Used for family history discoveries

1907 Private Messaging

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In June of 2022 I discovered 11 more Italian postcards, the majority of them sent in the late 1800s and early 1900s. I scanned them and added them to this website. View the top (11) in the “All Italian Postcards” gallery by clicking HERE. One of the more interesting postcards was one sent by Alessandro Marchisa to his betrothed, Lena Peracchio, in New York , sometime in the spring of 1907. Lena was living with her Uncle Serafino Rosasco and his family. Since there was nothing private about a postcard, (the message was there for all to see), Alex and Lena communicated by using a third party friend, (name unknown), of Alex’s who worked at the Hotel Delmonico on 44th St in Manhattan.

Here is that postcard:

Irish Third Cousin Found in Massachusetts

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As part of a renewed 2017 effort to work on the Irish branches of the family tree, I found a third cousin of the Tomans living in Massachusetts. His name is James Leavitt. Here is James photo from his 1967 Boston College yearbook.

James’s mother was Margaret (Toman) Leavitt. Margaret was a second cousin to Ellen (Toman) Marchisa and her 4 brothers. Margaret graduated from Manchester High School 2 years before Ellen. Margaret’s father was Thomas Joseph Toman who was a first cousin to Samuel John Toman, (Grandpa Toman). Thomas lived with his family in Manchester CT and worked at the Cheney Brothers Mills for 30 years. The mystery for me , (and for James Leavitt as well), is why the two families did not get together for family occasions. Ellen (Toman) Marchisa mentioned distant cousins living in Manchester but did not provide any details about them in her memoirs.

I have spoken to James and will invite him to join us at a future Toman Family history party in CT.

California Italian 3rd Cousins

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Through my genealogy research I discovered a California branch of Granda Lena’s mother’s family. Granda Lena, (Anna Angela (Peracchio) Marchisa), was brought to the US by her aunt Anna Maria Catterina (Rosasco) Maffei. Her aunt is the great grandmother of Tricia Bryant and her sister Deborah Maffei who currently live in northern California with their families.Their grandfather Ettore Maffei was Granda Lena’s first cousin and they exchanged many postcards as children.Those postcards , saved by Granda Lena, were translated and used to locate Tricia and Deborah. Tom and Rose visited with Tricia and Deborah this month. It was such a wonderful experience to connect with a branch of the family that we didn’t know about growing up.

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Audio Recordings from the 1940’s

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Francis Toman recorded his family and in-laws starting in 1940 using either a home version of the technology listed on the Audio Gallery page, or he brought them to a corner store somewhere in Manchester CT and used equipment there. These recordings were stored for many years in a box in John James Toman’s basement. While many were badly scratched some were successfully converted into digital MP3 files. Listen to these clips here.

Monsignore Valerio Anzino…Shuttle Diplomat between Italian Kings and Popes !!!

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After some serious research by Lorraine Lombardi and myself, we discovered a direct link to a Monsignor who played a very important role in the unification of Italy in the mid 1800’s. Monsignore Valerio Anzino was a first cousin to Ippolita (Gotta) Marchisa, Alessandro Marchisa’s mother.

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Learn about Monsignore Anzino here

Italian Postcard Album from late 1800’s –> early 1900’s discovered !!

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When I was going through boxes in storage a month ago I discovered an album of postcards created by my paternal grandmother Angela Anna “Lena” (Peracchio) Marchisa. These postcards date back to the late 1890’s. I’ve contracted with someone in Italy to translate the postcards into English and have posted those translations. The translations have been completed and are marked as such in the gallery. Some of the postcards were photos taken by friends and/or family of Lena (Peracchio) Marchisa. View the postcards here.