A Story for Louise

A Story for LouiseEric Lanzieris paternal grandparents were in their teens when they emigrated from Scafati, Italy to Connecticut in the early 1900s. As a boy, Eric was fascinated by his fathers account of a return trip to Scafati made in 1946 by Erics grandmother Louise. Without any documentary evidence to guide him, Eric took advantage of a series of unusual circumstances, and a final miraculous piece of luck, to find Louises relatives in Scafati almost half a

Eric LanzieriÕs paternal grandparents were in their teens when they emigrated from Scafati, Italy to Connecticut in the early 1900Õs. As a boy, Eric was fascinated by his fatherÕs account of a return trip to Scafati made in 1946 by EricÕs grandmother Louise. Without any documentary evidence to guide him, Eric took advantage of a series of unusual circumstances, and a final miraculous piece of luck, to find LouiseÕs relatives in Scafati almost half a century after her last contact with them. His story describes how he located and visited numerous members of the families of both of his fatherÕs parents over the course of some twenty trips to the region surrounding Naples. Eric also recounts the momentous experience of being a guest speaker at the law school of the University of Salerno, near the town where his grandparents were born and raised more than one hundred years before.