Flashback Friday

Cousin Antoinette holding the dog, her mom Aunt Teresa, Aunt Anna with her mom/my great grandmother Fannie and brothers, my Uncles Dick & Charlie (note Charlie's black eye!).  Fannie's 2 youngest children are in front, my Aunt Louise & Uncle Johnny.  Photo taken approximately 1925 or 26.  Fannie had a total of 8 kids, and my grandmother Mary and Aunts Celia & Lee are not in this photo.

Flashback Friday

My cousin Skee Martinelli.  Who is that little girl in the boat?  Skee used to tease me mercilessly when I was a little girl, to the point where I would be so frustrated and start to cry.  I believe I was hiding my eyes because I didn't want to look at him.  The Martinellis came up from Yonkers every summer and rented out my parents' cottage on Spring Hill Beach for a couple of weeks.  He got his comeuppance, however, when I was approximately 7 or 8.  He went into the cellar of the beach house, accessed from large double doors, down in the driveway.  When he went in, I close the doors behind him, hooked the padlock through the lock loop on the door (I didn't lock the padlock, just hooked it to the loop) and fled to the beach, where I waited my impending demise.  I knew I was gonna be in a world of hurt, especially when my parents found out. But...but...but...he just had it coming after years of torture and teasing me!!  As it turns out, this must've been one of those moments where the adults laughed their asses off because I got a slap on the wrist.  When they returned to NY, I was told to write an apology letter.  Said letter was not reviewed by my folks prior to mailing.  Further hilarity ensued when Jeannie called my mom laughing hysterically and read her my letter:  "I'm sorry I locked Skee in the cellar.  My mother is making me write this letter."  Nope.  Not sorry at all.  As I grew older, Skee became one of my favourite people in the world.  

Flashback Friday

My great grandfather Giovanni 'John' Marganella.  He died in about 1924, leaving his wife a widow at age 38 with 8 children to raise.  Family lore has it that he couldn't stand my grandmother (his daughter) Mary and they fought a lot.  Of all the Marganella siblings, my Uncle Dick looked the most like his father.

Flashback Friday

My great grandmother Filomena 'Fannie' Marganella in 1947, at my parents' wedding.  I'm going to guess she is approximately 60 in this photo.  60 doesn't look that old nowadays but back then it sure did.  She was widowed at 38 with 8 children, the youngest of which was 2.  That'd age anyone.

Flashback Friday

My Aunt Stella, Uncle Frank and Dad (in the little sailor suit).  Taken in about 1926, in Georgetown, British Guiana in South America.  My father and his siblings were orphans.  His parents were also from Georgetown as far as I know.  I have heard that my paternal relatives came from the Madeira Islands, a former Portuguese territory.  The current President of Madeira's last name is "Mendonça" which was the original spelling of my last name, so it's possible we are distantly related.   My dad changed the 'ç'  to a 'z' when he came to the USA at 19.

Flashback Friday

My grandmother, Maria 'Mary' Marsh.  Taken in the mid-1920s.

Flashback Friday

My maternal grandfather, Anthony Marsh.  I'm guessing this is from about 1915 or so...he would have been about 17 in this picture, and it was taken prior to his service in World War 1.  "Marsh" was Americanized from 'Masciarelli' (I think that's how it's spelled).  He was born in America in 1898, but his parents were from Italy.  He died right before my 4th birthday in 1968, of lung cancer.  I didn't really know him at all and only have vague, fragmented memories of him.

Flashback Friday

Back row l to r:    Uncles Frank, Vincent, Joe and Salvatore DiMartino.  

Front row l to r:    Aunt Teresa, my Great-Great Grandparents Angelina & Sabatino DiMartino, 

                              Great Grandmother Filomena "Fannie" Marganella

Photo taken approximately 1917, of my maternal family.  The DiMartinos settled in Connecticut, but Fannie settled in Yonkers, NY with her husband Giovanni & their children.  Fannie came over from Italy in 1911 with my Aunt Celia & grandmother Maria, who were 6 and 5, respectively, on a ship called The Berlin.  I never met any of these people.  I don't know much about them except that all but Fannie settled in Connecticut, and my great-great grandmother, Angelina, was a midwife.  I don't believe they ever learned to speak English fluently, but because their children were encourage to speak English, I was never taught to speak Italian.  I would beg my grandmother to teach it to me but she always put me off or changed the subject.

Flashback Friday

Martha over at Seaside Simplicity is hosting "Flashback Friday" this year, with the goal being to post an old photo every Friday, all year.  Unfortunately, I don't have many old photos (really old ones, anyway), so my participation will be more sporadic.  My mom's got all the old pictures at her house and I currently lack scanning abilities at this time.  I mean I can scan them, but they go to a large desktop computer that has no modem and for some reason gives me an error message anytime I try to copy photos onto a CD that I could use in my laptop.

This is a very old photo of my maternal family's hometown of Corvara, Italy in the Abruzzi Mountains.  I have no idea if my family's homes were up there or elsewhere in town.  If you look up the town now, there are still people named Marganella that live there, and it currently has a population of 288.  The Marganellas, and DiMartinos, came to America in the early 1900s, and were processed through Ellis Island in New York. My grandmother was 5 when her mom journeyed from Corvara to the Port of Naples, with my grandmother and her 6 year old sister, to make the Atlantic crossing in 1911 (my great grandfather was already in Yonkers and sent for them). What must that trip have been like?  How did they travel off this mountainside and even get to Naples?  There had to have been a train station nearby.  I've seen a recent photo of this same scene and it looks pretty much the same.