Melbourne librarian Katia Punaro, while lying in bed recovering from an injury, decided to use the time she had while bedridden to trace her Italian family roots. After talking to her parents and relatives, she drew her first family tree and then started using online resources to further expand her findings. She tells Carlo Oreglia how her personal research has uncovered unexpected and surprising facts about her lost ancestors from Viggiano.
“I injured myself and couldn’t leave the house for a little while and I thought how am I gonna use my time? I don’t want to sit around and watch TV… I’ll see if there’s anything available, if there are new records”
She has now successfully tracked her ancestors as far back as three centuries and wants to share her expertise with other fellow Italian-Australians who are curious about their past. Katia has created a support group to help people of Italian background in their family researches and to explore the tools needed for this exciting journey.
'My family: la mia famiglia' is a three hour-long free workshop run every first Saturday of the month from 10am to 1pm at the Kathleen Syme Library in Carlton, in collaboration with the Museo Italiano Co.As.It.
Giuseppe D’Amore on Station Pier, Port Melbourne posing in front of the ship Australia from which he has just disembarked, 20 February 1956. Source: Co.As.It. Italian Historical Society
