Posted by Michelle on Oct 30, 2013 in Genealogy, Michelle
This is one of my favorite genealogy finds. My grandfather’s senior yearbook photo and info.
I really need to be logging my work for more efficient research so I’m going to be posting it all under the Genealogy section on the right side. I’m not going to have it show up on the front page most of the time because there can be a fair amount of it. I’ll post interesting things if I come across them but no one wants to read the logs of microfilm research I do Tuesday mornings.
My tree at ancestry.com
Specific interests right now – Falconieri / Falconer (Italy & Pittsburgh) | Zuraweic (Poland and Pittsburgh | Pugh (Iowa & Ireland) | Donahue & O’Donoghue (Boston & County Clare specifically Doolin)
Tags: genealogy
Posted by Michelle on Oct 30, 2013 in Genealogy, Michelle
I had quite an interesting development! In July I got the names of my grandfather’s godparents, Carl Calo and Josephine Jaskowiak. No luck finding them but I sent out a few feelers. A month later one of them responded and it turned out to be a match! His godfather was not Carl but Charles Calo and he came over to the US from Tuglie around the same time. His daughter turned to be the god-daughter of my great-grandfather as well. Sounds like Fred and Charles had to be very close to be the godfathers to each other’s children.
Luckily, she and her daughter-in-law were willing to chat on the phone and it was amazing!
–Remembers Helen having bright garish dyed red hair, being very harsh and never wanted anyone inside her home. That all matched with everything we knew. She said that when they saw Fred it was normally at their home, not his. Said Helen drank and Fred was pretty unhappy.
–She told me she “had to tell me what a handsome fellow my grandfather was” – I loved that and it too matched up with info his HS yearbook where they talk about how all the girls loved Jimmy. She thought she might have some old photos.
–She remembers him coming home at one point and telling her he wouldn’t see her for awhile. We think that was when he enlisted and quit being a priest. She even remembered his eye injury. She had nice things to say about him and advice he gave her as well.
–She remembered how Fred told her and her parents Jim was dead after his mother died because he didn’t forgive him for leaving the priesthood. I knew that too, it was sad to hear again.
All in all, it was a lovely conversation. I suspect we are related to these people some generations back in Tuglie.
Posted by Michelle on Oct 30, 2013 in Genealogy, Michelle
I’ve decided to start posting about my genealogy stuff in the hopes of keep better track of it and that someone else might come along and find it.
–Reviewing Tyler PA 1910 census docs looking for Helen Zurawiec, my great-grandmother.
–Reading this interesting Rutgers oral history transcript from John Pino whose father was born in Tuglie near the time of my great-grandfather and also immigrated around the same time to the same town in PA (Tyler). Pino’s parents left eventually for NJ while my great-granddad left for Pittsburgh.
One of the more interesting notes from that his answer to a question if there any other ethnic groups represented in the Tyler mining community, “I believe the only other ethnic group that I recall them speaking about was Polish people.” We have often wondered how my Italian great-grandfather Alfredo ended up with a 16 year old Polish wife, perhaps they met there. I’ve had problems getting info on them in Pittsburgh and we have NO info on her family – barely a spelling that might be right (Zuraweic, not the Zuravici or Zuravich) and Wainwo Lublin (but I’ve also seen Warsaw). I still think that Wainwo is Wieniawa Lublin. It was folded back into Lublin eventually.
Someone out there has to be related to a Helen (Elena) Stella Zuraweic who arrived in the US as a five year old child in 1903 (census records). I recently found her parents names, Wojciech (changed to George or Albert often in the US) and Franciszka.
–I think I’ve exhausted the Pittsburgh Diocese for their info. They are nice but unlike some other ones, they charge and are very formal about their work.
–My Tuesday mornings still consist of working on Tuglie films. I’m waiting on more films from Nardo but I really need to get organized and go through all of them. It’s not going that well because I don’t read Italian – it’s fine form me to have the basics and forms translated but when I’m dealing with shifting names, etc it’s impossible.
–My friend in Tuglie Silvana has passed on the name and email of a distant relative. I’ve emailed him and can’t wait to hear back.
My tree at ancestry.com
Specific interests right now – Falconieri / Falconer (Italy & Pittsburgh) | Zuraweic (Poland and Pittsburgh | Pugh (Iowa & Ireland) | Donahue & O’Donoghue (Boston & County Clare specifically Doolin)
Tags: genealogy
