Have you ever wondered how discovering your family’s hidden past can shape your identity? Join us for an emotional and enlightening conversation with Steve Bruno as he takes us on his extraordinary journey of uncovering his Italian roots. Steve shares the poignant story of his grandfather and great aunt, orphaned at a young age, and the meticulous research that unearthed family members previously unknown. Through his quest, Steve brings to light the early immigration of his great-grandfather, Antonio, to America before 1900, and the cultural influences of their hometown Greci, Italy.
In this heartfelt episode, we explore the reverence for a grandfather who made his mark in the medical field, and how genealogy research can forge surprising connections that enrich our lives. With plans to visit Italy, Steve reflects on the stark contrasts between Italian and American cultural values, especially the emphasis on family time, and the unique traits passed down through generations.
Finally, we delve into the serendipitous nature of genealogical research and the unexpected connections it can bring. From the challenges of using tools like Ancestry.com to the joy of finding long-lost family photos, Steve’s journey emphasizes the importance of preserving and celebrating our ancestors' legacy. This episode is a tribute to the joy of family discoveries and the fascinating stories that emerge, reminding us all of the rich tapestry of our heritage and the ongoing quest to honor it.
Turnkey. The only thing you’ll lift are your spirits.
Have you ever wondered how discovering your family’s hidden past can shape your identity? Join us for an emotional and enlightening conversation with Steve Bruno as he takes us on his extraordinary journey of uncovering his Italian roots. Steve shares the poignant story of his grandfather and great aunt, orphaned at a young age, and the meticulous research that unearthed family members previously unknown. Through his quest, Steve brings to light the early immigration of his great-grandfather, Antonio, to America before 1900, and the cultural influences of their hometown Greci, Italy.
In this heartfelt episode, we explore the reverence for a grandfather who made his mark in the medical field, and how genealogy research can forge surprising connections that enrich our lives. With plans to visit Italy, Steve reflects on the stark contrasts between Italian and American cultural values, especially the emphasis on family time, and the unique traits passed down through generations.
Finally, we delve into the serendipitous nature of genealogical research and the unexpected connections it can bring. From the challenges of using tools like Ancestry.com to the joy of finding long-lost family photos, Steve’s journey emphasizes the importance of preserving and celebrating our ancestors' legacy. This episode is a tribute to the joy of family discoveries and the fascinating stories that emerge, reminding us all of the rich tapestry of our heritage and the ongoing quest to honor it.
Turnkey. The only thing you’ll lift are your spirits.
Purchase my book "Farmers and Nobles" here or at Amazon.
Speaker 1:
Hi everyone, this is Bob Sorrentino, from Italian Roots and Genealogy. Be sure to check out our blog and our YouTube channel and our newsletter and our great sponsors, your Dolce Vita Italy, rooting Phil Italy and Abiativa Casa. And today my guest is Steve Bruno. So welcome, steve. Thanks for being here.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely, it's a pleasure.
Speaker 1:
So I remarked a little bit about the photo behind you. Is that your hometown, by any chance?
Speaker 2:
It is actually from Greci, Italy, so that is where my grandfather's family is from. So it was exciting I found it online. I'm like, hey, let's have that for my background. Our goal is to buy a house over there or a flat for when we retire and be snowbirds only not in the United States.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, that's a super, super idea for sure. So when and why did you start researching your family?
Speaker 2:
Basically what it was my grandfather and his sister. They were orphaned. My great grandparents died very, very early. My great grandmother, Paulina, my great-grandmother Paulina, died in 1925. My grandfather was a year and a half and his sister was six months, and four years later, in 1929, my great-grandfather, antonio. He, was killed in an explosion at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland Ohio, so that basically it left the children orphans. They, they bounced from orphanage to orphanage and we really we didn't know a lot about the family. My, my grandfather and my grandmother were divorced and he he actually passed away very early in life too. He passed away in 1981. For me personally, I don't remember him. So for the longest time my father really had no identity about his father's roots and I started about nine years ago just doing some research with the photos that we had from Grandpa Carlo's files and everything from when he passed, and it just became an obsession, as you well know.
Speaker 1:
Yes, yes, it is. So that's kind of sad that he had no idea about his roots. So do you know when they came to America?
Speaker 2:
It looks like my great-grandfather Antonio came. It was before 1900 and he was actually married before which is through the research I found and my grandfather had a half-brother that I don't believe anybody knew about.
Speaker 1:
Oh wow.
Speaker 2:
When they immigrated here the family went to Wisconsin and that's where my great-grandfather Antonio had his first wife in Wisconsin. They must have divorced. And he came to Ohio and that's where he met my great-grandmother, paulina, who was also married before.
Speaker 1:
So there's so many different marriages back then that I don't think anybody had a clue about yeah, so that's interesting because so then he came very, very early, you know, before the, I guess, the major wave, and, uh, you know, not too many people know about that. I did interview a couple of guys who wrote a book about it how, uh, you know, italians were swindled into new york and then there was no work and they just people from places like, you know, ohio and and, uh, pennsylvania, came to america and just grabbed them off. You, you know, not grabbed them per se, but took them. Took them there because they had no work in New York.
Speaker 2:
Right, the interesting part when my great-grandfather passed, we have letters from his brother from Wisconsin and would have been my, my great uncle, pasquale. He was a pipe fitter in Racine, wisconsin. So we have his, his letterhead and we actually have the letter, you know, discussing the death of my, my great grandfather and who was taking care of the children. And it's just. It's been such an interesting journey, you know, learning all this stuff and luckily, before my dad passed a few years ago, uh, I was able to show him some of the stuff and it and he got the biggest smile on his face because he was, he was proud of his Italian heritage because both my grandfather and my grandmother both sides were were Italian. So I mean, he was, my dad was Italian through and through.
Speaker 2:
And, what was interesting, my father was a junior and, through the research that I've done, my father's name should have been carlo and it was actually. He went his birth certificate says carl, back in the records in italy. I I tracked that my grandfather was listed as Carlo in in the church records and if my dad knew that, oh my gosh, he would, he would have had a field day with that being known as Carlo Bruno. I mean, you can't get much more Italian than than that.
Speaker 1:
No, no, that's for sure, and I actually have a, a Bruno or two in my from my mom's family in Bari, but you know, bruno is that's a pretty common name in Italy.
Speaker 2:
Right, absolutely.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, and it's said throughout the whole country. You know, some names are specific to certain regions, but that kind of goes throughout the whole country. So now, so what town in Italy did they come from?
Speaker 2:
They were actually my. My great grandparents came from Greci, so we do have a lot of Albanian. When I did my DNA, I'm 5% Greek Albanian, which makes sense. You know even the dialect. You know it's more has a little bit more Albanian influence with the language yeah, and so is that in, because I'm not familiar with that.
Speaker 1:
Is that in Puglia or is it in Calabria? Right around the Avellino oh, okay, alright, yeah, and that's true. You know, with a lot of languages on that coast there's a lot of the Albanian influence, greek influence, you know where in. You know other parts that maybe some you know more Spanish and things like that. I'm going to ask a question. I don't know if you probably don't know, but do you know why that they came so early? Any idea?
Speaker 2:
don't know. But do you know why that they came so early? Any idea? To be honest, I don't. I would love to understand, because it seems like they came in waves. My great-grandfather was the youngest. He had many, many siblings which I. Through the years after great-grandfather died, through the years after great-grandfather died, my grandfather tracked relatives down because I have pictures of what would be my great-uncle Celestino in New York, and I actually traced some cousins down that I spoke to on the phone a couple weeks ago. When I showed them the picture they said oh my goodness, that is Grandpa Charlie's basement, that's where I grew up in. And sure enough, it was my grandfather going to visit up in the Bronx and it's just been so interesting to finally find relatives that we didn't think we had. We thought we were the last of the Brunos, but they're finding. We're everywhere.
Speaker 1:
Well, yeah, no, and I've had some of that stuff happen myself and I found that you know my cousin Linda, our families were so closely connected during the 50s and 60s and you know we had well, I mean, it was possible. We met when we were very, very, very young, but I had no idea why my grandmother's family came, because most of her family stayed over there. But it was really amazing to find, you know, my cousin Linda here, that we were researching the same people and then also, you know, finding cousins in Italy, my dad's first cousins, which completely just blew me away. I had no idea it is. You know, it is really really something when you come across that. And you know the other interesting thing that you mentioned before it wasn't very common for people to get divorced. You know, late 1800s, early 1900s.
Speaker 2:
Exactly that's. I guess it makes me wonder, because there's so many letters that was that was in my grandpa grandfather's belongings that we have, that we have, and there are letters talking about, well, if basically talking about his, his first wife, and you know, after they, after everybody passed and it's it's hard to piece the piece everything back together and it's just, it's interesting, actually, the interesting. Actually, the one of the relatives of the half brother reached out to me and said look, I think we have the same great grandfather and, sure enough, uh, before the, the birth certificate in wisconsin it actually had antonio bruno on it. Then her new husband must have adopted because he, he went by the last name Williams instead of Bruno.
Speaker 1:
Wow, and that's something that the letters have survived this entire time. That's really really great to have that.
Speaker 2:
And when my grandfather retired, before he passed away, he moved. He always dreamed of going out to the desert and panning for gold and that's exactly what he did. And the interesting part, you know, as I'm researching that area out in Arizona, you know I'm seeing all these hits of Bruno's and so he must have known that there were relatives out there as well, because there were a lot of Brunos out in that area in the Maricopa County of Arizona, because my grandfather he was actually getting ready to move back to Ohio and live with my mom and my dad and my brother and I. And a week later my mom got a phone call that he had passed and it was. It was sad because we I didn't get to know him because I was so young when he died. I mean he lived here but really didn't. I was too young and I would have loved to pick his brain and to say well, tell me all these stories.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, and you know, I think my dad's father passed when I was like two months old and my grandmother I guess I was 11 or 12 or something but you know I never thought to ask them anything about Italy and they didn't really, you know, talk about it. That much you know. And you know, you know, when people, sometimes people ask if you could go back in time, if you could talk to anybody, I was like my grandparents, that's who I'd want to talk to.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely.
Speaker 1:
Forget about, you know, Kennedy or this guy. No, I want to talk to my grandparents.
Speaker 2:
Exactly. Why did you?
Speaker 1:
come Yep. So now, did you make the connections through the, through dna, or did you find anything? You know that really such surprised you when you did the dna absolutely actually a few surprised me.
Speaker 2:
so when I did my dna there was here in Canton. There was a man named John Mazzarella. He has written a book, the Gretchy Cousins, and he did so much of the preservation of the records in Italy years ago. And come to find out we are, I believe, fourth cousins. Unfortunately I tried to reach out to him but he's he's not well and is in a hospital and basically in a nursing home and doesn't remember anything.
Speaker 2:
But it's so fun to trace back and my family in Ohio. They grew up in a very small town called Waynesburg, ohio, very, very densely populated with the Italian immigrants, ohio very, very densely populated with with the Italian immigrants. And you know, just seeing all that and kind of piecing back the pieces of you know some of the orphanages that my, my grandfather and his sister lived in and come to find out. I went to high school with a relative of one of the major caregivers of my grandfather. It was, I believe, a great aunt of this person and we had that connection and it's just some of the Italian little stores and markets. They were from the same town in Italy that knew my family and they knew my grandfather and a lot of their relatives.
Speaker 1:
And you know, as I talk to people around the country, that's one of the things that really amazes me is that there were all these Italian enclaves all around the country and, like you said, you know small places where you know because of work and because one person knew another person, and they came over and it's, you know, I kind of say this all the time, so it's no surprise to the regular listeners. But you know us New York Italian Americans, you know we just think they all came to Little Italy.
Speaker 1:
Absolutely so it's like I said, it's really really very interesting to to find that all of these places existed and and things like that. So now, how did what? How long were they in the orphanages for, and what did you know? What did they do when they came out?
Speaker 2:
um, I mean basically until they were adults. I mean, they went, they bounced around and I actually found my would be my great aunt. My great aunt Thelma was my, my grandfather's sister. Um, I tracked her, her family down, because she actually died almost to the day, three years after my grandfather died, which I found very, very interesting. I go wow, it is almost the exact day that grandpa died, that his sister died. But yeah, I've talked to their families and Thelma's daughter, who lives 20 minutes away from me. We had a conversation and she was in the same boat. She goes, my goodness, I knew nothing of my mother's history and we were able to compare stories and you know as far as photos, and she's like, wow, this is unreal. She's like I have gone my whole entire life not knowing we had relatives beside the immediate family. I go, we were the same way.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, that's really something to be able to make that connection. And you know, when you make those connections it's like you're not like strangers, you know.
Speaker 2:
Right, and it was pretty emotional when you talk to these people because when I talked to my cousins a couple weeks ago we had a three-way call with some of the cousins and the one actually remembers my grandfather Because she's much older than me. She goes, steve, I remember seeing this man at our house. She's like was your grandfather in the medical field? I go yeah, he, he was in medical labs and he goes. I remember Uncle Charlie was just enamored because he was in the medical field. They held him to such a high regard because he was in the medical field. He goes I remember your grandfather he was in the medical field he goes.
Speaker 2:
I remember your grandfather and it was just so. It was surreal, and if my dad were here he would just be amazed. It's like, oh my gosh Cause he was so excited when I started piecing all the pieces together.
Speaker 1:
So we, yeah, and that's. You know, that's kind of what happened with my cousin Her. My grandfather and his brother had a, an embroidery shop in New York City. They would do beads for bridal crowns and things like that. Meet Linda, my first cousin, paul, who knew the family with the background, with some of those people. She actually her grandmother had saved beads from my grandfather's shop and she brought my sister and my cousin and myself beads from his shop, which you know who thinks that these things I'm a firm believer in things don't happen by accident. You know, uh, there's some force out there driving this stuff. I don't know who it is, but something's going on.
Speaker 2:
My, my grandmother, on my mother's side, always said she's like Steve, you can't control anything. Everything happens for a reason and you know, we've we've lived our life like that. Um, obviously there was, there was some divine intervention that all of us have met all these cousins after all these years.
Speaker 1:
So I, I, it's truly just, it's amazing yeah, you know we're blessed, I guess, in the era that this research now you know people were doing it 20, 25, 30 years ago. You know how to rely on microfilm and going to, you know, trying to find records and you know we have so much stuff online now, that and the dna. You know, right, uh, that that that kind of helps in in the research. Uh, now, have you been back to greci at all?
Speaker 2:
we are actually going in 2027. We are basically taking two weeks. We're going to do a whole tour of the country. We're going to fly into Venice, get a train pass and literally travel the country for two weeks. We're going to end up in Grecci, knowing that it's a very, very small town. Some of my cousins that have been there said make sure you get in touch with the city center because they will be able to pinpoint exactly where your relatives lived, because it's such a small town that they know everybody that has ever lived there. And I just found that very, you know, know it's going to be cool to see all that. Chances are the houses aren't still there.
Speaker 1:
But you'll be surprised. You'll be surprised.
Speaker 2:
I was going to say with, with the, the ruins and everything that are all through italy. It's my first time to italy back in 02. I just I fell in love with it. I go, I could pack up and just live here full time.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, me too.
Speaker 2:
It is just a. It's a different. I guess they they actually value the family time which United States I mean love it here, but it's one of those, it's all business here. United States, I mean love it here, but it's one of those, it's all business here.
Speaker 1:
Well, yeah, and you know you, you grew up in a different era than I did, you know, I still remember that because you know my grandparents came from Italy and you know a couple of my aunts and uncles were, you know, born there. So you know, I grew up here in the language and I grew up with that. You know, more of a close tie. But, yeah, when you get to the hometown, it's it's. You know people, I tell people that's, that's the real Italy. When you get to the hometown, even if you don't know anybody, they know what they know. We don't belong there.
Speaker 1:
So in some cases I mean I did on tours where it was kind of set up, so you know people were expecting us. But you know they'll come up and ask you like, who are you? And you know, you say, you know my great grandfather was so-and-so. Chances are they may know or they may remember, or you know somebody has something to say about it. But when you walk down those streets there's a sense of belonging, you know. So you're, yeah, you're gonna, you're gonna love it when you get there, and so I was going to ask you too. So now you know your mom's not she's, she's not Italian, right?
Speaker 2:
Correct.
Speaker 1:
And what, what, what nationality is she?
Speaker 2:
Correct. And what nationality is she? We call her Heinz, 57. Mostly my grandparents on that side were English and Irish and honestly that's where a lot of people think that I get my red beard from. But my father, he had very dark hair and when my father was younger he basically had the bright orange beard. And it's funny because people think I dye my beard this color. I go, no, this is. I mean, now that I'm getting older, it's sprinkled with some white. Uh, luckily you can't see it on camera, but it it was just that was that was him I mean, I have my cousin John and his sisters.
Speaker 1:
They're 100% Italian and they have red hair. We used to call them Johnny Red yep the funny thing, I have an older brother.
Speaker 2:
He actually takes more of my mom's side. My mom's side was very tall, my brother's almost 6'7" and I joke. I go, yeah, I have dad's short, stocky Italian side, because I'm shorter and I'm built exactly like my dad and my dad's Air Force picture when he was first in the Air Force. I mean you put it side by side with me and we are, we're twins. I mean you cannot deny that that was my, that that was my father uh, yeah, that's, that's cool.
Speaker 1:
Um, yeah, you know, I actually, I actually there's a painting of my, uh, the ninth great grandfather, and, uh, this is an amazing resemblance. Genes are a strange thing, that's for sure. So now, have you researched your mom's family?
Speaker 2:
yeah, that's been done many, many years ago, I mean back to, I think, the 1500s. So that was always the the case with dad. He's like would always joke with my mom. Yeah, we know where you're from. I have no clue where I'm from, so that kind of prompted me to start this.
Speaker 1:
So when did her family arrive in the United States?
Speaker 2:
That I don't know Because they're my mom's family is from. I can't say the South, I mean it's more West Virginia bordering Ohio area, but I believe probably the early 1800s is when their family came over. Now my mom was the youngest of seven, so my grandparents would be, if they were here, about 115. So they were very old. So that's, that was the difference. Now, on my my dad also has a full-blooded sister and my Aunt Donna. If you were to put a picture of Aunt Donna next to Great-Grandma Paulina, they are twins. Now we know exactly where my aunt gets her looks she took after Great-Grandma Paulina.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, when I met my father's cousins in Italy they're probably, I guess, 93, 94 now, or something like that and as soon as I walked into the room, one of my dad's cousins looked just, you know, not just like my grandmother, but the resemblance was there, like that, I mean, as soon as I saw her I said boy, she looks like my grandmother and it is strange.
Speaker 1:
You know, my kids are adopted, so you know. And they've met their birth parents, so you know. My daughter has been able to trace back to England, back to. She's actually a distant, distant, distant dispenser from Diana's family so I was able to trace her all the way back to there through one of her lines and she's a granddaughter of Daniel Boone and Captain Morgan. I didn't even know Captain Morgan was a real guy. I thought he was the guy in the rum bottle, you know.
Speaker 2:
That's the only way I know him.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, he was actually a real guy and he's and he's and, uh, he was I don't know if he's a grandfather of daniel boone, great grandfather or something like that yeah, they're all in that, they're all in that family. Uh, you know, pretty, pretty funny when you come down to it. Uh, so so, yeah, so back to your, your mom's family. How'd you get back that far, to 1500 then?
Speaker 2:
I actually didn't do that. I think it was a lot of some of my mom's other relatives that had a lot of the records when they they lived down South, so that that one was easy.
Speaker 1:
You know, we we've always had that information, um, but the my dad's was the the hard one yeah, no, and and you know, the unfortunate thing is that, um, you know italians in italy they don't do dna, so you know there's a you know what you can probably count it on one hand, yep, the people that I found in italy, that that found in Italy that have done DNA in the sort of distant. Both times we went, I said to myself, yeah, I'm going to buy some DNA kits and bring it and see if they'll do it. And yeah, I didn't wind up doing it. And they don't need to do DNA because everybody's buried down the block, you know.
Speaker 2:
Right, they know exactly who everybody is.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, so you had mentioned that you had gone to Italy before.
Speaker 2:
Was that where you were just at a school, or we actually a group of friends went because one of our friends got married over there in the Napoli area. Giovanni's parents still lived there, so we had a great personal tour guide of everything. Uh, we were there for about a week and a half and it was. That was before I started doing all the the digging around and it, you know, going looking back, wow, I wish I would have started this sooner. That way, you know, I had somebody that lived in the area that they could help out.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I know, we went, we lived in England for two years, so the second year we were there we made a, we did like a 10 day trip to Italy. And you know I wasn't doing this stuff either and I had no idea that my father had family there, that you know, close family, no less, and you and you know these. They would have been, I guess, in their mid 60s or something like that at the time. And, uh boy, I could you know. Every time I think about it, oh boy, I wish I could ask more questions. They wish I knew that these people were there. Yeah, because the same thing. They they live outside of Naples, the older cousins, they live in a place called Torre del Greco which is, I guess, a half hour outside of Naples or something like that.
Speaker 1:
And had we made that connection back then it just would have been a whole different thing. I mean I would have been living next door to myself and just would have been a whole different thing. I mean I would have been living next door to myself. And you know, at the time, you know my dad was still alive and he had said to us oh, probably it must have been like 1983 or four, just casually, I don't know why. He just mentioned that he had family in this place called Torre del Greco and we went to. We didn't really spend time in Naples, we went from Rome to Sorrento and spent a week in Sorrento, but back then I had no problem driving around. I wouldn't do it now, but we were driving and we saw the sign Torre del Greco and you know I said to my brother, that's remember, that's where my wife said he had family.
Speaker 1:
I mean, my father said we have family and, like I said, it's like I could kick myself and you know my mom's family, most of them came. So this is if there's anybody there, they're distant, distant, distant. But with my grandmother's family, my father's mother, nobody came, only two people came. So there's a ton of people over there. All her brothers and sisters stayed there. So I have a ton of cousins over there now. And the nice thing is, when you make that connection with cousins over there now, uh, and the nice thing is, you know when you, when you make that connection with cousins over there, they're just so gracious and so nice and they're so thrilled to find that they have, they found somebody in america. I, I think they're more thrilled than we are that we found them, that they found us, if you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:
Uh so, yeah, I'm still trying to track some people down over there for when we go, you know, not that, hey, they're going to be open up their doors, but it would just be fun to have that connection to say, okay, maybe they can take a day and show us around the area.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, and you know you have, you have plenty of time if you know, if you, if you contact, like I said, if you contact the Camuna early or or you know, tell them what's going on and that you're coming, you'd be surprised. And even if you just ask them like where to stay or what's a great restaurant or or things like that, I mean I'll tell you one story that somebody told one of my early, early interviews. She was looking for, she had, she had a genealogist that she was working with. She was up north in the Piedmont area and they were making the trip and she said, yeah, I didn't know where to look.
Speaker 1:
So I was just looking for places to stay and I narrowed it down to two and I just did like eeny, meeny, miny, moe, and I picked one. And when I contacted them they said why are you coming here? This is such a small place, don't you want to go to a big city? And they asked who the family was. It turns out that the place that she picked to stay at was left to either the mother or the grandmother of the people who owned it. Now, so she was staying in a place that her great-grandmother I think great-grandmother left to these people.
Speaker 2:
Oh, that's cool.
Speaker 1:
Isn't that wild.
Speaker 2:
That whole saying it's a small world, even though it is halfway across the globe, it literally is a small world.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, yeah, and you never know what you're going to run into, that's for sure. But, like I said, you're absolutely going to love it there. So if you were going to give advice to somebody who is just starting out doing their research, what would you say to them?
Speaker 2:
Well, easiest thing, don't give up Because you're going to go in so many different circles and if you have the money, hire a genealogist, because that would save so much time. But it doesn't give you that same thrill of the hunt. When I first started there were so many different directions I could go Because, like you said, the Bruno last name is was very common, so I had a few. You know, I had to have to start a tree over because I had to delete a lot of things because, hey, I grabbed the wrong one because it was. It was just like that.
Speaker 2:
So a lot of it took hours, hours upon hours. At some points I had to finally put my membership of Ancestry on pause because I was spending too much time. You got to take those little breaks and know it can't be done in a day. I mean, I'm still finding things, I'm finding cousins and it's just. It really is exciting, especially since my father isn't here anymore, to for me to show him, I get to show my nieces and I get to show the rest of the family that really they really didn't know a whole lot about the Bruno side of the family.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, and that's great to be able to to to pass that kind of stuff on. And you know, like you said, you mentioned breaks. Uh, I found that you know I'd I'd walk away for a month or two and come back and then all of a sudden, something that was I couldn't find.
Speaker 2:
Just it pops up, exactly, exactly. It's kind of like ha, like, haha, I was hiding out and I guess I can. You can find me now and and that's exactly what it is. You know the, the cousins that I just found up in new york. It was basically a facebook group, you know. They posted hey, does anybody have information on such and such? I go, hey, it could be, could be a relative of mine. I have some of those names and sure enough it would have been my great uncle, celestino. That's who she was researching. And here I have pictures of Celestino and his son and my grandfather, and it's just so fun how people will get connected and can compare. You know, I would love to see some. You know, if I found that relative that would have other pictures of my grandfather.
Speaker 1:
You know, because you know we don't, we don't have a whole lot well, yeah, you know, and I find you know, when I do come across uh, you know across a photo, I like almost sharing it with other people as much as it was for me to find it, and say, hey, look, what I found. I found a picture from here, there, wherever, and people say, gee, I never saw that photo before, where'd you get that?
Speaker 2:
you know people. Hey, gee, I never saw that photo before. Where'd you get that? For the longest time in my grandfather's belongings there was a, a black and white picture of a man and woman and seven kids had no clue who they were. But after doing you know, because, as we were adding up everything, you know great grandma had, uh, and had my, my father, my grandfather Carlo and his sister Delma. We didn't know about any other children, didn't realize, oh my gosh, she had children with her first husband. That's who's in the picture. Then we kind of figured out wow, this is great grandfather Antonio and great grandmothergrandmother Paulina, and these are all the kids and the baby on the lap is my grandfather.
Speaker 2:
It's just so fun to have those discoveries and as I posted some of those pictures, it was very interesting because a lot of the the comments that I was getting was well, judging by the picture, it looked like whoever's in the, the man of the family looked like they were very wealthy and I'm like, well, that doesn't sound like our family. But you know just just how they presented themselves, their clothes, their, and a lot of times you know themselves, their clothes, their, you know. A lot of times you know exactly what they were wearing, you know back then, and it looks like they were. They had quite a good paying job back in the day.
Speaker 2:
And they would almost have to to support seven children back then.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I suppose so. Yeah, Unless you were on the farm and you had them all working. Right, it's so easy. Well, listen, steve. This has been great fun. I appreciate you taking the time and giving your stories and tips to other people.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely, Absolutely. It's been a pleasure and look forward to catching up on all your other podcasts. I got the one about the surnames and look forward to catching up on all your other podcasts.
Speaker 1:
I got the one about the surnames, which was very interesting. Oh, thank you. Thank you, yeah, I try to look for new things every now and then.
