A surprise find: a picture of Eleanor Ftzpatrick Bongiovi

In today's interconnected world, sometimes you get a pleasant family history surprise. Recently, I was contacted by the granddaughter of my grandmother's adopted father. Among other things, she pointed me to an online tree that had a picture of my grandmother as a very young child being held by her adopted mother. I've shared it with my dad and neither he or his siblings have seen this before.

I've contacted the owner of the tree, but have not yet heard back from him. I have no idea how he got the photo. However, my dad thinks the older lady is his grandmother (who adopted his mother) and I see the family resemblance in the little girl, so I think it is reasonable to believe this is who the online tree says it is: my grandmother, Eleanor Fitzpatrick Bongiovi and her adopted mother, Anna Bender Fitzpatrick.

In my email exchange with my adopted cousin, she shared some stories that reminded me how special this family was. My grandmother's adopted mother, Anna Bender was first married to Frank Tscherne (or Scherne) and they had two children. My grandmother's adopted father, Charles Fitzpatrick, was also married to another lady, probably Lillian Eise, and they had one son, Charles Jr. Both of the spouses died before 1920 and Charles and Anna ended up married before my Grandmother was born in 1925. When my Grandmother's mother died soon after childbirth, Charles and Anna took her in and raised her.

This could not have been easy. Everyone in this story was first or second generation Americans living in Brooklyn, NY. According to my Grandparents, Charles was a beer truck driver. I am sure it was not easy adding another child to a family of step children in the middle of 1920s Brooklyn.