The prompt for 18 March 2016 is to write about talented female ancestors in your family tree.


March 18 — Shining star: Did you have a female ancestor who had a special talent? Artist, singer, actress, athlete, seamstress, or other? Describe.


[Note: This post originally ran during the Fearless Females series in March 2010]


I always said that my mother should have opened her own bakery. She was a great cook, but she had a real talent for making cakes, cookies, and other desserts. Her specialty: Lady Locks–dainty puffed pastry with creme filling. She made them for every wedding, baptism, graduation, and other special event in our family and they would disappear from the cookie table in a flash! Making these cookies requires patience and precision and I remember watching my mother labor for hours–working to get the dough just right before wrapping it around the special pins, and then after they came out of the oven would carefully fill each one using a pastry bag, and then delicately coat them with powdered sugar from her “magical” powdered sugar can.

Anna Alzo (right) with her cousin Mary, baking cookies for a family wedding.

They weren’t just cookies–they were works of art!

Copyright 2016, Lisa A. Alzo
All Rights Reserved

The prompt for 15 March is to write a short (six-word) tribute that characterizes a female ancestor.

March 15 — Write a six-word memoir tribute to one of your female ancestors.

This exercise is based on the book, “Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure.”

Here is mine for my grandmother.

Elizabeth Alzo. Photo privately held by Lisa Alzo

Elizabeth Fencsak Alzo (paternal grandmother): Fine hair. Tough as nails. Enigma.

The prompt for 13 March is to share a story that reflects a female ancestor’s moment of strength during a difficult time or situation. 

March 13 – Moment of Strength: Share a story where a female ancestor showed courage or strength in a difficult situation.

[Note: This post originally ran during the Fearless Females series in March 2010]

For this post, I am remembering my mother, Anna, and the grace and dignity she showed during the final years of her life. In 1997, my mother had triple bypass heart surgery, and simultaneously was diagnosed with renal failure, resulting in her having to endure a three-year regimen of kidney dialysis. During this time I served as her primary caregiver and watched her suffer through all of the side effects associated with the procedure. She showed tremendous courage and strength through it all. My mother passed away in 2000, but she fought until the very end.

Anna Alzo, 2000, Photo privately held by Lisa Alzo

The above photo of my mother was taken on the deck in my backyard not long before she passed away. She loved to sit on the deck and feel the warm sunshine and listen to the birds (especially the cardinals–her favorite bird). There is not a day that goes by when I don’t think of my mother.

Copyright 2016, Lisa A. Alzo
All Rights Reserved

The prompt for 12 March is about work and our female ancestors.

March 12 — Working girl: Did your mother or grandmother work outside the home? What did she do? Describe her occupation.

[Note: This post originally ran during the Fearless Females series in March 2010]

My mother worked part-time as a receptionist in an optometrist’s office. She likely did not have to because my father had a steady job as a carpenter on the railroad and did other carpentry jobs on the side, but my mother worked to save money to help pay for my high school and college education. I am so grateful.

Anna Alzo

The prompt for 10 March asks about the role of religion and faith in the lives of our female ancestors.

March 10 — What role did religion play in your family? How did your female ancestors practice their faith? If they did not, why didn’t they? Did you have any female ancestors who served their churches in some capacity?

[Note: This post originally ran during the Fearless Females series in March 2010]
Both of my grandmothers had a deep faith in God. Both were baptized in the Greek Catholic rite. After coming to America, my dad’s mother married in the Greek Catholic church but then followed her husband to the Roman Catholic church. My maternal grandmother attending the Greek Catholic church in America but then switched to Russian Orthodox. By doing so, she was then able to continue to observe Christmas on January 7th].

My dad’s sister was a Roman Catholic nun–she spent most of her adult life in a convent in Victoria, Texas. Our family always looked forward to her visits–usually at Christmas and for a few weeks in the summer. Here is a photograph of her once she took the name of Sr. M. Camilla.

Sr. Mary Camilla Alzo

Most people wouldn’t think it was “cool” to have a nun in the family.  For anyone who attended Catholic school, nuns were the teachers you typically revered, but mostly feared. Dressed in their long habits and stiff veils, with rosary beads in one hand and a long yardstick in the other, they could intimidate even the most pious child.  For me, however, my father’s sister, a Roman Catholic nun, was one of the coolest people I knew.  She didn’t scare me in the least.  In fact, I admired, respected, and simply adored her.

Born on January 7, 1918 in Duquesne, Pennsylvania, a young Anna Alzo knew from the time she was 13 that she wanted to follow this vocation.  Her father, John, was Roman Catholic, but her mother, Elizabeth, had been baptized Greek Catholic, but followed her husband to the Roman Catholic faith upon marriage.


On June 25, 1934, at age 16, Anna followed her calling and entered Nazareth convent in Victoria, Texas to begin her journey as a sister in the order of the Blessed Sacrament of the Incarnate Word.  She chose the name Sister Mary Camilla.  Mostly everyone just called her “Sister Camilla.”  I called her “Auntie.” 

My Auntie died in 1986 in Victoria, Texas. I miss her very much.

You can read more about my Auntie’s story in a post I wrote for The Catholic Gene blog back in October 2011.

[Photo from the Alzo family collection. Held for private use by Lisa A.Alzo, Ithaca, New York. Used with permission]

Copyright, 2016, Lisa A. Alzo
All rights reserved

The Fearless Females prompt for 5 March 2016 is:

March 5 — How did they meet? You’ve documented marriages, now, go back a bit. Do you know the story of how your parents met? Your grandparents?

John Alzo, Sr. (left) and Elizabeth Alzo posing with my father John Alzo (right) in their backyard in Duquesne, PA, 1944.

In yesterday’s post 4 March 2016, I included my grandparents’ wedding photograph and a story about ordering their marriage license application.  The story of how they met is interesting. Family lore said it was in a boarding house in Pennsylvania, but the truth is more likely that they met when they were growing up in Slovakia.

In a short document entitled “Our Family Background” my aunt, Sr. M. Camilla Alzo, wrote down what she learned from a cousin:

“Cetka [Mary] came to America. She sent for Elizabeth (my mother) to come to America. She came, had a job working for a Jewish family, but visited Cetka [Mary] often. Dad came over to America and was a boarder at Mary’s house.  This is where Mom and Dad met and then married.”

When I traveled to Slovakia, I met my cousin Helen (daughter of my grandfather’s sister Anna who remained in Slovakia) and she mentioned how my grandparents had known one another growing up and that they worked in the same fields and celebrated together at the religious pilgrimages that included many people from their respective villages (located just miles apart).  

Field in Kucin, Slovakia, representative of  the land where my grandparents worked (and likely met) as children.

Whether it was the boarding house or the field, I am just grateful that my grandparents were matched to each other.  I never knew either of them (my grandfather died before I was born and my grandmother died when I was just 2-years-old), but my interest in genealogy has helped me to learn more about them.


© 2016, Copyright Lisa A. Alzo
All Rights Reserved

The prompt for Fearless Females for 4 March 2016 focuses on marriage records.

Do you have marriage records for your grandparents or great-grandparents? Write a post about where they were married and when. Any family stories about the wedding day? Post a photo too if you have one. 

Below is the photo of my grandparents John and Elizabeth Fencak Alzo taken on their wedding day. They were married on 21 January 1915 in Duquesne, Pennsylvania.

Wedding photograph of John Alzo and Elizabeth Fencak, 1915. Image privately held by Lisa A. Alzo.

I have their marriage certificate. It was given to me by my cousin who had it in a box of her mother’s personal belongings.

Marriage certificate for John Alzo and Elizabeth Fencak, 1915. Image privately held by Lisa A. Alzo.

When researching female ancestors (or any ancestors) we must always look for all records. So it was not enough for me to have my grandparents’ marriage certificate.  I wanted to obtain their marriage license application.  When I contacted the Orphans Court in Allegheny County, PA the first time I was told there was no application for the names I listed on the request form (John Alzo and Elizabeth Fencak). As it turns out, my grandparents wrote their names as what appears to be “John Olyzso” and Lizie Fenyisik,” so it is easy to see how someone might index those names in a book or database. 

Marriage license application, for John Alzo and Elizabeth Fencak, 1915. Image privately held by Lisa A. Alzo.

But genealogists learn not to take “No” for an answer and to be persistent. So I wrote back to the Orphans Court and the second time I included the number listed on the bottom of the certificate. Sure enough, I eventually received an envelope with the copy of the marriage license application I had requested.

Tip:  Think like a transcriptionist. Even simple four letter names such as “Alzo” can have spelling issues. Always consider all the ways an ancestor’s name might be spelled or interpreted when searching databases or requesting records. Also, always be sure to include all important information on the application the first time!

This is one of the tips I will be covering in my Ladies First: Finding Your Female Ancestors Mini Boot Camp tomorrow 5 March 2016.  

[Note: The live boot camp session is sold out but watch this blog for an announcement of when the digital recording will be available for purchase.]


© 2016, Copyright Lisa A. Alzo
All Rights Reserved