Joseph & Irene: Uniting a Family in Puglia

We have so many wonderful traveler stories to share from this past year. One of the most special--and fitting for the holiday season--is a story about Joseph (85 years young) and his wife Irene, from upstate New York.

Joseph's parents had been born in the late 19th century in Italy, outside of Bari, Puglia. Although Joseph and Irene had visited Italy a number of times, they had never before been to the place of Joseph's roots.

Getting up there in his years, Joseph decided that now was the time to seek out his family history, to track down the place where his parents had grown up and perhaps even find some living relatives from their hometown.

So we helped Joseph and Irene plan a two-week-long trip down the Adriatic coast, spanning the regions of Abruzzo and Puglia, and concluding near the town of Bari, where we hoped to help Joseph discover pieces of his ancestry.

Olive Grove in Puglia, Italy

Polignano a Mare, Puglia

Working with our incredible on-the-ground team, Cristiana and Max, and a couple of genealogy experts based in southern Italy, we began our search. We weren't armed with much: rough birth year estimates of Joseph's parents; a surname whose spelling had changed after Joseph's parents had immigrated to America; and the incorrect name of a hometown somewhere near Bari.

But what we were able to track down was something quite special.

First, we found the official birthplace of Joseph's father - in the small town of Toritto. Then we started tracking down birth certificates, and names of a couple of living cousins.

We found that one of the cousins (whose grandfather had been the brother of Joseph's father), was still living in Toritto, and had a brother who was also alive and well, living in Canada. The cousins were overjoyed to learn about their American relatives (but at first we kept the news quiet from Joseph and Irene, until we could be sure it was true).

We continued our research, and met with more and more local residents in Toritto. Toritto is the kind of small Italian town where everyone knows everyone, and we were amazed to witness the whole town start to become abuzz with news of Joseph and Irene and their planned visit in early fall.

October finally arrived, and Joseph and Irene set off on their journey to southern Italy. After a number of days relaxing and exploring different coastal and countryside towns, they would spend two days at a local masseria (farmhouse) near the historic center of Toritto. This is where their Italian family would come to meet Joseph and Irene for the very first time.

Pilapalucci Masseria, Toritto, Puglia

I had the incredible fortune to be part of this meeting at the masseria. I arrived with our local partner Max and fine-art photographer Ksenija Savic. We wanted to be there for this very special experience, and to help with logistics and translating--Joseph and Irene spoke no Italian at all, and most likely the Torritto family members (coming from such a small town) would not speak much or any English.

We weren't sure how the events of the family reunion would play out. Would the one cousin we had spoken with even show up? Would he bring along one or two other relatives as well? How long would they want to stay and visit?

In the end, something amazing happened. Not one, not two, but 27 family members would show up at the masseria throughout the course of the evening, in what would turn into a beautiful six-hour-long reunion full of hugs, stories, laughter and emotion.

As you might imagine, the conversations were loud, animated, and at times confusing - deciphering all the intricacies of the family tree and translating between the English spoken by Joseph and Irene and the Italian dialect spoken by everyone else. But somehow, magically, the evening worked and they were truly united as a family.

Since we had never imagined that so many people would be joining, the owners of the small masseria were only prepared for a dinner of 5-8 people. But when you invite guests over in southern Italy, you invite them, and we would need to find a way to pull together enough food and wine to accommodate a celebration for over 20 guests.

Incredibly, the owners and their small staff managed to whip up a huge feast in the kitchen, and we dined and drank wine into the wee hours of the morning.

Joseph, beaming from ear to ear throughout the night, made no fewer than three toasts to his new-found Italian family and those who helped make the evening possible.

The next day, we took Irene and Joseph to the historic center of Torritto, showed them the street where Joseph's father was born, and dropped them off at Joseph's cousin's house (the family had insisted that they join them the next day for lunch and part two of the family reunion!).

A beautiful story, and an experience that a teary-eyed Joseph told me he will always remember. I know I certainly will.

Wishing everyone a happy holiday season, rich with family, friends, and celebration. Buon Natale e Felice Anno!