Discovering her heritage in Sicily led her to the grandparents she never knew.

Growing up in a Sicilian family with most of its members born and raised in America, Jeannine was eager to grasp a deeper understanding of her true heritage, not the one-dimensional Americanized version. She knew that her maternal grandparents, Giuseppe Ferro and Angela Luca, had immigrated to the United States to Waltham, Massachusetts, where her mother was raised, but she hadn’t known from where, why, or when they’d arrived. She began on Ellis Island, and from there her grandparents’ journey had become her journey as she traced their paths by going to Sicily herself to learn about their lives there and what made them leave. To her surprise, Jeannine found more than their childhood villages of Ucria and Bronte. She discovered more Ferro cousins in Ucria. When Jeannine found a door, she enlisted the help of the New England Historic Genealogical Society for a quick lesson in ancestry research, which led her as far back as her three-times-great-grandparents. From that point, she built her family tree and returned to her cousins in Ucria to experience her true authentic heritage. Through documents, she followed her grandparents and other Ferro ancestors who emigrated to Waltham with them and chronicled the changes in their family lives in America, not necessarily for betterment. She learned from medical transcripts of a dramatic twist in her grandfather’s life as a patient in an insane asylum. While Jeannine had opened the door to her ancestry, she bridged a gap between the Ferro family of the past and present and the miles between Ucria and Waltham.

A Door To Their Hearts is Jeannine’s first published book and a labor of love. Her time is spent discovering her roots… genealogical that is. Her early gray hair, a family trait she’s embraced. A genealogy enthusiast, Jeannine has dedicated over 15,000 hours. Follow her blog at mygenealogyjourney.com to learn more.