52 Ancestors Week 12: Popular

From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 12's theme is "Popular." Do you feel like you have an ancestor who everyone is researching? How about a first name that's popular in your family? Maybe there's a story of a particularly popular ancestor.

I'm sure everyone has had that one ancestor everyone and their brother has been researching. Remember how I talked about cousin bait last week? Well, what if I told you I had been the victim of cousin bait on numerous occasions? You probably wouldn't be surprised. I had been working on my family tree since 2006 and other people have been researching for MUCH longer. Since that's the case there is bound to be people who have been looking up ancestors on the tree six or seven generations back. But, what if you find your own paternal grandparents on everybody's tree AND they even have profiles on FindAGrave? That has actually happened.

Grandma's on SIXTEEN trees?!

When I restarted my genealogical adventure in 2017, I found that several people had my grandparents, Marco Ferraiolo and Olympia Carrabs  on their trees over on Ancestry. I thought that was a bit weird. Then I found that someone made entries on Find a Grave for them. I thought that was even weirder!

Grandma Ollie, still popular among la famiglia.

I wasn't sure what to make of it. My grandmother appeared on sixteen including my own. Who were all these people? Why did they have Grandma Ollie on their tree?! Where were they when I started the tree back in 2006? Why didn't they message me?! These are all very good questions and yes I probably freaked out a little when I saw their entries on Find a Grave complete with pictures of the stones on them. I live within ten miles of the cemetery. You can understand why I was a little apprehensive!

Eventually, I calmed down and I looked at the trees myself. I found several things while looking at them:

* We all had ancestors in common. Most of the time it was Vincenzo Carrabs and Maria Giovanna Capobianco and on some instances it was their parents. Vincenzo and Maria had many kids who came to America.

* For some reason the trees had Grandpa Marco as being born in Palermo, Sicily. That was so wrong. I sent several polite messages to people explaining that it was not the case. He was born in San Pietro a Maida. Not Palermo. To this day I have no clue WHERE people got that idea. At least most trees don't have it as an error any more. All in a day's work for your friendly neighborhood genealogist.

* One lady had a comprehensive tree for my grandmother going back to the 1700s complete with scans of various births, marriages and deaths in the Gesualdo area. That was a veritable genealogical gold mine right there, guys. GOLD!

Once I found that tree, I sent a message to the owner and she was very happy to hear from me. She and the person who made the Find a Grave entries for my grandparents were working on the Carrabs side for quite a number of years. I also found that she was a distant cousin of mine as her ancestors were from the same town.

The person who created the Find a Grave profiles is also a third cousin. Apparently, she sent a message to me on Ancestry during the time I was away. I never got a notification of a new message. I checked my inbox on the site and it was dated 2011. I was like "Eep! It's 2017 and she had been waiting on a reply for six years!!!!!!!"

I was not born in Sicily! 

I messaged her and apologized for the excruciatingly long delay. She was cool with it and now we're friends on Facebook. She and the other genealogist both said that I could use the information they gathered for my tree. I thanked them and now the banns and everything adorn my tree as well as theirs.

So many thanks go out to people who researched the Carrabs side of the tree. Because of them, I've been able to gather records, look up information and learn everything about Gesualdo. I'll forever be grateful to them for their work!

It just goes to show that public trees on Ancestry are great for cousin bait and that it's not always that weird to have your own grandparents on someone else's tree. Most of the time they will turn out to be a cousin of yours. You never know. If you see them on a tree, contact the owner and ask if they are related. Chances are you could hit a genealogical gold mine like I did.

If you have correct information on your tree, chances are others will pick up on it and use it for their own tree and so on. It makes research so much easier. Having public trees mean you get to help others without realizing it and that is why I like having a tree online. Sure some trees may have errors. However, that's a chance you're gonna have to take as a genealogist. Who knows? Perhaps YOU will correct their mistakes. Have fun looking for gold!

And yes I talked to my 3rd cousin about the Find a Grave profiles. We had a good laugh regarding my feelings on the issue and my reaction. I am definitely okay with it now!

P.S. This blog was written on what would have been my grandpa Marco's 95th birthday! Happy birthday, Grandpa Marco!