An Introduction

Hey, everyone!

Welcome to my very first genealogy blog post! I know I don’t have much here. I just started and I hope to have a few things added once I figure out what I want. But, first. Let me introduce myself. My name is Chris Ferraiolo and I’ve got a genealogy problem. I know. It’s not the first thing people want to read when they open a blog post. But, it’s true.

I’ve been doing genealogy off and on since about 2006 when I started on Ancestry.com. I did a basic tree and added relatives. I think I added my ancestors up to my 2x great-grandparents and then added of all my cousins. The site also automatically added people as well. That was really annoying as I later found out the branches were wrong. I honestly let it simmer once I made the tree and did a fair bit of research. I didn’t get back into the swing of things until the summer of 2017.

Truth be told, I always had an interest in genealogy and in history in general. My dad’s side of the family always talked about how their parents came to America from both San Pietro a Maida and Gesualdo, Italy. My grandparents on my mother’s side had always talked about the people who settled Quebec and those who fought in the American Revolution. I was one of those kids who constantly asked questions much to the detriment of everyone around me. Thankfully, everyone was more than helpful in giving me information, stories and insight into the lives of those who came before me. I was blessed and still feel pretty lucky to this day.

It got to the point that making a tree online was relatively simple. All I had to do was remember the basic five Ws: Who. What. Where. Why. When. I started my tree in 2006 and by then both of my grandmothers had passed away. My paternal grandfather died when I was four and thankfully I had his sister help me with that side of the family. My maternal grandfather passed away in 2017. I still remembered the stories they told me and I was able to make a nice, basic tree.

Then, like I said, I let it simmer online for years. I started my own webcomic and a video review series on YouTube and barely looked at it since. In the intervening years, however, I did receive private messages from two people who helped me sort of jumpstart things once again. Both ladies, as it turned out, eventually were revealed to be DNA matches on my father’s side. I didn’t know that at the time. I finally did a DNA test in 2018 and this was in 2010/2011. I knew they’d show up as they introduced themselves to me as cousins. They knew things about the family and I verified the facts with my father and my great-aunt. I just wasn’t sure where they fit in the grand scheme of things until much later.

One cousin did exhaustive research on my paternal grandmother’s lineage in Gesualdo, a town in Italy nestled in the Fredane and Ufita river valleys. She and a few other people found so much information and gladly let me use it for my own tree. That was very helpful. You can’t argue with results when they come in.

The other cousin is a professional genealogist by the name of Mary Tedesco. You might have heard of her as she is a co-host of the PBS series “Genealogy Roadshow”. Her family, like my father’s paternal side, came from the Calabrian town of San Pietro a Maida. As it turned out, our families traveled to America together in the 1920s and spent many holidays with each other including their first Thanksgiving. The story of which can be found in Mary’s blog here: http://www.originsitaly.com/an-italian-american-thanksgiving/

I talked to Mary off and on over the years and eventually she asked if I considered taking a DNA test. Meanwhile, an uncle of mine suggested I branch outward into the genealogical world. He gave me a family tree my grandmother (His mother) created and told me to check out places like Geni and MyHeritage. He said people there could help me out. So, I went there and even took it a step further by registering at both Wikitree and FamilySearch.

I met several friends who helped me with my research. I took that DNA test on AncestryDNA that Mary suggested and the results came in. I’m 43% Italian and 49% French with 6% Germanic Europe and 2% Turkey and the Caucasus. This fit with what I knew about my family tree to begin with and all the stories I was told. Of course you need to take estimates with a grain of salt and be wary of things like confirmation bias. More on that at a later time. Still, the results fit in with what I knew of my family history even though the British part of my ancestry was not represented. It shows up in my mother's test results, though. Mary, as it turned out, fit into the 4th cousin bracket. My cousin on my dad’s maternal side turned out to be a 3rd cousin. That was pretty amazing and this was pretty much the start of my genealogical adventure.

I then started to learn more from the likes of genealogy superstars like Crista Cowan, Dana Leeds, Amy Johnson Crow, Blaine Bettinger and Shannon Christmas. I even learned a thing or two from non-professional genealogists as well.  There’s too many people to list and I don’t want to name-drop everyone. Sufficed it to say the list is extensive!

By now people have probably guessed that I’m not a professional genealogist. I do, however, have a Bachelor’s degree in political science and believe it or not that’s helped me a lot in my research. The methods of research are very similar as both fields require a person to think critically and make you wonder “Does this thing we're looking at make sense?”. Using what I learned in college helped me with genealogy. Those 8 AM classes finally paid off!

To close, I just wanted to say why I picked “All Roads Lead to Haverhill” for my blog’s title. Haverhill, Massachusetts is the town in the Merrimack River valley where most of my ancestors eventually converged. My Quebecois roots ended up there and in nearby Newburyport. I am directly descended from one of the founders of Haverhill whose name was Tristram Coffin. And lastly, that is where folks on my Italian side ended up settling after they came to America.

This blog will have stories to share, ancestor profiles and tips and techniques which I learned from the pros. I hope you enjoy what I have to share because I have a lot to share. I hope you all stick around!

See you all next time!