Virtual Cemetery Stomping

This is the gravesite of your great great grandparents Graziano and Antonia Isoldi.  Like the Manzelli masoleum, this is also located at the Calvary Cemetery in Woodside.  I just never got a chance to get there myself.  This picture was sent to me at my request by a volunteer cemetery stomper.  For which I am very grateful.

Graziano died in 1934 while in his 80s.  Most of his life here in the US he lived at the same address in Long Island City.  His address changed in later years but he had the same neighbors so I am inclined to believe there was some sort of redistricting or some such that resulted in street name and number changes.  He listed himself as a junk dealer or rag man.  Perhaps today he'd be called a "picker"??

As far as I know, there were 4 children in this family.  The oldest, Giovanna (Anna), married Giuseppe (Joseph) Manzelli.  They are your great grandparents.  Although three names appear on this monument, cemetery records indicate 5 are buried here.  Besides Antonia and Graziano, you see Michael who also died in 1934 just a few months after his father.  I believe this to be Anna's brother.  Also buried here are 5 year old George and 4 year old Vincent.  I do not know who these children are yet but I am supposing they may be nephews to Anna.  Another mystery to delve into someday!  I don't know why they are not listed on the monument but it looks sort of new to me (at least in terms of the first death listed being in 1912) and perhaps these children were unknown to whomever purchased the monument.  I love the angel though!  It appears not to match the monument, lending some credence to the theory that the monument is more recent. 

The Isoldis remain an open book for me--lots of research potential there.  One of Marilyn's letters promised the story of the Isoldis, but she never got the chance to share it with me.  If Marilyn knew their story, perhaps someone else does as well so it remains an intriguing remainder on my list of family history to-do items.

It is very hard to believe 20 years have gone by since your mother died.  We think of her often as I am sure you do as well.  God Bless. 

Brian and Gram 1989

If it was a snake, it would have bit me

A while back I was visiting the local history museum and the staff asked me to research a piece for them to see if I could figure out what it was. 

It looked like it was probably a piece of farm equipment, but that's all I felt safe in guessing.  It's kind of hard to research "red farm equipment maybe" with any kind of efficiency or potential to hit it right on the mark.  So I let it go until I was recently reminded they were waiting for some magic from me so this item could be appropriately displayed.  This time I noticed it was called "The Clipper" and the manufacturer was also listed so off I went with my research feeling pretty confident.  Upon checking and rechecking the photos I had taken originially, I noticed for the first time that the machine TELLS us that it is a "grain and seed cleaner".

The answer was right there all along and I just hadn't seen it because I was concentrating on the whole piece instead of its parts. 

So goes family history research.  Lots and lots of times the answers are sitting right there waiting for me to find them again.  In my MESSA family folder I recently found a ship manifest from 1920 listing Francesco and Onofrio Messa which I printed out because I thought they were probably your grandfather Jake's brothers.  Notice the record says they are from Castellano which matches what Aunt Josie has told me.

This time I studied the record more carefully and noticed that it lists for "the name and complete address of the nearest relative or friend in country whence alien came" father Luigi Via Felice Cavalletti Castellano.  I believe Luigi to be the name of Jake's father and I believe he lived in Castellano.  This gives me Luigi's address which somehow makes him seem very real, especially when you look it up on Google Earth or a mapping program.  It also helps to verify that these are members of your family.  This piece of information had previously been overlooked but now seals the deal in my belief that these are relatives AND gives me a solid location for the MESSA family in Bari Italy. 

It's right there just waiting to be discovered.  Seems like a pretty good motto to live by.  Or a travel jingle.

A Little Bird Told Me...

These baby birds were nesting in a tree in our yard until recently.  I hope they left because it was time for them to leave--they look fairly big here--and not because my camera stalking chased them away.  I just think this is a very cool shot so I wanted to share it even though I do not have the same nature photo taking skills as Pat or Nick!

Yesterday I was standing on the deck talking to James who was working in the yard, so I was kind of leaning on the railing.  There was a little commotion in my peripheral vision and I turned to look straight into the face of a curious hummingbird!  She was right there so close I could touch her.  She was just suspended in the air looking straight at me as if to say "you got anything for me?".  It lasted longer than I would have expected it to before she took off leaving me feel like I'd had a special connection with nature (yea, me--a special connection with nature!).  Several days later and I still feel like I've been specially visited.

Did anyone besides me notice today is 8-9-10??  I'm glad to see Brad has made his own Shutterfly site--I'm enjoying it--thanks for sharing Brad!  James and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary last week by going to a Binghamton Mets game for a beer and a hot dog.  Well, at least there's something to be said for tradition......and James got to throw out the first pitch.  And it did NOT sail over the backstop, despite other reports.  Enjoy what remains of the summer. 

Manzelli Mausoleum

Thanks to Angela's generosity and skeleton key skills, we were able to find and get inside the Manzelli mausoleum recently.  It is, as Marilyn told me, "a very special place" and I'm very glad I was able to be part of the field trip out there for a visit. 

I remember wondering out loud about how the mausoluem came to be built as the patricarchs were barbers, junk dealers and priests.  So I went back and re-read Marilyn's letters and this is what she had to say:  "...when the ill mother came to America Fr. Pasquale took care of her at St. Joseph's Rectory in New Rochelle.  In the meantime the three brothers decided to build a family mauseleum at Calvary Cemetery where the whold family could be buried.  It is a marble chapel with 4 tombs on each side and an altar and stained glass window of St. Joseph.  Underneath the floor there are 4 tombs on each side and then 4 more fit in the middle.  Then there are 18 graves outside in the dirts.  When Marguerite died the mauseleum was finished and she was buried there.  ....When I was in Pietraroia I visited the cemetery where Andrew and his daughter Marguerite are buried.  I picked up some pebbles and brought them to the altar at Calvary."  The three brothers she refers to must be your great grandfather Joseph, his brother the barber Giacomo (who lived with Joseph and his family) and the priest Pasquale.  They certainly built a fine family remembrance. 

Some of us were wondering about some of the names listed there as they were unfamiliar, especially Delorise Manzelli

Of course I could not resist doing a little bit of research into this after I came home.  And it is developing into an intriguing story--maybe.  Delorise might be the daughter of a 4th Manzelli brother Michael (or Michelangelo).  The 1930 census lists a Michael Manzelli family in Queens with mother Amelia and children Marguerite, Deloris and sister in law Adela (Amelia's sister).  Deloris is listed as 21 years old; immigrated in 1913 and working on some sort of shoe machines (presumably in a factory).  If this is the same Delorise, I'm assuming for now that she never married.  Delorise Manzelli has some kind of tie to Sayville!  Her Social Security Death record lists Sayville as the address her last payment went to.  City directories indicate she lived in Long Island City for a time in the 1990s. 

There is also a Delorinda Manzelli arriving Ellis Island with family mother Amelia, sister Marguerite, brother Vittorio, another sister (escapes me right now) heading to 469 Hamilton St--the Manzelli homestead.  However, Delorinda is listed at 12 years old in 1911 so there's a significant age discrepancy if this is the same family. 

Long story short, it's still a mystery but the Sayville connection intrigues me.  If anyone living close to the Sayville Public Library cares to go and see if there's an obituary for Delorise Manzelli Sept 25 2004 perhaps some of the mystery can be cleared up!