John Albert Rigali

John Albert Rigali
Current Location::	Mount Juliet, Wilson County, Tennessee, United States
Birthdate:	January 04, 1968
Birthplace:	Beverly Hospital (original site), Montebello, Los Angeles County, California, United States
Immediate Family:	Son of Robert Harmon Rigali, ♊ and Jeanne Murdoch Rigali Husband of Private Father of Private Brother of Tina Marie Rigali

Last Updated:	October 18, 2024

View Complete Profile

view all

Immediate Family

Private

spouse
Private

child
Jeanne Murdoch Rigali

mother
Robert Harmon Rigali, ♊

father
Tina Marie Rigali

sister
Jamie Lisa Lujan

stepdaughter
Erica Marie Favela

stepdaughter

About John Albert Rigali

not-so-brief biography and family

student at Citrus College (1986-1987)

student at California State University, Los Angeles (1988)

information technology technician (1995-present)

amateur genealogist (1995-present)

student at Pasadena City College (1997)

genealogy pastime

In 1995, my father's 2nd cousin Private - of whose existence I had not been aware - approached me to learn about my "twig" of the Rigali family tree. I became fascinated by this hobby called genealogy, and soon began collaborating with him, and also began piecing together the maternal side of my family tree. I unwittingly and unfortunately destroyed my relationship with Don in the early 2000s. In late 2012, I decided to focus on migrating my personal database (which contains over 300,000 persons as of October 2015) to Geni.

religious life

I was raised without religion. I vacillated between atheism and agnosticism from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s. A few of my friends practiced Christian evangelism to me, but they only convinced me to turn my back on atheism.

I finally began to understand in 1998 that I am a spiritual being, and that I had no spiritual nourishment. From then until 2009, God acted through my good friend Martin Atencio (mentioned above) to bring me into His church, the Roman Catholic Church.

It is customary for unbaptized converts to the Catholic faith to spend two years in its preparatory program, RCIA; however, I spent more than two years in RCIA at my then-nearest parish, Immaculate Conception Church. I had been led (perhaps unwittingly) to believe that my particular situation warranted my completion of special preparatory tasks. I did not get clear guidance about these tasks at my parish, so I requested guidance from the office of the San Gabriel Pastoral Region (the pastoral region to which Immaculate Conception Church belongs). The office informed me that I did not have to complete any special preparatory tasks, and its sitting pastoral leader at the time, now-retired Bishop Gabino Zavala, apparently instructed my parish's then-pastor, Rev. Charles J. Ramirez, to expedite my initiation. I suspected at that time that Bishop Zavala had "fast-tracked" me because of my relation to Cardinal Justin Francis Rigali (link above); my suspicion was reinforced when I discovered in August 2014 that Bishop Zavala purchased 221 North Cabrillo Avenue in December 13, 2006 from Virginia, the widow of Cardinal Rigali's eldest brother Philip White Rigali.

I was fully initiated (baptism, first Holy Communion, confirmation) at Immaculate Conception Church. It is standard Church practice that a parish's pastor perform all baptisms of adult initiates, but exceptions are permitted. In the Easter vigil Mass in which I was initiated, all of the adults to be baptized except me were baptized by Fr. Ramirez, but as a permitted exception and a surprise gift to me, my baptism was performed by the parish's associate pastor at that time, Rev. Chris Troxell, with whom I had bonded during the lattermost part of my time in RCIA and who might be related to me (and my aforementioned former co-worker Jeff A. Troxell) through Johannes Trachsel.

After I was put on the path to Catholicism, I began to note the abundance of European Catholics (including numerous saints, and even a few popes) from whom so many people (including myself) descend. I now strive to discover and reveal their Catholic faith and good works.

convergence of genealogy and religion

On December 25, 2013 my 1st cousin once removed Richard David Rigali bequeathed to me the custodianship of the Bible that belonged to my 2nd great grandparents (and his great grandparents) Luigi Giuseppe Rigali and Charlotte L. Rigali.

notes

Beverly Hospital moved down the street from its original location sometime after 1969.

nearest notable relatives

timeline with other people either featured on Geni or descended therefrom

21st cousin once removed, schoolmate (1977-1987) and co-worker (circa 1984; circa 1985; 1991; circa 2001 to circa 2004) of Private User (and he is my religious sponsor and the widower of one of my 8th cousins once removed)
schoolmate (1980-1985) and co-worker (circa 1984, then again in 1987) of Anthony Mario Malena
schoolmate (1981-1986) of Private and Private
co-worker (1986) of my sister
employee (1986) of my paternal granduncle Lieutenant James Warren Beebe ("Warren") and paternal grandaunt Elza Jean Beebe ("Jeanne"), and co-worker of my paternal uncle Richard Harlow Rigali, ♊, my paternal aunt Private, my paternal 1st cousin Private, my paternal 1st cousin Private, Warren's youngest brother Harry Edward Beebe ("Ted"), and Ted's 2nd wife Alice Beebe
co-worker (1988) of my wife
co-worker (1993-1994) of my father
chose Saint Helena of the Cross (Geni connection reported here) to be my patroness saint (2009)
co-worker (2012-2014) of Private User (we laughingly refer to ourselves as "twin sons of different mothers" because there are several uncanny parallels between our childhoods)
neighbor (early 2010s-present) of Catherine Alice Brown and Private
teammate (2014-2016) and co-worker (2017-2018) of Sheila Winfield (neé Dorse) (a descendant of Capt. Charles Ewell and Sarah Ewell (both of whom appear to be relatives of mine))
co-worker (2014-2016) of Jeff A. Troxell (a descendant of George Jacob 'Big Jake' Troxel (who appears to be a relative of mine) and Jacob Troxel’s 1st wife)
teammate (2015) of Mandi Michelle Duncan
teammate (2015-2016) of Mark William Daugherty
teammate (2015-2016) of Private User
church acquaintance (2018-present) of Private
church acquaintance (2018-2024) of Carol Jeanne VanHeltebrake
church acquaintance (2018-present) of Private
church acquaintance (2018-present) of Private
teammate (2018) of Galen Mattice
teammate (2019) of Russell Scott Burchett
teammate (2020) of Carson Head (a descendant of Richard Head, Sr. and Mary Head)

John Albert Rigali's Geni Profile

Related Projects