In Laws, Outlaws, Brothers and Sisters

James is visiting with Kathleen and Nick this week, along with Robert and Bobbie.  It brought to mind how valuable time with our siblings is. I thought you all might enjoy some of these sibling-time memories.

Miss you all!

To celebrate Amy's birthday today, I thought it would be fun to reflect on her actual birth day.  I plan to share some of my 26 year old memories of those days surrounding her birth and then I will share some reflections from my Spring/Summer 1988 journal.  It might be fun to see how they differ!  You'll have to trust my methodology here. 

Memories first:  My first pregnancy progressed pretty much as expected though Jim had planned to take his band to NYC to march in the St. Patrick's Day parade right around Amy's due date.  March is Music in our Schools month so he had taken a group to the local mall to perform.  I went and ran straight into one of our former students who shouted out on the mall "There's Miss Ryan!"  I was just about 8 3/4 months pregnant and very embarrassed.  I think I left.

The night before he was supposed to leave, I made tortellini for dinner and did some ironing.  Not long later, I began to feel kind of sick to my stomach.  This progressed and we fretted the way first time parents do.  I think Jim put his foot down and we called the doctor.  Off to the hospital we were directed.  I was a bit annoyed because I was SURE they were going to send us right back home and I did not want to be "that" person.  We carried a bowl because I felt sicker and sicker.  Jim came off the Rte 17 ramp a little too fast and was stopped by the police.  It was a classic Lucy episode.  Jim told the officer to follow us to the emergency room if he wanted to.  He did not.  They kept me.  Amy was born the following afternoon.

By that time, the band had departed without Jim and I'm pretty sure this was the main subject of the daily gossip wave on campus.  I remember Jim holding Amy watching the parade on the TV in the room.  I remember answering the phone in the room groggily and the person on the other end said "Amy?" hesitantly and I said drunkenly "Yeah...isn't that a nice name?"  The call was for the mother in the other bed--Amy.    I remember they brought another new mother in to share the room and it was a student of ours.  "There's my library teacher!" I heard in my haze of drugs and lingering flu symptoms.  When I came to, I was in a different room thanks to Jim.   Your parents arrived in time to meet Amy while we were still in the hospital.  I was so very grateful they made the trip.  It's a special memory now.

Some memories of that time written in my journal 26 years ago:  Back at the hospital, we knew we were in for it when the admitting nurse said "Another one?".  We were whisked off upstairs and monitored.  It wasn't long before we realized this was the real thing--they didn't send us home! Your dad had to make the calls to tell people he couldn't make the trip.  This, of course, meant the entire school knew what we were up to by this time.  ......I was so sure you were a boy--that's what most everyone predicted.  That--combined with the anesthesia--made me almost forget to ask if if you were a boy or girl.  I was harboring a secret wish for a firl just like you.  I was so lucky.  

On Friday Gram and Poppa arrived for a visit late that night.  They spent alot of time at the hospital Saturday.  You never opened your eyes!  In fact, one time you did open t hose beautiful eyes, your dad came on the run from the nursery so your grandparents could see you.

Happy Birthday to my favorite daughter.  I know everyone likes to hear their birth story and now yours is in print!

March birthday wishes and remembrances

Sometimes it's difficult being married to your brother.  There might be some of you who are wondering what took me so long to say so.  In this case, his lack of childhood memory was painful.  I was at a bit of a loss for this blog post.  Originally I thought I would celebrate all your March birthdays.  There are certainly plenty of them!  To prepare, I asked James what birthday traditions you all had while growing up.  "Nothing" was the response.  Not that helpful.  Feel free to share your memories but in the meantime, that meant I needed to go down another path.

So I started looking at pictures and I found some you might enjoy seeing again.

How sweet is this picture?  I believe it's your Mom with her brother John, prob early 1930s

Your Dad 1947 looking pretty snappy

Happy Birthday Robert later this month!

 

 

Hey, it's my blog---I can put this one in if I want to! :)

Happy Birthday this week to sister Pat, cousin Patty Ruska, Jean and Amy.  Happy birthday later this month to Danielle and Robert!  For our birthdays as children, we got to tell Mom what kind of cake we wanted and what we wanted for dinner.  I always wanted white cake with white frosting.  I'll bet you're not surprised.  Oddly, one of my favorite dinners was tuna salad  with celery and french fries (which would be our Fridays during Lent meal).  Another favorite was roast pork.  I think we usually opened our gifts before going to school when we were school-aged.  Probably so we could take/wear whatever was new to school that day.  My mom had special birthday cake decorations that were a special treat to see on your cake--one of them was a carousel.  So there are some of my memories since I have none from your side of the fence to share!

A Day at the Beach Dalpiaz Style

As the winter drags on, it's not hard to let your mind wander to memories of warmer days.  I was listening to "This American Life" recently and the theme was Day at the Beach, providing me with a perfect topic for the Dalpiaz family blog.

You've always seemed to have had a love affair with the beach.  I'm sure it has to do with growing up so close to the water--but I think there's something else in your blood as it seems to have endured over many generations.

I think this is your grandfather James clearly at the beach.  He appears to be an adult and I don't see his wife here so I'll take an educated guess this was taken prior to his marriage in 1923.  I could study it further to determine a better idea of the date based on clothing styles, but let's just say this is an early example of your family's love story with the beach.

You've seen this one before--it's your mother with your sister Jean.  I'll refrain from mentioning potential dates, but let's just say I think it's likely this was taken before the Beatles appeared on Ed Sullivan's stage.  Your mom looks very happy.

It isn't often that I find pictures that I didn't remember I had but prepping for this blog post led me to an entire album of pictures I had forgotten about because they are set aside from my "regular" photo collection.  Remember the family cruise in 1998?  It's unlikely that Kathleen and Nick will ever forget it since our late plane arrival very nearly made them miss the boat!  But that was a fun time together.  I remember taking the little shuttle boat out to the beach one day and looking down at the very blue water amazed at how beautiful it was.  I vowed to have that deep blue sea reappear as my bedroom carpet in memory of this day.

The following year, the family trooped out to Cape Cod -- a vacation which included a day at the beach at the National Seashore Park. 

                                 Thomas was just a baby there with his feet in the Atlantic Ocean!


A few years later, the family vacation was in the (at the?) Hamptons where some truly classic cousin time took place. 

                                                                               2002


Another epic beach memory is from the 2010 celebration of graduations where other branches of the Coffarelli family were able to join us.

                                          Even if someone is sidelined, it can still be memorable!

Warmer days are ahead and I'm sure there will be more Dalpiaz beach memories --perhaps as soon as this summer!

Update from the Seaford Albertinis

We went to see Aunt Rose and Uncle Lou yesterday.  Diana was at work and not able to join us but we were lucky enough to spend the afternoon with Rose, Lou, John and John.  They were very gracious with their time and their stories!  It was a very rewarding visit.

The first thing I need to do is clear up come confusion I may have caused in my previous post about your Dad's birth certificate.  Rose confirmed that "Bob" was indeed the name your grandmother gave him because she always liked the name Bob.  When she went to enroll him in school, she was told that Bob wasn't a proper name so then it became Robert.  There have been times during my school career when I would have liked to advise parents that their children's names weren't proper, but we don't do that these days! 

Apparently this name discrepancy and the lack of the raised seal on the Bob birth certificate caused your Dad a number of problems over the years.  Small wonder, but TODAY it would be an impossible situation.

Rose also confirmed that Graham Ave became 34th Street and that Hancock Street became 10th.  I guess I did not need that street necrology website after all.  You can see the visit was very fruitful.

One of the stories she told was that your grandmother Mary Messa Dalpiaz worked for a short time in the same candy factory as Rose and Josie--the Loft Candy factory.  Your grandfather wasn't really happy about this but apparently put up with it for a little while.  Sometimes she would start dinner before she left and your grandfather Costante would get it on the table when he came home.  One night, Rose was getting ready to set the table and asked Josie to toss a wet rag over so she could wipe the table.  Plop.  The rag landed in the red sauce your grandfather was stirring.  As Rose put it, there was some running around the table that night!
In addition, the rule was "no talking" during dinner so the girls whispered and giggled about the red rag flavored sauce to your grandmother's confusion.

There is a beautiful painting over their fireplace of Lou in his World War II uniform.  He has a chest full of medals, some of which he described for me.  He was interviewed by Ted Malone because he was so decorated.  The interview was broadcast and presented to Uncle Lou's parents on a vinyl record which I believe he told me he now has.  This is an example of a Ted Malone European theatre broadcast.  Lou was drafted and objected to killing people--perhaps some of his own relatives in Europe so he was assigned to the medic corp.  He as even captured by the German soldiers in Belguim for a short time--an experience he says he remembers clearly to this day.  He tried to communicate with the Germans using Italian and hand gestures to be allowed to get a stretcher for the wounded soldiers.  They allowed Lou and another soldier to go get the stretcher, and they informed their American colleagues who went to rescue the remaining soldiers.  The other American soldiers had disappeared by that time, along with the injured.  Lou doesn't know the end of their story but he remembers his story very well.

Uncle Lou also related that his father used to work in the coal mines in Pennsylvania--an occupation that exempted him from being drafted.  I did not previously know that coal miners were considered key workers at that time.

Uncle Tom and Richard are doing well.  Louis called while we were there so James and he got caught up.  Louis and Christopher are opening an air conditioning repair business for themselves.  Sounds a bit like history repeating itself, yes?  It was such fun to visit and we are very appreciative of their time and willingness to share their stories. 

Pulling the threads

I continue to sort through documents I've had for a long time to review them seeking new insights or information. This is your grandfather James Francis Coffarelli's baptismal certificate.  I don't blame you if you're wondering "Is she SURE that's what this is.  I don't see his name listed anywhere."


This was one of the very first documents I used to study your family history.  That was bad luck for me.  I did not know who Jacob Simeon Coffarelli was for many years until I figured out that this document was dated 1923 (just a few weeks before James was married) and therefore transcribed by someone many years after the actual baptism.  I suspect the baptismal record may have said Giacomo which could be Jacob OR James.  I haven't yet figured out the Simeon/Samuel references.  Perhaps if I keep pulling these threads, I will figure it out.  I was convinced it was James' baptismal certificate by the birthdate which I knew to be his. 

Another problem created from using this information first was that I read James' mother's name as Rosa Pidous.  I put that information in all my records and searched using that name.  I've come to accept that her name was likely Rosa Pedano (which you can kind of see in that example above).  Searching for Pedano is a whole different ball game than Pidous--and not just for the difference in spelling--but that's another blog post for another day. 

I was curious about his sponsors Frank Scaretta and Margherita Nigra but haven't found anything in particular about them--not long lost cousins as far as I know today. 

This is why James needed the baptismal certificate.  How nice that this is seasier to read and makes much more sense in the overall picture.  We see familiar names.  It has a raised stamp.  It fits perfectly.  Enough to make a family historian smile a little as she falls asleep.

Very interesting........

It pays to take a second (or third, fourth etc) look at things when you work on researching family history.  Sometimes it leads to interesting places or information.  Sometimes it doesn't.  This is one of those times. 

This is a Certificate of Birth for your father from the New York City Bureau of Records.  Despite its  official looking appearance, this is not an "official" birth certificate acceptable for establishing identity as required by various government agencies when you apply for a passport or seek a driver's license.  This piece of paper does not have the required raised stamp of authenticity deemed acceptable by government authority.  That's one problem.  The other is that it says "Bob" which wasn't your father's actual given name.  It's very possible that this was an acceptable proof of birth many years ago however and likely served in exactly that capacity for him.  It's been folded up into wallet size and taped for reinforcement, keeping it in amzingly good shape for its age.

One particular item of interest here is the location of your dad's birth:  88 Graham Ave in the Boro of Queens.  This set me off on a hunt for the current day location of 88 Graham Ave circa 1928.  The 1930 census indicated the young Dalpiaz family lived at 25-31 Steinway St.  I took this to be a clue that 88 Graham was probably not too far away from there as people tended to stay in the same neighborhoods.  Steinway Street still exists in Long Island City but Graham Avenue went the way of birth certificates lacking raised seals.  And the hunt was on..........

I was looking for what the old Graham Avenue in Long Island City was called today--did you know there's a name for this kind of information?? Street Necrology.  I kind of like it.  A website called Forgotten New York indicates Graham Avenue became 34th Ave from Vernon Blvd to Northern Blvd.  If you look at a map of Long Island City, you will note Vernon and Northern seem to be boundaries and 34th joins them across Long Island City.   But Steinway cuts across 34th closer to Northern Blvd.  I haven't yet discovered where 88 Graham was but I believe it wasn't too far from Steinway.  25-31 Steinway still exists and, though I assume the numbering system stayed the same, I can't be certain of that.  I encourage you to look at the map to put a mental pinpoint in the area of your father's birth. 

This is your grandfather Costante's naturalization certificate which was awarded the same year your father was born, at which time he also lists 88 Graham Ave Long Island City as their residence.  At the very bottom of this certificate, I looked for the date, at first noticing the 53 and made the assumption this was awarded in 1853.  I quickly realized that didn't seem right and took note that our naturalization certicifates at the time listed how many years independent the United States was: 153 in 1928.  Interesting.

If you take another look at Costante's Social Security application made in 1936, you will note he lists 9-06 34th Ave (the old Graham Ave) as his residence.  REALLY interesting.

I also took another look at Costante's Certificato di Nascita:

One thing I always check is when the certificate was issued.  It's easy to assume it was issued at the time of the event listed, but often is a copy obtained later for another purpose--such as for when you get married or the government requires it.  This certificate seems to have been issued in 1938, when your grandfather was 37.  I don't know why he needed this birth certificate in 1938.  Passport perhaps?  Perhaps it had something to do with Germany extending its nationality law to include Austria in 1938 ?  Perhaps Robert and Bobbie can help with the Italian on this certificate, but I'm not sure it says country of Italy on it anywhere (or Austria for that matter).  REALLY REALLY interesting.

So I wasted away several hours studying these again but learning very little new information directly related to your family history.  But it was interesting and I hope you feel the same.