Richter Family Party

My immediate family has been VERY busy with my oldest going off to college, my middle son starting high school and my youngest being evaluated for preschool.  My youngest seems to little to even think about sending off to school, but I know it will be good for him.  He is still not speaking well – he still on the one word level as opposed to even tying three words together to make a sentence.  He’s really good at pointing though. 

Kris (middle) started high school and seems to be doing okay. He is writing his blog and doing a great job!  My only worry is that he didn’t get a foreign language class this year, but he’s pretty happy with his schedule – so no biggie.  Kris blog is http://kristopherskingdom.com… He even has it set up on Kindle so that you can get notification of new posts. 

Kevin took off for UK last Friday.  Getting him ready and our of the house was an ordeal.  Everything from a parking brake issue, broken dishes, and a key that was supposed to stay in Lexington that ended up in Bowling Green….  and the fact that guaranteed overnight delivery doesn’t apply when pertaining to a residence hall.  Ultimately we finally got the parking brake turned off (Thursday), bought Kevin new dishes after all his dishes broke on the pavement (Friday), and he finally got his key back on Monday.  I’m fairly certain there are a lot of things that are still here in town that he will need, but Kevin will have to find a way to get by until the next time he comes home….  I’m pretty sure laundry detergent is on the list…. so it won’t be too long.

Besides all that my father found out he needs the valve in his heart replaced as well as needing a pacemaker.  He doesn’t want the pacemaker because of welding issues… as I have been doing research (All this is a scary thing)…. I have found some sites that say only 40 percent of patients see no benefit to getting pacemakers.   Definitely a study I want to ask about…  Not being a doctor I have no idea what it all means, but it sounds like it depends on the amount of delay between heartbeats.  The pacemaker is recommended if the delay is greater than .12, but it’s only beneficial if greater than .15….  It also mentioned a recall of pacemakers that occurred in 2005 (recalled 69 pacemakers and resulted in one death)…. 

Another site had a list of devices to watch out for, so besides welding there are a few other places to be wary of.  One was the Anti Theft devices… – These are the things a lot of stores have in their doors.  Apparently you need to be careful not to stand near one for prolonged amounts of time….. Metal Detectors are also a problem and you also have to tell the person if you have to be wanded with a metal detector (I’m thinking that means no MRIs too after)….  Also cell phones as they come out with new models and MP3 player headphones…. (Not sure that’s too big a deal as I can’t see my dad using headphones, but he does have a cell phone.)  There are more listed… that include machines to dissolve kidney stones, MRI machines, arc welders, strong magnets, and so on…  The list is available at hearts.org….  Another article in the Dallas News told why a certain type of pacemaker fails to help half the people receiving it, but it was set up so that you can’t read with out a subscription…..

This weekend is my cousin Don and Sue’s Richter Family Party.  Anyone who can heads to Oakwood to come to the party.   So it looks like I’ll drive 6 hours up on Saturday and 6 hours back on Sunday to visit for a few hours at the party.  While I’m there I’d like to hear more stories from my dad (and Don) about the past.  Every time I make it to these parties I get to hear good and bad stories about the past.  The good usually are about my dad, his siblings, cousins, and more – the bad, stories about me and K-12 years….Hearing about my father’s health reinforces the need to get the stories recorded before everyone forgets or isn’t available anymore.

For geneology though parties like this are a great chance to find out more family history.  The stories are really what makes it interesting… Just knowing names and dates without knowing who the person really was is not as exciting to me.  Before going to the party I just finished looking back through the 125 years of history of Oakwood book.  I’ve got a list of questions all ready.  As I get more experience I’ve learned to write everything down and take lots of notes.  A video camera is a great tool also for recording all the stories. 

The 12 hours of driving is a lot of time and with the cost of gas, not too cheap either, but if something were to happen to my dad before I make it up to visit again – I’d regret not making it up to visit.

Certificato Di Nascita – Birth Certificate

I am also lucky enough to have a copy of the birth certificate for my great grandmother.  It shows her name as Negri Maria Caterina (Last name first).  Not sure about the name order because I had thought her first name was Caterina…. Maria is pretty common in our family.  My middle name is Maria also and one of my grandmother’s sisters was Maria (or Mary).  From what I can tell it shows her father as Giacomo and mother as Pizzetti Maria Francesca – showing she was born November 18, 1874.  the 1950 date at the bottom is unusual.  I almost think maybe that was the date it was issued.  Maybe this was a copy my great grandmother got while getting citizenship here in the US….

Marriage Certificate (Catherina Moretto)

Earlier this week I posted the marriage certificate for my great-grandmother – Catherina Moretto.  The really tough part of the older certificates is that they may be in another language (in this case Italian).  I have tried to learn Italian, but when you combine Italian with older handwriting, I have no clue what the translation is.  In Italian I know Commune is the town, Chiesa – church and so on.  A few other words I can guess at too – but finding someone who speaks the language is pretty important.  Additionally in my case a dialect is involved.  Locana, Italy is just a short distance from the border with France. 

In the past I’ve gotten some of the information involved:

14.         Giovanni Moretto, son of Benardo Moretto and Domenica Cula was born on 01 Oct 1880 in Locana Italy. He died on 14 Oct 1918 in Westville, Illinois. He married Caterina Maria Negri on 11 Apr 1903. (I think the certificate actually says he was born in Costallamente and that’s what I had heard previously)
15.         Caterina Maria Negri, daughter of Giacomo Negri and Francesca Maria Pezetti was born on 17 Nov 1874 in Locana Italy. She died on 01 Jul 1961 in Belgium Town, Illinois at 7:30 pm.
 
The marriage certificate includes names, place of birth, parents, and dates.  From what I’ve heard that seems to be collaborated from the official certificate, Italian weddings involved two separate ‘weddings’.  One being a civil wedding and one a church wedding.   I’m going to see if I can get with friends in Italy and see if they can translate this a little more for me. 

Atto Di Matrimonio

One of the documents I have is the marriage license for my Great Grandmother.  This provides a lot of great info, but is completely in Italian. 

Father’s Day

My father is a Richter.  One of 10 kids, Tom, Harold, Howard, Robert, Dorothy, Margaret, Ethel, Linda, Norma, Cleda Fern (the only one that didn’t live to be an adult).  In that time period it was amazing to have ten kids with 9 living to be adults.  (Five are still living)    All of my Aunts that are still living have battled Cancer at one point or another and are all pretty amazing.  My father and my Uncle Tom are the only brothers still around.  As they get older (and I do to) I don’t get to see them as often.  For me it usually involves a special trip up to visit.

My dad has lots of great stories from his time growing up.  Everything from damming up the creek that is now beside my parents house to when my grandfather and his brothers put cows on top of the local store.  All of these stores are great to get on paper (or digital), and I keep trying to remember them all.  I am also lucky to have a cousin that is about the same age as my father that has written several books on local history.

If you get the chance sit down with your father (and if possible a digital recorder) and get some of the stories recorded.  You may think oh I’ve heard that a million times, but when you go to remember it later it’s hard to remember the details.  If you have ever played the game of telephone you know how easy stories go from one thing to a totally different subject in the process of retelling.

As you know I have also scanned all the old photos.  I try to use family parties as a chance to get each photo identified.  I’ve been lucky to have several of my aunts and uncles that are no longer with us go through and label everything. I’ve also given each a copy of their part of the family tree so that they can update it.  I hope to get all the pictures printed in a book someday soon so that I can have better copies for them to identify.  Most of my older family members aren’t computer savvy enough to identify pictures online, and don’t have the time it would take either.  Going through a book with me identifying all the pictures is easier and can lead to some great stories to go with….