Observations of a Firstborn

What a weekend it was!  Saturday April 26 2014 was a very popular day for special events.  Hailey's prom--boy was she gorgeous!  I hope she had a memorable time.  My cousin's firstborn had her First Communion Saturday AND Colleen and Jermaine's New York reception was held in Kingston.

It was nice to see Marguerite and Gregory.  Gregory tells me he's now married!  Angela and Bill looked very relaxed and were ably assisted by Patty and Stephanie.  Cousin Jim was there with Andrew.  Jim took on the photography duties.  I met Jermaine and Jalen assisted Colleen with the "big reveal" of their new baby's gender--it's a girl!!!  They had a cake made colored to reflect the gender of their baby and Jalen cut it open for us all to see a nice bright pink color.  That was lots of fun.

I sat with Bob, Cheryl and Brad, Scott and Linda.  Linda and I talked lots about retirement and upcoming wedding plans but we also talked some about her relationship with her siblings when you were all younger and how that seemed to somewhat be dependent upon where you fell in the birth order.  Linda noted that she regrets that she missed much of Jean's and Pat's younger school year lives due to the difference in their ages. 

It's kind of funny this should come up because I'd been debating using birth order as a topic for a post.  This seems to be a nice segue!  I think every high school senior has to do some kind of major research paper and mine was about the effect of birth order on personality.  (Do you remember what yours was?)  As the high school librarian, I've seen many many senior research topics come and go, but there was always the Big Three:  abortion, death penalty and child abuse.  I would sigh inwardly when students approached looking for resources on these because, after a while, it's pretty ho-hum.  Then there would be those that chose some aspect of a current trend of the time and it would be a challenge to find enough different ways to attack the gas crisis or the shuttle explosion to satisfy the number of students interested in pursuing such. 

But sometimes there were topics that were interesting, timeless and rare.  Cryogenics is one that I remember.  I like to think birth order and personality fell into that category for the sake of the teacher that had to read the paper.  I believe that assignment achieved its purpose as I did learn a great deal about the research process with that paper.  And every now and then, I see it in the news again.  This was true recently when I came across this link on MSN about birth order.  Of course, I read it.  I especially liked that it addressed potential relationship issues when, say for example, a firstborn marries a middle child. 

I have to say it seems I am a classic firstborn.  The article says: "Oldest females, on the other hand, are more likely to be bossy, confident and aggressive than their younger sisters."  My sisters would likely agree though I don't know about the confident part.  As for the firstborn relationship with a middle child (not naming any names here) the article notes: "If you're the middle child, use your natural ability to compromise to decide what you're cool with leaving to your capable firstborn spouse, and what you'd prefer to control."  He calls it compromise.  I call it a survival technique. 

Linda's observations about feeling as though she missed out on some of her younger siblings school day lives points to another birth order phenomenon.  Family memories and stories about the same event can vary greatly depending upon point of view.  The oldest child has a range of memories and stories about a certain period on the family's life that are not the same as the younger children have.  Older children sometimes "lose out" on a set of experiences because they were away from home or dealing with their own families.  We often realize that the older children hold memories that the younger children do not but we forget the younger children have memories the older children cannot have either.  In life, there seems to be great balance and this is a good example.

So preserve those memories by sharing them with those you love.

Jake Odorizzi of the Tampa Bay Rays

Jake Odorizzi is one of the hot shot sensations now playing for the Tampa Bay Rays and Kathleen was wondering if you all might be related.  So I checked up, not expecting to get very far.  But I was wrong and it's worth it to note that it did not really take me very long to locate the following information about Jake's family tree.

If you don't want to go barking up the wrong tree, I'll give you the quick version before I continue-----it does not appear that this Jake Odorizzi is in your direct Odorizzi line.  Too bad, because he's kind of a cutie.

Jake turned 24 about a month ago and is the only child of Mike and Juli Odorizzi.  Jake graduated from Highland High School in Highland Illinois, which is where I believe his parents still reside.  His father appears to be about my age, so I knew I wouldn't be able to find him in a census record yet in order to figure out who the Odorizzi parents were.

So I did some creative Googling and discovered that Jake's Odorizzi grandparents are Wayne and Janice of Canton Illinois.  Wayne was apparently born October 1935 so I was able to locate him with his parents Leo and Wilhemina in the 1940 census.  Wayne is just 4 years old at this time and his father Leo is listed as a coal miner in Macoupin County Illinois--a popular starting point in this country for  your Italian immigrants (including your grandfather Costante). 

Some further creative family tree searching on Ancestry.com led me to believe that Leo was probably Americanized from Olivo. One of the census records indicated that Leo had immigrated in 1905 so I searched the Ellis Island records and found Olivo coming to the United States with his mother Caterina aboard the SS Philadelphia in June 1905 before he'd even turned 2 years old.  Caterina indicated she had come to join her husband Davide.  I found Davide in the Ellis Island records entering the country just a year yearlier to join his brother in law Giuseppe Eccher in Colorado.  Caterina and Davide indicated their last residence was Tuenno, in the Trentino area.

Using the Nati in Trentino records online, I found that Costante Davide (I almost didn't find him because I was looking for Davide and not Costante) born to Paolo and Maria February 17 1874.  Paolo is Jake's great great great grandfather. 

So far, I haven't found Paolo in your Odorizzi line but the search was fun, even if a little scary because this only took about an hour and a half to accomplish.  It would have been nice to claim a professional baseball player in your family tree and you might still yet!  On my "Yankee" side of the family, we can claim a Hall of Famer which is kind of cool.  This search gave me some time to give attention to the Odorizzi line and who knows where that will take me?

Baggage

The last post recalled good times between brothers and sisters while Robert, Bobbie and James were in Florida with Kathleen and Nick.  I asked James to bring these two postcards to Robert and Bobbie for some translation.  Bless them, they worked on it while on this vacation.

This postcard was sent to your grandfather Costante  in 1959 by his sister Rita, who was about 13 years younger than her brother.  Here's how it translated:

I'm sending you these few lines to tell you that we are well as well as you and the family.  I congratulate you for your letter with 5 dollars together with Rudolfo for Momma.  We remember you often.  Momma is always busy making a good (illegible).  It's cold and a little bit of snow is around.  I hope we find you with much health and your family and Victor's family as well.

I have recently heard high school students say they cannot read cursive (which does not surprise me as it is no longer taught), and although I know Robert and Bobbie know how to read cursive, this handwriting must have been difficult to translate, so thanks a bunch!  I may be reading the date incorrectly since I believe Momma (whom I presume to be Barbara Odorizzi Dalpiaz) died in 1954.  

Also from Rita, this time I think it's 1961.  Translation:

Dear brother I'm always late with you.  I'm sending you more Happy Easter greetings.  I hope you are in good health and everyone else.  I believe now that Caroline stays well (illegible).  Good wishes and good health to the rest of the family.

I can only imagine that Rita was receiving some kind of communication from her brother (or perhaps from your grandmother).  It's nice to know they were literate and in touch with each other.  The following article from the current issue of Filo offers some historical perspective on the importance of education in the Tyrol region.  I liked the idea of 'baggage' including reading and writing instead of the usual negative connotation associated with that word.  

We don't do quite as much writing to each other today but we do have ways of staying in touch.  I just wonder if our descendants will ever get that inside view of our lives 50 years hence.