Angelina ~ John ~ Nicoletta Marvulli

For Wordless Wednesday I shared this photo of three Marvulli siblings, Angelina (93), John (77)  and Nicoletta (75). The year was about 1952.

The photo was just one of a group of pictures that was graciously shared with me by the Fraticelli family. Featured in the above photo is Angelina Marvulli who married Louis (Vito Luigi) Civitano, brother John (Giovanni) Marvulli who’s name was more commonly  spelled Marvilli and Nicoletta Marvulli who married Louis’s brother Vincenzo Civitano (my great grandparents)

Angelina seems pretty intent to share something important

From Lt to Rt Vera (Marvulli) D’Attoma, John Marvulli, Michael Caso, Nicoletta, Angelina, Rosa Caso, unknown and Angelo D’Attoma. Photographing the evening was Anthony Fraticelli husband of Rita (Caso) daughter of Michael and Rosa (as seen above)

It was a family gathering and a special one at that, with all three of the siblings finally together. Nicoletta had recently returned (1949) from living the last 39 years in Grumo Appula, having returned to her home town (abt) 1910 after the murder of her husband Vincenzo in 1909. The only sibling missing was Joseph (Giuseppe) Marvulli who passed away in 1950. The time frame of these photo’s is estimated to be about 1952 based on the age of Toni Fraticelli at the time, sitting with the back of her head (with bow) visible. It was a warm evening and the air was thick with cigar smoke at times. Italian was being spoken non stop under the homemade 3 sided gazebo attached to the house. I am not sure of the exact location of the photos but Toni wrote her Aunt has shared that these were taken at John Marvilli’s home. John operated a small neighborhood grocery story and lived in the apartment above it. This gazebo was attached to the building. I did find a WWII draft registration card, 1944, for his son Thomas listing the address was 340 Stockton St. consistent with 1940 census for John. If there was no move since this could be the location

The evening was all about a good old fashioned belly full of laughter.

You might say John loved his beer with this bottle front and center but what I have  learned is that while that may actually be beer it could be just the bottle with home made wine in it, which might account for the smiles on these faces. In the photo below, I had the bottle removed, having posted it on the FB group ‘Genealogist Photo Restoration’ page. One of the members shared with me what the objects were on the table, taps for barrels when making ‘wine’ and then I heard from Toni who shared with me

“Something just didn’t sit right in my mind about that bottle of beer. If you look closely you can see bits or sediment clinging to the inside of the bottle. I showed the picture to my husband and he pointed out the wooden object on the table…it has a hole in the center…that other long thin piece of wood with the dark tip fits into that hole and acts as a turnkey. You put that in the hole of the wine barrel. When you want to pour out some wine from the barrel you insert that into the hole of the turnkey and pull it out and get some wine!”

Knowing this now does seem removing the bottle changes the integrity of this photo in a

way.  I do love the photo of these three siblings with out the battle too.

This has been quite a ‘gift’ to receive these photo’s from the Fraticelli’s, as no other known full photo of Angelina has yet to surface (I have a poor snippet head shot of her) She is the matriarch of a very large group of our Civitano’s and I know these photo’s will be so appreciated by her descendants and those to come.

Thank you for sharing them with us