Diane’s Family
History Miracle
These pages are the primary source of Diane’s Italian family history. Through the tireless and generous efforts of kind friends, she has collected a vast library of family history records from Italy, particularly from the city of Bitritto in the region of Puglia, where her father’s paternal family originated. Much of this information is not found online and is precious. Please respect any missing records or mistakes in the collection recording by cherished volunteers. She has worked tirelessly for many years putting all this information and research together so that it can be used by others in their research.
The Kind People Who Made This Effort Possible
Shandy Vickers Hadley
Shandy is a wonderful person, and we share a love of our ancestors from Bitritto. As a young woman, she was called to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Italy. She was able to live and serve in Bitritto for a time and met wonderful people there. Over time, she developed a friendship with the local priest and helped with some of their youth activities. He generously allowed her to see the church records and photograph them. She and some fellow missionaries spent much of their free time recording many records that are only available at the church. When she returned home, we arranged to meet at the RootsTech genealogy conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. Shandy gave me files of all the photos she had taken. I cherish this gift as it opened the door to records beyond the 1809 civil records digitized by FamilySearch for the first time.
Nicolas D’Alessandro
Nicolas is a kind soul who traveled to Bitritto and Sannicandro. He diligently recorded all the available church birth, marriage, and death records. I truly appreciate his attention to detail, the quality of the photos, and the wealth of information he shared with me. These volumes share a part of the story for so many lives. As a caution, you will see that some death records do not list the age of the deceased, so the person could be a child or several generations older. It can be helpful to use the records from both Nicolas and Shandy. Some information is hidden in the binding, and sometimes one or the other may display the page slightly differently.
Talino Tribuzio
Talino and his wife Chiara do extensive historical research in Italy. I mentioned to him that the 1857 civil marriage records were missing on FamilySearch. He soon went to Bitritto and recorded the church marriage records for 1857. While there, he found some books of marriage banns and confirmations. There are some large gaps in the records kept at the church. The marriage banns help fill in some of the gaps in the marriage records. He was so kind to share this information to help us all in our research. He understands the frustration when records are missing.