Bazinga!

"Bazinga!" is the phrase popularized by Dr. Sheldon Cooper on The Big Bang Theory  to express "gotcha" so it seems an appropriate title for this blog post as a recent episode gave me the idea.  Sheldon and Amy Farrah Fowler were recording their new video "Fun with Flags" and one of the notes displayed on his chart said: Your Father's Grandfathers' Flags. And I thought that seemed like a great idea for a blog post.  Little did I know what I was getting myself into. 

(With apologies to Thomas for historical inaccuracies and vague details)  Your father's grandfathers were Jacob Messa and Giuseppe Dalpiaz.  Jacob Messa was born in Bari Italy in 1880 and the Kingdom of Italy flag's reign was just coming to its end.

I am unclear as to why this flag became obsolete in 1880 (showing my historical lack of knowledge) but the Italian national flag for this time period looks different from the Italian flags seen today prominently displayed especially for Columbus Day.

This flag's life span was 1861-1943.  But a nice safe bet is the flag of Bari:

When Jacob died alone in that hospital in Ohio after falling from the railroad tracks into a freezing creek in 1936, the hospital was no doubt flying a 48 star US flag.

Things get a little murkier with Giuseppe Dalpiaz who was born in Tassullo on 1869 just as Italy was on the cusp of unification.  The 1869 Austria Hungary flag was brand new for its subjects and I believe the Dalpiaz family would have seen this flag

By 1942 when Giuseppe died, the flag of Italy above was coming to the end of its life as well.  It's interesting that his life span very nearly matches these great changes in Italian history. 

This research was a great deal more interesting than I expected it would be especially as I did the Ryan flags as well with similar conclusions.  So I guess this is where the BAZINGA comes in.  I should have known the history of the flags would speak to the political and social history experienced by our ancestors, yet I found myself surprised and touched by their place in global history.  BAZINGA indeed.

Glenn Ford

I don't watch westerns very often as they are not my favorite kind of movie but we turned to the 1957 version of 3:10 to Yuma by chance yesterday to catch the last half hour or so.  I watched the more recent version of the movie urged on by my sister who extolled its virtues and convinced me to give it a try.  I enjoyed it very much and have watched it more than once (though I can't find the DVD today when I want it again--Ryan, is it in  your collection at Cortland?).  I thought the older version did a great job of building suspense at the end even though I'd only seen that brief portion of the story.

As we are watching it, James mentions that Glenn Ford was your mother's favorite actor.  He didn't know why, but I said "Of course he was--he was HOT!"  He kind of remembers your mom watching movies downstairs and this would have been before the days of AMC or TMC so catching a favorite actor must have been a special joy. 

Apparently Glenn Ford was "the greatest actor never to get nominated for an Oscar" but he was lucky enough (crafty enough?) to appear in many great films along with other well known box office draws.  His persona was one of everyman but his personal life was rife with love affairs.  He looked pretty good here!

One of my Mom's favorites was Van Johnson, who apparently was very successfully pushed and designed to appear as a sex symbol to the bobby soxers of the time, but (as they say today) he played for the other team--something I'm pretty sure my mom never knew.  But it speaks to how screen personalities, politicians and other public figures are molded and packaged as products for consumer consumption. 

In this case, I prefer to look at Glenn Ford over Russell Crowe although I liked the conclusion to the more modern version better.  Now you're curious and are going to have to find out for yourself, aren't you?

Hishats Innocenti

My first major genealogical discovery of 2012 is Hishats Innocenti.   Yep.  Hishats Innocenti.  And she's all yours.  Meet Margaret Coffarelli--once again found after having been a little bit lost.

Margaret Coffarelli first appears in records in the 1900 census at the age of 20 with her parents and works as a dressmaker.  In this census record, her mother Rose is listed as having had 9 children all living.  It appears that Margaret and Rose arrived in the United States in 1883, two years after John did. 




This picture may be close to what it looked like for dressmakers in the early 1900s in New York.  (Story here--not my style of writing, but interesting perspective in what Margaret probably experienced)

Ten years later, in the 1910 census, Innocence Disabto is living with her husband Mark in the same household with her father John (now widowed) as well as John's 94 year old father Nicholas (also widowed) who had recently arrived in the United States.  Mark worked as a concrete laborer and they had 3 young children Rosanna, Catherine and Marie.  One child had died, probably early in the marriage which occured 9 years prior. This was Mark's second marriage and Innocence's (Margaret's) first.  You might remember that finding her married and living right in the same house with her father was quite a discovery for me once I'd tracked her down with this new name from one of those "shaky leaf" hints  you hear about on the Ancestry.com commercials.

Armed with this new information, about the Disabto family, I was able to locate them in the 1920 census living in Long Island City.  By now there are 3 more children Jeanette, George and James.  Mark is listed as working with razors (?!)  Innocence is 40 years old.

But, no matter what I did, I couldn't locate this family in the 1930 census and I was certain I should have been able to.  Due to my curiosity about this elusive family, I wandered off (this is a very professional and official term in family history research :)  )  to find some newspaper articles such as those from the Long Island Star Journal that I've shared with you.  Even after finding the story about Mrs. Margaret Disabato's son Joseph killed in action at Guadalcanal in 1943, I still wasn't satisfied that I didn't have records for the gap between 1920 and 1943 when this death occurred.  

I recently picked up this research thread again.  I searched for Disabto, Disabato and Disabito articles other than those published in the Long Island Star Journal.  And I found small leads in the marriage announcements of daughters Rosanna (to Joseph Kernan) and Catherine (to Fred Pulzelo).  These announements were made in 1929 so curiosity once again led me to search for Rosanna and Catherine.  Pulzelo seemed like an unusual enough name that might help make the search a little easier, so I started with Fred Pulzelo.  Found the 1930 census record almost immediately and began to scan it.  My eyes wandered up and "then what to my wondering eyes did appear" but Hishats Innocenti AND Rosanna and Joseph Kernan all together in the same house!  CHA CHING!  No wonder I couldn't find Margaret or Innocencia Disabto or any other members of the still young family--the census enumerator listed Innocenti as the surname and Disabto got transcribed as Hishats.  Truly serendipitous  and a great boost.  Besides Joseph that I'd learned about from the newspaper articles, there was another son John listed.  Margaret (perhaps the Aunt Maggie that your Uncle John referred to) had 9 children like her mother before her, although one did not live past infancy.

As I've noted, the 1940 census will be released in April.  Who knows where or when I'll be able to find her there?  Looks as though she may have died around 1955--another record to track down.  This job is never done, but I have so much fun with it.  Even when it leads to Hishats Innocenti.

It's difficult to read, but here it is if you are interested.