G2G: What became of African-American GI Cornelius Lynn and Maria Nuovo from Corato after they returned to Kentucky ?

Question

The local coratino historian Pasquale Tandoi wrote an article about an African-American GI called Cornelius Lynn who married the coratina Maria Nuovo and returned to the US with her in 1953, presumably to Kentucky. You can read about their story here : https://www.emigrazione-corato.org/medias/files/a-coratina-girl-and-the-afro-american-gi.pdf

 

Would anyone at Wikitree like to follow up on what happened to them when they returned to the US ?

If you’re interested, please send me a message !

 

Maria was the cousin of Dominique d’Introno, who contacted me in 2019 to find help for the writing of his own migration story, which began with the crossing of the Alps on foot at the age of 6 : https://www.emigrazione-corato.org/medias/files/dominique-d-introno-english.pdf

Dominique would be glad to make contact with the descendants of Cornelius and Maria.

Answer 1

Looks like Cornelius was from a large family in Graves County. He married Mayme DeBerry in Kentucky in 1946. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2DH-3YD2

His first wife, Mayme Lynn, died in 2008 and she had not changed her name from Lynn.She had a son with the surname of Jones. I don't think that Cornelius was the father of that son, but something happened between 1946 and 1953 to send Cornelius back to Italy to reunite his family.

Cornelius Lynn died in 1984. His social security card was issued from Maryland.

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/122375191/cornelius-lynn/ He died in Tacoma, Washington.

Giuseppe or Joe lived in San Antonio, Texas in 1984.

Their daughter:https://www.newspapers.com/clip/122375436/bertha-lynn-marrieds/ became a television news reporter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwwYafsc1vM

So, there's a few stories there for you. Even though Pasquale Tandoi  thought that their lives would be tough, they managed to stay married, moved to a more accepting environment, and had a daughter that became a locally-famed reporter in Colorado.

I created a profile for Cornelius. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Lynn-4284