How I Found My 8th Great Grandparents

This month I found something I never expected. A pair of my 8th great grandparents! And they happen to be my double 8th great grandparents. He is Nicola Iamarino, Ahnentafel numbers 1,024 and 1,280. She is Lorenza Cocca, Ahnentafel numbers 1,025 and 1,281. They are the direct ancestors of my father's parents who were 3rd cousins.

I know the names of 9 of my 9th great grandparents (out of a possible 2,048). And I knew the names of 29 of my 8th great grandparents (out of a possible 1,024). But I didn't expect to find any more. I'd exhausted every available vital record from their hometown of Colle Sannita, Italy.

Should you care where your 5th great grandfather's 3rd wife was born? You should if you hope to bust down a brick wall in your family tree.

You see, old Italian marriage records can provide a treasure trove of information. They include:

• the bride and groom's birth records
• their parents' death records, if they are dead
• their paternal grandfathers' death records, if their father and his father are dead

This is how you can discover Italians born in the mid- to late-1600s. They didn't start keeping vital records until 1805–1809. And few church records are available to the public. So the marriage records, called matrimoni processetti, are priceless.

So how did I find the names of Nicola Iamarino and Lorenza Cocca? By following up on an out-of-town marriage. My 5th great grandfather, Giovanni Iamarino, married 3 times:

• He married my 5th great grandmother Libera Pilla in about 1785. They were both from Colle Sannita. She died in 1825.
• He married Rosaria Antonia Maria d'Agostino in 1826. She was from the neighboring town of Circello, whose records I've also exhausted. She died in 1837.
• He married 64-year-old Lucia Ferrone in 1839. He was 83 years old!

His third wife Lucia died 2 years later in Colle Sannita. I noticed her death record says she came from another town called Castelpagano. That's on the northern border of Colle Sannita. The only way I knew about their marriage was because I saw the image of their 1839 marriage banns in Colle Sannita.

Each clue in a genealogy document can lead to new discoveries for your family tree. Are you looking in the right places?

I came upon Giovanni and Lucia during my ongoing quest to fill in all my missing source citations. I decided to look for their missing marriage record. Since the bride came from Castelpagano, it was a safe bet they married there. Whenever you can't find a marriage record for a couple, be sure to check both their hometowns. In Italy, it was common to marry in the bride's town and live in the groom's town.

I opened the 1839 marriage records for Castelpagano on the Antenati website. There I found everything I wanted:

• Their marriage record.
• Their marriage banns in that town.
• Their birth records.
• The death records of their previous spouses.
• Their mothers' death records.
• Their fathers' death records.
• Their paternal grandfathers' death records.

That last one was the missing piece I never knew I needed. Giovanni Iamarino's paternal grandfather was my double 7th great grandfather, Vincenzo Iamarino. I knew that. Vincenzo's 1776 death record, found in the Castelpagano marriage records, named his parents. Nicola Iamarino and Lorenza Cocca, my double 8th great grandparents!

I'll bet you have incomplete facts in your family tree. Take another look! Are you missing a marriage record from a year that should be available? Was the bride or groom from another town? You never know what mysteries you may solve by following up on every possible lead.