I have a login to Ancestry.com and received a “hint” about Uncle Mike Kushlyk that made me check the census records for him.  I was always confused when we visited with Aunt Ann and Uncle Mike in the Bronx because we called his mother that lived with them as “Mrs. Peterson” and his brother who lived upstairs was Joseph Peterson. So why was his last name “Kushlyk”?  I found this was very confusing but with sufficient searching this week it is an interesting story that I wanted to share with you…

This is a video of Ann & Mike Kusklyk’s wedding in Carteret, NJ in 1950 at the Nardi/Turco home. It includes several generations of the Nardi family including the Nardi grandparents (Jennie and Matteo), their children Ann, Pat, and Rose Nardi (Joe Nardi’s family is absent), and many of the family members in both Pat Nardi and Mike Kusklyk’s family that were living in the Bronx, NY.

Link: http://www.ragucci.net/familystory/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Kusklyk_Wedding_1950..m4v

NOTE: This video was taken by Dominic Ragucci (who never appears in the video). It was convert first from 8MM tape, then to VHS tape (in 2000), and finally to this MPG video format. Thus, the quality is quite poor since the original was 50 years old when it was first converted.

Phone conversation with Jean (Turco) Walko recorded by  Joe Ragucci

Over the last week we have been talking as a result of Aunt Ann Kusklyk death.  Several items worth recording about the Nardi Family came up and are recorded here (to be moved to a more complete post later).

1. Aunt Ann Kusklyk died Jan 19th after getting pneumonia last week.  She  was one month shy of her 94th birthday.  For the last 10 years she was not really alive suffering from alzheimer.  This started to be noticed when her husband Michael died.  We moved her into a Assisted Living home in Edison for several years until she got so bad that she was moved closer to Jean in Toms River.  Over the last 4 years she didn’t even talk any more.  Her body was healthy which is why she lived so long. 
2. We talked about this family history BLOG and Jean mentioned that she has very few photos of her family.  She didn’t even know what our grandmothers maiden name was.  We agreed to get together when it gets warmer to share what we have.
3. She remembers that our grandfather was adopted.  In looking at the Ellis Island record it appears that he came to the US with someone who was his brother but had a different last name.
4. She remembers that our grandmother was from a wealthy family that disowned her when she married our grandfather.  She also remembers her being a poor cook.
5. She said that her father (Yonce) worked on a ship and he jumped ship in NY which is how he ended up here.  She remembers him talking about be amazed at banana’s which he had never seen.  She also remembers his talking about being ashamed of how much he ate so he actually ate at mulitple places so no one knew.

Recollections of Rosalie Ragucci-Cook

Aunt Ann loved to go shopping.  She would go to the old Menlo Park Mall almost every day.  Uncle Mike would drive her there and he would sit on the benches outside of Bambergers (later, Macy’s) while she walked around.  To this day, every time I see an old man sitting on a bench in the mall, I think of Uncle Mike. 

Aunt Ester and Uncle Yonce (Carl) lived upstairs my grandmother and grandfather in Carteret as I was growing up.  Yonce (as everyone called him) was a mason and actually, together with my father Dom, built the brick house on Linden Street in Carteret.   I saw Aunt Ester quite often as she would frequently come downstairs when my father and I would visit with my grandparents who lived downstairs.  Yonce was a quiet hard working man. The thing I remember vividly is his hands which were hard like sandpaper due to handling bricks and cement his whole life. 

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Growing up, I had minimal interactions with Joe Nardi’s family.  I’m not sure why but they had a large family (6 children) and seemed to keep to themselves.  Even though the family lived primarily in Carteret, most of my interaction with them was at weddings and funerals.  I never heard any thing negative. In fact, our interactions were always very cordial and respectful of our common family heritage.  Their family was very talented in terms of music.  Sam Nardi had a great voice, sang in clubs on weekends, and was always asked to sing at weddings.  He also became a Deacon.  Eventually, Sam moved to Stoudsburg, PA and Jennie moved to Colorado and then Arizona.  The other family members stayed in NJ where Joe Nardi lived at the time of his death.