We had some contact over the years with my mother Emma's and grandmother's side of the family in Italy, the Fulvi's.  Apparently, grandmother Nardi had a brother Paolo, who came to the USA between 1910-20 and, while in Dennison, OH taught my mother how to read and write Italian.  Paolo soon returned to ancestral family villiage of Capitignano, in the Appenine mountains some 100 miles east of Rome, and started his own family and my mother corresponded occasionally with the family. Then came World War II and all contacts were lost.
 

        When my first wife Shirley and I toured Europe in 1966, we managed a 3 hour visit with the Fulvi's in Capitignano.  We met Paolo and his family which included 2 sons, Rolando and Luigi. We had to meet a deadline for a camping reservation that had to be secured that day and thus left hurriedly.  In 1986, Emma and her husband visited Europe and spent several days in Capitignano attending a wedding of son Alfredo.  Here is a picture of us in 1966:
 
 

        Unlike my mother's side, my father, Pasquale Bompadre, his family and ultimate fate has been a bit of a mystery until recently.  I knew that he was born near the Adriatic coastal town of Giulianova, perhaps 60 miles away from Capitignano.  Shirley and I had proceeded down the Adriatic coast from Venice and arrived in Giulianova before noon on a Sunday.  Since neither of us spoke Italian and all the municipal offices were closed, we quickly toured the town and sped west for the short visit to Capitignano which is described above;  Shirley and I did try to locate family members during our 1966 trip but we were not successful.

       In the Bompadre family, there were 4 children, 3 girls and 1 boy, who were all born around the turn of the century.  The boy was my father Pasquale.   He and two of the girls did emigrate to America, settling in Dennison, Ohio and we believe they arrived sometime in the New World between 1920 and 1925.  One girl, Marie, did not leave Italy and remained in Giulianova.
 
 

     How my parents met is a mystery but we suspect the Italian community in Dennison was quite small and eventually Pasquale, age 23, and Emma, age 17, found each other and were married in 1927.  The young couple moved to Akron and Pasquale found work in one of the rubber tire factories. In 1928 sister Gloria was born and I followed in 1930.  A few years ago before my mother became ill, she mentioned to me the first years of the marriage with Pasquale were happy ones. What happened in the ensuing years is vague and clouded and will never be fully known.
 
 

     Apparently, Pasquale suffered a head trauma at work and never completely recovered.  Nevertheless, a few years later, the couple became separated and our father decided to return to Italy.  My mother chose not to follow, especially with the two children being very young.  Recall that Italy at this time was under the Fascist rule of Mussolini and was involved in a war in Ethiopa and also was sending a Legion to fight in the Spanish Civil War; at home, the effects of the Great Depression were still strong in Ohio.

      Finally, an article appeared in the Dennison paper that reported Pasquale had died in Giulianova in May, 1938.  I recall my grandmother saying that Pasquale, like Christ, had died at 33 years of age. Soon, my mother married John Green and thus our family name in Ohio went from Bompadre to Green.
 

     During the past 5 years, I have made many trips back to the Dennison-Dover area to visit my mother and also see friends and family from my childhood days.  At a chance meeting at a funeral of my uncle in Dennison, a cousin informed me that his sister and her family had visited Giulianova recently and made contact with Bompadre relatives, who were very anxious for us to visit Italy and meet them.  Finally, a door had opened into the past!

     Thanks to the Internet, email addresses were exchanged and a connection was soon made.  Recall that one girl, Marie Bompadre, did not travel to America -- she did marry and had several children.  One of the children, Ada, approximately my age, grew up, married (becoming Ada Rischiatore) and settled in Giulianova.   Ada is my first cousin and knew about Gloria and me -- she had seen pictures of us as small children and had wondered what did happen to us.

     Ada had three daughters, two of whom currently live in Giulianova.   Tiziana, whom I established email contact with, teaches Italian language at the vocational technical high school in Giulianova and speaks English well enough for us to communicate.  It was Tiziana's efforts, understanding and love that made this trip possible from the Italian end.
 
 

     I also contacted my first cousin Luigi Fulvi, still in Capitignano, and then I knew that it would be possible to visit all my family relatives.

     I convinced Chris to accompany me and the trip was on.    Unbeknownst to me, Chris began studying Italian and, with a friend's help who was born in Italy and speaks excellent Italian, helped make the trip a success.  His Italian was far from perfect but was fair enough most of the time to help overcome the language barrier.

     So here is our trip told through pictures and some short narratives -

Andiamo - Let's go!
 

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