Sisters Eleanor Giblisco and Marie Coffarelli

An intriguing story is developing about your grand uncle Joseph Coffarelli's family.  You may remember that Joseph Coffarelli (your grandfather's brother) worked for the Post Office.  Angela says he smoked a pipe and worked staggered hours during the Depression in order to help save jobs.  Despite this, the general consensus seems to be that he had an unpleasant personality.

The family story had been told that Joseph and his wife Mary adopted two girls Eleanor and Mary.  This is how they appear in the 1940 census:

You will note they use the surname Gibilsco, something I overlooked earlier--I think because I needed some verification this was "our" Joseph and Mary Coffarelli.  I recently located Eleanor's obituary which tied together Marie, Joseph and Mary. I also have Marie Coffarelli Balistreri's obituary as well which makes a nice neat package.

Nice and neat except what's  up with this Gibilisco family?  Sometime between 1930 and 1940, these girls went to live with your Coffarellis.  This is how their life looked in the 1930 census:

It's interesting to me that Albert was a federal tax collector at the time--must have been a difficult position to be in at that time in our economic history.  To date, I can find no evidence of what may have happened to either Albert or Lucy that pushed their daughters to go live with Joseph and Mary.  Angela noted that the girls were Mary's sister's children so that helps explain some of the story.  Albert and Lucy's fates are unknown and my imagination has gone off in several directions--none less than tragic.

Marie's obituary lists her as Marie Coffarelli Balistreri but Eleanor's lists her as Eleanor Gibilisco Nicolaison.  I take that as a clue as to which girl may have been officially adopted.  I think this story will continue to develop as time goes by. 

Highly Decorated Medic Louis Albertini

It's time to turn my focus to some Italian heritage.  I have found some very interesting items in the last few days and I hope you enjoy them.  On a recent visit to Aunt Rose and Uncle Lou, I commented on his portrait which is hanging proudly in their living room.  It's Uncle Lou in his Army uniform.  This prompted a story from Uncle Lou which included a mention that he'd been interviewed on the Ted Malone radio show during his service.  Ever since, I've been making efforts to find that interview. 

I did not find that interview but I did come across some additional interesting articles.  In an earlier post, I described some of Uncle Lou's interactions with German soldiers but this article is more complete in its details and I think you will be VERY proud to learn that you have a hero in your family.

You can see this 1994 article was published in the Hazelton newspaper.  It is heartwarming that his hometown paid this tribute so many years later and puts a spotlight onto his service to our country. 

I also found this article from 1997.  It was so good to see those smiling faces looking so happy!

And here's another from a local Pennsylvania newspaper that I thought might interest some of you (Nick?  James? Thomas?)  From 1939:

Just a reminder to check out the Gathering the Cousins blog once in a while.  I try to alternate Italian posts with Irish interests but you may find each interesting.  I usually update a post from the past with a little polish to make it more readable to a general audience.  The purpose is as "cousin bait" so that anyone with the same family history interests might come across it and make contact.  The more hits it gets, the higher it will appear in search results.  Let's hope we "catch" a cousin! :)

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.