Italian Americans embrace DNA testing: Is it for you?

Ambassador magazine has purchased my article on DNA testing for Italian Americans and published it in the spring 2020 edition. It was around 2,800 words when I submitted it, and it had to be cut to 1,400. Much of the editing improved it by changing some long direct quotes to shorter indirect quotes, but important concepts had to be cut as well.

If you’re interested in reading it, you can chose the longer text version below, or read the shorter version that was published in the magazine, which is also included below.

Testing Your Ancestry DNA: What a Saliva Sample Can--and Can't--Tell About You

By Paul Spadoni

One or more of your parents, grandparents or great grandparents came from Italy. That makes you Italian, right? For some Italian Americans, that’s all they need to know—but millions of others have submitted their DNA to popular testing companies—paying as little as $59—to fill in gaps in their knowledge or see if science confirms what they already believe to be so.

One or more of your parents, grandparents or great grandparents came from Italy. That makes you Italian, right? For some Italian Americans, that’s all they need to know—but millions of others have submitted their DNA to popular testing companies—paying as little as $59—to fill in gaps in their knowledge or see if science confirms what they already believe to be so.

More than 26 million people—mostly Americans—have taken genetic ancestry tests, according to MIT Technology Review. Ancestry, the market leader, has tested more than 15 million alone, and the numbers roughly double annually.

The two main reasons for the burgeoning popularity of these tests are curiosity about one’s ethic origins and to find previously unknown relatives. Some companies also provide health information, such as predisposition to specific diseases.

In many cases, little information about “the old country” has been passed down from one generation to the next—and is this limited information even accurate? Is it possible that one’s earlier ancestors immigrated to Italy from some other country before subsequently leaving for America?

“I wanted to know where I came from and who my ancestors were, and then pass that information to my son and future generations,” said Nicole Gallant Nunes of Danvers, Massachusetts. “My great-grandfather left Italy alone at age 13 to live with an uncle in Boston to learn how to be a barber. He never spoke much of his life in Italy, so we weren’t really sure of his origins. My DNA confirmed that both my grandfather and grandmother had deep roots in small towns in the Avellino area of Italy.”

While some just seek confirmation of their ethnicity, finding relatives is a strong motivation for others, especially those seeking to create or add to their family trees.

“I cherish my ethnicity, and DNA testing is a way to confirm, share it and find relatives,” said Frannie Myannie of Cranston, Rhode Island. “I tested 80% Italian, which was not a surprise, since all my grandparents were from southern Italy. But I was surprised to see percentages of Arab, Egyptian, Spanish, Portuguese and Asian. I lack knowledge about Italy’s history, and this has inspired me to learn to understand it better. It has also piqued my interest to visit the comuni (hometowns) of my ancestors, and I did visit three of the four. I made some wonderful acquaintances, and it was the best experience of my life.”

“I know exactly where my parents and grandparents came from,” said Gae Nastasi of Brisbane, Australia. “For me, the DNA test allowed us to find relatives who had left Sicily early in the 20th century and gone to the USA, and with whom we had lost contact. We found a whole branch of the family which we had always wondered about. They had left before my mother was born, so all she knew was that they had gone to America.”

“I did DNA testing three years ago, and it has seriously taken over my life,” said Annette Gigliotti Steele of Gresham, Oregon. “Oh my gosh, cousins were coming out of the woodwork! It was also really cool to see the test put me smack dab in Calabria, where my family originated from.”

Even though DNA tests don’t show exactly how people who share genetic similarities are related, they can lead to contacts with other relatives who have already done the hard research.

“My father’s dad passed before I was born, and I had knowledge of only three of his siblings,” said Benita Cicero of Alexander, Arkansas. “Though 23andMe, I matched two second cousins. I loved it all, especially meeting and talking with new cousins.”

Joanne Cretella

“I didn’t know much about my mom’s side of the family,” said Joanne Cretella of Naugatuck, Connecticut. “I’ve found many cousins who have given me photos and stories that I never would have known otherwise,”

Despite these happy stories, genealogists and geneticists caution that the tests can lead to false hopes and confusion for people who don’t understand how the process works. This is sometimes fed by overly enthusiastic advertisements from the many testing services, which may, as CRI Genetics does, promise customers “an accurate detailed portrait of your family’s history.”

Lynn Serrafinn at Lake Garda, Italy.

“Marketing campaigns love to focus on success stories of people who were reunited with parents, siblings and close relations,” said Lynn Serafinn, author and professional genealogist from Bedford, England. “For most people, the reality of connecting with blood relations through DNA testing is much more challenging.”

Because of privacy concerns, potential relatives may be listed only by their initials. The testing services provide the ability to send messages, but often people don’t respond, likely because they took the test for curiosity about ethnic origins instead of establishing new contacts.

Another area that critics believe is overhyped is the accuracy of the ethnicity reports. Each testing company has reference groups of people from various countries who have had genetic tests. Scientists then compare the DNA strands to find commonalities, and your DNA will be analyzed against these results to see where your ancestors may have come from. The accuracy of the results depends both on the size of the reference panel and the genetic diversity of the country.

“Ethnicity reports from DNA testing companies do not—and cannot—tell you ‘who you are’ but only who you are most similar to in comparison to other test takers in their systems,” Serafinn said.

Another genealogist, Bob Sorrentino of Bradley Beach, New Jersey, points out that it is important to rely on old-fashioned research.

Bob Sorrentino

“All my grandparents were born in Italy, so naturally I believed I would be mostly Italian, which I am,” Sorrentino said, “but I’m also Spanish, Greek and a bit of Persian.”

Sorrentino has used traditional genealogy methods to trace some of his ancestors back as far as 1,000 years, and he has found roots from other countries.

“DNA is only one part of the puzzle,” he said. “Documentation, to the extent that you can find it, is the other. Through (Italian website) Antenati, I found Swiss and Spanish great grandparents, and through historical documents I found ancestors from almost every European royal family.”

Italian ethnicity results are complicated by the fact that DNA from southern Italians is different than that of northern Italians.

“Of all the European countries, Italy is the most genetically diverse within its own population, which is reflective of its history as a crossroads of human migration and settlement,” said Vincent Palozzi, a professor at Miami University and an administrator of Italy DNA Project.

Southern Italy, especially Sicily, has been invaded more than 17 times in the past 2,000 years. It has seen extensive periods of foreign domination including Greek, Roman, Vandal, Ostrogoth, Byzantine, Arab, Norman, Aragonese and Spanish.

Alfio Di Mauro, right, with travel guru Rick Steves.

“Sicily is in the center of the Mediterranean,” said Alfio Di Mauro of Sicily, a former science researcher at the University of Catania and now a tour guide. “It is a fertile garden-like land and a natural steppingstone between Europe and Africa. No other part of the world so small has had so many invasions. For thousands of years, it was the island to control; it was considered the center of the civilized world.

“You’ll never find such a power-packed, genetically diverse and historically interesting place like Sicily. If you do a genetic survey of Europe, which region has the highest genetic diversity in Europe? It’s Sicily!”

Northern Italy has also had its share of occupiers, but the invaders generally came by land from the North, whereas attackers of southern Italy came by sea from other regions in the Mediterranean basin. Northern Italians tend to have genetic traits in common with their French, German and Spanish neighbors.

DNA testing is not common or popular in most European countries. In fact, it is restricted by privacy laws in Italy, so the data bases are still small, and some companies have found it difficult to differentiate the regions. This can create confusion, doubt and even dismay for people who have identified themselves as Italian and then find out that a testing company has labeled them as something else.

“I’m the state recording secretary for the Sons and Daughters of Italy,” said Gina Natucci of Tacoma, Washington. “But my DNA test from Ancestry came back saying I was 7% Italian, and that has since been revised to 0%. Other members of my family have also been revised to 3% or less. That was a surprising, shocking and disappointing. My great grandparents moved here from Tuscany in the early 1900s. Were they really from somewhere else?”

However, Natucci has done her own research, which involved visiting the parish archives in Pescia, Italy, and thus far she has traced her grandfather’s ancestral line back to 1725. “I trust the paper trail much more than what the DNA testing company says.”

Another issue that irks scientists are marketing claims the companies use, such as “Find out who you really are,” “Reinvent the way you see yourself” and experience “the awesome process of discovering yourself.” While Italian Americans express a fondness for Italy and Italian culture, would someone who takes a DNA test and finds out they are actually more Scottish than Italian suddenly develop a yearning to play bagpipes and wear a kilt? Is an affinity for your ancestral culture inherent or learned?

“I understand that people want to research their family histories and find out more about their heritage,” said Ryan Anderson, cultural and environmental anthropologist at the University of Santa Clara. “Tracing your family genealogy can be fascinating. The problem is that these tests seriously conflate culture and biology. Culture is not genetic. There is no ‘Irish’ or ‘German’ gene or combination of genes. That’s just not how it works.

“Culture is shared, patterned, learned behavior. Humans may have the biological capacity for culture, but the specific expression of that capacity is a matter of social relationships and history. Cultural behavior is not intrinsic or inherent. Nobody is born with a certain culture or set of cultural behaviors–people learn it over time.”

Timothy Caulfield, a health policy professor at the University of Alberta, Canada, said the marketing departments of many testing companies have gone overboard in their claims about DNA testing.

“These companies are really trying to push the idea that this is scientific,” he said in a televised interview with CBC Marketplace. “They present it in a way that looks very scientific and precise. It’s an exciting story. It’s about you, but I think it’s recreational science. People can have a little bit of fun.

“Don’t take it too seriously but know that you’re just getting some information of how your DNA compares to other people. It’s not tracing back your heritage.”

Knowing what company to choose and what kind of test to request can be confusing, considering there are four different kinds of tests and many testing agencies.

Four major companies offer DNA testing—Ancestry, 23andMe, Family Tree DNA and MyHeritage—although several more have started within the last few years.

Four genealogically related analyses can be done, although not all companies perform all tests,” Palozzi said. “Briefly, testing can be done on the y chromosome (yDNA identifies direct paternal lineage), the x chromosome (xDNA, female pattern of inheritance), mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA identifies direct maternal lineage) and autosomal DNA (atDNA, overall ethnic/geographical origins). Which tests a person should order depends on the person’s testing goals.”

Most people choose autosomal, because it gives more information on geographical origins. Because it is so much more popular, the chances of finding relatives is also much higher. Ancestry has the largest database, so one is more likely to find relatives there. Some experts called in question its formula for determining Italian ethnicity, especially for northern Italian regions and Tuscany.

Italian and Italian American Spadoni cousins meet in Italy. An Ancestry DNA test was the key to their coming together. Susan Spadoni, Sauro Spadoni, Suzanne Spadoni, Paul Spadoni, Annette Spadoni Bannon, Sharon Spadoni Marr.

Sorrentino recommends Ancestry for finding relatives but Living DNA for ethnicity. Palozzi favors 23andMe as the most accurate for determining Italian origins, but he added this caveat: “Which companies provide the most accurate results at any given time can change, because each company has its own reference database which is updated from time to time. Additionally, companies may use different mathematical formulas to do their analyses, and the science continues to develop, providing more refined analyses.”

Serafinn, who has extensively researched her father’s northern Italian ancestry, received analyses from four companies: Ancestry, 23andMe, CRI Genetics and MyHeritageDNA. Of these, MyHeritageDNA matched her genealogical research most closely. However, she found comparisons difficult because “no two companies have the same test people in their reference panels, no two companies have the same number of ethnic groups, no two companies label their populations with the same names and no two companies define these populations with the same geographic boundaries.”

Palozzi said he expects the companies to steadily become more accurate and detailed as their sample sizes increase.

“Your testing can help scientists and historians better understand the development of modern Italy,” he said, “and it may help others who are trying to discover their own roots. It’s only because of the people who have tested so far that we can do these analyses, and the more who test, the better the analyses will be.”

Another cautionary note is added by Ancestry on its website: “You may discover unexpected facts about yourself or your family when using our services. Once discoveries are made, we can’t undo them.” This warning is provided because some people discover for the first time that they are not genetically related to a parent, sibling or cousin because of what genealogists call a non-paternity event. This can result from undisclosed adoption, sperm donation, marital infidelity, rape or medical mistakes during procedures such as in vitro fertilization. Estimates of misattributed paternity range from 2% to 12%.

Discovery of a non-paternity event was initially devasting to Steven King, who shared his feelings on Megyn Kelly Today in 2018. King recommends joining a support group, many of which can easily be found online.

“It’s such basic information about your individuality that should not be revealed via email,” King said. “Such personal details should be revealed to you by your family. If you’re going to get a DNA test, be prepared. The information could be life-changing.”

Some people may be hesitant to send their DNA off to a big company because of privacy concerns and fears that their data may be stolen, sold or obtained by the government. However, they all make strong statements about the importance of privacy and the efforts they take to protect it. They have state-of-the art systems to prevent hacking and security breaches.

“Customers can control how much of their information is made available to other users,” Palozzi said. “Privacy and security have always been a priority with the major companies, and since they have European customers, they’re following stricter European Union laws over the U.S. laws.”

23andMe’s website says: “Respect for customer privacy and transparency are core principles that guide 23andMe’s approach to responding to legal requests and maintaining customer trust. We will not share your data with any public databases. We will not provide any person’s data to an insurance company or employer. Unless required to do so by law, we will not release a customer’s individual-level personal information to any third party without asking for and receiving that customer’s explicit consent. More specifically, we will closely scrutinize all law enforcement and regulatory requests and we will only comply with court orders, subpoenas, search warrants or other requests that we determine are legally valid.”

Whatever one’s motivations for testing, if current trends continue, more than 100 million people will have submitted their genes for testing by the end of 2021. And whether one is determined to be 100% or 1% Italian by the arbitrary standards of ethnicity, sometimes it’s wise to set aside technicalities and consider the words of the late poet Enzo Camilleri: “Italy is an emotion that hits you in the heart and will never leave you again. Italy is something inside you . . . an intoxication that takes you away in the moments when you are in apnea, a beauty tattooed on your eyes that projects you, in the blink of an eye, well above the ugliness that surrounds you.”

Paul Spadoni is an author and speaker on the topics of Italian living and genealogy. He writes a popular blog, “Living (with) Abroad in Tuscany,” and is the author of a Readers’ Choice award-winning memoir, “An American Family in Italy: Living la Dolce Vita without Permission.” Spadoni has obtained his jure sanguinis Italian citizenship and lives in both Montecarlo, Italy, and Gig Harbor, Washington.

Ex-pat describes day 2 of COVID-19 virus lockdown in Tuscany's Lucca

Cyclists touring Lucca's massive wall in better times.

I recently reported on life in Lucca by citing a post from one of my ex-pat Facebook friends, written just before the country-wide quarantine was imposed. Today Jonell wrote an update, which I will post here:

Lucca is like a ghost town. This is the second day of lockdown. This morning, we went food shopping and to the pharmacy, but the merchants’ association agreed to close almost all other businesses until the virus is under control. We’re getting used to lining up in the street to go into the pharmacies and the greengrocer, butcher and baker shops in order to respect the one-meter distance from others.

This afternoon, like many others (except the elderly) we decided to break the ban on staying in except in case of necessity and did our daily promenade on the wall. Taking advantage of the spring sunshine felt like a necessity. There were still a fair number of runners and bikers on the wide boulevard that tops the wall. The fruit trees are in blossom and seem to know nothing about a virus, although the mayor has tested positive and city hall can only be contacted by telephone. There were policemen stopping people randomly, but we didn’t get checked.

A local woman who had been released from the hospital fell ill with COVID-19 again and was sent back to the hospital. This bug is vicious and tenacious, and the Italian government is right to lock down the whole country. It feels a little like we’re in a prison that we all agree to be in, but it’s far from martial law. In fact, we live across from the real prison, perhaps the only one in Italy that hasn’t yet rioted over deprivation of visiting rights.

Yesterday I thought we were starting to see the light because there were fewer new cases than the day before: only 977. Today, that number has leaped to 2,015, bringing the total number to 12,462. Seventy-three thousand tests have been carried out and they’re still in supply.

I sometimes curse the one who brought this to Italy and walked around with flu symptoms. I remember my mother keeping me home from school when I had a cold so I wouldn’t give it to others. I was too young to understand the implications of Camus’ The Plague when I read it in French class. We know more now than we did in the nineteenth century, the period in which it was set. We have more means to fight this. Now we all must apply our knowledge wisely as the Italians are doing. The question is how long can we live like this in a country so used to freedom of movement by ground, air or sea? The very idea of not being able to go wherever you want when you want might prove to be trying.

Coronavirus having an impact now in Tuscany, but residents still optimistic

UPDATE: Just a few hours after I posted this, all of Italy was declared a red zone. However, the rest of the message is still relevant.

Had it not been for the divine intervention of Lucy’s little slip on the stairway in late January, right now we would be in Montecarlo in the province of Lucca, which quite possibly will be put under quarantine in the near future. Twelve provinces are currently quarantined, and Lucca (see map) touches the border of one of the zones locked down by government decree.

It wouldn’t be terrible to be confined to Montecarlo, as we have a very comfortable home there. Montecarlo has a nice grocery store and plenty of restaurants that would probably remain available to locals. And I just read on Matteo Bianchi’s Facebook page that he will deliver groceries and prepared meals from his family’s grocery store and delicatessen in San Salvatore, so we wouldn’t even have to leave our house if we didn’t want to.

But I’d rather be in Gig Harbor, as I’m able to start planting seeds for our summer garden and get our business ready for the summer. We also have a small family reunion in South Carolina planned for early April that we would miss if we were stuck under a quarantine in Italy.

Still I can’t help but wonder what our friends and family in Tuscany are going through, and I know many others would like to know as well. One of my Facebook friends in Lucca just posted an update, and it deserves wider circulation. It is from Jonell Galloway, a fellow author currently living in Lucca.

Life is no longer normal in Italy, but we are surviving. As always, there is both good and bad in our predicament. The bad is that people are dying from a virus brought from China to Bavaria then on to Italy. The good is the moving solidarity, goodwill and efforts the Italian government and people have displayed at every level.

Jonell in Lucca

It is not through lack of reactivity that this has spread. The government and health care system have been unfailing in their organization and efforts. We are kept up to date on a practically minute-by-minute basis on numerous government-sponsored sites. Museums, theatres, cinemas, concert halls and schools have been closed. The government is urging and sometimes mandating that public events be canceled. If we are fragile of health or have traveled to highly contaminated zones, we are urged to go into self-isolation.

In order to support these efforts, many food purveyors and pharmacies are delivering to people over 75 free of charge. Doctors have been requested to be on call by phone from 8 to 8 every day. If you think you have the symptoms, properly equipped medical teams come to you instead of you going to the hospital and taking the risk of contaminating others.

This is not China and it is not authoritarian. Unlike China, we live in a free, democratic country where mandates can be ignored and it is virtually impossible to seal borders, but for the most part everyone is cooperating. At the end of last week, a new mandate was passed requiring a distance of one meter between people in all public places. As a result, today, the greengrocer could only allow three people in the shop at a time, some bakers one at a time. Today, I was required to sanitize my hands before going in and wear disposable gloves while shopping. After paying, they invited me to sanitize my hands once again.

Despite the increasing number of new cases every day, the recovery rate is higher than in other countries. Tests and treatment are available to everyone, even foreigners, free of charge, no questions asked. Lucca and Tuscany are not yet formally locked down, but people are making incredible efforts to be careful as if it were. I would like to thank everyone who has written to check on us. We are well but have canceled our trip to Rome and are in self-imposed self-isolation. Trains are just too high-risk at the moment. The Italians are survivors, as history has proven. They have incredible resilience and courage in the face of calamity, and I feel strangely blessed to witness this. Be careful and be well.

Life in Tuscany mostly normal now during Italy's Corona virus outbreak

Has life in Tuscany changed since the Corona virus outbreak in Northern Italy? I’m not in Montecarlo to observe personally, but many friends are checking in at my request.

Most of them said that after an initial period of uncertainty, there have been few changes. Some businesses are taking extra precautions to sanitize their desks and tables, and people are washing their hands more often.

Carnevale in Venezia was ended two days early because of
concerns about the virus. However, Carnevale in  the
Tuscan city of Viareggio continued as usual.

“Life proceeds normally with a few extra precautions,” Marco Lardieri said. “Some people were particularly frightened and stormed supermarkets and medical stores for masks and hand sanitizers. In Tuscany, schools have remained open even if a few families do not send their children to school out of fear.”

People continue to go shopping, visiting and dining at restaurants and coffee shops.

“In our area everything is quite normal,” Marilena Palamidessi said. “People move about as before.”

“From my point of view there are no changes,” Chiara Boldrini said. “I go to university in Florence by train and it runs on time, without problems. The panic situation was essentially created by the media, perhaps due to the lack of knowledge of the virus. Already today, in my opinion. the climate of general tension has eased.”

Matteo Bianchi, who runs a grocery store in San Salvatore, said his business has been unaffected.

Business continues as usual in the Bianchi macelleria and
grocery store in San Salvatore.

“For now, it’s all quiet,” Fausto Seghieri said. “The virus is little worse than influenza, but it’s mostly just unnecessary alarmism. Of course, there are always a few exceptions, people who worry excessively.”

Francesco Menchini said some people acted like an atomic bomb had been dropped. They rushed out to stock up on supplies. “I heard that one man in Marliana bought 4,000 euros in groceries,” he said. ‘But this was a rare case, and after some initial concern, normal life is going on.”

Gisella Paganelli said that tourism seems to have declined in Montecarlo. “I went there today during the lunch hour and it seemed deserted,” she said. However, I’ve lived in Montecarlo in February for the last four years, and that doesn’t seem particularly out of the ordinary on any given weekday in this season.

Tour guide Elena Benvenuti said that she and some of her colleagues have had a few cancellations, “some of them for July or August, which is very stupid, because by that time everything will be over.”

She said the panic shopping which took place “happened only last weekend when the news terrified people in isolated villages in Lombardia and the Veneto. Monday, normal life was back everywhere.”

Marco Lardieri pointed out that some of the publicity in Italy has been caused by extra precautions the government has taken, such as closing flights to China and testing many people.

“The high number of cases is also due to the high number of swabs that Italy made, about 5000 compared to swabs made in France (just under 300) and other European countries,” he said. “With the arrival of spring, the situation should return to normal.”

I’ll end with a comment that Salvatore Lardieri posted on his Facebook page. He pointed out that people are concerned that the bad publicity will impact businesses. “Let’s do something concrete to help,” he wrote. “Go out to eat something in these evenings . . . a plate of pasta, a steak, a pizza. We can make our contribution to the local economy by frequenting pizzerias, bars and restaurants . . . and I especially recommend, let’s drink a nice beer . . . Corona!!”

No Montecarlo for us this spring, but we're making the most of our time off

Lucy does one of her Italian lessons on
cassette tape. I make a fire every day and we
stay warm and cozy.

Right now, Lucy and I would normally be in Montecarlo, and we could give a personal report on the effects of the Coronvirus in Tuscany. However, in late January, she slipped going down the stairs in our Gig Harbor home and broke three bones in her left ankle and three more in her right foot.

She had an operation to reset the bones in her left ankle January 30. We were scheduled to leave for Montecarlo February 4, but we canceled that. We had no travel insurance, but thankfully, United Airlines refunded our tickets based on a letter from Lucy’s nurse explaining that Lucy was unable to fly.

Thinking that her left ankle would be nearly healed by mid-March, I booked a flight to go to Montecarlo alone on March 19 to check on our house and take care of some other business. Then the doctor discovered through a CT scan the broken bones in Lucy’s right foot, and she had another operation February 11. Realizing that this would not be healed before my flight, I subsequently canceled that trip as well.

We enjoy this view of our pond and the Olympic Mountains
during Lucy's recovery.

Since we work in Gig Harbor during the summer, we’ll not be able to see Montecarlo until next September or October. Normally, we only go for a month in the fall, but probably we’ll stay for two or more months this year to make up for lost time. I need to work on arrangements for our 2021 family reunion, and our home is due for an inspection of the caldaia.

Lucy is not in any pain and the bones are healing well. One of the upsides is that her Italian is improving because she has more time to do her lessons on Duolingo and by cassette tape. Meanwhile, I've been able to convert our pantry into a new laundry room and do a few projects in the yard.

As for news on the Coronvirus, I have written some of my friends in Montecarlo and the surrounding cities asking for reports—more coming on this tomorrow or the next day.

Save the date! Details on 2021 Italy reunion for Spadoni/Seghieri families

Here are Seghieri families from France and Italy (and one
from the United States) at a reunion in Montecarlo in 2016.

The dates have been set for our 2021 family reunion in Tuscany! (See Oct. 25, 2019, blog entry for background.) The event will be held from Monday, May 3, to Friday, May 7—and remember this will be in 2021, not 2020.

I realize this is not the best time for teachers and students, but I am not able to be in Italy during June because of my work. In addition, a date in early May allows us to avoid the heat and crowds of an Italian summer. May 3-4 will focus on the Valdinievole (Valley of the Nievole River) roots of the Spadoni family, and May 5-6 will feature Seghieri history. May 7 will be an open day, with a variety of suggested itineraries, an optional cooking class and a farewell dinner at Fattoria Il Poggio, one of Montecarlo’s finest restaurants.

 

Above are photos and details about the Spadoni/Seghieri reunion held in Gig Harbor in August 2019.

I anticipate that relatives from France, Italy and throughout the United States will attend. It is also possible that some relatives from South America could come as well.

Following is a tentative itinerary, with many details and exact times still to be worked out.

MONDAY, May 3

Morning: Road trip to Marliana, Massa, Buggiano Castello and Pescia—all places various Spadoni families have lived throughout the centuries.

Afternoon: Open

Evening: Dinner where you will be able to meet and greet Spadoni relatives. I will present information on how the various family lines are linked together along with history of the earliest known Spadonis. Primary information will be presented in both English and Italian.

This church in Stignano has a tomb for the Spadoni
family located in a prominent place.

TUESDAY, May 4

We’ll be on the road for most of the day in order to visit the most significant historical Spadoni sites.

Morning: Stignano, Borgo a Buggiano and Ponte Buggianese. The church in Stignano is where we find the first records of Spadoni marriages and baptisms in the late 15^th century. It’s also the location of the Spadoni tomb, an indication that the family occupied an important role in the town in the 1500s. In the 1600s and 1700s, most Spadonis moved into the lush farmlands that were opening up around Borgo a Buggiano and Ponte Buggianese as new canals lowered the level of the swampy Padule di Fucecchio. Ponte Buggianese still has a large concentration of Spadoni families, all of whom are descendants of two brothers from Stignano in the late 1400s. We will see the street named for Italo Spadoni, look at many Spadoni graves in the cemetery and visit the site where Italo was brutally murdered by Fascist zealots in 1924.

Afternoon: After lunch in one of Ponte Buggianese’s best restaurants, we’ll move on to San Salvatore, where Enrico, Michele, Alfredo and Adolfo Spadoni were raised (Enrico remained in Italy, while the other three all moved to Washington state). We’ll see the church where Michele met and later married Anita Seghieri. Then we’ll travel to Capannori, where we’ll visit the impressive but mysterious Torre degli Spadoni.

Evening: Dinner will tentatively be at La Favola Mia in Chiesina Uzzanese, which is owned by cousin Leonello Spadoni.

WEDNESDAY, May 5

Morning: Tour of the Fortezza di Montecarlo, followed by a wine and Tuscan aperitivo tasting (fees to be collected upon entrance).

Afternoon: Tour of Lucca, with 5-Star guide Elena Benvenuti, a Lucca native and the wife of Davide Seghieri.

Evening: Dinner where you will be able to meet and greet Seghieri relatives. I will present information on how the various family lines are linked together along with history of the earliest known Seghieris. Primary information will be presented in both English and Italian.

THURSDAY, May 6

We’ll be on the road for most of the day in order to visit the most significant historical Seghieri sites.

Morning: Tour of the facilities of the Casolare dei Fiori (family of Gilda Seghieri and Enzo Pasquinelli). Tour of churches in San Salvatore and Montecarlo and several other sites in Montecarlo with significance for Seghieri family members. Tour of Montecarlo cemetery.

Afternoon: Lunch in one of the Montecarlo restaurants that serves exquisite Tuscan cuisine. Tour of Casone di Marcucci (which once housed some 50 members of various Seghieri families), tour of family farm of Ivo, Celestino and Fabbio Seghieri. Tour of church in San Gennaro of Capannori, where Torello Seghieri was once the choir director. We’ll stop in Alberghi (a suburb of Pescia), where we will sample gelato from the best gelateria in the area and then stop at the bicycle shop owned by Francesca Seghieri and her husband Franco Natali. The final stop will be at a used merchandise store where you can buy interesting souvenirs at a great price.

Evening: Make your own plans for dinner. Recommendations will be available upon request.

FRIDAY, May 7

Morning: Open, but with many suggestions, including: Go to the open air market in Ponte Buggianese (ends at 1 p.m.). Take the funicolare to Montecatini Alto. Go to a wine tasting (plenty of options). Drive to Vinci, birthplace of Leonardo and home to two Leonardo museums. Shop in Montecarlo, Montecatini or Lucca. Drive to the Devil’s Bridge in Borgo a Mozzano. Go to the Parco di Pinocchio. Take a train to Florence or Pisa.

Afternoon: Cooking class with Elena Benvenuti.

Evening: Farewell dinner at Fattoria Il Poggio.

What kind of costs can you expect? Airfare, obviously, is a major expense, but you can save by making reservations well in advance. The closest airports are in Florence and Pisa, each of which are about 40 minutes from Montecarlo. It’s usually cheaper to fly to the major airports of Rome or Milan. However, if you are only coming for the reunion and not planning to visit other cities, it likely won’t be worth the savings to book flights to Rome or Milan because of the time and expense required to travel to Montecarlo.

You’ll need to provide your own housing, and I’ll provide recommendations with contact information in the coming months. You’ll also need to provide motor vehicle transportation as we move from site to site. You can rent a car at any airport.

Meals at our various group dinners will be paid to each restaurant, and costs will vary depending on what you order and the menu prices.

Elena is a professional tour guide, and if you want to take the tours of Lucca or the cooking class, you will pay her set rates and make your reservations with her directly. It would be great if you could contact her prior to the reunion, but you’ll also be able to sign up when you arrive. Entrance to the Fortezza di Montecarlo costs around 8 euro and a wine tasting will cost from 20-30 euro.

Otherwise, there are no costs associated with the historical site tours, which I will lead, with occasional help from other family members. Showing people around our wonderful ancestral home is my hobby and a labor of love.

I’m a little nervous about bringing so many people together in one place, most of whom speak only one language. However, there is precedent: The French Seghieri families, with help from Davide, Elena and other Montecarlo relatives, have held some wonderful reunions both in Italy and France. Your patience and positive attitudes will hopefully overcome my shortcomings in planning and leadership.

I’ll be in Italy for 10 days in March and for longer periods of time this fall and next spring, and I’ll be working with Elena and other relatives to firm up the plans. Meanwhile, put the dates on your calendars, talk to members of your family and make sure your passports are current. It may be more than a year away, but you’ll want to be well prepared for an unforgettable reunion and vacation! Ci vediamo in Italia.

Which company is best for DNA testing for Italian Americans?

Author's note: The data used here is now out of date, as the companies are regularly updating their formulas and becoming more accurate. See additional update at end of this article.

Testing for Ancestry? 23andMe? Family Tree DNA? Which of these companies—and many others that have joined the DNA testing game—are the best for finding relatives and determining one’s ethnic background, especially for those of Italian heritage? I’m an amateur genealogist and have now been tested by four different companies. Based on my experiences, I have some recommendations.

Ancestry is the best for finding relatives—by far. And, it’s the worst for determining Italian ethnicity—also by far.

It’s great for finding cousins because it has the largest database. Some 15 million people have submitted their genetic samples to the company as of May 2019, and the number nearly doubles each year. It has an option to let you search for people who had DNA tests matching yours by surname and by geographic region. Of course, this only helps if matching people have attached a family tree to their test results, but some have, and it has enabled me to find many previously unknown relatives.

It’s the worst for determining ethnicity for the simple reason that southern Italians and Northern Italians have different DNA patterns, and, in my experience, Ancestry seems to have decided that southern Italians are pure Italians, while northern Italians (and Tuscans) are only Italian to the extent that they have genes in common with southern Italians. That’s a bit of an oversimplification, but I have friends with Sicilian roots who have tested as 100% Italian, something I previously didn’t think could be possible. This seems especially ironic given that Sicily has been invaded more than 17 times by outside groups.

Sicily native Alfio Di Mauro, science PhD and former researcher at the University of Catania, said, “You’ll never find such a genetically diverse place in Europe as Sicily.” Indigenous residents have had their genes mixed with Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Islamic Arabs, Normans, Borbons, Spaniards, Jews and a host of other seafaring traders and invaders.

I also have Tuscan friends and relatives who can trace their ancestry back 200 years or more who test less than 20% Italian. Ancestry may be quite accurate in other areas, so their analyses are not worthless—my only complaint is with their Italian labeling. Perhaps I wouldn't be so inclined to complain if my ancestors were from the South, but I still think it's a shame that so many northern Italians and Tuscans were being informed that they are more French than Italian.

So what is the most accurate ethnicity service for Italians? This is not an easy question, because as Lynn Serafinn of Trentino Genealogy observes, “no two companies have the same test people in their reference panels, no two companies have the same number of ethnic groups, no two companies label their populations with the same names and no two companies define these populations with the same geographic boundaries.”

I can only speak for the four companies I’ve used, but I have some facts that make my situation worth considering. I’ve spent days in Italian archives researching my Italian ancestry, and I have found birth records for every Italian ancestor on my dad’s side of the family going back to all 16 of my third great grandparents. That takes into account 31 ancestors in total. Each one was born in the same valley in Italy, the Valdinievole (roughly between Lucca and Montecatini), or just a few miles away.

I’ve done the same from my mother’s mother, who came from Holland. All eight of my third great grandparents (and all successive ancestors until my mom) on my grandmother’s side were born in Amsterdam or no more than 10 miles from there. Theoretically, this should make me half Italian, and one quarter Dutch.

My mom’s dad is not so easy to classify, since his ancestors had settled in Ohio and Indiana many centuries before he was born. The best I can determine is that he was about 65% German and 35% British. That would make me about 16% German and 9% British. German ethnicity is a little hard to pin down, because travel and borders between what is now Germany, Switzerland, Holland and even France have varied through the centuries.

I never expected any DNA test to show me as 50% Italian, because Italians have mixed with other countries over the centuries, and the specific genetic segments selected for comparison could also have more of my mom’s genes than my dad’s.

With this in mind, 23andMe comes the closest to replicating my genealogy data. While 30% Italian seems a bit low, I accept it as a reasonable variation, and I’m impressed that the company pinned most of this down to Tuscany (CRI Genetics was the only other company that named Tuscany as a gene source). If you add my researched Dutch and German, the combined 41% comes close to 23andMe’s 46%, and then the British/Scandinavian mixture is fairly close as well (many British people have Scandinavian roots anyway).

Ancestry not only has me low in Italian but much too high in British roots. They have me as more French than Italian, and this result comes out much worse for my brother Roger, whom Ancestry claims is only 4% Italian and 26% French. Meanwhile, sister Linda is also only 4% Italian and 17% French, and some of my cousins (also half Italian by genealogical standards) come out as 0% Italian. In case you are thinking that maybe we had some unknown French ancestor, I have covered this topic in another blog post, and I am certain this is not so. Even if I had a French fourth great grandparent, I would only have inherited 1.56% of French genes from him or her. See also Are new Ancestry.com algorithms ignoring northern and central Italians?

Family Tree DNA is in some ways the broadest and least helpful. It’s hard to argue it’s not accurate, since the maps they include for Southeast Europe and West & Central Europe overlap such that both include Tuscany—but really all that it tells me is that I’m mainly from Europe. The one interesting tidbit is that they credit me with being 7% Sephardic (Hispanic) Jew. Large numbers of Jews left Spain for Italy and France when they were forced out in the late 15^th century. A substantial admixture between Jewish and Tuscan genes in the 1500s and beyond could be the reason I’m not closer to 50% Italian—and also why Ancestry thinks we have some French genes (which could actually be from Sephardic Jews who settled in France).

CRI Genetics has me too high on German and too low on Italian, but it’s interesting that they give me 7% Spanish and 3% Jewish and French. This would lend credence to the theory that I had Sephardic Jewish ancestors who left Spain and immigrated to Italy and France. However, my Dutch grandmother reportedly also had some Jewish roots, so where my Jewish DNA came from is far from certain.

In summary, one should remember that just because 23andMe most closely matches my known family tree doesn’t mean others will find the same level of accuracy. While the actual genetic code is hard science, the interpretations of cultural origins is fraught with assumptions, extrapolations and educated guesses.

I should also note that genealogist Serafinn has extensively researched her father’s northern Italian ancestry and also received analyses from four companies: Ancestry, 23andMe, CRI Genetics and MyHeritageDNA. Of these, MyHeritageDNA—a company I’ve not yet tried—matched  her genealogical research most closely.

Recently one of my Italian America Facebook friends, Jim Pantaleno, posted a simple but brilliant message that is always good to remember: “If the Italian culture is the only one you know because generations of your family trace back to what is now Italy, then you are Italian. Period. Whatever else might be mixed in, like spices in a classic dish, only adds to the flavor.”

* * *

Updates: Both 23andMe and Ancestry have revised their estimations, and they are closer to being accurate when compared to my actual ancestry. 23andMe now lists me as 43% Italian (mostly central). In 2022, Ancestry upped my Italian percentage from 11 to 45 and called it 41% Northern Italian, a very accurate assessment. You can read about the update here: Ancestry makes a big advance . . .

Beneath a Scarlet Sky an eye-opening tale of World War 2 in Northern Italy

Here's an update on the movie plans.

Mark Sullivan posted on his Facebook page in June of 2024: I’m overjoyed to say that “Beneath a Scarlet Sky” is now being developed by Imperative Entertainment, the producers behind the amazing movie adaptation of “Killers of the Flower Moon,” which was nominated for a ridiculous number of Oscars last year. The folks at Imperative are passionate about Pino Lella’s story – one of them grew up on the Swiss border with Italy very close to where the tale unfolds – and are doing a great job so far with the screenplay.

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I’ve read at least a half dozen books that describe what it was like to live in Italy during World War 2—but none quite as compelling or eye-opening as Under a Scarlet Sky, by Mark Sullivan and published in 2017.

Author Mark Sullivan with Giuseppe "Pino" Lella.

The book is based on the true story of Pino Lella and covers the years from June of 1943 to the end of the war in September of 1945. Lella was a happy-go-lucky 17-year-old Italian boy whose family home in Milan was destroyed by Allied bombers. When his parents sent Pino and his brother into the mountains for safety, they worked under the direction of a Catholic priest to smuggle hundreds of Jews to neutral Switzerland.

Pino Lella at age 17.
Photo provided by Lake Union Publishing.

When Pino turned 18 and was required to enlist in the Italian army, he became the driver and translator for one of the most powerful and mysterious officers in the German High Command. Lello also became a vital spy for the Partisan resistance.

Lella risked his life to pass along information about German plans and the location of vital weapon-producing factories. He also witnessed important events and conversations, met Benito Mussolini and Clarina Petrarci, lost friends and extended family members and fell in love with a woman who would haunt him the rest of his life.

Beneath the Scarlet Sky is an extensively researched novel of biographical and historical fiction that reads much like a work of narrative nonfiction. In an interview with author and blogger M.K. Tod in May of 2019, Sullivan describes some of the efforts he took for accuracy: “In late March 2006. I spent nearly three weeks with Pino, who was 79 at the time. We went all over northern Italy so I could see where many of the incidents he described had occurred. We drove high into the Alps and visited the site of a Catholic boys’ school that served as a staging facility for Jews escaping Nazi-occupied Italy. I climbed and skied the escape routes myself. In Milan, we met with a retired priest who’d been a forger in the underground railroad that led Jews out of Italy, and we walked the streets of the fashion district where Pino had grown up. We talked to Holocaust historians, war historians, and old men who’d been part of the partisan resistance.”

Pino after the war in 1949.

Ironically, a few readers have given the book mediocre reviews because they find it unbelievable that one teenager could have experienced and seen so much in such a short time (see note below*). I tend to believe that while dialogue and descriptive details were added, the major events truly took place. Sullivan spent extensive time with Lella, so why would he have to invent incidents? Pino’s story is a great example of the axiom that truth is stranger than fiction. Life experience have shown me this can be the case at times.

Another criticism is that the writing is simplistic and not especially literary in tone. For me, the action, intrigue and historical value more than make up for that minor shortcoming. In fact, the movie rights to the story have already been purchased and Tom Holland has been selected for the lead role.

Tom Holland
Photo courtesy Gage Skidmore.

What makes this book stand out from the other stories I’ve read about Italy during war times? First, Pino’s position as a driver and translator for a general in charge of operations in Northern Italy gave him unique insights on the machinations of the war. He was able to see both the daily lives and sufferings of Italian citizens and the inside operations of the German army.

The second intriguing aspect: the descriptions of the acrid relationships between Fascists and the partisan resistors. In books I’ve read about the war in Southern Italy, the Fascists lost the support of the Nazis in autumn of 1943. In Northern Italy, the Fascists maintained a semblance of power for two more years, which they used to help the Germans dominate the citizenry, rob factories and farms, and create a labor force of Italian slaves.

Having read mostly about the experiences of Southern Italians, the bitter animosity that developed between opposing sides in the North surprised and saddened me. Lella witnessed unspeakable brutality and witnessed grievous losses because of conflicts among fellow countrymen. As the war ended, mobs of otherwise ordinary citizens became blood-thirsty avengers, executing anyone suspected of being Fascists or associating with the German occupiers.

“The WW II era was a time when courage was common,” Sullivan said. “There were also clear and defined enemies who forced one person after another to decide who they were going to be and how they were going to act in the face of evil.

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Other books on the Second World War in Italy that I’ve reviewed:
Bicycle Runner provides a compelling look inside war-shattered Italy
Franca’s War tells tragic saga of Italian suffering . . .
And here’s one about a movie that depicts war times:
L’Uomo che Verrà

*Footnote: Because some of the (very few) negative reviews of this book on Amazon questioned whether the events in the book were true, I wrote to the author. Here is the answer, direct from Mark Sullivan: “As I indicated in the preface to tell the story I had to do things like create composite characters and stitch lines of plot in a way that tell the story more efficiently. For example, I couldn’t tell the story of the thirty or so escapes that Pino Lella led in the winter of 1943-44, so I put together two escapes based on the parts of others. Mrs. Napolitano is based on three different women who Pino helped into Switzerland. One of them was a violinist, one was an older woman, and one was pregnant. Out of those three, the character of Mrs. Napolitano came to life. Did Alberto Ascari teach Pino Lella to drive? He did. Just not in the way I portrayed it. But, from a novelist’s point of view, I had to show you that Pino Lella could drive the way I described, and that is unequivocally true. I have driven in cars with him, and it was hair-raising. Did he actually get the job of driver to General Leyers by fixing his car? Yes. According to Pino, that’s exactly why he got the job.”
In addition, I listened to a presentation by Sullivan at Wagner College, and someone asked about the love story between Pino and Anna. Absolutely true, Sullivan said. He had to pry the information out of Pino, and it was an extremely personal and emotional experience for both Lella and Sullivan.