And thus began the journey to October 8, 2022. Columbus did not realize it at the time, but these voyages would set the stage for great things to come in the new world. Of course, the greatest of these would be the immigration of the Tavoletti and DeFalco clans to America. While family legend holds that the DeFalcos first arrived in America via the Mayflower, the story actually begins a few decades earlier with Agnes and William DeFalco. Agnes (18) and William (20) were married on a cool rainy day in August of 1575. Approximately 100 guests attended the wedding that took place outside in the courtyard on the family estate dating back to the 1300s. Leading up to the wedding day, many family members were heard grumbling about what a hot day it would be and why did they have to choose August for a wedding. What these family members didn’t know at the time, and how could they, was that they were in the early stages of the Little Ice Age. They had grown accustomed to the sweltering summers of the Medieval Warm Period, but they would be in for a pleasant surprise at this wedding. In the early 1580s, William was approached by Sir Walter Raleigh with a business opportunity. Raleigh wanted William and his family to be part of a voyage he was planning to the new world. The goal was to found the first permanent English settlement in North America. William and Agnes loved to travel, and they quickly agreed. However, when the day came for them to depart in 1587, the DeFalcos were nowhere to be found. Raleigh was an impatient man, and decided to leave without them. It turns out that Agnes had gone to bed late and over slept, and thank God she did. The crew members would attempt to settle in Roanoke, and they would come to be known as the Lost City. Luckily, the DeFalcos would get another chance to start a new life in 1620. Around this same time, major scientific discoveries were happening in another part of the world. Galileo was making one discovery after another in physics and astrology. His principal engineer helping him design and build the experiments was Fabrizio Tavoletta. Fabrizio was the first engineer in a long line of Tavolettas, Tavolettos, and eventually, Tavolettis. Another event that the Defalcos played a major role in was the 1793 yellow fever epidemic in America. When the founder of the US government system, Alexander Hamilton, and his wife Eliza became ill with Yellow Fever, they were taken care of by Dr. Edward Stevens. The treatment at the time prescribed by Dr. Benjamin Rush, director of the CDC, was to bleed and purge the victims. Dr. Stevens however, chose to treat the Hamiltons’ fever symptoms. Dr. Stevens’ nurse Gertrude DeFalco stayed with the Hamilton’s in their home to take constant care of them. Despite the danger she put herself in, taking care of people was her duty. The Hamiltons made a full recovery, and Dr. Stevens kept Gertrude as his chief nurse for the rest of his life. By the early 1800s, the Tavolettis had immigrated to the United States. Mario Tavoletti arrived with an idea to revolutionize warfare. It was a fortunate time for him because the US was in the midst of another war with Britain, the War of 1812. Mario’s idea was to autonomously transport bombs with delayed triggers to British boats in the harbor. While the tactic would be mostly research during the war, he was able to secure significant funding from the US war department. His inventions and his successors would continue to modernize warfare and keep the US always ahead of its adversaries. The DeFalcos and Tavolettis have been apart of many of the major events in medicine and engineering throughout history. It is only fitting that on Columbus Day weekend of 2022, these two families will be joining together through the marriage of Gabrielle and Steven.