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.

Old Time Minstrel Show Paul M. Ryan Jr.

This is a program that states: "We, the members of the Gloucester Service Chest welcome you to our entertainment, an Old Time Minstrel Show, which is given for the benefit of all our own boys in the Armed Forces."  It was held on January 20 1944.  I suspect you already know where this is going, but here's what I found inside:

Dad must have been only about 16 at this time and it's gratifying to see that his End Man experiences had a long history.  Edna Handran was on the ticket committee--she's Dad's first cousin.  So far, I don't recognize other names.  But it was a neat little find.

James Coffarelli 1898-1934

I was trying to decide what to share on this blog next and noticed these two documents in my collection. I find them very interesting for a couple of different reasons. They both concern  James Coffarelli, for whom I have already had to solve a fair number of mysteries!

The Certificate of Baptism from St. Mary's Long Island City is for a child named Jacob Simeon Coffarelli sone of John and Rosa Coffarelli. Definitely your family and the birth date of July 25 1898 matches all records I have for James. It has been a huge mystery to me why the name is Jacob Simeon. It is dated June 6 1923 so we can presume he requested it as a requirement of his upcoming Catholic wedding just a few weeks later.

The Certificate of Marriage from St. Rita's certifies that James Coffarelli and Marguerite Manzelli were married June 27 1923. The documents are strikingly similar -- indeed they are produced by the same company so I imagine area churches all used the same.

They reside back to back inside a sheet protector in my notebook and I just thought you might like to see them again and take notice of a few things. Other than the child's name, his baptismal sponsors were Frank Scaretta and Margherita Nigra. I don't know if these are relatives but since James was the last of 9 children, it seems likely they may have given this honor to family friends.

Off I went to bed thinking I knew just how I was going to write the blog today. Relaxing your mind allows little brainstorms in and I had such an experience last night just as I was drfiting off. That darn Jacob Simeon was really bugging me and I was thinking about how I was going to note that the baptism certificate was produced 25 years after the event to prepare for the wedding. That means someone had to copy over and transcribe the information in the original church records.

And that's when the light when on! I am guessing that  James may have been listed in the original church records with his Italian name Giacomo--which can also be translated as Jacob! Ta-da! A perfectly reasonable hypothesis for the name on the baptismal certificate. Perhaps Simon/Simeon really was his middle name. I don't think I have anything else to help me figure that out for sure, but I am very pleased with myself that there may be an answer to that little mystery.

I slept very well after that. Now all I have to do is come up with some reason for him to have been listed as Samuel in the census records......

Homeland for Our Irish

Our Irish ancestry runs deep.  Recent family celebrations allow me to consider our immigrants and their struggles.  I have nothing to prove or disprove that our ancestors came to this continent escaping famine but it seems logical that there were significant "push and pull factors" (remember that from US History?).  Irish immigrants everywhere faced severe discrimination and I have no doubt the same held true for ours.

Our Irish immigrants were largely farmers or fishermen; livelihoods that depend upon unpredictable Mother Nature and many other factors beyond control.  I imagine that Henry Nevins' father was beyond proud that he became an attorney -- the grandson / son  of an immigrant.

I think I've talked before about our Irish surnames, but haven't talked too much about their Irish homeland.  That's mostly because I don't know too much first hand (yet) but one day I hope to.

Here are your great-grands and what I know about where they came from.  Match 'em up on the map.
Patrick Flynn's mother Ellen:  County Clare
Patrick Flynn's mother Barbara came from Munich Germany (we aren't counting her right now)
Henry Nevins' grandfather Henry born Ireland:  his mother Julia born County Meath
Caroline Brown Nevins daughter of English immigrant

William H. Ryan's father Timothy born Ireland (maybe Tipperary)
Kate Bentley Ryan's mother and father born Galway
William Pierce was born in Canada latest in a long line of Canadians (Nova Scotia)
Edith Handran Pierce's mother was born in Sligo

Patrick Flynn worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad; Henry Nevins was a well known lawyer who spawned many more in the same line of work; William H. Ryan worked in various blue collar jobs such as lunch cart keeper; William Pierce was a fisherman.

So I guess the pictures in my head when I think about those that came before us look more like these than those pretty green shamrocks.