52 Ancestors Week 9: Disaster

From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 9's theme is "Disaster." Our ancestors faced any number of disasters — natural, personal, financial. Perhaps you've had a disaster in your research. How did they (or you) overcome it? (Or maybe they didn't?)

Not your best work, Chris. See me after class.

As you know, I've been working on my genealogy since about 2006. Maybe a bit more if you count me talking to family members when I was a kid. I didn't have a tree. But, I sure did talk everyone's ear off. When it came time to make my tree online, I've made several mistakes. I talked about a few of them last year. Hey. No one's tree is perfect and we've all made disastrous messes of our trees. Looking back, some of them aren't too bad. You can look back and laugh.

Sorry, Hugh. you are NOT the father.

For example,  for the longest time I thought I was connected to a man named Hugh Jones  He was born in England in 1637 and supposedly had a checkered past. Apparently, he was a stowaway on a ship and made his way to the new world. He settled in what is now Salem, Massachusetts and had a very large family from what you can gather from his WikiTree page.

How I got connected to him was a mystery. I was adding people left and right until I saw something that didn't add up. He had this full, beautiful tree on WikiTree and geni. But, something was amiss. He had connections to ALL signers of the Magna Carta. That struck me as a bit odd. So, I ended up asking everyone in the g2g forum about Hugh and whether or not this was true. Long story short it wasn't and a major clean up effort happened on the site.

Meanwhile on my tree on Ancestry, I had Hugh and his full tree on there. Everyone kept telling me that my research was erroneous and that I had so many mistakes in the tree. I was like "Guys, this isn't really that big of a deal." I don't know why they made it such a huge issue. It was not the end of the world and looking back I DO laugh at it. So I had to remove a branch from the tree. It's not a big deal. You learn from your mistake and move on. That's what any good researcher would do. I ended up deleting his branch and left it at that. He wasn't the right father for someone and that was the end of it. Makes sense. Jones is a common last name. It's right up there with Smith.

I did learn a valuable lesson, though. You can't trust everyone's online tree. Some people you can trust provided it is WELL sourced. Some? Not so much. You need to dig for yourself and discover the truth. You can't always rely on everyone. Thankfully, some people have been more than helpful to me in my research.

I'm not really upset that I'm not connected to him. It would have been cool because he was brought up in the infamous Salem Witch trials of 1692. Elizabeth Booth, one of the accusers, claimed that she saw Hugh's ghost and that he said that Elizabeth Proctor killed him when he died in 1688. That was four years before the trials began.

It just goes to show that you need to really do your research when you're going further and further back in time. Sometimes you will find great leads. Other times, you will make mistakes. There is no "if". You will make them! There is a silver lining, though. Even if you make a mistake in your genealogical adventure, you can fix it easily by working on the problem by yourself or with someone. That's what I did and I am all the better for it. I grew as a researcher because of the mistakes I made. Now I know to look at the evidence and see what's really out there. (And knowing is half the battle.)

52 Ancestors Week 8: Prosperity

From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 8's theme is "Prosperity." Do you have an ancestor who seemed to do well for himself? What about a family photo showing a big car or fancy dresses? How about an ancestor with a "prosperous" name like Wealthy or Fortune? Feel free to be creative with the theme!

It's fortunate to have these names in your tree.

"Prosperity" can mean many things and I've already talked about a large prosperous family before. Namely the Legaults. So, I've decided to go in a different direction. The names Fortuna and Fortunato are Italian words for "luck". The ancient Romans used the name "Fortuna" as an equivalent for the Greek goddess Tyche and as it happens both names appear twice in my family tree.

San Pietro a Maida

   Despite that, Fortunato is a very common Italian name. It's right up there with Giuseppe, Marco and Giovanni. The oldest instance of the name "Fortunato" in my tree is that it's the name of my fifth great-grandfather, Fortunato Russo. He was born around 1793 in the town of San Pietro a Maida. I don't know much about him. What I've been able to gather from various records is that he married a woman named Caterina Marduca. He passed away some time after 1819 as his daughter, Domenica, was born on February 24th, 1816.

The rest, as they say, is history. I sadly don't know much about Fortunato's life. I do know that he was most likely a farmer living in the countryside like most of the town's populace. There's not much about Fortunato out there as the records are in the commune office and Russo is a REALLY common last name. However, I do know a bit more about a woman in my tree named Fortuna who was a little bit more closer to home.

Vincenzo Ferraiolo and Fortuna Grasso

 My great-grandfather, Vincenzo Ferraiolo had a second wife after his first wife, Maria Tedesco, passed away in 1943. Her name was Fortuna Grasso and she was my father's step-grandmother. Born on October 27th, 1902 somewhere in Italy. Vincenzo married her some time in the mid 1940s. I honestly have no idea when they got married exactly. I assume it was in San Pietro a Maida only because that's where he married his first wife. From what my father and my great-aunt told me, it happened shortly after Maria's passing. That's basically all I know about her origins. She also told me that the other couple in the wedding photograph I posted in this blog are most likely her sister and her husband.

After the wedding, they returned to America and settled in the house which would one day become my grandmother's house. My father remembered her not really doing the typical Italian grandmother things like Clementina did. She wasn't really into cooking and was very quiet most of the time. I guess I can understand why. She was suddenly brought to Haverhill shortly after Maria's passing. That was probably a shock to the family still living here. Sufficed it to say, it probably raised more than a few eyebrows.

Vincenzo passed away in 1970 and left the house to my grandfather Marco  By the 1980s, she unfortunately had to be put into a nursing home where she would spend the rest of her life. She passed away on April 20th, 1991. I wish I could say I met her growing up. I never did. She was just very sick. That isn't to say my parents or my grandmother forgot her or anything. Far from it. My grandmother visited her from time to time and I would remember them talking about her around the table. I've often asked her to ask her about Vincenzo and Marco and they filled in the blanks for me. It wasn't a total loss, though.

This is probably where I got my creative streak.

See this painting? I think I've talked about it before. That masterpiece was an oil painting of Vincenzo and Fortuna. It was painted by my grandfather sometime in the 1970s and currently rests in the break room of my father's dental office.

I recently asked my parents if I should research Fortuna's family since I'm really interested in Italian genealogy. They said that I would first need a copy of Fortuna's death certificate so I could get somewhere. All I've found regarding her was her appearance in the Massachusetts death index. That's about it. The rest of her life is a complete mystery to me. If I were to research where in Italy she came from, the first thing I'd need is her death certificate. That's it.

Some day I may check it out. For now, I'm still trying to break through several other brick walls laying around. I'll keep Fortuna on the back burner for now.  One thing at a time. Fortuna's life may be a mystery. I still wish everyone buona fortuna in their research.

Editor's note: In April of 2023, I found that Giovanni Coppola was not the brother of Paolo, Caterina and Concetta Coppola. He is likely a first cousin of the three. Look for details in a future blog post.

52 Ancestors Week 7: Favorite Discovery

From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 7's theme is "Favorite Discovery." What is the neatest thing you've found while exploring your family's history? What makes you smile even now thinking about it?

In hindsight, I probably should have used the Star Trek: Discovery font

I've already written about several of my favorite discoveries in the blog before. This blog might be a little tricky to write because I don't really like to play favorites. Everything I find, to me, is an amazing discovery. Large or small, it doesn't matter. Last year, I wrote about how my mother and I discovered my 2x great-grandmother Caterina Coppola's birth document from San Pietro a Maida in a metal box. I've already written about how I came into contact with family still living in Italy. These things come in threes. What was the third great discovery? Well....

One of my favorite discoveries actually involves the boat my parents own called "Toothfairy". My dad's a dentist. We were bound to have a boat with a tooth related name. It was either that or call it the "The Rusty Molar". For as long as I could remember, my family has had a boat at Rings Island Marina, a marina overlooking the small city of Newburyport, Massachusetts.

When I was a kid, there used to be a candy store there....

The marina was once called "Dawn Mari-na" and was owned by a man named Jim Corbin. Growing up, my family and I would spend weekends in the summer fishing on the Merrimack or even out in the open ocean. Jim would even give everyone coffee and donuts (From Dunkies of course.) and host huge gettogethers. He was, in many respects, a very nice guy. He and his wife were gracious hosts to everyone who docked at his marina and he didn't mind kids getting into trouble. ;-) I've got stories.

Sadly, Jim passed away in 2008. His son took over the business and renamed the place "Rings Island". Which, I admit is odd because the marina isn't even *ON* an island. It made little sense. I'd have kept the pun.....

Years later, my parents were talking to Jim's son about various things that needed to be done for their boat and somehow the topic of his grandmother came up in the conversation. His paternal grandmother was a woman named Irene Evelyn Legault. The bells in my mother's head rang like crazy. Her grandmother was Henrietta Legault, daughter of Antoine Legault. Was there a connection? Only her freelance genealogist son could find out for sure!

Irene Legault in the 1910 census.

When I saw my mother after that meeting, she asked me if I could look up Irene Legault on Familysearch. I was like "Ma, do you have any idea how many Irene Legaults there were?" Legault is a very common French name. She admitted it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. But, she was going to help me out. The new owner gave her some details worth looking into.

I sighed and said I would check things out. What did I have to lose? Pride? A good meal? She told me Irene lived in Haverhill, Massachuetts. I chuckled. Of course she lived in Haverhill. It's the center of the universe! So, I looked her up and saw her living with her parents, Felix Joseph Legault and Alvina Lefebvre in the census records. I still couldn't find a connection. I had my doubts. But, the name "Felix" rang a bell. I ended up looking for him and saw that his parents were Felix Napoleon Legault and Matilde Therrien.

I still wasn't quite there, yet. Felix was born on August 2nd, 1855 in Quebec. What was our connection? What was he doing in Haverhill? Luckily, I didn't have long to wait for the answer. A new DNA match popped up and I checked out the match's tree. She did some research on the Legaults and I saw where we connected. The match found his marriage record and on it were his parents, Jacques Legault and Caroline Delphine Gourgon, my 3x great-grandparents!

Felix Legault, Evelyn Vincent and Matilde Therrien

Jacques and Caroline were Antoine's parents. That meant that Felix here was Antoine's brother. The DNA match was a third cousin once removed. The gears in my head turned. I showed my mom the evidence and all that I found. It then clicked! Jim Corbin, the man who owned the marina and gave the kids a ton of donuts was my third cousin once removed!

This blew my mind. Faster than you can sing "It's a Small World", I rechecked everything and it all added up. I needed to be absolutely sure that this was real.

1. The DNA match was a small 8 cM match with me. But, with my mother she was at 11 cMs. Still counts and is still in the realm of possibility. See the Shared cM project for details.

2. His marriage and baptismal records in Drouin showed his parents were Jacques and Delphine.

3. He lived in Haverhill alongside his brother and his family.

4. DNA does *NOT* lie.

So there you have it. I'm related to the owners of the marina where I spent many summers growing up. This doesn't give us a discount or anything. This was just a really cool discovery. My only regret is that we never got the chance to share this information with James. I'm sure he would have gotten a kick out of it. His son sure did. And now I am going to have "It's a Small World" stuck in my head. I am sure you are as well! Still, talk about a deep cut into my childhood.

The bow of the Toothfairy! Full speed ahead!

52 Ancestors Week 6: Same Name

From Amy Johnson Crow:

Week 6's theme is "Same Name." Do you share your name with an ancestor? What about a name that keeps repeating itself in your family tree? Do you have an instance of ancestors naming two children the same? (It happened more often than you might expect!)

In a way, this entry into #52Ancestors is a sequel to last year's entry on "Namesake". Don't you just love sequels? In that blog, I talked about how my direct family line alternated between the names "Vincenzo" and "Marco" for centuries. This week, we're going to dig a little deeper. Let's take a look at Italian naming conventions!

Grandpa Marco and the poodle who only liked him!

In Italy,  it usually works like this:

* The first male is named after his paternal grandfather.

* The second male is named after his maternal grandfather.

* The first female is named after her paternal grandmother.

* The second female is named after her maternal grandmother.

This is very helpful for anyone studying Italian genealogy. For more on this, check out this article on Italian naming traditions: Italian Naming Traditions and Their Ramifications.

I say this is helpful because it might give you a clue as to who their parents and grandparents might be if you've hit a brick wall in Italy. However, you might want to be a little cautious. You don't want to go making assumptions because many families tend to throw tradition out of the window and make their own rules. Here is one example:

My 2x, great-grandfather, Vincenzo Carrabs and his wife, Maria Giovanna Capobianco had a daughter named Angiola Rosa a year before my great-grandfather, Giuseppe was born. You could argue that Vincenzo named his first daughter after her maternal grandmother. One problem. Her name was Carmina Martone. Not exactly following tradition, huh?

Giuseppe Carrabs and Clementina Forgione.

Then again, we don't know for sure if she was their first child. Since they were married in October of 1880, there's a very, very good chance she most likely was their first daughter. The rest of the children born to that family don't seem to adhere to any sort of naming convention. Their children were:

1. Angiola (1881-
2. Giuseppe (1882-1974)
3. Maria (1883-
4. Michele (1885-
5. Rocco (1887-
6. Pasquale (1889-
7. Rosina (1892-1961)
8. Pasquale (1894-1983)
9. Raffaele (1899-

As you can see, not every Italian family is going to stick to the same naming convention like my dad's direct paternal line.The others are a bit random. This could be because they aren't the oldest or because the family just decided to be different.  I do see Vincenzo, Giuseppe, Paolo and other names pop up quite a bit. It's like there was a big book of Italian baby names circling around Italy in the 19th century. I would say that was the case. But, you see it happen in all corners of the globe. When a friend of mine first brought up the Italian naming conventions, it was like "Okay. I've never seen that in my tree." I guess, in a way, my family has been unconventional.  Don't get me wrong. I still see various names popping up again and again through time. Tallying them up would take quite a while.

On my mother's colonial side, I've seen generations of people named "Joseph", "Hannah" or other various, solid Puritan names. The coolest and most unique will always be Zebulon. On her Canadian side, I've seen quite a few "Guillaume"s "Antoine"s and various other names. Chalk that up to popularity, I suppose.

That's usually why some names go on and on for a long period of time. Popularity. Of course there are traditional and religious aspects. But, let's cut to the chase. Sometimes your parents named you "Robert" because your father was named "Robert" and HIS father was named "Robert". Why? It's just how it happened. Families either like the name or want to carry on the tradition.

Some, like the Carrabs family of Gesualdo, tended to be a bit more unique in the grand scheme of things. I have yet to find any Italian family that sticks to those guiding principles. Then again, I could be mistaken. I'm still researching my father's side and for all I know there could be older siblings who do follow the naming conventions.

However, the Carrabs family did seem to follow the tradition of naming a child after one who passed away. Look at the two Pasquales. One born in 1889 and the other in 1894. Chances are that the first Pasquale died young. It happens. It happened with my grandmother who was named after a sister who unfortunately died young.

Carrying the same name of an ancestor has been a tradition for centuries in many, many cultures. Some just either like the name or it serves as a means to keep the person who had it before you alive. In my case, I have yet to find another "Christopher", "Cristofo" or "Cristoff" in my tree. I could be unique. However, since I was born so close to Christmas, that's probably not the case. Chalk that up to me being descended from some truly unique people.

See you next time!

Edit: Looks like I DO have a Christopher. I just didn't look long enough. Christopher Lovejoy.  He is a 9th great-grandfather and lived in Andover from 1662-1737. He was also part of the Great Puritan Migration in the 1630s-1640s when several people fled England to escape religious persecution. Nice. But, I'm probably not named after him. =)

There's also Christopher Osgood, an 11x great-grandfather who was also in the Great Puritan Migration. Interesting.