I am Fabio Cardile, born and raised in Sicily in the shade of Mount Etna, the highest still active volcano in Europe. I started doing genealogy back in 1999, when, intrigued by the stories my grandfather told me about my ancestors and their deeds, I started a personal research of my family history. On the one hand, this quest led me to scan archives throughout half of Sicily (as my ancestors moved in various places on the island); on the other hand, it helped deepen my skills. A family tree is not a mere list of names: every name identifies a person, which in turn hides actions. To understand his/her doings, one has to delve into the historical and economic context of his/her time. Love for local history accompanied by the passion for genealogical researches (in addition to innate curiosity, patience and perseverance) gave me the chance to discover forgotten events, in some cases forgotten even by local historiography. Like an archeologist that brings to light the remains of an ancient civilization, a genealogist discovers the oldest mysteries of a family and more. Over the years I realized various family trees (a comprehensive list of which you can find under the “Portfolio” section), traced living relatives in various parts of the world, managed to put them in touch, and in some cases I had them met in the land of their origin: Sicily.