| My name is Valerie June Thompson. I currently live in Florida. My parents are Vincent Nobile and Jeannette Wolfe. I have one sister, Claudia Jean Raffa who is married to Frederick Raffa. They live in New Jersey and have three grown children. |
| I was an “Air Force Brat”. We would normally stay in one place for 2 or 3 years and then my Dad would be transferred and we would move to the new assignment. I graduated high school and attended the University of Hawaii while my father was stationed at Hickam Air Force Base. That’s where my husband-to-be and I met and dated. However, we didn’t marry for 13 years! We don’t like to rush into things… |
| My husband’s name is John, but everyone calls him Smiley – it fits. We have two grown children. Our daughter Cheryl just graduated from the University of South Florida in Tampa and spends her spare time volunteering for The Shriner’s Children’s Hospital there, while working full time and continuing her education. Our son Ben, is a construction worker and uses his art for relaxation when he’s not working on his Karmann Ghia. |
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Everything to do with computers intrigues me - especially desk top publishing and digital photography. I intend to master websites soon. I also like all phases of ceramics. |
| I enjoy being with my family, and keep very busy with 3 dogs, 4 cats and several turtles in addition to the humans in the household. To help keep us all fed and sheltered, I work as a research assistant for the local Sheriff’s Office Investigative Services. As corny as it sounds, I love my job! |
| I can trace my Acadian roots through the Martels, LeBlancs and the Samsons too! I guess there is a little black sheep though. You see, my great grandmother, Sabine Martel [Desire, Jerome, Jerome, Jean-Baptiste, Jean-Baptiste], married an Irishman, Henry Donovan. And while Henry was born in Nova Scotia, he was not Acadian. |
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My paternal grandparents are Emanuel Nobile born in Italy and Lillian Weiss born in New York. My maternal grandparents are Richard Wolfe unknown and Henriette Cecilia Donovan born in Petit de Grat in 1881. |
| My paternal great grandparents are Vincenzo Nobile and Anna Colossi both born in Italy, and Samuel Weiss and Esther Deutsch both born in Hungary. My maternal great grandparents are Henry S. Donovan born in Nova Scotia, and Sabine Martel born in Petit de Grat. |
| I never knew much about my family other than my Mom and Dad and grandparents. I always envied people who could rattle off names and show pictures of their long-dead ancestors. One of my friends is so obsessed with genealogy that she not only has covered her entire forest of “trees”, she will do other people’s at the drop of a hat! She told me how to get started – with myself and what I knew, then to ask family for information and go from there. While I was waiting for answers from family I happened across Charles Samson’s site, and he had my great grandmother’s name on it and her husband. No one knew Henry Donovan’s first name but there it was on Charles’ site! Thanks to his kindness I learned enough to wind up going to Isle Madame for the Genealogy Summit in August 2000 along with some of my family. We were thrilled to actually see the places that we had read about and moreover to meet such wonderful people. I am so proud to be a part of that community – if only a tiny bit and from afar! |
| Researching:
DONOVAN 1803-1888 Arichat and Halifax, Nova Scotia & Portugal Cove, Newfoundland; SAM(P)SON, MARTEL(L) and DONOVAN 1888-? Massachusetts and Connecticut NOBILE and COLOSI Italy>New York; WEISS and DEUTSCH Hungary>New York.
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