Author: Camilla Illidi, PhD

I’m Getting Overwhelmed—But Then, a Breakthrough! Two years into the project and I felt overwhelmed. I had clear genetic evidence linking Ghilardo Illidi to the Buonamici line, likely a descendant of Leopoldo and Maria Anna Buonamici, who had settled in San Cassiano in the 1860s. Yet, I lacked definitive proof. Given the complex web of…

Since I was little, I’ve often been asked about the origin of my Illidi surname. Whenever I asked my dad, he would respond with the same line: “It’s a made-up name because my bisnonno [great grandfather] was adopted.” As a child, I accepted this as the full story: I had an ancestor with unknown parents…