"The Tortarolo Code"

I always knew that my Aunt Theresa (Tortarolo) Angelone was a blood-relative of mine “somehow,” but once someone explains how you are so-and-so’s sister’s cousin’s aunt’s roommate etc., you unfortunately tend to lose your way off the comprehension path...

The same thing happened to me when Frank advised me that we were distantly related. My immediate reaction was “great!,” but then came the inevitable question of “how?” He’d told me during a few different conversations that this person in his family was my great-grandfather’s second cousin, and that his family adopted my Aunt Theresa’s brother and sister when their parents died in 1918. But usually these points of linkage would be mentioned in passing, and I’d never get a chance to sit down and actually map it out to understand the big picture. Well, last night I did just that.

Attached is a graphic representation of what I like to call, “The Tortarolo Code” (modeled after the famous film starring Tom Hanks). In the graphic, it is much more clear to see not only how Frank and I are blood-related, but also how the relation of my Aunt Theresa’s family comes into play. Click on the image to see the full-size view.

Be sure to peruse our earlier posts on this site as well, for more details and pictures pertaining to Theresa, Egidio, and Josephine Tortarolo.

Update from Frank R.: My family is also related to the Tortarolo children – Egidio, Theresa & Josephine – through my great-grandfather, Francesco Rosaio, so they were our "double" cousins. The mother of the Tortarolo children was Luigia Maria Perrone, who was my great-grandfather Rosaio’s 1st cousin.

It was my great-grandfather Rosaio who took in and raised Gidio and Josephine after their parents died in 1918. They grew up on his farm up on Ebright Road.

Little Theresa Tortarolo went to live with a relative of her father's, Giovanni Battista "John" Salvo.