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.