Gioseffa Barbera Anna Odorizzi Dalpiaz 1874-1954

Costante Dalpiaz with his mother Barbara Odorizzi Dalpiaz

A great new website for Trentino births  has given me a number of leads for surnames on the Dalpiaz side of the family.    This discovery, in conjunction with an Odorizzi online family tree, led me to your great grandmother Barbara Odorizzi's birth record.  This record lists Gioseffa Barbera Anna Odorizzi born to Francesco and Teresa (maiden name Bentivoglio) in Tassullo Jan 6 1874.  This birth date matches the funeral card information I found at your parents' house so I feel fairly certain this reflects accurate information about her.

Further searching uncovered other children born to Francesco and Teresa in Tassullo: Augusta Dorotea (1865); Angelica Maria (1866); Davide Gulielmo (1869); Luigi Antonio (1876); Marco Francesco (1878); Carmelina Teresa Maria (1881); Assunta Rosa Maria (1884); and Giuditta Gioseffa (1887).  Teresa was a busy woman.  Aren't these cool names for anyone's family tree??

I continued my searching and found a Maria Teresa Bentivoglio born to Luigi and Dorotea (maiden name Zanini) Oct 13 1843 in Tassullo.  I'm far less certain about this new surname for your tree, but I'll keep checking! 

As a side note, my re-searching (you know they call if "research" for a reason, right?)  has uncovered a potential change in one of the Dalpiaz surnames currently in your tree.  Your 3 times great grandmother is listed as Domenica Brazi in your current family tree.  It appears that her name might actually be Biasi--Maria Domenica Antonia Biasi.  I'm not ready to pull the trigger and change her name just yet but that another one of those trails I'll be going down one of these days.

Tidbits in City Directories

It has been almost two years since the 1940 census became public.  Yahoo for me--and for you too if you have any interest whatsoever in family history.  The US census records are very helpful in many ways; one of the biggest is that you can definitively put a person in a particular place at a specific time.  The federal government has been taking a census every 10 years since 1790.

I'm sure you remember filling out your own census forms for the 2010 and 2000 census.  This is not how it was done in 1790, believe me.  More's the pity because by the time the 2000 and 2010 census records become public, I don't think they will be nearly as helpful (or charming) as they are now. 

Though I have not yet finished "mining" the 1940 census for potential clues, I also use other resources to help bolster my research.  Some refer to these as "census substitutes" because they put people in a particular place at a particular time in their lives.  One such substitute is the city directory.  These are kind of like phone books but contain very interesting additional information.  I was lucky enough to be able to purchase the Olean City Directory for 1939-40 and this is the entry for the Flynns:

You'll see Barbara Flynn (Gammie Flynn) listed as a nurse at 117 1/2 S 6th St with son Charles.  You also see our mother Anne Flynn at home with her parents Francis P. (Weenie) and Paula Flynn.  Our grandmother Paula  is even listed separately as stenographer for her father Henry Nevins and brother Joseph.  Our grandfather's brother John and his wife Margaret are also listed.

A little searching around dug up an interesting little tidbit.  This is a different page of the 1939-40 city directory:

Take a closer look at the listing for Harry McLaughlin.  Mary F (his wife) is our grandmother Paula's sister "Teen".  Their address is 117 S 6th St--same as for Barbara Flynn!  Our great grandmother Barbara Flynn apparently lived at the same residence as her daughter in law's (Paula) sister.  That's kind of an interesting dynamic, don't you think?  These may have been apartments next to one another but it appears to me it was the same house.

This very topic has been in the news recently.  There's an uptick in the number of households combining for reasons such as unemployment or other. This is certainly true in our families today.  We have all seen examples of this in our own lives.  Although I don't really know the reasons why Barbara ended up in the same house as her daughter-in-law's sister (!?!) it brings some comfort to know this is a tradition that lives strong today.    You just never know who might be at the dinner table for the foreseeable future.

Television Habits during the 1960s

I've been thinking about our television watching habits when we were children of the 1960s.  Of course, we didn't have a color TV right away and I can remember watching shows in black and white on Dennison Road in our hometown of Silver Creek NY.

The sunflower clock on the wall would wind down to 7:30 precisely as a signal for The Monkees to make their appearance.  We liked to watch Daktari, I Dream of Jeannie, Flipper, Gilligan's Island.  It was a special treat to stay up to watch The Wizard of Oz or Peter Pan.  When Jackie Gleason said "And away we go!" it meant bedtime (very clever Mom!).  I remember hating having to go to bed so early especially when it was daylight but I can understand it better now that I have children.  I also understand that was probably pretty standard at the time--even so, I think we had a pretty early bedtime.

Our mother was probably typical of the time and liked to watch the soap operas, though I don't know which ones.  I would sometimes help her put the rollers in her hair so I could sneak a peek at the forbidden shows.  There was no such thing as turning on the TV in the morning before school or work.  There were only the 3 major (ABC, NBC, and CBS) network channels to watch after careful adjustment to the rabbit ear antenna so no small wonder you didn't have it on very much. 


I remember watching JFK's funeral on that TV on Dennison Road; the prisoners of war returning home from Vietnam on the TV in the den on Buffalo St in Silver Creek after we moved into town, but nothing historic comes to mind for later high school years.  Mom liked to watch Mannix and Kojak and I liked watching them with her.  Today, my son and I watch movies together and I hope this will be one of his fond memories.

I suspect our children will remember coverage of September 11 as it was certainly a turning point in our history--you knew it as you watched it unfold.  I am surprised at how closely television is tied to childhood memories and how it evokes certain feelings.