52 Ancestors Week 47: The Name's the Same

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 47:

The theme for Week 47 is “The Name’s the Same.” Chances are there are some people in your tree who have the same name as someone else. This is a good week to write about the people who carry a family name or a time when you’ve had to sort out two unrelated people who happen to have the same name. 

That’s a lot of James.

 What’s in a name? Would a rose by any other name smell as sweet? Would a name like “Anthony” be passed down through the generations because an ancestor was named Antonio or Antoine? In my family tree, of course they would. Names have been passed down for centuries. The last time this topic came up I talked about all the people named “Robert” in my tree. Admittedly , that was quite a wild ride. This week will be all about Paolo!

 When I first heard the name Paolo, the name honestly reminded me of a character in “The Godfather” or something. There’s always a mob guy named Paolo or “Paulie”. Not every mobster is going to be called “Nicky the Nose”, you know. So, imagine my surprise when I discovered that my third great- grandfather was named Paolo. It gets better. His last name was “Coppola”.  Of course I would have two of the most common Italian last names in my tree! For those of you keeping track, the other one is “Tedesco”.

 I don’t really have a lot on Paolo to be honest due to record availability and everything. Here’s what I’ve been able to piece together. He was the son of Francesco Coppola and an unknown woman and was born around 1843. He had a brother named Giovanni and a sister named Caterina. Both names were also passed down through the generations, by the way. The Coppola family is a textbook case of Italian naming conventions where someone in the family is named after a parent or grandparent in a specific pattern. The first masculine child would be named after the paternal grandfather and so on.

 Paolo married Rosa Suverato and had my second great-grandmother, Caterina and her siblings Paolo and Concetta. I don’t know if they had any more children. Chances are they did because Italians tended to have large families in those days. Some names would even be repeated in case a child unfortunately passed away before their first birthday. When you do research in Italy, you should keep track of the names used more than once!

 Anyway, Caterina, Paolo and Concetta all had children who had the same name as their grandfather. Caterina, though, was the only one of her siblings who stayed in Italy. She and her husband Marco had a son named Paolo in August 1896. Concetta and Paolo moved to Haverhill, Massachusetts and started having children named Paul, which is the anglicized version of the name Paolo. Here’s where research gets a little tricky….especially when the father and the son have the same name.

When Paolo came to America, he went by the name “Paul” in order to assimilate. His son Paul was born in 1909 in the city of Haverhill to Paolo and his first wife, Lena. He was the oldest of sixteen children and even he had a son named Paul! It’s nice to see the naming tradition continue on another continent! Too bad this can also lead to headaches if you aren’t a careful researcher.

I’m not going to say I’ve never made a mistake. However, when you look at documents like draft cards you always need to check when someone was born if they have the same name. Older men had old men’s draft cards and sometimes they look similar to the regular cards. Censuses can at least help you figure out who is who and which Paolo/Paul is who.

Thankfully,  birth records can really help you figure out people who have the same names. It can be really tricky when someone has the name Paul and a common Italian last name. At least a common name isn’t always common in one area.

Thankfully, Concetta’s son Paul was a lot easier to research! He was the son of Concetta and her husband Vincenzo Papatolo and was born in Haverhill in 1916.  It was easier researching him because the last name isn’t very common in Haverhill. The only thing that confuses me is how some members of the family spell the last name “Papatola” when documents in Italy spell it like “Papatolo”. It might have been a personal choice since no last names were changed at Ellis Island. 

Paul and Lorraine

Paul married Lorraine Pouliot in 1942 and they had a large family including a daughter that they named Paula. I don’t think that counts as a “Paul”. But it was so close! Paula is a DNA match and sadly she passed away in 2023. She went by the screen name “the great nana” and according to cousins who knew her, she really was a great nana!

She was also an avid Patriots fan and an education assistant. Can’t go wrong with that. Her obituary is really well written. Check it out: https://www.seacoastonline.com/obituaries/pprt0631672

I really wish I was able to talk  with Paula. I sent her a message or two on Ancestry when she showed up as a match to my father, great-aunt and I. To each their own, I guess. There’s no sense in dwelling on something you can’t control. I do talk to other relatives of Paula and they all said nice things about her! That’s good enough!

That’s pretty much all I can say about all of the people named Paolo/Paul in my tree. Like Giuseppe, Concetta, Maria and Giovanni, the names were passed down through time and anglicized once they arrived in America. If you study Italian records, the same names are going to pop up every once in a while. When that happens, you should be mindful of the dates, places and circumstances because a Paul Coppola on a death record could easily be the son or the father. You never know.

See ya next time!

P.s. As for the original Paolo from the early 19th century, I still need to figure out who his mother was. I think I’d need his marriage record. I’m 100% sure his father was Francesco thanks to dna evidence. 

52 Ancestors Week 46: Wartime

From Amy Johnson Crow Week 46:

The theme for Week 46 is “Wartime.” Who in your family has served in the military? Alternatively, do you have someone who couldn’t or wouldn’t serve? Have you had any breakthroughs using military records?

War. War never changes

     Who in my family has served, huh? Talking about everyone who served in the armed forces in any capacity would take a long, long time and I do like to keep these blogs short. There isn't anyone who hasn't served aside from my father. Both of my grandfathers were veterans of World War II. All four great-grandfathers served in World War I. I have three confirmed veterans of the American Civil War and about a dozen or so Soldiers of the American Revolution. It's a good thing I listed them all on a free space page on WikiTree for just these occasions! You need a scorecard to keep them all straight!

    Ironically, with all the men who served in my family, I only know about my grandfather Robert's service during World War II. He served in the Air Corps, the organization that eventually became the U.S. Air Force. He flew planes and the birth of my mother clipped his wings. He also traveled quite extensively to bases in Japan after the war. He was also well-decorated with tons of medals. Not bad for a kid from Brooklyn....er....Newburyport. Come on. Humor me. He was like Captain America to me! 

Fun Fact: He did chuckle a few times when I showed him some comics with Captain America. He said...and I quote "Hey! I remember that guy!" Now that's staying power for the leader of Earth's mightiest heroes!

    While I may have had heroes who served overseas, I would think that guarding America's shores is just as important as serving in Europe and in the Pacific. Enter my great-grandfather Giuseppe Carrabs. While both of my grandfathers were in Europe giving the Nazis what-for, he was stationed in Massachusetts as an air raid warden.

    Now, I already knew he served the country during World War I. I have a picture of him in his uniform that I'll be sharing in a bit. I just find it interesting that he was called into service once again.

    Giuseppe was born in 1882 and by the second world war he was in his sixties. Clearly, his draft card was one of those "Old men's draft cards".

    Nevertheless, he served and his service was noted in his obituary in 1974.  My dad's cousins make it a point to leave military markers and American flags at his grave in Haverhill. Not all heroes are on the front lines, you know. Some people have the daunting task of protecting the nation when a bulk of the fighting force is overseas. Their job is just as important as anyone else. While his time in World War II was admirable, let's go back in time a bit to the first World War and imagine what it must have been like for him.

The only pic I have of him with hair!

    On September 2nd, 1918, Giuseppe was drafted and served the U.S. army during the first world war at the age of thirty-three.  I honestly don't know much about his service during that time. However, I can tell you that it seems like he was the only Carrabs brother who served in that conflict since I can't find any record stating Pasquale or Rocco served with him.

    This isn't to say that they never served. Rocco and Pasquale both have old mens' draft cards from the 1940s. It's curious that they don't have World War I draft cards. Were they already too old to serve at that point? I'm not sure about that. Giuseppe was the oldest of the three since he was born in 1882. Rocco was born in 1887 and Pasquale was born in 1894. It's curious that he had a draft card and his brother's don't.

    I wonder if they did have cards and the cards were never digitized. Or perhaps it was because Rocco didn't speak much English or something. The possibilities are endless.

    In any case, Giuseppe clearly served toward the end of the war. My dad's cousin Dennis gave me the picture of Giuseppe in his uniform after asking him if he knew anything about his grandfather's time in the army He sadly didn't. He just told me that there was a picture of him in his uniform. He sent it to me and the weird thing was that when I saw it, I felt like I've seen it before.

  In my travels, I've seen many pictures and my grandmother Ollie and her sisters  had in their homes. I suspect that picture was at my great-aunt Louise's house. Louise was Dennis's mother and I must have seen the picture there along with many other photos. 

    Anyway, it must have been tough for Giuseppe being the only one of his brothers to serve in World War I. Sadly, I have no idea what unit he served in or what he actually did during the war. That's okay, though. Sometimes it's enough to know that he served.

    Still, I bet there is something on Fold3 about his service in that era. Then again, there may not be much considering he was discharged following year when the war ended. A lot can happen in a year. It remains to be seen what he was doing during that year. Uncle Sam called him back into service twenty years later as an air raid warden at least. I just wonder what he was doing in that year during the 1910s.

    I have a feeling he stayed in America since his daughters were very young during those days, My great-aunt Louise was born a month after the war ended in December of 1918. Because of his family situation, he likely opted to serve in the national guard and that's fine. It also syncs up with him being an air raid warden some twenty years later. Then again he may have volunteered for that service.

    In any case, Giuseppe clearly served the United States and was one of a few Italian immigrants in my tree to do so. That's pretty awesome in my book. He might not have been Captain America like my grandfather Robert. But, he was still pretty awesome. 'Nuff said!

See ya next time!

    

52 Ancestors Week 45: Multiple

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 45:

The theme for Week 45 is “Multiple.” Any twins or triplets in the family? What about someone with multiple names? Or, thinking a bit more creatively, what about a math teacher?

I still say this banner looks like a painting.

    When you work on your family tree chances are you're going to find someone with multiple spouses, twins and multiple siblings. I have them all! My 2nd great-grandmother Gertrude Stevens  had three spouses: Wilfred Felker, Walter Senter and Charles Berry. Her mother Evaline was a twin and sadly her twin brother didn't survive to adulthood. If he did, you can bet I'd be writing about him. Alas poor Edward Fisher. We'll never know if you were the evil twin or not. For more on Gertrude and her story, check out this blog from 2021.

    This week I've decided to take a look at someone who had multiple children and I have quite a few of them. Pun intended. I come from a mixed Italian and French-Canadian family. Large families come with the territory and getting every single one of the children in the same tree (let alone the same room) is a lot like herding cats. With that in mind, let me pick a couple of ancestors at random and let's talk about their many children.

Vincenzo Carrabis, looking like
Alfred Pennyworth.

    Vincenzo Carrabs and Maria Giovanna Capobianco are a couple of ancestors of mine who I don't really discuss that often in the blog.  I'm sure I have mentioned their children on more than one occasion. However, I don't really know as much about them as people as I'd have liked. I know more about my other Italian second great-grandparents and what they were like. Vincenzo and Maria on the other hand are a complete mystery to me. All I have are their pictures and sometimes pictures aren't enough.

    That isn't to say I don't know anything about them. I know they were both born in Gesualdo, Italy and that they got married in October 1880 in the Campanian town of Frigento. A cousin of mine did a lot of work researching the family and they had many children together. Not just the ones who went to America.

    Vincenzo and Maria ended up having nine children together and as far as I can tell only one of them died young. His name was Pasquale Antonio and had a younger brother who shared his name. It's a common practice in Italy to name a child after a sibling who unfortunately died young.

    

    As far as I can tell, Vincenzo and Maria's other children all lived exceptional lives. I only know of the four that ended up in America. My great-grandfather Giuseppe, his brothers Rocco and Pasquale and their sister Rosina sailed across the Atlantic in the early 1900s along with a few other Carrabis cousins who ended up near Worcester, Mass. If you've heard about the story where three brothers go to America, you might think that was a made up story. In my case it's true. Giuseppe went to Haverhill, Mass and the others ended up in Everett and Melrose. Sometimes those farfetched stories are true!

    The other children are a bit of a mystery to me. Angiola was born in 1881 and married a man named Francesco Pascucci and they had three children between 1907 and 1914. Maria Antonia was born in 1883 and passed away in 1904. Michele was born in 1885 and not much is currently out there about him. Raffaele was born in 1899 and he married Eugenia Finamore in 1921. I wish I knew more about what happened to the children who got married. I might have cousins still living in the Gesualdo area! You never know!

Rocco on the far left and Pasquale on the far right.

    I admit it's a dream of mine to come into contact with cousins living in Gesualdo, Frigento and Grottaminarda. I have cousins in San Pietro a Maida. It stands to reason that I have cousins in Gesualdo! Seems logical.

    Anyway, of all the Carrabis kids who lived in America Rocco was the one who had the most children. He and his wife Caterina d'Avino had eleven children between 1913 and 1934. To list them all would probably require a whole new blog and I have a feeling this blog will go on for quite a while

.

    To sum up many of Rocco's children had descendants who took DNA tests and I DNA confirmed six of the children on WikiTree. Many of the grandchildren have told me about how Rocco never spoke English and how he always made Italian ices for them. My father confirmed the stories as Rocco and his family would visit his grandfather Giuseppe in Haverhill many times. He was also an accomplished architect and built the houses on Windsor street in Melrose. Those houses still stand today!

    While Rocco and Caterina had their hands full with their children, Giuseppe and his wife Clementina had six children including my grandmother Olympia. I hope someone is making note of all of this. There'll be a quiz later.

    Pasquale and his wife Raffaela had four children and lived in nearby Everett and like Rocco's family they visited Giuseppe in Haverhill on many occasions. It's safe to say that the Carrabs brothers were very close to one another and it makes sense given how they were all strangers in a strange land. 

    Curiously, the odd one out of all the Carrabis siblings is Rosina. To date, I do not have a single picture of her. She lived near Pasquale in Everett and yet I've never seen a picture of her. It's so weird.

    This isn't to say I don't know anything about Rosina. I do. I know she got married twice. She married Antonio Pascucci in 1913 and Vincenzo d'Avino in 1923. Last year, I wrote a blog about how the family sort of lost touch with hers after she passed away in the early 1960s. She had one child with Antonio who died young and two with her second husband. Those two children had pretty big families as far as I can tell. I would love to get in touch with them. Maybe they have a picture of her! Dare to dream, Chris. Dare to dream. Maybe they'll show up as DNA matches on Ancestry! Fingers and toes are crossed.

    As you can see from this week's blog Italian families often have multiple children. Sometimes those kids share the same name. Sometimes people lose touch with one another. It's an unfortunate part of life. It tends to happen when you have large families. Keeping track of everyone is a full-time job and thankfully I have my online trees documenting everyone. I hope that those trees entice people to contact me because I'd love to know more about the Carrabis family. I'd especially would love to talk to descendants of Rosina and descendants of Vincenzo and Maria who are still living in Gesualdo. One way or another, I want to get the band back together! Dare to dream!!

See ya next time!

Edit: I discovered Vincenzo and Maria had a son named Carmine who was born in 1896. Will be researching him!

52 Ancestors Week 44: Rural

From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 44:

The theme for Week 44 is “Rural.” Many, if not most, of us have ancestors who lived in a rural area. Having trouble who to choose? There’s nothing wrong with picking someone at random!

Rabbit rabbit

    Last week, I talked about how going to the big city was a big event for a lot of people in my family tree. I couldn't just pick one story about someone going into Boston because there were so many stories to be told. Boston is not that far away from Haverhill and so everyone went to the city at one point or another. Now, imagine living in a town that's roughly equidistant between two major cities. It's a town with a long and storied history stretching back hundreds of years. I am of course talking about the town of Salem. No, not the one with the witch trials and everything. Though, it does have the same name! This town is Salem, New Hampshire and it's the place where I grew up.

    Today Salem, New Hampshire is a town of over thirty thousand people and it had very humble beginnings. In the 1700s, it was the North Parish of nearby Methuen and in 1750 it was incorporated into its own town as part of the New Hampshire colony. These days it's considered to be a suburb of Manchester, New Hampshire and Boston, Massachusetts due to its proximity to both metropolitan areas.

My brother Jim and Mary Matorian

   Long before urbanization came to Salem it had farms and many of those farms were owned by either immigrants from places like Armenia or by people who have had ties to the land for hundreds of years.

    When I was growing up, an older couple used to take care of my brother and I whenever my parents were busy. Their names were Peter and Mary Matorian. I may have mentioned them a few times in the blog.

    Peter grew up on one of those farms I mentioned earlier and he often told my brother and I stories of how different Salem was when he was growing up. The way he told the story made Salem appear very different from what it is today.

    Peter's parents Garabed and Annie lived in a very rural part of town and their farm was one of many that sold produce to nearby communities like Derry, Haverhill, Methuen, Plaistow and other towns in Essex and Rockingham counties. They would travel along the main road connecting the towns and sell their goods. There was a train station near the intersection of Main Street and what we called "Route 28". From there farmers would load their produce onto the trains and they'd go all over Rockingham and Essex counties. 

    These days that same stretch of road in Salem is now two miles of gas stations, stores, malls and restaurants.  A horse track was even built to entertain visitors. To say times have changed is a bit of an understatement! It was like that when I was a kid, too. So, I always knew that road to be abuzz with activity. There's even a Wikipedia entry for it! Check it out! There's also a very old amusement park that also entertained visitors and it's not far from the action on Route 28.

Matorians in the 1930 census

    Rapid urbanization didn't stop farming in Salem. Many people held onto their farms and even today you can buy delicious produce from various nearby farm stands. One such stand is called "Pete's Farm" and sadly it has no connection to the Matorians. Though, I wish it did. Their corn is simply amazing! We get their corn every time it's in stock and they go great with hamburgers. There's something about farm raised veggies that makes them so addictive.

    The Garabedian farm also supplied produce to nearby grocery stores like Market Basket where you get "moah foh ya dollah". Gotta love that Boston accent!

    The Matorian farm just one of many farms in my area. Closer to home was the Duston farm. The owner, sadly, was not as eager to talk about their family as the Matorians were. In fact, he seemed to not appreciate having neighbors around at all! His name was Thomas Elliot Duston and he was a direct descendant of famous/infamous Hannah Duston of Haverhill. I found that connection decades after he passed away. Though, there were rumors about his connection when I was growing up.

Ye Olde Duston Farmhouse

       My parents wanted to experience rural life since they both grew up in urban settings. They moved into the area around Duston's farm in the 1970s and ever since that day Mr. Duston always kept a watchful eye on the family and anyone else who lived on his street.

    When I was a kid my brother and I would cross one of his fields in order to go to a friend's house as it was a lot safer to cut through the field than going around the block. The journey was a lot shorter, too.

    Our journey was often marred by screams and occasional chases. Duston did not want anyone on his property. The weird thing was that there was never anything actually growing in those fields. It was just weeds and dirt! And maybe some bugs!

    Duston never really talked to anyone save for a few other people who lived on his street. He may have said some words in passing to a few other people. He just kept his circle of friends small. He did live with his sister and took care of her.

    I do remember seeing his cows in the field across the street. Hearing them moo from time to time was an interesting wake-up call for my parents. Thankfully, I never heard them moo in the wee hours! His farm was about 150 acres in its heyday.

I feel a presence I've not felt since.....

    Once Duston passed away in 2006, the fields that my brother and I used to cut through rapidly became neighborhoods. The centuries old farmhouse the Duston family lived in was even torn down and whisked away like it was never there. 

    On occasion my brother and I would walk down those roads with my sister-in-law and my nephews. As I walked, I got bombarded with feelings of nostalgia and a sense that I really shouldn't be on that road. It's weird. It's been twenty years since Duston passed away and I could still feel like there's a presence there. My mind could be playing tricks on me. It's hard to say. 

    Still, it's interesting to compare and contrast two farming families who were contemporaries of each other. One family was eager to tell everyone about their farming past and offer advice on how to grow things and the other family was not as welcoming as we had hoped. To each their own, I suppose. Everyone has their own quirks and not every farmer is going to be like the Kents in Smallville. At least I got to experience both rural AND urban life growing up in Salem. When you live in a town like Salem, you get to experience both and you don't have to travel that far to see it. Will Salem become a city like its bewitching friend to the south? That's not likely. You never know. At least I got to experience both ways of life and you can't beat that!

See ya next time!

The picture of Duston farm is courtesy of Google Earth.

52 Ancestors Week 43: Urban

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 43:

The theme for Week 43 is “Urban.” What ancestors lived in town? Any memorable trips to the big city? How about an ancestor named Urban? This is their week.

It's thirty-six miles to Boston....

    While the cities of Haverhill and Newburyport have been discussed at great length in this blog, it's important to remember that while those Massachusetts cities are cities in every sense of the word they pale in comparison with the state's capitol, Boston. Boston is only a half hour drive from those cities and it's rightfully considered to be the center of New England. It's the largest state capitol in the region after all! Where else could you go watch a Red Sox, Celtics, or Bruins game, take a tour of a museum and have fine dining all in the same day? Sure you could go all the way to New York City. The problem is that the Big Apple is four hours away. If you lived in Haverhill and Newburyport, why go all the way there when you have the big city closer to home? 

    Boston, like its rival New York City, has always been a cosmopolitan place. People from every nation made their homes there and as a result ethnic neighborhoods formed throughout the city.

    For example, the North End is famous for its Italian neighborhoods and fine Italian dining. Italians arriving in Massachusetts often settled there or went to one of the many outlying suburbs. That's exactly what my great-grandfather Giuseppe Carrabs did in September 1908.

    Curiously, Giuseppe arrived without his wife Clementina. She was mentioned on the manifest as living in Gesualdo at the time. Why did he go to Boston without her? Well, if you look at the second page of the manifest, the reason becomes very clear.

        Giuseppe went to Boston to visit his brother-in-law Pasquale Forgione who was living in Newburyport in 1908.  For my great-grandfather it was likely easier and not to mention cheaper to take the boat from Naples to Boston rather than go to New York and take a train to Newburyport. For him, Boston was a stepping stone on his travels. Of course many of his fellow passengers on the boat may have stayed in the city.

    It's interesting to note that Pasquale didn't stay in Newburyport too long. He and his family moved to Haverhill once Giuseppe returned to America in the 1910s with his own family.  Pasquale married his wife Giuseppina Pastore in Boston in 1913. I guess they realized that the Queen Slipper City would be a better place to live than Newburyport. 

    The North End historically has been a hub of activity for Italian immigrants and because it was so close to cities like Haverhill and Newburyport many Italians visited the area. With so many Italians around, it quickly became a place many Italian immigrants felt was their home away from home much like Little Italy in New York City. An immigrant in Haverhill could visit, grab some goodies and have something from Italy at home whenever they were homesick. People often say NYC's Little Italy is important. However, you can't deny that the North End is just as iconic.

    Fine Italian dining aside, Boston is home to many museums and the largest aquarium in New England. There is a lot of history to be had in Beantown along with everything else. It was one of the most important cities in the American Revolution after all.

    Ever since I was little, my family and I would make trips to Boston whether it was for a field trip to the Museum of Science and the New England Aquarium or to simply attend a Celtics game at the Garden. I should note that the stadium the Celtics and Bruins played in changed names three times since I was a kid. At least Fenway Park is still Fenway Park!

    Of course if you're a genealogist, you may want to check out the American Ancestors building on Newbury St.  I may be a little biased since a few cousins work there as well as a friend of mine! They do great work there! Check them out!

    Getting into Boston these days is considerably easier than back when my great-grandparents were around. Today, we would drive to a train station and simply take subway train into the city. Though, if you were ambitious you could always drive into Beantown. Just remember you can't pahk the cah in Hahvahd yahd. You take the "T"! At least there are shuttles that take you to and from the city in virtually every Massachusetts town and in towns in southern New Hampshire.

    In the end, Boston is just as important to me as Haverhill and Newburyport. There's just as much history and fun things to do there than there is in the cities my ancestors came from. The only difference is that Beantown is larger and while there are a lot of people there you can still easily get to the city from the various surrounding communities.

    People from those cities frequently went to the big city for travel, to take in the sights and for the Italians it was a place to feel at home even though home was thousands of miles away.

    Perhaps this is the real reason why Boston and New York have their storied rivalry. Both places have been considered cosmopolitan areas and both have a lot to offer people living in and outside the city.

    
    This week's blog certainly gushed over Beantown didn't it? I can't help it! I've been going to Boston ever since I was a kid. I first went there in grammar school and I've been going there for fun and other activities ever since. Boston really is the capitol of all six New England states and again it holds a special place in my heart because of all the trips to Boston I've heard about or personally experienced. I couldn't just pick one this week because they were all great. Boston is a city that's larger than life. If you have the means, I suggest you check the city out.

See you next time!

This blog has been paid for by the Great Boston Travel Agency. Our motto is you "Can get theyah from heyah faster than a dropped "r".".

52 Ancestors Week 42: Fire

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 42:

The theme for Week 42 is “Fire.” Whether as a source of warmth, power, or destruction, everyone’s life has been impacted by fire. This week, consider an ancestor who worked with fire or whose life (or records!) was impacted by it. 

Flame on!

    Fire really is a giver of warmth and a destroyer. You have to respect it and not play with matches! Smokey the Bear said so himself. Only YOU can prevent forest fires! Would you believe I haven't encountered many stories involving fires on my genealogical adventure? I've written about the fire at my grandfather Marco's motel on Salisbury Beach. I've also written about my great-uncle Alfred Hamel Jr who was a soldier and a firefighter.  See the story about his heroic deeds in this blog.

    There was even a small chimney fire in my house in the early to mid 1980s. I don't know much about it and there isn't a lot to tell to be honest. Obviously, it wasn't a roaring five alarm blaze that destroyed everything. No, it was an electrical fire.  As a result we never used the fireplace for anything not even for roasting marshmallows. It was probably for the best. Cleaning them is hard work.

    After finding that article about Alfred, I was left wondering if any more of his heroic exploits made the local paper. The guy was news! Though, I suspect he was very modest about what he had done. Most firefighters tend to be modest and that's good. You don't want a hero with a superiority complex. Characters like that get written out of stories really quickly if you know what I mean. So, what happened to Alfred after his heroic rescue of his family in 1947? Let's find out!

Newburyport Daily
News, 27 Jan 1960, pg 10.

    It looks like our hero got a long overdue military award in January 1960. According to the article from the Newburyport Daily News, Alfred was given the ward after almost sixteen years of service as a Marine Air Reservist. The award was his belated second award of the Navy Unit Commendation.

    Other articles I've found in the newspaper archives have painted Alfred to be quite the hero. He served with distinction during the second World War and his valor was more than well deserved. I just wonder what took so long for him to receive this prestigious award. There might have been delays, red tape and all of that bureaucratic nonsense. At least he finally received it. It's better late than never.

    While receiving military awards is awesome  I wanted to see if he received any awards for his service as a firefighter. I did find one article where his father recognized his son in a photo posted by the Boston Post in 1954. Sadly, there is no archive of the Boston Post online as far as I can tell. That's okay. At least the article explained why his photo was in the paper. Sometimes you need to take what you can get and hope that an archive shows up some day.

    It seems that our hero was one of fifteen firefighters called to the Summer Street MTA station to rescue a man who had fallen from the platform into the train pit. Two cars passed over him and miraculously he emerged slightly injured.  Wow! Lady luck was with him that day and it's a good thing Alfred and co were on the scene to lend a hand. I would love to see the article AND the photo. I hope it gets posted online at some point. Can you imagine how proud Alfred senior was when he saw his son in the paper? Pretty proud, I'd say. It seems I have many heroes in my tree. I might write about superheroes but these guys are real superheroes. 'Nuff said!

    I've tried looking for more articles about Alfred's heroic exploits in the Newburyport archives. I think if I were to look him up in Boston archives I would find a lot of information and a picture or two. Time will tell.

    Anyway, it's clear that Alfred is quite the hero. He saved his family from a fire. He saved a man who fell off of a platform in Boston. That's pretty amazing! I obviously never met the man as he passed away in 1972 at the age of fifty-two. I would have liked to have met him since my grandfather told me many stories about his brother. Here's hoping I find more adventures of this courageous firefighter!

See ya next time!

Bowties will always be cool.

52 Ancestors Week 41: Water

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 41:

The theme for Week 41 is “Water.” They say that water is life, so it’s no surprise that water features prominently in our family trees. Whether it's because of occupation, transportation, or recreation, it’s hard to find an ancestor who wasn’t somehow impacted by water. Feel free to be creative with how you interpret this prompt. (Remember, there’s no wrong way to go about it!)

This is probably one of my most favorite banners.

    If you live in the Merrimack valley, you already know how much of a role water plays in every day life. The Merrimack river obviously heavily impacted the lives of my ancestors as they were from either the city of Haverhill or Newburyport. Those Massachusetts towns grew into bustling cities in the late 19th and into the 20th centuries due to various textile mills employing immigrants from virtually every nation on the planet. Working in the mills was hard on everyone and thankfully they had places to go relax, unwind and get away from the noises of the city. Thankfully, nearby Salisbury beach and Plum Island provided just the escape people needed.

   Salisbury beach and Plum Island are two key destinations in the Merrimack valley and both can be easily reached from Newburyport. For a long time, both areas were the place to go for fishing, relaxing on the beach or just plain old having fun. The sky was the limit!

So much swagger!

    In the 1920s, my second great-grandparents Joseph Laplante and Georgianna Ross  frequently visited Salisbury beach since they lived in nearby Newburyport. As you can tell from the picture, Joseph had a lot of swagger. The pipe seals the deal!

    I'm pretty sure this picture was taken at Salisbury beach. There was nowhere else they could have gone that was close to home. Granted, they could have gone to Hampton beach in New Hampshire. However, it's extremely unlikely.

    Salisbury beach in the 1920s was a very different place than the beach I remember going to back in the day. There was no arcade. Well, no arcade that had video games at least. They did have a roller coaster that rivaled the one in Canobie Lake Park in nearby Salem New Hampshire and they even had bumper cars at one point. 

    I only wish Joseph and Georgianna could have grabbed a slice of pizza at Tripoli Pizza. Sadly, there was only one or two opened at that time. Tripoli first opened in Lawrence, Mass in early 1920s. The Tripoli Pizza at Salisbury beach didn't open until the 1950s. So, no pizza or cannoli for them!

    If you think Salisbury beach reminds you of Coney Island in New York, you aren't wrong! Despite its small size, the beach played host to various celebrities from the 1920s to the 1960s. Celebrities like Frank Sinatara, Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald frequented the area's bandstand. That alone brought tons of people in from all over the valley! While that was great and everything, they still needed a place to stay for a while. That's where Plum Island comes in.

    Plum island is a small barrier island adjacent to Newburyport and it's home to many cottages. Those cottages were the summer homes of many a Merrimack valley resident like my great-grandfather Alfred Hamel and my great-grandparents, Austin Felker and Henrietta Legault.

    Austin and Henrietta may have lived in Haverhill. However, they had a cottage on Plum Island as well. I've been told by my mother that their old cottage still stands today! I should really head down there and take a picture of it, huh?

    My mother also told me that the Felkers had a skiff they often used to go fishing on. I'm not sure if it's the same one that accidentally hit the Coast Guard ship in the mid 1930s. I would think Austin got a newer one in the 1960s. Then again we had the same boat for almost forty years ourselves so what do I know? For more on the Coast Guard incident, check out this blog. 

    Naval incidents aside, Austin was still an accomplished fisherman. He took his children and grandchildren out on many adventures. They went fishing in the Merrimack and dug for clams on Crane Beach in Ipswich, Mass.

    I honestly can't think of anyone who didn't have a home away from home on Plum Island. When I do a search on Newspapers.com for a person, I sometimes get an article about someone staying at Plum Island for a while or renting a house there. Plum island was the place to be if you wanted to relax and still have access to the fun and games in Salisbury. Of course, you could always stay at a motel.

It's still standing! Just not a motel now.

    My grandfather Marco owned the Colonial Arms Motel with his sister-in-law's husband, Arnold Villanucci in the 1960x. There, they hosted many a weary traveler looking to get away from it all. While the mills were long since closed by that point, the area was still a great vacation spot for people who wanted to relax without having to travel very far.

  You could stay a while and partake in all of the fun things the beach had to offer.

Though, I wonder if the celebrities I mentioned earlier stayed there. Hmmmm....Probably not.

    Both Salisbury beach and Plum Island held a special place for my ancestors and various friends and relatives. These days, the crowds have other options for fun in nearby towns like Salem, New Hampshire. That doesn't mean that the places aren't hopping any more. No, no. People still have homes on Plum Island and people still go to Salisbury beach. It's just that there are more options available to people than there were back in the day.

    When I was growing up, my parents would take us to Salisbury beach on a weekend and even in the '80s and '90s there were still a lot of people going to the arcade, grabbing a slice of pizza from Tripoli or some fried dough at the boardwalk. We even had family friends who rented cottages on Plum island and my mother would point out where her grandparents had stayed.

    As you can tell from the blog, water plays a huge role in life here in the Merrimack valley. Along the water's edge, you can do more than fish and dine at a restaurant. You can build memories that last a lifetime. Just ummm.....don't swim in the Merrimack river. 

See ya next time!

Life's a beach!