Happy Birthday Louis Albertini and Happy 70th! Anniversary Rose and Lou Albertini April 26 2017

Special wishes going out today to Uncle Lou Albertini, who is not only celebrating his 92nd birthday, but is also celebrating 70 years of marriage to the lovely Rose Dalpiaz Albertini.  This is an amazing milestone and we wish you both many more!!!

We got to see Rose, Lou and cousin Diana Hall recently and they were all as gracious as ever.  We had a grand visit telling stories around the dinner table.  One thing I know I can always count on when I see Rose and Lou is that I will be hearing great stories.

I'm sharing some things you may have seen before, but I find it fun to go back and look again.

I love that this is told in Uncle Lou's voice.

Rose's last birthday as a single girl

Albertini clan celebrating Uncle Lou's 90th birthday in 2015

I just have to sneak this one in here.  Rose is having such a good time and it's a great memory from Jean and Bob's wedding in 1988.

Anyhow, we want to wish Rose and Lou the very best.  I have such respect for a couple that can weather all the storms that 70 years together can bring.  Congratulations!

Charles "Dinty" Flynn 1917 - 1962

Dinty is our grandfather Francis Flynn's youngest brother.  He's the one about whom I knew the least until I got the coveted, long awaited email alert that Family Tree DNA had found us a new cousin.  As a result of Chris allowing me to submit his DNA for the Ryan surname study, we have made contact with his daughter Peggy Curry.

Charles was the only one of the Flynn boys to be born in New York State (probably in Olean).  I'm not sure what brought the family to Olean from Emporium PA, but I suspect it was related to father Patrick Flynn's job as an engineer with the Pennsylvania Railroad.

It appears Dinty played high school football: from the Olean Times Herald Sept 27 1935:

He enlisted and was married in 1942 to Julie Gorton also of Olean.  They had 6 children, 5 girls and one boy just like my own siblings!  Margaret (Peggy) tells me she is the second oldest of these.  She is married with 2 grown sons and lives in Quincy Massachusetts.  I am hoping to meet up with her perhaps in October while we are in Gloucester.

When I was looking through my Flynn information, I realized that, not only do I have a letter from Peggy from many years ago, but that we also have met.  In 1995, we took a memorable trip to Boston with niece Jessica and were able to spend some time with Sharon Flynn and her sister Patty (John's daughter's--Uncle 4-5 to us) and Peggy.  The trip was memorable because it was the weekend of the Oklahoma City bombings and everyone was on high alert and very afraid.  So our visits to popular Boston tourist attractions were accompanied by the site of armed security  and fear.

Charles died a young man in 1962.  I never had the chance to meet Julie, although our grandmother strongly encouraged me to contact her.  By the time I did so, Julie had passed as well.  But I'm very tickled that DNA has made this connection again for us.  Who knows what the future holds?

There's Oil in Them Thar Hills ...... Or The Elusive Frank M. Nevins 1866 - ??

This is a story with a surprise.  Consider it a hidden Easter egg treat.  Francis Matthew Nevins was born in 1866, presumable in Cattaraugus County NY, first known child of John and Julia (Fisher) Nevins.  Our great  grandfather Henry Nevins was born a few years later.  Henry's story is well known, but Frank's (as he was apparently known) is not.  In fact, I have not yet been able to find a death record for him. 

It was in my renewed search for a death record that I was able to confirm that Frank spent a good number of years in and around Coalinga California where he listed himself as an oil driller.
In fact, it appears he was much more than that.  Newspaper articles seem to indicate he was an officer of the Coalinga Hub Oil Company.  I don't pretend to know anything about oil drilling or mineral mining, but further searching on my friend Google brought up at least 3 different references to Frank M. Nevins filing for and receiving patents on a shoe for well casings (1912); perforation cleaner (1919); and sucker rod (1924).  These are apparently all related to drilling and/or mining.  Did you imagine we had an inventor up the line in our tree???

This is a "mystery" picture from the Nevins collection that I believe probably has Frank included.  Perhaps some Nevins' took a trip west to visit Frank.  I believe he did spend some time living in Colorado, but if this was taken in 1916, it would appear from the dates of the inventions that Frank lived in California at the time. 

BONUS (for me):  As I was writing this post, I searched for some interesting links to include and came across a copy of a map of the Coalinga Hub Oil Company for sale ..... which, of course, I purchased.  Happy Easter to me.

The Manzelli Story as told by Marilyn

Cousin Marilyn Pittelli Sheerin provided me with solid starting points in researching the Manzelli family and it occurs to me you've never heard the story she told.  It is as follows from correspondence we had in 1991-92:

After their father died, Joseph, Giacomo, Pasquale and Michael dediced to leave Pietraroia Italy to come find a better life in America.  They left their mother and younger brother and thought they would send for them later.  

Giacomo was a bachelor and lived with Joseph even after he married Giovanna (Isoldi).  Pasquale was a priest and founded Saint Joseph Church, New Rochelle, NY.

When their mother (Margherita) became ill in Italy they sent for her.  But the younger brother Andrew was about to be married and chose to stay in Italy.  He died many years later, but the woman he married Christina is the woman Ed and I visited in Pietraroja last July.  (A correction in a later letter stated that Christina was actually married to one of Andrew's sons and not to Andrew.) It was a dream come true for me.  She still lives across the street from the church where the Manzelli boys were baptized and Pasquale said his first Mass.  Christina (Belli) and Andrew Manzelli had four children Marguerite, Michael, Ubaldo and I can't think of the other daughter's name.  Michael is a priest at St. Vincent de Paul Church right here in Elmont L.I.  He gave Ed and I maps etc to find Pietraroia.  There are many priests in the family and I became obsessed with wanting to bring the vestments that were donated when my mom (Anna) died to Italy and that's what I did.

Marguerite is the name of Joseph, Michael, Pasquale, Giacomo and Andrew's mother and you can see that Joseph and Andrew named their first born daughters after their mother.  And, Uncle Johnny followed suit with his daughter Marguerite.  It is very interesting how the family names keep popping up, i.e. Peter, Michael, Andrew (by the way, Giacomo is Italian for James!).

Anyhow, back to the story - when the ill mother came to America Fr. Pasquale took care of her at St. Joseph Rectory in New Rochelle.  In the meantime the three brothers decided to build a family mausoleum at Calvary Cemetery where the whole family could be buried.  It is a marble chapel  with 4 tombs on each side and then 4 more fit in the middle.  There are 18 graves outside in the dirt.  When Marguerite died the mausoleum was finished and she was buried there.

Later in the same letter: One little story I remember my mom always telling is when Regina's Dad James Coffarelli was diagnosed with Leukemia.  He spent a long time at N.Y. Hospital and was finally going to be released.  The family planned a wonderful Welcome Home Party. (My mother was 14.) About 9 PM her father said goodnight to the guests and went upstairs to bed.  All of a sudden they heard a thump and Joseph Manzelli collapsed and died of a heart attack.  (This would have been December 1933).

Marilyn was a terrific letter writer--she has such beautiful handwriting...a skill that is becoming a lost art.  I wish we'd had more time together. This is one of the pictures she sent me, clearly taken at Regina Coffarelli's wedding in 1950 with her surrogate mother and her brother John.

 

Everett Bentley Ryan Jr. 1921-1937

This is a grim story but I believe it speaks to Gloucester culture in a way that might help us understand a little bit more about our dad Paul M. Ryan Jr.

Everett Junior was 15 years old  in 1936 when he was accidentally shot in the head by his friend while sitting in his own living room. The "Boys Were Chums" according to the Gloucester Daily Times report from October 2 1936, and young Walter McFarland fled Gloucester in a panic after the shooting.  They were next door neighbors, and were both on the football team coached by Nate Ross (the same coach Uncle Tim Ryan had several years later). 

Walter went missing for about a day despite a massive search effort.  The story he reported to the newspaper upon his return has holes big enough that you could sail the F/V Tuna.Com through but apparently everyone was happy enough that he was safe that it was accepted as told.  Walter recalls he walked to Boston, got a job which earned him the 75 cents he needed to take the train back to Gloucester after he learned his friend had not died.  He went to the Gloucester Police and turned himself in despite not being recognized by anyone there even after this massive search effort. 

After he learned that Everett Jr. might recover after all, the police Captain told Walter to "Snap out of it, you have to play football" At the police station, "Coach Ross took MacFarland in hand, and arm in arm, they went out of the station to meet the football squad" (GDT Oct 3 1936) And, in fact, it was reported that he did play that very afternoon.  Football ruled the day even with another team member on the brink of death.  There's no report on how the team did that day.....

Everett died six months later due to meningitis and lasting effects of the bullet wound.  I imagine those six months must have been nothing but hell for his family.  His dad, Everett Sr., had committed suicide just about 2 years earlier and had apparently not been a presence in his children's lives for some time prior.  His mother had just recently remarried and at least 3 siblings survived him. 

The community response to this event and the role football played echoes the traditions that the Gloucester community represents.  I find this fascinating.  In today's world, I'm quite sure the story would have ended a bit differently.  I would hope there would be community support for both the victim and for the teenager shooter.   I'm hoping the shooter wouldn't be told to "Snap out of it" but who knows??????

This story opened my eyes and it dawned on me that Dad's personality probably didn't fit well in the Gloucester culture of the day.  Perhaps St. Bonaventure and rural New York were just what he needed.  I've wondered how and why he made his life so far away and so differently and perhaps this gives us a clue. 

Famiglia Dalpiaz

This is the story of Costante Dalpiaz, but not your grandfather Costante.  This is your great great uncle Costante Dalpiaz. 

How lucky are we that pictures on tombstones is a common practice in this cemetery in Tassullo? 

Much of what I know about Costante and his family comes from cousin Maria Louisa Dalpiaz Kussman who said "My grandfather like many of the people of that time came to the US and had his family and returned to Italy with the savings he had accumulated by working in the coal mines of Southern Illinois.  He returned to Italy in 1921 with his wife and four sons ages 7, 6, 5 and 1.  They settled in Tassullo and purchased farmland with their savings and built a new house.  They also put some of the money in the bank.  It did not pay for them to buy more farmland because they couldn't handle more than the amount that they purchased - this was before the modern conveniences that make farming a gentleman's work (tractors etc). "

In the time that Costante was in the United States, he applied for and was granted citizenship.  However, according to this little tidbit I came across recently, that citizenship was revoked after he returned to Italy.  This might be considered unusual, but it was wartime and Italy was not an ally.

This was from the Macoupin County Enquirer Carlinville Illinois May 12 1938

obtained using fultonhistory.com

There were four children Marcello, Guilio, Fiorindo and Leonello.  You can see some evidence in the tombstone engraving of their stories. 

 

Again, according to Maria Louisa, " Costante, my grandfather did die while picking apples.  My uncle Marcello his oldest son was in the hospital with a heart attack, and my grandfather was panicked because it was apple picking time.  So he at the age of 77 unbeknownst to everyone else went into a side field and climbed up on a ladder and picked all the apples from the tree.  He was almost done, so the last few apples he stuffed into his shirt - a common practice when you were picking the last far reaching apples.  He then fell.  What we don't know is whether he just fell or had gotten dizzy or light headed or what.  He was found by his grandson, not that long after he died."

 

It's the details in such stories that fascinate and intrigue me and I hope the same for you.  And.....it's so interesting what comes up when "Dalpiaz" is the search term!

 

William S. "Grampie" Brown 1843-1917

William S. Brown, Civil War soldier

William S. Brown is our great great grandfather.  His daughter, Caroline, married Henry NEVINS and they lived most of their lives in Olean.  The Brown family story is an interesting one, though it is not nearly finished!  

Our grandmother Paula Nevins Flynn called William "Grampie Brown", so I will do the same.  Grampie Brown was born in Cambridge (better known at Cambridgeshire) County England May 26 1843.  As far as I am aware, he is our only English ancestor.  

  The red area is Cambridgeshire county.  You will note it's fairly land-locked.  

When he was only 2 years old, he sailed from London to New York aboard the ship Quebec, arriving on May 19 with his father William W., his mother Sarah, and his older sister Druscilla.  The voyage probably took about 2 weeks.  It appears that Sarah was pregnant during this time, and I'm certain the voyage was not an easy one. When the ship arrived in New York, it wasn't the Ellis Island that we picture when we think of immigrants.  In 1845, the port of New York was located on the wharves of Manhattan.  

From New York, they apparently traveled to the Albany region, where two more children were born:  Caroline (sound familiar?) and Walter.  Since William W. was a blacksmith, it's my theory that he found work taking care of the horses and the family traveled the Erie Canal all the way to Buffalo, where they eventually settled.  Two additional children were born after they settled in Buffalo: Jane and Ida.  

In 1861, when he was about 18, he enlisted from Neenah Wisconsin in 3rd Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry.  One of the lasting mysteries is why he enlisted from Wisconsin.  He served only 4 months before being discharged in August after spending some time hospitalized.  He enlisted a second time (probably for the money) from Buffalo in 1863 until discharge again in 1866.  He apparently became ill with chronic conditions as a result of this service and he was later awarded a pension.  Buckets of paperwork were generated as a result of his pension application, telling us more than we're comfortable with about his digestion and respiration.  

Shortly after he returned to Buffalo, he married Mary Alvira Burrows in 1867.  Our great grandmother Caroline (Carrie) was born in 1873 in Buffalo.  Mary died when Carrie was only 7.  It appears that Grampie had Carrie placed in the Buffalo Protestant Orphans Asylum for care until he could take her back.  It haunts me that this was a necessary step and I wonder how that time influenced Carrie's later life.  

Two years later, Grampie married again to Margaret Sommers.  They stayed together in Buffalo for the rest of their lives.  Grampie was, variously, a lumber inspector, foreman for a lumber company, Erie County Pentitentiary guard, and government clerk.  By 1900, Carrie was living in Cattaraugus  County in close proximity to the handsome Henry Nevins, a brand new attorney.  

Grampie died a widow in 1917 and is buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery with his parents.  My sister Paula and I took a research trip to Buffalo a number of years ago and one of the highlights was finding their gravesites.  

Grampie's story is very much the story of millions of immigrants, including our other ancestors. I applaud his parents for taking that long trip across the ocean to settle happily in Buffalo NY so our story could begin. 

My Friend Amy

My friend Amy died today.  We'd been "chemo buddies", keeping each other company while potent drugs dripped their way into our systems.  These drugs were meant to wend their way throughout our bodies annihilating lethal rouge cancer cells.  Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

Amy was a colleague whose unique insight and valuable perceptions saved the day for me many many times!  I would often stop by her room for a chat and she always took the time.  She probably could have been doing something better, but I never ever had the sense that she minded.

When I was considering coming back to this blog, I asked if I could stop by once again.  She wasn't in her classroom any longer.  At this point, she was hospitalized awaiting the trip home to hospice.  I hoped to get a bit of her wisdom and perhaps offer her an outlet if needed.  Don't get me wrong...I completely expected to benefit more from this than she might.  It was a selfish move on my part because I wasn't sure how to handle returning to the blog with or without mentioning what has kept me away so long. 

Her influence lives on.  Tonight I used the cookbook her art students put together as a fund raiser several years ago.  I didn't use it as a tribute to her today--I use it regularly.  She's literally on my kitchen counter.  I have a stamped card addressed to her ready to go to the mailbox. 

A character on the Netflix show Grace and Frankie (a show I'm pretty sure Amy would adore) noted the afterlife is about how you're remembered by the living.  Amy will have a lovely afterlife.  I am grateful she's no longer suffering.

I will miss my friend, but she is remembered here every day.

Walter Jozwicki 1906-1996 and Rose Messa Jozwicki 1910-1986

A while back, Ginger Jozwicki asked me to see what I could learn about her father in law Walter Jozwicki.  In particular, she was curious about his siblings.  "Easy-peazy" I thought to myself.  How hard can it be to find the name Walter Jozwicki????  Boy, did I learn a lesson......would you believe there was at least one other Walter Jozwicki (not far from the same age) living the in the same general area as "our" Walter??? And there seemed to be some conflict in information about place of birth and so forth.  The search wasn't as quite straightforward as I expected, but it led me to some very interesting tidbits to share.  It seems the harder the search, the more rewarding the results.  I'll try to remember that in the future. 

We saw Aunt Rose Dalpiaz Albertini and Uncle Lou Albertini recently and Aunt Rose (bless her soul, she's full of great stories and information) gave me some tips that lead me to the right family.  It meant searching page by page through the census records, but I got there!!!  In 1920, young Walter YAZISKY was living in Ohio with his father Andrew and mother Antonia.  The oldest child in the house at the time was Mary, who is listed as born in Russian Poland--same as her parents.  The remaining six children at the time included Walter, Helen, Joseph, Jennie, Estella and Henry.  By 1930, when I found them in Queens, another daughter, Dorothy, had been born.  The family was easier to find in 1930 as they were indexed as JUZWECKE, but this also meant a page by page search through the census to find a family living in the vicinity of the Messa family. 

Walter Jozwicki Sr.

Walter married the fair Rose Messa in 1933.  Many of you have fond memories of Uncle Walter and Aunt Rose.  While researching the Jozwicki family, I did come across this interesting tidbit from the Long Island Star Journal in 1948:

It was one of those street interviews and the question asked was "What is your favorite type of book?"  Though I never met Aunt Rose, I can just about picture her chatting in the street with this Inquiring Photographer from the Long Island Star Journal. 

I have tracked some of Walter Sr.'s siblings.  Mary, Helen, Jeanette (Jennie) and Estella each got married.  Joseph also married, but I'm not sure about Henry.  This is an ongoing investigation :)  I expect some rewarding results as the searching is not simple and straightforward.  Lucky for me Aunt Rose Albertini is such a great resource!  Cheers to both Aunt Roses!