I’m Documenting “Project 4” here so the Family History page isn’t overly long. And because I expect this page to be much more of interest to myself than anyone else.
Things I have read/written/watched/cooked as a result of the wider family history project:
The Dawn Patrol This is a 1938 film starring Errol Flynn. Grandpa Ken mentioned it in a chapter of his book as being one of his favorites when he was growing up. I had never seen it, so I ordered a DVD copy on Amazon. I enjoyed it, and I am guessing that this movie was the start of Grandpa Ken’s interest in the Red Baron. There was a pilot named James Anysley in North Hero that Grandpa Ken called the Red Baron. Later, he wrote about his shock upon discovering that the Red Baron was the mascot of a French pizza brand. All this made me smile.
Swing, Swing, Swing I found an old email Grandpa Ken wrote just to me talking about his piano playing, my clarinet and saxophone playing, and the fact that he was reading a book about jazz clarinetist Benny Goodman. I ordered this to read as well. Ordered. To be read in February 2025.
Return of the Founding Fathers An errant Google search led me to stumble upon a review that Grandpa Ken wrote for this book… which was written by his childhood (and lifelong) friend (and NHN&WR subscriber and Poet Laureate) Art Ward. Ordered. To be read in late January 2025.
French Bread Pizza. This was a topic of conversation during Thursday Night Trivia. After friend Courtney DiFruscio unexpectedly and somewhat obscenely described her love for French Bread Pizza, I got to send her a very old NHN&WR from July 2004. She became one of the first new readers in many years. And probably thought to herself “This was written by the 78-year-old version of Danny.” Note: I still thoroughly enjoy French Bread Pizzas today. Maybe not as much as Courtney does.
Joshua Montefiore’s book. Mom and I were always curious where the name Montefiore came from. She knew it as her grandfather Paul Montefiore Cleveland’s middle name. Thanks to Ancestry, I discovered that it was also his grandmother’s (Lydia Swift Montefiore Cleveland’s) maiden name. Lydia’s father- and my 4th great grandfather- was Joshua Vita Montefiore, an English-American lawyer, son of Italian-English parents (so the name came with them from Italy to the U.K. and then with their son to the New World) and the first Jewish lawyer to have a law book published in the United States. He was also a participant in an expedition to start a slavery-free colony on what he knew as the island of Bulam, now called Bolama Island, part of present-day Guinea-Bissau. He wrote a report of the 1792 expedition, published in 1794 as An Authentic Account of the Late Expedition to Bulam on the Coast of Africa: With a Description of the Present Settlement of Sierra Leone and the Adjacent Country. I got a copy on Amazon through a very cool company called Forgotten Books which republishes obscure things. Also, fun fact: Joshua Montefiore was Jewish, but his third wife (from whom I’m descended) was Irish Catholic. But they decided the best thing to do with their American children was raise them Protestant. I find this particularly amusing as I work in a United Methodist Church where quite commonly we have couples, one of whom grew up Catholic, the other of whom grew up Baptist, and we say they “met in the middle at Methodism.” I would not have thought the meeting place between Italian Judaism and Irish Catholicism would be Vermont Congregationalism, but since I probably owe my existence to that series of decisions, I’m grateful for it.
Old Photos and Videos
Grandpa Ken singing me “Happy Birthday” in 2018, found in 2024 as I looked for some other old photos Linda McDevitt sent me.
Velma Cleveland’s 1943 Yearbook. Found on Ancestry. Recreated a digital version of it page by page. My grandmother was a junior in high school. Both she and her sister, my great aunt Shirley (a fellow clarinetist!) are in here, along with several other members of the Northfield(, Vermont) High School classes of 1943 and 1944 who were at/in my grandparents’ wedding in 1946: Zama Wynne, Caroline “Kitchie” Barber, Dorothy Miller. Claire Despartes was also mentioned in my grandpa’s book. So it was pretty cool to see them all.