Our Mission
To offer concierge anthropological genealogy services to individuals interested in rediscovering their Italian roots, connecting with the country their ancestors once called home, and creating new, personal bridges between the past and the future.
Our training in anthropology and archaeology has had a profound impact on how we see people and history.
We believe that people, as sociocultural animals, interact with the world in which they live in complex and nuanced ways that are always mediated by their culture and their values.
But beliefs and behaviors are not always obvious when looking at the human past and it is often too easy to superimpose our own beliefs and values on the actions of people who are no longer with us.
In genealogical research, this often means that the stories of those ancestors we have not personally met are either reduced to dry compilations of dates, names, and places that say very little about the person behind them, or they become accounts of family lore that have more to do with fiction than reality.
We started Beyond the Record prompted by the desire to infuse an anthropological perspective in the reconstruction of personal and family histories, so that they may be accurate yet go beyond the basic information contained in public records.
We examine multiple lines of evidence, from civil registration records to ship manifests, immigration records, old maps and newspaper articles, to glean something about the people who left those traces behind. And we use all of the information we find to tell those people’s stories in a way that is both methodically accurate and sensitive to the nuances of each lived life.
What sets Beyond the Record apart is our unwavering commitment. We reconstruct the lives and personal stories of your ancestors. We go beyond basic public records. Instead, we combine multiple sources and lines of evidence.To this end, we adopt a holistic perspective. We consider the individual within their cultural environment. We also integrate proven genealogy methods. This is paired with extensive research experience. Our expertise spans genealogy, history, archaeology, and anthropology.
Who We Are
Who We Are
Giuseppe Vercellotti, PhD
President
I was born and raised in Italy. Later, I migrated to the U.S. for graduate studies in Anthropology.
For twenty years, I have dedicated myself to reconstructing the lives of people forgotten by history. This includes medieval Italian peasants or early Ohio settlers.
As a migrant and dual citizen, I learned firsthand what it means to live between worlds and languages. I am at the intersection of past and future.
Like many other migrants, I have a keen appreciation for my roots. I apply tested anthropological methods to the rediscovery of family histories.
Alessandro Cariboni
Director of Genealogy Services