Phillip Coffarelli The Count of No Accounts?

A nice little reminder to always look at the back of the pictures--this is what I found on the backs of these pictures.  I'm pretty sure these are of Phillip Coffarelli (but I'm not certain) and I love his handwriting and humor.  I have no idea in the world what he's talking about so any insight would be appreciated.  I thought you would enjoy.

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What do you think? 

Violet Elizabeth Ryan 1902-1957

Aunt Bud was Viola Elizabeth Ryan, a sister to our grandfather Paul Ryan Senior and a favorite aunt of our dad Paul Ryan Junior.  Her date of death was a mystery that I decided to apply my finer detective skills to.

In this picture you see CatherinePierce Ryan, Paul Junior, Violet Ryan ("Aunt Bud") and our uncle Peter Ryan.  I believe this was taken at Paul Junior's college graduation 1955.  So I knew she was alive at least until the spring of 1955.  For a long time, I've been trying to track down some more details about Aunt Bud's life especially when she died and where she was buried.  Our uncle Peter told us once that he remembered that she was living on Haskell Street with our grandparents Paul Senior and Catherine Ryan because she was ill.  He came home from school one day and found her dead.  No one could really remember when that was but I figured 1955-1958 as a range because Peter would probably have graduated by about 1958 when he was 18.  That narrowed it down but that's still a pretty big range to search.  Both our uncles Tim and Peter thought it might be 1956 or 1957 so I started to search day by day through the Gloucester newspapers for an obituary. 

Just before we left for a recent trip to Gloucester Massachusetts, I prepped myself to research Aunt Bud and Uncle Jack (John Ryan), who supposedly had died of an accidental gunshot wound.  Lo and behold some new digital references had become available so I learned that Aunt Bud died in 1957 and Uncle Jack in 1939 (the year of the accident). So I began searching the Gloucester Daily Times at the Sawyer Library day by day through "only" 1957 without much luck the first time.  But the second time, I tried the roll of microfilm that held copies of the paper from Oct-Dec 1957 figuring that range might be a good bet because school is in session most of that time since Peter remembered he had some home from school to find her.  (Nancy Drew has nothing on my detecting skills!). And this is what I found from early December:

Peter was right again!  He's got great information.  I was quite pleased to find her.  You'll notice it says she was buried in the family plot at Calvary.  The only family plot I was aware of at Calvary in Gloucester is this one for our grandparents Paul Senior, Catherine Pierce Ryan and Paul's mother Kathryn Bentley Ryan:

We noticed her arrangements were made by the Greely Funeral Home and I remember our mother saying this is the place always used by the Ryans.  My husband Jim suggested we go there and ask.  I was a little reluctant, but off we went and BOY was it worth the attempt!! A very nice lady was wonderful enough to go up into the attic to locate their books from 1957 and show us the page in their records for Aunt Bud's services:

Perhaps you'll notice that the drawing of the plot seems to indicate the burial of mother Katherine Bentley Ryan AND Arthur 1955 from Florida!  Arthur is another "lost" Ryan so this was huge.  I was tickled to think I'd found Aunt Bud and her brother Arthur so we went back to Calvary to see if we could find Sect 15 Range 15 Lot 13.  No luck. I called the Archdiocese of Boston and they said she was in Sect 17 Range 1 Lot 13.  Back to the cemetery.  Still no luck.  Apparently there is some confusion with Calvary cemetery records prior to 1960.  The Archdiocese "cannot confirm or deny" that Aunt Bud is buried there so we cannot have her name added to the stone--which was my intention at first.

We feel Aunt Bud and her brother Arthur are also buried in this plot.  We don't know why their names do not appear but I can speculate that it was just too expensive.  The monument people told us it would be $410 plus a $20 fee to the Archdiocese to add Aunt Bud to the stone.  That was more than I was expecting so I suppose in 1955 or 1957 if you pro-rate that amount, it would still be kind of expensive to add those names, even if the other siblings helped out.  And perhaps it should just stay that way.

35-62 9th

 

Your grandparents James Coffarelli and Marguerite Manzelli married in June of 1923 at St. Rita's (the scene of many family events infamous and joyful as well). Marguerite was the oldest of 9 children and James was the youngest. That pairing must have made for an interesting relationship. Just about nine months later, your uncle John Coffarelli was born in Freeport. And four years later your mother Regina was born.

This is a picture of Marguerite in front of the house on Sagamore Street. Uncle Johnny vividly remembers the large front sun porch which you can see a bit of behind Marguerite in this picture. Looks like a pretty good size house to me! Sometime between James' death in 1934 and Marguerite's in 1938 the family left Freeport apparently to live at 35-62 9th Street Long Island City. .

13 Sagamore Street was quite a ways from New York Hospital (now NY Presbyterian Hospital) in Manhattan where James was being treated for his leukemia. Uncle Johnny says he could see the hospital across the river--must have been from 9th Street

He recalls that the mortgage for this house was held by a furniture dealer who called the loan forcing them to move. Circumstances suggest that James' death probably forced this. I do not know the situation but at first I wanted to "boo-hiss" the furniture dealer but it is likely that Marguerite struggled financially after her husband's death at the height of the Great Depression. Yet another example of how history repeats itself and today's economic difficulties in many ways echo that time.

Uncle Johnny also recalled playing stickball in the neighborhood. He had no idea what kinds of things your mother was doing for entertainment while he was hitting a tennis ball with a mop handle. When I asked what were some of his favorite foods, he said he ate whatever was put in front of him. Days of the week dictated the menu--Sundays were chicken. I have noticed that the women in the family usually recall more specific details about such things but Uncle Johnny did not lack in detail describing stickball or other ball-bouncing games.

One interesting tidbit I'd like to follow up on was that he identified Aunt Betty (perhaps Elizabeth Coffarelli) in a picture as someone who lived with them and carried him out of a house fire! I imagine this had to be while they were living in Freeport but I hope to hear more of that story!

I've learned time and time again that these stories weave themselves in and out of time and it brings great comfort. As I was looking at my papers to get ready to put this post together, I re-read Marilyn Sheerin's letters and noticed that Aunt Claire and Aunt Marie's address was 35-62 9th Street Long Island City. More than 50 years later and the same address for the Manzellis. Probably someone told me that a long time ago, but it jumped right out at me today.

As Uncle Johnny was describing his sun porch on Sagamore Street, I was remembering Kathleen telling us that she has always wanted a house with a porch. Echoes of the past such as this add such richness to the story of your lives that it's difficult to let it go.

Earl Holliday Dies

Doing research on family members often turns up some interesting connections with the past.  For example:

Earl married one of William S. Brown's granddaughters.  They apparently divorced and he died the very same day my husband Jim was born.  One door closes and another opens?  I don't know.....it was just interesting.

Also to note is that my youngest sister and her husband share an anniversary with our father's aunt and uncle Florence (Pierce) and William Gleason. Bill Gleason's parents were married on Aug 10 1924 in Gloucester.  Whenever I see matching dates, I smile a little bit to myself.  I wish I had a picture of them to share with you.

Another interesting piece of the family history is that there are more twins on the tree than you may have expected.  On the Bentley side (Gloucester sea captain), there are twin boys Philip and Charles born in 1907.  The Ameros are related through the Handran side (Catherine Pierce Ryan's mother was a Handran) and they had boy/girl twins Edna and Reedy in 1898.  Another set of Handran twins are the Butler girls Anastasia and Ann born in 1873 in Gloucester.  Somehow I did not expect to see so many sets of twins.
There are always surprises to find in this hunt. 

Sweet 16 for the Dalpiaz side

There's a thread running through recent genealogy blogs and discussions about the "great grands"-- your 16 great grandparents. Specifically, can we name our 16 great grandparents? Must be this is where people get stalled.

Now, in case this challenge is presented to you and for those of you who aren't sure allow me to assist: Fortunato and Carolina Parteli Dalpiaz; Francisco and Teresa Odorizzi; Luigi and Mary Cella Messa; Peter and Mary Chesternino Contenta; Giuseppe (and unknown) Coffarelli; Giovanni and Leonarda Dalami Pedano; Pietro and Margherita De Carlo Manzelli; Graziano and Antonia Isoldi. Well, there's 15 of them anyhow--not too bad!

One of the interesting things about this group I noticed when I put these names together is that only Giuseppe Coffarelli came to live in the United States (he was about 90 when he arrived to live with his son). All the others were in Italy. It was the next generation that were the primary immigrants and therefore how your family came to be Americans.

Patrick and Delia (Madden) Gleason of Massachusetts

I heard from our father's cousin Bill Gleason recently.  I had come across pictures of his Gleason grandparents during my research so I wanted to share them with him.  I wanted some verification they were actually his grandparents so I could add them to the family tree.  These are not blood relatives but I am interested regardless.  Bill and Anne's grandfather Gleason was named Patrick and there are some interesting coincidences there but that story will wait until another day.

Anyway, I wrote to him and was very happy to hear back from him.  His letter confirmed these were the right people and included some interesting stories about them.

Apparently they ran a dairy farm and these are pictures of his grandmother Delia. Bill says:  "The two showing my grandmother in the laboratory were the most interesting.  The laboratory was a relatively small room behind the kitchen at 78 Walnut ("the homestead").  I never heard my father or anyone else in the family talk about the lab or their mother being the technician.  I wonder how or where she got her training."  The Gleason family determined the picture on the right was probably taken in 1915, based on a study of the calendar on the wall in the picture compared to a perpetual calendar.  Now, that's the kind of research that makes me smile!

Bill is older than our dad, Paul M. Ryan Jr.,  by a couple of years (he's now 87) so I was particularly glad to hear from him and to know he's well enough to plan to travel to Maryland next month to celebrate his son's 50th birthday.  How lucky for them!

MESSA family in Bari Italy

A while back I was visiting the local history museum and the staff asked me to research a piece for them to see if I could figure out what it was.

It looked like it was probably a piece of farm equipment, but that's all I felt safe in guessing.  It's kind of hard to research "red farm equipment maybe" with any kind of efficiency or potential to hit it right on the mark.  So I let it go until I was recently reminded they were waiting for some magic from me so this item could be appropriately displayed.  This time I noticed it was called "The Clipper" and the manufacturer was also listed so off I went with my research feeling pretty confident.  Upon checking and rechecking the photos I had taken originally, I noticed for the first time that the machine TELLS us that it is a "grain and seed cleaner".

The answer was right there all along and I just hadn't seen it because I was concentrating on the whole piece instead of its parts.

So goes family history research.  Lots and lots of times the answers are sitting right there waiting for me to find them again.  In my MESSA family folder I recently found a ship manifest from 1920 listing Francesco and Onofrio Messa which I printed out because I thought they were probably Jake Messa's brothers.  Notice the record says they are from Castellano which matches what your Aunt Josie has told me.

This time I studied the record more carefully and noticed that it lists for "the name and complete address of the nearest relative or friend in country whence alien came" father Luigi Via Felice Cavalletti Castellano.  I believe Luigi to be the name of Jake's father and I believe he lived in Castellano.  This gives me Luigi's address which somehow makes him seem very real, especially when you look it up on Google Earth or a mapping program.  It also helps to verify that these are members of your family.  This piece of information had previously been overlooked but now seals the deal in my belief that these are relatives AND gives me a solid location for the MESSA family in Bari Italy.

It's right there just waiting to be discovered.  Seems like a pretty good motto to live by.  Or a travel jingle.