Giuseppe Verdi was born in Roncole, a hamlet in the town of Busseto (which at the time was part of the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza under the First French Empire domination), on 10 October 1813 from a humble family. His father Carlo (1785–1867) worked as a grocery store/ innkeeper and his mother Luigia Uttini (1787–1851) was a seamstress. Father Carlo was the son of small landowners and farmers originally from the area of Piacenza who was able to save some money and open an “osteria”, i.e. an inn on the ground floor of his home in Roncole.

San Francesco (Saint Francis) was born on September 26, 1181 in Assisi to Pietro di Bernardone dei Moriconi, a very wealthy cloth merchant, and his wife Giovanna also known as Pica Bourlemont, about whom little is known except she is said to have belonged to a noble family of Provence, France. He was one of seven children.

In celebration of Italian American Heritage Month, the Sons of Italy® is giving away a genealogy research package valued at $1,500 and donated by My Italian Family®.

When you join the Sons of Italy® as a new national at-large member, renew your at-large membership, or give the gift of at-large membership via www.osia.org during October, you will be automatically entered for a chance to win a choice between two research packages. Winner will be drawn at random on November 4.

A family tree is mostly a collection of birth, marriage and death information; this is possible when these records are available and when we know the essential information to start a research in the Italian local sources such as town halls and parish churches.

If we want to expand our family history with facts and additional information, or if we need help to find some missing data (i.e. the exact town of birth), military and conscription records can be very helpful.