Search for Information on Ancestors Results in Finding ‘Live’ Cousins

Marlene Robershaw really takes tracing her family roots to heart. She has traveled to Italy three times since 2000 and has found cousins she hadn’t previously known existed. She has also traveled to New Orleans and the East Coast, as well as in Northern California on several occasions in search of relatives or records of her ancestors. She has found so many fellow descendants, she invited them to her home last month so everyone could get acquainted.

In all, there were 60 people who turned out for the party, including a couple of cousins who traveled here from the island of Ustica off the coast of Sicily.

Maureen and her son, Tom, were in Ustica last year. The visit to the island, located 35 miles off shore, was supposed to be a one-day excursion during their 10-day trip to Italy. However, due to a miscommunication when they bought their round-trip tickets for the boat to the island, it turned into the best two days of their entire trip. After waiting at the dock, they discovered there would not be a boat returning to the mainland on the day they arrived in Ustica so they had to stay overnight.

On their way to finding a hotel, they stopped at a local church to inquire about their ancestors. The padre told them to come back in 10 minutes and he would have something for them. He not only found records of Marlene’s great-great-great-grandmother’s baptism, he brought in the town historian to share more information with them.

“We missed the boat and we caught the blessing,” Marlene said.

It just so happened that a children’s class was in session at the church while they were there and a woman who came by to pick up her grandchildren turned out to be one of Marlene’s newly found cousins.

“We got to meet real, live relatives and it was such a thrill,” Marlene said. “We had a wonderful visit. We knew that God had planned all that. It’s been a wonderful experience.”

Marlene shared her ancestry search with the Ramona-based San Diego County Genealogical Association at its March 17 meeting. Now that she’s found so many relatives on that last trip, Marlene said she plans to visit Italy more often than every three years.

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Andres Martin, a counselor at Ramona High School, received state honors from the California Teachers Association as the recipient of the annual Cesar Chavez “Si Se Puede” Human Rights Award. He traveled to San Jose earlier this month for the presentation that was made at the Equity and Human Rights Conference.

Martin also serves as vice president for the BECA Foundation, a nonprofit organization that awards scholarships to Latino students.

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