This month’s installment in our series on readers traveling to Italy in search of their roots and relatives features the story of Mary Louise Tucker, who has been drawn to her family history since she was young, hearing stories from her nonno about life in Abruzzo before he emigrated to Philadelphia as a 14-year-old boy. Mary Louise herself is an emigrant, having moved from the U.S. to Australia as a young woman. 

Mary Louise has traveled to Italy many times to put the pieces of her family history together; and she keeps on searching - for more relatives and for more stories. Her maternal grandparents were from different villages, about 15 kilometers apart, in the province of Teramo, Abruzzo. That has brought her to several villages in the region. She points out how getting better at speaking Italian is essential for communication with Italian relatives of the older generation.