Retire Early Lifestyle
Retirement; like your parents, but way cooler

In 1991 Billy and Akaisha Kaderli retired at the age of 38. Now, into their 4th decade of this financially independent lifestyle, they invite you to take advantage of their wisdom and experience.

The City Hall of Records

Faeto, Italy

Billy and Akaisha Kaderli

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We came to this centuries-old mountain town in Italy to find out what we could about my Family's Heritage.

Growing up in the center of Ohio, we kids knew very little about our Italian ancestors.

And I mean VERY little.

The story goes that my Italian Grandparents came over from the "Old Country" on a boat, went through Ellis Island for processing and landed in central Ohio because that was where the work was.

Anything before that was "lost forever."

We hadn't a clue.

And I personally never thought we'd find out anything more, so I simply accepted it.

But I was wrong.

The City Hall of Records

Over the decades of my life I heard bits and pieces of my Grandparents' story.

My Grandfather was the 10th child of 18 children.

There was no work in Faeto, the town where he was born.

I find out later that  - due to the decades of wars surrounding the Reunification of Italy and the new Land Reforms and Land Redistribution laws put into effect after the Reunification - his parents were no longer able to farm the land where they lived.

Hence... they could no longer feed their massive family.

So my Great Grandparents sent Giuseppe Figliola (my Grandfather) to America to have a chance at a better life.

This was the early 1900s.

The Family Tree

This handwritten piece of lined yellow paper is THE only record I have of my Italian Family's Genealogy.

Written by my Father's Oldest Sister, there are misspellings, and I found out that some of the dates are not reliable.

Beside each name are dates - were these the years they were born? Or the dates they got married? Or the year they emigrated to the US? They were what she remembered and they gave me a structure with which I could at least begin.

As you can see on the above list - due to the poverty the family found themselves in during the late 1800s - at least 9 of my relatives from Faeto emigrated to the US.

Demographic services - The office is open on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4.00 pm to 7.00 pm

Before we came to Italy, I decided that I was not going to spend hours and hours in a reference library not knowing what I was looking for. I was happy enough to find out this mysterious, magical town was real.

I didn't know how the Office of Records would work, (computerized records? microfiche? old dusty books with hand written entries? Any cross references?)  We only had the one full day here in the town, and so I simply left it all to fate.

As it turned out, Billy and I were wandering around the town late in the chilly afternoon on a Tuesday when we came upon the City Hall of Records.

Billy encouraged me to go in.

It was a lot of hand gesturing, showing people the photo I had of the yellow-lined Genealogy chart I had and some Google Translate to fill in big gaps.

One guy talked to another guy who shouted down the hall to another guy.

A man in glasses smoking a cigarette stood up from the table and in very broken English wanted to see what I had.

As a polite Italian, I'm sure he introduced himself to me, but I don't remember his name.

I think I was in shock.

Old record books in the City Hall of Records

We walked down the hall to the last room on the left and went in.

The only light available was the natural light coming in from a window on this cloudy afternoon.

In a closet there were rows and rows of books, dated by year.

On several tables in the room were stacks of these books, some of them opened up.

If I had had my wits about myself I would have started taking photos right away. As it was, the moment I took this hurried photo above, the records man said firmly "NO PHOTOS."

I didn't understand why I couldn't take any photos - maybe he thought I was going to falsify records and use them somehow.

But I followed his orders.

After about 40 minutes of this man pulling one book down from the shelf and then another and taking close looks between my phone and his books, he begins speaking to me in Italian.

The Records Man looking at my phone while going through one of the record books

The Italian culture is very traditional.

The Records Man decides he's stuck and can't find all that I am searching for. With some animation, he asks to see my husband to explain this to him, man-to-man.

I go out of the office and shout down the hall "Billy! Billy! This man wants to speak with you for some reason!"

So Billy - who is not related to anyone within a thousand miles and who doesn't speak Italian - comes to the Records Man.

It's a man's world and Billy knows how to play the game.

Very importantly, he was able to snap the photo above without this man seeing him.

He explains to Billy (in Italian) that he has done his best, but cannot find record of my Grandfather's birth date. He has found other siblings and relatives, and my Grandmother's information but he is perplexed that he cannot find Giuseppe Figliola in the birth records for the year I have given him.

Billy says "Thank you for your time, Sir," shakes his hand and walks away.

Then the man turns to me and says in English "This has never happened to me before. I always find the record. I am very sorry."

I could swear he had a tear in his eye.

It was a happy day for me and a bittersweet one too.

I certainly found more than I was hoping for, having literally stumbled over this City Hall Building.

But then I also realized that my Oldest Aunt had possibly gotten the date of my Grandfather's birth wrong and that she had misspelled my Great Grandmother's last name incorrectly by transposing some letters.

We were so close, but not quite there, know-what-I-mean?

If you are doing any Genealogy of your family overseas, be sure to bring hard copies instead of cell phone photos of whatever information is available - birth dates, marriage dates, baptismal dates, and death dates. This will make it easier than scrolling back and forth on a tiny screen.

And allow much more time than I did to discover what you can.

Let the Ancestry dig begin!

Retire Early Lifestyle appeals to a different kind of person – the person who prizes their independence, values their time, and who doesn’t want to mindlessly follow the crowd.

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