Unveiling Italian Heritage: Sannicandro Di Bari

Unlock the secrets of Italian genealogy with our guest, John Ruscigno, whose passion for family history was sparked by the remarkable legacy of his 102-year-old grandfather. Faced with language barriers and misinformation, John shares his inspiring tale of perseverance, detailing how he turned to a research company and Ellis Island records for his breakthrough. Experience the thrilling moments of discovery at the Family History Center and learn how John transitioned from physical film to a comprehensive online database, making invaluable genealogical records accessible for everyone.

Journey back in time to the early 1900s, as we recount the harrowing yet inspiring story of an Italian immigrant who settled in Portland, Oregon. From stealing food aboard the ship to facing harsh discrimination working for the railroad, this tale paints a vivid picture of the trials and triumphs of early 20th-century immigrants. Listen to the gripping narrative of strong family bonds, community connections, and an unyielding spirit that helped one family build a new life in America, despite facing numerous hardships and adversities.

Finally, explore the heartwarming experiences of tracing distant family roots and the profound sense of connection that comes with visiting ancestral towns in Italy. John recounts his adventures in Sannicandro Di Bari, highlighting the serendipitous discoveries and the warm receptions from local relatives. Discover how his collaborative efforts to digitize and transcribe church records have enriched his genealogical research and how you can connect with him through the Bariancestors website. This episode is a trove of personal stories, invaluable insights, and a testament to the enduring strength of family heritage.

Turnkey. The only thing you’ll lift are your spirits.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:13

Hi everyone, this is Bob Sorrentino, from Italian Roots and Genealogy. Be sure to check us out on our blog and our YouTube channel and our newsletter and our great sponsors, your Dolce Vita Italy Rooting, abiativo Casa, and our newest sponsor, phil Italy, for a great trip to Italy. I'm here today with a great guest, john Rucinio. So welcome, john, thanks for being here. Thank you, glad to be here. So you've been doing your research for quite a long time.

Speaker 2: 0:47

Yes, yeah, quite a while. Yeah, boy. I can't remember the year we started, but been at it a while.

Speaker 1: 0:57

And so what got you started? Why'd you start?

Speaker 2: 1:04

I was lucky my grandfather lived to be 102. So I got to know him pretty well, got to spend time with him and just after he passed away I just kind of had an interest in the history, how far back it would go and try to find information about him. I had a lot of information from my relatives and where he was from and the towns. Of course, most of it turned out to not be true because he spoke broken English. They misunderstood what he was saying a lot of times, how he pronounced towns. So I hired a company I forget the name of it now but to get me copies, extracts of my grandparents' birth and marriage certificates. And that was kind of the start. It got me that first information where they were from About that time I think it was when Ellis Island was coming online and so I could go in and look up, get copies of their ship manifest. And I remember the first time I saw my grandfather's name on the manifest immediately got goosebumps in my arms and it was like, well, okay, I'm hooked now.

Speaker 2: 2:31

I used to have a magazine called Communes of Italy and I had a subscription to that. I learned a lot and there was a Yahoo group by Dan Nemec on Bari and so I kind of learned a little bit by bit and then I kept reading about. I could see you could see films at the Family History Center, at the LDS churches and but I was initially nervous to go in my God they might try to convert me. But I finally got up enough nerve and I went in there and it was just a great experience. They were so helpful. And using input from Dan Nemec on what films to look for, that was helpful and I started going.

Speaker 2: 3:30

And these were in the days when you had to go to the Family History Center and order a film. It would come in several days. You'd go in and put them on these old clunky machines and look at them and I had some data sheets I designed myself to write down all the information. Then I'd bring it home and enter it in my I think I had family tree maker. I'd enter it all in there and I was at the point where I was ordering 10 films at a time and I don't remember what I paid for them.

Speaker 2: 4:02

But I was kind of limited by the volunteers running the place. They're only open certain days and hours and I was going in there. So much. The guy running the place gave me my own key to the place so I could go in anytime I wanted, and that was really helpful. So I was in odd hours when they weren't even open. I'd be the only one in there going through these films. And then they closed down that family history center and I had to go to another one and they weren't so free with their keys. So I was going in there and the hours they were open and I was looking at films and there was a lady there, one of the volunteers. She was pretty old at that time and she was always come and talk to me and she was fascinated by what I was doing. I thought it was really neat.

Speaker 2: 4:55

She came in one day. She gave me her ID and password so I could look up film, look at the films from home, and it was because she was involved in transcribing records. So that got me back on track or going through. A lot of films from home, make a lot more progress and it didn't take me that long to trace my family back to the on the silver records, back to the late 1700s, some of the earlier references.

Speaker 2: 5:30

But I found out when I started looking for aunts and uncles and where these my relatives married into other families.

Speaker 2: 5:37

I kept having to reorder the same films over and over.

Speaker 2: 5:41

So I decided, you know, I might as well, just when I get a film like the birth records for a certain year, just copy all of them you have, even the ones that aren't your relatives. So that started me on kind of thinking more towards a database that had all of the Sanicandro records in them and my grandfather he was from Sanicandro and my grandmother was from Osido. So I went through and I was just copying complete records and at the time I remember thinking it's a shame that people have to pay money to Ancestry to really get to these records, to see some of these records, and so that's when I started the idea of having my own website so people could go in there for free and find information on their families and kind of just develop from there until, uh, I was working on those and I added a lot of a lot of marriages from other complete marriage records from other nearby towns that my relatives had moved into, and I was always, uh, kind of complaining that I sure wish I had access to the church records.

Speaker 2: 7:03

I could go back even further, and I was talking with Nicholas what's his last name? Alessandro, I think he's in Canada. He actually went there and copied the records, all the church records for Sanacandro and for Betrito too, and he let me help him convert them into a PDF format and he gave me access to those church records. So then I really had a ton of work to transcribe these church records. I completed the Sanacandro and I'm still working on Betrito, but those were all in Latin. Of course I don't speak Latin, let alone speak Italian. So I had to go back and forth with Nicholas a lot to translate some of those, but finally completed those and, like I say, I'm still working on the Petrito records and I got the website launched.

Speaker 1: 8:07

So how many records do you have on the website now?

Speaker 2: 8:11

I think about 140,000 people. My goodness.

Speaker 1: 8:15

That's amazing.

Speaker 2: 8:18

It's still growing. I work at. I mean it's embarrassing the number of hours I work at it on a daily basis, but it's probably that it doesn't help. I'm probably OCD myself.

Speaker 1: 8:35

That's just incredible. I think you break the record for people I talk to. So how far back did the church records go?

Speaker 2: 8:49

1591. And boy, the writing just pours. Some of the, some records are missing and some of them are hard to read. But just kept plugging away at it, get, get it done. And those are birth records go to 1591. Let me see. See, I think I've got a. Oh yeah, the marriage records only go back to 1648 for Sanacandro. Oh yeah, but I always go through all the start with the marriage records, kind of establish the families. Then I usually do the death records to kind of confirm, make sure I have the families right, and then lastly I do the birth records. So for Sanicondro and Lusito I did all of those. When I get into some of the other towns, mostly just do the marriage and death records and some of the birth records.

Speaker 1: 9:45

So I've interviewed Dan. How do you know Dan?

Speaker 2: 9:50

I think there was used to have these Yahoo groups you could join, and it was through. I joined one of those that he ran into. We had some relatives in common, so we were trading information, still trading information, and so he was really really helpful initially in identifying the films to look at, and I learned a lot from him.

Speaker 1: 10:16

That's fantastic.

Speaker 2: 10:17

I remember reading that one of the magazines Family Tree Magazine or something some guy was talking about using other people's data or family trees he's yet to see one that had like 100,000 and that was well referenced. And I'm thinking, well, mine's well over that and mine's well-referenced, so you'd be shocked if the guy looked at mine. I was pretty adamant on getting good references because I don't include any of the actual records just to save space. But I have links on where the record is Like it'll say what page, number of the sonacondrial birth records, something like that. So they could go and find the actual documents themselves. But they know what to look for.

Speaker 1: 11:15

That's an incredible body of work, for sure. So now you mentioned, your grandfather lived to 102.

Speaker 2: 11:22

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 11:22

So I mean, what did he say about Italy and why did he come, and everything.

Speaker 2: 11:29

You know, I never understood. Well, I wish I would ask him more about those kind of questions, but I didn't. I was still in my teens and I of questions, but I didn't. I was still in my teens and I'd go stop and just visit him. We talked a lot but didn't communicate a lot because his broken English. He didn't speak a lick of English but I could understand him because of his. He would kind of intersperse English and Italian and I didn't know he was hard to understand until they took some friends with me. They couldn't understand a thing he was saying, you know, but I just gotten used to filling in the gaps with him but I never really got to him about. I wish I would ask more about what it was like when he came over. I remember him telling me once on the ship coming over how he was up on deck and he was shame to say he stole some food from some richer people while he was on deck on the ship coming over.

Speaker 2: 12:35

But I could tell from the records he came over and he settled in Portland, oregon area where I grew up and my grandmother came over. He came over in 1905. She joined him in 1908. And they had one child that died shortly after birth in Italy. Then they had nine children here. One of them died in his teens. So they had eight children that lived to adulthood.

Speaker 2: 13:08

And when he settled in Portland his brother also settled here and had similar number of kids and I think he worked for the railroad initially, where a lot of the people from San Andro came and worked for the railroad out here and either around Portland or around centered around Spokane, washington, a lot of railroad, two of the railroad centers, and so they could even use a train to go back and forth to visit each other people they knew from the old country. And he let's see what did he? He found out we started working for the railroad and he found out he was on the lowest pay scale because they had him registered as a Negro and that ticked him off and he quit the railroad and he went to work. They had a stove manufacturing here that makes big wood-burning stoves people used to eat their homes and to cook on. They made those and a large part of them were cast some cast metal, and his job was to polish the castings. So he was known as a stove polisher and I remember one time I had his polishing wheels. I guess you took your special polishing wheels and could apply your trade wherever you were going to work.

Speaker 2: 14:37

But he did that for years until sometime in the 40s he got colon cancer and at the time it was like a death sentence. But there was one doctor out here who would perform a colostomy operation, but it was considered experimental. But he did the operation and, like I say, he lived to be 102, but it but it took him out of the workforce and but he was living next door to his brother and they got the bright idea they can make a fortune in california, in California. So the two families got in this big truck that his brother owned and drove down to California. They'd all had mattresses and they'd sit in the back with this big truck and they'd stop at night, throw the mattresses out on the ground and sleep on the ground. Well, and they went to San Jose is where they went and found out it wasn't a fortune to be made in San Jose. Plus him and his brother had a falling out. So they parted my grandfather.

Speaker 2: 15:51

He bought a big tent and the family would contract to live in an orchard and do the picking for the season and they'd move from orchard to orchard, living in this tent, and I guess eventually they got tired of that or when it came to off season, no fruit to pick they headed back up to Portland and he settled in North Portland in this big old house still there and his kids I think all of his kids or almost all of them lived within a five-mile radius of him. So I kind of grew up knowing my aunts and uncles pretty close. We just didn't see them at holidays and stuff Spent a lot of time with them. The bringing up was unusual. Like most Italian families you get together on a holiday, but we got. We got together a lot of other times too. I could stop in at their house or I'd go on vacation with them or we'd take some of our cousins on vacations with us. So it was different growing up from most of my friends oh yeah, no, the same same thing with me.

Speaker 1: 17:01

um, and that's a fascinating story, and you know um, coming from new york, we don't, we don't, we don't realize that there were so many different italian enclaves, you know, around the country, and portland in 1905, I never would have thought of that, I never would have expected that.

Speaker 2: 17:20

All about the railroad.

Speaker 1: 17:22

Yeah yeah, that's just incredible, and I think that's the way it was too. People from that town, somebody would go someplace and then they would all gravitate there.

Speaker 2: 17:47

But that was a hike from Italyaly to portland, that's for sure. Yeah, you could look at uh like on this, uh, manifest, coming over he was. He said he was going to go visit some cousin that lived in portland and I think he needed a sponsor at that time. Anyway, we had that's how he ended up in portland some other cousin, I thought they that's how he ended up in Portland some other cousin. I always thought they used the term cousin loosely. I have a story about that.

Speaker 2: 18:08

When I started doing the genealogy, my father told me he said he had some cousins that lived in New York. My father told me he said he had some cousins that lived in New York and he would sure when he was in the service he stopped in New York and visited them and he'd sure like to know how they're doing and maybe get in touch with them again. And I could never find out because they were both two girls. It was hard tracking the names. So I finally found one of them and she had unfortunately passed away. The other one I knew her name. Her name was Louise, but I could not find anything on her. This is almost spooky to me.

Speaker 2: 19:03

At the time there was one weekend where my dad, when he wanted me to visit, he'd call and say hey, I'm cooking some potatoes, come on over. So I went over there and as I walked into the house his phone rang and he says Answer the phone. They always ordered you like that. They didn't ask you. And uh, I answered the phone and it's this lady, louise, his cousin. She had gone through the phone book and found the name and just happened to call right then, and so they stabbed. It was just a miracle. Anyway, they established a friendship and talked until he passed away. And then I talked to her and we even went and visited her in New York until she passed away. But I traced these two back through the civil records and I couldn't find any common ancestor and they insisted they were cousins. You know, when I got into the church records I finally found a common relative back in 16-something. That was by God. They are related Not, I mean, that's really distant cousins, but it went back several, several generations before I found the common ancestor.

Speaker 1: 20:28

I'm a firm believer in that. There are no accidents. You know, it was meant to be. It was meant to be.

Speaker 2: 20:33

Yeah, my dad. He always said I ran across another chino and he says they're not related and I said they've got to be. No one wakes up one day and says I'm going to change my name to Rochino. I said it doesn't happen, they've got to be related. Somehow you just haven't found the common ancestor. And at one time when I was working on this website, before I got a hold of the church records, I was going online using Ancestry and I'd find all the people from those towns that came to this country and I'd link them to their when they came to this country. Then I'd link them to the census and I'd link them, find all these records where they were linked to their activities when they came to this country. So people could see their relatives now and trace some of them all the way back to Italy. But then I didn't get that many done of those until I got the church records and that took me in another direction.

Speaker 1: 21:50

So have you been back to San Nicandro.

Speaker 2: 21:53

Yeah, there was a I think what year it was around 2001 or something. Our son was in the Navy and stationed in Naples and so we thought good time to go visit, and as long as you're there, you might as well go check out Sanacondro. So we did and we just went.

Speaker 2: 22:14

Unfortunately, we were only there like a day and a half, but found a relative there it was my grandpa's nephew is who it was was still living there and they treated you like royalty and they made a big show of. And they treated you like royalty and they made a big show of like they'd parade you around town to show off their American relatives and make a big what's the term? I even heard him use the same term. Some of my relatives say he thinks he's a big a shot.

Speaker 1: 22:54

But they make you a big shot when you're there. Right, it is incredible. It is incredible.

Speaker 2: 22:59

We were there for just lucky. There was a festival going on.

Speaker 2: 23:03

I think it was in September, late September there was an annual festival and big production and he was taking us down to see that he kind of walked in front of us, kind of his hands behind his back almost looked like an ice skater where he'd kind of walk in front of you and he had told me he knew everyone in town because in the evening he'd go down to the town center and talk with his buddies. But he was acting like he didn't know these people when he was leading us down there. He was just showing off, just act.

Speaker 1: 23:40

he was acting like a big shot so now I got your name from val Evans. So how did you meet Valerie? Because her story is fantastic too, oh yeah.

Speaker 2: 24:13

I think it was just joining one of the groups, one of the Facebook groups for Bari, and then that's kind of I think I belonged to that group when I launched the website and then I knew her that way she would ask me a lot of questions about the website, kind of had it featured a feature of the Facebook group she was administrator for.

Speaker 1: 24:46

And I don't remember. So now, are you related to her? Have you found the relations to her or no?

Speaker 2: 24:53

I don't remember yeah. I don't remember that Through my using Family Tree Maker for store all my data, it shows me I'm related to everybody, but it's I mean some really long stretched out linkage. You know the nephew of the son, of the daughter, of all the way from me to whoever individual I'm looking at. So being related is kind of relative being related is kind of relative.

Speaker 1: 25:32

Yeah, no, I, I know what you mean. I know what you mean. Um, you know, my, my mom's family is from, from pulia, from bari. Uh, they're from torito, oh yeah, and uh, I mean, we, you know, same thing, when we went there, they just, they just I, I don't. If there are relatives there, they're extremely, extremely distant. We, we did meet somebody with the last, her same, last name, but, um, the funny thing was is that he moved when my uncle left, because my uncle left in the 50s. Um, when my uncle left, this gentleman moved into the house that they lived in. So I thought for sure he was a relative, but but he wasn't. Um, but you know, they, they just, uh, took us all around the town, spent the whole day with us, just took us around, took us to the? Uh where they produced the olive oil and and, um, they're big on almonds there, which I think is probably that whole area is known for the almonds. But they brought us to the plant where they packaged the almonds and all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 2: 26:34

Yeah, that was quite the experience, really enjoyed it. I enjoyed the part when we were there. I wanted to go to the cemetery and so you could see some of your ancestors, and I was filming everyone with the Roushino last name and he kept telling me not related, not related, and he's kind of go back to his house and he was making fun of us for taking pictures of those Roushinos that we weren't related to, which is just the way he saw it. But I was talking to another older Roushino from Toronto and he was telling me about Sopranoms. There were two lines of Roushino's in Sanacandro and mine was one and theirs was the other one, but that when they meet they trade the'd trade the sopranos. They'd know if they were direct line or not.

Speaker 2: 27:32

In fact, the guy I was talking to I connected with some guy from Toronto and his father old he was probably 80 at the time. I was talking to him and he was explaining it to me and he was telling me about during World War II where he was working in his because he didn't go home until the 50s but he was working in his field and some US soldier came up and asked him about directions and said his same last name up and asked him about directions, said his same last name and come to find out it was my uncle who was in the army and was there in Italy. So he had met my uncle in Sanicondro and pointed him at where his family was.

Speaker 1: 28:26

Wow, that's something. That's something. Yeah, I was just looking at the map. I didn't realize that Torito was so close to San Acondro and my grandmother's my grandfather's family actually originally came from Acqua Viva Della Fonte.

Speaker 2: 28:45

Yes.

Speaker 1: 28:46

We visited there, but we visited there during siesta, so there was literally not. We were the only four people on the street. There was the three of us and the driver. That was it In that entire town. I remember when we were in.

Speaker 2: 29:06

Sanicondro. We had reserved a motel, a place to stay at right on the outskirts of Sanacondro, and I had a reservation there for a couple nights and we visited my cousin Then after we ate I said we had to go check into the motel. He insisted on going with us so he drove us over there. We go in and met with the guy and my relative. There he starts negotiating with the guy and they make a big production. You would think they were going to get into a fist fight over the price, what they were going to charge us. Finally I could see they came to some agreement and they shook hands and they poured glasses of grappa for us. We all had drank a grappa. He ended up the same price that I had when I made the reservation, but he had made such a big production out of it. That's so funny, that is too funny.

Speaker 1: 30:09

Um uh, but I guess I guess he figured he got you a deal so everybody in the end was happy, I suppose yeah, maybe.

Speaker 2: 30:17

Maybe he got the deal that they wouldn't take anything from our room while we were there oh, yeah, yeah, I mean, we didn't.

Speaker 1: 30:28

We, I wish we had stayed in torito, but we, we went there for the day and then we were staying and, uh, we stayed in barry, which we absolutely love. You know, barry, the city itself was, um, you know, quite different from from naples, because naples is well, first of all, it's the biggest city, but it's very, uh, you know, all the stone and everything is gray or black. And Bari, everything is white. You know, the whole city is just white. So it was really really neat, and we stayed in the old part of town, which was impossible to maneuver without getting lost, was impossible to maneuver without getting lost, and we finally figured out that the best way back to the hotel was to walk to the sea, walk along the pathway from around the sea and find a hotel. That way. It was a little bit longer, but at least we knew where we were going. Yeah, because those old towns are really really something. So I asked everybody this, everybody, the same question when they did go back the food, right, the food is oh just unbelievable.

Speaker 1: 31:40

Unbelievable food was all good uh, and fresh, and you know, and uh, uh, you know everything homemade it's. It's just a really, really, uh, an amazing experience. I tell everybody. You know, if you haven't gone back, you have to try and get back to the hometowns, because you know that's, that's where the family is, that's the real italy. And even if you don't know, anybody's there when you just walk down the streets.

Speaker 2: 32:08

It's you feel at home. You know, yeah, you do it. I feel like you're, I don't know, experiencing what your uh ancestors did. Interesting, when we were there, they weren't that. They seemed to know their ancestors back to their grandparents. They didn't know anything after that and they weren't that interested. They were interested how I got all my information, but they weren't interested in the actual information.

Speaker 1: 32:32

It just was an issue to them oh, yeah, yeah, you, they, they don't do a lot of that. I've although I've, you know, I've talked to certain people, like, for example, one of my cousins over there, and I think it's just true that some people are interested in the genealogy and others aren't. I found my, my dad's. From my dad's mother's family, pamalo, I found the fourth cousin who was doing what I was doing. I mean, she was searching back and she was looking for people and she thought, because the family, the Piramalo, was originally from Spain, she thought she would find people in Spain or in South America. She never expected to find anybody in America because, well, she didn't even know. But the fact was, only two people from that family actually came to America. Everybody else stayed in Italy. So she was, like you know, blown away when we found each other.

Speaker 1: 33:38

you know, blown away when we found each other but she she's been, you know, a really, really big help in helping me and, you know, piecing together and finding more cousins over there. I mean, she's just been so invaluable.

Speaker 2: 33:50

That would be a good connection.

Speaker 1: 33:52

And you know, through her I found photos and you know homes and and everything else, and we met when we were there two years ago. We had been conversing for like geez, probably close to four years and then we finally got to meet and it was just incredible and you know, like I said before's, it's like you know these people forever right.

Speaker 2: 34:23

So weird, it's so weird you see some of the common expressions or mannerisms. Uh, just kind of makes me chuckle when I hear, like, the thing about the biggest shots and just have the same attitude. Have the same attitude as generations apart.

Speaker 1: 34:40

But you know there's something and you know I don't know what it is, I can't put my finger on it, but we, you know my wife is half Puerto Rican and half Sicilian, but we lived in England for a while and our next door neighbor, you know well, they were all English, but on one side was, uh, uh, beryl and harry, and my wife and beryl, from the minute they met, had this connection that you could never put your finger on. You know, like why did they have this connection unless, you know, maybe in some past life or something like that?

Speaker 1: 35:16

they were connected and, yeah, it was immediate. You know it's very odd, very odd.

Speaker 2: 35:27

I was going to tell you another story, one thing we did. I said it's real close to my aunts and uncles aunts and uncles and as they we spent a lot of time. I'm easily retired now, but you think you're going to travel in retirement. We ended up spending our retired lives taking care of their old people and they were. I mean, it started with my parents but did my two aunts and uncle and another aunt and uncle.

Speaker 2: 36:03

In talking to them, they all had very common fears and interests and they all wanted to stay in their own home. They did not want to leave their home, want to leave their home. And they were also all worried about being able to pay their bills, because they get confused and they were worried if they didn't pay a bill they'd get their electricity turned off or something. So I worked with my parents and all my aunts and uncles where we'd say we're going to help you stay in your home as long as you can. And there was a. Me and some of my cousins would kind of work as a team on keeping them there, do the shopping for them, take them to doctor's visits. But they all greatly appreciated and I told them. I said no, the only thing is when you. There'll come a point when we cannot take, we can't provide enough help for you, and I says well, you'll be looking at us Out here.

Speaker 2: 37:08

They call them adult foster homes. I says that'll be your only place to go to. You won't be able to move into one of these where you have a social life, because you'll have needs that those places can't provide. So they all did that and we never came to a point where we had to encourage them to go into a foster home. They all came to the same point where they said I think it's time for me to go into a foster home. So it was a very smooth transition and eventually just took over all their finances and made sure their bills were paid. They were always fascinated how I could balance their checkbooks without having to fill out the check register every month. They couldn't believe I could do that on the computer.

Speaker 2: 38:05

I'm so glad we don't have to do that anymore, yeah well, I found out I was doing it my dad's behind my back, he was taking his check register up to the bank and having them balance it for him anyway, because he just didn't quite believe me. And it was very rewarding to take care of those aunts and uncles and they sure appreciated it. But it was even better quality time to spend with them. You know, right up to the end of their lives. The one uncle he lived to be 104. So we spent a lot of time with him.

Speaker 2: 38:45

Geez, you're going to be like 120 with those ones, I feel like I'm only 75, but I feel like I'm 102 already.

Speaker 1: 38:56

I'm 73. Does time seem to like us going like, like faster?

Speaker 2: 39:01

yeah, it does a lot faster. Yeah, that's too, honest, luckily I have. I'm addicted to the genealogy, so I I don't get bored, you know that's the same thing with me.

Speaker 1: 39:15

I I retired, I guess almost nine years now, but I got right into doing that and I have friends who are like how could you quit? I said I keep myself busy. If you keep yourself busy you won't miss it. You won't miss work. Find a hobby, do something. I'm not saying everybody should do genealogy, it's not their thing. But you should be able to find something to do you know. Learn a language, write a book, whatever you know.

Speaker 2: 39:44

Yeah yeah, I agree, it's gotta have, gotta have something to replace.

Speaker 1: 39:49

I never missed work a bit no, no, neither did I, you know. At the beginning, my wife said don't you miss work? I said I don't I, I work for. I work for a big bank. And um, it just started it was getting more and more and more political that I just, yeah, I couldn't deal with it anymore. I was to the point where I I was an executive director I couldn't even order a pencil.

Speaker 2: 40:19

I enjoyed my job, but I found my job was cutting into time I wanted to spend on genealogy. So I didn't miss it that bad because I knew I could spend more time doing what I enjoyed doing what I enjoyed.

Speaker 1: 40:36

That's fantastic. So before we go, you know where can people find you or where can they find the website, the website.

Speaker 2: 40:48

It's all one word. Barryancestorscom is the website and there's a. They can send emails through that site to me if they have something to say about the website or if they have questions about the website or have people still get in a hold of me to add people to the website, so add more. You know their families, so that's the best way to get ahold of me.

Speaker 1: 41:23

Fantastic. Well, listen, John. Thanks again, I really appreciate you taking the time.

Speaker 2: 41:29

Thank you, I enjoyed it too.