February 2001

It was a fall day – deep in November and only days before Thanksgiving. On Thursday, November 16, 2000 at 8:00 PM, I picked up the telephone and dialed, hoping and anticipating a positive and welcoming response to my call. I did not anticipate the impact of my call or the lives it would affect after 50 years.

My quest began in January 2000 when I first heard the story of Edward Cairo and his family, as told by his oldest daughter Maryann Cartwright.

Maryann was born August 20, 1932 to Edward and Josephine Aiardo. Italian tradition is for the eldest female child to be named after her paternal grandmother. Edward’s parents were Pasquale and Marietta Cairo, hence the derivative of Marietta. In 1935, when Maryann was a little over 3 years old, Josephine, while expecting her second child, succumbed to a heart attack and died.

Edward married again and had another daughter, Lorraine, or as we all know her, Patricia.

After this brief marriage, while serving in the Armed Forces in World War II, he met his third wife, Rosalie Cosentino of Omaha, Nebraska. Edward and Rosalie had 2 daughters. But, as fate would have it, both Edward and Rosalie suffered untimely deaths just 7 years apart – Edward at 43 and Rosalie at 39 – leaving the 2 daughters to be raised by Rosalie’s family, the Cosentino family.

Descendants of Pasquale Cairo have known that the elder of the second pair of daughters was Francyne (a spelling later revealed) who was named after her maternal aunt. What family members did not know was the name of the younger daughter. Both she and her sister Francyne were under the age of 6 at the time of their father’s death.

That was 1951, the year Maryann had last contact with her sisters in Omaha, Nebraska. Maryann always had a desire to travel to Omaha and locate them, but the opportunity never came.

I was saddened by the story, but hopeful in the challenge to locate these 2 sisters, who I expected to be somewhere in their 50’s, married and with families of their own. I knew that the biggest challenge was to locate a family name.

So, I began my work in securing a copy of Edward Cairo’s death certificate, hoping to give me more information. As with death certificates, only limited information is given regarding the circumstances of the person’s death. Fortunately, what most death certificates do include is burial information.

I sent for and received a copy of Edward’s death certificate from Omaha Public Records. The death certificate stated that he was buried at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Omaha Nebraska. On September 13, 2000, I called the cemetery office, which, I found out, manages several Catholic diocesan cemeteries in Omaha.

The person I spoke to told me that no kinship information was included in their burial records. She further offered to send me a cemetery map and location of Edward and Rosalie’s final resting place. She also offered to send me genealogy information that might help with my search. In just two weeks, an envelope arrived with a map and a contact at the Omaha Public Library. I quickly typed a note requesting the death notices for Edward and Rosalie.

On Monday, October 30, I received a postcard from the reference librarian at the Omaha Public Library stating that they had located the death notices for Edward and Rosalie, as well as requesting a small fee to cover the cost of research and copies. That same day, I wrote a check for the requested amount and returned the postcard. I was hopeful that a death notice would give me names of the family members and bring me even closer to Francyne and her sister.

My wife Monica called me at work from home on Monday, November 6, right after receiving the mail for the day. The envelope from the Omaha Public Library had arrived. Since the day I had forwarded the fee payment, I began counting the days and calculating how long the check would get to Omaha and for the library to process and mail back the long awaited documents with names. I asked her to read the enclosed death notices and, sure enough, the names I was looking for were included in the Rosalie’s death notice. Francyne had a sister and her name was Christyne.

For the next several days, I thought about my strategy to locate Francyne and Christyne who surely had different names or may have even moved away from Omaha. It occurred to me that listed in the death notice were Rosalie’s siblings and their names at the time of her death in 1957 – Anthony Cosentino, Josephine Rigatuso, Lucille Vaccarro and Francyne Anania. After a quick search on the Social Security Death Index through the Internet, I found out that all had passed on – Anthony and Francyne in 1975, Josephine in 1978, and only recently, Lucille in July 1999. A minor setback.

I have learned in my experiences of researching my family tree as well as in my professional position that stepping back and trying to look at the situation objectively is a start, looking at the available facts from a different perspective helps and sometimes chance, fate or help from Above also plays a role. This time, luck played its hand, maybe with some divine intervention. In my career as a human resources director, I have the opportunity to meet and work with many people. I knew of someone who could possibly help. I thought it might be a long shot, but I felt my request was worth the effort.

Anania – I just happen to work with a professional recruiter by the name of Ryan Anania and recall that he is originally from Iowa. On Monday, November 13, I placed a call to Ryan, who is in his late 20’s. Ryan said that he wasn’t sure if he had relatives in Nebraska but he would be happy to ask his grandmother, Esther Leone Anania, and call me back. The next day, Ryan called to say that his grandmother told him that, yes, there were Anania relatives in Omaha. She suggested that he call Maryann Vaccaro, a cousin of the Anania’s. The excitement was building for me when I heard this, since Vaccaro was the married name of one of Rosalie’s sisters, Lucille. I knew I was getting closer. I awaited Ryan’s call.

And then it came.

On Thursday, November 16, Ryan called my office. He had spoken to Maryann Vaccaro the previous evening. He said that, at first, she was hesitant to offer any information, but he persisted and she soon relented. As it turns out, Maryann Vaccaro was married to Lucille Vaccaro’s son, the nephew of Francyne Anania. Lucille was the aunt of Francyne and Christyne. Maryann gave Ryan Francyne and Christyne’s last names and Christyne’s phone number.

I couldn’t believe it! I realized that this connection potentially saved me hours of research. Now the rest was up to me. I immediately dialed the home of Christyne Cairo Vranes, but only an answering machine responded. I decided to wait until that evening to call.

On Thursday evening, November 16, 2000, at 8:00 PM, I placed a call to Christyne. My heart raced as the female voice responded to my announcement that I was Bob Tenuta and that I was working on the Cairo Family Tree. I asked if she was Christyne Cairo, the daughter of Edward Cairo? She responded yes, with shock in her voice. Only an hour later, she was ready to hop a plane to Chicago.

Francyne and Christyne, both live in Omaha, Nebraska. They and their families live only miles from one another. After their mother died in 1957, their uncle Anthony Cosentino raised them. They always wondered about their father’s family in Chicago and, like Maryann, had a desire to locate them, but life just has a way of whisking us in many different directions.

On Saturday, February 3, 2001, Jeff Caracci and I drove from Pella, Iowa to Omaha, Nebraska to meet Francyne Paladino and Christyne Vranes for the first time. We spent a long, fun-filled day together meeting their families, telling stories, eating popcorn and looking at pictures. We also had a chance to see Omaha with our tour guide, Bob Vranes, Christyne’s husband. We saw the site where Francyne and Christyne once lived with their parents and the home they grew up in. One day just didn’t seem to be enough after 50 years.

But, we look forward to Francyne and Christyne visiting Chicago on March 9^th when they will meet their sisters, Maryann and Patricia for the first time as adults.

Copyright 2004 Robert M. Tenuta