Salute to Your Brother

This is a very nice letter that appeared in the Press Sun Bulletin this week!  I thought you might like to see it. 

Interestingly, I also found your great grandfather John Coffarelli listed in the City of New York Law Department Report for Year ending Dec 31 1907  If you put Coffarelli in your internet browser Edit/Find feature, you'll see that he apparently won a judgement against the city for overtime wages.  A few lines further down there was a case  about "Personal injuries due to the neglect of the City to remove dead horses"!!  I'm sure there are other gems in there too. 

You never know when your name might appear in print....Happy Birthday today to new Mom Danielle and to Robert on Sunday.

Oh, What a Wonderful World!

Sometimes I forget to be grateful for the wonders of the internet and today's capacity to obtain information.  And when I do forget, I get reminded the way I did this week.  What you see here is Lena Coffarelli's marriage certificate.  Lena was your grandfather James older sister (he was the youngest so they were all older, but that's another blog post) making her your Grand Aunt.  I found some Fierro names in your mother's address book which led me on this merry chase.  Notice that Elizabeth Coffarelli is one of the witnesses--she was one of Lena's older sisters.

So the "wonderful world" part of how I came to obtain this marriage certificate isn't the fact that I was able to find a record of Lena's marriage on one internet site then use another NYC government site to order it online without ever letting my coffee get cold.  Amazingly enough there's more wonderfulness to be grateful for.

My genealogical eye was looking for new information on this record when it arrived by old fashioned snail mail and I noticed right away that Lena's place of birth didn't look familiar to me.  If you look closely at it, perhaps you will see something similar to what I saw:  that she listed her place of birth as Sholden Island.  I had never heard of Sholden Island before so I jumped online and did an exact term search.

Bingo here comes the miracle--or nightmare depending on your point of view.  The Bing search for exact term Sholden Island returned sites for "Staten Island"--which made me do the dope slap to the forehead.  Of course, Staten Island makes so much more sense so I felt relieved that little mystery got solved so quickly.

But then I got thinking how did Bing "know" to return Staten Island results to me when I asked for Sholden Island????  A little bit scary even as grateful as I am for the easy avenue to the information.  It is, indeed, a wondrous world we live in.

Faith and Begorra!

Kinda makes you want to say "Erin go Bragh" nice and loud, doesn't it?

Welcome to Daylight Savings Time...here's a little tidbit for you from a graphic in the paper this week.  Almost 50% of the population of this country lives in the Eastern Time Zone.  Isn't that kind of surprising?  So anyhow those of us feeling a little loggy and sleepy today are in good company.

Happy Birthday today to Jean and to Amy this week!  Amy has gone back to school this week to finish up her last 8 weeks or so.....Yikes! 

I expect most of you have now had a chance to take a quick look at the DVD.  Kathleen and Nick think it must be either Watkins Glen or Bridgehampton.  All seem to agree that your dad never had a camera so we aren't certain who is doing the filming.  I was doing a little looking around for more information and came across this link for those for Bridgehampton Raceway.  Maybe someone with a sharper eye might be able to narrow down the race from the information provided here (if it's Bridgehampton).  The pictures seem to match to me but this is not my specialty.  Anyone else have any thoughts to share?

It really is a small world after all

 

Most of you have probably seen this many times.  It is your parent's wedding invitation.  The front cover actually says Bridal Book while the inside clearly is an invitation.  And I'm sure many of you recognize St. Rita's church and its role in the family history.  The Pheasant Tavern not only hosted their wedding reception, but was also one of Tony Bennett's early employers.  In his book The Good Life  he notes he was a singing waiter at the Pheasant Tavern.  Another connection between Tony Bennett and your family, even as your parents were leaving their childhood homes to begin a new life!  I find these connections very interesting--the whole "degrees of separation" concept seems to validate that it is, indeed, a very small world.

St. Rita's Long Island City (at least according to Google!)

Happy Birthday this week to Pat!  James and Ryan are visiting Kathleen and Nick this week -- they have outdone their hosting duties this past few weeks!  Amy is now home for Spring Break.  It's starting to look and feel like spring......Enjoy!

Plaza Yearbook 1946

Snow day!  And we all know what that means......time to dig around in the papers, pictures and notes to come up with new thoughts on the family history!  (of course --what were you thinking I meant?)  Since we have so many high school seniors this year, I thought it might be fun to take a look at your mother's yearbook.  

Here's her picture entry noting her activities as Spring festival and choral training.  Her listed hobbies were an eye opener for me: sports (!?) and dancing.  Her ambition was "Success in whatever I undertake".  To be fair, almost every entry had a similar sounding ambition--so very different from what we see today.  

What I found most interesting were the signed well wishes from family and friends.  I don't know if it was common for the time, but several of her aunts signed her yearbook along with her friends and teachers.  It's always fun to look at the handwriting of our ancestors.  I think I can take a fair guess at most of them:  Marie Coffarelli may be Joseph's wife; there's also an Aunt Marie (I"m thinking perhaps Marie Mangelli).  Aunt Lee (Albert's wife); Aunt Amelia (Aunt Emily/Dolly?); and Aunty Madeline (Basile).  Aunt Sarah is a mystery to me....any guesses?  Your Aunt Mary told me that Peter Manzelli was first married to a girl whose name she could not remember--then he lived with another woman ("the Nervo girl").  Perhaps Aunt Sarah is one of these?

Tucked inside her yearbook is a certificate certifying that she earned a Minor Letter in Choral dated March 1 1944.  Also included is a Gregg Shorthand Speed Certificate certifying her for 60 words a minute issed in June 1445.  These must have been important to her.  What have you got tucked away in your high school yearbook?

Evan from Heaven

It's difficult to find words for this senseless loss of human potential.  It's unspeakable -- parents don't dare allow the thought to settle itself in consciousness.  Grandparents and great grandparents view mortality through their own frame of reference which includes no reality this brutal. 

Evan's funeral Mass was held at the local Roman Catholic church.  Many young people were there to hear the gospel, participate in the prayers and see the stark image of the lonesome coffin containing their friend carried by grief stricken pallbearers.  There is comfort in the familiar traditions of the prayers, the liturgy and the music for those that are open to it and have faith.

I admire those whose faith is strong enough to bring comfort at a time like this.  Angela and Louis each provided  written memories of Evan which were read from the altar by a family friend.   These words, so carefullly crafted and thoughtfully prepared, painted such a beautiful picture of young Evan for those of us not fortunate enough to know him.  Angela and Louis brought comfort to all of us and to think that a parent could do that for others at such a time is a great testament to the healing power of the love of family and friends.

Angela related that Evan introduced himself as "Evan from Heaven" and that's how I will remember him.  As the priest finished the service at graveside, I couldn't help but think about the irony of the sparkling sunny day and strong breeze wrapping itself around the huddled dark ball of grief surrounding the new hole in the ground.  Bless you Evan from Heaven.