ANGIE MANGINO is a freelance reporter (click here for current resume) for the Staten Island Register in New York. She has been published in the anthology, "Mothers' Miracle." Her other published print credits include: Woman's Day, Fashion Market, Canadian Miner, Standard, Midland Beach Beacon and the South Shore Business Alliance (SSBA) Tornado. Online she has published news stories at Neighborhood America (on topics concerning Staten Island, such as Spanish Camp and the Fresh Kills Landfill ) and book reviews at Inscriptions.
In the September 12, 2000 issue of the Staten Island Register, Angie Mangino discusses her involvement and interest in researching the history of Tottenville:
"My getting involved in researching and writing about the history of Tottenville from 1898-1998 had an unusual start.
Back in 1997 when I began coverage of Spanish Camp for the Register, I learned that Dorothy Day, the Catholic social activist who is now being considered for canonization in the Catholic Church, had been a resident in one of the bungalows.
To learn more about her involvement at Spanish Camp and on the Island in general, I went on the annual Pax Christi pilgrimage to areas on Staten Island related to her life. One such place was Our Lady Help of Christians Church in Tottenville, where in 1927 her daughter Tamar was baptized and which is the site of Day’s ultimate conversion to Catholicism.
In 1998, for the church’s Centennial Celebration, I started research on those 100 years at the Tottenville Library for the parish history. There I found a book self-published in 1950 by Benjamin Franklin Joline, who in his introduction said, “I have tried to make a contribution to the recorded history of Tottenville.”
The book’s narrative began in 1668 and totally fascinated me. History came alive for me as I read of the people of Tottenville, recognizing their names from the street names of the town. The only problem I found was that it ended in 1898, the year Staten Island became part of New York City, and the year with which I had wanted to start!
If Staten Island is correctly named “the forgotten borough,” Tottenville qualifies as “the forgotten town” when it comes to written history.
The Council on the Arts & Humanities for Staten Island (COAHSI) awarded me a grant for 1999 to continue my research and hold an interactive workshop at Our Lady Help of Christians Auditorium on September 24 of that year.
I quickly had lost any nervousness I may have had about conducting the workshop as the 37 in attendance were not only interested in what the research had uncovered, but were so enthusiastic about sharing their own memories. What struck me most was the age diversity of the audience, from young adults to senior citizens. Here was what history is really all about – the older generation sharing with the younger generation, sharing their lives from their hearts.
Such was the beginning of my long term project to publish a written history of Tottenville that begins where Joline’s ended in 1898. I know that to accomplish such a book, I will have to spend much time buried in documents and files. There is a tremendous amount of research and fact-checking and double-checking to be done. Yet whenever the tediousness of much of the research seems overwhelming, I have only to remember the faces at the workshop and their excitement.
This year the New York Public Library sponsored me to conduct an afternooon interactive workshop on June 20 at the Tottenville Branch. The 32 people in the audience that Tuesday afternoon again included the younger with the older. I was encouraged as I interacted again with a group. History is far from dull when learned from the people who lived it! This is the part that I enjoy the most and from it hope to also “make a contribution to the recorded history of Tottenville.”"