As God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly

Monday, October 14, 2002

Family surprises

Mark Pilgrim found out this weekend that his father had another brother who he never knew about, and that said brother, who died young, was the source of his father’s name. This is actually pretty common. I didn’t know it until I started researching my family history, but I’m actually the fifth Ralph Brandi in the family, not the fourth. My great-grandfather, Ralph Brandi Sr., had a son in 1912 who only lived to be four months old. When my grandfather was born in 1919, he was given the same name. That’s quite common in Italian families; Laura’s great-great-grandmother Lucia Nannariello was the second girl of that name born to her parents. The first one was born in 1850 and died in 1852. Laura’s great-great-grandmother was born in 1855. I see this sort of thing over and over in my family tree.

Posted at 6:13 PM

Comments

This site is copyright © 2002-2024, Ralph Brandi.