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Posted by studioag- AT - rcn  -- NAME: Gregory J. Pietrocola III on 09/03/02 at 6:51 PM Subject:   Re: Pietrocola Family Tree,Avelino Dear Theresa, First, are you asking about Avellino the town or the province? Also, Avellino has two “l”s in the name. There are two different areas. Like New York City is in New York. Second, Avellino, both the province and the town are only about three hours from Vasto. Vasto is on the Adriatic coast and Avellino is closer to Naples. Here is some information to help you on your quest to find your family tree. First there is a lot of websites that can help you, but many want money to the job. I never used one, but you can always try. Second, you can go to the town and look at the baptism registry and see if there are any relatives from the church records. I never used the baptism registry, but you can give it a try. Third, you can go to your local Mormon Church, they are very keen on family history, and look up your family history. I live in the New Jersey metropolitan area so I went into New York City to find information in my family tree. In New York there is a Mormon Church that would have computers on genealogy. But, they had to send a request to Salt Lake City to get the microfiche to see the actual documents from Italy.Fourth you can find the Italian phone book on the internet and look up any Pietrocolas that live in Avellino. From there you can write a letter to the Pietrocolas in Avellino and see if they are related. Fourth, you can go to the town of Avellino and see yourself if you are related or not. You can get the main idea with this little story. Well, it all started back on 1990, when my grandmother past away in New York City. I was going through her belongings and found old addresses of my father’s first cousins that lived in Vasto, which is in the province of Chieti, in the region of Abruzzi, Italy. Since I had an interest in family history, also unemployed at the time, I figure I would try to locate these people in Vasto back in October, 1993. It was the best vacation I ever had in my life. Mind you, no relatives has ever been in contact with my father’s first cousins since the early 1970’s. It was hilarious, I would knock on a person’s door in Vasto, one of the addresses I found in my grandmother’s apartment, and they would answer and look at me as if I was some alien from outer space. But, to prove to them I was a relative, I also brought along some old photos of them that my grandmother had in her apartment. In my limited in Italian I would say that their aunt was my grandmother in the United States. The next thing you know, all these relatives start to come out the woodwork. I am invited to other relative’s home to eat, other relatives drive me around anywhere I want to go, and everybody was so happy that a relative from the United States would come to visited them in Vasto. They even opened the museum for me, which is closed in the winter, so I can see old artifacts of Vasto. I also was able to do some family research. It turns out that Pietrocola is common name in Vasto and I was able to find out what my name means. We are mentioned many times in a Vasto history book, there is a Pietrocola street, we have a family crest, and it turns out somebody in Vasto had started a huge family tree on my family. I made a copy of the family tree and brought it home. I made it a mission to upgrade the family tree and find more relatives. End of Story. But, here is another avenue you can try, but it may not work. Back in July, 2002, a lady, Deborah Pietrocola, from Turin, Italy answered the same ad at the Abruzzi 2000 website that you did. She told me her family was from a town called Ariano Irpino in the province of Avellino. We wrote to each other a few times and then she totally stopped. I do not know why. I feel she was thinking I was a con artist or her husband was getting mad. I do not know. We were planning on meeting each other in the future, but she never answered any of my emails in the past. Who knows. But, if you would like to contact her, here is her address. Also, you have to write to her in Italian. Her English is not too good. There are websites that can translate English to Italian. deborah10043- AT - inwind.it At one time I used to believe that all Pietrocolas were related. In fact, last summer I sent out letters to Pietrocolas in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, and the United States to see if any were family. I turns out that those that responded, none were related. But, the records at the Mormon Church only go back to the eighteen hundreds. So who knows. My family tree starts in 1635, and has over a hundred relatives. Also, I looked at the Italian phonebook on the internet and found that there are many Pietrocolas all over Italy and not in one or two areas. There are large concentrations of Pietrocolas outside of Vasto, so I believe the name started in other areas besides Vasto. Anyway, I hope I was able to answer some of your questions and give you some ideas. If you need any more help, please let me know. Who knows we may be related. But, if you have the name and birth date of the oldest male in your family, please send the information to me and I can see if they are on my family tree. Ciao Ciao, Gregory J. Pietrocola III : I am looking for family in Avelino,Italy. How far is Avelino from Vasto? Can you give me any other information that would help me to find my family in Italy? Follow Ups: