Member Blogs

In the warmth of her childhood home, forty year old Kate discovers a captivating, old family photograph and a legacy emerges of a man, her great-grandfather, a poor Italian immigrant who paved the way for their close-knit family.
     In Karen Malena's emotional new short story series, become immersed in the bond between Kate and her mother as they share coffee, pastries, and heartfelt stories in the coziness of her mother's kitchen.


     A simple black and white photograph and my life would n

One faded black and white photo and my life would change.......
   
     Sifting through old photographs one day with my mom, I felt drawn to one of a young man in dirty overalls, haunting eyes, and beautiful hands.  When she told me this was her grandfather, Pietro, and she never knew him, I hungered to know more about him.
      He came to this country in the early 1900's looking for work and a new way of life for his wife and four children.  My great-grandfather, Pietro paved the way for us,

Lately I have been thinking about my Dad's father.   He passed away when I was seventeen, and although I had known him all that time, I haven't appreciated something wonderful about this quiet man.

I called him Nono, the Italian word for grandfather.  I remember him as someone who sang Italian songs softly, and told the story of The Three Billy Goats Gruff.  I would beg for this story until he would acquiesce, telling it the same way over and over, making his voice sound mean when it came to th

Karen Malena is today’s Adventurista 
What was it like for newcomers passing through Ellis Island?
I wondered this, and more, about the brave souls who left the old world to pass through ports of entry like Ellis to begin a new life for themselves.
Did you know you can find the names of the actual ship that carried your loved ones to Ellis Island? I found my great-grandfather’s ship, the Verona, and a sketch of what it had looked like back in the day, along with the names of other passengers who

A while back, my niece's husband asked me if I would help him look into his ancestry. (He thought that perhaps his family had “come from whales”.) Seeing as he was and still is serving our country in the Air Force, I was happy to see what I could help him find. In addition to showing him how to do basic census records research, I ran some searches on several of the online digitized book sites. We were both amazed at what I found about one of his ancestors in a book on HeritageQuest -- John & Sus