Welcome to the World Joey!

We'd like to welcome Joey Dalpiaz to the family!  Congratulations Jake, Lindsay and Emily.  This is great news.  We've been away to Charlotte NC (all NASCAR all the time) but received the news by text while we were there.  Again I say, what a wonderful world we live in to have news available to us on the minute.  Can you imagine not knowing until the next letter arrived from overseas?

It's great to have a new Joe in the family.  It's a great tribute to Joey's great grandfather Joe but I'm not forgetting "Grandpa Joe" Manzelli your great grandfather.  While we await some new pictures of the newest Joey, allow me to share one of Grandpa Joe (Giuseppe)

I'm sure you've seen this before.  Grandpa Joe is to the far left with the magnificent mustache.

We've been particularly blessed in the past week to also welcome to the world twins of my cousin Cathy in Gloucester Massachusetts.  One boy and one girl Calvin and Claire were also born within the last week.  Babies everywhere!  Can't wait to meet them all.

Happy Father's Day 2011

I just loved that Jean posted a picture of herself and her Dad on her wedding day for her Facebook profile picture to celebrate Father's Day.  So I went in search of something similar to post here and this is what I found:

I like this because everyone looks happy and relaxed.  It's great to see everyone together this way!  So, this picture reminded me of another:

Bobbie is clearly the party girl here!  I have a note on the back of this picture that it was taken just before I lost my shoe (I don't remember that part at all).  This was Kathleen's boat wedding which did not end up with your Dad feeling so well but I did find this picture of your dad and I together, which is what I was seeking to start out with:

I think your Dad is smiling!  And please note party girl Bobbie.  And we have two weddings coming up.......

So, in a roundabout way:  Happy Father's Day to all and special cheers for your dad!

Cold and Wet in Mid June

James and I spent this past weekend at the NYS softball championships in Saratoga Springs.  I just love Saratoga Springs, but we didn't get to see too much past the clay diamonds of the playing fields.  The weather was just awful.  We arrived at the fields at about 5:45 AM and it began to rain at about 6.  Did not stop until around 8 PM.  If you told me we'd get all 15 games in that day I would have bet you money otherwise.  We got soaked and it wasn't that warm either. James worked really hard getting the fields playable so he was wet, cold AND dirty.  I was merely wet and cold.

But we had a great time despite the conditions.  Facing that kind of diversity with others forges special bonds that arise from shared misery.  It's kind of amazing how many times we've had a great time in adverse conditions.  When were were on our honeymoon, we went on a whale watch and it was the same experience, with high waves added in for fun.My brother and his wife were with us and I remember us all singing the Gilligan's Island song.

Many of the times that I can recall where nasty conditions failed to dampen the spirits involve softball.  One year the tournament was held in Binghamton and I was helping to run it.  It poured.  Everything was just dripping.  But we made it through that day also getting all the games in somehow.  And I have fond memories.  It was so much fun that we did it again!  And again!  After that soaking, I sent thank you emails to  my helpers:  "Thank you for all your help with the tournament.  It was long, cold, hard, and wet but we made it."  I think you can see why I remember those emails so clearly.  Yikes!  And those people are still my friends (well, most of them are anyhow).  I'm sure we've all sent or received something similar and just cringe at the memory.

Another week of being a little bit behind.  I hope someone missed me since the last post, but I did get to see many of you last weekend for the showers.  Thank you to Bobbie for putting together two wonderful events for us to share within 48 hours of each other!  It was great that Kathleen could be part of several family events in her visit north.  Pat took wonderful pictures, as always so that we could all enjoy the event long into the future. 

This is one she missed (I think):  James teaching Miles that the Mets are Number One.

Your dad would have celebrated his 83rd birthday yesterday so I've been thinking a lot about him this weekend, especially after seeing Aunt Rose and Diana last weekend.  It's also graduation time so it seems I'm thinking a great deal about advice to give and lessons learned.  Here are a few of my own:

You don't know what you don't know.  (this came to me more recently than many of the others but at the moment, is my favorite one)

Sleep when you need to.  Sometimes this feels silly--like we adults shouldn't "have to" take a nap just a little while after our morning coffee, but your body knows what it needs.  Listen to it.

People are doing the best they can with the tools they have.  Despite behavior indicating otherwise, people aren't usually actively trying to make your day miserable.  Most of the time.

 Say "no" when you need to without explanation.  But include a thank you for the thought.

Use the good stuff.

Find ways to remove the irritants from your daily life.  They aren't going to remove themselves and no one else is going to do it for you.

OK, there's no future in graduation speeches for me so you are my audience.  Thank you very much.

Here Comes the Bride

The upcoming bridal showers and wedding celebrations have me thinking about past showers and weddings.  This week is your parents 61st (!) anniversary so I think it's very appropriate to be gathering to celebrate Brian and Monet's wedding as well as Lindsay's and Jesse's.  I believe they would each be pleased. 

My Long Island bridal shower was probably the first time I met many of the various aunts, cousins and family friends.  What I recall more than anything was how welcome I felt especially by so many newly introduced women.  I felt accepted, loved and welcome to the family and I've been so appreciative of that all these years.  I was also a bit overwhelmed by the generous gifts.  To this day, I use the sewing basket that Aunt Rose gave me!  Every time I get it out I remember where is came from and smile a bit. 

I hope that Monet and Jesse feel equally welcome and accepted.  Further, I truly hope that in 25 years, they still smile a bit at the memory of this time in their lives.

A little bit of census sense

Sorry I did not get to post anything last week.  I hope some of you missed me!  I've been thinking especially about Thomas so this post is a little history lesson in his honor.  I suspect I may not be sharing anything historically new for him, but perhaps putting my own spin on it will be enlightening to some of you.

The US census records are extraordinarily valuable in family research.  These were taken every 10 years starting in 1790 and become public 72 years later.  I'm not sure how 72 was selected for the number of years, but I believe it had to do with average life span at the time of the decision.  In other words, most could expect that those appearing in the newly public census would have died in the meantime.  Therefore April 1 2012 (less than a year away!) is circled in red on my calendar as that is when the 1940 census will become public.

Each of you has likely filled out census forms for yourselves but this is not how the information was collected "back in the day".  Census enumerators were hired to go door to door to record information about the inhabitants.  This information was recorded by hand based on the answers given by whomever answered the door.  Just imagine that for about one minute and you can see how much room there is for error in that process: language barriers, enumerator shortcomings (some handwriting in the census records looks as though this person was barely literate), neighbors answering the questions for the household across the street and etc. Not unlike the hoopla raised over proper enumeration of the homeless in many urban areas.  A great deal depends on the census count -- congressional districts for a prime example.  Anyhow, though the census records are wonderful resources, they are also very prone to error.

Most of the 1890 census was destroyed in a fire.  This is a critical time period for your ancestors as this is the time when they were settling in this country, starting their work lives and families.  The years between the 1880 and 1900 census records are "prime" for your family.  It created a great big hole and although New York has its own census for 1892 it is largely not yet indexed making it much more difficult to use.

 When the 1940 census becomes public, I expect to find your mother and her brother living with their grandparents.  I expect to find your dad at home with his sisters and his parents.  But just because these are the thing I "expect" to find, there's near certainty that I will also find some wonderful genealogical gems.  Finding your g g grandfather Giuseppe Nicholas Coffarelli in the 1910 census with his son John and THEN (years later) finally locating the missing Margaret Innocenca Coffarelli living in the VERY SAME HOUSE.  I count 15 people in that house in 1910.  Imagine the dinner table!!! 

May Day 2011

It's official!  Spring has arrived for us and for you as well, I hope.  I did some garden work today and was able to admire how my new tulip bulbs are coming along.  It's been several years since I've had the time or inclination to  plant new bulbs in the fall but this year, I have a new garden and some spare time on my hands.  Now I get to reap the benefits.

For today I just have some random things to share.  Amy has a new address as of today:  1442 Pearce Park Apt 9  Erie PA 16502.  She's very happy to be moving "out of the ghetto" as she calls it.

We all remember those first new places we had on our own, right?  I'm not sure we always remember the second place though.  Brings to mind the new requirements being considered for those passport applicants who cannot supply the standard certified birth certificate.  I looked at the questions such applicants will need to answer.  It asks for all addresses you have ever had (!).  It also asks for your mother's address 1 year prior to your birth and then her address 1 year later.  I find this very interesting and wondering if those applicants who cannot supply the standard birth certificate will have the kind of resources to keep such residential tracking.  I'm not certain I could answer all those questions accurately.

It's May Day and we used to put together these little baskets of flowers (dandelions were prominent) and cookies taken from the drawer for my Mom.  It's a fun little tradition that seems to have died away.  It seems almost no tradition was lacking in "the wedding" this week.  Wasn't it beautiful?  It was such a treat for the eyes especially after all the tornado devastation in the south.  Anyhow, I don't know what it is about weddings that chokes me up every single time.  With 2 Dalpiaz weddings and 3 Ryan weddings this year, I plan to stock up on tissues. 

We'll be thinking of Thomas this week and wishing we could be there too.