better for him, but he, somewhat grouchily, notified us there were no restaurants in Anela so if we waited a few moments he would try to help us. We guessed he must have been the pastor of that church.
After a little wait in the small bit of shade outside the church, he led us into his office. He arranged a small chair on the "guest" side of his desk (there were two of us, so neither of us sat), went around to his side and asked, rather unceremoniously, "what do you want?" Between the two of us, we explained that we had Francesco Michele Tanda's birth certificate which showed the date and town (Anela) of his birth, but we were in search of the names and birthdates of his parents and maybe we could find more generations before. He told us rather clearly that this was too far back and that he wouldn't have the information. He excused himself into a nearby storage room where he rummaged through stacks of handwritten notebooks, but said, "he wasn't married here, he didn't die here, how am I supposed to help you". After a short period of time, he told us our best bet was to return to the church at 7:30 p.m. after mass and that perhaps some of the older parisioners would remember the name and something about them. We were hungry and our bladders were full so we got into the car for the nearby town of Bono where they had two restaurants for us to choose from!
We weren't really sure if we would go back to Anela after lunch, but we knew we would make a better decision AFTER eating, not before! The restaurant we chose, Pizzeria Trattoria da Pippo was pleasant, air conditioned and friendly. We feared that we would awkwardly be the only patrons there, but thankfully we were not. We had a wonderful meal with the best antipasto plate we have ever had: fresh, soft, tender prosciutto, salame, pancetta arrotolata, marinated artichokes and olives. We enjoyed tortellini and 2 types of gnocchi, paid our bill. While we were disappointed to leave central Sardegna without more data about Brian's extended family, we decided that this was still information (even if it was not the kind we were looking for). So, we decided to head back to our fabulous hotel in Porto San Paolo.
With Alessia at the wheel and Brian in the front navigating, I don't know what made me look up and out the window when I did, because after all, we were in Bono, not Anela - this is not the town we were expecting to find anything! But, on the stone wall of a yard at a corner where Ale was turning, I saw something posted with the name "Tanda" on it. I hollered, "Stop the car!" and poor Alessia thought she had hit an animal or small child. We pulled over and got out of the car. What we found was a death notice of a man named Giuseppe Tanda. He died in May of this year and was 71 years old. While this is decidedly not the information we were looking for, it was a wonderful moment of serendipity! Now, from my computer at home, I might be able to research the Tanda family of BONO and find more answers about Brian, Nate and Sam's ancestry. One amazing and unexpected moment ("eagle eyes, Brian called it) changed our day from disappointing and dismal to tiring but pleasantly surprising.
So, without a huge amount of preparation, we set off for the Cheisa di SS Cosimo e Damiano in Anela (a church, which had been built in 1968, the year of Brian's birth to replace the ancient one which had been there for centuries). Anela is in the northern center of Sardinia and a very small town. We rented a car, programmed the GPS and lovely Alessia drove us toward Anela. The countryside reminded us a lot of California, particularly central and Southern CA. An hour and a half later, we were arriving near the tiny town. We accidentally drove past the miniscule roads toward the church a couple of times before we decided to park and walk to find it. We got some seriously suspicious stink-eye from the locals ("who the hell are you - I know EVERYONE in this town") but no one gave us any trouble.
Once we found the church around 12:30 p.m., we were excited to gather some information about the names and birthdates of Brian, Nate and Sam's ancestors. We finally found the Church, but no one was there. After maybe 10 minutes, a car pulled up to the tiny piazza and a young (30-ish) man in black got out with two bags of groceries. He came toward us with a quizzical look on his face, but kept walking to the small building next to the church. Alessia walked up to him and asked him if he could help us find the records for which we were searching. His response was, "NOW?" We told him we would be happy to go get some lunch in a local restaurant and come back a little bit later if that was better for him, but he, somewhat grouchily, notified us there were no restaurants in Anela so if we waited a few moments he would try to help us. We guessed he must have been the pastor of that church. After a little wait in the small bit of shade outside the church, he led us into his office. He arranged a small chair on the "guest" side of his desk (there were two of us, so neither of us sat), went around to his side and asked, rather unceremoniously, "what do you want?" Between the two of us, we explained that we had Francesco Michele Tanda's birth certificate which showed the date and town (Anela) of his birth, but we were in search of the names and birthdates of his parents and maybe we could find more generations before. He told us rather clearly that this was too far back and that he wouldn't have the information. He excused himself into a nearby storage room where he rummaged through stacks of handwritten notebooks, but said, "he wasn't married here, he didn't die here, how am I supposed to help you". After a short period of time, he told us our best bet was to return to the church at 7:30 p.m. after mass and that perhaps some of the older parisioners would remember the name and something about them. We were hungry and our bladders were full so we got into the car for the nearby town of Bono where they had two restaurants for us to choose from!
We weren't really sure if we would go back to Anela after lunch, but we knew we would make a better decision AFTER eating, not before! The restaurant we chose, Pizzeria Trattoria da Pippo was pleasant, air conditioned and friendly. We feared that we would awkwardly be the only patrons there, but thankfully we were not. We had a wonderful meal with the best antipasto plate we have ever had: fresh, soft, tender prosciutto, salame, pancetta arrotolata, marinated artichokes and olives. We enjoyed tortellini and 2 types of gnocchi, paid our bill. While we were disappointed to leave central Sardegna without more data about Brian's extended family, we decided that this was still information (even if it was not the kind we were looking for). So, we decided to head back to our fabulous hotel in Porto San Paolo.
With Alessia at the wheel and Brian in the front navigating, I don't know what made me look up and out the window when I did, because after all, we were in Bono, not Anela - this is not the town we were expecting to find anything! But, on the stone wall of a yard at a corner where Ale was turning, I saw something posted with the name "Tanda" on it. I hollered, "Stop the car!" and poor Alessia thought she had hit an animal or small child. We pulled over and got out of the car. What we found was a death notice of a man named Giuseppe Tanda. He died in May of this year and was 71 years old. While this is decidedly not the information we were looking for, it was a wonderful moment of serendipity! Now, from my computer at home, I might be able to research the Tanda family of BONO and find more answers about Brian, Nate and Sam's ancestry. One amazing and unexpected moment ("eagle eyes, Brian called it) changed our day from disappointing and dismal to tiring but pleasantly surprising. 
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