I have spent countless hours researching this family tree. I was fortunate to know my grandparents, Lena and Domenico Volpe, and paternal grandmother, Serena Marks. I also knew my great-grandmother, Callie Lemley. She was blind in the last years of her life, but I remember her vividly.

Ever since I was a little girl, I was very interested in my "Italian" side of the family and always dreamed of seeing Italy. I became interested in tracing the family tree and trying to find out why and how they all came to this country. I have learned so much over the years. For instance, none of the family thought that Santoro Volpe had ever come to the U.S. However, I found that not to be true when I found his passenger record arriving at Ellis Island. We always wondered how his wife, Anna, was brave enough to travel alone with her children. Then after more research and finding out about her sister, I learned that she traveled to the U.S. with her brother-in-law, which made the journey somewhat easier. The icing on the cake came in April, 2001. I had written to someone in Sicily trying to find out if I had any living relatives still there. I was always told no, but to come anyway. So we planned a trip there - a lifetime fantasy. What I found out was that I had over 30 living cousins still in the same town of Corleone. We also surmised that the reason the family did not keep in touch was because no one on either end knew how to read or write!! I was the first relative to visit the family since 1898! What a privilege and an honor.

• Laura Nyhuis (Marks) Family Tree (5 KB)
  

• Lucia Cutrone Rizzo (101 KB)
  This is my great grandmother who comes from Corleone, Sicily
• My Mom and Dad, Ann and Jim Gardiner (91 KB)
  Mom married Jim when I was 9 years old. I came to love him as my father. He was a wonderful man.
• The Marks' and the Volpe's (56 KB)
  Photo taken prior to 1947. From left to right: Bill Marks, Annie Volpe, Lena Volpe, Sonny Volpe, Domenico Volpe, Serena Marks (Lemley) and Eugene Marks. My maternal and paternal grandparents, uncle, and my parents.
• Mama and her brother, Sonny (95 KB)
  Taken in Los Angeles around 1928
• Family of Leoluca Rizzo and Lucia Cutrone (20 KB)
  Taken in Los Angeles around 1927.
• Lemley Cemetery Records in Weatherford, Texas (960 KB)
  This will show where the parents of James Lemley, George and Lucinda Lemley are buried.
• The Family of CARMELLO & ANGELINA CUTRONE (77 KB)
  These are my great-great grandparents and their children taken before they left Sicily. Carmello was 41 and Angelina was 30. My great grandmother, Lucia, was 8 years old when they arrived at Ellis Island on October 28, 1898. They sailed from Palermo on the Vessel California.
• Antonio Cutrone and his family (255 KB)
  This was taken before Carmello, Bernardo, and Lucca left Sicily to bring their families to America. Giuseppe was the brother than remained in Sicily to care for their father. From him, came all the family left in Corleone.
• Cutrone Cousins living in Sicily (57 KB)
  These are a few of the cousins that I was able to meet on my trip to Sicily in 2001. They welcomed us with open arms and it was an experience of a lifetime.
• St. Joseph Table 1958 (133 KB)
  Grama and Grampa Volpe (Lena and Dom) celebrated the feast of St. Joseph in 1958 by making this wonderful table in his honor. It was a day off of school for the kids and a great celebration all day.
• Anna Volpe and her sons (111 KB)
  Anna Volpe (D'Angelo) with Pietro and Domenico.

• Written History (40 KB)
  This is what started it all.

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