52 Ancestors Week 4: Close to Home

From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 4's theme is "Close to Home." Is there an ancestor who didn't move far from where he or she was born? Perhaps an unmarried aunt or uncle who always lived with their parents? Maybe you have an ancestor who lived not far from where you live now or you've made a discovery close to home.

Never too far from home

All roads may lead to Haverhill. However, I don't live there. I live in nearby Salem, New Hampshire and have been here for as long as I can remember. That hasn't always been the case. As I said in the introduction blog last year, I have a lot of connections with that city on both sides of my family. That's why the blog has its name. Everyone eventually came here from either the St. Lawrence river valley of Canada or the sun drenched towns of southern Italy. Everyone at one point or another ended up Haverhill, Mass. or in nearby Newburyport.

My grandmothers and great-aunts: All residents of Haverhill!

I was originally going to call the blog "Life in the Valley". It just didn't seem to roll off the tongue. That's okay because in the end everyone in the family at one point or another was a Haverhill resident.

Case in point: My grandmother, Olympia and all of her sisters except for Jennie were born in Haverhill. They lived their lives in the city as they grew up, got married and had families of their own. After the children moved away, the Carrabs sisters stayed in the city. Even then, they weren't too far away from them or each other. I think the furthest away was Josie's kids who lived in Nashua, New Hampshire.

Despite everyone being moderately spread out over the Merrimack valley, the Carrabs sisters still stayed together in the same town. In fact, three of my great-aunts lived in one apartment building together. One sister would live in one apartment and another would live above her. This was the case until 2010 when my great-aunt, Louise passed away.

The Carrabs family in the 1930 US census

The building they lived in was actually the home of their parents, Giuseppe and Clementina. It had been their home since the family came to America. There was a lot of history in that apartment building and I got a real sense of it every time I visited the place on Bartlett Street.

My grandmother ended up living not too far away in a house that my great-grandfather Vincenzo bought. When I would go to each of their houses, I would often be told a story about the family and the house. This would always, always, ALWAYS be accompanied by cookies of some kind. Being a kid, I did not care. =) Sometimes I even felt like something was watching me. Could it have been Giuseppe and Clementina's spirits? I have no idea. Still, actually staying in town had its advantages. It was so easy finding them in the census later on. My grandfather and his family, however, was a little tricky. Finding their names in the census was tricky. However, my dad always made it a point to point out their homes in Haverhill whenever we drove by on the way to grandma's house. That's how I was able to find them!

The Felker clan circa 1949

On my mother's side, my great-grandparents Austin Felker and Henrietta Legault were both born in or lived in Haverhill. Henrietta was actually born in nearby Lynn. I never really had the chance to actually visit the places the Felkers called home because my grandmother lived with my grandfather in Newburyport and they moved around quite a bit.

However, my mother did often point out where the Felkers lived. In fact, my great-aunt, the last of the Felker kids, lives next door to the house she grew up in. Back in the day, everyone lived within walking distance of each other's house. Two of Aunt Elaine's siblings lived either up a hill from her house or down the hill. Some of Henrietta's sisters even lived nearby.

Direct relations are the only ties I have to the city because like I've said many times before. Ancillary relatives lived in or around Haverhill, too, on both sides of the family. To list them all would take forever and a day!

In the end, I guess you could say that I have many strong ties to Haverhill and because of it, it has made my genealogical adventure worlds easier. I've been there many times and genealogy has allowed me to further explore the places my ancestors called home even if it was right next door! My father was born there. I live only a few miles away in Salem and yet the city where everything came together is very close to home.