The Genealogist vs The Family Historian

According to Merriam-Webster genealogy is ‘an account of the descent of a person, family or group from an ancestor or from older forms’ ‘regular descent of a person, family or group or organisms from a progenitor or older form’ ‘the study of family ancestral lines’ Or ‘an account of the origin and historical development of […]

My Whole World Family Tree

My family tree has been a work in progress for about 25 years & I have searched for records all over the world, sitting in front of my computer. I have always identified myself as Italian, because that is how I was raised even though my last name is Finnish. I knew that my grandfather […]

Finding the Needle in the Haystack

Before I started searching for my family, I thought that finding them would be a piece of cake. After all, how many Niemi’s, Tomassini’s or Pieri’s can there be in this world? Where I grew up, they were pretty unique, especially the Niemi and the Pieri surnames. Tomassini was a bit more common because that […]

Am I Italian? Yes! and so much more…

DNA Doesn’t Lie My DNA tells me that I am at least 32% Italian, so what makes up the other 68%? I relate to my Italian heritage because that is how I was raised, but my father’s genealogy is 50% Italian/50% Finnish.  When their mother, Mary Tomassini, passed in September 1940 in San Francisco from […]