Family is such an important word. Having people to share our lives with is the most important part of our lives.

The people whom came before us on this search is meaningful documentation of our family history, known as genealogy.

Genealogy consists of tracing families backwards in time on paper, through photographs, dates, cemetaries, documents and through living relatives.

Once you get the force within you to start, the journey is endless. For me, it started and ended in other countries of the world. Now my search continues within these countries.

I discovered my Italian heritage I knew little about. This journey has required me to make trips to Italy. Other things I have needed along the way are patience, determination, dedication, persistance and a force within me to know the unknown.

Sometimes its easier to focus on one specific line within a family, but, I've chosen to do several lines at one time. To do this, I have had to keep careful, organized notes and remember to keep an open mind to all families I come across during my search. Sooner or later they should all tie together.

I happen to love collecting photographs. A photograph given to me of my great grand mother is un-replacable and worth all the effort in my search.

As for me, living quite a distance from any of my DiCredico/ DeCredico relatives, my grand parents deaths were even a secret kept from me.

Needless to say, I got no photographs, documents or any other family valuables usually passed down to the eldest and first grand daughter. This means I had to ask for the help from my only living uncle for a start and if I wanted to know more about my family, it was all left up to me to research.

My determination from the beginning was to retrace my italian grand parents from Italy to the United States, now that I knew where my grand parents originated from.

There are lots of resources out in the world. The computer internet has a wealth of information on it. There are hundreds of search engines to search on. Always new web sites showing up to explore.

For me, many paper trails, collecting all the documents and storing them in plastic liners in binders has been not only time consuming but interesting and fun.

A good start to genealogy would be the mormon church. There are branches of this church through out each state. Believing very strongly in "the family," this church has been collecting genealogical records of all kinds from all over the world for well over 100 years.

The family history center in Salt Lake City, Utah,is one of, if not, the biggest resource for genealogy records in the United States.

It's estimated that almost eighteen million americans are very active in looking into their families history's. The thrill of knowing the answers to questions and seeking this information out is self-rewarding.

On the internet you can join email groups, newsletters and go through thousands of web sites, personal web pages and posting boards. There are even tons of surname submission pages to submit your family surnames.

I offer a surname submission page, for free, non limited to help others. It is a great resource for now and years to come. I update as often as I can and it has generated a lot of mail from possible cousins comparing our surname history's.

At first, I kept all my information in notebooks and binders. Once my research grew so large, I have now treemaker. Lucky for me using posting boards, now I have discovered a new cousin Joseph Sbaraglia. He is a great genealogist. Combining our two family history's we both searched out, we have combined a wealth of information by working together.

For me, it's been since 1994 that I have had a yearning to know who I am, where my roots are from and where I feel I belong.

How important was finding cousins in Italy? Well, on my first trip to Italy, having a whole day on a plane with so much anxiety on how our families got seperated was a start. But, stepping off of the airplane, standing face to face with my reunited cousins, left me speechless. Standing in front of where my ancestors are burried at the cemetaries left me over-whelmed.

On my second trip to Italy, coming face to face with more cousins I only knew through letters, was exciting. And being published in a book in my relatives city for wanting to know them was happiness. Then there was when I attended church where my great grand parents were married that was so thrilling.

All these factors that have played a part in my research mean so much to me. I can only express my journey in my first book called "Abruzzo Segreto" by Liza DeCredico. I am in the process of writing this wonderful book. A book I am proud of and that will inspire others to follow my foot steps. My family history that I deserved to know and fought to find.

All of this started with a suitcase full of photographs. Photographs I found examined and searched out. Why wasn't this important to any one else in my family? It was all left up to me? I don't know, but I am happy to know my Italian-American discoveries. I will keep searching every day to keep adding more and widen my knowledge. I am making a difference.