Working on a plan to visit my two very elderly remaining ancestors in Raffadali (outside of Agrigento). These are my dad's sisters and hopefully they are still alive. My son will be with me and he speaks Italian...I only understand Sicilian but really cannot speak it. Has anyone else experienced this kind of event and if so, any practical advice? (Dad left in 1923 as a very young man!!!)

Your trip reminds me of an episode of "Everybody Loves Raymond." His family was having a wonderful time entertaining their long-lost relative from Italy. They sang, they ate, they drank - until they realized they weren't related and it was someone with the same last name. Funny stuff.

My father unfortunately lost touch with his Italian relatives after my grandfather passed away in 1980. Maybe one day.

I might suggest an interesting gift to bring them to at least break the ice. We found my grandfather's name listed on the EllisIsland.org website. I was able to order a copy of the original immigration log from when he arrived and information about the boat he took.

What an exciting trip! Haven't done it myself, but I was on tour to Italy when one woman took a couple days away from the group to take her elderly mother to Sicily to try to find the village/ family she had left as a small child. She found them, there were elderly people that remembered her family, and is sounded like the whole town joined in a big celebratory dinner/party. They were thrilled and overwhelmed by their visit. I think small gifts would be nice for the two relatives you know about. In addition I would take photos of your whole family in the US, perhaps to leave.

My father left Italy about 44 years ago. Over the years he never had contact with one of his sisters, and then the other one he had last spoken to around 1985 or so. Last year we got his paperwork situation straightened out (an updated permanent resident card) and we went back to his hometown and he re-connected with his sisters, and I met one for the 1st time and the other I had met only once.

We just returned from our 2nd trip about 3 weeks ago. I think it's a wonderful thing that you will be trying to connect with your aunts, and hopefully your son will have some younger relatives that he can connect with.

There's no way you can find out if they're still alive before you go? No matter what you probably still have all kinds of cousins around.

Good afternoon, went to Sicily one a trip and decided to look up relatives
that lived in Termini. Only had an address..We hired a car with english speaking driver to take us there. Upon arrival the driver went to a local
policeman directing traffic at an interestion and a few minutes later the
policeman was in the car and we went to
the street which the relatives lived, the policeman refused any gratitude and
we spent the rest of the morning and part of the afternoon with the Sicilian
relatives with the guide ... Everything worked out well and set the
stage for about three additional trips over the preceeding years..Two years later we returned with my father in
law who had left Termini in 1910..
The town looked the same to him as when he had left and we enjoyed another visit with out Sicilian relatives. Richard of LaGrange Park, Il..

We also visited towns in Sicily where my parents came from. It was truly amazing and made me feel so grounded to have actually seen their birthplace. You should try to narrow down their address, etc. to save time that day - even if you have to call the town hall or something. Also - we thought we could find my great-granparent's graves in the town cemetary but as it turned out - - there were about 400 graves and almost all contained the same 4 or 5 surnames!
We were not able to distinguish which grave could have been theirs. In one of the other towns -- the cemetary was locked up and it is only open one day a week - -not the day we were there.
This gave us a very good excuse to plan a return trip!

<<Has anyone else experienced this kind of event and if so, any practical advice?>> Yes, I strongly suggest doing whatever you can to learn standard Italian before you go. In addition, if Sicilian will be your stronger language even after you learn some Italian, try to practice it before you go, but be aware that 1. the Sicilian you learned at home may not sound like the Sicilian of today (in Sicily) and might sound either extremely old fashioned and extremely local or maybe even incomprehensible to modern Sicilians (this is what Sicilians told me about visiting Americans who'd learned dialect from people who left long ago), and 2. everyone, with the possible exception of very old people (like the relatives you might visit) speaks standard Italian, but they generally switch to Sicilian among friends and family. You will have better opportunities to communicate with young and middle aged people all over Sicily if you learn to speak Italian.

Since you're asking for "practical advice" (ordinarily I wouldn't intrude on the topic of clothing): don't dress in an ostentatious way that fits into that stereotype of the rich American visiting the poor "old country," also don't dress in a way that might be viewed as too casual or sloppy, and don't dress in what some conservative people would consider a sexually provocative way, and wear sturdy shoes.

One thing that I did that people seemed to enjoy is I made color photocopies (color not necessary, but the sepia tones really look nice in the copies) of old photos of my father when he was a boy in Sicily, his best friend in school there, and his peasant grandmother who raised him, and also photos of my father at various ages in the US (around the time he came back to the US at age 18, in his 30s in the Army in WW2, in his late 50s--the age of his last visit there which some people remembered, and as an old man a few years before he died). I made extra copies to give to certain people, and kept copies to show. That went over really well.

Just wanted to thank all of you who responded to my post. Just found out that two of my aunts are still alive and my son has contacted them by phone. They are excited we are coming. They are 89 and 92 yrs. old!!! Trying to figure out what are appropriate gifts for these two elderly Sicilian ladies. Have gathered a bunch of photos of their brother(my dad)and plan on presenting them with an album. Also, trying to figure out how to express (in Italian) my unbelievable joy at finally getting to meet them! All of my Italian language phrase books seem to focus on getting through airports, registering at hotels and eating at restaurants. Any ideas?

I haven't but my cousin did. She tried every avenue but found no living relatives.

That's wonderful! When you visit them I bet their hospitality will overwhelm you. Half the town my family lives in are "cousins" of mine, and they treat us like royalty when we visit.

You should be able to find Italian phrasebooks that don't just focus on travel.

We were in Sicily and Calabria last year for the first time. My husband was born in Australia but like you speaks a strange mix of Anglo/Calabrese/Sicilian/Italian. Don't worry. We found our relatives through visiting the town halls in tiny villages and adopted the philosophy of "if you want to find out something ask the old boys in the town square". We had people darting in every direction finding help for us. We had coffee in a sweet little old lady's lounge room, who wasn't even related! Truly a great experience. You will find that kinship and enthusiasm will bridge any language gap. I also agree with taking lots of photos