Change of Plans

It's possible that I will be going to Europe a bit earlier than September/October, which I thought was the most likely possibility. In fact, I may be going as soon as next month.

However, instead of the leisurely tour through England, France and Italy I had envisioned, re-visiting much beloved places I hadn't seen in far too long, I will be going quickly to a place I've never been. One I hadn't really ever occurred to me to visit. Sicily.

You see, I'm not the only one in my family with an acute case of wanderlust. Many in my family have wished we could experience living and working in Europe. But those pesky work permits can be very hard to come by. However...

The advances of the European Union, together with one country's quirky immigration law, have opened a door to us - for a somewhat limited time.

A few years ago, it came to our attention that it was possible for the family to acquire Italian citizenship. Of course a ton of documentation is required, foremost, my great-great grandfather's birth certificate.

It didn't take a really long time to find a trace of him, and a few different possible years in which he could have been born. I even had, so I thought, the city of his birth. Palermo. Little did I know that Palermo is a region, as well as a city. Since we had names of no other places, and Palermo was the biggest pool of potential hits, we decided to try there first.

We paid just a little over $100 for a very nice man to search a span of a few years for our ancestor but, alas, no luck. He had also given us a link to a nifty site that would let me see where the last name of our ancestor might pop up, and we came up with about 5 other possible locations.

Since these were small rural areas, though, there was a better chance that records from the 1800's would be found in parish churches rather than official government offices. The nice man gently discouraged me from paying for searches. He said that the best bet would be to go and ask in person.

Yes, well.

Nothing much I'd like better than to go to Italy, in person. But that wasn't in the cards, due to several varying circumstances...until now. Or, at least, fairly soon.

You know, I've never been a timid traveler. But there's something about going around asking innocent questions about a long dead person in mafioso country that sounds like the premise for a scary movie. Seriously, I've been having some genuine qualms.

My sister wants to come, which makes me feel marginally better. Marginally. We're still 2 small women who don't speak the language, going into tiny villages in somewhat remote areas...

Whatever. It's well worth the risk.

I really hope we will be successful. I would SO love to have an Italian passport.

The thing is, though we can apply for as many family members as we have documentation for, the process has to start with my mother. For us to acquire citizenship, she has to have it first. Then it passes down to the rest of us. There is no limit on generations through the male line, so my uncles' kids, particularly the male ones, don't have as much pressure.

We have a direct line through my mother's father, grandfather and great-grandfather. But if my mother doesn't get citizenship granted while she is still alive, then we will never be eligible. And my mother is an 87 year old stroke victim. Which is why I said that our window is somewhat limited.

My mother, of course, could care less. She has no interest in, or need for, Italian citizenship or passport. But her kids and grandkids are all but drooling. We really, really would like this. Out of the 8 grandkids, my sister's twins - the 2 youngest of that generation, actually have an even better shot. Her second husband's father was 1st or 2nd generation Italian-American. Strangely enough, they're probably the least interested in all of this.

It's not what I had planned on doing during this month of staying with my sister and mother. I had hoped and planned to scan a lot of files, get rid of a lot of excess baggage. None of which I've actually been doing in the week I've been here so far, but I thought of maybe starting next week.

Now, though, I'm looking for the best software program for learning Italian. Fast.