This is the story of my family and their journey from their home in Pontone di Scala on the Sorrento Peninsula in the province of Salerno to the United Kingdom and Beyond. It is a story of happiness, sadness, hard work and laughter but, most of all, it is a story of survival.
As will be obvious from the date of the last post, it has been a long time since I did or said anything on this site and it seems that, in that time, the rules of Blogspot have changed so that the most I can do is comment on my own blog - I hate it when that happens.
ReplyDeleteTo those of you who have given up your time to read this I wish to give my sincere thanks. It's not a bad story and I still don't know how it ends of course.
The latest generation of the Criscuolo diaspora (my son) has left the UK and set up camp just outside Madrid (Alcalá de Henares) and the diaspora expands again.
I think I am now closer to knowing who and what I am and it has nothing to do with nationality. I no longer want to be Italian ... or English or anything else for that matter.
I think that the promise has matured. It is not now that I promise that I shall never forget that I am Italian but that I promise that I shall never forget that an important part, a very important part, of my history lies in Pontone di Scala and that I have some gorgeous relations there.
We are returning to Amalfi in the Autumn. This time not, as it were, on holiday, but to live there for a short time.
To James Rispoli Jordan Brown warm greetings. I'm afraid that the new system won't let me reply to you direct - I need to sit down for an evening and figure out how to resuscitate this blog and I don't have time to do that at the moment.
ReplyDeleteRispoli is a surname which has its origins in the province of Salerno and it is not a common name at all. Even less common than Criscuolo. If we were able to trace our families back to the middle ages, I like to think that it is almost inevitable that we would discover that we are 20th cousins. If your people are from Scala, the common ancestor might be significantly more recent than the 15th century.
I am in frequent correspondence with a lady in Philadelphia (Toni Rispoli) whose people come from Salerno and who is convinced that, somewhere along the line, we must be related.
I am prepared to accept on faith that it is so.
All the best to you James.
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ReplyDeleteHi there. I'm writing on behalf of my friend (Andrew) who is the son of Bob's only daughter Rachel. Andrew is researching his family history and would like to get in contact. You can contact Andrew at: astubbersfield@hotmail.com
ReplyDeleteFour years late. I'm really sorry. This blog is linked to an email that doesn't work anymore - domeain gone. I bumped into Andrew on Instagram and we are now in regular contact. My long lost couusin. I didn't even know he existed and I love his instagram account. My ol' man was a professosnial photographer. I'm just a very keen and very amateur photographer - criscuolodipontone on instagram. Thank you for your message and apologies again for the extremely late reply
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