Signing Off

All good things must come to an end.  So it is for this blog.  This will be my335th post in the seven years since the blog was born.  I plan to focus my family story sharing efforts to the Gathering the Cousins blog to try to reach a wider audience and potential cousins.  I look forward to focusing on one blog that is public and you are all invited to follow along!  I hope you will.

I thought it would be fitting to finish strong with these two video clips from years gone by:

From your parents 40th wedding anniversary celebration:

Bonus:  a special little clip full of fond memories from April 1990:

Thank you for following the blog and for all your kind comments.  It will still be online for your reading pleasure!  Merry Christmas to All and To All a Good Night.

A New Coffarelli Discovery

It has long bedeviled me that I had been unable to locate any record of your great grandfather John Coffarelli's death.  It seemed ridiculous that it was so hard to find.  The cenus records indicated he'd likely died between 1920-1925, several years after his wife Rosa died in 1908.  I had a fairly narrow time frame, a very likely location but, still, I'd been unable to track this down and close that door for him.

Until I found this in the Freeport Society News:

This was published in the Freeport Daily Review Feb 20 1922.  Although James is listed as the father's name, I believe it's likely this was actually your great grandfather John.  In 1922, Phillip did have two brothers Joseph and James; but he also had 5 surviving sisters Margaret, Elizabeth, Theresa (the nun), Lena and Louise.  I'm not sure why this says three sisters unless it has something to do with where they lived.  I am unaware of any other Phillip Coffarellis who may have lived in the area at this time so I feel fairly certain this is my "proof" for John Coffarelli's death.  I'll be following up for further clarification but I felt confident enough to put his death date in the official copy of the family tree.

There are so many unknowns regarding these Coffarellis.  I don't know where in Italy they came from.  It seems John must have had siblings but I haven't found anything about them so far.  We know John's father Nicholas came to the United States very late in life to live with John.  I don't know why he would do that unless his options in Italy were limited.  I keep wanted to spin a tale, but I don't have enough thread!

I recently joined the Italian Genealogical Group (yes, they let me in) who recently sponsored a program on the Italian immigrant experience.  What follows are excerpts from that presentation as I think many must apply to ancestors like John and Rosa Coffarelli.

The immigrants made their way (on foot) to the port of embarkation, spent 2 to 3 weeks at sea, ate inferior food on board ship, got seasick and were quartered in the bowels of the ship (steerage) , only to face the uncertainty of Ellis Island, all for $35 the price of a steamship ticket.".......

......an immigrant woman was not allowed off Ellis Island if she came to American by herself.  Her father, her husband, her brother, or her uncle had to take her home.  Many couples got married on Ellis Island so the bride could enter American escorted by her new groom."  (I believe John and Rosa were married in Italy prior to emigration but John came first and Rose came later with baby Margaret.)

The presentation continues discussing the cultural and geographic challenges that faced these immigrants.  I had not given such things much thought but for any immigrants that might come from small villages in Italy, the hustle and bustle of Astoria Queens must have been quite a change.  The weather likely was also quite an adjustment as much of Italy is closer to the equator than Queens!  It's a good exercise to give consideration to the challenges faced by our ancestors as they often mirror some of our own. 

Sisters Eleanor Giblisco and Marie Coffarelli

An intriguing story is developing about your grand uncle Joseph Coffarelli's family.  You may remember that Joseph Coffarelli (your grandfather's brother) worked for the Post Office.  Angela says he smoked a pipe and worked staggered hours during the Depression in order to help save jobs.  Despite this, the general consensus seems to be that he had an unpleasant personality.

The family story had been told that Joseph and his wife Mary adopted two girls Eleanor and Mary.  This is how they appear in the 1940 census:

You will note they use the surname Gibilsco, something I overlooked earlier--I think because I needed some verification this was "our" Joseph and Mary Coffarelli.  I recently located Eleanor's obituary which tied together Marie, Joseph and Mary. I also have Marie Coffarelli Balistreri's obituary as well which makes a nice neat package.

Nice and neat except what's  up with this Gibilisco family?  Sometime between 1930 and 1940, these girls went to live with your Coffarellis.  This is how their life looked in the 1930 census:

It's interesting to me that Albert was a federal tax collector at the time--must have been a difficult position to be in at that time in our economic history.  To date, I can find no evidence of what may have happened to either Albert or Lucy that pushed their daughters to go live with Joseph and Mary.  Angela noted that the girls were Mary's sister's children so that helps explain some of the story.  Albert and Lucy's fates are unknown and my imagination has gone off in several directions--none less than tragic.

Marie's obituary lists her as Marie Coffarelli Balistreri but Eleanor's lists her as Eleanor Gibilisco Nicolaison.  I take that as a clue as to which girl may have been officially adopted.  I think this story will continue to develop as time goes by. 

Highly Decorated Medic Louis Albertini

It's time to turn my focus to some Italian heritage.  I have found some very interesting items in the last few days and I hope you enjoy them.  On a recent visit to Aunt Rose and Uncle Lou, I commented on his portrait which is hanging proudly in their living room.  It's Uncle Lou in his Army uniform.  This prompted a story from Uncle Lou which included a mention that he'd been interviewed on the Ted Malone radio show during his service.  Ever since, I've been making efforts to find that interview. 

I did not find that interview but I did come across some additional interesting articles.  In an earlier post, I described some of Uncle Lou's interactions with German soldiers but this article is more complete in its details and I think you will be VERY proud to learn that you have a hero in your family.

You can see this 1994 article was published in the Hazelton newspaper.  It is heartwarming that his hometown paid this tribute so many years later and puts a spotlight onto his service to our country. 

I also found this article from 1997.  It was so good to see those smiling faces looking so happy!

And here's another from a local Pennsylvania newspaper that I thought might interest some of you (Nick?  James? Thomas?)  From 1939:

Just a reminder to check out the Gathering the Cousins blog once in a while.  I try to alternate Italian posts with Irish interests but you may find each interesting.  I usually update a post from the past with a little polish to make it more readable to a general audience.  The purpose is as "cousin bait" so that anyone with the same family history interests might come across it and make contact.  The more hits it gets, the higher it will appear in search results.  Let's hope we "catch" a cousin! :)

In Memory of a Sweet and Pure Child

I thought this tombstone from the Calvary Cemetery in Woodside might interest you for the family stories it tells.  Vittorio died in 1919 at the age of 13 and was the son of Michele (Michael) and Amalia Manzelli as listed here.  I have been trying to track down how this young child died with no luck so far but my current theory is that perhaps he was a victim of the flu epidemic.  There is some interesting information about this pandemic here.

I think you've seen this before.  This is Vittorio's father, your 2nd great uncle.  Michele was Giuseppe (Joseph) Manzelli's much older brother.

Amalia is his wife who survived her husband for several years.  Margherita is their daughter, as is Elvira (I love that your family has a member named Elvira!).  Frank Magre is Elvira's husband.  Dolores is another daughter, who lived 100 years!  Perhaps partly because she apparently never married :)  It's a very handsome tombstone and a fitting memorial to your Manzelli ancestors.

Home Again Home Again

Now that we have returned from our Gloucester vacation, I can reflect on the time away and what I've learned.  And I don't mean what I learned about the Ryan family history.  As Kathleen and Nick already know, being away from home for almost a month can be a tricky proposition.  One thing I learned is that I do not own enough underwear and socks to last a whole month!  Day to day stuff needs to be dealt with; planning needs to be done to properly prepare yourself; children and pets require your attention regardless of distance.

Those day to day intricacies seem to be what stands in the way of keeping the blog more regular.  While I was in Gloucester, I found it easy to create weekly posts.  For a while, I was wondering why it was so easy when I was there but not so easy right here at 2682 Colesville Road.  Then the phone rang and I realized I was no longer on vacation.   Back to the real world.  I'm guessing the posts will become less regular than they were last month!

But, for now, here's the update on our recent trip.  My lungs are full of sea air and my car is covered in sea salt, which makes me very happy.  As you may know, my sister Paula visited us in Gloucester the weekend after Robert and Bobbie's visit.  It was only 48 hours for her, but we managed to fill the time with ocean, children and seafood.

 There's a spectacular place called Halibut Point State Park where you walk into the woods to the old quarry and then can continue just a few paces to sit oceanside.  This day was about 24 hours after the nor-easter passed and the waves were still coming in.  We took Robert and Bobbie here but got chased away by rain--but Paula's visit to the place was a beautiful day.

This is my uncle Tim.  These two seem to be solving some of the world's problems at the Essex Clamfest.  James' hat was one we found in an antique store while shopping with Robert and Bobbie.  James wasn't sure he should purchase it until Bobbie pointed out the "D" pin on the band.  Seemed destined to be for James and I think he looks pretty snappy.

I like this picture of us.  Paula took it at Good Harbor Beach.  We hadn't actually been there in a long time.

James sitting on the deck of our apartment contemplating the trip and returning home.  It was truly a great trip and we'll do it again.  I'll have to buy more underwear though-- a month is a long time! :)

Thar She Blows!

We are currently sitting out a nor'easter here in Gloucester.  The wind's been very strong for about the last two days.  The rain comes and goes, but when it does; it's in sheets straight-lining out to the water.  It doesn't feel threatening and it's certainly not the worst storm we've ridden out here but it does seem to be getting a great deal of media attention.  I did have to anchor myself to get some of these shots earlier today:

Robert and Bobbie visited last weekend and we had a great time touring the sites and sounds of Gloucester.  We even caught a rainbow shining over their heads!

Robert seeks shelter from the rain.

We walked to the end of the breakwater on a lovely afternoon and waved at the boats coming in.

It was great to have some real time to sit and chat and get caught up.  We truly appreciated that they made the trip out here so we could share some of what we love about the place.

My birthday was very nice.  I've discovered that I love spending my birthday here, regardless of the weather situation.  Since it was rainy, we toured the Cape Ann Museum and the Maritime Heritage Center.  Naturally everyone else in the city had the same idea for a rainy day, but it was still fun. 

We are swiftly coming to the end of our little getaway so we find ourselves trying to pack in all that remained on our wish list for this trip.  I definitely got my fair share of family research accomplished!  We got ourselves some weather as an added plus.  So I guess I'll see you on the other side back in Harpursville again!

The good life continues here in Gloucester for me.  James stays in Harpursville during the week to take care of his obligations but I get to stay here.  It's a little lonely some of the time, but I have been working on family history so much that names and dates float through my head throughout the nights. 

James was here last weekend to celebrate his birthday.  A trip to Boston University to see one of his former field hockey players who now plays for UCONN.  It was a barn-burner but the "good guys" won in a shootout after a double overtime game.  He looks happy, doesn't he?

The trip worked out well as a trial run for my own trip to the Boston Public Library tomorrow by train and subway.  At least that's the plan for now. 

As I've been working on the family tree (all Ryan all the time), it's interesting to note that those little shaky green leaves that the Ancestry.com commercials talk about came to life this week--for the Italians!  Bentivoglio, Maistrelli, Manzelli, Dalpiaz and Odorizzi.........all these hints and I can't easily follow up on them until I get back to my records at home.  Stay tuned and we'll see what happens.

James got a nice phone call from Thomas for his birthday.  They had a nice chat reminiscing about street football games in the neighborhood.  Coincidentally, last night there was an episode of The Middle during which the mom tried to get the kids to get along better.  They ended up playing parents vs kids in street football--and it worked to bring the kids together!  The problem for the parents was that grew tired of these games much faster than the kids did.  I'm quite certain that wasn't a problem for James and Thomas during their games.....I'm right, aren't I?  :)  Anyhow, that show made me think about how nice it is that you siblings all found ways to get along and stay in touch.  I understand that's hard work but very much worth the effort.

On that note, we are expecting a visit from Robert and Bobbie this weekend.  We hope they enjoy Gloucester but, in any case, we are looking forward to time together continuing those efforts to share experiences and spend time together.  A report will be forthcoming.

October 10 1955 and 2014

This is one of our favorite first stops when we visit Gloucester!  It will be wonderful to be able to celebrate James' birthday here in Gloucester this year.  So far, I've been having a grand time -- doing family history research on a full time basis while James takes care of the homestead during the week.  Unfortunately for you, it's pretty much "all Irish all the time" and not so much with our Italians.

So let's add a new dimension to James' birthday celebration this year by thinking a little bit about October 10 1955.  It was a Monday, and we know that Monday's child is fair of face.  Right? So far, so good.  There were already 3 children of preschool age waiting at home for his arrival.  That's just hard to imagine. 

Eisenhower was President and Mitch Miller was playing on the radio.  Vice President Richard Nixon was featured on the cover of Time magazine that week--scary looking even then.  Speaking of scary, James shares his birthday with David Lee Roth. 

We had another "Pay it Forward" incident last week while James was here in Gloucester.  On our first night, we decided to have dinner at Giuseppe's, a restaurant we hadn't been to in a while.  We were having a drink at the bar while we waited for my aunt and uncle to arrive.  A woman was celebrating her 94th birthday so James offered to buy her a shot to celebrate.  Not surprisingly, she refused but was quite charmed at James' flirting with her.  I said if she refused a drink, she was definitely not related to the Ryans.  We were re-telling this story at our table after we were seated when a man approached the table to compliment James on how he treated the birthday girl.  He left his gift card with some remainder on it for us to apply to our meal and noted he was paying it forward. 

At first, I thought it was an appropriate turn of events following my previous efforts.  Then we learned that Giuseppe's unexpectedly closed its doors for good the very next day!  I think we'll try to have birthday dinner someplace we hope will be open the next day.

WWW Dalpiaz

As I've mentioned before (probably several times), sometimes I just Google names to see what comes up.  Most recently I did that for the surname Dalpiaz and came across a few interesting new websites for you to check out when you have a chance.

First of all, here's a Dalpiaz ancestry blog for the Trentino area:  Dalpiaz Ancestry   I think you'll see familiar names and locations here.  I'm not the only one out there attempting to blog the ancestry for your family!

This Trentino Heritage blog is run by Sal Romano, with whom I've had some correspondences for the Trentino area and history.

Another interesting exercise is to seek the Dalpiaz name in cemeteries around the world, which can be done at Find A Grave.  Here are the results.  I participate in this volunteer effort and it has taken me on some interesting adventures!  Some of the pictures here are mine.

Of course, there are many ways to spend your aimless online surfing time but if you just need to take a look at something new and different, I'd suggest these.

On another note, perhaps you've heard that Amy "said Yes to the dress"!  I took a trip to Erie yesterday so that she could show me the dress she'd fallen in love with.  Unfortunately, the shop sample of this dress had been sold so Amy couldn't model it for me.  She had pictures from a previous visit and it is quite beautiful.  But the confirming fact for me was that she loved it so the dress has been ordered.  It was much more emotional than I was expecting.

The emotions were on high alert after we found some evidence in our house that Ron Henry had stopped by for a visit recently.  He had a habit of moving the toilet paper around in the downstairsbathroom, which kind of drove me nuts.  When he died, I thought "Well, at least I won't have to go move the toilet paper back any more."  The night before I went to Erie, the toilet paper roll had been moved to Ron's favorite spot.  We believe it's a message from Ron.  He would have belly laughed himself silly to hear me tell the story of driving out to Erie to find my hung over daughter ready to go to the bridal store to try on a dress that wasn't there.   And then paying for it.  Cue the emotions.

Harpursville update

Dear blog, I have not abandoned you though I don't blame you for thinking so.  I haven't done much genealogy recently and my creativity seems to have run dry.  I think there's a connection there :)

I guess the best thing to do is offer an update on what's going on around here and what's on my mind.  I have fretted quite a bit about the blog wondering about potential topics, but to no avail.  So I guess this will be a bit like a Facebook Newsfeed to update you. 

First of all, our little Shea went missing over a month ago and we now believe she's using the Litter Box in the Sky.  She was Jim's cat and was especially fond of him.  She would be very antsy when he was gone and quite contented in his lap every night.  She was a birthday gift to Jim and he named her appropriately.  Now both his favorite Sheas are gone.

She was a very good kitty -- the other two seem to miss her as she was the most submissive and now they only have each other to tease. 

Amy and Michael came for a short visit and Amy agreed to try on bridal dresses locally.  I'm pretty sure she was only doing this to make me feel part of the process but I didn't particularly care why we got to go--I was just happy that we did.  Though we didn't "Say Yes to the Dress", we did find a style that seems to suit her and realized there's a wide price variation between Erie and Binghamton!  So, of course I had to post that picture Pat took of Amy in 1993 in a wedding dress.  I like the idea someone had to use it on the shower invitation.  It looks like I'll be heading out to Erie again soon for more dresses.  Honestly, I'm just grateful she's interested in a traditional bridal dress and isn't planning to wear a football uniform or some such.

I also had a couple of interesting "Pay it Forward" experiences in the last few weeks.  There's a Facebook initiative to Pay it Forward that I decided to try and it was an interesting exercise.  You promise to send off a little token of remembrance to the Facebook friends that agree to give it a try.  Some of my Facebook friends that agreed are people I know well and see often.  A couple are not and those were the ones I found to be intriguing.  I took the opportunity to stop and think of these people carefully in ways I don't generally.  I found little tokens to send off that I think will appeal to their interests and personalities.  No pressure (like with Christmas) and no timeline (ditto).  I liked taking time to think of those that don't often come right to mind.  Then these friends are supposed to offer the same out to their Facebook friends.  It's a neat way to spread a little kindness.

The other experience took a bit longer to come to fruition.  Quite a while ago, I bought a small bunch of ephemera  at an auction that included personal items like letters and pictures.  I had promised myself that someday I would reunite such memorabilia to remaining family members, and these items seemed to be good candidates.  I carefully reviewed the items, taking note of names and dates then did some research to see if I could find this family online.  It seemed there were 2-3 potential family members with tress on Ancestry.com for whom this might be valuable material.  I wasn't sure how to proceed picking the family to whom I would offer these items first so I responded in the time honored tradition of putting it away to think about later.

Several months later ( and within the time since the last blog post), I renewed these efforts and decided to select the family tree that seemed to be best documented.  I contacted the tree owner to offer to send the items along and apparently picked absolutely the correct person.  The items seem to belong to her grandfather.  This woman believes she is the only living descendant of this man and she was very pleased to agree to accept the items.  So off they went!  I know how happy I would be and was glad to be able to bring that joy to someone else. 

Perhaps the good karma will open the creative gates for me in the near future.  Thanks for hanging in here with the blog.

August 1994

I'll be taking a break from the recent historical posts about long lost ancestors and related family members.  I can almost hear the collective "whew!".  I thought it would be fun to dive back into the photo albums again and see what was going on 20 years ago this month.  Turns out there was quite a bit going on that month!

All the while that James was doing marching band and the kids were young, we'd typically take our own vacation time during the month of August, so I guess it's not too surprising to find so much for August 1994.
It was the summer that we got our new pole barn built after the old one caved in under heavy snow in a previous winter.  The clearing of the land for this new barn (we have always called it the bus garage since it was home to the marching band bus) created a large pile of debris which the fire company burned for us in spectacular fashion.  This is Amy and Brad watching that fire:

This is one of my all time favorite pictures and memories. 

The Hartman clan came for a visit that year! 

Baseball Hall of Fame

Of course, we went to a Binghamton Mets game.  This is Jeff Barry with Amy and Brad.

I think this might be at Jean's for Mallory's birthday--Drew, Marisa and Amy.  Looks like Drew is showing Marisa the clutch.

Ryan having a catch with your Dad.

Your Dad playing volleyball in someone's back yard.

Sometime that summer, Angela hosted a reunion..what a crew!

James and I went to Chicago that summer and we took Amy and Ryan to stay on Long Island.

I think this is Pat's picture from that visit!

Good ole Harry was still around.  We went to Sesame Place where James danced on stage with Burt and Ernie.  It's pretty tough when even Ernie is laughing at you.  Ryan did not like it one bit that those huge creatures whisked his father away.

 We even found time for a trip to the Syracuse Zoo.  Who knew then what the future held for this pensive little girl?

I guess we kept ourselves pretty busy but when the kids are young, you try to do all kinds of stuff.  It's pretty close to where Jake and Lindsay are right now with Emily and Joey!  The more things change, the more they stay the same.

A reminder (shameless plug) about the new public blog Gathering the Cousins.  I created it specifically as "cousin bait"--that perhaps one day an unknown relative would stumble upon it and recognize either the Irish or the Italian lines as their own.  It would be great if you'd visit the site once in a while--I think the more hits it has, the more likely it will be to show up high enough on someone's search results to be found.  To have a relative find us this way would be a serious affirmation of my efforts with blogging and family history research.

Uncle Luigi

Michael Lessie's father was Louis and Aunt Josie told the story that Louis had two sisters who schemed to have him jailed so they could take the family's land.  Further, she said Antonia married him to get him out of jail!  It's a crazy story, but one thing I have learned over all these years of research is that Aunt Josie was right on most of the time in her remembrances, so I have faith there is some truth in this.

When I started tracking Michael Lessie, one of those iconic trembling leaves popped up for Luigi Lisi's death.  I dope-slapped myself for being so stupid as to fail to translate (once again) the Americanized name to the Italian.  Once I started researching Luigi Lisi, the doors opened wide for me.  Duh. 

Double dope-slap to myself as I went back and looked at records I already have that plainly indicated that Antonia was coming to the US to be with her husband Luigi Lisi.  Double Duh.

Right on the heels of Michael's death cerrtificate, I also received this for Uncle Luigi.  It's clearly the right guy.

Initially I was excited to see his father's name Michael, which makes sense as Italians generally named their first son after the paternal grandfather.  But then I noticed Antonette Contento is listed as his mother, but she was his wife so now I'm less certain that the information is accurate. 

I did some further research and located an immigration record for a Luigi Lisi that intrigues me.  In 1900 this Luigi Lisi emigrated stating Boston as his final destination.  He is listed as a shoemaker.  Neither of these facts line up with what I think I know about Luigi.  He lists his last residence as Montalbano, which is close enough to Bari to reasonably be the Luigi we seek.  1900 is about the right date and his age at the time matches up so those are in the plus column for tentative identification as the right Luigi Lisi.  We'll probably never know for sure, and I'll just have to accept that! 

Michael Lessie the Barber

I recently obtained this death certificate for Michael Lessie, your grandmother Mary's cousin.  Michael's mother Antoinette and Mary's mother Catherine were sister.It isn't a surprise that they were very close since each only had the other from their homeland.  The Lessie family helped Catherine leave Ohio, escape her husband Jake and start a life in New York.  I believe that even before Catherine and her children made their trek to Long Island, your grandmother Mary was also helped by her Lessie cousins to sneak away and to meet Costante and then take the train to Long Island City where there were Messa family members.  I recall a story told that this escape was just ahead of the bootlegging authorities.

But Catherine was excaping for a different reason.  According to Rose Jozwicki's journal, it was Pete Lessie that came from New York and knocked on the Messa family's door in Ohio urging them to leave immediately.  This was late in 1926 and by Rose's account, life improved greatly upon joining family in New York.

So the Messa and Lessie families were pretty well settled into this new life by the time the 1930 census was taken.  Michael was the oldest of the five children remaining at home with their parents Louis and Antoinette.  Michael practiced as a barber, apparently a common occupation for your Italian immigrants. 

Michael died in a particularly difficult time for the family.  As Rose put it: " In a period of eight months three in the family were gone."  Her Uncle Louie ( I believe this is Louis Lessie) had died in Feb 1935, followed by her Aunt Lessie (Antoinette--Louis's wife) in May 1935 and then Michael Oct 1935.  The family unit was completely broken up by the time of the 1940 census.

It is interesting to note that this certificate was signed by a surgeon who apparently had not previously treated him.  It states Michael's last illness was congestive heart failure and rheumatic heart disease.  This certificate also notes that an autopsy was performed concluding the cause of death was the same.  I don't know why an autopsy was performed but perhaps it was standard procedure if a death resulted from surgery.  Michael was a young man but perhaps not very robust if he was suffering from heart disease.  His brother Thomas is listed as the nearest kin.

These are names we have heard from Aunt Josie and Aunt Rose so often that they seem living persons to me.  You all have a long history of maintaining those cousin bonds and you are very lucky to follow in your family's footsteps!

The Way We Were

We are celebrating our 29th anniversary today.  I've been thinking about how big that number feels this year.  It was probably Cheryl and Brad's wedding that got me on this track.  I expect they can't imagine themselves in 2043!  In 1985, I wasn't think that far ahead either. 

In 1985, people told me that marriage is hard work but it certainly

didn't seem like it in that "honeymoon haze" that drapes itself over newlywed couples.  In 2014, I can attest that they were right.  It's hard work.  I believe there is great balance in this world so all that hard work does bring equally great benefits.  I intended to philosophize a bit, but I"ll spare you and move right onto the highlight of the day.  Hum "The Way We Were" to yourself as you look over some memories of August 1985.

Dad with the driver (of course)

I do not know where Lindsay found this kitten.  It wasn't ours!  :)

 

Seeing the fire truck waiting for us and realizing James really did get a fire truck!  I'm in for it now.

 Boys playing in the band

After we honeymooned in Gloucester, we returned to the homestead for a few days.  This is a classic!

29 years have been mostly kind to us all and I'm not sure I've said that I'm happy to belong to your crew!

Ressurecturis at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Cemetery

This is from the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Tyrolean Roman Catholic Cemetery in Hazelton PA, which is where we found ourselves not too long after I stumbled on this obituary for Uncle Lou's grandmother Josephine Facinelli Martini:

When I looked up the cemetery, there was this note: "Our Lady of Mount Carmel Tyrolean Roman Catholic Church was the only Tyrolean church in the US (now closed."  I mis-read this initially and thought it was the only Tyrolean Roman Catholic Cemetery in the country so how could we not troop ourselves a couple of hours down the road to visit such a place?

We found the area pretty easily and I've never been to such a setting for cemeteries.  There were several burial grounds abutting each other, separated by low stone walls.  Each was for a different ethnic church in Hazelton.  There was Slovak, German, Jewish and a few others.  All well kept pretty easily accessible, except not in a very pretty location in "downtown" Hazelton. 

We began looking for Martinis and Albertinis and anything else Tyrolean related that might be interesting.  Soon enough, James decided we should put a call in to Uncle Lou and Aunt Rose.  Of course, they knew exactly where we were and where to locate Uncle Lou's family.  James put them on speaker phone as we strolled around the cemetery and they were like one of those audio tours you can purchase at the museum except this was live and on air!  I have to admit it was a little bit surreal listening to their voices as we viewed the various gravestones guided by their remembrances.  There was a distinct separate area for the Germans and Uncle Lou knew that the Tyroleans had to share some space with the Germans.  Each cemetery has its own personality and this was certainly a distinct one.

It's relatively small (especially after you realize where they put those darned Germans) so we were easily able to walk the entire cemetery.  I took several pictures and posted them to Find-a-Grave which added over 30 names to that database.  We did find one Dalpiaz:

Adjacent to this were two additional stones, clearly belonging to the same family. 

You'll note that William's name is Dalpias though it's pretty clear he belongs to this family.  I did a teeny tiny bit of research just to verify that Simon and Lena were parents to William and Charles.  There was such a family in that area at the right time though William and Charles were 4 years apart, despite looking like they may have been born the same year if you only depended upon the gravestones.  I haven't yet quite matched August up with one of our Dalpiaz line but we'll keep looking.

Uncle Lou and Aunt Rose were understandably surprised to hear where we were calling them from and said they'd intended to visit there this same weekend themselves but had to change their plans by a week.  Can you imagine if we'd run into them there yesterday!?!?!?  Aunt Rose told us Louis lived nearby and we didn't realize how close we were.  We took a ride over there and had a nice visit with Louis and Christopher.

It was apparently Cousin Day one day last week and I think we celebrated it in style this year!  Cheers to all the cousins, in-laws and outlaws!

More Weekend Merriment

Whew!  What a weekend!  It was full of laughter, a few tears, a little sunburn and FAMILY!!!  Congratulations to Cheryl and Brad on their wedding.  All that work and planning certainly showed and we hope you could enjoy yourselves too.  It seemed you did!  James was very appreciative to be included in the ceremony--it was a near miss that you didn't hear "Meet The Mets" on your way down the aisle at the end of the Mass.  Our hotel neighbors were treated to several practice versions.  We were just lucky it didn't start the dogs howling since this hotel was full of "pet friendly" visitors.

I've gone off track.  My apologies.  It was wonderful to have Aunt Rose and Uncle Lou there to represent the eldest Dalpiaz generation.  Robinson held right in there throughout the festivities as the youngest member.  How lucky are we??

We were very happy to have Amy and Michael join us--and I think Michael survived the Long Island experience.  Their drive back was very long but they had lots to talk about to keep them occupied.

I've said this before, but it bears repeating.  It warms my heart to see the cousins and the children and the generations bonding and growing when we get together for these events.  Thank you all for making the efforts necessary to allow this family time miracle.  So, welcome to the family Cheryl!

Here are some of the pictures that just make me smile.



And, yes, I realize there aren't any pictures of Brad and Cheryl in this group.  They made me smile this weekend just by thinking of them!! 

Weekend Merriment

Have you ever thought about how the weekend concept came to be?  I hadn't so I was intrigued by the following written by Marie Wells of the New England Historic Genealogical Society:

It’s a steamy summer weekend, so what do you do?  You toss the kids (and/or the grandkids) into the car and head for the shore.  Time to get some respite from the heat with those cooling ocean breezes, and to commune with nature for a few hours.  Ah, but when you get there, you find that several thousand of your closest friends and neighbors had the same idea.  With perhaps three square feet of sand to call your own and the water as crowded as the sole working elevator in a high rise office building, you make the best of a fine tradition that goes back many, many decades.

Or does it?

For the first couple of centuries after the Pilgrims first anchored the Mayflower in Provincetown Harbor, work was life, and life was work.  No thought was given toward leisure time; in fact, in Puritan Massachusetts, the one day that work was forbidden was to be spent at the meeting house for the Sabbath services – which lasted all day.  Only after the Civil War when manufacturing and huge factories became the way of life for hundreds of thousands of people, many of them immigrants, was there something – though still paltry - called “leisure time.”  The well-to-do had enjoyed leisure time for years, and built large, ornate “cottages” in resort areas such as Newport, Rhode Island, to get away during the hot summers in style.  But little thought was given to whether the working class even deserved time off and/or access to recreational amenities.  

One man changed all that, a man still held up as a symbol of overwhelming capitalism, but a man who knew a good thing when it swam up and bit him in the posterior.

In 1909, Edsel Ford publicly announced, "Every man needs more than one day a week for rest and recreation....The Ford Company always has sought to promote [an] ideal home life for its employees. We believe that in order to live properly every man should have more time to spend with his family." And in 1926, Henry Ford made his son’s words reality:  he shut down all his factories for all of Saturday and Sunday, thus creating The Weekend.  No one had done it before, but Ford had cars to sell and knew that people would by them only if they had leisure time in which to enjoy them.  What a concept!

How interesting the tie between your family's beloved Fords and leisure weekend time!  We are looking forward to the upcoming weekend festivities.  Brad and Cheryl's hard work in wedding planning will come to fruition and lots of family and friends will be on hand to celebrate.  But even this event points to the changing nature of the concept of weekends and leisure time.

This wedding will be held on a Sunday.  When we were growing up, this just wasn't done--the phrase "non-traditional" didn't even cover such an idea.  Sundays were held as sacrosanct.  Businesses were ALL closed.  You went to church and spent time with your families on Sundays.  Period.  As we all have seen, Sundays are no longer off limits for working, shopping, alcohol or weddings!  It seems the weekend pendulum is swinging back to the earlier days when it made no difference what day of the week it was for workers, shopkeepers, liquor stores or young couples seeking to be married. 

As a child, I really did not enjoy Sundays.  I was supremely bored, so I still enjoy the freedom that Sundays now bring.  It's still a weekend day, but with the added benefit of open shops and family weddings!!! Now I love Sundays-- though I wasn't a big fan of Sunday nights before I retired!  And it will be a very special Sunday July 13 2014!  See you there!

Great start to Summer 2014

We went to Erie for a couple of days so that Jim could enjoy his Father's Day gift of a "back cage" tour of the giraffes at the Erie Zoo.

Mitch is the older of the two giraffes and this is who you see here.  He is tall enough to lean over into the younger (shorter) giraffe's cage and butt in on time with Nigel (the younger one).  Pretty soon Nigel started pacing a bit then showing a little aggressive behaviors  like these:

The zoo keeper told us they were definitely not cuddling--their neck-to-neck contact was so gentle that you might think it was affection rather than aggression.  She also noted they were not trying very hard at this behavior so it was kind of funny to watch them like they were toddlers.  Nigel, the younger, is in the foreground here.

Those of you with animal art from the Erie Zoo might have some from either Nigel or Mitch.  Apparently they somehow let them hang on to a paint brush with their incredibly long tongues to paint. 

Amy getting a giraffe greeting. 

In addition to the giraffe tour, we went to an Erie Baysox game and introduced the groom Michael and father of the bride to the wedding venue.  Nick's Place between Erie and Edinboro looked lovely in its summer splendor the day we visited.  I think the male half of the scouting party agreed it would do for a wedding!

This trip followed a day filled with Ryan family fun celebrating nephew Matthew's graduation from high school.  Now we turn our attention to another family weekend of celebration for Brad and Chery's wedding!  Here at long last!  Linda and Scott should be able to enjoy with a special kind of relaxation now that they are both officially retired.  Congratulations!  Big year for the Hartman household.  Looking forward to seeing everyone soon.