James Coffarelli World War I journal

Transcription of your Grandfather James Coffarelli's war journal (accuracy NOT guaranteed!):

I enlisted in the U.S.A.A.S. at Fort Jay, Governors Isl. N.Y. on April 22nd 1918. Reported at said place on 23rd and got transportation and left on 12:30 Black Diamond for Allentown Pa.  Arrived at 4 - rode to Headquarters of (Amb.) Camp Crane.  Was placed in the Casual Det. Build 17.

Got uniform April 24th.

Went through one months drilling with the rookies, on May 25 was put into Sect. 566 Bat 12.  My first trench digging experience was on the 26 of May.  June 1st was my starting of hikes and Equipt. C. Insp. June 3rd while on a hike somewhere in Penna I was overcome by the heat and was taken to camp in an Amb.  It resembled a hearse to me, the way I felt, on the 5th.  Poison Ivy broke out on my face, I was some sight.

On June 12th 11:30 PM Our contingent left Camp Crane on the illustrious C.R.R. of N.J. for the POrt of N.Y.  We got in the Jersey City Terminal at 5:30 AM.  Ferried to Hoboken to the Giuseppe Verdi. 

 Boarded, at 8 AM.  Laid in dock until 3:30 PM.  All were ordered down in the holds and port holes were closed.  With a loud shrill blast our tub left our dear U.S.A. for Italy.  We crept down the Hudson and into the bay, without even another glance of our Statue of Liberty.  This made some of us feel uneasy thinking it was our last sight of the emblem which we meant to do our utmost to preserve.  We arrived at the Ambrose Light about 6 P.M. and anchored, and waited for a convoy at this time there was a big sub scare along our coast.  At 7 P.M. we were picked up by 3 boats from our Navy.  A Yacht, Torpedo Boat and Sub. chaser.  

We started on a south western course accompanied by our three guardians.  The following morning June 14th we were out of sight of everything but water and sky. 

On the high seas the first few days out on the Atlantic was enjoyed by us all.  The sky was bright both night and day, the sea was as calm as an ordinary river.  But there had to be a change.  We got up one morning at our usual time.  Everything was dark, our ship was rolling and dipping at the same time.  It sure was some sensation.

We had the life of Reilly on our tub.  Our hours were from 6 AM to 9:30 PM.  We got out of our two by four cots or bunks at 6 AM.  Some mornings we answered roll call.  This started after some of the boys got sick and there may have been some possibility of some of the boys feeding their bodies to the fishes instead of the contents of them.  

Sick call at 6:30 AM.

Breakfast Mass at 7 AM.

Boat drill at 9:15 AM.

Setting up exercises 10 AM.

Instructions in Italian 10:30 AM to 11:30 AM.

Noon Mass at 12.

Medical examination at 2 PM

Supper Mass at 6 PM.

No lights on deck after 8 PM.

All below decks at 9:30 PM.

Silence at 10 PM.

Words cannot express our wonderful meals on board.  A certain amount of men were consigned to every individual boat.  We were consigned to our boat as we boarded.

When the life boat call was sounded, you had to stop everything; sling and fasten your life belt and get to the landing platform of the boats and stand at attention and answer roll call.  All this was done in silence.  We then proceeded to our hangouts on deck.  

The setting up exercise was about the hardest this we done.  It was very hard on our muscles.

Our Italian instructions were a continuous joke.  We learned the curses first and later on a few valuable words.

In the afternoon all was left for us to do was read and count the ripples on the water.

After mess:  read and smoke until 8 o'clock, when it started to get dark.  

When we got into our cubby holes it was a case of laying awake listening to rumors of sub. being on our neighborhood and that we were to be torpedoes that night without fail about 11 PM.  It go so bad that some of us slept with our clothes on especially while on the M. S.  There were a few boys who slept on the floor at the foot of the stairs leading to the decks.

Tidbits from the Ryan family Bible

Recently I was able to scan some of the pages from our Ryan family Bible.  I do no know which family member was the keeper and recorder of information but it was one of my most invaluable tools early in the research process.

I'm not sure who Richard Gordon Ryan belongs too yet but Richard and Ida Boulae Ryan's family members are very familiar to me.  Richard (with wife Ida) is our grandfather Paul Ryan Sr.'s oldest brother as well as the oldest child in the family.  This likely explains how these children are well documented.  By the way, you might remember Ida from an earlier clipping I shared when she went missing for a time--apparently she returned safe and sound.

Another page:

This is a little messy so I think it's possible these deaths were noted together then later corrected.  In other words, this wasn't a Bible in which life events were recorded as they occurred over generations.  It appears to mostly have captured a period of time in the Ryan family.

Here's an interesting little item that fell out of the Bible:  this was very carefully cut out of a book or newspaper:

He's very handsome but I have no idea why he's so carefully preserved in the Ryan family Bible.  Hmmm.  But the Nevins side of the family weren't the only ones with a legal career.  This Judge John J. Flaherty was the Essex County Superior Court Judge and State Chair of the Democratic party prior to his death in 1906 when he was only 47.  He was probably at the height of his career while our grandfather and his siblings were growing up. 

Here's another interesting piece of  history:

The United War Work Campaign was a massive fund raising effort to support World War I.  It says "A Million Boys Behind a Million Fighters" at the bottom.  John Ryan  would have only been 11 when he donated this dollar toward the effort.  This was a time when civilians pulled together in huge efforts to provide support at home and abroad for their military.  It's interesting to me that American society has swung back in that direction now.  PS Remember that John was later accidentally shot by a buddy with a rifle.  Never said it was a boring family!

James Coffarelli, Chauffeur

I'll be giving  you an inside view on my family study methodology so that you can see how it happens that I seem to never get anything DONE!

First, your cousin has been so generous in sharing the ephemera from John Coffarelli's collection.  I spent much of Christmas afternoon scanning and researching.  Here's one example of the trail I followed until I was well off the trail.

As you can see, this is a vehicle registration from 1931 for your grandfather James.  I notice the vehicle is a Willys 6.  This was not familiar to me, so I can't resist doing a little further research.  And this is exactly where the scanning stops and the off course wandering begins.

This is a 1931 Willys Six Model 97.  Pretty snappy.  First it occurs to me that James had a very up-to-date vehicle for himself.  I don't really know what it might mean to be a chauffeur in Freeport NY in the late 1920s and early 1930s.  He consistently held a chauffeur's license but I don't know what it was needed or used for. 

I detoured my way through fultonhistory.com and found this tidbit of information that James was apparently involved in an accident with the fire truck one day.  Perhaps he was "on duty" as a chauffeur and a vehicle like the one above was damaged (althought this article is from 1922 Brooklyn Standard):


 




So I take another detour to check the 1930 census record which indicates his occupation as coal weigher.  This detour led me to a Freeport City Directory from 1926:

James is listed with Margaret as foreman but, interestingly for me--also listed are James' elusive siblings Elizabeth and Phillip!  Bazinga (as Sheldon would say on The Big Bang Theory).  Of course, I have to link this to these two as well and now the original research is well off track.  But I'm having a grand time and I'm so happy to be able to share it with you all. 

Draft Registration for John Nevins

Last summer we visited Ellicottville New York where my dad, Paul Ryan, worked as an administrator at the high school.  This is also where our Nevins family in America took root.  I can say this with fair confidence now that I have some new information about John Nevins, our mother's (Anne Flynn Ryan) great grandfather.  I don't think it's a small coincidence in the cosmic genealogy world that my father took a job in Ellicottville!

When I undertook a review of the Nevins/Ellicottville research, I found a document that shed new light and re-invigorated by research efforts.

This is a copy of a page from the Cattaragus County/Ellicottville Draft Registration for the US Civil War as of July 1 1863.  You will see a John Nevins listed at the very top of the page as a 30 year old single farmer born in Canada.  This may seem like a small piece of information, but for my research, it broke through a bit of a brick wall that I'd been banging my head against for several years.  I feel quite certain this is "our" John and it places him in Ellicottville in 1863.  I knew he married Julia Fisher in 1866 somewhere in New York, and now I feel quite certain they married in Cattaraugus County.  Placing a person in a location within a time period is a very critical piece of genealogical information. 

I do not believe John actually enlisted.  There were a number of draft registrations for Union soldiers--1863 was the first.  John appears to be a Class 1 which makes it seem as though he could have enlisted and served.  Each county had a quota of men to provide for service but it appears he was not called to enlist nor did he choose to enlist.  I may yet find that he did indeed serve but perhaps from another location.  We saw this with William S.  "Grampie" Brown (he enlisted from Wisconsin when his home was in Buffalo NY) and presume it is related to the enlistment bounties paid.  Counties or regions tried to "up the ante" with their required numbers by offering a bounty for enlistment and it was not uncommon for potential soldiers to shop around their services to obtain the better bounty money.  Substitutes could also be "bought" for a drafted solider so this is another possibility for John though I believe it unlikely that a farmer would be able to pay for a substitute.

I look forward to returning to Ellicottville and Cattaraugus County NY to continue my research into the Nevins family.