returned I pointed them out. She was surprised, but then unsuccessfully commenced a search for a marriage certificate without letting me help. She searched until well after closing time and then had to leave without finding the marriage. While she could not have been friendlier, her refusal to allow me access to the books cost her much time and me my document.  The clerks in the towns of Capestrano and Carpineto di Nora were too busy, but promised to search for what we wanted and told us to return at a later date. However, when we returned we were told that the records could not be found. The clerks in the towns of Bolognano and Castiglione a Casauria promised to search for the records we wanted and mail us the results. I received a letter from Bolognano stating that they were unable to find the documents that we requested. I have yet to receive a response from Castiglione a Casauria. 

     While my visit in Abruzzi was fabulous, with spectacular scenery, great people, and delicious food, our attempts at genealogical research proved to be frustrating and disappointing.

     In summation, while there is never enough time to accomplish all your research objectives, there is no place better to spend the time searching than in Italy.

Meeting the Family, One Man’s Journey Through His Human Ancestry By Donovan Webster with a foreword by Spencer Wells, Director of the Genographic Project – Pub. by National Geographic Society, Washington, D.C.

[ISBN: 978-1-4262-0573-6 Anthropology]

      As you may know from my past book reviews, I am not only very interested in genealogy but also in the subject of DNA.  Until recently I had only been able to test my mother’s ‘distant’ mtDNA and learned that my female ancestors belong to haplogroup U3. I thought I would never have the opportunity to learn about my father’s YDNA. My father had three girls and no boys, and no other relatives that I knew of who were eligible for a YDNA test. Well, don’t ever say never! A recently discovered family of cousins revealed a male cousin who is a direct descendant of my paternal grand-father’s brother. My paternal ancestors came from Scaletta Zanclea, Messina, Sicily. This newly discovered Panarello cousin agreed to swab his cheeks and submit a sample to Family Tree DNA for YDNA analysis of our ‘distant’ ancestry. The results show that our YDNA belongs to the haplogroup T1. Surprisingly, there are no matches at all in the Family Tree database of over 340,433 records. However, according to www.europedia.com/genetics “T is a rare haplogroup in Europe (less than 1% of the population). It originated around the Red Sea (maybe in Ethiopia) at least 30,000 years ago, making it one of the oldest haplogroups found in Eurasia. Thomas Jefferson belonged to haplogroup T.” His haplogroup was discovered in an attempt to resolve the Sally Hemmings controversy. There is much more information on the above mentioned website for anyone wanting to know more about haplogroups, both male and female.

     At the same time that this was occurring I happened to see Donovan Webster on Book TV talking about his book Meeting the Family. What a coincidence this was. Was this serendipity?  

     The author had already been able to trace his more recent ancestors back to their arrival in the U.S. before 1635. He swabbed his cheeks and was one of the first people to have his ‘distant’ male ancestry tested as part of Dr. Spencer Wells’ National Geographic Genographic project. The plan was, with Dr. Wells’ help upon receiving the results of the YDNA test, he would travel to meet the distant ancestors who he shares genetic markers with and where his DNA had once been.

     This journey began in Tanzania, in the Rift Valley of East Central Africa where he shares a marker with the hunter-gatherer, click-talking, Hadzabe tribe who are almost extinct. Most of us can trace their DNA back to the Hadzabe and San Bushmen of this area. They carry the oldest DNA on earth and it is where the trail forward in time begins.