“Gone too Soon”                                                                                     February 27, 2023

 

I have given this so much thought. There are so many who I feel have gone too soon or gone too young.  Although my heart hurts when I think of ALL those that that have passed and I miss them terribly, there are those who I feel their lives were cut short and “gone too soon”.  I’d like to share with you those people.  

Nathanial Golden: died at the tender age of 10 in a vehicle accident. Nate was the son of my nephew Charles Victor Golden who is the son of my brother Charles Philip Golden. I never met Nate but was told by many that he was a wonderful, happy, loving young person. Seems like God got one of the good ones early!!

Gregory Golden: died at the age of 23. Gregory was the son of my brother Robert Richard Golden. Gregory was a loving, kind, helpful young man. He was there when you needed him, he was great at helping with conflict and having your back when you needed it.  Truly a great loss for the family.

Charles Philip Golden: died at age 67 from heart disease.  Charlie was my brother. Charlie was a talented musician and loved making people laugh. He was playing the accordion at age 5 and could pick up almost any instrument and play it. He had an adoring wife and 3 terrific kids. 

Charles Victor Golden: died at age 69 from heart disease and cancer. Charlie was my father. I was one of the lucky ones to have a terrific daddy.

Charles Edward Gallagher: died at age 66 of a very brief illness. Charlie was my father-in-law; Mark’s dad.  He was a very loving and kind man who adored his family.  He was so happy when he started having grandchildren. He would walk around town with the carriage (yes, carriage, not stroller) showing off the baby.

Charles Francis Gallagher: died at age 40. He was Charles Edwards’s father - Mark’s grandfather.  This man came to the United States when he was 22 from Donegal, Ireland.  He too died from a brief illness when his only child was just 2 years old. It’s no wonder that Charles Edward treasured his family.

Marie Eleanor Caddell nee Vampatella:  died at age 41 from cancer. Marie was my maternal aunt.  She was a beautiful woman who had a hard life with a mean husband.  She loved her nieces and nephews. She too had a knack for music.  One day she just started playing the piano and her siblings would gather round and sing with her. 

Angelina Skrocki nee Vampatella: died at age 48 from cancer. Angelina was my maternal aunt. She was a very funny lady who will always have a very special place in my heart.

Antoinette Vampatella nee Rapuano: died at age 56 from cancer.  Antoinette was my maternal grandmother.  I was two years old when she passed and have no memory of her.  Everyone said she was a sweet loving lady. I took her name as my confirmation name to honor her. My oldest daughter was born on her birthday – April 27^th.

Carmen Rapuano: died at age 25 in 1946 from heart anomaly. He was going to the minor leagues!  Baseball was in his blood.

There are so many others. I think of the Vampatella twins that died in Sicily when they were two years old and their father was in the United States trying to make some money for his family, Salvatore Vampatella who died as child from tetanus in Sicily, and all the others that we will never know about, no matter how much research we do. 

Gone too soon….Gone too young…. Gone but hopefully not forgotten.

 

“I Can Identify”                                                                                        February 16, 2023

 As I embarked on my genealogical journey for both Mark and me, it was important to know who came to the United States and when.  Who was the FIRST to arrive?

For my side of the family I identified the following:

• ·       Andrea Titone arrived 1899 – Santa Margarita, Sicily, Italy
• ·       Carlo Beccherini arrived 1903 – Borghetto, Lodigiano, Italy
• ·       Angelina Maria Bianchi arrived 1904 – Treviglio, Italy
• ·       Philip Vampatella arrived 1913 – Vittoria, Sicily, Italy
• ·       Sebastiano Rapuano arrived 1889 – Benevento, Italy
• ·       Mariella Fazio arrived 1897 – San Valentino, Italy

For Mark’s side of the family I still struggle.  So far I have identified the following:

• ·       Charles Francis Gallagher arrived 1908 – Ballyshannon, Donegal, Ireland
• ·       Edward Duffy arrived about 1890 – somewhere in Ireland
• ·       Katherine McMahon arrived about 1895 – somewhere in Ireland
• ·       George Huneke unknown arrival but likely from Germany
• ·       George Huneke’s wife???
• ·       Anthony Rush arrived 1853 – ROSCOMMON, Ireland
• ·       Ellen McLaughlin arrived about 1860 – somewhere in Ireland
• ·       Leo Mendus arrived 1878 – probably from Lipiniak, Galicia, Poland
• ·       Pauline Kreher arrived 1897 – possibly from Austria or Poland Przemysl (pronounced Shemmish) in Galicia Poland

 

When doing any kind of genealogical research it is very important to find the country, the county and then the town the ancestor came from.  At this moment, Anthony Rush won the prize for being the first of our ancestors to arrive in the United States!! Yay, Anthony!! But Anthony does not say where he came from in Ireland. I know, you see Roscommon next to his name---read on.

 an Gorta Mór – The Great Hunger

Anthony was born 16 November 1835 or that’s what he always claimed.  Birth dates were not always accurate.  Nonetheless, he was probably a happy little boy playing on the farm with his parents and siblings (I do not know of any siblings at this time). The fields were lush, lots of rocks, and the sun shone through from time to time.  In 1845 a fungus caused the potatoes, a main staple of the Irish farmer, to turn black and inedible. They could not eat them nor sell them causing a great deal of starvation and homelessness.  This blight ended about 1852. What did he endure during those years? Did he lose his parents? Siblings? Did he have to stay in a workhouse? What we do know is that he came to the US in 1853. Did he go to England then to the US? Or just come to the US directly?

 Here is a wonderful article regarding the potato famine: https://tinyurl.com/d68ek76h

 

Civil War

Details about where Anthony was and what he was doing in the United States after he arrived is unclear, but we do know he entered the Civil war 31 March 1862.  He volunteered for the 78^th NY Infantry company C.  He was in the war until the end, mustering out on 21 July 1865.  Usually, military documents are a wealth of information, but Anthony was less than forthcoming regarding where he came from in Ireland.

I decided to obtain his complete pension files and Compiled Military Records from National Archives and Record Administration (NARA). Hundreds of pages to read through and I found out where and when he was married and the name of the priest who married them, where he was living, who his wife and children were, how tall he was and how much money he was receiving from his pension, but still no location in Ireland, Listing only the country and not the county, as the Irish normally would.

Anthony was requesting an increase in pension for the gun shot wound he got to his left index finger during the Battle of Chancellorsville in 1863. (Mark and I visited the battle site and were able to track his unit’s moves on preserved and marked maps.)  He was deposed many times, but on the 3^rd of March 1905 in the state of Tennessee at the Mountain Branch National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, he finally says he was born in Roscommon, Ireland!!  

After many years of searching, I finally was able to Identify the county in Ireland from which he came! Now to identify a town in Roscommon!! Sigh……

 

 

 

 

 

“The Outcast”                                                                                                                  February 12, 2023

It was a beautiful day in St. Charles Cemetery in Farmingdale, Long Island and my husband Mark and I were paying respects to his grandmother, Estelle Huneke, and his grandfather, Vincent Joseph Huneke. We were walking slowly, taking in the peaceful atmosphere, and stopping to look at the headstones of those who had passed on and lo and behold there was a headstone “HUNEKE Alice J. 1909 – 1979 and George C. 1905 – 1992”. The name caught Mark’s eye, for he knew of an Uncle George Huneke, but he was unaware of any of his grandfather Vincent’s siblings.

 So, who were Vincent’s siblings and why did the grandchildren not know any of them?

Vincent Joseph Huneke was born 3 December 1901 in Brooklyn New York to George Huneke and Margaret Rush Huneke…..or was he?! No birth records could be found for Vincent Joseph Huneke. However, there is a birth record for a George Huneke born 3 December 1901 in Brooklyn to George Huneke and Margaret Rush Huneke. 

Margaret and George had 4 daughters prior to the birth of Vincent.  Ellen, “Margaret” was the name she went by, was born 20 Jul 1894, Helen was born 2 Feb 1896, Bernadette was born 30 Jul 1898, Esther was born 14 Apr 1900 but died after 2 weeks.

It was early December 1901 and Margaret was getting ready to give birth. They, of course, did not know if they were having another girl or a boy.  I suspect Margaret was a little stressed since she just lost her last child.  George decided to go out drinking – leaving Margaret to do all the hard work giving birth.  This did not please Margaret. Margaret gave birth to a beautiful baby boy – their first son.  . This child was likely to be named after his father, George.  . However, Margaret was so mad at George, she wanted to get back at him for his drinking and neglectful behavior.  She named her son Vincent. Not only would George not have a son named after him, Margaret knew naming their son Vincent would piss him off because it was an “Italian” name. Margaret gave birth to 2 more children – Lillian 19 Feb 1904 and George C. Huneke born 3 Oct 1905.

Vincent Joseph Huneke went by that name all his life. He was married with that name, signed up for military with that name, worked under that name and died with that name.  He had  a younger brother who carried the name of George and that is the man who was in the cemetery just a few headstones away from Vincent.

Vincent married Estelle Mendus 7 months before the first child was born.  He had a second child with Estelle in 1931 and a few years he had a “liaison” with another woman which resulted in Mark’s half first cousin.  I would have written about that during the “Oops” week prompt but was discouraged from doing so at the request of my husband.  Vincent died on the 12^th of August 1964 in the home of his daughter in Brooklyn.

Vincent was a wonderful grandfather, but he did have a drinking problem. Some of the grandchildren have memories of a nasty drunk.  Mark and Mark’s sister remember a very loving and fun grandfather. 

No one seems to know why there was a rift between Vincent and the rest of his family.  Mark’s oldest sibling did meet an Aunt Bernie but didn’t have a lot to say about her.  Diane remembers going to the bar with him the day before he died.  He would wake up in the morning and take a swig of booze.  Diane says that he had been a building inspector in his early years, but he was honest and didn’t take bribes and he was fired for that.  Yes, that was the story! He then started his own trucking company.  .

I can only surmise that the rift in the family was due to his drinking or maybe because his wife was expecting a child when they got married in 1927 or he had an affair in 1937.  The story lies with Vincent in his grave.

 

 

January 30, 2023

I just signed up to write about 52 ancestors in 52 weeks This is week 3 (yes, I’m a little behind – no surprise there!). Each week I’m given a prompt. This week’s prompt:

EDUCATION:

I told Mark, my husband, about this prompt and I said it HAS to be about Grandpa Vampatella and he said, “which story?” I had to think about that! Was it the story about his education or the story about how he tried to dissuade me from getting an education. 

Grandpa Vampatella, Philip Vampatella, was born in Biscari, Sicily in 1897.  He was the oldest child of Biagio Vampatella (born 3 Feb 1869) and Angela Falconieri (born ? in Biscari, Sicily). Biagio worked for the Italian railroad and lived in a small casello (house) near the tracks. Biagio could read and write in Italian and he wanted his son to be able to do the same.  Biagio’s job took him to various towns throughout Sicily and there were no schools near the railroad tracks.  Grandpa writes in his book, “Passeggiata””

“At seven Philip started going to school. Schools along the track were non-existent.  At a place called Donnafugata was a medieval castle belonging to a duchess of Albarfiorita. It was about 5 miles from the casello and it did not belong to the railroad.…… At school Philip progressed slowly, considering the time he consumed en route to and from it. After a while teaching was passed to the doorman, who charged forty cents per month to impart knowledge into the skulls of striplings from six to fourteen years of age.

One of these schools was in a town named Comiso. Always in the first grade Philip resumed his education from the beginning at every new place. In Comiso a priest teacher put him in the second grade to start with but promoted him to the first soon after he discovered what Philip could do.  Philip, to all accounts was a qualified “somaro” (Donkey).

It was the responsibility of the man to be able to provide for his family and thus Biagio sent his son to learn a trade. He worked in a shop that separated cotton fibers from seeds, he worked as an apprentice shoemaker, coppersmith, stone quarry, cabinet makers and many others.  None of which suited him.  He writes, “Much as he tried to do things to satisfy his teachers, his ineptitude always brought him to deal with menial chores utterly unrelated to the trades.”

However, he does say in his book that he did take to cabinet making. Anyone who is descended from grandpa, probably has something he made in their house.

As time went on, he did better in school and took to reading, but there were not a lot of books. One time he memorized homework regarding national history and his teacher was so impressed he got a reward – a book about Theodore Roosevelt in Africa. He also took to arithmetic and biology, but history was his strength.  He says, “he entered school as a first grader but in two years he was promoted to the fourth”.

When Philip arrived in the United States, he could not read, write, or speak English.  But he was bound and determined to learn.  He would go to movies, pay attention to English speakers and go to the library – the concept of so many books that could be borrowed was astounding to him.  He would also read the dictionary.  Words were very important to him. He became proficient in English – so proficient he could write this beautiful book. 

Yet, it was only important for the male to learn.  When I was in high school and deciding where I wanted to go to college, grandpa very kindly and gently explained to me that it was not important for me to get an education as my husband would provide for me.  That was 1976 – which for many may sound like the dark ages – but it wasn’t and I was NOT going to listen.  My mother had only finished 10^th grade – a piece of knowledge I only learned recently. My father did not complete high school either but did go back for his GED. 

Education – I am so impressed by what my grandfather accomplished in his lifetime, disappointed that he felt it was only for males, proud of myself for succeeding in college and grad school.

Hey, Grandpa!! What do you think now?????