Aunt Louise

One of my recent research goals has been to find out a little bit more about the Coffarelli family. I don't know too much about them yet. We know that your grandfather James was the youngest of 9 children. His mother, Rose, died when James was pretty young although I don't exactly when or where yet.

James' obituary noted he was survived by four sisters including Sister Magdalen Maria (probably his sister Tessie/Theresa); Mrs. M Desabto (either Margaret or Mary); Elizabeth; Mrs. M Barra (probably Louise/Lucy) as well as two brothers Joseph and Phillip. So I started researching the surviving siblings.

Initial research shows that Louise Coffarelli married Michael Barra in June 1919 and Lena Coffarelli married Anthony Fierro just 3 months later. I presume Louise Barra is surviving sibling Mrs. M. Barra. Lena's fate is still uncertain but perhaps she did not survive him. He had six sisters and 4 lived after he died in 1934.

I came across a Social Security death record for Louise Barra and from that information I obtained an obituary noting her death in Florida. I think this might be your Aunt Louise. Interestingly she "only" died in 1989--pretty recent in the realm of family history work. I am startled that there might have been a living Coffarelli aunt within the time frame of the work I've done on your family so far! I expect one of you to blurt out--"Oh yeah, I remember Aunt Louise!" in one of those lightbulb moments.

This obituary notes that Louise is survived by 2 sons Anthony and John -- in 1989 one of them practically lived in our backyard. Catskill is not that far away from here!

I feel as though the evidence just barely hangs together--not quite enough to feel certain that this is your great aunt Louise Coffarelli. Then another little miracle fell into my lap. Literally.

Every now and again I flip through the same photo albums, papers, memorabilia etc just to see what I find that's new to me. This time the news came from your mother's old metal address file. It pops open and the pages fall out of it -- full of pen and pencil marks, cross outs and changed numbers or addresses. Including Louise Barra and Anthony Barra!!! In Catskill!!! I scanned this sheet even though it's messy, it's like a sparkling diamond to me.

So I've done a little more investigating and discovered an Anthony Barra (along with several other Barras) in Catskill. I suspect this is Louise's son and he is likely quite old now (or I'm way off base). I've written to him and hope one of the Barras will help confirm that Louise is one of our Coffarellis.

And the address file yielded another gem. Remember Lena Fierro? Well, there are two Fierros listed in your mother's addresses. This will be my next focus. There may be new Coffarelli cousins coming out your ears before you know it. How cool is that?