Tombstone Tuesday – Adela and Risveglio Capelli

Last week I wrote a post about finding the death certificates for my Grandfather’s cousins.  You can read their stories here and here.

This weekend I followed up and looked for the gravestones of the children on www.findagrave.com.  Using the cemetery information from the death certificates, I quickly located both children and a photo of their shared grave.

Digital Camera
Findagrave.com, digital images (http://www.findagrave.com), accessed 14 July 2014, photograph by Randy Knight, gravestone for Adela Capelli (8 Set 1913 – 23 Nov 1916) and Risveglio Capelli (19 Agos 1911- 23 Nov 1916), Find A Grave memorial #66220248, Redstone Cemetery, Brownsville, Fayette, Pennsylvania. Used with permission from Randy Knight.

 

This photo helps to explain the conflict of first names I have found for the children. To recap, the newspaper article about their death the children are named Elma and Slavelli Cappelli.  The death certificates list the children as Adela Cofelli and Resveglio Copelli.  This tombstone names the children as Adela Capelli and Risveglio Capelli.

I have to believe that the names provided in the newspaper account were incorrect.  The journalist who wrote the story was on site at an active fire and surrounded by chaos.  It is easy to see that the names he acquired were close but incorrect.  I also think that language may have been a barrier.  I am not sure how much english my family spoke in 1916.  Even if they did, I am fairly confident that they spoke with a heavy accent.  My grandfather told me how his cousin, Mabel, would repeatedly tell her mother she needed to speak english as they were growing up.

The names provided to the Pennsylvania authorities and the gravestone are almost exactly the same.  I will be using the spelling used on the gravestones as the names listed in my genealogy software.  I will be sure to add a note for the other spellings.

The last time I was visiting my parents in Virginia, we spoke about visiting the Pittsburgh area for genealogy research the next time I visit.  Now we will be able to stop at the Redstone Cemetery to pay our respects to Adela and Risveglio.

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