All Prettied Up

I learned an interesting lesson recently.  I'm not that interested in preparing meals during hot weather.  Well, to be honest, I'm not all that interested in preparing meals at all but that's neither here nor there for this post.  I purchase food that can be pulled out of the refrigerator ready to be served after a little warm up.  Recently I had 3 nice pieces of grilled lemon chicken breasts sitting in the refrigerator just waiting for one of the hungry males to come along and make short work of them.  Prepared mashed potatoes were also available. (perhaps you already know how I am about potatoes so I buy them ready made and I'm not even embarrassed about that)

A couple of days went by and I was pushing that chicken pretty hard--"Hey, there's chicken all ready for you in there if you are hungry"....."How about the chicken?  You liked this the last time." and the now famous:"That chicken is just going to go bad".  No takers.

Then the weather cooled enough for me to have an appetite at dinner.  I was alone so I put a piece of chicken on the plate along with some corn and had a feast.  James will generally eat what's left for him in the microwave when he comes home after the ball games, so I made a plate for him and one for Ryan.  Then I waited for the next hungry male to come through the kitchen.  Ryan's eyes lit up when he saw the chicken, mashed potatoes and corn all ready for him and he enjoyed it thoroughly.  He raved about how good it was. 

I refrained from mentioning this was the very same chicken I've been trying to sell all week.  I realized that putting it all on the plate together fait accompli was the key to success in this case.  The ingredients were all there and available but having someone else put it together and hand it over got the chicken eaten.  This is not unlike my dinner making preferences, but, again, that's not for this post.

It's like family history research work.  The key elements are all there just waiting for someone to put them together.  Sometimes you just can't put it together until it gets handed to you in a lovely package.  And now we get to the real point of today's post.  I have located 3 Coffarelli siblings in one house!!!

You may remember my struggles figuring out what happened to all of James Coffarelli's siblings.  I finally was able to find them all as adults and still had some work to do with matching them up from the time they were children in their parent's home through adulthood.  One sibling I was having lots of trouble with was Lena.  She was in the middle of the pack and married Anthony Fierro in 1919.  After that I kind of got stuck and wasn't able to find Anthony and Lena together as a family.  There were several Anthony Fierro's and that was causing some issues.  Lena died in 1930 so I didn't expect to find her in the 1930 census.  She was newly married in 1920 and could possibly have a child by then but I couldn't be sure I had the right Fierros.

As is the usual circumstance, I was seeking different information and fell onto the 1925 New York State Census for Tony and Lenora Fierro in Freeport.

Right hand page near the top

Children listed include John, Vincent and Louise.  Also in the same household are Elizabeth Coffarelli (Lena's sister) and Philip (Lena's brother)!  These are two souls who were a little bit lost to me and now I have 3 siblings together in one house in 1925.  Fait accompli.  It feels so good to find them --like they've been waiting for just that!

This is the child Louise in her Freeport High School yearbook in 1942

This is a contemporary picture of a woman named Louise Fierro born about the same time

 Do you think these are the same woman?  I'm not convinced (nose seems very different) but it's interesting she has the same name and was born about the same time as "our" Louise Fierro.  I think her married name was Wyant and they lived in Oklahoma City.  Ring any bells?

Regardless of this woman's relationship to your family, I am very pleased to be able to show you a full plate of Coffarelli siblings today!  Now go clean out your refrigerator.