Memories.....

Earlier this week we heard from Kathleen that she'd taken a spill on her bike.  So, of course my first thoughts were:  BLOG!  I'd been considering "bikes" as my main topic for this post.  I understand your dad bought a tandem bike to help provide transportation for you and most people have fond memories of their childhood two wheeled adventures.

But then we got a request from Thomas for some pictures of Racing Days for the Dalpiaz Boys which sent me searching through old pictures that hadn't seen the light of day recently.  And both James and I got sucked right down Memory Lane.  I thought you'd all enjoy the same.

This appears similar to the connections the media is trying to make between the 1948 London Olympics and 2012. 

Here's one I love from 1986--I suspect it's Danielle's birthday.

And another birthday celebration.  Two Jeans with matching necklaces.  Your Mom is leaning on a space heater and Jean has a similar grip on her:

They both look really happy.

Moving to the cousin category:

I think this might be Angela and Jean?

Maurizio showing Olympic style swimwear of the time period.  James says he thinks this is the closest your Dad ever got to the water in the pool!  But again, he looks happy.

And since it was the Defiant that got this started, I guess we'll end with

So Kathleen can rest easy (especially her tailbone) until I'm digging around for a topic next week.......

The shooting at the Batman movie premiere in Colorado last week is very much on our minds this weekend.  When such tragedies occur, attention turns to the disturbed individuals at fault seeking reasonable explanations which often are just not there to be had.  Two seconds after the "why" comes the political jockeying -- in this case, to gain a foothold in the gun control debate.  This post isn't about that.

It's about the loss of innocence in the most benign of activities:  going to the movies.  An incident such as this could occur anywhere innocent people are gathered but this time, it was a movie theater.  Going to the movies was a very big deal for me as a youngster.  First of all, the theater was not close to our house so it would require one of the two adults in the house to leave the other behind for a while.  There would be the question of supervision--needed or not?  I clearly recall my mother phoning her friend to ask if "Romeo and Juliet" was appropriate for my adolescent eyes.  Thank goodness this friend was more forward thinking than many other of my mother's friends and I got to go to the movies and see my very first bare behind in cinemascope.

Otherwise, going to the movies was not a common occurrence even as a family.  I think you might have had a bit of a different experience possibly because you had easier access to the theater.  I find it very interesting that during this time period of the late 60s, Batman was a popular TV series.  I know we enjoyed watching it even though I imagine my parents were rolling their eyes.  But it was innocent fun that evolved into this dark movie trilogy which has already drawn its share of tragedy and drama.  Going to the movies went from a "special treat" to premiere midnight viewings full of costumes and devout fans.   

These days it's a financial commitment to purchase a movie tickets even for a matinee.  And now we'll be thinking twice about our safety even though there isn't much that can be done to prevent disturbed individuals from attempting to carry out their demented plans.  So, as they say:  dance as if no one was watching and cherish every moment you are given.  God Bless innocent victims.

All Prettied Up

I learned an interesting lesson recently.  I'm not that interested in preparing meals during hot weather.  Well, to be honest, I'm not all that interested in preparing meals at all but that's neither here nor there for this post.  I purchase food that can be pulled out of the refrigerator ready to be served after a little warm up.  Recently I had 3 nice pieces of grilled lemon chicken breasts sitting in the refrigerator just waiting for one of the hungry males to come along and make short work of them.  Prepared mashed potatoes were also available. (perhaps you already know how I am about potatoes so I buy them ready made and I'm not even embarrassed about that)

A couple of days went by and I was pushing that chicken pretty hard--"Hey, there's chicken all ready for you in there if you are hungry"....."How about the chicken?  You liked this the last time." and the now famous:"That chicken is just going to go bad".  No takers.

Then the weather cooled enough for me to have an appetite at dinner.  I was alone so I put a piece of chicken on the plate along with some corn and had a feast.  James will generally eat what's left for him in the microwave when he comes home after the ball games, so I made a plate for him and one for Ryan.  Then I waited for the next hungry male to come through the kitchen.  Ryan's eyes lit up when he saw the chicken, mashed potatoes and corn all ready for him and he enjoyed it thoroughly.  He raved about how good it was. 

I refrained from mentioning this was the very same chicken I've been trying to sell all week.  I realized that putting it all on the plate together fait accompli was the key to success in this case.  The ingredients were all there and available but having someone else put it together and hand it over got the chicken eaten.  This is not unlike my dinner making preferences, but, again, that's not for this post.

It's like family history research work.  The key elements are all there just waiting for someone to put them together.  Sometimes you just can't put it together until it gets handed to you in a lovely package.  And now we get to the real point of today's post.  I have located 3 Coffarelli siblings in one house!!!

You may remember my struggles figuring out what happened to all of James Coffarelli's siblings.  I finally was able to find them all as adults and still had some work to do with matching them up from the time they were children in their parent's home through adulthood.  One sibling I was having lots of trouble with was Lena.  She was in the middle of the pack and married Anthony Fierro in 1919.  After that I kind of got stuck and wasn't able to find Anthony and Lena together as a family.  There were several Anthony Fierro's and that was causing some issues.  Lena died in 1930 so I didn't expect to find her in the 1930 census.  She was newly married in 1920 and could possibly have a child by then but I couldn't be sure I had the right Fierros.

As is the usual circumstance, I was seeking different information and fell onto the 1925 New York State Census for Tony and Lenora Fierro in Freeport.

Right hand page near the top

Children listed include John, Vincent and Louise.  Also in the same household are Elizabeth Coffarelli (Lena's sister) and Philip (Lena's brother)!  These are two souls who were a little bit lost to me and now I have 3 siblings together in one house in 1925.  Fait accompli.  It feels so good to find them --like they've been waiting for just that!

This is the child Louise in her Freeport High School yearbook in 1942

This is a contemporary picture of a woman named Louise Fierro born about the same time

 Do you think these are the same woman?  I'm not convinced (nose seems very different) but it's interesting she has the same name and was born about the same time as "our" Louise Fierro.  I think her married name was Wyant and they lived in Oklahoma City.  Ring any bells?

Regardless of this woman's relationship to your family, I am very pleased to be able to show you a full plate of Coffarelli siblings today!  Now go clean out your refrigerator.

Flashback July 1995

Maybe it was seeing some of Gabrielle's pictures of New York on Facebook.  Maybe it was my wandering through the 1995 picture album.  Maybe it was finding the obituary of a distant Coffarelli relative.  Whatever the reason, I thought it was time to travel back 17 (!!!) years to Gardiner NY and the Coffarelli family reunion.  That day was such fun and I thank Angela and Bill for hosting.

I was going to forward this to Gabrielle through Facebook, but why not put it out there in the blogosphere instead?  Andrew, Amy and Gabrielle.  Classic.  Pretty close to Hear No Evil; Speak No Evil and See No Evil they way they are sitting there the same but differently for each.

And this is one of those absolute treasures you find when you go back through your albums.  I believe this is Angelina Sapienza, Angela's grandmother.  Good thing she's holding on to Ryan's chair for him.  Ryan just cracks me up in this one.  Doesn't look too happy but he's going to sit like a good kid.

Uncle Johnny chose his Gardiner Fire Rescue shirt for the event.  I have a feeling it wasn't the only one he had.  Stephanie and Amanda bonding.  A rare picture actually. 

YaYa Cousins

And the classic of all classics.  The Dalpiaz men circa 1995

Hope you enjoyed this little trip down memory lane.

Rambling June Thoughts

It's the end of June and it's been a wild month for us on the road:  two trips to Long Island, one to Saratoga and most recently to Virginia Beach.  I hope I know what to do with weekend days at home!  So I've been doing a great deal of virtual blog writing as I daydream in the passenger seat.  This post will be a little random. 

We had a good visit to Virginia Beach, though I didn't think it was very "pretty".  They are very proud of their military heritage in the Norfok/Virginia Beach area so we saw our share of new, old, stationary, soaring planes, jets or other flying machines.  There's only so much of that sort of touring that will hold my interest which is what allowed me to find baby birds in a nest in the tail pipe (I'm quite certain that's not the correct term) of one of the aforementioned flying machines.  Our local contact in the area found that discovery a shocking take-away from the tour.  I was quite pleased with myself.  North/South.  Military/Civilian.  Young/Old. 

Having spent a fair share of time looking to the skies to locate a powerful whine of jet engines (well, whine is probably not the word those southerners would use but that's what it is!) seeming to nearly break the sound barrier, I was amused by the sound of the plane overhead in my yard today.  It was like a putt-putt in comparison!  I'm sure you can tell the Virginia Beach tourists by their crooked necks and hands-to-forehead stature when those jets appear in the sky.

We revisited a favorite Irish bar while we were there:  Murphy's.  These are Irish siblings standing side by side at Murphy's overlooked by Mom, Pop and Uncle Jameson in the background.

I've also been thinking about Bobbie's trip to visit her mother and do some family history research.  I enjoyed spending a little one-on-one time with Bobbie doing a little bit of work to help.  As we were sitting in her room switching back and forth between the iPad and the laptop as our (almost exclusive) research material, it struck me that this was a little bit like "microwave genealogy" compared to my "oven baked potato genealogy".  When I started my research, it required travel, document requests and small change to print copies from microfilm.  It took a while but as time went by, I find myself more often here at the computer than at the microfilm reader.  Bobbie got to start with the microwave!  Lucky dog.........

Thanks to Pat for sharing the photos and videos from Dylan's party.  She really captures the moments!  That's a definite skill.  We are thinking of Kathleen and Nick hoping the water problems are resolving themselves. 

Enjoy the end of June!  We'll be home this weekend if you want to stop by!

Hey Paisan! (sorry)

Colleen posted this on Facebook and I knew I had to share it with you all.  It is long but well worth listening to all the way through.  I think you have most of the exact same pictures around too!

Dear Garden

Dear Garden,  


Just prior to Memorial Day weekend this year, I promised you I would tend to you for at least an hour daily over the long weekend.  And I did!  I was very smug with myself until the calendar turned itself over to June.  Since then, I've had to revise my promises to you.  Let's see, it went from the original plan to I'll tend to you every weekend day that we are home.  Hmmm.  That wasn't such a great plan for you as we aren't home for a single weekend in June.  

But today I did push myself out the door and reunited you with the bedding plants I bought two weeks ago.  They have been so desperate to get into decent soil and sun that I could hear them cry out even while the cats were begging to be allowed inside.  Tonight they shall rest easy.  Until next weekend.  Sincerely, Patty Anne

So you can replace Dear Garden with Dear Blog, Dear Laundry, Dear Pantry, Dear Bathroom Sink.  It's all been ignored recently, but not forgotten. 

We had a lovely but quick Long Island visit last weekend for Dan Hall's wedding.  I was just flabbergasted to be told that John Miglietta (Aunt Caroline's son) came from Nashville for the wedding!  It was wonderful to be able to shake hands with the man I've been trying to contact by email with very little success.  Now he can put a name to a face and perhaps I'll be able to obtain some new information from him. 

Also in attendance was Marie Louise Dalpiaz Kussman--I've had this name mentioned several times to me but here I was sitting right next to her for dinner!  She is your second cousin, once removed (the removed part refers to generations--she is one generation different from yours).  We discovered that we have a great deal in common and I hope to stay in touch with her as well.  I understand she was a great help for the recent Italy trip. 

I felt like Aunt Rose somehow made this magic happen in collusion with her brother and sister's guidance from heaven. 

Bobbie has recently been bitten by the genealogy bug so we've been chatting more often than usual about this and that related to family history research.  It gave me good practice for the recent Rotary presentation I had prepared on how to search the 1940 index using enumeration district numbers since it wasn't name-searchable yet.  The very afternoon of the scheduled presentation, I learned that 1940 census records for New York State are now indexed and searchable by name!  That's HUGE especially since these will be available free for several more months.  In addition, Ancestry just released New York State census records indexed and name searchable for 1892, 1915 and 1925.  This is prime research years for your family as well as for the Irish side. 

Unfortunately I've been unable to really spend time with these yet, but my very first search was for Grandma Jenny Manzelli.  She was an Isoldi and I found them right away.  They are in the last column about 1/3 of the way down the list.  It tickles me that she is listed as Annie--

Also take note of two neighbors:  the Curcio family--Ralph and Sarah are the parents of Graziano's second wife Maria.  Also there is a nearby Isoldi family who I am sure are related but I don't have the documentation yet.  It's all in the details! 

Add Dear Genealogy Research to above list of neglected work.........sigh.