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Gabriel Merola born about 1818 in Capaccio, Salerno, Italy. We are pretty sure he married Maria Marchesana and that they were farmers. Until somewhat recently we knew at least they had one son, Luigi for Luigi is my great grandfather. We will talk more about Luigi on other pages.

During the summer of 2004, my wife and I had the pleasure to meet with a grandson of Anthony Merola, the brother of Luigi. The young man's name was Michelangelo De Leo. He was visiting a grandchild of Luigi who lived in New York State and who had invited Michelangelo to come to the states for a visit. There was a little family get together and at this luncheon Michelangelo presented his host family with hand written notes of siblings of Luigi, that of Angelo and Anthony Merola.

When I first looked at these notes some years ago, they seemed very confusing. But, a few months ago everything seemed to fall into place and I was able to see clearly some one hundred names along with nearly thiry marriages that they represented.

There isn't any way that I believe that Garbiel and Maria only had three children. It is hoped that others doing research on this line will take the opportunity to review what will be presented here and take the time to help pass along their information.

I have discovered over three hundred descendants of Luigi and know I have not come across all of them. My best guess is that between Angelo, Anthony and other yet unknown siblings there could easily be five to six hundred direct line descendants of Gabriel and Maria still unaccounted for.

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