Honestly, I'm not a fan of writing about myself, but as my family said, people like to hear stories, so here you go..
I was born and raised in New York, lived in Bethpage, Levittown, Brookville/Brentsville, Roslyn, Sea Cliff, and Port Washington all in the span of 12 years. A lot of moving around due to my father and my first stepfather passing away, neither of whom (or is it who?) I knew very well. I was the youngest of 3 children, my sister was 12 years older and my brother 10 years older, both born in Rome, Italia. My Mom referred to herself as a war bride, which I would say is accurate since she was taken away from her home land and her mother, 3 brothers and 1 sister. After coming to USA in 1948, she had me 8 years later, undoubtedly a surprise!
I was young when my father passed, I didn't know much about him since no one really talked about him or his family, but through the help of my sister-in-law, aka super sleuth of genealogy, she found out more than I could ever imagine.
My fathers' family had a dark past. There is absolutely no information on my father's mother except for a birth and marriage certificate, but no record of death. I was told my father was an orphan when he was was young. We believe NY State/County official had a sister who was childless and she took in my father. Then my sister-in-law found a newspaper article which was literally jaw dropping. In December of 1936 a man murdered his wife, her 10 year old child from another "marriage" and then turned the gun on himself. Apparently, as the newspaper article read, was crazed over marital difficulties after learning that the 10 year old girl was born out of wedlock.
In 1942 my father enlisted in the US Army at the age of 29 and was honorably discharged in 1945. He married my mother in Rome in 1945, and he adopted my sister who was born out of wedlock (seriously, I'm not making this up). My mother never disclosed the identity of my sisters father.
All the the information that I have was through my sister-in-law's research and documents that I found after my mothers' death (2014) and my sisters death in (2020). My father died in 1962. May they all rest in peace.
After my fathers death, my mother married another man who wasn't into children, so my sister went into Manhattan and attended FIT, my brother was shipped off to Peekskill military academy and I was shipped off to what I refer to as the dungeons of St Joseph's Academy in Brentsville, NY. I was 8 years old and was the only boarder in 3rd grade, the next boarder was in 5th grade. I don't remember very many weekends that I got to go home, it certainly wasn't a happy time. Then when I was 10 years old, my stepfather died and my mother and I moved to Roslyn, then Port Washington.