President Russell M. Nelson declared, “Anytime you do anything that helps anyone—on either side of the veil—take a step toward making covenants with God and receiving their essential baptismal and temple ordinances, you are helping to gather Israel. It is as simple as that” (Russell M. Nelson, “Hope of Israel,” worldwide devotional for youth, June 3, 2018, churchofjesuschrist.org/broadcasts).
We continue to enjoy our service in the Italy Milan Mission as Family Search Record Preservation Specialists. As such I thought that I’d share a few ways that we have found to contribute to the ongoing gathering of Israel through our current Family Search efforts here in Italy.
The Italy Family Search Team
To start off we’d like to introduce you to our Italy Family
Search Team. Full-time Family Search Employees: Walter Zafarana is our team leader; Simona Gessate provides administrative
support for Family Search in Italy and Spain; and (missing in the photo below) Andrew
Trexler, who oversees camera operations and the contract photographers. Missionaries:
Ken and Pam King serve along with us in the Italy Milan Mission. Michael and Beth Castellano serve in the Italy
Rome Mission; Paolo and Eloisa D’Apuzzo serve
as service missionaries in the Napoli area, and Mattia Da Ponte who was
recently released from his service mission here in Milan. Sorry
about the poor quality of several of the people in the photo. This is a result of poor bandwidth on our
Zoom call.
Each team member contributes to our record preservation efforts, even though our individual roles vary. I thought I'd share a short summary of our current operation (subject to change
when new opportunities come along, or we get guidance from Family Search on the
corporate level).
· Walter provides the overall direction for the Italy team and is the primary lead for Family Search contract negotiations
· Simona provides administrative support for Italy and Spain and contacts archivists all over the county to create opportunities to digitize archives and then sets up meetings that begin contract negotiations
· Andrew is responsible for the camera operations which means that he coordinates the schedule and logistics with archivists and then hires contract camera operators to capture images in archives across Italy and several other Eastern European countries
· Ken and I mainly focus on creating Digital Reading Rooms (DRR’s) which is a way that we return images to the archives in a digital computer desktop database once the images have been captured
· Ken has been working with DRR’s the longest so he is our defacto computer and DRR technical lead
· Jodie, Pam and Beth work on personal research and special projects such as dividing microfilms into individual books so that they can be published online and make research on the Family Search website easier, along with other miscellaneous tasks
· Eloisa makes arrangements with the archivists for DRR delivery and other opportunities
· Paolo, Michael and Beth deliver DRR’s, install them on computers and then train archivists and their staff how to use them
Digital Reading Room delivery
and installation
The Castellano’s and King’s also went to Palermo to deliver and
install several DRR’s in January. We
were invited but opted not to go along on that trip so we could focus on other work. As it turned out they got rained on the whole
trip and spent a week driving on steep, narrow, slippery roads up to tiny
villages to make their deliveries. Even
so, they had a wonderful experience delivering and installing DRR’s in a number
of small villages in the Palermo region.
As they made their deliveries to the archivists, they share the stories
and details in our Family Search Team WhatsApp chat. The typical pattern of their visits often starts
with a cold reception veiled in suspicion which is then usually followed by a
complete change of heart and welcome as they install and explain how to use a DRR. My favorite comment came from an archive
assistant in Palermo who simply said, “You changed my life!” Our hope is to not only change the life of
the archivists but to make these precious records easily available to those seeking out
their ancestors.
Digital Reading Room creation
To support the DRR delivery and installation efforts, I have been busy creating DRR’s and them shipping them south to the Castellano’s who live in the Napoli area. Some DRR's are small and easily fit onto a small flash drive. The largest that I've worked on so far was for Catania and we had to install it onto a 4 TB hard drive. Since the first of the year 2025, I’ve created DRR’s for Rome Miltary, Gorizia, Sant’Angello di Napoli, Castellemare di Stabia, Catania, Piazza Armerina, Acrireale, Marano, Geraci Siculo, Nola, Pomigliano and Pompei (in total these DRR’s contain 5.9 million images with date ranges from 1415 to 1999). Some DRR’s are large and some small, but the thing that they all have in common is that they contain images of precious records that enable research of for those seeking to find and connect to their Italian family members. In this digital format people can search without the computer being connected to the internet.
Oltre il Colle service project update and follow up
In our last blog we talked about a service project in Oltre il Colle where we organized and labeled the local parish archive. We are confident that this effort will help others find their family members because the archive is now organized chronologically by events. While we were in Oltre il Colle, and a quick visit to Zambla Bassa, we were able to take personal photos of several other volumes of records which Jodie has been pouring over these past few weeks. Of particular interest in Oltre il Colle are 3 volumes of birth records that span from 1575 to 1867, 2 volumes of marriage records from 1756 to 1867, and death records from 1816-1867. From these records she has been able to document hundreds of individuals and connect them in families in the Family Search Tree. Because the first names and last names are so common and similar, she often has to rely upon multiple sources to make sure that she has the right parents and spouses. We are planning to visit the Oltre il Colle and Zambla Bassa archives again in two weeks and hope to take additional personal photos in the archives, particularly death and marriage records, that will enhance her research ability.
As we completed our archive organization in Oltre il Colle,
we provided Leonardo, the parish secretary, a flash drive with a copy of the personal
photos that we had taken. Our plan was
to update that flash drive with additional photos after each visit. As we visited with Walter one day, he
suggested that we actually turn these images into a Digital Reading Room. That was a great suggestion but did require
some effort to figure out just how to do that.
When we download digital images from Family Search we also get a ‘search
results’ file which we can then manipulate to form a metadata file which organizes
images within a DRR. Because our personal
archive photos don’t come with a downloaded search results file, I had to
figure out how to create the basic metadata needed so that our images could be
formulated to create a DRR. After some
study and trial and error, I finally got it to work! Our plan now is to deliver a DRR with
personal photos taken so far in the archives in Oltre il Colle and Zambla Bassa. Our next planned visit is in a couple of
weeks so we can deliver and install DRR’s on their computers. These DRR’s not only provide a digital backup
record archive but will allow them to access and view individual records of
their archive without even going into the archive and pulling the books from
the shelves. We are confident that they
will love this, and we’ll update their DRR’s each time we take more
photos.
Zambla Bassa is the home of Jodie’s Balzi family; her
grandmother was a Balsi (spelled Balsi in the US but typically spelled Balzi
here in Italy). The parish secretary in
Zambla Bassa is Mario; Mario’s grandmother was also a Balzi. We are confident that Jodie and Mario are related
but we haven’t figured out how just yet.
To answer this question, Jodie has also been working on a family tree
for Mario. Unfortunately, we don’t have as many photos
of the Zambla Bassa records for her to figure that out just yet. We are excited to show Mario his family tree
and the supporting records found in his archive. We hope to take more photos on our next visit
so she can continue filling out his tree and her own to find the connecting point.
Our contacts and relationships that we have developed with
Leonardo and Mario have been amazing and miraculous. Even though we have a significant language
barrier, Jodie communicates with them via WhatsApp messages using Google
Translate. They are both very welcoming
and are appreciative of our interest in the records and the connection to family
that we are able to make using their records.
What a blessing to us to have access to these precious records and to
have an open door and a relationship with these two men.
Billion Graves headstone information
capture
As time allows we like to visit
small cemeteries to photograph headstones for Billion Graves. (Please refer to an earlier blog post for
more information about this). We recently
started working on a very large cemetery near our apartment in Alzano Lombardo this
past week.
We really enjoy visiting the small out of the way cemeteries, in particular cemeteries that have a connection to the personal research that Jodie is completing for her family. We recently visited two such small cemeteries in Cantoni d’Oneta and Oneta, north of us in the Bergamasco Alps, which are over the hill from Oltre il Colle (Oltre il Colle means over the hill so that is ...over the hill from Over the Hill).
The drive from our apartment to Oneta only takes about 45 minutes if we travel during the week and off peak traffic hours. Views of our trip to Cantoni d'Oneta and Oneta:
Like I mentioned, these are both very small cemeteries located in mountain towns along windy roads. Between us we took 110 photos in Cantoni d’Oneta and 251photos in Oneta for a total of 361 photos. We are confident that documenting information from these cemeteries in very small off the beaten path places will enhance research now and in the future for those seeking to find their Italian ancestors.
There you have it. Now you know a little more about our focus and daily mission activities as they relate to our records preservation specialist assignment. We are witnessing the Lord guide his work not only in our individual work, but that of our whole Italian Family Search team. It is truly miraculous to see doors opening, understanding increase, new partnerships being created, opportunities opening up and hearts being softened as we move forward with faith and thrust our cycle into family search efforts big and small.
We are truly blessed with relationships and connections to archivists
and new found family members in several of Jodie’s Italian ancestral communities.
