Thought this article shared by Bill West of West in New England on Facebook this morning about most popular baby names over the last century was kinda of fun.  It's interesting to note that in 1911 the two most popular first names in the U.S. were John and Mary.  In the records I've extracted to date on the Calabria Exchange the two most popular Italian fist names for many of the years were Giuseppe and Maria. 
To read the full article see:

Most popular baby names, 2011 vs. 1911: ‘William’ stands the test of time

Sorry I have been away for so long but with Carole's passing and the updating of records I have been a bit (okay, well a lot) behind in everything. The good news is that I have been adding names into the database and I should hopefully be caught up soon.

I have also been updating the Links portion of the Calabria Exchange to include references to other than Calabria. Recently added pages include Sicily, South American & Spanish, and Lazio resource links. I encourage you to have a look and please tell me what you think of it. If there are any links you wish to add, please contact me.

As always, I have been busy answering as many emails as I can and organizing my personal files. My office is starting to look like a storage for paper and books which is not very comfortable to work from so my goal for this month is to organize and update the sites and my work space.

For the last few years we have been extracting records from various Comuni in the province of Reggio Calabria.  We have also been linking the actual images of births, marriages and deaths whenever possible.

This of course has not been an easy task as we are currently a non profit site.  But thanks to the wonderful volunteers who have provided records and assistance who have made it much easier.

If you would like to help with this project, please contact us through here or on the Calabria Exchange.  We could use all the help we can get!