Totally unexpected Italian paternal ancestry

[superedan]

If you've recently learned about your Italian paternal ancestry, you may be eager to explore your family tree further. Start with genealogical research to trace your Italian lineage back as far as possible.

[oxfordfrench]

Hi there. That's precisely what I have been doing over the last year. Slow process!

[Krishcomments]

That must have been quite the surprise! It sounds like you're on an exciting journey uncovering your roots. If you're looking to visually map out your family connections and potential relationships, you might find a tool like Creately - https://creately.com/usage/genogram-template-example helpful. I’ve used it to create genograms and track complex family histories. It helps organize ancestry details clearly, especially when there are unexpected discoveries like yours. You can even share it with newfound relatives to fill in the gaps together. Best of luck with your r

[amerital43]

...and my biological Italian father who was obviously in Marseille in1946 (too late for a WWII encounter). I'm thinking that maybe the initial immigrant couple had siblings who stayed in Europe and turned up in France. I've done some cross-references with the names I know on French Geneanet but it just links me back to US databases.....

Why do you think your bio father was too late for a WWII encounter? While the war was over in 1945, the soldiers didn't just immediately go home. Some did, but many stayed in Europe. Some helped settle refugees and did other work, post war. Some just stayed before heading home. Also Marseille was a port out of Europe, so not that unusual for someone to be there. Do you think he was an Italian soldier or an Italian-American soldier? According to what you've searched it seems to be the latter.

[oxfordfrench]

Thanks for raising that point. I never thought about the possibility of an Italo-American soldier actually staying in France after 1945. I even check dates of US army departure from a massive army camp North of Marseille which could have been a relevant place but again no luck! If it was not for the numerous US DNA contacts, i would have assumed that my 'father' would have most likely been someone my mother (who was married at the time) would have met at work. At one point, among the recurring DNA names which have come up as 'contacts' one name (Chiarito) looked a bit promising as one of them had a gd father who had been a bilingual Italian-French interpreter in the US army and in the right area around that time, but further investigation proved that this was not the right answer. All my close family contacts show interconnexions - all from the same original Italian area (Campana/Montemiletto) and most from the East Coast (New York) - The same applies to 4 of my Italian contacts (Carullo/Santillo/Burchi/Covotta) who are interconnected but we can't see where there could be a connection with my mother. This is a real conendrum and in a sense I sometimes think that 'ignorance was bliss' and that i never found out that my French father was not my biological father