52 Ancestors Week 28: Reunion

From Amy Johnson Crow: Summer time is often time for family reunions. Does your family hold reunions? If not, perhaps you could write about a family reunion you would like to have or an ancestor who you would like to be reunited with. Maybe share the story of an ancestor who was separated from his or her family and whether or not they were reunited.

Who doesn't love baked stuffed squid?

"Does our family hold reunions?", she asks. Yeah. Yeah, we do. Sort of. They were never really reunions, though. They were more like parties than anything else to be honest. For example, every Christmas Eve my family would host a party where we had calamari (squid) served in a variety of ways from fried to in sauce. We also would have haddock and gnocchi for the non squid lovers. They were in a word FANTASTIC! 

Christmas was the time of year where we would get almost everyone together. My parents would bring my grandmother over and she'd spend the week at our house. Sure she lived one town over. But, we loved having her and her sisters over. And that was just the beginning of the guest list. Trust me. We'd have my aunts, uncles and several first cousins over, too. My dad would also invite his cousins and it would be one big, loud party. Christmas is a time for family, true. But, it was also a time to learn something new and exciting!

The parties were usually where I got most of my family history. Everyone would talk and I would ask questions. Most of the time they brought pictures along so I could tell who was who. Usually the oldest generation did that because they knew I'd be asking all sorts of questions. What can I say? I was inquisitive. Most of the time, though, my brother and I would end up playing the then latest video game consoles with our cousins. During various breaks from the action I would go downstairs and see if I could learn something new.....or sneak a peak at the presents under the tree.

Apart from Christmas, we saw each other at various points throughout the year. For a long time everyone was close by. People moved away. Some people, unfortunately, passed away. We still have that Christmas party every year and they are still a lot of fun. We take pictures, laugh and have a great time. The party still goes on.

We also managed to turn our Mother's Day dinners into a "Cousin's Day" celebration since my grandmother and her sisters passed away. Usually on Mother's Day My dad and his cousins would take my grandmother and her sisters out. It was a very good meal and a great time to get some on-site genealogy let me tell you.  And now we just have the family parties at one of the cousin's houses.

I still get various family history bits from those, though, as the cousins remember the stories growing up and we'd look at various pictures. In fact, the last time we got together we discussed the possibility of there being another Carrabis sibling that Giuseppe and Clementina mentioned in passing.

To make a long story short, I did find out about another Carrabis sister born Gesualdo who was named Olimpia. She unfortunately died young and just before the family came to America. See what kind of genealogical tips you can find at these parties? Cool, huh? Thanks, of course, go out to my cousin Mary aka GesualdoGenie on Ancestry for finding the banns. 

In terms of a proper reunion we had my grandfather, Robert's 90th birthday party in 2013. EVERYONE was there. It was a huge party and I managed to record some of it on camera. I posted quick videos on Facebook, too. In hindsight, I probably should have made a video about it. But, that was better served at my cousin's wedding in 2016. 

At the party I didn't learn much in the way of family history as we were just celebrating my grandfather's birthday. And hey it was in June! So, it counts as part of this theme this week! Amazing how that worked, right? We still had a good time. And I did learn a few things about the family. I had an Ancestry account then. So whenever something came up, I would add a few odds and ends to the tree.

This party, though, was interesting because it was a surprise party for my grandfather. We brought him to my aunt's house under the pretense of a picnic. To maintain the illusion that it was casual, I had to dress casually in a Celtics t-shirt. So, I kind of stick out like a sore thumb in pics where I sit next to my cousins and everything. I think everyone understood. At least I hope so!!

The parties were always a good time to learn about the family. You never knew when you'd see the people attending again. Time moves pretty fast and every year the parties tend to get smaller because everyone either passed away or have families of their own. In that case, you just tend to deal and move on.  I miss the times when everyone would be at my parents' house every Christmas eve. If I could have a reunion, I'd talk to my grandparents more about the tree. Just to tell them that I've been working on it and that I still remembered the stories they passed down to me.