What goes on here?

Thanks for checking this out.

I write about one family and the the place where it has lived for over five centuries. My family first arrived in Francavilla Fontana, in Salento, the bottom half of the heel of the Italian boot, sometime around 1480. It accumulated and archived one of the oldest and largest private document collections in the region.

Each post is a story that builds out a biography of one of my ancestors and the historical context of Francavilla at their time. The writing is narrative, but thoroughly researched with documents from our family archives and from research by local historians and academics.

Check out a story and see what you think, it won’t cost you anything.

New story on the first of every month.

After that, about two weeks later, I will add photos, supporting documents, sources, commentary, suggested additional readings, whatever, audio reading, etc., about the story.

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Your regular subscription is free and you are welcome to read all you want, look at the sources, photos, anything else…but…if you find yourself really liking what you read, and you do it regularly, please consider a contribution to help me keep this going. It takes time and money to do it, and I would consider it a privilege to receive your support.

If you choose to go about this way, well…thank you from the bottom of my heart… and please click on this button for a $5 or $45 year subscription: