In early 2001, a family member received an email from someone with the last name of Vampatella from Australia. When they had googled Vampatella, they found a boat load of information on Philip Vampatella fighter pilot - my uncle. Vampatella is not a common name, so when the Australian person found Uncle Phil, they contacted him to see if they were related. Over many months and emails (yes, I printed them out and I still have them!) there was never a resolution to the question, "Are we related".
The story was that there was a man name Vampatella born in Italy and put up for adoption. He was adopted by an Australian family and moved there. Uncle Phil had hired a researcher to look into this possibility and no answer could be found. Now, there are many holes in this story, but there was a great deal of fun speculating on "who could have done the deed"!
Grandpa Vampatella, also with the given name of Philip, had written a book called Passeggiata. Can you see where I got the title of my blog from? He wrote this book with a typewriter in 1965 as a biography when in reality it was an autobiography. He was very creative. Philip Vampatella was born in the town of Biscari (now called Acate) in the province of Ragusa on the island of Sicily in the country of Italy on September 14, 1897 and he died October 13, 1983 in Bay Shore, New York. If there was a story about a child who was given up for adoption, we suspect he would have known, but that secret would have been buried with him - if there was a story.
Now, forward to November 2012, Mark, my husband, and I decided to take a trip to Vittoria, Sicily, the town grandpa grew up in. With the Passeggiata in hand and an address in Vittoria that the research from years prior had discovered, Mark and I drove from Rome to Sicily to look for my grandfather's story/relatives or whatever we could find...including the mystery.
Grandpa was excellent at describing things including the house he had lived in.
"The casello was a two-story building, the copy of which was planted at every kilometer along the (railroad) track that linked the various towns and hamlets in that part of Sicily. The building was designed to house two employees and their families. It was rent-free, one room down, one upstairs for each family."
I was reading this to Mark as we were entering Vittoria when all of a sudden he pulls the car off to the side of the road and jumps out of the car. I am startled by this and jump out after him when he says, "This was your grandfather's house!!" And there, just over the railroad tracks, was the casello that grandpa so beautifully described.
Further on we went to the address, Via Principi Umberto #13, Vittoria - The home of my great grandfather, Biagio Vampatella. This uninhabited abode was crumbling, but in my eyes it was beautiful. Not far was the cathedral - Basilica of St. John the Baptist. We walked over and spoke with a person regarding Vampatella ancestors. Before we arrived in Italy, Mark had used an app to learn to speak Italian. And of course, he could really get by! The church gave us the name of the archivist, Salvatore Palmeri and we met with him the next day.
Up the narrow dark stairway in a building not far from the church, we entered a small room with books dating from the 1600's all written in Latin. One by one, Salvatore went back through time and found many ancestors. The earliest Vampatella to arrive in Vittoria was Pietro Vampatella born 1676 in Chiramonte Gulfi. What had life been like back then? He could not find the unknown Vampatella that was given up for adoption. He suspected the adopted Vampatella was not related.
We could never come to an absolute conclusion regarding the relationship of the Vampatella in Australia to Vampatella's of my family, but years later my first cousin did a DNA test as did the Vampatella descendant in Australia, and they did not share DNA.
So, that's it!! That's how Cathy's obsession with genealogy got started. Thanks to the unknown Vampatella in Australia and Grandpa Vampatella's book.
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