Missing
There's always been a part of me that was missing well before I even realized it, I didn't pay much attention to it because I was so full of family I pushed aside for a very long time. Now I can feel it...more and more. As my family moves away and on with their lives and things change I can feel the emptiness growing. But somehow it always seems to work out one way or another and what's been missing just happened to find it's way back.
I've never had much contact with my dad's side of the family. Growing up I was blessed with a huge family on my mom's side so I didn't really miss out on that feeling of family. I had it all with them, my grandparents and lots of aunts and uncles and sooo many cousins.
My father's parents both died before I was born so I'm sure that is part of the reason why his family drifted apart, not that they were close to begin with but there wasn't much reason to try after that I suppose. Everyone went their own way raising their children and doing their thing wherever they moved to. I had the chance to spend some time with some of my cousins one year and then a few others in California on a vacation a couple years after that...other than those few occasions I knew nothing about them. I did connect with two of my cousins very well in those brief times we spent together and we kept in contact somewhat throughout the years.
My cousin called me and talked to me about helping him piece together a family tree, he too felt that empty feeling. I was actually happy to hear that because I had been thinking about that very same thing for awhile. He made a few calls to get some background information from one of our aunts and then one of our uncles who then gave him his son's number (our cousin) who was happy to hear from him and so on and so forth until one of my aunts phoned my father and as they spoke my dad decided to have a BBQ and sure enough they were willing to come. They only live a few hours away so it's a shame that so much time had passed but everyone was excited. I called my cousin and told him that our aunt was coming with her two kids and he got a hold of two of his brothers who live reasonably close and his mom and they all came too.
The reunion was very emotional and we all felt a sense of fullness but a desire to have more at the same time, if that makes any sense. We spent hours talking and laughing and it was just amazing. My cousin Margie is so much like me it's scary. There were lots of tears too but it felt so good, the hugs were tight and long and just absolutely overwhelming. No one wanted to leave, my dad stayed up later than he has in years and he had to work the next day, he didn't care.
I went home that night and couldn't contain my excitement and did some searches and started working on our familiy geneology. I woke up early the next morning and waited patiently for the city offices to open so I could request information and applications to obtain records of any kind that would aid in our search. We have so much conflicting information that we are slowly sifting through it and finding the bits and pieces that are the truth.
During my search I found some pretty cool stuff, whether or not they are related to my family or not it's still interesting. My mom always told me my dad's family was from Sicily but my aunt is telling me that they are from Calabria http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calabria.
Growing up my mom also mentioned that my dad's great uncle was tied to the Mob here in Chicago but she thought he was a hitman for Capone. I found this and apparently he was more than that http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Aiello. Ironically, I named my dog Capone Aiello ;) . She was a german shepard/collie mix, a really smart and beautiful dog.
This I thought was pretty neat http://www.houseofnames.com/xq/asp.fc/qx/aiello-family-crest.htm?a=54323-224.
I got the applications in the mail the other day so as soon as I can get something back from the county records I can't do much other than maybe to talk to one other aunt that might know more.
I've never had much contact with my dad's side of the family. Growing up I was blessed with a huge family on my mom's side so I didn't really miss out on that feeling of family. I had it all with them, my grandparents and lots of aunts and uncles and sooo many cousins.
My father's parents both died before I was born so I'm sure that is part of the reason why his family drifted apart, not that they were close to begin with but there wasn't much reason to try after that I suppose. Everyone went their own way raising their children and doing their thing wherever they moved to. I had the chance to spend some time with some of my cousins one year and then a few others in California on a vacation a couple years after that...other than those few occasions I knew nothing about them. I did connect with two of my cousins very well in those brief times we spent together and we kept in contact somewhat throughout the years.
My cousin called me and talked to me about helping him piece together a family tree, he too felt that empty feeling. I was actually happy to hear that because I had been thinking about that very same thing for awhile. He made a few calls to get some background information from one of our aunts and then one of our uncles who then gave him his son's number (our cousin) who was happy to hear from him and so on and so forth until one of my aunts phoned my father and as they spoke my dad decided to have a BBQ and sure enough they were willing to come. They only live a few hours away so it's a shame that so much time had passed but everyone was excited. I called my cousin and told him that our aunt was coming with her two kids and he got a hold of two of his brothers who live reasonably close and his mom and they all came too.
The reunion was very emotional and we all felt a sense of fullness but a desire to have more at the same time, if that makes any sense. We spent hours talking and laughing and it was just amazing. My cousin Margie is so much like me it's scary. There were lots of tears too but it felt so good, the hugs were tight and long and just absolutely overwhelming. No one wanted to leave, my dad stayed up later than he has in years and he had to work the next day, he didn't care.
I went home that night and couldn't contain my excitement and did some searches and started working on our familiy geneology. I woke up early the next morning and waited patiently for the city offices to open so I could request information and applications to obtain records of any kind that would aid in our search. We have so much conflicting information that we are slowly sifting through it and finding the bits and pieces that are the truth.
During my search I found some pretty cool stuff, whether or not they are related to my family or not it's still interesting. My mom always told me my dad's family was from Sicily but my aunt is telling me that they are from Calabria http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calabria.
Growing up my mom also mentioned that my dad's great uncle was tied to the Mob here in Chicago but she thought he was a hitman for Capone. I found this and apparently he was more than that http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Aiello. Ironically, I named my dog Capone Aiello ;) . She was a german shepard/collie mix, a really smart and beautiful dog.
This I thought was pretty neat http://www.houseofnames.com/xq/asp.fc/qx/aiello-family-crest.htm?a=54323-224.
I got the applications in the mail the other day so as soon as I can get something back from the county records I can't do much other than maybe to talk to one other aunt that might know more.
posted by Anna at 1:51 AM
3 Comments:
WOW how fascinating!,,,and um..Anna?...if ever I visit u, could u remind me to look for any horses heads u may have lying around.
I'm so happy that you were able to "connect" to the other half of your family.
Now I gotta watch out, if you do indeed have ties to the Chicago mob.... :^P
That is very interesting. I too have been having the same empty feeling lately myself. So I can relate. I am glad that you had a chance to get to know some more of your family. I think its kind of cool that you know people who know people (winks)
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