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More Letters from Italy

Posted on 8 February 2013
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While on a recent trip home to celebrate the holidays (a belated celebration since my husband wasn’t home on December 25th), my mom found another stack of letters written in Italian to Nellie Gasparri, my first cousin, once removed. The way mom explained it, when Nellie died in 2007, the folks cleaning out her house found these letters, didn’t know what to do with them, and handed them off to my mom for safekeeping.  This is just one of the letters that I managed to translate.  My knowledge of Italian (where I was fluent about 10 years ago) has degenerated to about the level of a 5 year old, but I can manage a decent translation with the help of Google Translate and a dictionary.  The hardest part is reading the handwriting, misspellings and all, and working through the local phrases, grammar, etc that can vary WIDELY from town to town.  Fortunately, this is pretty close to the area where I studied abroad, so that makes it easier.

I added punctuation and paragraph spacing to make the letter easier to read in the translated version.  Interesting to note, Silvio Gasparri, the man to whom the letter is written, died 18 July 1944, two years before the letter was written.  Nellie, his daughter, had corresponded with one of Silvio’s sisters in Italy a number of times, but the earliest letter we have in that set is from 16 February 1947.  I suppose it’s possible that two years went by without any notification to family in Italy about Silvio’s death.  The overall tone of the letter is pretty sad – a mother wishing for news from her son, hoping that everything is okay, but wondering if something bad happened.

Click any image to open up a larger version.

Montebuono, November 3, 1946.

Dearest son,

It’s been a long time, even years, that I waited for news, but I always waited in vain.  I thought something has happened to you.  Until now I thought that maybe one day I would have had your news as we rejoin hands.  There is always news from other Italians in America, but I have always waited in vain.  Think, my son, on the great pain I suffer.  Think of my age that I’m 81 years old and have no hope of seeing you again before I die.  It could be a consolation to have news from you, comforting for me and for all.

I have written you twice after the end of the great holocaust of the war but I have had no response.  I am forced to make a search for you through the American President.

The situation in Italy is bad.  Life is very expensive such that if you don’t live anymore, you pay a lot.  Expensive and you don’t earn anything.  You believe that you need to go almost nude and drained, but who cares.  I would be happy only to hear from you.

Please write soon, my son, that you would lift a great sadness from my heart.  I hope that this letter reaches you and finds you and your family in good health.  I won’t even say that I’m well because age prevents it but it will make do.  Pietro and your family are well. I won’t say anything more for the moment.  I will write you more at length another time.  I give you a hug and a kiss.  You and my grandchildren should be great.

Now I sign, your affectionate mother,

Rosa Lombardi.

Goodbye.
 
 
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A House in Plympton

Posted on 23 December 2012
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A house in Plympton was all I knew about the photo above before I started doing some digging.  The photo had fortunately been labelled with an address, so it at least gave me something to go on.  First, I went to Google maps to see if I could look up the address and see if it’s still there on street view.  9 Moorland View, Plympton, UK, resolved to 9 Moorland Ave and the houses on the street all looked about the same, and beyond that it looks like the street had been reunumbered at one point.  GREAT.  One of the houses had a little plaque with “1899″ above the door which helped me a little more.  If the homes were built in 1899, it’s likely that the 1901 or 1911 England censuses would be able to tell me who those two children are on the front steps.

The 1901 census pretty much told me the address didn’t exist then.  Okay, fine, on to 1911, which found the 9 Moorland Ave address via the address search on the census page.  I went to ancestry.com to check out the census images and sure enough, 9 Moorland View, Plympton, UK was the home to Bessie (Battin) Shugg and her sons Maurice and Gordon Shugg in 1911.  Bessie was the sister of my great-great grandmother, Jessie (Battin) Powis.  This was likely taken around 1911, before they left for the USA.  Bessie’s husband, Arnold Shugg, left for the USA in 1906, so he doesn’t show up on the 1911 census.

I’m counting this find as a small victory because I had a pretty large piece of information to go on – the address.  Still, it’s neat to be able to link the photo to a house that still exists, and the people who lived there.

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Blain City Band

Posted on 3 December 2012
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We had a trip out to western Pennsylvania to visit my grandma this past weekend and I got a chance to scan in some more of the old photos from that trunk.  Grandma graciously offered the trunk to take with me since it’s my (and my father’s) family history in there (she’s technically a step-grandmother via dad’s father, but I’ve known her my whole life as grandma), and so it came home.  Since there’s been some blog silence, I figured I should get something posted in here and thought this would be a fun photo to add.  We know, from the obituary, that Alfred Herbert Powis played in this band, and if the photo was taken around 1917 as is indicated by the writing on the back added probably in the 1970s by Olga (Powis) Kitko, he would be the trumpet player in the front, with the bearded full-face mask.  I don’t know who the rest of the people in the photo are, but they’re residents in or around Blain City, Pennsylvania.

The front and the back of the photo are below – click to enlarge and open in flickr.

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Harry Battin

Posted on 11 September 2012
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Going back to the Red Velvet Victorian Photo Album that I posted a while back, I think I finally made a wee little bit of headway on the identity of two of the photos.  I decided to see if there were any military enthusiasts out on the web that dealt with the British army around about 1890.  I was running under the assumption that the album was put together between about 1885 and 1900, based on some of the other photos that I can identify.  Wouldn’t you know it, there’s a niche for everyone on the internet, and I ended up finding a site on Victorian Wars.  My original posting and the replies are here in case you wanted to see.  I was able to locate the service record for Harry Battin and it matched up perfectly with two of my photos which appear to be the same man!  The folks in the forum and their knowledge is invaluable – they’ve helped me figure out these two and another photo and provided SO much information about the Army during that time.  They’re really something special!

Harry Battin enlisted with the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry on 1 October 1892.  Harry is Jessie Battin’s brother, Jessie being my 2nd Great Grandmother.  He lists his next of kin as his oldes brother, Alfred Battin.  He was born in Lawhitton, Cornwall on 10 Oct 1871.  On his record, it lists that he served in two campaigns, the North West Frontier of India 1897-98 and Tirah 1897-98.  He was transferred to the reserve on 10 July 1903, and discharged on 30 September 1904.  In 1905, he married Sarah Ann Maunder and had three children as of the 1911 census – Ivy, William Henry, and Alfred John.  In the 1911 England Census, he lists his occupation as, “Horse man on Farm,” and is living back in Lawhitton.  He died in 1951, but I don’t have much information on his death.  The last name is spelled either Battin or Batten.  On his service record, it’s Battin and on the 1911 census, it’s Batten.

This one was probably taken between 1892 and 1894.  His service record lists him as home (meaning anywhere in the UK) during 1 Oct 1892 through 31 Jan 1894.  I haven’t been able to find much on the photographer stamped on the back of the photo, but it’s on my to-do list.

This photo was probably taken later, as the folks on the forum suggested.  He’s posing with his foreign service white helmet which would mean that the photo was probably taken in India.  Taking that to his service record, he was in India from 1 Feb 1894 to 21 December 1900.  It’s a broader time span, but he had enough time to get his Good Conduct Badge (the stripe on his left sleeve, near the cuff).  There are no good identifying marks on the back to help me figure out who took the photo and when – the numbers are likely identifiers by the photographer to figure out who the photo belonged to (index numbers of some sort?).

Anyway, that’s my latest big discovery on the album identification process.  Again, I wanted to express my thanks to the VictorianWars.com forum members for being SO helpful!

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A Letter in Italian

Posted on 10 July 2012
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When my grandmother passed away, mom saved a bunch of papers we found in her home.  Among these were letters written in Italian that none of us could translate.  I was in my second year of studying the language and really wasn’t proficient yet.  But, now, twelve years and a study abroad in Italy later, I’ve finally got back at it and have started working on these.  The genealogy research I’ve been doing has paid off as well, since I’ve finally been able to identify everyone in this first letter which is really neat.  I can’t say the translation is perfect – some of the handwriting and nuances of the language can’t be made into a perfect translation, but I think this is pretty close.  If you happen to have any suggestions on how to make my translation better, I’m happy to accept corrections!

The letter is from Angiolina (Ducceschi) Cioletti, addressed to Eugenia (Arcangeli) Innocenti.
Marsilio is Eugenia’s cousin and lived with Eugenia and her children through 1940.
Amos is Angiolina’s husband.

Worth noting, Angiolina uses the word “figlie” when referring to her children, meaning they’re all girls (and census records tell me that they were indeed).  When referring to Eugenia’s children, she uses the word, “figli” meaning that they’re either all boys, or of mixed gender (in this case, one boy and two girls).   She uses the phrase “Vi Fo Sapere” instead of “Vi Faccio Sapere” (I want you to know).  ”Fo” is a regioinalism particular to Tuscany.  Angiolina and her husband came from Piteglio, from what I can find, which is in Tuscany.  ”Bath Room” is written out in plain English instead of Italian.  Towards the end, she uses the letter z instead of s in Penziero (Pensiero) and Verzo (Verso).  The stamp has been torn off the envelope – grandma was a stamp collector, so it’s possible that this one ended up in her collection, even though she would’ve been 7 at the time this was written.

Haledon NJ 20 September 1928Dearest friend,

I come to write you these few lines on paper to tell you that I am fine. Me, my husband, and my children and so I hope that it is the same with you, your husband, and children. Now I want to tell you that we are together in New Jersey and we’re here willingly, and we’re very happy. We have a house with 5 rooms and the bath room makes 6, and we pay $22.50 a month, cold and hot water, and all the amenities. Also, the place is beautiful for the kids. There is no danger. The house is all fenced in. Also Amos is content with his work. He works every day and brings home $6.50 a day, but he works at night, 13 hours of work, but the work is not as tiresome as in the mines. Especially when he came to work every day at Flinton, Marsilio works all day and I hope that he is still, but we hear that the mines are going very badly. Respond to me. I wanted to write you for a long time, but I never took the time, but I thought about my friends. I have always and will now give my greeting to all of you, your husband and children, from me, my husband, and children. Here I sign, your unforgettable friend, Angiolina, my mother Cioletti. I greet you if you’re ever near to me, it would be nice to have a short walk.

Here is the Address

268 Belmont Ave
Haledon, New Jersey

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Nellie Eimer

Posted on 9 May 2012
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This one has been the big mystery running around in the back of my mind for the last few weeks.  In the big trunk of photos that we found at Grandpa’s house, there are three photos with mention of Nellie Eimer who doesn’t appear to be related in any way to any branch of the family.  I’m holding out hope that perhaps her mother is the link, but I haven’t yet been able to find her maiden name to confirm that.  Do you have any of these names in your family tree?  Please get in contact by leaving a comment!

The details:

  • “Nellie” Ellen Malden Howell was born 23 July 1868 in Dawley Bank, Shropshire, England and died 10 July 1930 in Carbondale, Lackawanna, Pennsylvania, USA.  Nellie applied for a passport 1 April 1920 and listed the purpose of her passport as, “to visit relatives,” for the duration of four months.  On this same document, she lists her arrival year as 1883.  She married Frank Eimer 17 Jan 1891.  She lived the rest of her life in Carbondale, Pennsylvania and never had children.
  • Frank Eimer was born in 1867 and died 3 Januray 1938.  He was a baker in Carbondale.  After Nellie died, he married Isabell Turnbull.  His parents are Harry (1839) and Mary (1844-1875) Eimer.
  • William Howell, Nellie’s father, was born in England in 1843.  He died 2 December 1920 in Carbondale, Pennsylvania.  He lived with Nellie and Frank in Carbondale, PA until his death.  I haven’t been able to find him on any English census, and there doesn’t appear to be record of his family living in England prior to the first time they show up on a census, the 1910 US census.  Per the information he gave the census taker, he married Lizzie in 1864.  His will lists his living relatives as, “Mrs. Ellen Malden Eimer daughter, Mrs. Sarah McCoy daughter, and Mrs. Elizabeth Stephens grand daughter.”  Frank Eimer was named the executor of the will.
  • “Lizzie” Elizabeth ?, Nellie’s mother, was born 1843 and died 18 November 1913.  I’m not 100% sure on the death date, but it seems to match up from the PA death record indicies.  Lizzie appears on the 1910 US census and not on the 1920 census.  I don’t know much about her other than this little bit of information.

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The first photo is a photo postcard.  The stamp area in the top right corner of the second photo gives me a date range of 1904-1918 (AZO with four triangles up).  The back reads, “Mr & Mrs Wm Howell later on their 50th anniversary on our front porch,” and was likely written by Olga (Powis) Kitko, the front porch being in Beccaria, Clearfield, Pennsylvania.  Below that, written later, is, “Nellie Eimers Mother & Father,” again, probably written by Olga.  If the Howells married in 1864, that would give us 1914 for their 50th anniversary which isn’t possible if Lizzie died in 1913.  I’m pretty comfortable saying this photo was taken in 1913.  Olga would’ve been 13 at the time.

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Another photo postcard, dating again between 1904-1918.  Written on the back in Olga’s older handwriting is, “Aunt Nellie Eimer, Carbondale,” and printed is a Photographer’s Studio, “F. E. Allen Studio, 3d and Pine Sts., Williamsport, PA.”  I haven’t been able to find the photographer’s name in any local directory, so I’ve got no lead on a date for this one.  I’d definitely put it closer to the 1918 mark.  This is where I get the “Aunt” title from though and why this has me so confused.  I suppose it’s possible that Aunt was used to describe a close family friend – I know I grew up with a number of “Aunts” that I wasn’t related to, and the term was used symbolically for a person of importance to our family.

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And the last photo – not a photo postcard.  There are a few other photos of the same size (only about three inches high) that are marked with ’17 on the back – I’m taking this to mean that they were taken in 1917.  This photo is labelled in Olga’s older handrwriting, “Nellie Eimers Father Carbondale Mom & Me.”  If this was taken in 1917, Olga would’ve been 17 in this photo (she graduated high school, something rare for girls at that time).  From Left to right, we have William Howell, Jessie (Battin) Powis, and Olga (Powis) Kitko.  Lizzie is missing here which makes sense, because she passed away years before the photo was taken.
Sources:
L ackawanna Public Records - The search for Marriage licenses and Register of Wills was used to find Frank Eimer’s will, William Howell’s will and the marriage license for Frank and Nellie Eimer.
Playle’s Photo Postcard Dating – I go back to this resource often since it seems to be one of the most comprehensive databases for dating photo postcards
Pennsylvania Birth and Death indices –  The indices are a great place to start for information.  Records can be ordered for a fee, but sometimes just the index is enough to collect an exact date.

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Coal Miners on the way home

Posted on 15 April 2012
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Written on the back, “Herb & D. Alexander on the way home”

From the handwriting, I can tell that my great grandmother labelled the photo, in part, long after it was taken – the style on the top line is a crisp, clean sort of penmanship, and the, “on the way home,” is written in her rather shaky handwriting from when she was older. The back of the photo is set up like a postcard, and the area where the stamp is supposed to be placed can be used to date the photo. This one has “NOKO” stamped on it, which indicates the date is between 1907 and 1920.  This resource is REALLY helpful for dating photo postcards.  I’d put the date closer to the 1920 end of the date range since Herb, Alfred Herbert Powis (my great-grand uncle), was born in 1892 and died in 1926.  As for D. Alexander, I’ve got no idea!  Herb lived in Beccaria, Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, but I don’t know which mine this is.  It is pretty neat to see these two, dirty from working in the mine, riding a mine cart on their way out, ready to go home.  This is just one of many, MANY photos from an old trunk, and hopefully I’ll be posting more soon!

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Red Velvet Victorian Photo Album

Posted on 17 November 2011
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Now there’s a title, right?  I couldn’t believe that in 30 years, no one had seen or heard about this album that contains images of family members dating from the 1890s.  My grandfather passed away this summer, and we went out earlier this Fall to help grandma do some cleaning and to spend time chatting and whatnot.  Grandma brought out the album that she had found while organizing grandpa’s computer room.  It’s covered in worn red velvet with a mirror sewn into the cover, and is closed with a metal latch.  For being over 100 years old, it’s in pretty good condition.

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I’m willing to bet it hasn’t been opened much, and it’s a real shame that so few of the photos are dated or labelled. Great Grandma had passed the album along to grandpa and now it’s come home with me. I decided to scan in all the photos in hopes that maybe someone, somewhere might recognize a few and help me solve some of the mysteries inside the album – we were able to identify a few photos from the other trunk (not joking, great-great grandma’s old steamer trunk that came with her from England was home to ALL THE PHOTOS) full of photos. Great grandma had gone through and put names on the back of some which was really pretty helpful. I’ve included the backs to the photos when there was something on the back, and some of the designs are really gorgeous.  The photos are all arranged on the page in the order they appear in the album and I’m sure there’s something to the order of the photos.  If you can help identify or date any of the photos, please leave a comment. Click on through for the photos! (Warning, VERY graphics heavy below the cut)

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