John Henry Tapella Sr. Family

John Henry Tapella Sr.

This is where the anecdotal information will go. This will stay pretty stable. For more volatile information, a link will be provided to a PDF file that can be composed and maintained with tools such as Word and then saved as a PDF for loading to the web site. This eliminates the need to know how to program the individual web pages.

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John Tapella was the fourth child and third son of Geralamo Tapella, born in Cuggiono Italy on April 21, 1999. He came to the US with the rest of his family in 1915 through Ellis Island and destined for St. Louis. A story has been told of this trip. John somehow lost his shoes in Genoa and was forced to buy a very cheap pair. In the course of the sailing, the shoes disintegrated from the sea water and had to have the soles replaced with cardboard.

Very little is known about John prior to WWII. During the war, John entered the Navy and served as a Seabee. He was a very sharp card player and manipulator. He managed to return from the war with a handsome amount of money which he invested wisely.

He married Jennie Barbaglia in 1946. They had three children, John Jr., Angela, and Gerard (who died shortly after childbirth).

by Charles Tapella