One of the things that I like the most about genealogy is that it is like putting together a puzzle. Every piece of information that I learn fits into the bigger picture of who I am and how I came to be. I do not even have to be actively researching to find clues to my past. Sometimes, all it takes is a simple conversation. This past weekend, I took my son to visit my mother and father. We see them about once a month – either they come to our house, or we drive down to see them. It seems like every time I see them I find out another interesting tidbit about my family history.
On this last visit, I learned where my mother’s maternal grandmother came from. I knew that she had come to America from Italy, but I did not know the name of the city or town. Now, I know that my Italian ancestors came from Arsoli. Upon learning this new information, I got curious. Arsoli? I had never heard of it before, and wanted to learn about it.
Arsoli is a small, mountain village in the province of Rome, in central Italy. There are fewer than eight hundred families living there. I looked at pictures of Arsoli on the internet, and it looks like a very beautiful place. There is a large castle there, the Castello di Arsoli. It is built on a steep outcrop of rock and overlooks the village on one side, and beautiful gardens on the other side. Unfortunately, Arsoli is such a small village that there is not much information about it online. I will have to see if I can do some more digging and get names of my Arsolani ancestors. I would also like to find out whether there are any people still living in Arsoli that I may be related to. It is certainly somewhere that I would like to see, and I hope to travel there some day.
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