NORTH SYRACUSE — Last week, we tasked readers with solving a “History Mystery” on Lynn Drive in North Syracuse. Mike and Karen Casey — no relation to this reporter — discovered two large framed portraits in a crawl space in their home and were hoping to return the pictures to the family.
The mystery has been solved. Carla Brigandi Jordan contacted the Star-Review when she recognized some familiar faces on the front of last week’s edition.
“I’m looking at the portrait of my grandparents on the front page of the Star-Review,” Jordan wrote in an email. “I grew up in that house.”
The bride and groom in one of the Lynn Drive portraits are Anna Piazza and Anthony Brigandi. According to a wedding announcement in the Nov. 28, 1927, edition of the Syracuse Journal, found on fultonhistory.com, the Brigandis were married in November 1927. Their son and daughter-in-law, Carmen and Ann, are Jordan’s parents.
Jordan believes the other portrait, which depicts a young woman from the early 1900s, is Anna Piazza Brigandi’s mother, Vincenza Piazza.
“My understanding is that my grandmother’s mother died young and her father remarried to Rose [Polito],” Jordan said.
According to findagrave.com, Vincenza Piazza died in 1910 at age 28. She is buried in St. Agnes Cemetery in Syracuse, and Jordan has contacted the cemetery to see if she can find out more about her great-grandmother.
Jordan met up with the Caseys on April 8 to reclaim her family portraits.
“I went to the house and met Mike and Karen. We had a very nice visit,” Jordan said.
“She was very happy,” Mike Casey told the Star-Review.
