Tuesday, March 27, 2001
When I was five years old, I went to a school in the suburbs of Detroit called Roeper Country Day School. My first day of kindergarten, they introduced the teachers, and I was astonished to hear that one of them (not my teacher) was named Kathi Brandi. But the last name was pronounced with a long "i", that is, "brand-eye", not "brand-ee", the way my family pronounced it. I think I remember seeing a look of surprise on that young teacher's face; I know I was surprised, as I had never met anyone with the same last name outside my own family. I remember having my name called for roll and having to correct the teacher on the pronunciation.
32 years later, I'm happy to say that the mystery is solved. Kathi Brandi is the wife of my third cousin, once removed, David Brandi, who contacted me after his brother Jim saw Mike Wendland's article in the Detroit News/Free Press last weekend. David, Jim, and their brother Dan (who I have now also heard from), as well as their sister Cathy, are descended from Salvatore/Sam Brandi, who came to America in 1910. And Dan's wife Sherry is apparently a genealogist. :-) More cousins!
Posted at 9:36:16 PM
