Discovering Comune Di Poggioreale



Discovering Comune Di Poggioreale

Our plane landed at the Palermo airport and our goal of reaching the origin of much our family history was, at last, becoming a reality. Since 1986, when we received written evidence confirming that my paternal grandfather and grandmother were married in the town of Poggioreale, it has been a dream to visit the old town and to walk on the streets that they must have walked and to view the countryside where they must have worked.

In the airport terminal I quickly went to a large map of the Sicilian island to search for the location of Poggioreale. It wasn’t there, nowhere to be seen.

Of course, I knew that Poggioreale was a small town and I knew of its general location: south by southeast of Palermo; about a 1 and ½ hour drive over the bounding mountains, elevated on a hill. With naive confidence, I assumed we could hire a driver that could converse in both Italian and English, and one that could find Poggioreale and help us fulfill our dream.

We spent the first two days in Palermo visiting the city tourist sites and becoming familiar with the Sicilian way. Unlike Rome where it seemed that everyone could speak English, the working people of Palermo were much less familiar with our language and had to be encouraged to use what little English they knew. [Later, I became aware that study of English is required by the school system so (I guess) most of the younger people, and probably most professionals have command of English.]

Still, we remained confident we would overcome whatever problems we encountered.

We made the arrangements for a driver to pick us up early on Sunday, October 3, 2004; the agency said our driver could speak passable English, but that turned out to be a gross overstatement. Fredrico, the assigned driver, was a man of about 30 to 35 and was of good spirit. His small car was not of the latest vintage, but it appeared reliable enough. He said he knows where Poggioreale is and was confident that we would have no problems. So, off we go with a driver

that we can’t effectively communicate with, into the Sicilian countryside, heading for a destination that isn’t even shown on the maps we have.

I’m sure you have heard stories of Mafia hoods roaming the countryside, watching for an opportunity to take tourist money, and possibly do them harm. And probably you have heard stories of thieves and “relatives” that know of American tourists and suddenly appear, wanting monetary assistance, etc.

Still, we remained confident we would overcome whatever problems we encountered.

It was a beautiful drive; the countryside was lush and green; in the distance, passing by Monreale, we appreciated the beauty of the clustered homes on the hillsides, and there were acre after acre of olive groves and grape orchards. There was little traffic; the highway was excellent, and Fredrico handled the car with professional skill, taking the occasional sharp turn with enough speed to make it exciting. On we went, passing a turnoff to Corleone, moving steadily, hopefully, to Poggioreale.

We arrived in Poggioreale as promised, and with some difficulty informed Fredrico that we wanted the “old” Poggioreale. Fredrico took the challenge and in short time, flagged down a resident and asked for directions. To my amazement, the resident told us to follow his car and he would take us there. It never entered our thoughts that we could be heading into a trap.

We approached the old, abandoned, town, see Picture 1, and the view was breathtaking; both of us experienced overpowering emotion, realizing that our quest to walk the street of our grandparents was about to come true. All about the town were olive and grape orchards.

At the gates of old Poggioreale, we got out Fredrico’s car. The resident that lead us is shown in the center of Picture 2; his name, as best we could make out, was “Dela Russo” and he was delighted to speak with us; he told of relatives in America, but we could not understand nor appreciate his words.

We began to explore old Poggioreale and Pictures 3 through 6 show what we found. In many cases, it appeared that more of the walls could fall at any time.

I grabbed two handfuls of dirt and secreted it into a special bag that I planned to take home; Fredrico handed me a stone fragment from building floor and that also went into my treasure bag. It was clear that Fredrico understood why we were here; he willingly became an advocate of our mission; he became our partner.

Now we stated a secondary objective: I wanted to find Gaetano Salvaggio, the man that sent me, in 1986, records about Simone Guida. Eighteen years had gone by and I wasn’t sure Gaetano was even alive.

Fredrico drove us back to (the “new”) Poggioreale and again flagged down a passing resident. The man recognized Salvaggio’s name and suggested what to do next; that turned out to not be what was wanted. While talking to that man, a second man, about 5 feet tall, 40 to 50 years old, slim and with a tanned face, joins, uninvited, into the discussion. His name is Franco. Now all three of them are talking at once, making wild hand jesters; we don’t understand a word and are as helpless as a baby.

Franco joins us in Fredrico’s car and we drive at his direction to the grape processing factory, Valle Belice Entella (down a hill and about 1 mile from town central), looking for Salvaggio, and he is not there. But we meet with Cicco Corte who promptly gets on his cell phone and locates Salvaggio. We return to the church and, in due time, Gaetano Salvaggio appears. I am surprised! He is no more than 50 years old, about 6 feet tall, handsome with tanned skin and hair graying at the temples; he has a confident stride and looks you in the eye when he speaks. He does not speak any English but makes known that there are Salvaggio relatives in Bryan, Texas; he is familiar with the city name Bryan and not so much with Houston. Picture 7 shows from left to right, Gaetano Salvaggio, Vincent Weido, and Fredrico (our driver/partner).

Fredrico handed Gaetano Salvaggio the letter I had received from him in 1986 and it was off to the races with an attempt to learn about possible existing relatives. I showed the genealogy

chart (Chart 1) to Salvaggio and the resulting discussions of Salvaggio, Fredrico, and Franco, the small man that was guiding us, ended with no one knowing of anyone with the Guida name, nor anyone with the Guido name. There were Messinas, but no one knew of a direct link to Simone Guida.

But why should they! Simone Guida left Poggioreale before they were born. Even the priest, that joined the discussion after Mass, did not have any knowledge of Simone Guida and Antonio Messina.

Now Kathy asks if they knew of the family names Tusa and Todaro; and they acknowledged that they were familiar with those names.

We were not making much progress because of the language barrier. Gaetano Salvaggio suggested that we wait for his daughter to join us, since she speaks English and would be able to bridge the barrier.

Gaetano Salvaggio’s beautiful daughter, age somewhere between 18 and 25, arrives and now we are able to communicate. It was then clear to us that the Gaetano Salvaggio standing before us was in fact the author of the 1986 letter.

Our conversation ends with the most sincere, basic statement of understanding of our purpose of being in Poggioreale. We are gifted with wines produced at Valle Belice Entella; we are invited to stay the night, but our schedule doesn’t allow for this. There is a genuine mutual appreciation that I have seldom seen. We all kiss in the Italian custom and say farewell. Kathy, Fredrico and I head back to Palermo.

We have seen the “old” Poggioreale and walked its streets. We have gained an appreciation for the people of the new Poggioreale. We have come away with deep-seated humility and a fondness for that historical place of our family history.

© 2004. Vincent C. Weido

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Family Chart Below…

1st marriage 2nd marriage

additional siblings unknown

Chart 1 Descendents of Simone Guida and Antonio Messina

-----------------------

Rose

b

d. ,Houston,TX

John Baptist Guido

b. 12/26/1915, Houston, TX

d. 11/30/1970, Harris county, TX

Frank

b.

d.

Eleonora Guida

b. 08/09/1901, Poggioreale

d. , Bryan, TX

Tony

b. 1909, Poggioreale

d. , Houston, TX

Giacomo Guida

b. 04/24/1907, Poggioreale

d. , Bryan, TX

Calogero Guida

b. 01/06/1899, Poggioreale

d. , Poggioreale

Angelina Messina

b. 06/01/ 1890, Poggioreale

d. 04/11/1986, Houston, TX

Giacomo Guida

b. 09/03/1904, Poggioreale

d. , Poggioreale

Guiseppe Guida

b. 01/01/1897, Poggioreale

d. ,TX

Domenica Messina

b. 10/06/01874, Poggioreale

d. 05/13/1958, Poggioreale

Simone Guida

b. 11/02/1875, Poggioreale

d. 10/06/23, Harris County, TX

Antonia Messina

b. 06/05/1880, Poggioreale

d. 01/02/01916, Harris County, TX

Guiseppa Saladino

b. 1884, Poggioreale

d. 10/13/1902, Poggioreale

Guiseppe Saladino

b. , Poggioreale

d.

Unknown Parentage

Giacomo Messina

b. 1844, Poggioreale

d.

Rosalia Culmone

b. 08/11/1850, Poggioreale

d.

Elenora Ancona

b. , Poggioreale

d

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