Tip #10; Evidence & Family Stories (Ronzoni Pasta Anyone?)

My mother told me several stories about her mother when I was a child.  I regret that I never asked my grandmother about them.  My tip is to treat these stories as you would any ancestry research and look for records that can back the story up (even if it's circumstantial.)

One of the cool stories is that she had dated  Ray Ronzoni (of the Ronzoni Pasta Family.)

Now while I believed the story, I had really no idea or direct evidence that this was indeed the same Ronzoni as the family that founded Ronzoni Pasta.

On Ronzoni's website (click here) there is a brief history of Ronzoni Pasta.  The following is summarized from the official Ronzoni website:

"In 1881, Emanuele Ronzoni  emigrated from the small fishing village of San Fruttuoso, Italy, to the United States. and launched his own small macaroni company in Queens, NY."

Ok, this seems promising as my Grandmother lived in Queens, NY, but how to prove that Ray Ronzoni was related to Emanuele Ronzoni?  I recently looked up the 1920 & 1930 Census Records of Emanuel Ronzoni and sure enough he had a son named Raymond Ronzoni who was one (1) year older than my Grandmother. Both my Grandmother & Ronzoni were born in New York but their parents were born in Italy.  The Census records of each were in the same neighboorhood.  The evidence seems to back this story.

The definitive evidence came from two (2) photos of my Grandmother's brother, Sylvester or "Syl" on a boat. 

The interesting thing is that when I turned the photos over they were both annotated, in my grandmother's handwriting, "Syl on Ray Ronzoni's boat."

I think the evidence here pretty much confirms the story, and to think... I could have been an heir to a pasta empire!

You can create your own family tree too!