Two Uncles, Same Homeroom

The title of the post reveals a lot really, no surprise coming. When I discovered it though, my mind was blown.

I received an Ancestry hint for a "V. Prastaro", my uncle. He was married and subsequently divorced from my maternal aunt. Sadly, both are passed but Uncle Vinny remains in my family tree of course. His wedding to my aunt was the first I ever remember attending. I was little. I think it was the summer before I  started kindergarten, so maybe I was 5.

I followed the Ancestry hint to a yearbook photo and sure enough, there he was - Uncle Vinny in 1975 before he was my uncle. 

While examining the photo though I saw the name "J. Puppelo". Wait a second. That is my step-mother's brother! Another uncle by marriage pictured long before he was my uncle. Uncle Joe has also passed.

It was such a surprise to see them there together in the same yearbook. I had never really given it a thought but they were about the same age and lived in the same town. And yet there they are!!

Another Remarkable Yearbook Find

I actually discover this a few months back and posted about it on FaceBook but didn't blog about it. It's one of the coolest genealogy finds I've had in recent days. On May 6, 2022, I came across another beautiful yearbook entry in Ancestry's online  yearbook collection. 

It was in my paternal grandmother's high school yearbook. There were many pictures of my grandma, Clare Henry-Earle, in there but here is her portrait. Oh that's not the cool part, though. I had seen this photo before.

She was very active in high school. She was in a sorority, student council, performed in a play, and played the flute in the marching band. You can't see her in the band photo below though.

She is little, under 5'. At her full height I think she hit 4'9". At 93 years old today she has shrunk some since high school; which, if you ask me is criminal. If my 4'9" Nanny has to lose any inches, you 6' folks out there should have to lose a foot, at least, but I digress. As she played the flute, so she's somewhere in the middle of a band photo where flute players assemble. Oh but the band wasn't really the cool part either. This was...

...she signed this yearbook!! 

"Best of luck to a swell kid. Love, Clare"

Which ever classmate's yearbook Ancestry got a hold of and digitized, my grandmother signed it. That is unmistakably my Grandma Clare's handwriting! Very cool.

I’d Like to Meet...

In 2022 I participated in Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge, and I am quite proud to say, I accomplished it! I blogged every week, writing to a majority of the themes she put forth. This year, I commit to writing at least once a month and I may at times use her prompts to stimulate and inspire my blogging. I would however, also like to commit some time to making more discoveries in my personal genealogy research. Writing takes time. Search takes time too.

The 52 Ancestors Challenge theme for this week, though, is "I'd Like to Meet..."

Pondering the past tense of that theme, I would have liked to have met my maternal grandmother, Marilyn Irene Fay-Gardner (August 28, 1930 - June 5, 1972). She passed away so very young, at the age of 41, the year before I was born. I had all three of my other grandparents until my Grandpa Earle died in 2000, shortly after my 26th birthday. Grandpa Gardner passed in 2004. Grandma Earle will be 94 in February. Sadly she no longer recognizes her family due to the ravages of Alzheimer's disease but she's otherwise hangin' in there. So I knew my grandparents. I can tell you a lot about each of them, well, except Grandma Gardner who no one, not my grandpa, not her children, no one spoke about. 

Prompted to want to know more about my Grandma Gardner and having tapped out the resources on Ancestry.com, I went looking in other databases, namely MyHeritage. My subscription runs out there in February so while I have it and the time off from work during this holiday week, I went looking. 

I think I have found my grandma's high school yearbook photo. I'm not sure. I've only seen 2 other images of her. Once a long time ago when I was a kid my mother showed me a photo of her mom. I want to say it was taken at a baby shower. Marilyn, or Lynne, as everyone called her, did have a bunch of babies so I'm not sure when it was taken and I don't have the image to refer back to as, sadly, I am estranged from my mother. The other image I have of Lynne was from about 1950 from an unidentified newspaper announcement of her engagement to my Grandpa. It's terribly unclear, graining like most newspaper photos.

The new image I found is from the 1948 yearbook at Newtown High School in Elmhurst, Queens, New York. The name, year, and location fit. I think it's her.

The day I found the image I sent it to all my siblings as well as the two cousins with whom I have any contact information. Being the eldest grandchild I didn't think any of them would be able to identify the grandmother we never knew but I thought they'd appreciate having it. I showed my father, who knew Lynne. Not only was she hid mother-in-law, he grew up next door to her. He was not confident that it was her though. She died 50 years ago and this high school yearbook photo was taken long before he knew her so I understand his reluctant to confidently identify her. I showed his brother, my Uncle Allen, and he too was unsure. I know my mother would recognize her, but again, I have no contact with her nor do I have contact with either of her sisters. Well, one I could email I guess but she was only 2 when her mother passed. Hmm. Anyway - - -

The following day it dawned on me that I should look in that same school's yearbooks for Lynne's sisters; one of them I knew. When I was in my teens, every summer I would go to Florida and spend a month with my grandfather and he would always make sure I spent a day with his sister-in-law, my Great Aunt Ann. I could probably count on my fingers how many times I saw Ann in my life, however, I am 100% sure this is Aunt Ann's yearbook photo from Newtown High School, 1938. 

The discovering of Ann in the the same school's yearbook at the right time period, I am not confident that this is a picture of my grandma Lynne.

Hi grandma.

52 Ancestors Challenge Week 21: "Yearbook" - A Collection of Graduation Photos

As a college librarian we get calls from time-to-time from alumni and descendants of alumni looking for yearbook photos. Sometimes it is the only photo one has of their loved one.

Very recently my father's high school wrestling coach passed away at the age of 96. This prompted me to go onto Ancestry and look through their U.S. yearbook collection. 

I had seen my father's yearbook before. He still has it. And my step-mother graduated with my mother and my paternal aunt, same year, same high school, same yearbook and she still has it.

However, I had never seen the ones from my father's junior year during which time he was on the wrestling team. As soon as he got a car, the motorhead that he is, he quit wrestling. 

Honestly, I couldn't pick him out of his wrestling team photo even though I have seen many photos of my dad from his youth. It made me wonder if I could pick out other family members in their yearbooks so I went trolling Ancestry.com's U.S. Yearbook Collection and made my own family yearbook. 

Most of them went to different High Schools which I have not identified here for the sake of their privacy. You'll see I only list them by their relationship to me, their first name, and the year they graduated but here is my family's yearbook. Included her are my paternal grandmother, most of her siblings, my father, his siblings, some of his first cousins, my mother, and a few of her sisters.