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Apr 11, 2025
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YES. Recently went to Milan, Italy to find where my dad was born and any other info on my dad’s side. Him and my grandparents left when he was 3. I gained access to the state archives of Milan having no idea whether I’d be able to find my grandfather or not. he was in WW2 and they happened to have military archives which I looked through (old leather bound books with lists of every soldier out of Milan) and found his name! This connected me to another archive of individual soldiers files where I found a whole bunch of stuff on him including where they lived! He was even a prisoner of war and managed to escape. I had chills the whole time. we went to the house where my dad was born in the town of Gorla and while walking to the house we stumbled upon a church. there was a mass being held and my mom heard the priest singing and wanted to go in so we did. We asked someone the name of the church which was Santa Teresa del Bambin Gesu, didnt think much of it in the moment. on the way out I was like wait this sounds kind of familiar and I pulled out my dads baptismal form and it was the church he was baptized in! insane and beautiful experience we had that day. my parents even renewed their vows right then and there after the mass. on top of that we found out our last name Cattaneo dates back to the 1600s when a bunch of families in Genoa joined together under one name which was called an “Albergo”. Apparently Cattaneo is a very common name in northern Italy. while driving around we saw signs everywhere with the name Cattaneo. it was so cool. definitely recommend looking into your lineage and asking your family about it before you lose the older people in your life.
Apr 11, 2025
