This week, I found a couple of newspaper articles with a great shot of Hugo enjoying an ear of corn at the Glue Pot Club outing in 1957. What is the Glue Pot Club and how did they get their name? A glue pot, also known as a sticky wicket or glue dog, is a metaphor for a difficult circumstance. It's origins lie in the game of Cricket, where difficulty hitting the ball can be caused by damp and muddy ground. The Glue Pot Club, according to the article, was "Fair Haven's largest social club", a club formed by Fair Haven "sportsmen". This might explain the reason for choosing the name "Glue Pot". Hugo was the General Chairman. I've attached the newspaper page, with magnifications of the relevant articles from July 21, 1957, and December 21, 1956 below. Enjoy! Click on "comments" above to add your thoughts and/or memories!
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A New Haven directory from 1914 I found while looking around online, listing Giovanni as the Secretary of Fratellanza Italiana and G. Garibaldi Society. If you click here, you'll find a link to an article from the Wethersfield Historical Society posted on May 4, 2011 entitled "The Story of Connecticut's Italians". It lists these two societies among more than 80 organizations devoted to bringing together Italian immigrants, stating; "They took it upon themselves to project the face of their communities by reporting uplifting news coming out of Italian neighborhoods. Italian newspapers inundated their pages with noteworthy events that associations organized including all-night banquets, music concerts, festas, christenings, marriages, and Columbus Day celebrations." Someday soon I plan on tracking down those Italian newspapers. Stay tuned... Click on "comments" above to add your thoughts and/or memories. Antonetta had lived for many years in New Haven and was 61 before she became a naturalized citizen of the US. This document comes from the U.S. Naturalization Record Indexes from 1791-1992.
It is likely that Giovanni was never naturalized. This is a good thing, because any of us can claim Italian citizenship through his side if we are able to scrape up a couple of missing documents. Quite an exciting possibility! Click on "comments" above to add your thoughts and/or memories. This epic poem was written by James Morcaldi, husband of Olga and father of Jim, John, and Dominic. It is, in essence, a list of famous Italians who have contributed to society in various ways since Roman times. His hope was to inspire in Italian Americans a love for their culture and pride in their heritage. Armand kept this copy, and I remember him sharing it with me.
James writes in the preface; "The purpose of the poem is to stimulate and develop in the hearts and minds of all those of Italian blood in this country, a love of all the fine, beautiful, and idealistic things which the Italian race has produced and is producing, and to stimulate and develop that selfsame pride, which carried the eagles of Rome into the farthest corners of the known world at that time, spreading their civilization and the culture which formed the foundation and the basis of our modern civilization." Enjoy! Click on "comments" above to add your thoughts and/or memories. Below, you'll find Giovanni's World War I draft registration card. At the time, in 1918, he claimed he was 42 years old, though if he was 59 when he passed away in 1940 (as last week's Memorial Record stated), that would have made him 37 in 1918. His birthday here is listed as December 20, 1875, but the information in the Memorial Record places his birth date as December 20, 1880. It’s pretty common for these older documents to have puzzling and inconsistent information. Sometimes it's due to the fact that they are handwritten. Sometimes things simply get lost in translation. For instance, I have seen census documents that list Armand as "Herman"! But if Giovanni had given this date to the registrar, the interesting question is; what would he have gained from aging himself 5 years? Not much, it seems, as men would have to register for the draft anyway if they were younger than 45. Perhaps at the time he felt he couldn’t reasonably pass for any older than 42, after all he was only 37. All things considered though, I suppose that aging yourself, even a little, could make it less likely that you’d be called. If that was his plan, it’s possible that it worked as he’d hoped. As far as I know, Giovanni was never drafted. At the time of the draft, he was working as a lock maker for Pfleghar Specialty Company on Winchester Avenue in New Haven. I found a copy of the patent for the Pfleghar lock, and a diagram for the lock that Giovanni is likely to have worked on. A copy of the diagram and a link to the patent can be found below his draft card. Click on "comments" above to add your thoughts and/or memories. I feel very fortunate that our family has this document in our possession. We have the records for Antonetta as well, and I'll be sharing those in the coming weeks. Though these documents are somber in nature, I think it's important to share them, as they too are small windows into our family's past.
Below, is the memorial record of the proceedings of the funeral service for Giovanni. This document gives us the location of his burial in St. Lawrence Cemetery, and a record of all who attended. At the bottom, you'll find articles already posted earlier in the blog, with the addition of one article detailing the events of the service. Click on "comments" above to add your thoughts and/or memories.
The road from San Massimo to Piedimonte D'Alife...
Surnames in Italy started to become popular around the 11th century, when an expanding population made them necessary (see article here). Only wealthy families could afford them at first, but by the 13th century even poor families adopted them as a way to make it easier for the church to identify two families uniting in marriage. As the article states, "The evolution of Italian surnames is moulded upon a series of things: patronymic, occupation, description of one's habits or personality, place of origin, etc."
Our surname Santomasso (derived from Santomassimo), is indicative of our place of origin. The commune of San Massimo, named for Saint Maximus of Rome, is a likely candidate for the birthplace of Giovanni's line. Years ago, my friend Mike printed out a map which identified a small village called San Massimo in the province of Campobasso, about an hour drive over the mountain from Piedimonte D'Alife. He was also able to identify no less than 16 families with the surname Santomassimo living there in the year 2000. I just came across the map in my papers and decided to do some digging. Though this is speculation, it is possible and even probable that before the paternal side of our family settled in Piedimonte D'Alife, we were up the road and over the mountain in San Massimo. Unfortunately, Antonetta's last name D'Andrea, seems to be patronymic and doesn't give us any clues about her family's geographical origin before Piedimonte D'Alife. Below, please find footage of the area, and a link to the website for the commune of San Massimo here. If you are interested in reaching further back to understand the origin of the name of the town, here is a little bit about the life of San Massimo. There are several Saints named Maximus, but according to the history of the Commune San Massimo in the link above, the town is named after Saint Maximus of Rome. His feast day is coming up, on April 30! An Army document below (reprinted in 1988) lists the medals Armand earned during the war. I thought it might be neat to track them down and list them all here. Enjoy! Click on "comments" above to add your thoughts and/or memories. It's hard to find any information online about the Melebus Club. From what I know, it was a social club for Italian Americans in New Haven. The word Melebus was formed by joining the words Medical -- Me,
Legal -- Le, and Bus -- Business (Thanks John!). Anthony was a member, as was Armand. Were there others? If you have any more information, let me know. Below, you'll find a program from the "First Annual Man-Of-The-Year Award Dinner". On page 6 you'll see Anthony Santomasso listed as a General Committee Member. Please also note the menu on the last page. Imagine serving an appetizer today consisting of "Hearts of Celery with Colossal Queen Olives". Seriously?!
A big thank you to John and Bob for helping to gather information for this post. It is a long one, and contains all the information we can find about Edmund's last flight, and also the many ways he has been remembered.
Below, you'll see a United News broadcast which gives a very brief overview of Japan's part in the war and ends with Japan's surrender Sept, 2 1945. The surrender happened close to 1 year after Edmund's disappearance.
From what we know, Edmund's aircraft took off from Emirau Airfield, New Ireland, Papua New Guinea on September 17, 1944. It was shot down by anti-aircraft fire over Kavieng, New Ireland, Papua New Guinea. The official date of his death is listed as 1/23/46 because he was listed as missing 1/22/45. According to the American Battle Monuments Commission "Without confirmed information to the contrary, a War Department Review Board established the official date of death of those missing as one year and a day from the date on which the individual was placed in missing status." Click here to see the listing.
This website, gives a summary of Edmund's squadron, and offers some information as to when his plane was listed as lost - as early as September 17 1944. If you'd like some more info about Edmund's squadron, nicknamed the Fork Tongued Devils, or about the B-25 Bomber squadrons in general, click here, here and here. The monument below was erected to honor the men missing in action during WWII in the Philippines. "Massachusetts" is engraved next to his name because it is technically where he enlisted (click here to see the website). Keep scrolling for more documents...
Below, you'll find documents memorializing Edmund's service and sacrifice for his country. A Presidential certificate of service, followed by letters to Antonetta notifying her of the medals he was entitled to, and then a letter and memorial pamphlet from the Geometric Tool Company, where Edmund worked before joining the service.
This concludes the documents I have for Edmund. Thankfully we have these remembrances of him, and can take pride in what he did for us and for our country.
Click on "comments" above to add your thoughts and/or memories. |