Maria Bini - small (but exciting) update

Well, it's been quite a while now since I've made a new entry. I've learned quite a bit about the Binis over the last 7(?!) years, but the past week has been a whirlwind. I don't have too much more to say about Maria at this point, but thought she was worthy of a new post. 

Sidetracking a bit: I have tested my and my mom's DNA on Ancestry, 23andMe, MyHeritage, and FTDNA. I spent a lot of time in the early days trying to understand why my mom had Scottish ethnicity (her grandparents were Italian and Slovak) and why we had so many unknown cousins. I then made the shocking discovery that my maternal great grandfather was not who we believed. Michael Luknar, born in Ivanka pri Dunaji, Slovakia and married to my great grandmother Ernestina Kassa from 1909-1939, was not my grandmother's father. I have no explanation for what exactly happened between my great grandmother and a man by the last name Sneddon, but she apparently had some sort of relationship with him that led to the birth of my grandmother in 1923. I don't know who else knew about this, but it was certainly news to my mother and aunt. If my grandmother knew, she took the secret to her grave. I managed to get in contact with Sneddons still living in Uniontown, PA where my grandmother's family lived, and my mom and I took a road trip to meet our new found cousin, see where my grandmother grew up, and detour to a cemetery in Northern Cambria, PA.

Maria Addolorata Bini, born March 2, 1895 in Coreggia, Italy arrived in Philadelphia on April 21, 1921. She married Antonio Palmisano on July 9, 1921 in Utica, NY, where my great grandmother's brother Antonio Giacovelli was a witness. She then moved to Barnesboro, PA and died less than a year after her marriage on June 7, 1922. On our way home from Uniontown, we stopped at the cemetery where Maria was buried, Mount Carmel Cemetery in Northern Cambria, PA. I'm not sure why the gravestone says August 7, or what D.A.P. stands for (perhaps initials of the name for their child?). But it was bittersweet to have finally found Maria, after years of my family wondering what happened to her. I imagine we were probably the first visitors to her grave in many decades. I hope someday we can venture out that way and visit her grave again.

While I have more posts to write with more groundbreaking information on my new photo collection, I believe I now have a photo of Maria. Written on the back of the photo, it appears to be addressed to Signora Angelina Giacovelli (my great grandmother). In the same handwriting it says "Ricordo Della tua ?osciuta Cognata Bini Maria". I'm not sure if there was anything before the word "osciuta", but it appears to roughly translate to "I remember your well-known sister in law Bini Maria". In what is likely my great aunt's handwriting, it says "sister Maria Italy". I'm not sure who wrote the Italian part, or why it was addressed to Angelina and not Cosmo, but it seems highly likely that this is Maria.

While I don't know if there's anything more to learn about Maria at this point, I'm now considering whether it would be worth tracking down Maria's husband's family, to see if they have any photos or information about her. If I get the nerve or ambition to do this, and happen to find out anything new, I'll be sure to post another update. 

Until then, I'm happy to say that the mystery of Cosmo's sister Maria has been solved!