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!

52 Ancestors Week 40: Cemetery

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 40:

The theme for Week 40 is “Cemetery.” (Honestly, this is one of my favorite themes!) Any memorable trips to an ancestral cemetery? Whose burial place have you searched for, but haven’t found? Any sextons in the family tree? This is their week.

Everyone's dying to get in!

    It's pretty ironic we got this prompt right at the beginning of spooky season. Halloween starts on October 1st! Don't let anyone else tell you different!

    Right. Now than that's out of the way, let's get down to business.  I've often talked about Saint Patrick's Cemetery in the blog since that's where both sets of my Italian great-grandparents and their relatives are buried. Saint Patrick's in Haverhill, Mass is basically the de facto Italian cemetery in the city. Sure there are Italians buried in nearby Linwood, Saint James and other cemeteries in Haverhill. It's Saint Patrick's that has the most people of Italian descent interred there. This week, I've decided to give everyone a tour of the stones. Don't worry. It's hard to get lost and I'm pretty sure it isn't haunted. If it was, you'd hear Italian ghosts asking you why you don't call anymore and you'd feel a pinching sensation on your cheeks.

Pic taken by MassGraver on FindaGrave.com

    Before we dive into it, here's a little backstory on Saint Patrick's that I've managed to dig up due to careful investigation or constant nagging. 

    As far as I can tell, Saint Patrick's has been in operation since the late 1800s and that makes it one of the more recent cemeteries in Haverhill. Stones there date back to 1896 whereas cemeteries in Haverhill like Maplewood have stones dating as far back as the 1700s. You won't find any soldiers of the American Revolution here. You will find Civil War soldiers at Walnut, though! Legend has it that it and nearby Hilldale cemetery are haunted. The older the cemetery, the more haunted it is. I don't make the rules!

    Over time, the cemetery was designated the Italian and Lithuanian burial grounds due to the various members of Saint Rita's Parish wishing to be buried there. Once Saint Rita's merged with other Catholic churches in the area to become All Saints Parish, people from all over the city ended up choosing this cemetery as their final resting place.

    Saint Patrick's is pretty easy to navigate as the property has rectangular sections. To make things even more helpful, the stones themselves are organized by decade of death for the most part. For example, if someone passed away in the 1980s, their stone would be among others who passed away in the same time period. Sometimes that's not the case as families have stones nearby. It may also depend on who was buried in the plot first and when they passed away.  It's still convenient! Just like access to my grandfather's stone.

    The final resting place of my grandfather, my great-grandfather Vincenzo, my great-grandmother Maria, Vincenzo's second wife Fortuna and my grandma Ollie is one of the easiest stones to find. It's along one of the main "roads" on the property and is one of the first stones I remember visiting.

    Every Christmas season and Memorial Day my dad would drive us to the cemetery to clean things up, plant flowers and decorate it. We still put wreaths and other decorations up and try to keep things looking neat and tidy. The groundskeepers do a great job of course. But, there's no harm in giving them a hand!

    Maria was obviously the first in the plot to be buried there since she passed away in 1943. I've often wondered what the stone looked like back then. For as long as I can remember the stone that's currently there was always there. I just figured the names were chiseled in over time. The plot also has memorial markers dedicated to Marco and Vincenzo's service in World War 1 and II. There's also a plaque that says "Buona Fortuna" or "Good Luck" there as well.

    When I was growing up, I didn't really venture too far from the stone. We did our work there and visited my other great-grandparents' stone to see if that needed work done. Thankfully, my dad's cousin Bob took care of the plot. In recent years, he started a tradition where he'd put a small pumpkin on the Ferraiolo and Carrabs stones. Someone on Find a Grave took a picture of the stones with the pumpkins on them, uploaded it to the site and now Bob's handiwork is forever immortalized on there and as hints on Ancestry. 

    The Carrabs plot is further down the "road" from my other great-grandparents' stone and a few rows in from the front. It's still relatively easy to get to. It's also very well maintained by Bob like I said. He makes it a point to visit the stone and his parents' stone in Linwood. 

    Bob and I used to take walks around the cemetery if I asked him if he wanted to take me there and to the library. It's been a while since I've gone there with him and when I went I always made sure to take pictures and listen to whatever stories he'd tell me about the area. He knows much more about the cemetery than I do! So, any facts I have can be attributed to him!

        Before I started my genealogical adventure, those were  the only two stones I ever visited. Lame, I know. What can I say? I didn't really feel like exploring the area and I didn't know who to look for at the time. So, imagine my surprise when I found out just how many connections I have to the cemetery! I'll try to sum it up as best I can. 

   Bob and I once did a cemetery run where we were trying to find the Coppolas and man did we find them. Most of them were connected to me in some way aside from a Coppola stone across the "street" from Vincenzo and company. I looked into it and that Coppola family hailed from Sicily.

    My second great-grandmother Caterina Coppola has family buried at Saint Patrick's. Her sister Concetta and brother Paolo are interred in different parts of the cemetery along with several members of their families.

    Listing them all would take some time. Let's just say most of their kids and their spousal units are also in Saint Patrick's save for a few people. Finding them all was like shooting fish in a barrel. The cemetery is full of Coppolas. I suppose it makes sense given how large their families were.

    I should note that I made sure  to share the picture of Concetta's stone with her grandson in San Pietro. His dad, Francesco, was sent back to Italy and as a result my cousin never met his grandmother or his aunts and uncles in America. I also shared the photos of the stones with my cousin Caterina.

    The hunt for the Coppola stones went pretty well. I mean it wasn't hard finding them all. There was still one Coppola stone I had not been able to locate and that was the stone belonging to Paolo and Concetta's cousin Giovanni. I knew Giovanni would be buried there. Where else would he have been? Imagine my surprise when I found his family's stone two stones away from the Ferraiolo plot! I honestly never noticed!

    Sigh. I know. I know. I should have been more observant! There's a reason for my lapse in judgement. I knew about the Coppola stone for ages, of course. We'd drive by it on our way to the Ferraiolo plot. I just never thought to look BEHIND the stone to see who was buried there. All I saw was "Coppola" and thought nothing of it. Coppola is a common Italian last name. It could have been anyone and my parents had no idea who was there.

    A few years back I was with my parents and we were cleaning up the Ferraiolo plot. I decided to check out who those Coppolas were once and for all.  At that point I had looked all over the cemetery for Giovanni's stone to no avail. I was beginning to think that maybe they weren't buried there at all despite all evidence pointed to that cemetery. His death certificate DID say he was buried at Saint Patrick's!

Honest mistake. Really!

    I went to the back and smiled. There they were. Giovanni, his wife Natalina, their children Frank, Mary and Angelina and their spouses. I laughed and took the picture right away. They were right there the whole time! Talk about hiding in plain sight.

    Then again it wasn't exactly like they went anywhere.

    Still, it was cool finding their stone and even cooler knowing that it was almost next door to the Ferraiolo plot! It makes me wish I checked out the cemetery more when I was younger. Sure I wouldn't have known who Giovanni was at the time. I would have asked my great-aunt Nickie or my grandmother about him and they'd have told me all about him.

    These are just a few of the stones you'd find at Saint Patrick's. Some are easy to find and some are a little hard to spot. Still, it's important to remember the people buried under the stones and honor them in the best way possible. I've done my part by having their profiles on Wikitree. Users on Find a Grave had done the same thing and created profiles for the people buried there. In time, more of those people will have profiles on WikiTree. I promise!  At the time of this blog's posting, there are 6,189 memorials there. Not bad when you consider Saint James has 9,547 memorials! No wonder I can't find Antoine there. Some day.....

    All in all, Saint Patrick's a pretty good cemetery and even though it's not as old as some of the other cemeteries in the city it still has a ton of stories to tell. The cemetery tells the story of the Italian and Lithuanian immigrant experience and their lives. It was the first cemetery I remember visiting and it's the one I have the most connections to. Sure I have relatives in Walnut and other cemeteries in the city. However, it's probably Saint Patrick's that means the most to me because my Italian grandparents and all four of my Italian great-grandparents are buried there.

See ya next time!

52 Ancestors Week 39: Disappeared

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 39:

The theme for Week 39 is “Disappeared.” All of us have someone on our family tree who seems to have just disappeared. This is a good week to write about them. (Who knows – maybe writing about them will help you spot some gaps in your research and give you ideas on new places to look!)

Mmm....ominous

    I might be showing my age here. There was a show I used to watch called "Unsolved Mysteries" and it was hosted by a guy with the most epic voice ever. That man was Robert Stack and his show used to keep kids awake at night. Whenever I come across someone who vanished from the records, I think of his show and the ominous theme song. It's either that or the "Twilight Zone" theme. Both theme songs work. 

    Amy's right. We all have people in our family tree who have vanished without a trace and you have to wonder about them. Did they get abducted by aliens? Did they go into the witness protection program? Did they fall into a quantum singularity? Who knows? Today, I'll be presenting the strange case of a man who did vanish without a trace. Ladies, gentlemen and others, I present my third great-grandmother, Evaline Augusta Fisher.

    By all accounts Evaline had a fairly normal life. She was born in 1849 to John Sargent Fisher and Frances Frothingham. Eva had a twin brother who sadly didn't live that long. In December of 1870 she married Austin Webster Stevens and they had four children together including my 2nd great-grandmother, Gertrude Stevens.

    Seems like a sweet life, doesn't it? Unfortunately, life doesn't always work out like the way you planned. Eva and Austin eventually got divorced sometime after 1880 and she went on to marry a guy named Charles Lewis Parker in 1912.

    After that, she all but disappeared from the records. Many trees, including mine, list her death as being on December 27th, 1923. There are no sources to back up this claim and I'm honestly not even sure where I pulled that date from. I didn't make it up or anything. To tell the truth, it may have been on the family tree my grandmother Natalie made ages ago.  If she was around, I'd ask her where she got that information from because like I said there are no sources that can verify her date of death!

    All isn't completely lost. She does appear on a few other records here and there.  In the 1880 census in Malden, she was living with Austin and their children Gertrude and Arthur. In 1900, she was living with Gertrude and her second husband Walter Senter in Haverhill. (It always goes back to Haverhill.) In 1910, she was living with Walter and Getrude in Kingston, New Hampshire. Get this. She was listed as "widowed". Divorce was a taboo topic in those days, I guess because Austin passed away in 1926 in Haverhill.

Gertrude in the center of the Senters!

    The last census Eva appears in is in the 1920 census in Lynn, Mass. There, she was living with her son Arthur and again she was listed as a widow! Seriously?! I know for a fact she married Parker. It's her last name in the census. Chuck may have actually died prior to 1920. There's just no way of knowing at this time.

    After that, it's hard to say what happened to Eva. She may very well have passed away in 1923 according to the tree my grandmother made. I have no idea. Like I said, I haven't been able to find any source that can confirm her death. I've looked at the death records in Lynn since that was her last known address and came up empty.

    I even went so far as to check out Pine Grove cemetery in Lynn since that's where Arthur's final resting place is. Nothing. Arthur is buried with a sibling who died young and several unrelated people. No sign of Eva. There are three hundred women with the name Eva buried in that cemetery and none of them have the last name of "Stevens" or "Parker". 

    This is just beyond strange at this point. All records regarding my third great-grandmother seem to vanished after the 1920 census and all we have to go on is a vague death date of December 27th, 1923. I've checked newspaper obituaries in the area at that time and came up empty. What happened to her? Did she really pass away on that day? It's a big mystery. I've even checked with the cemetery in Lynn and she's not buried there! At this point I was getting a huge headache.

Arthur and Bennie's grave.

        At least we can speculate what happened to her, right? Right. Let's say for the sake of argument that she did actually pass away in 1923. Okay. Would she have been in Lynn? It's possible. She was there in 1920. Her final resting place may actually be in one of the other cemeteries in the city. It's hard to say.

    I've tried to solve this puzzle for a long time and it's one of the many genealogical puzzles that continue to vex me. I've had to put this one on the backburner because it's just so frustrating. You would think her death record would have been scanned and digitized and pop up as a hint on Ancestry or Familysearch, right? Eh, that depends. After all Haverhill newspapers aren't digitized, either.

    With no actual death record I am left wondering if she really died on that day?  I know she passed away before 1938 as that was the year Gertrude married Charles Berry and Gertie's mother was listed as deceased on that record. With all the information I have, there's really not much else I can do. The only thing I can do is play the waiting game and you all know how much I love playing that game! I think it may be best to put this on the backburner a while longer. "Stevens" and "Parker" are both fairly common last names. I'm sure something will pop up some day.

    Eva is just one person in my tree who seemingly vanished from records. There are a few other people and my third great-grandmother is clearly the one who vexes me the most because you would think there'd be records for her death online. It's been over a hundred years since she supposedly passed away! Where are the records?! I've looked everywhere and came up empty. Perhaps this blog will help illuminate the case and perhaps YOU can help solve a mystery.

Wow. That sounded like Robert Stack in my head. See ya next time!

 

52 Ancestors Week 38: Animals

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 38:

The theme for Week 38 is “Animals.” Pet lovers, farmers, birdwatchers, fishermen – this is their week. Who will you write about this week?

Cocoa judges you while you read a blog about dogs.

    Animals have always been a part of my life. This is because virtually everyone in my family has been a pet owner at one point or another. You can tell a lot about a person by how they treat animals if they're furry, feathered or scaly. Animals can also sense if someone's a good person or not. We've got to give them credit. Though, sometimes animals can be a little crazy. More on that in a bit.

    There are honestly way too many animals and animal lovers for me talk about this week. I've decided to narrow the list down considerably. This week we'll focus on the lady who gave my brother and I our first pet way back in the 1980s. I'm of course talking about my aunt Linda, champion dog breeder and all around awesome person. 

Could this picture be more 1970s?
Yes, it could.

        Linda's journey to becoming a champion dog breeder began fairly early in her life. The Hamel clan always had pets of some kind running around the house. In the picture we see my mother with her siblings and a collie named Princess. My aunt Linda is the one to the dog's left.

    From what I've been told, Princess behaved exactly like "Lassie" from the classic television show. I'm not sure if that's true. I'd have to go back in time and see if that dog saved anyone from a well and then maybe I'll be impressed!

    Everyone loved Princess and I'm sure she was a great dog. I mean it's a collie. They're usually good dogs to begin with. Then again all dogs can be good when they're given the chance and proper training. It's up to the person training the animal and how you treat them.

   

    Either way, Linda's experience with Princess was just the beginning of her canine journey. Soon, she was onto bigger and honestly less fuzzy things. Seriously, collies must shed like crazy. Even heroic dogs have fuzz that roll like tumbleweeds around the kitchen. Then again most dog breeds do the same thing. Let's be honest.

    In 1978,  Linda began a career as a dog handler and breeder. She specialized in Brittanys, a dog breed that originally hailed from France. Britannys are a medium sized dog that come with either an orange and white or a liver and white fur coat. Sometimes they can come in a mix of all three colors!  They're also sporting dogs and are used for hunting birds like pheasants and quails.

Gunner was best doggo.

   Without a doubt one of my aunt's favorite dogs in the early 1980s was a Britanny named Gunner. I may a bit biased here but Gunner was seriously the best dog ever. He was always by my side and since my aunt was living with my family at the time I saw a great deal of him. 

    On the dog show circuit he went by Triumphant's War Boy. He was always protective of me. But, he never really barked or anything if I recall. He was just a sweet boy and was one of the first dogs I remember playing with, For more on his story, check out his page on my aunt's website!

    Gunner became obedience and field trials champion and even had awards named after him. Talk about an awesome dog. It's a good thing he never let fame go to his head. Can you imagine?

    Of course he wasn't technically our first family dog. That honor went to two Alaskan malamutes named Naki and Toomi. Amazingly enough, the Britannys always got along well with those two. Then again, if you were a dog would you pick a fight with a dog that's five times your size? Though, even the smallest dog would try. Gotta admire the sheer chutzpah of a breed like the chihuahua.

   Gunner ended up being the father of my aunt's first litter.  Her first Brittany, Penelope, was the mother. Her first litter ignited a passion for breeding every litter since has been very special to my aunt. 

    At one point Linda decided to give my brother and I our first puppy. I forget what the circumstances were. I think we ended up just asking for a dog and we were in the vicinity of dogs for as long as we could remember at that point. I think we just wanted a dog to call our own and in 1984 we finally got one.

Mom and Tux

    Tux was born in the December of 1984 and like his grandfather Gunner he was a very gentle dog. He wasn't technically a Christmas present or anything. Don't get the wrong idea. My aunt would NEVER put a puppy underneath the Christmas tree in a box unless it was for a photoshoot or something. Tux was actually born in the middle of the month in our basement.

    We obviously called him Tux because of his liver and white fur coat. His show name was Triumphant's Formal Attire and he did very well in dog shows. In fact, he became a champion several times. I know he wasn't ever on television or anything, but, it was still quite an accomplishment. We still have his ribbons somewhere.

   Despite his training, Tux was still a typical dog and did silly dog things from time to time. I remember one time we had steak on the kitchen counter that was destined to be grilled. Tux had other plans. He reached over the counter, snatched the meat up in his jaws and ran off into the living room hoping no one would notice.

     I don't think any of us were especially mad at Tux for doing that. We were just impressed because he was usually very well behaved. The dog would go with us to the boat and sit on the back deck with me. Even my aunt got a great laugh out of the story once we told her. Yes, he likely felt bad about what he did and we did send him to his kennel. It was just funny to see a usually good dog do something a little out of character for once. I guess he really wanted steak that night! Britannys can be a handful and that moment was a sign of what was to come.

Tux was a Celtics dog. Facts.

        By the early 1990s, Tux had sired several puppies and my aunt decided to give us one of the puppies as another present. I forget what the circumstances were. I think Tux was going to have one final litter before retiring and my aunt wanted us to have one of his puppies.

   We had a choice between a boy and a girl who were in the same litter. The girl was a little nosy and the boy was very shy and a little skittish. We picked the boy as he seemed a lot like Tux in the beginning.

    We named him Tie because his tail was liver on top and white underneath. Sadly, he never made it to the dog show ring as he was very ummm....energetic. Seriously, that dog's motto in life was "Gotta go fast!" Triumphant's Black Tie still had a cool show name even though everyone agreed that it would be best for him to just be a pet.

    Not every dog is cut out to be a show dog and Linda definitely understood that. The funny thing was that Tux's grandson Travis had more of Tux's personality than Tie.

    I remember one time we were dogsitting Tie's brother Travis and his sister Lacie. Travis behaved more like Tux did in and out of the ring. He would come on command and was pretty sweet. One time we had all three dogs run around an enclosure at my aunt's house and Tie would run around like he was never outside before. He was the eternal puppy.

GOTTA GO FAST! 

    Travis looked up at me once as if he was saying "What's his problem?" I was like "Don't look at me. He's your cousin." I think Tie more or less took after his mother more than his father. His mother was a very energetic dog. Tux was always very chill. 

    I'm just honestly amazed we got him to sit still for any picture we've taken of him because he was always on the move. Nothing we could do tired him out.

    We still loved him. He was great at playing fetch and he did listen to my aunt from time to time when she watched him. The trick was to get him in the mood. He was never violent or anything. Just energetic and wanted to play more than be a show dog like the other dogs in his family tree. 

    See? Humans aren't the only ones who have relatives doing their own thing in their family tree! I just wonder what happened to the shy puppy. Ironically, Lacie went from hyper to calm like her dad. 

    If I had a phone with a camera in those days, I could have made a fortune with crazy dog videos. When Tie wasn't running around, he was also getting up on his hind legs like a meerkat and spinning around chasing his tail. He also had the tendency to try and jump on my friends. He did try to jump on grandma Ollie a few times. Grandma didn't like that much even though she did love dogs.

As soon as I let this dog go....

    By 2008 both dogs had passed away and the house that was once the bastion of dogdom became a place for cats to hang out. Thankfully, Tie did meet our first cat Cocoa. The story of how we got him will be told another time.

     It was so funny watching Tie interact with the cat. Whenever Tie got too close for comfort, Cocoa would bap him on the nose and the poor dog would run back to his bed. 

    

     Heart of a wolf, right? At least they got along for the most part. For all his faults, Tie was just a bit too curious for his own good.  And he did have his sweet moments.

    My aunt once told me that Tie just needed someone to play with and most of the time was true. All pets need to be played with even though sometimes you're the one who gets tired out first!

     My aunt's love of dogs and showing them continues to this day and joining her on the dog show circuit is my cousin Kristyn. Seeing both of them action is quite cool and I'm glad the legacy continues. Kristyn is very good at what she does and she learned from the best.  I honestly have no regrets having a hyper dog around because in the end Tux and Tie were both good dogs and that's all you ever want in man's best friend.

    I'm glad we had Tux and Tie in our lives and I wouldn't trade it for a minute. I do miss Brittanys. They're fun to play with once you get past their energetic nature. I'm glad my aunt gave my brother and I those two dogs because they often distracted me from stuff that happened during school or something. And you can't say they didn't make life interesting!

Crazy dogs!

See ya next time! For more on my aunt Linda, check out these websites:

https://www.gooddog.com/breeders/triumphant-kennels-pennsylvania#tab=overview

https://www.triumphantkennels.com/home.html

See Tux here: https://www.triumphantkennels.com/champions.html

52 Ancestors Week 37: In the News

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 37: In the News

The theme for Week 37 is “In the News.” Have you made a family history discovery in a newspaper? What about a reporter, editor, or newsie in the family? 

Still waiting for pictures of Spider-Man! 

    At the time of this blog's posting, it's incredibly difficult to find Haverhill newspapers online. You literally have to jump through hoops in order to find a story about somebody living in Haverhill, Massachusetts. For some reason Haverhill newspapers are not online anywhere at this time. Thankfully, there are ways around this problem. You could do a keyword search on Newspapers.com for "Haverhill" and add someone's name. That's how I was able to find the car story I talked about a few weeks ago. You gotta love loopholes! 

    Using the loophole, I was able to find a ton of neat stories. One of the most bizarre ones was how several newspapers across the country reported on my 2nd great-grandmother's brother Paolo buying a ton of bread to feed his kids. The same story was repeated over and over again word for word. I swear it was a meme of its day. One day I'll talk about it. Just not today. I have something a bit more interesting in mind!

    This short story comes to us from the Holyoke Transcript Telegram on January 16th, 1947. The story talks about how an ambulance couldn't get to a pregnant woman and her husband due to a ton of snow being on the ground. Extraordinary measures had to be taken and so the cops placed the woman and her husband on a toboggan and delivered her to Hale Hospital where she gave birth to a bouncing baby boy.

    The couple in the story were Paul Coppola Jr, son of Paolo and his wife, Marie Thais Leblanc.

    It shouldn't surprise anyone that the Coppolas had car trouble at that time of year. Ask anyone who lives in the Northeast US and they could tell you just how hard it is to get a car started on a winter morning. You might even hear stories about the infamous Blizzard of 1978 around here. Yes, I know it mainly struck the Midwest US. However, we apparently felt the effects here in the Merrimack valley. It was that huge.

Joe and his mom.

    Once in a lifetime blizzards aside, the story was about the birth of Joseph Coppola, my second cousin twice removed. Unfortunately, the only information I gathered about him came from his obituary in 2010 and from various relatives including his great-niece Cynthia.

    Cyndi told me Joe was in the U.S. Navy. I think you all probably guessed that from the picture. Now, now. He could have been in a play or a movie. Yeah, right. He was in the Navy and looked quite spiffy in that uniform. 

    After the Navy, he became a mentor to many people and from the looks of his obituary he really loved animals.  He seemed like a cool guy and animals can sense that about people. If you want to check out his story, check out his page on Find a Grave.

    There's no biography. At least the obituary is there detailing his life. It's not a bad story for a man whose very birth made the news!

    I have to wonder. Did Joe know he made the news that early in his life? Does his family know? I'm going to link this week's blog to Cynthia and maybe she can show it to the family. It's an interesting story and it's a lot more upbeat than the one about the car crashing into the Soterakopoulous house. 

    I really like human interest stories like this one because far too often we have negative stories in the media. Even back then you had stories where someone was hurt or involved in a bizarre case. I have some other strange stories to talk about and one day I'll probably share them here. For now, we have this cool story about a couple trying to get to the hospital after the storm. In New England. I have to feel for the family. The scenario seems like it should be a scene in a movie. I'm glad Joe had a great life. I just wish I could have met him. 

 See ya next time!

P.S. Here's hoping Haverhill's newspapers get digitized soon!

52 Ancestors Week 36: Off to School

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 36:

The theme for Week 36 is “Off to School.” Any teachers, principals, school nurses, school librarians, bus drivers, or lunch ladies in the family tree? What about someone who was really into their school spirit? 

Rocking a "Transformers" lunchbox like it was 1985.

   Fun fact: The picture I used for this week's banner was likely taken exactly forty years ago. I started elementary school in 1985 and it was a wild ride ever since. It's pretty easy to date that photo since the lunchbox I have in my hand gives everything away. I wonder if I still have that "Transformers" lunchbox somewhere. It was the epitome of cool if you had one in those days and were of a certain age like I was. All in all school was pretty cool despite kids being cruel sometimes. I've always liked school in spite of the many difficulties I had and I think I owe a lot of that feeling to the people in my family tree.

    In my family tree, I have many people who were teachers. My father once taught classes to grad school students while he was in school to become a dentist. My sister-in-law Kathleen is a professor at James Madison University in Virginia and even her parents were teachers. My dad's cousin Joe was a music teacher. I could go on and on. If I had the choice to talk about one of them, I think I'll talk about my sister-in-law. Her ears are going to be burning before she reads this week's blog! Yes, I'll be sure to link it to her once I hit that "publish" button.

Jim and Kat's engagement pic!

    Doctor Kathleen Grammatico-Ferraiolo actually comes from a long line of teachers since both of her parents were teachers themselves. From an early age, she learned the importance of a good education and her parents were both more than willing to help her with various assignments while she was growing up.

    One assignment she had was to research her family history and her parents helped her  to create what was a huge binder full of reports and family stories. Any genealogist I know would fawn over the details, pictures and an stories in that binder!

    Being a genealogist, I asked to see it when I was told of its existence and I asked Kathleen if it was okay to research her family tree and see if the stories in it were true or not. Like my family own story, it was pretty much true. Her family story mirrored my own as her dad's family came from Sicily and Campania while her mother's side hails from Ireland.

    When you visit New England, you're going to find a lot of people with both Irish and Italian backgrounds. Similar shared experiences tend to bring people together.

   Long before I ever looked at that family history report I met Kathleen in the fall of 1995. My brother had just started his college career at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass. Their friend Mike introduced them and they've been together ever since. Kathleen was a political science major at the time and was on the fast-track to becoming a teacher. I didn't know it at the time. But, she was going to end up teaching me a valuable lesson.

    When I graduated high school in 1997, I had no idea what my major was going to be at Merrimack College. I was accepted there and I had no idea what I wanted to study. Admittedly, I panicked. I think anyone in my place would have and if you said you didn't I'd say you were a lying liar from Liartown, Liariana.

A few feet away from where history
took flight.

    Kathleen took me aside one day and told me to focus on my strengths and that just so happened to be history. I always did pretty well with history in school and she encouraged me to continue my studies.  In a way, Kathleen was like a big sister to me at that moment. She still is! She was always there to provide me with some excellent advice and once studying history in college got to be a bit too much for me, she suggested political science as it combined history with events that were happening in the present day.

    I ended up switching my major thanks to her and I was better for it. My grades improved and my mood changed. When I was studying history in college, I found that the professors expected me to repeat everything they said word for word in essays. I was always taught to write using my own words. I didn't feel right using someone else's words and that's why I struggled in the history department. Thankfully, Kat said I should change my major as I was in danger of failing!

    I owe Kathleen a lot because I ended up doing very well in political science. The professors appreciated me writing things in my own words and I was honestly a lot more comfortable doing papers in my own style and not using someone else's words. It's still a big no-no to me. If there's a notable on Wikitree  I want to write about like comic legend Stan Lee, I will write the bio with my own words and not rely on Wikipedia.

Mom and Kat

    Kathleen eventually got her doctorate in political science at the University of Virginia a few years after I graduated college. She then became a professor at James Madison University where she teaches students about the finer points of U.S. government. As a political science major, I can only wish her good luck on that front. And that's all I can say about that. 

    The interesting thing is how the field of genealogy employs history and political science together. When I discovered the connection, I told Kathleen about it and she agreed that both fields of study play very well with each other. In genealogy, you have to understand why someone moved to a certain area because of events happening in the world at that time for example. Circumstances in the world bring families together and that's how everyone's family tree gets made. 

    Kathleen really inspired me to work hard in my studies. Whenever I had a question, she would answer it. Whenever I had a paper to work on, she would offer me pointers and suggest other opinions I hadn't considered. One of my favorite papers to write were papers where we'd take on both view points and pretend to be the other side of an argument. That was where the creative juices flowed the most! We'd take sides and present each point of view and that helped me to create some pretty amazing papers. I really wish I saved them! Those were written several computers ago and are now lost to the sands of time.

    My sister-in-law  really helped me a lot in not just my scholastic career. She's just an amazing friend and I'm glad to have her in my life as an older sister. I have two older "sisters" and like Jennifer, Kathleen can always be counted on for a sympathetic ear or someone to talk about school with. I once had the opportunity to watch her teach a class and I saw that she taught the kids the same way she taught me lessons all those years ago. I've got to say with teachers like Kathleen around, the future is in good hands.

See ya next time!