Another Blessing From Findagrave

I was just thrilled when I was working on my husband's Italian side of the family last night on Ancestry and one of the hints came up as a Findagrave entry. Now I don't understand how this happens, but I have searched Findagrave in the past and these entries did not show up. According to the memorial added date on Findagrave they have been there for years. Nevertheless I am really happy to have this information. My husband was thrilled and enjoyed reading every entry.

Findagrave link to Robert Joseph Gagliano 

This was my husbands grandfather. My husband was a small child and spent a lot of time with his grandparents. He called his grandfather "Poppa".

He was married to Sara Margaret Falcone, who my husband called "Momma"

Unfortunately there is no image available on Findagrave but here is the link to her memorial

Sara Margaret Falcone on Findagrave

We were both really happy to see her mother was entered on Findagrave with a photo of her.

My husband's great grandmother Josephine Strollo Falcone.

Josephine Strollo Falcone on Findagrave

His great grandfather John Falcone is on Findagrave but is another entry without a photo.

John Falcone on Findagrave

There were some wonderful family hints on these memorials. We found out that Josephine Strollo was born Colian, Salerno, Italy,  and John Falcone was born in Valva, Salerno, Italy.

One of our dreams is to go to Italy and visit the areas that my husband's family is from. We have another branch of the tree to trace and then we will have both the Falcone and the Gagliano's home towns. 

I am so thankful and grateful to the family member who entered these memorials.

There was other information about siblings and even occupations that some of the family members held. If you haven't hunted ancestors on Findagrave, you should really give it a try.

A Genealogy Healing

Many of us know that divorce is hard on our children. Without going into my personal details, I can share that my kids lost their father to cancer when one was in elementary school and the other in Jr. High school.

I just recently finished scanning a bunch of their father's photos and couple of their grandparents and great grandparents. I put them on my family history photo blog and then sent both the kids a message on Facebook that the photos were up.

The kids (now adults) were thrilled to see the photos and I wrote a little bit about their father's life. My son asked me to see if I could find some data on a particular subject so I started searching.

This is where the surprise happened.

You see, we did not know what happened to their father because of the divorce, his family never let us know where the ashes went. We heard several stories and one family member said they went to find him at a cemetery and they could not. So we just figured we would never know.

While searching on Ancestry a hint came up on their father's name. I clicked on it and lo and behold it was a Findagrave link! 

It turned out to be the great grandfather of the kids and there was more than one photo attached. Scrolling through the photos, THERE IT WAS!  The headstone for my kid's father!! 

Findagrave Link

I quickly got in touch of the kids, they were so happy and relieved to know where he is now. After that I left a message for the wonderful person who added him into Findagrave.

It feels so great to solve a family mystery and make my kids recover a part of them that was missing.