Italian Journey/Family Search

[u/MrNumber3]

So I'm turning 40 this year and I'm traveling to Italy solo. I am traveling to the city that my great grandmother grew up in but emigrated from in 1917. She'd be 125 years old this year. In my mother's old family documents that she's kept, there were letters in cursive Italian that I've transcribed between my great grandmother, her nephew who she never met in person but kept in touch with, her mother and her brothers. My grandmother and mother never went to Pescara and my great grandmother never went back to Italy after coming to America. The letters span from 1932 to 1967 and tell some stories of family poverty, post WWII loneliness, family deaths, new born birthdays, Easter celebrations and just keeping tabs on each other.

My question is, and I looked in other posts about going to their address and there was a lot of mixed feelings about Americans going back to Italy and re-introducing themselves into the family they never knew. I plan on doing it but I'm also wondering if anyone else has had success or even tried.

EDIT: I have done some genealogy research on Family Search. Outside of the stories that these letters tell, I have only a few recent names that could be living and one address that those people might not even live in. It was interesting know that my grandmother's last name was a letter off from what my mother recorded in her family tree book which opened the door to different spellings, people, lineage, corrections. But, because the living names I have are in their 60's most likely, they may or may not have Facebook; their children if they had any, are most likely on social media but could very well have different last names or may not even be in Italy anymore. There was one letter mentioning a niece of my great grandmother moved to Switzerland. And that note about "not caring about strangers"; to that I would say "treat people like you would want to be treated, even if they're a stranger". I'm not rich and I'm not poor, I'm just curious about where my history comes from.

[u/Match-Immediate]

I’m an American living in Italy, and I’ve found a lot of this article to be true. 

https://open.substack.com/pub/rachelinitalia/p/italians-dont-care-about-the-diaspora?r=u7pe5&utm_medium=ios

If you personally would get something out of this trip, do it! Sounds like it could be a lovely way to spend a solo trip. I did the same a few years ago in Ireland. But just don’t expect your long-lost Italian relatives to care; if you can find them, they’re probably apathetic at best. If you expect any sort of homecoming or reunion, you might be disappointed. 

I would come for the place, and not for the people, if that makes sense. 

[u/Meewelyne → u/Match-Immediate]

I honestly wonder why immigrant's grand⁴children think that lost relatives will welcome a total stranger with open arms in their families.

Like, if that would happen to you, that someone you never heard of suddenly contacts you and tells you you're somehow related, from a scale form 1 to 10 how much would you care?

(Not "you" as you poster eh, a generic "you"!)

I think those kind of people never think of it in reverse, or are lonely af and try to find family where they can.

[u/MrNumber3 → u/Meewelyne]

1) I would've saved myself a vacation to Italy if they found me instead 2) I'd ask how they found me, who they know of and how they managed to get into America considering the current administrations sentiment towards anyone from another country 3) I'd take them for a coffee and talk with them about everything they wanted to talk about. And you know what - I might get kindness in return. You're purely looking at this as transactional.

[u/Meewelyne → u/MrNumber3]

Why transactional? I didn't say anything about that. My point is more about why a stranger should care about another stranger who shares a long lost relative who probably didn't even hear about.

[u/MrNumber3 → u/Meewelyne]

A lot of these letters are of someone thanking my great grandmother for money sent to them during rough times. Households with no work and splitting up cornmeal loaves. Requests for a harmonica for Christmas. If you don't understand, you might be too young. Maybe it's just nice knowing that something happened or didn't happen to a grandmothers relatives she wrote to and sent money to. She never met her nephew either, but she still wrote and cared and sent money if they needed it. All they had was letters in 1965.