Daily Doings at the Line of Death Bar & Grill

In this installment, I cover the history of Leonardo Poltrone -- my grandfather's brother, whcih makes him my great uncle, or grand uncle.

Leonardo went by either "Leonard" or "Leo". He was born around 1888 in Brucoli, Sicily. He came to the US three times: in 1905, 1913, and 1925. He worked as a general laborer during his time here. He married a woman named Carmela and they had seven children together: Sebastiano ("Yano"), Salvador ("Sam"), Joseph, John, Domenic, Anna, and Josephine ("Josie"). These are my first cousins, once removed (as they are all part of my parents' generation). Their children are my 2nd cousins.

The story I heard from my father was that Leo wanted to move to Florida, but only got as far as Lorain, Ohio -- about 30 miles west of Cleveland. This was somewhere between 1925 and 1930. The family settled into a house on 17th St.

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At the recommendation of a few friends, I signed up for ancestry.com and purchased a 6-month membership. It gives me a nice user interface to visually keep track of the people in my family tree, and easily add people -- mother, father, spouse, children (but not brothers or sisters). I wonder which JavaScript framework or library they're using -- Dojo, jQuery, or something else.

The hard part is trying to determine what to pursue first. After my father's family (parents and siblings), and my mother's family (also family and siblings), there are several areas of focus I can choose from -- my paternal grandfather's family, my paternal grandmother's family, my maternal grandfather's family, and my maternal grandmother's family. All four of my grandparents had passed away before my sister and I were born. So for us, "visiting the grandparents" was to go to the cemetery and tend to their gravestones.

Both of my mother's parents emigrated from Poland, so I probably wouldn't get very far if I restricted my searches to US records only. My ancestry.com account only covers US records, so this search will likely be deferred to a later date.

( So, let's start with my father's mother's family, since I know them best. )