On-going Research

Parish records from Catholic Parish of Favale di Malvaro courtsey of Trafford Cole & Associates

The Boschi family has hired Trafford R. Cole & Associates to perform genealogy research on their Cereghino
ancestors. His research will be available in the upcoming book "The Cereghino Family History" that will be available
December 2004.

The Cereghino research by Trafford R. Cole

The research performed for the Cereghino family performed by the Italian Genealogical Institute of Trafford Cole
Ph.D. centered in the small village of Favale di Malvaro, situated in rolling hills of the Ligury province. The town is
only about fifteen miles from the beautiful coast of the Italian Riviera, but it takes almost an hour to arrive by the
back roads that twist and turn through the small villages that dot the hills covered with vineyards, olive trees,
bushes of lavender and spices. The parish at Favale is several hundred years old, and the parish baptismal, marriage
and death records date back to the early 1600s. The parish priest is a kindly old man, who allowed research without
problems and with some curiosity.

The parish records, given that they have been stored for centuries in the cold and humid cellar of the church were
in surprisingly good condition. Starting with the most recent ancestor Samuel Cereghino we began tracing the
family back though the years using the baptismal, death and marriage acts. The major difficulty was that in a small
village of just a few hundred families, a good percentage of the families had the surname Cereghino. As a result, we
had to carefully connect each family line among the many possibilities. The records, like in most parts of Italy were
handwritten in a mix of Italian, Latin with some local dialect thrown in. In the older records the ink, often
handmade by the priest dimmed or was covered with water splotches and smear marks, and the handwriting
became decidedly more difficult to decipher.

Even with these many difficulties, research was accomplished with great success. All the family lines at Favale
were traced back to the beginning of the parish records with more than a hundred families altogether, with photos
of all the acts of the direct ancestors.


Finding Your Ancestors

There has been a great interest on genealogy message boards to try and connect families from Favale di Malvaro.  
But ...most United States and South American families of Favale di Malvaro are "stuck"  in their genealogical
research in the 19th century.

The church parish records are the key to breaking this genealogical barrier.  Unfortunately those parish records
have NOT been microfilmed and need to be researched in person.  The fact that the parish priest only visits the
parish a few times a week adds to the complication of genealogical research.

The Boschi family has been successful in their genealogical research in Favale di Malvaro by hiring Trafford Cole &
Associates.  We are looking for people that would be interested in connecting for a group research project.  You
would be able to submit an ancestors name (for a nominal fee) and our researcher would check the parish records
for your ancestors birth.  This would also give you the names of your ancestors parents.

This would be the most economical way to do genealogical research since we can share travel expenses of the
researcher.  Please contact the administrator if you are interested in getting more details about this kind of
genealogical research.