From the Amalfi Coast to Sète: How I Found My Long-Lost Cousins Thanks to MyHeritage

My name is Éric Bousquet, and I’m a boatman in Agde, in the south of France. I’ve been passionate about genealogy for a long time. It all truly began when I wanted to bring back to life the stories my grandmother used to tell me, especially those about her cousins in America and Brazil. Thanks to MyHeritage, I was able to trace their paths, rebuild our family tree, and reconnect ties I thought were lost forever.

Éric Bousquet

A family of fishermen from the Amalfi Coast

My great-grandparents, Salvatore Apicella and Giovannina Consiglio, left Italy in 1920 to settle in Sète, France. They were fishermen on the Amalfi Coast: Salvatore was born in Cetara, and Giovannina in Raito, near Vietri sul Mare. My grandmother often spoke to me about her aunts — Giovannina’s sisters — who went to live all over the world: Raffaela in Brazil, Maria Grazia, Stella, and Anna in the United States.

These memories, passed down by my grandmother, were full of stories, black-and-white photos, and tales of care packages sent from America during the war. Over time, these stories became a driving force for me. I wanted to give them a tangible continuation.

When my children were born, I felt the urge to better understand our family history. On my father’s side, I knew very little. My grandfather lost his mother when he was just one year old, then his father shortly after; he was raised by his aunt. I began my research on MyHeritage to shed light on that part of my story.

But it was on my mother’s side — the Italian side — that the search became truly exciting. I started building my family tree and cross-referencing my information with that of other users on the site.

Discovering my cousins in Brazil and the United States

One day, I received a Smart Match™ with a member from Brazil. While looking through his family tree, one detail stunned me: my great-grandmother appeared in his tree. The emotion was overwhelming. I immediately messaged him through MyHeritage. After a few exchanges, we decided to call each other. It was an incredibly moving moment. I received such a warm welcome. During our conversations — in Italian! — we shared precious family anecdotes and never-before-seen photos.

These reunions gave me the motivation I needed to trace the families of the 3 sisters of my great-grandmother who had left for the United States in the 1900s–1910s. It was another match through a family tree that allowed me to find them!

Since then, I’ve been in contact with the families of Maria Grazia and Anna. Anna, who married Antonio Palmieri, had 5 children. Maria Grazia, who married Felice Romano, had 8 children. Stella, who was married to Giuseppe Meola, did not have any children. All 3 sisters settled in Newark, New Jersey.

Thanks to the photos we exchanged, I was able to enrich my family tree. An American cousin, to whom I had sent an old photo, replied by giving me the names of each person in it. It was magical. I was able to clearly identify these faces in my tree, and then share the photo with my Brazilian cousins.

One of them, Carmine — born in 1928, a first cousin of my grandmother — was deeply moved. He recognized familiar faces he hadn’t seen in decades. He cried tears of joy.

Reconnecting a family fragmented by migration

Today, I’m in contact with my American and Brazilian cousins. We exchange messages regularly, and there’s even talk of traveling — on both sides of the Atlantic — to finally meet in person.

This genealogical journey has allowed me to reconnect the threads of a family story fragmented by migration. Thanks to the tools offered by MyHeritage — tree building, matches, historical records, and communication with other members — I was able to bring an entire part of my family memory back to life.

It brings me immense joy to pass this story on to my children, and to know that my grandmother’s memories will continue to live through them.

Thank you to MyHeritage for helping me piece together this family puzzle and bring our origins back to life.

Many thanks to Éric for sharing this wonderful story with us! If you’ve also made an amazing discovery using MyHeritage, we’d love to hear about it. Please send it to us via this form or email us at stories@myheritage.com.