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Climbing my family tree, part 5: Research Trip #1.....
Last week, I took a few days off from work and headed to Buffalo to visit with relatives and friends, and to do some family tree research. While sites like ancestry.com are great for aggregating and researching family tree information, some records are not available online due to privacy concerns.
For this trip, my focus was on my father's siblings and his mother's siblings, and their families.
And so, on Thursday the 27th (of March), I left Dayton and drove up via my usual route -- I-70 to Columbus, I-270 to go around Columbus, I-71 to Cleveland, I-271 to go around Cleveland, I-90 to Erie and Buffalo. I took a side trip to have lunch with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
maedbh7. We ended up at a new place, Kissho Asian Bistro, in Reynoldsburg. The sushi was very good, and if I had time, we could have played a game of Starship Catan. I arrived in Buffalo around 8:30pm, and stopped at the home of kliklikitty, who was gracious enough to host me for the weekend. We walked to La Nova pizzeria for dinner.
On Friday, I hopped a bus to go to the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library and spend a day in their Grosvenor Room, which houses their collection of musical scores and genealogical information. I leafed through a couple of old Buffalo city directories to verify that great-grandfather Nicola (his name should be Nicolo, but due to a typo, his name became Nicola) had a grocery store on Dante Place. I also spent some time going through the vital records on microfiche. I supplied the clerk with the type of record -- birth, marriage, death -- a year, and a name, and I would get the fiche that had that information. I could only check out one fiche at a time per their policy. I verified the birth dates of my father's two older sisters, along and my great uncle's son Salvatore. I thought it might have been an older brother that my father had, but upon later research, found that great uncle Leonardo had not yet moved to Ohio. That night, after hopping another bus home, and having dinner at Mighty Taco, I met my friend Larry at the Clarence Center Coffee Co., who was there to see on of his friends perform that evening.
On Saturday, I met my friends Louis and Liz, at the Boulevard Mall. Liz was supposed to have a facial done at Macy's, but her makeup artist didn't show up. We ended up at Suzy Q's Bar-B-Que Shack in Buffalo, just a few blocks south of the Chevy engine plant on River Rd. Louis then had to go to work, and Liz and I took a leisurely drive around Grand Island. While the drive was nice, part of the river was still frozen, and discovered the hard way that the West River Parkway is not maintained during the winter months. We ended up driving over and through a couple of snowdrifts. She also mentioned the legend of Ararat, and I thought there was a marker near the Byblos Hotel (formerly the Holiday Inn) at the foot of Whitehaven Rd. But it wasn't there. After dropping her off at home, I went to Clarence Center to meet up with my cousins (Joe, his wife Chris, Sam, and his wife Ann). The surviving relatives of my grandmother's siblings get together every couple of months and have dinner together. My cousins Brian and Linda were planning to be there, but due to bad weather, they turned around and headed back home. I talked about what I had found so far, and solicited input from them. When I left, there was about three inches of snow on my car. So I brushed it off and headed back to "base camp" (kliklikitty's place).
On Sunday, I had breakfast with my cousin Steve and his wife Carol at the Original Pancake House in Tonawanda (or West Amherst). Then I headed to the Buffalo Brew Pub to meet up with friendsdagonell and cigfran_cg. Afterward, I had no other plans, so I headed back to base camp afterward for some R&R. I reached my college friends Larry and David, and had a late dinner at Jim's Steak Out.
On Monday, I returned to the library to continue my research. I looked through more microfiche records to verify the birthdates of my grandmother's siblings. (I couldn't find my grandmother's record, so hear exact birth date is still unknown to me.) I also looked through the microfilm records of the city's birth records, and found the records for my great aunts Frances (aka Vincenzina) and Vita. And I also went through the microfilm records from the now-defunct _Courier-Express_ to look for an article I was featured in. And I found it -- April 15, 1981, north suburban section. (More about this in a later LJ entry.) I then drove around the Marine Drive Apartments, looking for historical markers that would denote where Dante Place and other streets from Little Italy would have been, but there were none to be found. I then headed to Tonawanda and had dinner at Ted's Hot Dogs. I then stopped into Alternative Brews to visit with my fraternity brother Paul, who owns the place. It was "Cigar Night", so he was busy serving up food at a private party for some of his patrons.
On Tuesday, I had lunch at Anderson's with Kevin, one of my high school classmates whom I connected with via Facebook. Then went to Orchard Park to meet up with Darleen and Bill. Darleen and I took a walk around Chestnut Ridge Park. Unfortunately, someone keyed her van while she was gone. That night, I left Buffalo and headed to Elyria, OH, where I stayed overnight.
On Wednesday, I visited Calvary Cemetery in Lorain, where great uncle Leo and his descendants are buried. I found the grave of "cousin" Domenic, who passed away young due to an illness. And I found the game of Vincenzo and Splendora. I'm still not sure how they fit into the family. Was Vincenzo a brother of great-grandfather Guiseppe, who stayed in Italy? Or are they not related to me at all? I also called my great aunt Clara, but she was not well enough to visit with me. And so I headed back to Dayton.
This was also the shakedown trip with my Garmin Nuvi 50, which served admirably well. It even pronounced "Scajaquada" correctly. I'm impressed.
There's more research to be done, especially on my mother's side of the family, which I plan to do sometime this summer.
For this trip, my focus was on my father's siblings and his mother's siblings, and their families.
And so, on Thursday the 27th (of March), I left Dayton and drove up via my usual route -- I-70 to Columbus, I-270 to go around Columbus, I-71 to Cleveland, I-271 to go around Cleveland, I-90 to Erie and Buffalo. I took a side trip to have lunch with
maedbh7. We ended up at a new place, Kissho Asian Bistro, in Reynoldsburg. The sushi was very good, and if I had time, we could have played a game of Starship Catan. I arrived in Buffalo around 8:30pm, and stopped at the home of kliklikitty, who was gracious enough to host me for the weekend. We walked to La Nova pizzeria for dinner.On Friday, I hopped a bus to go to the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library and spend a day in their Grosvenor Room, which houses their collection of musical scores and genealogical information. I leafed through a couple of old Buffalo city directories to verify that great-grandfather Nicola (his name should be Nicolo, but due to a typo, his name became Nicola) had a grocery store on Dante Place. I also spent some time going through the vital records on microfiche. I supplied the clerk with the type of record -- birth, marriage, death -- a year, and a name, and I would get the fiche that had that information. I could only check out one fiche at a time per their policy. I verified the birth dates of my father's two older sisters, along and my great uncle's son Salvatore. I thought it might have been an older brother that my father had, but upon later research, found that great uncle Leonardo had not yet moved to Ohio. That night, after hopping another bus home, and having dinner at Mighty Taco, I met my friend Larry at the Clarence Center Coffee Co., who was there to see on of his friends perform that evening.
On Saturday, I met my friends Louis and Liz, at the Boulevard Mall. Liz was supposed to have a facial done at Macy's, but her makeup artist didn't show up. We ended up at Suzy Q's Bar-B-Que Shack in Buffalo, just a few blocks south of the Chevy engine plant on River Rd. Louis then had to go to work, and Liz and I took a leisurely drive around Grand Island. While the drive was nice, part of the river was still frozen, and discovered the hard way that the West River Parkway is not maintained during the winter months. We ended up driving over and through a couple of snowdrifts. She also mentioned the legend of Ararat, and I thought there was a marker near the Byblos Hotel (formerly the Holiday Inn) at the foot of Whitehaven Rd. But it wasn't there. After dropping her off at home, I went to Clarence Center to meet up with my cousins (Joe, his wife Chris, Sam, and his wife Ann). The surviving relatives of my grandmother's siblings get together every couple of months and have dinner together. My cousins Brian and Linda were planning to be there, but due to bad weather, they turned around and headed back home. I talked about what I had found so far, and solicited input from them. When I left, there was about three inches of snow on my car. So I brushed it off and headed back to "base camp" (
kliklikitty's place).On Sunday, I had breakfast with my cousin Steve and his wife Carol at the Original Pancake House in Tonawanda (or West Amherst). Then I headed to the Buffalo Brew Pub to meet up with friends
dagonell and cigfran_cg. Afterward, I had no other plans, so I headed back to base camp afterward for some R&R. I reached my college friends Larry and David, and had a late dinner at Jim's Steak Out.On Monday, I returned to the library to continue my research. I looked through more microfiche records to verify the birthdates of my grandmother's siblings. (I couldn't find my grandmother's record, so hear exact birth date is still unknown to me.) I also looked through the microfilm records of the city's birth records, and found the records for my great aunts Frances (aka Vincenzina) and Vita. And I also went through the microfilm records from the now-defunct _Courier-Express_ to look for an article I was featured in. And I found it -- April 15, 1981, north suburban section. (More about this in a later LJ entry.) I then drove around the Marine Drive Apartments, looking for historical markers that would denote where Dante Place and other streets from Little Italy would have been, but there were none to be found. I then headed to Tonawanda and had dinner at Ted's Hot Dogs. I then stopped into Alternative Brews to visit with my fraternity brother Paul, who owns the place. It was "Cigar Night", so he was busy serving up food at a private party for some of his patrons.
On Tuesday, I had lunch at Anderson's with Kevin, one of my high school classmates whom I connected with via Facebook. Then went to Orchard Park to meet up with Darleen and Bill. Darleen and I took a walk around Chestnut Ridge Park. Unfortunately, someone keyed her van while she was gone. That night, I left Buffalo and headed to Elyria, OH, where I stayed overnight.
On Wednesday, I visited Calvary Cemetery in Lorain, where great uncle Leo and his descendants are buried. I found the grave of "cousin" Domenic, who passed away young due to an illness. And I found the game of Vincenzo and Splendora. I'm still not sure how they fit into the family. Was Vincenzo a brother of great-grandfather Guiseppe, who stayed in Italy? Or are they not related to me at all? I also called my great aunt Clara, but she was not well enough to visit with me. And so I headed back to Dayton.
This was also the shakedown trip with my Garmin Nuvi 50, which served admirably well. It even pronounced "Scajaquada" correctly. I'm impressed.
There's more research to be done, especially on my mother's side of the family, which I plan to do sometime this summer.