It’s week 4 of my 52 Ancestors in 2017 challenge. Today I am spotlighting my great-grandmother, Maria Aurelia Guglielma ORSI. She was known simply as ‘Aurelia’ in most documents I’ve found. I didn’t realized she had ‘Maria’ and ‘Aurelia’ as part of her name until a couple of years ago when I started researching my Italian roots in earnest.
Aurelia was born in Compito Sant’ Andrea, Capannori, Lucca, Tuscany, Italy November 23, 1868. She was the daughter of Innocenzo Orsi and Maria Domenica di Menco, [633] and married Roberto Petrini on May 12, 1894.[ She immigrated to the United States with her three young children in October of 1907 to join her husband, who had come over previously.
Aurelia died in her home in St. Louis, Missouri on November 23, 1930. She is buried in the family plot in Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis.
Umberto and Aurelia had three children.
- Ida aka Chena/China (ca1899-1928)
- Frank (1901-1976
- Giovanni Olivi Adelindo aka William (1904-1948)
I don’t have a picture of Aurelia. I wish I did. Maybe a cousin somewhere has one and someday they will share it with me. I hope so!
I don’t have a photo, but I do have a story for you, shared by my grandma when I was a girl.
Grandma made a great spaghetti sauce and we all loved it as kids. It was a recipe that was handed down to her from her mother-in-law, my great-grandma Aurelia Orsi Petrini. The story goes that Aurelia really didn’t like my grandma very much at all. She’d apparently had a ‘nice Italian girl’ picked out for my grandpa to marry. Instead he married my grandma, who was NOT an Italian girl — her family immigrated from the slovakian region of Austria-Hungary! When it came time to share the family sauce recipe with her new daughter-in-law, Aurelia did so. She cooked with her and showed her how to make it, but when all was finished, it just didn’t taste right! You see, Aurelia had decided to leave one ingredient out of the recipe. Lucky for Grandma — and for all of her grandchildren! — Aurelia’s daughter took pity on her sister-in-law and shared the ‘secret ingredient’. I’m so glad that she did! I never was told what the missing ingredient was, but I’m sure it must have been one of the spices.
I may not have a photo of Aurelia, but I do have a photo of the sauce! Yum!!
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| Grandma Petrini's Spaghetti Sauce |
Sources
- “1930 U.S. Census,” PETRINI, Albert household, St. Louis City, MO, Ward 26, ED 194, 2 Apr 1930, NARA microfilm, T626, FamilySearch, https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1942-22813-7745-88?cc=1810731, image 1 of 44, accessed 11 Jul 2016.
- “1920 U.S. Census,” PETRINI, Albert Family, St. Louis, Missouri, Ward 5, ED 89, 16 Jan 1920, NARA Microfilm, T625, FamilySearch, https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1951-23020-17174-54?cc=1488411, image 22 of 24, accessed 11 Jul 2016.
- PETRINI, William, “Death Certificate,” File #67924, St. Louis, Missouri, 28 July 1948, Bureau of Vital Records, St. Louis, Missouri.
- PETRINI, Aurelia, “Death Certificate,” File #7142, St. Louis City, Missouri, 26 Feb 1930, Missouri State Archives, http://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/, accessed Mar 2007.
- PETRINI, Giovani Olivio Adelindo, Birth Certificate, Capannori, Italy, 19 Feb 1904, Commune di Capannori.
- PETRINI, Roberto - ORSI, Aurelia, “Marriage Record,” Lucca, Italy, 5 Mar 1885, Family Search, https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1951-32572-1873-82?cc=2043811, 30 Mar 2015.
- ORSI, Maria Aurelia Guglielma, “Birth Record,” Lucca, Italy, 23 Nov 1868, Family Search, https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1951-32563-13413-85?cc=2043811&wc=M9SF-9DQ:n381663377, accessed 29 Dec 2013.
- 1PETRINI, Aurelia, “obituary,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, St. Louis, Missouri, 26 Feb 1930, pg 23, Newspapers.com, accessed 9 Jul 2016.
- 1ORSOLINI, Ida, “obituary,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, St. Louis, Missouri, 8 Jul 1928, pg 71, Newspapers.com, accessed 12 Jul 2016.
- PETRINI, Frank L, “obituary,” Poughkeepsie Journal, Poughkeepsie, New York, 1 Jun 1976, pg 23, Newspapers.com, 17 Jul 2016.
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