Finding Great Grandfather in Castel de Ieri


Castel de Ieri is one of 1000 towns in the state of Abruzzo, Italy with a castle. Here it is as seen from the nearby town of Castel Vecchio.

And a closer look from just outside the city walls.



On September 2, 2007, I visited the town with my traveling companions; husband Jerry, Carmen and Barry Bryant, and Judy Sorrell. We had all been sailing together in Croatia the week before and took the ferry over to Pescara Italy for a week of touring. Just a few days before leaving the States, I found an old note I had written while talking to my then only surviving Uncle, Jimmy. He has recently died. That note clued me in to where our Grandfather’s roots were. I had written down Castelire, and after studying the area maps concluded it had to be Castel de Ieri.

After touring Atri, Penne, Loreto, Sulmona, Scanno, Pescocostanza and Pescaserolli, my travel companions encouraged me to pursue my roots. We were close to Castel de Ieri on our way to L’Aquila, the capital of the state.

Upon arriving in Castel de Ieri we saw the usual group of old gents sitting around near the church and not too much more. There was a small grocery store with activity, so we started there.


I showed the patron of the store a note with my grandfather’s name and birth date on it. He passed me to his wife who started marching us down the street to a house with Elide D’Alesandro on the mailbox. No
one was home, so we proceeded to the church, where some women were coming out and that’s where I met my “cousin”.


I showed her my note and she said her grandfather was also named Gaetano D’Alesandro . I was ecstatic because now I figured I was in the right place. She, however, pieced together that fact that her grandfather of the same name was born ten years later than the one on my piece of paper. I thought she was very cute and I hugged her and called her “cousin” in Italian. She pulled away a bit and said she was not my cousin, but I made them take my picture with her anyway.


Now she was stuck with this tribe of people and one of them claiming to be her cousin. Probably, in self defense, she started working on my case. After a conference with a bunch of townspeople in front of the church, she started marching us down to another house.

On the way, she stopped a car and the young man got out to talk to her. He made a phone call to his brother who happened to be the town administrator in charge of Records. He said his brother Mauro would open up the office in half an hour. This was Saturday and normally they were closed. Then we proceeded to the other house.

At least that’s what I thought they were saying!! We were hampered by the fact that no in our group really understood Italian. We were various levels of Spanish speakers.


At the other house, I met my “Godfather”, Donato. He was my age and spoke perfect English. He was visiting the town for the festival of San Donato. We sat down with the information I had and he determined that I did not belong to HER or HIS Gaetano D’Alesandro . He had grown up in the town and left with his entire family at the age of thirteen to make a better life in France.

He stayed with us the whole day, first to the records office where Mauro showed us his
Record Books.

Alas my Grandfather was not registered under the birthday that I had given them. Mauro and Donato chatted back and forth and we flipped around the pages in the book and suddenly there it was… ……………….the birth of Gaetano D’Alesandro a day and a year earlier! So his real birthday was July 21 1878!! And there were his mother and fathers’ name and address and time of birth:

Domenico D’Alesandro and Innocenza Fabrizio,
Via Simonetti #64,
time of birth 7:15PM

Then we went to another book to try to find his other brothers and sisters. Voila…there it was… the whole family.

Antonio born 10 March 1872
Luigi born 2 June 1875
Gaetano born 21 July 1878
Filomena born 25 August 1881
Vincenzo born 26 July 1884


MY DAY WAS COMPLETE!! Before this, we never knew who Gaetano’s parents were or how many brothers and sisters he had.
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My “Godfather”, Donato, walked us up to the top of the town castle with commentary on the way. We were looking for the house where Grandfather was born. Each time we met someone, he told them who we were and what we were doing. We came to Via Simonetti #64. It was uninhabited and padlocked.

He remembered that this house had the first Television and the youngsters of the town would go up there to watch the “mostly snow” pictures and have a drink.

My companions and I felt extremely happy with my success and adjourned to the town’s only restaurant, just outside the walls of the city.
Donato joined his family for lunch, but promised to come back for coffee. By that time, all the locals in the restaurant knew who we were and what we were doing there.

By chance, this was the time of the four day Festival of the town. Donato suggested we come back two days later for the big day, the feast of San Donato.

When Donato returned for coffee he informed me that my real cousin would come to meet me! Apparently the whole town was still working on the case throughout lunch!! In she came….Adriana. I got some information from her that mostly confounded me, but knew she was somehow my cousin.

We bade goodbye to all with the promise to return for San Donato’s Day.

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Then we were on our way to the cemetery to find some graves. There were so many D’Alesandros and also Fabrizios.

Looking for D'Alesandros at the Cemetery

Here is Vincenzo’s grave. I was amazed at how much he looked like Gaetano!

Gaetano!! Vincenzo!!




This is Luigi’s daughter Rosa:

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Here is the new found family.That’s Donato (The “Godfather”), Adriana’s husband, Marco and Tiziana (Adrianas daughter), a brother in law, Antonio (Adriana’s son), Ann and Adriana.
The children are Antonios with his wife Elvira.

Tiziana and Ann with her book about St Donato

Antonio and Ann

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Scenes from the town

St Donato, Patron saint of epileptics and Protector of Castel de Ieri

St Rocco, the legend is that he protected everyone from the plague. Then he got the plague himself and the dog found him in the forest and brought him bread everyday and saved his life.

How fortunate we were to hit upon the four day Festival (religious and cultural) of the town. St Emidio,Rocco and Donato are honored, the Philharmonic comes in to play beautiful arias. For future reference, the festival is September 1 thru 4.

This amazing lady helped a lot..she is hearing impaired,
But the whole town can understand her and she made sure we
Were taken care of.

The honor guard for St Donato,the woman is the Mayor

St Donato coming out for his walk about town. Note the bejeweled sash. They are offerings from people who have gotten favors from him. Note also the ceremonial bread hung on his base and on the banner.

Festival food…everything is yellow from saffron. There is a saffron growing region nearby.

Everyone loved the Porchetta truck!

Pots and pasta machines for sale

And cheese

Thanks to all for sharing these two days with me…Judy, Barry,Carmen and Jerry!!

THANKS to the “Godfather”, Donato for making it all happen

Other photos of our trip to Italy:

http://picasaweb.google.com/laffja150/TheAlmondsOfSulmona

http://picasaweb.google.com/laffja150/Scanno

http://picasaweb.google.com/laffja150/LAquila

http://picasaweb.google.com/laffja150/ItalyOtherTowns

http://picasaweb.google.com/laffja150/StDonatosProcession