Jerry Farenga was more than a just a genealogy buff, he was the kind of genealogist who had a knack for forging connections between researchers and then working with them to get the best results, often putting their research ahead of his own. Jerry was the driving force behind the existence of this web site that enumerates the inhabitants of his father’s native town of Muro Lucano, as he wanted to create a place to share information that would benefit others. He is the reason why familysearch.org allows internet users free access to the earlier civil records of Basilicata, and other parts of Southern Italy.
Jerry died on March 20, 2017 at the age of 77. About a year before Jerry died, he submitted his DNA to Ancestry.com and by the time of his death, he had accumulated an impressive 2250 matches from the Ancestry.com database. His death is a crushing blow to the cause of Southern Italian genealogy, and to his many friends, inside and outside of genealogy.