52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 24

June 10, 2025

Week 24:

The theme for Week 24 is “Artistic.” Is there a painter, crafter, quilter, knitter, crocheter, or musician in the family? This is their week.

Dora Elizabeth Casini DeJoesph

Born: 16 Feb 1930 Hersey, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, USA

Died: 21 Oct 2014 Texas

Dora Elizabeth Casini Coleman DeJoseph was my paternal grandmother's sister.

My great aunt Dora was a chain smoker. Growing up, the only time I remember seeing her without a cigarette was when she was crocheting Afghan blankets. She lived in Oregon and would fly to Pennsylvania for family visits. She couldn't smoke on the plane, so she'd crochet to occupy her hands. She couldn't smoke inside of our house when she visited, so she crocheted. She could whip up a blanket in record time! Everyone in the immediate family had at least one of Aunt Dora's handmade Afghan blankets.

She was a talented and longtime seamstress. She made custom draperies and bedspreads for movie and TV shows such as `Golden Girls" and "The Carol Burnett Show."'

Aunt Dora won recognition for crocheting blankets and donating them to veterans organizations over the years. (I remember reading this fact in her obituary, but never realized the extent of her charity work until looking for newspaper articles about her for this blog post.)

Aunt Dora was apparently known everywhere as "Aunt", which is illustrated in the newspaper articles detailing the volunteer awards that she was honored to receive.

License for Dora's first marriage to Raymond A. Coleman in 1946. His first name is misspelled as Daymond. She was only 16 years old. The marriage didn't last long. A few years later she shows up in the census records at her parent's house and is listed as separated.

She would later marry Carl DeJoesph and they would remain married until his death.