52 Ancestors Week 32: Wide Open Spaces

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 32:

The theme for Week 32 is "Wide Open Spaces." Who in your family tree makes you think of the great outdoors? Who took advantage of homesteading? Who kept moving when the neighbors felt a little too close?

So, how far are we from the nearest Target?

    Since the Merrimack Valley doesn't have much in the way of wide open spaces (unless you count the Atlantic ocean and the mountains up in the north country), there's not much for me to talk about in that regard. No one ever went west in order to take advantage of the Homestead act or anything.  Everyone tended to stay in either Haverhill or Newburyport. Sure some people left New England in search of other opportunities. However, I don't really know their full story about why they left and all of that stuff. So, that just leaves me with one option to talk about. There is one man in my family tree who kept moving at least every ten years. In every census in Haverhill from 1930 to 1950 (so far) he has been in a different house in the Queen Slipper city. I am of course talking about my great-grandfather, Vincenzo Ferraiolo. 

    Vincenzo was never a man who'd like to stay put, it seems. I say this because my other Italian great-grandparents moved into a house on Bartlett Street in Haverhill and it remained in the family for almost a century! Vincenzo on the other hand kept moving and to this day no one knows why. I do, however, have some theories. Join me as I track Vincenzo's movements through Haverhill like a certain dark knight.

La famiglia di Ferraiolo

    The first census Vincenzo appears in is the 1930 census and he's seen living with his wife Maria Tedesco and their two children Nicolina and Marco in a house on Pilling Street.  Today, the house is right around the corner from Benedetti's Deli and it was one of the many houses my father pointed out to me whenever we'd go pick up sandwiches there. He also rented the home.

    Sadly, the house is blurred out on Google Earth. So, I don't have a clear picture of it. I'm not sure why that is since you can clearly see the other houses on the street. There must be a privacy issue or something.

    Anyway, it's a nice house and it's right around the corner from a deli that's been in operation for ages. You can't really beat that. The neighborhood even looks nice. I wonder why the Ferraiolos would move. Vincenzo was working as a laborer at the time. Perhaps he made enough money to get another place to live? That's the only thing I can think of! 

    

     Haverhill in 1930 must have been a very different place. At the time of this blog's posting, it's been almost a century since my grandfather and his family lived there. It wasn't long before they moved to their next house and I swear the contrast with this next house is like night and day. It was also two miles away from their previous house.

    This house you won't find on any census. In fact, I almost missed it! I went through the city directory and found that the Ferraiolos were living on Marshall Street in 1936. How long were they living there? Not long, apparently. 

    Marshall Street isn't far from the Ferraiolos' first house. I get the feeling it was only a temporary home for them. It was close to the shops and everything.  This house was likely where grandpa Marco had his communion picture taken as some of the scenery looks the same.

    I could be wrong, though. It was this house or the one on Pilling Street. Only Aunt Nickie would know for sure.

    From the directories, I found that they were living on Marshall Street throughout the mid 1930s and at this point the Great Depression was in full swing. It wasn't long before the Ferraiolos had to move again. This time it could have been for economic reasons or perhaps Vincenzo got a better deal because by 1939 they had moved again!

Hmm. Quaint.

    At the time of the 1940 census, the Ferraiolos now lived on Irving Avenue in Haverhill. This house is clearly in the suburban area of the city and is about two miles from their first home. The neighborhood looks peaceful enough. Then again looks can always be deceiving.  Who knows if the neighbors were jerks or not.  He owned this home.

    According to Zillow, the house is pretty small. It has two bedrooms and one bathroom. It was also built around 1900. So, that house has a lot of history behind it.

    My father never pointed this house out to me in our travels through Haverhill and that was mostly because we never ventured to this part of town. We usually stayed on Washington Street where my grandma Ollie lived and in that general area. More on that in a bit.

    In the March of 1943, tragedy struck. My great-grandmother passed away and the Ferraiolos went their separate ways due to the war and other reasons. Nicolina moved to Tennessee and Marco was in the service. Vincenzo met and married a woman named Fortuna Grasso in the August of 1944 and remained with her until his passing in 1970. He didn't stay in that house long after Maria's passing as he moved once again. I'm not sure if he wanted to move because of memories of Maria in that house or not. I'd like to think that perhaps there was too much associated with that house. So, he had to move. 

    By the time of the 1950 census, Vincenzo and his wife Fortuna were living in a multi-family house on Shepherd Street. According to the city directory, he was living there as early as late 1944. Once again I can't get a good picture of it as Google Street view won't allow me to get a good look at the joint. 

    That's okay. We can at least talk about the area, right? Right. In 1950, Vincenzo was once again living around the corner from Benedetti's Deli. At this point you might be wondering if he really liked their subs. Well, the truth is that he knew the family. Their patriarch, Nazareno Benedetti, was actually at Maria's funeral in 1943. They were friends and I guess a house opened up and Vincenzo took it over with his new bride.

    I'm pretty sure the house was one of the other houses my father pointed out to me in our travels. It's relatively close to Vincenzo's first house and very close to Ollie's house. Alas, Vincenzo and Fortuna were not content to simply stay on Shepherd Street for the rest of their days. They soon moved to a place I would later know as "grandma's house".

    Keeping track of all these houses in Haverhill is no easy task. How did he afford to move to all these places around town? Well, the world was a different place back then. He worked as a laborer and he had some friends who more than likely helped him out. That's my theory and I'm sticking with it!  Throughout the 1950s, they lived on Shepherd Street until 1959.

Over the river and through the woods....

    Built by Vincenzo himself in 1959, this small house on Washington Street eventually became my grandma Ollie's house. Before that, it was the home of Vincenzo and Fortuna. My grandparents lived just down the street from them if I recall.

    Thankfully, Vincenzo stayed in that house until his passing.  I say "thankfully" because this trip around Haverhill has been a bit of a whirlwind. The funny thing is he didn't really live far away from his previous house. When he died in 1970, he left the house to my grandparents and the rest is history. Family history. =D

    Of all the places in this list of houses, I remember Ollie's the most for obvious reasons. I remember being in that house very frequently. After all, Salem isn't that far from Haverhill and we would visit her every chance we had. To this day I have many great memories of being in that house. It was where I first learned about the Italian side of my family tree. 

    Ollie lived there until she passed away in 2002. The house was sold and all of Vincenzo's possessions there ended up being stored at our house. Vincenzo's story of moving from house to house may have ended in 1970. At least his last house had a lasting impact on me. It was a great place full of love and great memories.

    I might never know the real reason why he moved around so much. I can only think that he might have had offers from various friends or saw an opportunity. He might have moved in the 1940s because of memories of Maria. I have no clue. At least his last house was a good one!

See ya next time!

You know I could probably jog this route. It's only five miles.

All maps and house pictures are courtesy of Google Earth.

52 Ancestors Week 31: Earliest Ancestor

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 31:

The theme for Week 31 is “Earliest Ancestor.” Who is the earliest ancestor you have identified? Of course, you don’t have to interpret the prompt that way. How about: the first “new” ancestor you discovered, the earliest one to arrive in a certain location, or even one with a surname like Earl(e)y.

I don't think I  can trace that far back. Anybody got a toga?

    Right off the bat I can tell you that this blog about the earliest ancestor in my tree is wrong. So very wrong. It didn't take too long to disprove the Magna Carta connections and to this day I still have trust issues with genealogy before 1600. So, if someone finds a connection, I'll just smile, nod and back away slowly knowing that there's a chance some line can be disproven. It's a chance we genealogists take. I'm just not gonna run around saying I'm the 23rd great-grandson of some king in England when millions of people are as well. That's great and everything. So, I think I'm gonna have to take a new approach to this week's blog.

    This week we're going to talk about the first of my ancestors to live in Haverhill, Mass. In order to figure out who that is, we're going to have to narrow things down quite a bit. The Italians in the tree didn't live in the Queen Slipper city until the 1910s. My great-grandfather Vincenzo Ferraiolo lived with his aunt and uncle for a little while before returning to Italy. His wife Maria didn't arrive with my grandfather and his sister until 1929. My great-grandparents Giuseppe Carrabs and Clementina Forgione didn't arrive until the 1910s, too. So, they're out of the running.

    My mother's side of the tree has been on North American soil since the 1600s and several of her ancestors ended up in Haverhill starting with my grandmother Natalie. However, she wasn't the earliest to live there. Not by a long shot. For this we're gonna have to go back. Way back. Back before the 1880 US census where you'd find my third great-grandparents. We'd have to go to the founding of the city itself with my 11th great-grandparents, Tristram Coffin and Dionis Stevens.

    I think I might have talked about Tristram and his wife before. While they are wildly recognized as settling the Nantucket colony in the 1600s, they had a hand in settling what would become Haverhill in 1640. Settlers from nearby West  Newbury planted roots in the area and the Merrimack valley would never be the same again! Especially after the Industrial Revolution.

    Now that I think about it if we were to take Tristram away from his 1600s life and put him in the middle of Haverhill NOW, he wouldn't recognize much. Many of the old buildings have been replaced with newer models. Then again the Peaslee Garrison House and other structures still stand. Shout-out to my friend Azure Robinson and her epic Peaslee Garrison House one place study

    Though, I think it was built after he and Dionis left for Nantucket, Mass.

    He would also see the Coffin House was still standing in nearby Newbury. 

    As far as Haverhill itself goes? Yeah, he wouldn't see anything recognizable for a while even though the Haverhill Historical Society has taken great pains to preserve much of the city's past even if some modern roads took the place of older roads.

    Haverhill in the 1600s must have been a completely different place. For some reason I'm picturing something like "Back to the Future Part III" when Marty McFly went to Hill Valley in 1885. The only difference is that there'd be less desert there. There would be more wooded areas and even the Merrimack river itself would look different. And cleaner. Let's address the elephant in the room. We all know the effects all that industrial waste had on the Merrimack. The river would be VERY clean. I still wouldn't swim in it.

    I would also see a culture that's very different to what I'm used to in the 21st century. Our world was very different in the 1600s. Some things changed over time and some things stayed the same.

Ye olde Haverhill

    In the centuries since Tristram lived in Haverhill, the town became a city thanks to the Industrial Revolution like I said. Other things changed as well. Immigrants from all over the world flocked to the city once the factories needed cheap labor.

   The Coffins might actually be impressed by Haverhill these days to be honest. I mean people live much longer lives now and homes are much more comfortable. Everything a person needs would be at their finger tips.

    Then again, they might say certain things are like witchcraft. For example, I'm typing this blog on a machine that's able to transmit messages on a vast worldwide network instantaneously. For a person living in the 1600s, the technology in 2025 would be indistinguishable from magic.

    At least he would see hope for the future. I don't know about telling him about a certain revolution that takes place one hundred years after his death.... Sorry, sweetie. Spoilers. 

    If I were to go back that far, I'd probably have to keep quiet with what I know. Every bit of fiction has strict rules for time travel and not messing with the timeline would be a good thing to do. I'd probably just be content to watch the events from inside the Tardis just to be on the safe side, you know. 

    In any case, there would definitely be a culture shock for me and the Stevenses. The world was very different in the 1600s and our world today would be very different for them. Still, I'd like to think that they'd be amazed at their lasting legacy. They helped to build a town that became a city in the 1800s and then a haven for immigrants from every nation on the planet. That's pretty amazing and it makes me wonder what kind of a legacy we'd leave behind for people in say the 24th century. 

    Who knows?  

    So, those are the earliest Haverhill residents I have in my tree. Whether they knew it or not, they set the stage for what was to come. Eventually all roads led to the city and it made me and countless other people possible. It's amazing isn't it? You dig a hole to make a foundation one day and centuries later a city was formed on that foundation. That's pretty fantastic.

See ya next time!

52 Ancestors Week #30: Religious Traditions

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 30:

The theme for Week 30 is “Religious Traditions.” Have you explored religious records for any of your ancestors? Do you have an ancestor who was active in his/her place of worship?

James Brown: DO YOU SEE THE LIGHT?!

    Searching for your ancestors in religious records can be a monumental task. I know several ancestors of mine attended Saint Rita's Parish in Haverhill long before it became All Saints Parish in the late 1990s.  Those records don't appear to be online. However, I've found quite a few sacramental records in the Massachusetts, Boston Archdiocese Roman Catholic Sacramental Records on Ancestry.com. Let's check a few of them out!

    The first record we're going to look at is for my grandmother Olympia and to be honest it makes me wince a little reading it because of a few errors. While her birth date and her parents are accurate, her birthplace is not. She was definitely not born in Chelsea, Massachusetts. She was born in Haverhill and we have the documents to prove it. I'm not entirely sure how that mix-up occurred. Maybe she was baptized in Chelsea? Probably not. Chelsea is pretty far from Haverhill and I'm certain her parents would have baptized her in her home town.

Fortunately, I just so happen to have Grandma Ollie's actual baptismal record. Let's see how much difference it makes shall we? Let's!

   

        This is much more like it! This is also why you want to see if you can find the actual document because it makes a huge difference! We can see from this record that Ollie was baptized on September 5th, 1920. That's a good five months or so after she was born.

    In addition to that, we can see that she was born at 19 Tremont Street in Haverhill. That was the home of her parents, Giuseppe and Clementina in the 1920 census. My guess is that they hadn't moved into their house on Bartlett street at that point.

    Listed on the fair right of the document are her sponsors, Antonio and Luisa Cogliano. I have no idea who those two are. I might want to look 'em up.

    I was also able to find the baptismal record for my great-grandmother, Henrietta Legault. While, this record is impressive and everything. I have some trouble reading it through no fault of my own.

    This might have to do with the fact that it's in French and my French is not that great. From what I can tell, Henrietta was baptized on December 4th.  Her parents are listed of course 

    A man named Jean Bourneuf is also listed in the record along with a Legault. I'm not sure about the connection. However, a Bourneuf did marry a Legault. Lucy Legault's husband was John Bourneuf. I wonder if it was the same person. More research is clearly needed. I doubt they'd have named Henrietta's older sister her godmother. That would be a little out there considering the time period. Sure Lucy was eighteen years older than Henrietta. But, who knows. It's hard to say without more facts.

    Anyway, the record is fantastic. The surprising thing is that it's in French when Henrietta was born in Lynn, Mass. I'm guessing that they went to a French-Canadian church for the services and the priest wrote in French considering that's what everyone at the church spoke at the time. Sadly, I'm not sure what church wrote the record. She was likely baptized in Lynn before everyone settled in Haverhill.

    For really, really good religious records we'd have to go across the pond to Italy. Unfortunately, many church records in Italy aren't online for one reason or another. And that's okay because civic records pick up the slack. Civil records in Italy will tell you when the child was baptized in the main document or in the margins. Sometimes the child would be baptized on the same day he or she was born. Sometimes it happened later that week.

    Starting in the 1870s, many Italian birth records list when the child got married in the margins along with their baptismal records. That's pretty handy and it can give anyone looking for more information a clue to where to look for the actual marriage record. If you were looking at Giuseppe Carrabs or Clementina Forgione's birth records in Gesualdo, you would see their marriage date in the margins.

    From there you can look for the marriage itself and you'll find a virtual treasure trove of information! Each Italian marriage record will list the grandparents, their ages, where they were from and anything else you can think of.

    Unfortunately, this is only the civic record. Those records are readily available on Antenati, Familysearch and other places. Church records, like I said, can be hard to find online. It's not impossible. Some towns, like the ones in northern Italy, do have church records online. Though, sometimes they are in Latin. So, you might run into difficulty on that front.

    Baptismal and marriage records are just one small of your genealogical adventure. However, they can lead to huge results. You'd be able to find when an ancestor or someone else in your family was baptized. You can also sync the facts there with facts you find elsewhere. Even though some sacramental records like the one I showed everyone earlier in the blog leave a lot to be desired, there's still great stuff out there. 
 

    I probably shouldn't be too harsh on the records on Ancestry. They're still decent for the most part. However, nothing beats seeing the real thing!

See ya next time!

    

52 Ancestors Week 29: Cousins

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 29: Cousins

The theme for Week 29 is “Cousins.” As genealogists, we know that there are more kinds of cousins than just the children of our aunts and uncles. This week, write about a cousin – no matter how “distantly” they are related to you!

What a motley crew.

    Cousins are awesome. There's no doubt about that because they're your first friends! If you're the youngest of the cousins in your family,  you're usually told stories about just how crazy your family truly is and if you're the oldest you get to tell the kids about how grandma's dolls come to life every night and rearrange the furniture. Not saying I've ever done that. However, I needed to make up some kind of story behind grandma Natalie's creepy dolls. They had nothing on "Annabelle".

    As you might have guessed, I'm one of the older cousins in my family. My brother Jim is the oldest of Robert and Natalie's grandkids and we have eight first cousins. That's only the tip of the iceberg! My family is huge. REALLY huge and getting everyone together in one place is like herding cats. I grew up with cousins on both sides of the tree and knew many of my second cousins. To list them all would take some time. I've even known about some cousins long before I ever took a DNA test. Stories were told about these cousins through the family grapevine and one such cousin is genealogist Mary Tedesco.

Maria Tedesco and family

    Mary shares almost the same name as my great-grandmother Maria Tedesco and when other genealogists look at my family tree I'm always asked if I'm related to Mary. If I had a nickel.... 

I know full well that "Tedesco" is a common Italian name like "Coppola". Here's the thing. A common name in one country, doesn't necessarily mean it's common in one small Italian town.

    I can say with absolute certainty that Mary Tedesco is a cousin of mine. There is no doubt about it. Our families were paisanos from the Calabrian town of San Pietro a Maida.  It goes a little bit more than just being countrymen, of course. I should probably explain from the beginning.

    I first heard about Mary when my father was talking about how my grandfather Marco was close with a man named Edward Tedesco. Edward hailed from the same Calabrian town as my grandfather and lived in Woburn, Mass with his very large family. Edward also had several brothers and sisters who also lived in the area. To make things even more interesting, Edward was named my father's godfather when he was born in 1947. Sufficed it to say, the families were close. Ah, but this is only the tip of the iceberg.

    My parents told me the story about how Edward and several members of the Woburn Tedesco family were invited to my parents' wedding in 1971. Marco made it a point to invite all of the Italians to the gathering. These were mostly Marco and grandma Ollie's relatives. Several people came to the party and my parents even got a wedding gift from one of the Tedescos. My dad mentioned Edward's granddaughter Mary who was about my age and I thought nothing of it for years. It was one of those things you just kept in the back of your mind and let simmer.

    Years went by and I registered on Ancestry.com. I created a family tree there in 2006 and let that simmer. I wasn't getting many hints for the Italian side of the tree aside from the information another genealogist name Mary found for the Carrabis families in Gesualdo. I was going nowhere fast with my dad's paternal side at that point and I let the tree sit there and cook on Ancestry.  What else could I do? I did talk to my great-aunt Nickie and she confirmed a lot of what my father told me about the Tedescos. She just didn't know the exact connection we had and I thought that was odd.

  Some more time passed and I got an e-mail in 2011 saying I had a private message on Ancestry. It was from a user named "Mmtedesco". I logged onto Ancestry and this lady named Mary sent me a message.

    Mary said that she saw my grandfather Marco in my tree along with his mother, Maria. Her grandfather Edward told her that we were all related. Edward must have told her the same stories my father and Nickie told me. And like me she had no idea what our connection was. Edward had fond memories  of growing up with Marco and that Marco was a godfather to one of her uncles. She asked if I'd be willing to swap info with her and of course I jumped at the chance! Who wouldn't?

    I wrote back to her and she said Edward had many great memories about Marco, my father and everyone else in the family. We talked for a bit and things went silent for a few years. I had no idea what happened. Life must have gotten in the way. That and Ancestry's messaging system was not as instantaneous as I would have liked back then. 

    Nevertheless, we still tried to stay in contact. Though, I probably should have added her to my Facebook back then. It would have made life so much easier. We still messaged each other on the site and I updated her on a few things. I found that her grandfather passed away in 2016 and offered my condolences. It's a shame we never got to meet face to face because the dude drew comics. I would have LOVED to have met him! 

Yup. Still 50% pesto.

    By 2017, we still hadn't found the connection. Mary invited me to her Facebook group and I saw that she was a pretty big deal in the genealogy community. She cohosted "Genealogy Roadshow" on PBS and had an amazing blog.

    While doing a search for my great-grandfather Vincenzo, I found a blog she wrote about the first Italian-American Thanksgiving and in it she mentioned Vincenzo, Maria and their family. I remember her writing about how her family went to Vincenzo's house in Haverhill to have Thanksgiving there. According to Nicolina, that was one of many family get-togethers. Check the blog out here!

    I asked Mary about the blog and she said that it was one of the many memories her grandfather had. She then asked if my father and I would ever do a DNA test on Ancestry. I asked my dad (who was talking to Nicolina at the time about the same topic!) and we decided to take the test. What did we have to lose?

    My father and I took our tests and sure enough we matched Mary and countless other members of her family. There are just too many to list. I checked my dad's match list and he had more matches at greater cM ranges. Then an idea popped in my head. What if I had access to Nicolina's test? Nicolina and her daughter Cathie were more than happy to let me see her test results and sure enough Mary and her family were on the list with one of Edward's sisters leading the pack at a hefty 133 cMs. DNA does not lie. There is a connection!

    I asked Mary about that match and she wasn't sure what to tell me. She still wasn't sure what our connection was. So, I decided  right there to make it my mission to find that connection and I believe I finally found it after so many years. It only took digging through the entire San Pietro a Maida archive and using new features at Ancestry and DNApainter to do it. It was a process that took a long time and many years. I think we can all agree I had vested interest in finding the connection.

     Using the tools at my disposal, I put everyone into a probability tree on DNApainter. I used my great-aunt as a basis for everything since she had the highest number of matches and the strongest matches in general. I put the tree together and it told me that one hypothesis was probably the most likely reason why there was a connection.

    To confirm this I had to do some good old fashioned genealogy and probably annoyed some of the family in Italy in the process. If I did that, I am so sorry! Either way, I knew from my research that Edward had a father named Giuseppe. He was the one who initially moved to Woburn and everything in the 1920s.

    My first inclination was to ask the family in Italy if my second great-grandfather Antonio had a brother named Giuseppe. He did not.  I asked the commune office in San Pietro a Maida about Giuseppe's parents and found that they were Fortunato Tedesco and Caterina Butruce. Fortunato's parents turned out to be Giuseppe Tedesco and Caterina Rocca. At this point I was in the 1840s and still hadn't found the connections. I tried not to let my frustration get the better of me. I was so close I could feel it! I ended up digging through the archives and found three Giuseppe Tedescos who could have been Fortunato's father. One kid was born in the 1830s and the other was born in 1843. As weird as it sounds those were the only two people named Giuseppe Tedesco that I found in the entire archive who were possibly the father. There was one Giuseppe Tedesco born in 1844 and the names of his parents didn't synch with what I had in my tree. See what I mean about common names being not that common in some places?

Archivo Stato Civile di San Pietro a
a Maida, Catanzaro. 
1843 births. #35.

    To make a long story short, the Giuseppe Tedesco I found born on May 6th, 1843 was the child of Tommaso Tedesco and Cecilia Cassese, my 4th great-grandparents. This meant that Mary was likely my 4th cousin once removed or a 5th cousin. This also meant that Edward and his sisters were third cousins to Marco and Nicolina as evidenced by her DNA matches with them.

    The other Giuseppe Tedesco  born in 1834 had different parents. They were Giuseppe Tedesco and Catarina Gullo. While I do have a connection to the Gullo family, it seemed more logical to me that the 1843 Giuseppe was Maria's ancestor based on Nicolina's matches with her great-aunt and the sheer volume of matches. Like I said before. She matched virtually every single member of Mary's family and all of them are a solid match.

    Now, I could be mistaken. I could have some error or something else I couldn't have foreseen. This is a lucky guess and it's a solid one. Whatever the case is, it's clear that Mary and I are cousins. The paper trail and DNA evidence proved it without a shadow of a doubt.

    Once I solved the puzzle, I showed it to several other genealogists and they came to the same conclusion I made and agreed with my assessment. I showed Mary herself and I'm hoping she liked my discovery. I have yet to hear from her on that front. The really cool thing is that the discovery about the connection coincided with a discovery in my parents' wedding album. In the guestbook were the signatures of one of Mary's ancestors and several of her great-aunts who eventually had their DNA tested on Ancestry as well.

    Many people say I have a lot of determination to get things done and I do. I'm not going to lie. I had real vested interest in finding my connection to Mary because of the stories my father and others told me, the various gifts the family received and all that. DNA matches was one thing, this was something else. This was an attempt to solve a very old riddle and I'm glad I solved it with some help from some amazing friends and family. I found many cousin connections over the years and this one was the most important one I had to solve and I'm glad I finally solved it. At least I hope I did!

See ya next time!

52 Ancestors Week 28: Travel

 From me: Oh, the places you'll go. That's not just a Dr. Suess book. Where have your ancestors traveled over the course of their lives? Did they go to another state? Another country? Write about their exploits below! Just remember whatever happened in Vegas STAYS in Vegas!

WE'RE ON A BOAT!

    Traveling is a fun way to see the world and experience new things. We live on a small blue planet that's rich in many different cultures and ways of life. If you have the means you should get out there every once in a while and experience all that this world has to offer. One of my friends has visited almost every single continent and at the time of this writing he plans on visiting Africa. I wonder if he'll find Pride Rock from the "Lion King" there. There really is so much to see out there in just one lifetime.

    As for me, it's safe to say that my ancestors have traveled around the world whenever they had the chance. Some people traveled for work. Some people traveled for vacation. Sometimes ancestors of mine have made it a point to turn a travel destination into a vacation home. I think it's time to talk about how a trip to the most magical place on Earth was also a trip to both of my grandmother's houses.

    My grandmother Olympia may have made Haverhill, Mass her home. However, she and her husband Marco had a winter home in Stuart, Florida.  Yes, I know that this technically makes my grandparents "snowbirds" and everything. It is what it is. Older people generally don't like being cold and even my grandpa Bob had a home in Florida. There's nothing wrong with visiting the Sunshine state from time to time. Just watch out for the snakes, freak rainstorms and crazy people. Caution: Crazy people isn't just a Florida thing!

    I honestly don't remember Ollie's house in Florida that well. I have vague memories of her sharing the place with her sisters Louise and Ellie after Marco had passed away. It was around that time that we decided to visit Ollie and her sisters and visit the Magic Kingdom, Sea World and all the attractions that were there at the time.

    From what my parents remember, getting there was not easy. We unfortunately had a delay and we were stuck at Boston's Logan International Airport. Now, picture my parents with two young children sitting in the terminal getting antsy because we were going nowhere fast. I don't really remember what caused the delay. I have a feeling it might have had something to do with the weather in Boston since it was winter time and winter usually meant a lot of snow in New England. Because we didn't have screens to entertain ourselves, my parents made sure we had plenty of books to read and for the most part we were quiet. At least I hope we were. I just remember getting my fill of the "Garfield" books I had in my backpack. That orange cat never failed to disappoint.

Yes, I'm wearing a DC shirt despite being
a Marvel fanboy. =D

    Eventually, we made it to Florida and as luck would have it my other grandparents were enjoying their stay in the Sunshine state as well! Grandpa Robert and my grandmother Natalie were at their home in Holiday. This meant that we'd have to find the time to go from the east coast of the state to the west coast and still get to the Magic Kingdom all in the space of a couple weeks. Could it be done? Well, when you wish upon a star.....

    Our first stop in our tour of Florida was of course Ollie's house. The other little old Italian ladies were there as well and I remember watching them all eating lunch at the kitchen island. For some reason they were all standing up. I have no idea why and this was decades before people were told it's better to stand at a desk rather than sit at one. It was one of those things they did that made them so endearing. After a quick visit, it was off to Orlando in our fashionable rental car that smelled weird. Like Florida weird.

    We went to Disney and had a great time. I distinctly remember going on Figment's imagination ride in EPCOT and well...that might explain a few things. No, I didn't drink the water! But, I did make it a point to get as plushie version of that dragon. He was awesome! And still is! Dragons are cool.

    Dragons aside we also went to Sea World while we were there we got to see the then current iteration of  legendary orca named "Shamu". I guess it's true what they say. Shamu can never die. Only the whales who portray her. Seeing the orcas and dolphins were cool and all. But, I think I'd rather see them out in the wild rather than in captivity. Still was a treat. After our visit it was then time to go to the left coast of Florida and to my other grandparents' house.

So, you gonna free us orrr.....?

`   I don't really remember much about the visit to my grandparents' house in Holiday. I do remember talking to them about the trip and asking them if they were going to come back north since my brother and I missed them. I seem to recall seeing my grandmother's collection of creepy dolls for the first time while we were there. It was the first encounter with her life-like dolls and it definitely wasn't going to be the last! Wherever they went, those dolls followed them. There was no escape! They were just so life-like and creepy looking. To a six year old they were pure nightmare fuel! It's a good thing we never inherited them! 

       After a tearful goodbye we made our way back to Salem and thankfully things went a lot smoother. No flights were delayed. There was even an in-flight movie. Of course I don't remember what it was. It was the mid 1980s. It could have been "Airplane!" for all I know. Actually, that wouldn't have been bad. Who doesn't like Leslie Nielsen?

Spaceship Earth! We have a pic of it from
when it was under construction!

    This was just one of the trips my family and I have taken together. We love to travel and I hope one day I get to extend my traveling experience to places outside this hemisphere. Where would I go? Well, I think we all know the answer to that one. The possibilities are endless. I love to travel and this world has so many places to see and many people to meet.

    I am glad I have those memories of traveling to Florida. I'll admit I was young and I don't remember a whole lot about what happened. But, those memories I do have stayed with me because that was the first trip I actually remember. And pics like the ones I've shared today help bring those memories back to the surface.

   Traveling can make you appreciate more of what this world has to offer and I'm glad I got a chance to go. Regrettably, I haven't been to Disney since the 1980s. But, that's okay. We had other exploits that make Disney look like a walk on the beach. Perhaps one day I'll talk about the trips to the Bahamas and Aruba. At least the visit to the Magic Kingdom was unique. I haven't been back since even though my brother took his family there a few years ago. Perhaps one day I'll return and check out the Marvel and Star Wars attractions. Wow, Disney REALLY has changed since I last visited forty years ago. The most magical place on Everyone! 

See ya next time!    

52 Ancestors Week 27: Family Business

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 27:

The theme for Week 27 is “Family Business.” Do you have an ancestor who ran his or her own business? What about a trade that seems to run in the family? This is a good week to write about them!

"On this the day of my daughter's wedding...."

   As strange as it sounds, I don't really have any family businesses in my family tree unless you count the laborers in Italy. I do have people who owned a business or two, though. My great-grandfather Alfred Hamel had a fix-it shop in Newburyport and none of his children ever took over the business. When Alfred passed away in 1962 that was the end of the Fix-It shop. For true family businesses, we're going to have to cast a wider net to the rest of my family tree because there's one collateral relative or two who definitely meet the criteria for family business. 

    Two of Giovanni Coppola's children had businesses of their own and only one of them has lasted to this very day.  For those of you keeping score, Giovanni was the first cousin of my second great-grandmother Caterina Coppola. He was responsible for inviting several people to Haverhill, Mass including my great-grandfather Vincenzo, his wife and their children.

    To make a long story short, he had two children who went on to have very, very different family businesses. His son Frank owned and operated the Coppola bus company in Haverhill until his death in 1979. His children continued the business and they ran it until 2019 when it was sold to North Reading Transport.

    Meanwhile, Giovanni's daughter Concetta married a man named Guido Pitocchelli who started his own funeral home business with his brother in nearby Lawrence, Massachusetts and as amazing as it seems that funeral home still operates today albeit under a slightly different name. These days it's known as the Pitocchelli Bros & Joseph A Langone Jr Funeral Home. Times change, I guess. But, back in the day my family had a close and unfortunate connection with the funeral home.

    When my great-grandmother Maria Tedesco passed away in the March of 1943, the Pitocchelli funeral home hosted the funeral and almost every single Italian in Haverhill at the time was there. At least that's what it feels like when I look at the list of who all went to the service.

    When I first found the list in my great-grandfather's toolbox, I wondered why the funeral was in Lawrence and not in Haverhill. You would think they'd have gone to one of the many places in Haverhill to have a service. After all, Maria was buried in Saint Patrick's cemetery in Haverhill.  So, why did they go to Lawrence for the service?

    The only thing I can think of is that maybe it had to do with the familial connection? Vincenzo was a cousin of Concetta and Concetta was married to the funeral director. Because of that link, Vincenzo and Guido were likely friends. So, he might have offered to have the service in Lawrence rather than in Haverhill. I'm sure there's another reason for it. But, that's the only thing I can think of at the moment.

Giovanni Coppola in his grocery store.

        Even though Concetta and Guido's son, Sabatino didn't go into the family business, the Pitocchelli funeral home does count as a family business. It was owned and operated by the family and they provided a tremendous service to Lawrence and of course nearby Haverhill much like Giovanni's grocery store.

    I'm not sure when the name changed. I would think it happened shortly after Guido passed away in 1995. Concetta passed away in 2007. She likely had to deal with the sale, name changes and all the headaches that come with a business changing hands.  It is nice that the name is still there after all these years as it gives the funeral home a lasting legacy. Though, I will admit I had to check the spelling of Pitocchelli more than a few times as I was writing the blog.

    It's good to know that there are some family businesses somewhere in the tree as there's a legacy surrounding them. When you look at a restaurant that's been open since the 1920s, you want to learn more about its story. Who started it? Why? Who owns it now? It's nice to see some legacy companies around and it makes me want to learn more about it. Sadly, I haven't been able to find much on the funeral home. Their website doesn't go into their history that much and it's a shame because I bet it's got a long and storied history. To each their own, I guess. At least the funeral home was there for my grandfather's family at a very sad moment of their lives and that it was run by family as well. I think that maybe helped with their loss since family was around to support them in their time of need.

See ya next time!

Picture of the Coppola family is from O'Malley, Patricia Trainor. "Italians in Haverhill". pg 98

52 Ancestors Week 26: Favorite Name

 From Amy Johnson Crow: The theme for Week 26 is “Favorite Name.” Whether it’s the name of a favorite ancestor or you just like the way it sounds, many of us have a name in our family tree that makes us smile. This is a good week to write about the person with that name.

Zebulon Drew will always be an "S" tier name. Facts.

    According to my archive it's been four years since I last talked about a favorite name in my family tree. Zebulon Drew still ranks among the top ten all these years later just on the star power of the name alone. Like I said in the blog, the name sounds like it belongs to the lead singer of a Nordic Metal band. I know that isn't the case. But, if I ever decided to form a metal band I would so call it "Zebulon Drew". It'd be original! 

    In any case, it's time to once again look at the "Big Book of Baby Names" to see what names really stand out in my family tree. As you all know, I have a healthy mix of French, English and Italian names to choose from. There's no shortage of people named "Paolo", "Jacques" and "Maria". Some names end up repeating themselves and sometimes the same name appear as second great-grandparents albeit in different languages. This week we're going to talk about Antonio Tedesco and Antoine Legault, my two "Tony" 2nd great-grandparents!

Antonio Tedesco and
Domenica Gullo.

    I've always thought it was pretty cool how I have two guys named "Anthony" as second great-grandparents. Of course both names are in different languages. Antoine is a very French name and Antonio is Italian. Both names would be anglicized to "Anthony" if they were to go to America or any other English speaking country. 

    As it is, only one of the Tonies ever went to America and that would be Antoine. More on him later.

    Antonio here couldn't be more different from Antoine. For starters he was twenty-five years younger than Antoine. When Antonio was born in 1876, Antoine had been married to his wife Lucie Cadran for two years at that point and had two daughters, Lucy and Melvina. 

    I will say this. At least both men were born in July in their respective towns. Antonio was born on July 23rd, 1876 in San Pietro a Maida and Antoine was born on July 28th, 1851 in Riguad, Quebec. That's another amazing coincidence! My family tree is full of them. Sadly, this is where the similarities start to end.

  

      Unlike Antoine, Antonio never went to America. He spent his life in San Pietro. He married Maria Domenica Gullo in 1899 and had at least three children that I know of with her. One of those children did end up going to Haverhill, Mass and that lucky lady was my great-grandmother, Maria who was born the same year Antoine passed away.

    It's a shame Antoine passed away so young. As I've said before, he worked in a factory in Haverhill and passed away just after his son Oliver was born. That's another thing. Antoine had way more children than Antonio did. He and Lucie had thirteen children together from 1874 to 1901. That's a lot of people to keep track of!

    Fortunately, Massachusetts has great records and I have a ton of DNA matches who descend from Antoine. They've all been able to confirm bits of information here and there and share enough stories that I've been able to piece together his and Lucie's life together in Haverhill. However, I haven't been able to find pictures of either of them and I hope a cousin out there has one!

    I think finding a picture of Antoine might be a little bit harder than finding one for Lucie. Any photo of Antoine would have to be a tintype. Getting your picture taken in his day was also very expensive. So, who knows if he had his picture taken. I'm hoping he did. Fingers and toes are crossed on that front. At the very least, I am hoping Lucie had her picture taken. One never knows!

    Back to the two Anthonys. Antonio may not have had as many children as Antoine. However, I've been told he was a good man by his great-grandchildren who still live in San Pietro. And I can sort of see where my ears came from when I look at his picture.  It doesn't help that my grandfather Robert ALSO had two radar dishes attached to his head. Sigh. I was doomed from the start, gang.

Check out the two Tonies!

    Anyway, it's nice having two guys named Anthony in the tree at the second great-grandparent level. Both men were similar in name and they came from somewhat similar backgrounds. They may have been born in two very different parts of the world but, their cultures were more or less the same. French-Canadians and Italians are Catholic, love wine and are known to tell really good albeit LONG stories. I have a feeling that if Antoine and Antonio ever met they'd be good friends once the language barrier was broken. They might even bond over how common their last names are in their respective homelands!

    Having the name "Anthony" on my tree in two different languages has the added benefit of showing everyone just how similar two different sides of a family tree can be. While the names come from two different cultures, they're still fundamentally similar in the way they act and the religion they practiced. It's an amazing coincidence that both men ended up being my 2nd great-grandparents and to me it'll always be cool how that turned out. Who wouldn't love having an Antonio on one side of the tree and an Antoine on the other side? 

 See ya next time!

P.S. I also have several people named Anthony further down the tree. Notably Antoine's son, Anthony and Antoine's grandson Anthony. On the Italian side of things I have Antonio Carrabis, son of Rocco Carrabis and Antonio Forgione, son of Pasquale Forgione.