I was at work when Lt Lopez called and told me to sit down. I had asked him to find some information about the death of Carmela Amato. What could be so awful, he had to warn me first?
“She wasn’t shot accidentally while trying to save her husband’s life,” he said. Then he told me the shocking truth. “I will send you some newspaper articles that explain it,” he added. And within days, I had some accounts of the whole thing.
Certainly, that could not be all of it! So my step daughter and I took a few days off from life and headed to Hartford. We went to the State library and started our research. Thirteen year olds do not know much about research but she did her best and found addresses for me. I found the coroner’s report and her will. And much more.
We met with reporters from the newspaper which had originally printed the event. Our story never did make it into the paper, but it was certainly something for a child to be interviewed about an historical event.
Over the years I went back several times to get more information, tracing down names of the relatives, only to find dead ends. But I did get photos of places these people of interest went.
So, now we had the what, but not the why. For that I was obligated to wait a certain amount of time for the internet to catch up with my needs. And then I met ancestry.com. Not only did I find Carmela and her whole family, I met living relatives who happily gave me much information. With much thanks to Beverly, Cory and Louis I was able to fill in many blanks. Reading between the lines of the information I received, I put together a story that takes into all the information I had verified.
There was one other problem I had yet to attack. Carmela had a neighbor who died in the event. Giovanni Tassone and his family. They were more secretive, their living relatives knew nothing and he seemed to be a really bad man. So, off I went to Providence, RI to find the origins of his story. I found the homes they lived in and the church they married in and had their children baptized in. And photos of all of them!
“She wasn’t shot accidentally while trying to save her husband’s life,” he said. Then he told me the shocking truth. “I will send you some newspaper articles that explain it,” he added. And within days, I had some accounts of the whole thing.
Certainly, that could not be all of it! So my step daughter and I took a few days off from life and headed to Hartford. We went to the State library and started our research. Thirteen year olds do not know much about research but she did her best and found addresses for me. I found the coroner’s report and her will. And much more.
We met with reporters from the newspaper which had originally printed the event. Our story never did make it into the paper, but it was certainly something for a child to be interviewed about an historical event.
Over the years I went back several times to get more information, tracing down names of the relatives, only to find dead ends. But I did get photos of places these people of interest went.
So, now we had the what, but not the why. For that I was obligated to wait a certain amount of time for the internet to catch up with my needs. And then I met ancestry.com. Not only did I find Carmela and her whole family, I met living relatives who happily gave me much information. With much thanks to Beverly, Cory and Louis I was able to fill in many blanks. Reading between the lines of the information I received, I put together a story that takes into all the information I had verified.
There was one other problem I had yet to attack. Carmela had a neighbor who died in the event. Giovanni Tassone and his family. They were more secretive, their living relatives knew nothing and he seemed to be a really bad man. So, off I went to Providence, RI to find the origins of his story. I found the homes they lived in and the church they married in and had their children baptized in. And photos of all of them!
Now I had to start writing the book!
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