Memories That Bind Us Together

Over the years I have made some wonderful connections with ‘cousins’ through blogging our families past. One of those connections is with Rose Naef nee Nappi and through this blog and email exchanges, it has been absolutely wonderful to share and grow our friendship.

Our shared common ancestor was Francesco Civitano and Giuditta Maria Sportelli (both of Grumo Appula) my 2x great grandparents. Francesco and Giuditta had sons Louis (Vito Luigi) and Vincenzo – our immigrating ancestors who started it all here 🙂 Rose falls off of Louis branch and I follow Vincenzo’s.

Louis married Angelina Marvulli – they had Rose Civitano who married  Domenico Simone – they had Maria (Mary) Simone who married Carmine Nappi – they had Rose

Vincenzo married Nicoletta Marvulli – they had Francesco Civitano who married Catherine Langellotti – they had Vincenzo Civitano who had me with Marlene Haimowitz (they were not married)

Over the last fews years Rose has shared many wonderful little snippets from her memory of the family and has given me permission to share them. Most recently she wrote

Dear Sharon,    

I am sitting reading the blogs over and over and over, trying to recall certain memories, some falling into place, and others not making sense to me.

I do remember visiting with my mom to see my great grandmother which everyone called “BaBorn”, she lived in a very small cottage with a black firestone oven,——she was always dressed in black, her gray hair tied in a bun.   I was very frightened of her, she knew this, therefore would always send me home with a small trinket of hers and lots of kisses.

I also remember the great picnics the entire Civitano, and Forese family would go on.  I particularly remember my mother’s cousin, Lena who had a daughter named Colette, she was older than I, but we always hung out together at the picnics.  I also remember one cousin who died in the garage of his home from the fumes of his car, he had a son named Mickey who also hung out with us as children, eventually moved to California —- before you know it, everyone died, everyone lost contact with each other, contacts that were such great memories for me as a child.

I also remember the Centrone family, you see, we all visited each other quite often, as a matter of fact one of the Centrone girls married a florist who did my wedding flowers for me.

Rose Nappi and Daniel Naef

Thank you to Rose for sharing and allowing me to post her gorgeous wedding photo.

In an attempt to identify some of the family members that Rose remembers, looking back in our tree, the cousin of her mother Mary may have been Lena (Angelina) Simone, daughter of Vito Simone and Julia (Giuditta) Civitano. Lena married Nicholas (Nicola) Forese on 18 Jan, 1931 at St Dominics Church, Bronx. Their witnesses were Giuseppe and Mary Primavera. 

Lena and Nicholas had 3 children, Rose b. 1932, Mickey (Michael Frank) b. 1936 and Judith Mary b. 1942 (all have passed)  – this is the Mickey Rose is referring too. I did not find a daughter named Colette (that was most likely Nicoletta)

Vito Simone and Julia (Giuditta) Civitano had another daughter named Mary (Maria) Simone and this Mary married Joseph (Giuseppe) Simone on 3 Oct 1926, Bronx. Living on Rosedale Ave, Bronx in 1940 I found 4 children list Vito b. 1927, Charles b. 1932, Angelina b. 1934 and Frances b. 1937. Again I did not find a Colette. I am curious if perhaps this daughter Angelina may have had a daughter Colette that Rose is remembering.

But the question remains, who is the Colette that Rose remembers and who is the man that a Centrone daughter married who was a florist.

On the 1940c for Mary Simone married to Joseph Centrone there was the daughter Angelina b. 1934 and Frances b. 1937 – Frances however was recorded as a male and not a female – I can not determine if this was an error. Rose mentioned her memory of the ‘Centrone girls’ so I am suspecting that this could have been a census error.

As for Colette – my aunt was Nicoletta known as Coletta or Colette and she was born in 1930.

but I suspect that the Nicoletta (b.1938)  was the daughter born to Nicholas Forese b. 1909 and Julia (Giuditta) b. 1909.

(You may be thinking is this the Nicholas I read about above and the answer is no. There were two Nicholas Forese in our family tree. One falling off Rose’s branch and one falling off of my branch) 

I always appreciate hearing from Rose as well as all the other cousins I have discovered over the years. If anyone remembers who the florist may be please leave a comment and let us know. If anyone knows of anyone Rose is remembering we would love to hear from you.

These are the memories that bind and remind us we are a family and that will never change. We may lose touch but that memory, those memories, teether us together.