I’ve been a little bumbed (?) out lately because I am having difficulty finding my father’s relatives.  Possible due to the years in which these folks lived.  Eddie was born in 1891.  I was able to send away for his Social Security Card Application from 1937 and both his father’s name and his mother’s maiden name were on the application, but I have searched and searched and I cannot find either one of them.  Married or single.  My father’s birth certificate no longer exists according to the Maryland Vital Records and aunt’s and uncles are long gone.  I have found one article that says Eddie was moving his mother into “Gotham” in 1925, and one article in which Eddie himself says he was related to a Bishop James A. Handy, who was a big deal in the AME church but died in 1911.  Eddie was a star of stage, screen and radio and that is basically how I get my information about his life.  I know that he was not a happy child and left home at about nine year of age, so I guess once he got out he never looked back.  I forget, no, I don’t want to remember that government record-keeping for Black folks in the late 1800’s was not like it is today.

The Family Tree.  I want to trace my roots.  As I sit here it dawns on me that not only can I not find Eddie’s family, I’m having trouble finding information on mom’s family.  Especially her father who was Italian and whose parents were born in Italy.  My mom’s father’s name was Guiseppe Amato and he was born in New York.  There were a million Guiseppe Amatos in New York in 1896.  He changed his name to Joe and lived in Los Angeles until the 1950s, but I have not found any paper trails.  I know he was a barber.  I haven’t given up, though it takes away from my writing time.

Below I will introduce you to my immediate family, I have one of two of their pictures up in other posts, so forgive the redundancy.  I just love my family so much and they are truly supportive of my effort to document and publish the story of my father’s life:

My grandson Edward (I thought Melony named him after my father, but I was wrong), my daughter Melony and me.  My sister Donna, my brother Brian and my brother Brad, no, he’s not a Laker, just a serious fan.  Welcome to the family.

Until next time.