Celebrating Uncle Lou and Aunt Rose

Yesterday we all celebrated Uncle Louis Albertini's 90th birthday!  90!  It was a very nice family gathering.  We also celebrated their 68th wedding anniversary.  I never noticed that they were married on Lou's birthday.  (I wonder if I have that right?)  68 years married represents a lot of hard work with a smattering of good luck thrown in once in a while.  That's a true testament to them.  Congratulations.

So nice to get together for happy occasions.  We learned that Diana and John will become grandparents of twins soon!  Congratulations Valerie and Dan.  What fun that will be to add to the tree.

A nice memory from yesterday:

Aunt Rose (Dalpiaz) and Louis Albertini with their children Diana Hall and Louis Albertini.

(the guys on the mural behind them are not family members :)  )

I was fiddling around trying to find something interesting to share with everyone for this event and came across this gem.  Take the time to watch the interview for the Veterans History Project done a couple of years ago.  How precious to have Uncle Lou and some of his memories documented in this way.  It's very moving.  He does tell a great story! 

Prom Season Through the Years

This great picture greeted me one Sunday morning a couple of years ago and it brought prom season to mind.

I noticed he was surrounded by two cute girls with tiaras but our sister Judy talked about getting his picture taken with all the girls from his class at the prom and I thought that's what this was.  Until I saw the crown.  Way to go King Matthew!  This is a GREAT picture and will bring warm wonderful memories for many years to come.  Proof positive of that right here in this post.

Poor Mom and Dad with 5 girls and all those proms!  They weren't quite the EVENTS they sometimes are today with limos or after-prom all night parties, but they have always held a special place in high school memories.

I had one prom experience in high school during my senior year in Walton.  My grandmother made my dress for me, bless her.  I thought the green/yellow paisley pattern would be different enough from the typical prom dress that........I don't even know.  I just wanted it to be different.  I think it was.  Looking at it today, I don't know WHAT kind of impression it must have made.  What I do know is that my parents did not like my date Glenn one bit.  I think they were somewhat relieved when my sister Kathy got asked to go with Jim Grotevant, a classmate of ours.  If I recall, Kathy had to make her arrangements late in the game.

 Ruffled shirts were quite the style at the time.  Look how long my hair is!  This was taken outside the school.  Dad attended the prom, supposedly as part of his duties in his job but I know 100% that he needed to check the whole thing out (mostly Glenn).  About an hour after we sent Amy off on her first prom, I sat bolt upright panicked and wondering "How could I send my daughter off with some guy we don't even know?"  I'll give Dad the benefit of the doubt and assume his concerns were similar.  Consider it an early Father's Day gift to him.

This is a classic from 1976.  These are my sisters Paula, Mary Jane and Kathy. Of course, I don't have any personal memories of this but isn't this a great picture?  I think that dress Mary Jane is wearing made the rounds for various events.  I think I wore it to a wedding once.

Prom season 60+ (yes, more than 60) years ago.  I think you've seen this before. This is our mother Anne Flynn Ryan.  This was probably taken in Olean NY. No ashtrays these days. Proms were a great deal more formal at the time--there are several dance cards left over from her dancing days.    I don't even know how kids today would fill out a dance card with those group "dances" out in the middle of the floor during today's dances.  Can you imagine? 

I've arranged several proms for Harpursville students and it's a big night for everyone--a tradition I hope lasts for many more generations of students.  Picturing our grand nieces Delaney, Tessa and Tylee right now......(see 1976 picture above!)

Margaret Coffarelli DiSabto

I've buried myself in Gloucester material recently.  It's time to pop my head up and look around like those daffodils you see blooming these days. 

Recently I've found myself in the vicinity of discussions about Ancestry.com.  I think the media hype about the growing popularity of the TV Show Who Do You Think You Are? in addition to heavy Ancestry.com marketing has brought this to the level of lunch table discussions around the country.  Ancestry.com is probably my best friend in the hunt for family history and has been growing in its importance to me in direct proportion to their adding records and information to their databases.  I've been a subscriber for several years and have made many new discoveries via the information provided there.

Having said that, it is a fairly significant expense.  For casual researchers, I would probably not recommend subscribing.  Similar databases are often available via local libraries--sometimes even accessible from home with the library card in hand.  Believe me, finding those connections 3-4-5 generations back like they show on the commercials and TV shows isn't as simple as entering the name and clicking search.  Amazingly wonderful information can be found that way but it depends on what your research priorities are. FamilySearch.org has really stepped up the game and provides a wondrous range of free records that seem to be unavailable elsewhere.

Some family researchers are mostly interested in adding names and dates directly up their lines as far back as they can go.  Some are more interested in the stories about the families and their time and place in history.  Some are fascinated with the documentation just for the amazement of its mere existence and availability.  A 14 day free trial to Ancestry would probably get you the names but maybe not the stories or the documentation.  I would never discourage anyone from the free trial (except to be sure to remember to "unsubscribe" at the end) but would caution you to remember it's not as easy as a click here and there working like magic to produce a centuries old document showing you're related to Charlemagne.  Check out your local libraries and see what's available through their services.  Also, check the libraries local to the region you are most interested in.  You may be able to get a card and use their services.  You might be surprised at what's available.

So that's the end of my pitch for libraries (it's National Library Month).  Allow me to show you the results of some very long and arduous digging into the Coffarelli family.  Perhaps you remember the oldest daughter Margaret, born 1880 in Italy prior to emigration?  She married Marco DiSabto and used the name Innocence rather than Margaret.  Census taker error resulted in her being listed as Hishats Innocenti.  A real bear to locate and track that family!  But hard work sometimes pays off with something blessedly easy.

I haven't done too much sideline 1940 census research yet --I've only concentrated on the direct lines I was most interested in.  But I needed to see if I could find Margaret in 1940 out of curiosity to see how she'd be listed.  And we are blessed with the following reward:

Nice and neatly written by the census taker and pretty easy to locate.  You'd probably get here in that one click search demonstrated on the Ancestry.com commercials!  I feel so much better having found her.

Ryan family remembrances

Paul M. Ryan Senior and Junior 1972

I was going through some papers and found a couple of letters I thought you all might find interesting.  Bill Gleason is our dad's (Paul Ryan Jr.) cousin and he sent a letter shortly after Dad died which included the following memories:  I have been thinking of your Dad, especially, the good times we had when I stayed at Aunt Catherine and Uncle Paul's house for a week each year during my summer vacation in the late 30's and early 40's.  We went to Good Harbor Beach almost every day, boat trips at Gloucester Harbor, and the highlight - a trip to the amusement park at Salisbury beach.  Uncle Paul loaded the back of the pick up truck with kids and off we went for the evening.  We never realized how dangerous it was.   I kind of expect it was dangerous in more than one way, but that's the way it is when you are a kid, right?

From another letter written shortly after Dad died, his cousin Tom Foley noted:  Growing up I didn't get too acquainted with your Dad since he was about 8 years older.  I do remember going to a High School play and I recall him playing the part of "Peter Pan".  I think it was obligatory for the entire Pierce side of the family to go to the school to show our support.  In the big scene, Peter Pan was suspended about 5-6 feet off the floor of the stage and came flying across it on some sort of pulley rig.  I will never know if he got the part becasue he was very good, or if it was because he was the smallest and skinniest guy available.

Our mother's friend Pudge says about Mom (Anne Flynn Ryan):  I have so many fond memories of her and of course your father and you kids.  I met your Mom when we were about 13.  We lived on the same street.  She was kind of diagonal to me.  We didn't go to the same school until Bona's but we  were in the same sorority in High School, so we hung around a bit then.  We really got very close in college, in fact, she's the reason I still drink my coffee black.  We used to take turns buying coffee and I would always put milk and sugar in both cups and it got expensive trying to remember ( we were only making about 50 cents an hour) so I decided not to put anything in the coffee and then I wouldn't go wrong.  

We did a bit of double dating at that time and then there was a time that Weenie was in the hospital and she stayed with us.  There were a lot of laughs and secrets shared.  My mother had your Mom write the invitations for my wedding as she didn't think that my handwriting was good enough.

These little stories meant a lot to me then and they still do today. 

Who Do You Think You Are? Manzelli Family

Perhaps you watch the TV series Who Do You Think You Are?  One episode from 2010 featured Susan Sarandon who was looking for her Italian grandmother in NYC in the 1920s or so.  She was able to trace her Italian immigrants to the cemetery, carefully following the provided information regarding the whereabouts of the grave site only to find there was no monument to mark it.

You may have more in common with Susan Sarandon than you thought!  When she was traipsing around the cemetery, she held a piece of paper in her hand which I recognized right away because it looked just like this one:

Now, I do notice that several cemeteries fall under the umbrella of the Calvary and Allied Cemeteries so it might not be your Calvary Cemetery, but the area looked very much like the site James and I visited in search of the ancestors.  We had the very similar experience of making our way to the grave site only to find that it is not marked (I think it was the Coffarellis and not the Manzellis you see here).  It was something of a disappointment but still rewarding to feel that we had "rescued" some ancestors.

Information such as this from the cemetery is very valuable and goes a long way toward figuring out "Who's Who".  In the case of this listing, I had to separately list each name with my thoughts on who I think they might be.  You may remember this was the trip during which we got ourselves locked in the cemetery and never got to cross the street to find the Isoldis.  We'll be going back (earlier in the day!).

Manzelli Easter Mystery

Can you believe it's almost Easter? It doesn't seem quite right, but here's a little mystery for you to ponder as you enjoy the Easter ham and jelly beans. Who ARE these people? Your Aunt Josie Dalpiaz Albertini thought perhaps the older girl might be Madeline Manzelli and the boy her brother Joseph, but Madeline was about 6 years YOUNGER than Joseph so something isn't right. Any ideas?

And Happy Easter to you all!