Deoxyribonucleic Acid Results (325/366)

 

TIME: Now
PLACE: Ancestry.com
SUBJECT: DNA results

*~*~*

No photo today, but I do have my DNA results.

Would you look at that Southern Italy/Sicily percentage!  If I add in the Northern Italy estimate, the total comes to 44% Italian - For some reason this pleases me to no end. Grazie Dad!

And we can't forget Mom's side - look at the Eastern Europe and Russia and Germanic Europe percentages - a total of 53%!  Those crazy Czechs.  Hooray for Koláče!

Dad has a bit of German somewhere down his line.  "Tedesco" is a surname in his tree, which in Italian translates to "German", so I am fairly certain he contributed some of that Germanic DNA as well.

Hmmm, 3% Greece and Albania and a tiny amount of Northern Asia.  That's interesting.  I haven't been able to go back that far in my genealogical research to verify these, but I will take them.

 
Other good news?

Monkeyboy has his DNA on Ancestry too. They do show him as my child in the DNA Matches.

That would have been awkward if they didn't.

Throwback Thursday (060/365)

TIME: 1950 to 1952-ish?
PLACE: 20 N. 78th Street
SUBJECT: Mom

I was looking through some photos my cousin gave me and came across an envelope of negatives.

I scanned a couple and inverted them in Photoshop.

Here is one - my mom, in a white dress decorated with a few large flowers and a matching headband.

And, I can see where Stella gets her smile.

Throwback Thursday (211/365)

TIME: Early 1950’s
PLACE: Apartment above Great-Grandpa Tedesco’s Fruit, West Main St., Belleville, IL
SUBJECT: Relatives

Here’s a groups shot from the past. They are my:
Paternal Great-Grandparents: Saverio Tedesco and Mary Tedesco, nee Mercurio.
Paternal Grandparents: Michael Caponi Sr. and Edna Caponi, nee Tedesco.
Great-Aunt: Marie Mank, nee Tedesco.
Great-Uncle: Saverio “Ted’' Tedesco and wife Doris Tedesco.
Paternal Aunt: Phyllis Smith, nee Caponi.
Cousins: Steven Smith, & Saverio Caponi.
1st Cousins, once removed: Christie Mank, Jackie Mank.
Wives of Great-Uncles: Dorothy Tedesco and Lillian Tedesco.
And, last but not least, my Dad: Michael Caponi Jr. - You can barely see him…half of his face is hidden behind his father.

There is a lot of coffee on that table.

Throwback Thursday (197/365)

TIME:  September 1911
PLACE: Belleville, IL
SUBJECT: William (sitting) & George (standing) Stammer


Postmark: Belleville, ILL
9:30am
Sep 20
1911

To: Miss Pearl Deedle
Centralia
Illinois

”We are all well
& hope you are
the same.
Mrs. Wm Stammer
Belleville Ill.
This is a picture
of the boys.”

The “boys’' being the husband’s grandfather, William and great-uncle, George.

Throw Back Thursday (106/365)

TIME: 1925
PLACE:  Lake Christine
SUBJECT: L-R, (sitting) Mary Mercurio-Tedesco, (standing) Saverio Tedesco, Rose Sansone-Capone, Joseph Capone, (peeking L-R), Edna Tedesco-Caponi, Teresa Capone

Love this photo of my paternal grandmother as a teenager being silly with her parents. (Edna, Mary and Saverio).
It looks like my great-grandmother Mary is pregnant with her youngest daughter, Marie.
Great-Aunt Marie is celebrating her 90th birthday this year.
*~*~*
Joseph Capone is not only my 2nd great-grand uncle on my paternal grandmother’s side (he is Mary’s maternal uncle), but he is also my 1st cousin, 3 times removed through my paternal grandfather’s side.
It’s a twisted family tree.

Wayback Wednesday (063/365)

Don Corleone: I like to drink wine more than I used to...[pause] Anyway, I'm drinking more.
Michael: It's good for you, Pop.
Don Corleone: Ah, I don't know...
The Godfather, Paramount Pictures (1972)

TIME: Circa 1959-1960
PLACE:  My paternal Grandfather’s house
SUBJECT:  My paternal grandfather, Michael Caponi (Capone) in his basement bar

My grandfather partially finished his basement and included a bar.


This area was originally closed-in.  My dad’s older sister and her husband lived there for a little while.  It was their bedroom.  After they moved into their own home, Grandpa opened it up and built the bar.

How awesomely retro is it down there? 
Planters, knotty pine, checkerboard linoleum, aluminum drinking glasses on the shelves, chrome table and chairs. 
Dad told me that flooring came from a local hardware store and it was asbestos tile. 
Do you see that area in the front left where the pattern is off? 
It really bothers me.

SUBJECT: Cindy the dog, My dad, his brother Pete and Mrs. Smith (his sister Phyllis’ mother-in-law)

Here is my dad, looking pretty hipster in his v-neck cardigan, white t-shirt, khaki pants and dark framed glasses.
He started wearing the dark frames his Junior year in high school.
Those glasses and the fact that he is wearing his high school ring helps date the approximate time frame of the photo.
I bet if James wore glasses like that, he would look a lot like his grandfather.

Throwback Thursday (036/365)

TIME: April 10, 1904
PLACE: St. Louis, Missouri
SUBJECT:  Saverio Tedesco & Mary Mercurio Wedding Portrait

For this Throwback Thursday, I am moving over to the paternal side of my family tree. 
Saverio & Mary are my great-grandparents. 
Their daughter, Edna Tedesco, is my paternal Grandmother. 
She married Michael Capone on January 3, 1928

Here is a copy of the marriage register from St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in St. Louis.

Tedesco Saverius and Mercurio Maria
10 April, 1904

I the undersigned having sent out 3 announcements
and obtained the mutual consent of the parties being joined
I have joined through the vows of a present marriage Saverious Tedesco
of the place of Termini, the son of Ignatis & Dianae Catanzaro
and Dianae Catanzaro Mariam Mercurio of the place of Termini St. Louis Mo, daughter of Cosimi & Ignatias Caponi
Present as witnesses were Antonis Capra Joseph Carione
110048 Spigardi

Throwback Thursday (029/365)

TIME: 11 Oct 1887
PLACE: St. Louis, MO
SUBJECT: Wedding Portrait of Mary Vejvoda & Joseph Dolansky

”Joseph Dolansky, working man of St. Louis, son of Charles Dolansky,  musicians of Breskovir in Bohemia”, married “Mary Vejvoda, handmaid of St. Louis, daughter of Martin Vejvoda, miner of Privetice next Radnice in Bohemia” on October 11, 1887 at St. John Nepomuk Catholic Church in St. Louis, Missouri by Jos. Hessoun, Pastor.
Joseph was Catholic, 29 years old and unmarried. 
Mary was Catholic, 23 years old and unmarried.  
Witnesses were Mathia Hriticka, plumber of St. Louis and Vitus Reharek, sexton of St. Louis.*

*~*~*
That’s my mom’s handwriting on the back.
It reads,
“Dad’s Mother & Dad Wedding picture. Mary & Joseph Dolansky ne, Vejvoda”
Do you think I can still have a duplicate made at any time?
*~*~*

*Source:
St. John Nepomuk Catholic Church, (St. Louis, Missouri, United States), “Marriages 1854-1890.” 1887 Marriages, #30, October 11; microfilm St. Louis Catholic Archdiocesan Parish Records, roll 29, item 3, St. Louis County Library-Special Collections Dept, St. Louis.

Found Him! (002/265)

TIME:  February 8, 1858
PLACE:  Břeskovich, (now Vřeskovice) in the Plzeň region oof the Czech Republic
SUBJECT:  Josef Dolanksy birth record
From: Porta fontium 

After almost 9 years of doing genealogy, I was finally able to go “across the pond” and found my maternal, great-grandfather’s birth information!

This is what I knew: he was from Břeskovich Czechoslovakia; his father’s name was Charles; he had a birth date of February 8, 1858 and he immigrated to the US with the Jansky family..

I found a link to the Porta fontium site from Wesley Johnston’s “Researhing Czech Church Records on the Internet. 

After blindly searching, I finally figured out how the things were organized (thank you Google translate) and performed a search with Břeskovich as the place and checked “Matrika narozených” (birth registers).  I clicked on the result with the correct time frame and started looking page by page for the name “Dolansky”

It turned out to be easier than I thought.

Even though the registers are all in Czech, and the handwriting made it quite challenging to decipher some words, I actually found him quite quickly. 

Now, I know the names of his father and mother :
Karel [Czech form of Charles] Dolanksy and Katerina Jansky 

The names of his grandparents :
Paternal-Vavrince [Slovak form of Laurence] and Anna Dolansky nee Jicovy
Maternal-Vaclav & Katerina Jansky nee Hrebec

Where they are from and what they did for a living:
Father-a peasant cottager [an agricultural laborer who lived in a cottage on the landowners land] in Břeskovich (house #53);
Paternal grandfather-a owner of a farm in Chlumčany (house #4); Maternal grandfather-a peasant cottager in Jina (house #12)

This makes me so happy.

I love the Internets.

Throwback Thursday (010/365)

TIME:  Nov 7, 1934
PLACE:  Illinois
SUBJECT:  Wedding party of Mayme Kosar, age 33 and Edward Dolansky, age 30

My other set of grandparents married 79 years ago this November.  It was the first marriage for both of them.  My Grandmother was the youngest child and was born in 1901 when her mother and father were 39 and 42 years old respectively.  My mother told me that my Grandmother had promised her parents that she would take care of them and would not marry until after they passed away.   Her mother died in October of 1932 and her father in May of 1934.  Six months later, she and Grandpa tied the knot. 
~*~*~*~
From the newspaper….

Kosar-Dolansky Nuptials/Witnessed by Many Friends/And Relatives Wednesday
Proprietor of Eddie’s Market Weds Miss/Mayme Kosar At Impressive Ceremony/At the Blessed Sacrament Church.

The wedding of Miss Mayme Kosar, daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Frank Kosar of 20 North Seventy-eight street, and Edward Dolansky, took place Wednesday morning at the Blessed Sacrament Church.  Rev. Louis F. Ell, pastor, read the nine o’clock nuptial high mass and performed the double ring ceremony in the presence of a large gathering of relatives and friends.

The altars were banked with masses of white chrysanthemums and cybodium fern, providing an appropriate and pretty background for the impressive ceremony.

Miss Kosar chose her niece, Miss Emily Kosar, as her bridesmaid, while Jerry Jakes, an intimate friend of the couple, served as bestman.  Jerry Ulch and Oliver Kosar acted as ushers… (illegible)…little Miss Patricia Kosar, a niece of the bride, was flower girl.

The bride was most lovely in a gown of pearl white satin, the full, gored skirt cut to include a slight train.  Small satin covered buttons marked the center back from the high neckline to the waistline and sleeves shirring added soft fullness above the elbow, extending in tight cuffs to the wrist.  Her veil d’illusion was worn cap style, with small satin ribbon rosettes and orange blossoms at either side, and the extremely long train fell in soft, billowy folds.  She carried a shower bouquet of bridal roses and lilies of the valley.

The bridesmaid appeared in a simple frock of wine colored transparent velvet, a center back opening from the neck to the waistline adding a chic and attractice (sic) touch.  Wine colored slippers and a close fitting turban of silver were pleasing accessories and her arm bouquet was composed of wine colored chrysanthemums.

The little flower girl wore a pert little frock of pastel blue crepe, a pink taffeta sash marking the high waistline.  White slippers and blue hairbow and socks completed her costume and she carried a basket of varicolored fall flowers.

Mr. Dolansky and his attendant were attired in dark blue conventional suits with boutonnieres to match the bouquets of the bride and her maid.

Following the ceremony a wedding breakfast was served at the home of the bridegroom and in the evening a reception was held for three hundred guests, including the members of the Kommunity Stores, a foods retailers’ organization of which he is treasurer.

He is proprietor of Eddie’s Market at 16 North Seventy-eighth street, and a son of the late Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Dolansky of 22 North Seventy-eighth street.

Throwback Thursday (003/365)

TIME: January 3, 1928
PLACE: St. Louis, MO
SUBJECT: Wedding Party of Ignazia “Edna” Tedesco, age 20 & Michael Capone, age 23

Today is the 85th wedding anniversary of my grandparents.  They were married here, in town, but had their wedding photos taken in St. Louis, MO.  From the newspaper at the time…

St. Peter's Cathedral was the scene of a beautiful wedding this morning when Miss Edna Tedesco, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Frank S. Tedesco of 121A West Main street, became the bride of Mike Capone, son of Mr. and Mrs. Peter Capone of St. Louis.
The ceremony was performed at 9 o'clock in the presence of a large assembly of friends and relatives.  Msgr. J. H. Schlarman officiating.  A nuptial High Mass was celebrated.
The bride was attended by Miss Edna Mercurio, Miss Anna Bova and Miss Agnes Capone.  Miss Mercurio, as maid-of-honor, was attired in a gown of peach pink taffeta made with a tight bodice and full skirt trimmed in gold lace.  Miss Bova was dressed in a Nile green robe-de-style, maline ornamenting the skirt of uneven hemline.  The second bridesmaid wore a dress of orchid taffeta with a full skirt of maline.  They all wore large black velvet picture hats with metallic crowns and velvet streamers of hem line length.  Their shower bouquets were of pink roses. [Grandma had a rainbow wedding! :) ]
Miss Tedesco, who was given in marriage by her father, chose white satin and Spanish lace daintily trimmed with pearls for her wedding gown.  A beautiful long train of white satin was worn with a Henrietta style veil of Spanish lace, pearls and rhinestones.  Pendants of pearls were affixed to the veil at the side of each ear.  The bride carried white roses and lilies of the valley tied with ribbon in a shower spray.
Groomsmen were Bartolo Busalachiof [sic], St. Louis, Charles Mercurio and Frank Tedesco, Jr., brother of the bride.  Little Peter Vivian [sic] of St. Louis served as a ring bearer.  He wore a suit of black velvet with a white satin waist and a cape set off with rhinestones. [Sadly, Peter would be struck and killed by an automobile, near his home, 4 months later on May 29, 1928. He was 6 years old.]
Immediately after the ceremony a breakfast was served in the home of the bride's parents.  A large number of out-of-town guests attended the nuptials.  Mr. and Mrs. Capone will make their future home in St. Louis.

Originally, they were to be married in November of 1927, however, my grandfather’s uncle, Charles Palmisano was killed on the 10th of that month by members of the Green Ones gang for refusing to pay extortion money to Vito Giannola.  Due to the tragedy, the wedding was postponed until January of 1928. 
Interestingly, I found out that my grandfather had been arrested in 1922 for striking a carriage while driving a car owned by Vito Giannola.  Hmmmmm, the plot thickens.

Market & Tucker (096/365)

“If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.”

George Bernard Shaw (Irish literary Critic, Playwright and Essayist. 1925 Nobel Prize for Literature, 1856-1950)

TIME:  1:24 PM
PLACE:  Market St. and Tucker, St. Louis
SUBJECT:  Looking east down Market

Last week I discovered that my paternal grandfather had been involved in an automobile accident with a buggy and was arrested back in 1922.  I had sent a letter to the St. Louis Police Dept. to see if I could find out any more information and they called me yesterday stating that they had located a 1-page report on the incident.  I went to the Police Station in downtown St. Louis to pick it up after work.  There wasn’t much in the report that wasn’t already in the newspaper, EXCEPT that it named the owner of the car my grandfather was driving.  The owner’s name was Vito Geonollo aka Vito Giannola  - a leader of “The Sicilian Green Ones” gang in St. Louis during Prohibition.  Hmmmm, was Grandpa a gang member?  Maybe this could be the reason there was tension between him and the rest of his family.  Back in the late 1980’s, I was visiting with him on a Sunday afternoon; he was in a talkative mood and casually mentioned that once he had some “trouble with guns” and had to “hide away for a few days”.  He wouldn’t elaborate anymore than that.  Grandpa passed away in 1989 while I was a senior at college.  I wish I could have spoken with him more – I have a feeling that he led a very interesting life as a young man.

Cats Find Genealogy Boring (069/365)

“Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies.”

1 Timothy 1:4, 1769 King James Version

TIME:  7:19 PM
PLACE:  My desk
SUBJECT:  Jack, sleeping on my computer

This evening I was doing a little organization of my genealogy information.  I have so many loose papers and things are not filed as they should be.  It’s a huge elephant of a project and I have to eat it a little at a time, otherwise I get woozy and all discombobulated on the family lines.  As I was documenting a few of my sources on my software program, Jack decided to jump up on my desk and join me.  He was cold because he lay down underneath the desk lamp.  He also used the edge of my keyboard as a pillow.  No wonder I have cat hair coming out of my keys. 

Family Heirloom (068/365)

Peter Dickenson: [holding up a pocket watch] This is an heirloom. It must be worth something.
Pawnbroker: Your heir didn't loom too big. If I gave you 50, I'd be fired.

Ritter, John, and Larry Storch, perf. The Flight of the Dragons. Dir. Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin Jr. 1982.

TIME:  7:43 PM
PLACE:  Dad’s Kitchen
SUBJECT:  Sign

I finished Dad’s taxes and took them over to his house this evening.  We sat in the kitchen going over the returns and I decide to take a picture of this sign hanging above the cabinets.  Last fall, he had several rooms in the house painted, including the kitchen.  In the course of redecorating, he brought this sign up from storage in the basement and hung it on the wall.  The sign originally came from my maternal grandfather, who owned and operated a neighborhood grocery store on the west end of town.  I believe that the store was in operation from the early 1930s until 1954 when he closed the business.  The market was located just a couple houses down from my mom’s family home.  The store was turned into a house that my uncle lived in until the 1980’s.  The house is still there today.