LA GRANDE FAMILLE
DE PROCIDA & ISCHIA

Association loi 1901 fondée en 2003

A busy November month!

You are about to discover that this November has been full of activities, and new initiatives have seen the light. A particular thank you to Annie-Claire PAPADOPOULO and René BARONE for organising the meals for the volunteers.

Here is also where we stand as per today in relation to our digitisation projects following my last trip to Procida and Ischia :

Ischia

• The last registers for Ischia San Vito are still buried in the Cathedral (undergoing building works) and have yet to be moved to the Archives as requested and promised. They are therefore not accessible and I will try to digitise them in 2008.

• We continue to lobby and make the necessary contacts with the other parishes of the island.

Procida

• The project of digitising the archives of the town of Procida has started : 35 marriage registers from 1810 to 1840 have been already digitised and part of it is available at the Association head office. This project funded by Procida should be completed in the spring of 2008.

My last stay in Procida has been rich in new emotions. After my first visit to the island 7 years ago, I have been invited by the Procida High School and by Prof. Francesca BORGOGNA to give a talk to her class about the reasons for our presence. It was an immense honour for me to tell the children about our history. Our adventure started 150 years ago when our ancestors, their ancestors, left the islands until our return today!

The volunteers' meals

A first but certainly not a last for our Association, two meetings have been held on October 20th in Paris and November 24th in Marseille. On those dates, about twenty volunteers shared a good time during an Italian meal at the "Bistro Romain" restaurants.

Paris, 20th October

It has been an opportunity outside the big general assemblies to better know each other and confront our personal experience in the Association, talking about the good times and the bad, as volunteering is not always a piece of cake!

Marseille, 24th November

From these meetings, many ideas have emerged, particularly to renew more often this experience and enrich it with, if possible, targeted talks, presentations on projects and ideas, or simply with stories or problems encountered during our searches. The idea is therefore thrown not only to the volunteers but to all the members of the Association in 2008!

Annie-Claire PAPADOPOULO

Towards an intimist elsewhere, Procida

An encounter with men and women from a faraway and unknown territory united through the Mediterranean sea and the Provence-Cote d’Azur region. A photographic project, over 3 years, that will be finalized in 2009 with an exhibition in Procida and in the Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur (PACA) region.

William GUIDARINI has taken pictures for the last 15 years. When he turned 30, he decided to start keeping a photographic daily journal of his home town, Marseille.

Today, his personal quest is taking him to Procida. On this island, in the bay of Naples, men live in harmony with their environment, between land and sea, between past and present. This territory, still on a human scale, has been able to protect itself from the tourist industrialization and from the chaos of Naples. Family values are still very strong, so is respect for the elders. The island inhabitants are attached to their land and to their history and ties with the sea.

By immersing himself into the daily life of these men and women and sharing some moments of their existence, the author enters their private life looking for traces of the link which ties them to their land and their family history. Today as yesterday. Not only does he eulogize this land open to the Mediterranean sea, but he also develops thoughts on men who weave the meaning of their life through daily and intergenerational sharing and exchange.

For this project, the author is looking for families living in the PACA region who have family origins in Procida. He would like to meet them to talk about their family history and take some pictures.

If you are interested, please contact us and we will forward your details to William GUIDARINI.

Thanks for your support.

New indexes have been added to our database this month.

* Please note that these two very old registers for Procida (the very first ones) have been partially but thoroughly verified for the "Scotto" records.

A new sponsor: Mario RAFFONE

Mario RAFFONE is the director of an editor company in Naples also recognized by the Bourbon Royal House of the two Sicilies.

In his personal collection, there are various documents, some of which are antiques and some never published. The technical means he has available both antique and modern, allow him to reproduce documents of an impeccable quality.

On our website in the "Shop" section, you will find a dedicated page in which are presented beautiful 19th century engravings on Naples and its surroundings.

Prices are marked and of course you can purchase through the Association which has 5 copies of each design. An idea for a beautiful Christmas present.

Books in stock

Last month, the Association was able to purchase a copy of the book "Mers-el-Kebir – le Grand Port" by Robert Tinthoin. 

It is for sale for 50 Euros + postage.

Recent problems connecting to the search engine

You may have noticed during November, our website has had repeated periods of unavailability that have been very frustrating for us all, impacting on your searches and also on the management of the Association.

This problem was due to the computing equipment of our website host who seems now to have resolved the issue.

I thank you all for your understanding and in anticipation of your patience if this were to happen again.