The Niagara County Genealogical Society is pleased to announce the shelving of Part One of the 13 Volume “Carolyn J. TOMAINO EPPS Collection” at the Niagara County Genealogical Society Library, 215 Niagara St. on the second floor of the Niagara History Center in Lockport, NY.
As curator of this almost 50-year collection on behalf of Carolyn, I completed the organization and presentation of the TOMAINO/BISHOP side which includes Carolyn’s parent’s surnames. It represents to date the largest collection of Lockport and Niagara County Italian family history that our society own and includes surnames like BONACCI, CERRA, COSTANZO, FALVO, GIGLIOTTI, INGRATIA, MOLINARO, MORASCO, PANE, PERRI, SACCO, SCALZO, SERIANNI and TUCCI to name a few and of course TOMAINO.
Carolyn visited the TOMAINO hometown of Tomaini, Catanzaro, Calabria, Italy a few years back and connected with relatives and saw a few family homesteads. This trip is detailed in the collection. Carolyn also did a wonderful job of researching the history and culture of towns where TOMAINO’s and related families lived.
Also included in Part One of this collection is a separate binder with a more intensive treatment of noted “Mayor of Lower Town” (Lockport), Angelo “Mike MINA” TOMAINO, (her first cousin, 2x removed) as well as the Italian Poems of Salvatore TOMAINO, 1917, translated into English.
The BISHOP side includes beautiful personal remembrances from Carolyn’s mother Mary Jane BISHOP regarding her early life on the Bishop Farm on what is now Bowmiller Road in Lockport. Mary Jane’s familial surnames include the huge DYSINGER family and Carolyn has added to the extensive work already completed by Frank DYSINGER, which is also housed in our library. Additional surnames on the BISHOP side include BEHE, BEEBE, CARL, SINGER, MILLER, HOLLENBACH and many others.
As the collection was curated and organized, I limited the documents that I thinned from the collection, wanting to maintain the integrity of Carolyn’s almost 50 years of collecting, communication and travel. The first 15 years of this work were completed before the advent of the Internet! There is an entire volume devoted to TOMAINO family communication, and her personal, handwritten letters are interspersed throughout the collection.
It’s been an honor to curate this collection on behalf of Carolyn and the NCGS! Please come in and see it or request a look up if you are a member of NCGS. We are open Thursday – Saturday each week, 1-4:30 pm. Also encourage your friends (and yourself) to get their collection organized and donate a copy (or the collection) to NCGS. We can be reached at info@niagaragenealogy.org
Part Two will include the EPPS and HAYDEN sides which are Richards EPPS parental surnames and will include some Lockport MORAN family data as well. These lines will be placed into white binders as the Carolyn J. TOMAINO EPPS Collection and representing all her husband’s lines. NCGS will announce when Part Two is ready.
Please feel free to forward this article to family and friends this may of interest to. Special thanks to NHC Curator Terry Abrams who took the call from Carolyn’s daughter Cindy, then gave the NCGS and I the heads up. I picked up the collection in two suitcases and a large box and the rest is history!
