Geno, Edith, and Tony, the youngest 3 of the “Big 7” DiBagno siblings (the name I like to use to refer to the 7 children of Giulio and Atela DiBagno) may have been the only ones to attend public school. At least, I have scoured the yearbooks and so far have found no record of Mary, Joe, Frank, or Agnes.
Ever since realizing that with a paid Ancestry.com subscription I can peruse old yearbooks to my heart’s content, I have taken full advantage of it. In truth, it is one of my favorite features available on Ancestry.com. Yearbooks are a goldmine of information, especially if you look at the whole thing and don’t just zero in on your ancestor. Yearbooks can offer a glimpse at the time; often they list key events that happened that year, both locally and globally. They highlight what was important to that class of teenagers and give insight into what they were experiencing. Not only that, but from my grandparents’ to my parents’ generation, when the student became a senior, the yearbook had the wonderful habit of listing a bio by their senior picture that listed not only the clubs the student was in, but what their interests were, sometimes even who their friends were, etc. Man, do I wish that bio section did not go out of style.
All 3 younger DiBagnos attended Jeannette High School in Jeannette, Pennsylvania.ย ย ย
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(above left: Geno’s senior photo; above right: A message from the class on 1941)
Geno (my great uncle) was the pride of the family. Intelligent and an overachiever, his senior yearbook hints at the success that he would achieve later in life as a Navy veteran, doctor of radiology, school director of the Hempfield area schools, and first president of the Dante Alighieri Chapter of the Italian Sons and Daughters (ISDA).ย Should rate high on the honor roll, the bio next to hisย senior picture stated. A music and theatre lover, he served as an usher for Jeannette High School’s performance of the Pirates of Penzance and enjoys Maurice Spitalny’s music and Bette Davis’ acting, too.ย
He played Junior Varsity Football (all of the DiBagno men loved sports, either as players or spectators) and Interclass Basketball. Somewhere in between academics and sports, he also managed to be a member of the auto club and the Alpha Hi-Y’s. He graduated in 1941.

Edith DiBagno (my great aunt and grandfather’s twin sister) was an avid reader and was a member of both the library monitors (who served in the library as assistants) and the reading club. She was also a member of the Rembrandt club (whose members would make signs, posters, and other public artwork), the science club, and expressed an interest in becoming an efficient nurse. In her adult years, this interest would morph slightly and she would become a technician in the operating room of the (former) Monsour Medical Center (a place that ended up employing several DiBagnos; the Monsours being family friends).

Edith’s 1944 senior yearbook reflected on what was onย the minds of the graduating class: “We seniors are not graduating in the best ‘weather.’ In fact, this, our graduating year, will also mark the third year since our country entered war…Some of us will secure positions. Most of us will go into the armed forces. And a few of us will go on to higher learning…And, so, now we leave our Alma Mater with the hope that what we have learned and gained will help us to be better citizen and to hold and appreciate the freedom and privileges we are now fighting to preserve.”ย A page in the yearbook was dedicated to seniors and faculty serving in the Armed forces. Of the 24 names, 4 were faculty, 1 was a woman, and 1 was marked killed in action.
Tony DiBagno (my grandfather) never appeared in the senior yearbook with Edith. His last appearance was in the 1943 yearbook so it appears that he dropped out sometime before or during his senior year. While at school, he was a member of the Grex Club, a drama club for aspiring actors and actresses. Tony would never become an actor himself, though sometimes I wonder why he didn’t try (or if he did!). He lived in California for a couple of years, had a gorgeous singing voice, and was both enormously charismatic and incredibly handsome (the most frequent description I hear of him is “he looked like a movie star!”)

These mid-war yearbooks really do offer a glimpse of the times. In the 1943 yearbook, 4 clubs popped up under the blanket category of Uncle Sam’s Helpers. The Victory Corps was made up of boys waiting to be called into the Armed Forces. Room 18’s members collected scrap and tin for the war effort. Home Room Lieutenants organized the scrap drive.ย Air Raid Messengers were taught how to give first aid, extinguish fires, and handle incendiary bombs (?!).
Yearbooks are an amazing resource in your genealogy research. I hope you have fun perusing!
*****
Sources:
http://www.Ancestry.com’s yearbook collection
Jeannette High School’s Jayhawk yearbooks (years 1941, 1943, 1944)
I love this, Zoe! I just purchased 4 yearbooks from Ebay, all 4 from the 1940s from an all-girls Catholic high school in Cincinnati. I have only found one yearbook with Dorothy Billinghurst Zorick as an undergraduate in it and i do not believe she graduated. I only saw her in her class pic, no extracurriculars. I found wonderful pics of Aunt Irene in band! I actually found her signature in one of the books i bought, where she was wishing the owner of the book a great summer with the boys! I agree about reading front thru back to get a feel for the times, the vocab, and even the advertising of the sponsors of the yearbook. I need to use the ancestry site to browse yearbooks too.
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Kim, that’s awesome, especially finding her signature! I confess, I searched those final pages for signatures, but never found any and probably wouldn’t have known even if I had…some of the handwriting was so bad!
The Ancestry site is great for yearbooks and so is Classmates.com, which is free and has basically the same yearbook database that Ancestry has with a few added search options.
If you ever decide to start a blog, too, please let me know (or if you already have one please let me know!)! I love your stories. Also, I have to tell you that you inspired me! Right after reading your comment I hopped on Ebay and bought a copy of my grandfather’s 1943 yearbook that I mentioned above. Thank you for that!
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I so enjoyed your write-up capturing the youth of your grandparents’ generation, as well as the moment in time when they came of age. Very poignant, actually.
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Thank you, Liz! I admit, the first time I found these yearbooks, I only looked at the photos that my family members were in…I really didn’t look through the whole thing. Doing this series has sort of allowed me to go back, take my time, and really look at these yearbooks. I’m having a lot of fun with it (especially going from 1930s to 1970s and seeing how things changed). I even found my great uncle Geno (mentioned above) in my aunt’s (his niece’s) yearbook. He was the school board president and they had a picture of him amongst the faculty. I completely missed it the first time around!
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Really enjoyed your post. What a great resource! Unfortunately yearbooks have never been a thing in Scotland.
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Do Scottish school have student newspapers or other publications?
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*schools
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Prize givings or sporting events would make the local newspaper but there were no school publications. In my sonโs school that is still the case and I think that will be nationally. Their school photos are just sold to the individual families.
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My high school had various versions of a student newspaper, but I doubt they’ve survived, and they definitely weren’t worth digitizing for posterity! College and university student newspapers are a different story.
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