Gens Braghetta

Good evening. I am Renzo. Likely we have been all acquainted in the meantime.

It is with great pleasure that, declaring open this meeting of ourselves Braghetta, in addition to the welcome, I believe that I can define this as one of the very rare projects on which the implementation has outdone the initial design, either in extension or in contents.

It is superfluous to recall your attention that the good result of this meeting will depend on all ourselves, on how passionate we will be, today and in the future, to our family events.

 Our family, I refer to Sacrofano, has always been very close. Their members have lived here since at least 1500 and always maintained here their roots. No one of us suffers of superiority or inferiority complexes as regard to the others. Our ancestors have been frequently distinguished as hard-workers, for intelligence, and above all for honesty.

Initially, we, more ancient, a bit for fear that the family widening lead to loose the sense of belonging, a bit to stay all together – more and more difficult in today life – have thought as a nice event to gather all together and spend a cheerful evening.

But the communication media now available have later partially modified the initial idea, allowing to dramatically expand the search and the invitations. So, ourselves of Sacrofano have discovered an unsuspected number of cousins spread not only in Italy, but all over the world.

I have often questioned myself whether, upon receiving an invitation as the one I have sent in June to the Braghetta non resident in Sacrofano I would have attended to a similar meeting. Certainly yes, compatibly with other commitments. Certainly for curiosity on the name and the family. A bit for tourism.

But some letters, received from unknown Braghetta, seniors and unable to attend (I mention Maria Carla, Cassana, Ferrara; Ermes, Porotto, Ferrara) full of enthusiasm and pride regard our name and family, made me thinking that maybe there is more than curiosity and tourism. Something sacred and precious: the consciousness of the Family.
Also for this reason, it is my wish that our foreign cousins feel completely at ease and participant, like in a family, like at home.

Our guests come from outside deserve our sincere thanks.

First of all, I want to thank Hope and Robert, come from the faraway California.

Hope and Robert are also celebrating their 40^th anniversary and I propose you to join me in a applause to congratulate them.

Then, I want to thank Werner (a quasi-Braghetta partner), come from Bonn, Germany and interested in joining us on this occasion. Happily for him, our family comes from the north of Italy and not from Sicily. Otherwise, having Werner had a tender relationship 40 years ago with a Corinne Braghetta, then abandoned, rather than granting to him our Christian forgiveness, we would have confronted him with knives.

A warm thanks also to the cousins come from the North Italy. To Lia,  Franco and Sanio, to Ornella and Alberto, to Laura and Bruno. We thank also the absentees, that, unable to attend, have anyway expressed sympathy and support to this meeting and asked to be kept posted and updated for the future. Which are good auspices for future initiatives of our "Gens".

We received wishes from Adriana and Gilberto from Brazil, from Francesco, Diego, Mauro, Ines from Swiss from Silvia Vieira and Alexandre from USA. They are all curious about the issue of our meeting. Gilberto even asks to know the date of next year meeting, where he hopes to convey a considerable number of our brazilian cousins (it looks that the Braghetta living there are about 200).
Tony Quinn, California, descendant of Braghetta and passionate of the history of our family has sent to me valuable information concerning the Braghetta of Italian Swiss.
Strong thanks to Manfredo and Antonello, either for putting at our disposal this site, frequently centre of Braghetta farm activity, either for the proactive contribution in the organization.

I can't refrain from mentioning our beloved dean Vittorio, for the work on the coat of arms and for the speech on Braghetta name and history he will deliver later.

Finally, unable to mention everyone, lot of thanks to the Braghetta of Sacrofano, that, besides a compact participation to this meeting, feel the responsibility for a good success of the reunion.

The main tools for searching the Braghetta in Italy and abroad have been the telephone directories and the search internet engines, that frequently have allowed to identify the e-mail addresses. Then, thanks to a spontaneous chain of messages to their relatives, the initial list has widened. But I do believe that not negligible is the number of those not yet identified. It is our hope that later they can self-register in our site www.braghetta.org  .

So far we have identified the following Braghetta, grouped by geographical areas:

area Roma                                          16
area Padova- Ferrara- Bologna           38
area Milano-Torino-Bergamo               5
area Ticino-Svizzera                             7
area Stati Uniti                                    10
area Brasile                                          5
Total identified                                     81

We also have news about Braghetta in Belgium and in Corse.

So far we can evaluate that the Braghetta in the world are in the range of 250, even though nothing support the assumption of such a figure.

I don't want to bore you with figures, but I believe that some statistics are necessary to evaluate perspective follow-ups.
We sent invitation by mail to 43 people and by e-mail to 27. Further invitation have been passed on in chain. In total abt. 70 Braghetta have been reached. The attendance of 25 chief of family testifies that about one over three has decided to attend.
My personal belief is that it is a satisfactory figure, at least as star-up.

Now some detail of the evening program

·        Speeches on Braghetta history and name by Vittorio, Werner, Bob, Emilio.
Questions and discussion are strongly encouraged. Anecdotes on our ancestors will also be much welcome.

·        Self-diagnosis
Not having had many information on the character of the Braghetta that preceeded us, we have judged opportune to know the one of the present Braghetta. Therefore we have organized a sort of pool.
A portion of the garden has been divided into five sectors (quintiles), respectively classified as 1. very little; 2. little; 3. average; 4. much; 5. very much.
The score will be defined based on the number of people that will place them on the quintile they believe better measuring the quality or defeat. Werner will act as referee, counting the number of people in the quintiles.
The score on qualities and defeats are intended to measure how much the Braghetta are:
- Generous                             - Vindictive
- Sincere                                 - Selfish
- Loyal                                    - Avaricious
- Enterprising                          - Boring
- Patient                                  - Anger
For each quality or defeat, first the Braghetta will position themselves, then the partners. Because each quintile has a correspondent numerical value, the result will be calculated by the weighted average. The result will be presented in form of graph.

Some information of the web-site:

It is difficult to be and to remain connected, mainly when families move rapidly and frequently. The implementation of a site dedicated is certainly the most effective way to be connected. So we have thought, and I hope we shall succeed in implementing it, so that it may contain:
-  the acta of the meeting, this and other.
-  the recording of the Braghetta full addresses all over the world
-  a perspective forum where to exchange views, ideas, opinions, etc.
It will also allow to have a personalized e-mail address, that could be like (name)@braghetta.xxx
But better than me Antonello, the site maker, will illustrate the features.
I would like to draw your attention on the fact that it should be fed diligently and spread as much as possible among the Braghetta.
The site availability should allow the census of the Braghetta in the world.
Those unwilling to expose their address are pleased to inform immediately before their name enters in the list.