52 Ancestors Week 40: Oldest

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 40's theme is "Oldest." Some ideas for this week: the oldest child in a family, the oldest (longest lived) ancestor in your family tree, or the oldest document you've found.

A long time ago at a kitchen table far, far away....

In 2018, "Oldest" was a prompt for that year's #52Ancestors and I answered the question on WikiTree. You can see the thread here. I basically talked about a few odds and ends. Namely old objects I had, oldest ancestor I ever met and a few other things. This year, I'm going to do things a little differently. I can't keep repeating the same thing over and over, right? I don't want to get stale! I thought long and hard about what I should write about and I think I've found something. 

Back in black. (and white)

You've all seen this picture on the blog before, right? I've posted a few dozen times by now. It's a picture of my great-grandparents, Vincenzo Ferraiolo, Maria Tedesco and their children Nicolina and Marco. They had just arrived in America and someone took the picture. I don't know if it was right off the boat! Do you see any bags? No, it was probably taken a little later that week maybe. I have no clue and neither does my great-aunt!

This is actually the oldest picture I have of my grandfather. I don't have many pictures of him as he died when I was four. The last few times I put the picture on the blog, it looked a little off and I cleaned it up thanks to my paint program. This is actually a copy my family had that we scanned. It looked a little green and I converted it to black and white. Looks pretty good, no?

How I got it in the first place is a bit of an interesting story.  A few Thanksgivings ago I was in Virginia visiting my brother and his family. I was talking genealogy with my great-aunt's daughter via e-mail and she said aunt Nickie had some pictures for me. Naturally, I was excited. Who wouldn't be excited to get pictures of your ancestors and relatives?

My cousin wasn't sure how to send everything. So, I told her to just take a pic using her phone and send it as an attachment. She said she would try to do that and would try to find some pictures for me. Fast forward a couple days later and my Ipad starts pinging with e-mail notifications. We were eating dinner and I wondered what was going on. Clearly I was popular that night.

I opened my iPad and checked my mail. In my inbox were a ton of pictures. A. TON. Included in the mix was a copy of the Ferraiolo family picture. Several other pictures were included. But, that one quickly became my favorite. It's the oldest picture I have of Grandpa Marco and is probably the best one because we didn't really have any pictures of Maria. 

As I look at the picture now, I can see more detail than I did before. Everyone is posed in a great way. The kids aren't smiling so much. But, that's okay. You couldn't really hold a smile for photos in those days. Everyone looked great and looked like they were ready to embark on a journey in America. Corny, I know. But, it's my blog. I can be corny if I want to! HAHA!

Later, my father asked his aunt for a hard copy of this picture and a few other odds and ends. She sent them and here it is in glorious black and white. It's not really an epic story or anything. But, it is fun.

Vincenzo

The more pictures of family I get, the more you can put faces to the names and dates in your favorite genealogical software. It's like that line goes in the movie, Coco. "They aren't just old pictures. They're our family".  My great-aunt has many more and I'm sure I'll be getting a few here and there as time goes on. We'll see. For now I am very happy with what I have.

It's funny that I actually mentioned Coco in the above paragraph. I look at that picture of the Ferraiolo family and I think of that movie. Sure they are Italian and not Mexican. But, the sentiment is still there. It's a great family photo and it's probably one of the best ones I have. 

Photographs help bring people who have been long gone to life and I'm fortunate to have a ton of old photos. Do I want more? You bet I do. I hope I get a chance to see them. For now, I am happy with what I have and I thank my great-aunt and my cousin for sending that picture of Marco and co to us. 

Side note: I did try and colorize the picture on Myheritage. It....didn't look too good. Vincenzo's hair was light. But, it wasn't blond!!! Sigh. Ah, well. It's a fun gimmick. Here's hoping I see more pictures soon!

See ya next time!

52 Ancestors Week 39: Should Be a Movie

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 39's theme is "Should Be a Movie." Good movies have good stories at their heart. What ancestor has a story that you think should be a movie?

"All Roads Lead to Haver Hill. I think I said it right...."

This week's prompt is a bit of a no-brainer for me. I have a ton of ancestors whose lives could potentially be a Lifetime original movie or even one made by a director of several blockbusters. I wonder if the Russo brothers will accept a script if I give it to them. I'd even take James Gunn! No way would I take Frances Ford Coppola. Dude doesn't even pronounce "Coppola" the right way! That's way too pretentious for me. 

Coming soon....

I've said it before and I'll say it again. The life of my 3x great-grandfather REALLY should be a movie. Mostly because movies about Italian immigrants moving from Italy to America has been done to death at this point. And while we're on the subject. No. Your last name didn't get changed at Ellis Island as seen in "The Godfather Part II". (Thanks, Jennifer!)

My French-Canadian side has some interesting stories that could be made into movies as well. Perhaps this story could be part one of the "All Roads Lead to Haverhill" trilogy. Directed by the Russo brothers, of course. They know how to handle long arcs!

If you're new to the blog, you'll soon find that I have mentioned Jeremiah Felker on countless occasions. I may even mention him more as time goes by and there's a very good reason for that. Let's begin.

Our story opens on January 7th, 1838 in the town of Raymond, New Hampshire. Martha Smart nurses her newborn son, Jeremiah, as her father watches on. Jeremiah Smart grumbles a bit. He knows that his grandson was born out of wedlock and plans to sue the father, Elias, for custody of the child. Martha reluctantly accepts the plan and names the child after her father.

The movie follows Jeremiah as his mother marries twice in his lifetime. During her marriage to Jonathan West, the south started shooting cannons and America gets plunged into a civil war! Jeremiah's older half-brother, George, answered the call to duty and served the Union army until he is killed in action in 1862. Two years later and after his marriage to Elizabeth Fellows, Jeremiah enlists in the service and serves with the 1st New Hampshire Heavy Artillery. 

After the war, life settled down and he raised his family in Haverhill, Massachusetts. His son, Wilfred, married a young woman named Gertrude Stevens on September 12th, 1891. The marriage was not all sunshine and rainbows, though. Wilfred had an affair with a woman named Anna Pierce WHILE his wife was pregnant with my great-grandfather! The union produced a child named George on February 2nd, 1893. My great-grandfather, Austin, was born just a few months earlier in September of 1892.

Austin and Henrietta in November of 1963.

Austin's life soon became complicated. His parents engaged in a brutal custody battle in 1899. Neither parent won and young Austin was sent to spend his formative years living with his aging grandparents. He spent several years with them before marrying Henrietta Legault, a daughter of two French-Canadian immigrants on November 29th, 1913 at the age of twenty-one. At the age of seventy-five, he probably felt fortunate to witness the happy occasion. 

On January 14th, 1918, he passed away at the age of eighty due to arteriosclerosis. His wife was the informant and she told him to put Joseph Felker in as her husband's father. Joseph was his grandfather on his paternal side. Why she did that is unknown. Perhaps Jeremiah didn't know his father as he died in the 1840s. Perhaps he heard stories and none of them were particularly good. I'm not sure and the only people who could know are long gone.

This is where part one of the "All Roads Lead to Haverhill" trilogy would end.  Part two picks up with Henrietta and she relates the tales of her parents to her daughter, Natalie before she marries Robert Hamel of Newburyport. Part three is where the Italy stuff would be and I would definitely avoid the Godfather references....no matter how tempting it would be. That movie would likely end with my parents getting married.

I think starting the trilogy with Jeremiah makes the most sense to me because his story is sort of the linchpin that got my story going. Think about it. Without him, Austin wouldn't have been living with him in Haverhill. He wouldn't have met Henrietta and there would be a chain of events that cause me to fade from existence like Marty McFly! Great Scott! This is heavy.

Of course like any movie, there should be source material to draw inspiration from. This would be why several movies based on comics and novels do so well. Perhaps one day I'll do just that and write three books about how "All Roads Lead to Haverhill". A guy can dream, right?

See ya next time!

Images of Google Earth are property of Google Earth.

52 Ancestors Week 38: On the Map

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 38's theme is "On the Map." Location is key for our research. What is a discovery you've made using a map? Any ancestors found a town? What about a family who lived in a town with a strange or funny name?

Wow. You can really tell the difference between Campania and Calabria on this banner!

I really liked maps when I was a kid. Just out of sheer boredom I would draw maps of the United States. Most of the time they were never to scale. Nevada would be gigantic and the New England states would be a little off in terms of size. Keep in mind I was like eight years old and did not have a steady hand. I've talked about this in a blog I wrote last year. I've even created maps of alien worlds for my webcomic. Sufficed it to say, I really enjoyed cartography and I still do! Then came the Internet!

Every once in a while I'll check out Google Earth and see what I could find half way around the world. Far away places always fascinated me. It wasn't because I wanted to get away or anything. No, it was more curiosity. When I started doing genealogy again, I put my love of maps to good use by finding and locating the towns where my Italian ancestors were born. These would be the towns of San Pietro a Maida for my grandfather and his parents and Gesualdo for my great-grandparents, Giuseppe Carrabs and Clementina Forgione.

Gesualdo and surrounding communities.

A year ago I wrote a blog about how to use Google Earth to walk around your ancestral town from the comfort of your own home. Passports aren't required. Check the blog out here! This year, I decided to do things a little differently!

We're going to be taking a closer look at the surrounding towns because nine times out of ten, you will have connections to the surrounding communities, especially if your family came from Italy.

During your research, you might find an atto di matrimonio or marriage act which may or may not say if someone is from another town. Usually the bride is married in her hometown and the groom's family is within walking distance of her town. This is known in genealogy circles as "courting distance" and it can be applied to just about any situation. Not just Italy. For example, if you have an ancestor who was born in say Boston in the 1600s, he or she may have issues courting someone in New York City. It's a lot easier to do it nowadays, sure. But, in the 1600s, you are going to be riding that horse a LONG time! She'd better be worth it.

Giuseppe Carrabs and Clementina Forgione

Back to Gesualdo. When I found Giuseppe and Clementina's atto di matrimonio, it stated that the groom's father, Vincenzo Carrabs, was from "this commune" meaning Gesualdo. His mother, Maria Giovanna Capobianco, was stated to be from nearby Frigento. If you look at the map, you'll see that it's a town a little over four kilometres away from Gesualdo. That's well within courting distance!

Using this information, you can then look up Maria's family in Frigento and for the most part her tree is firmly in that town except for a couple people who came from nearby Rocca San Felice.

For Clementina things get a little interesting. She was born in Gesualdo. Her father, Felice Forgione, was also born there. However, her mother, Maria Luigia Penta, has ties to another town not too far from Gesualdo. That town is called Grottaminarda and it's a little over ten kilometres away. This isn't too bad, right? The courting distances all make sense. The happy couples meet, fall in love and have large (Really large.) families.

It's not uncommon for people from various nearby towns to marry one another. From the Grottaminarda Pentas I then found ties to nearby Mirabella Eclano. The same situation is likely to occur elsewhere in the world. This is just one example. That isn't to say endogamus relationships won't occur. They might. You never know unless you do the research. Based on one marriage document, though, you could hold the key to finding connections to not just one Italian town. It's just easier for me to say "I have ancestors from Gesualdo" and that's true since Giuseppe and Clementina were born there.

San Pietro a Maida and surrounding towns.

From Campania we head down south to Calabria. I will be the first to admit that I am not sure if I have connections to the towns surrounding San Pietro a Maida. I might! I'm just not sure. My great-grandparents, Vincenzo Ferraiolo and Maria Tedesco were born in San Pietro and so were their parents. Vincenzo's tree seems to be in San Pietro for centuries and so does Maria's. However, there's still a lot more that needs to be discovered.

Vincenzo Ferraiolo and Maria Tedesco

DNA matches for my great-aunt point to people who have families in the surrounding communities of Maida and Jacurso. That's a bit of a smoking gun isn't it? Sadly, my tree for her isn't complete and I don't know for sure if I have connections to those towns. I might. It's definitely possible when you consider my grandma Ollie's tree!

My 2x great-grandmother, Domenica Gullo, is currently a brick wall and for all I know she could have ties to the town of Curinga. That's another town near San Pietro. Anything is possible and what I need to do is find a smoking gun that says this person is from Maida or some other nearby town. To do that, I would need an atto di matrimonio or some other document. Perhaps I will find it some day!

For now, I'll still say that I have family from San Pietro and Gesualdo because that's true. Everyone came together to those towns and I would honestly love to visit them. Just remember that there's always more than meets the eye when it comes to family being from one town. Chances are very good that you'll have surrounding communities in your tree as well as long as they are within courting distance.

Look at a map and put the town your ancestors are from in the center. Then look at the surrounding towns. You might find a connection or two in those places. So, always keep that in mind when you're doing research! The family may not all come from San Pietro or Gesualdo as you thought. Family could be everywhere!

See ya next time!

Images of Google Earth are property of Google Earth.

52 Ancestors Week 37: Back to School

From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 37's theme is "Back to School." Any stories of schools days in your family? (I'm thankful for the collection of my dad's grade cards through 8th grade.) What about teachers or principals in the family?

Back to life. Back to reality....

Back to life. Back to reality. If you have that Soul II Soul song stuck in your head, I am not sorry. It's a good song and my mom used to sing it the day I went back to school. I was never sure if she was happy or sad to see me go back after a long summer of doing nothing but reading comics, hanging out with friends and playing video games. I'm sure it was the latter. I'll keep telling myself that! I'm sure I got into my fair share of trouble! And to that I will always plead the fifth!

I think I know where I got my ears from....

When it comes to school, my mother and my grandfather went to Newburyport High School in Newburyport, Mass. The school is located on High Street and she would point it out every time we would head across the river to the marina where our boat was docked.

As far as I know, Robert Hamel was a great student. His father, Alfred was a jack of all trades since he had a Fix-it shop in the city. I mentioned before how Alfred's father, Eugene was a teacher in Amesbury. I still haven't been able to figure out what he taught or where. I hope I get a chance to find the answer, some day.

 My grandfather was a good student and it was right out of high school that he enlisted into the army Air Corps along with many of his classmates. Robert even had an aptitude for fixing things. Heh. I wonder where he picked that up! Either way, he ended up serving with distinction!

Sadly, I haven't got much more to go on on my grandfather's high school career. The picture above actually came from my uncle's archive. His yearbook has yet to be scanned and put on Ancestry. My grandfather never really talked to me about his high school years and I thought that was odd since I flipped through my grandmother's 1935 yearbook! We have the physical copy of it and it's also on Ancestry.

All isn't entirely lost of course! My mother's yearbook is on Ancestry's archive along with my father's and Grandma Ollie's! It's so surreal seeing your parents in high school. I'm pretty sure that's how the idea for the Back to the Future franchise came about!

I'm constantly using her
quote against her. =)

I really like the blurbs under my mother's entry. She was a medical technologist. Makes sense because she eventually went to medical school and worked for years at Merrimack Medical Lab as a supervisor. My mom was also involved with "Quill and Scroll" and other activities like chorus. Yeah, she can sing. Just too bad her son can't sing for his supper. Heh....Sigh....

When I first saw her yearbook many years ago, the "Ratty sneaker high command" bit got my attention. I kind of want to know what that was all about. But, she won't tell me. =)

Yearbooks are a great way to find out more about your ancestors' past and what school was like. It must have been interesting for both my mother and my grandfather since my mother went to school during the turbulent 1960s and my grandfather went to school just before the US entered the second world war. Joking aside, you know a lot of historic moments were happening all around them during the time they went to school.

Think about it. In the 1930s, America was in the midst of a Great Depression. Many people didn't go to high school. Many took on jobs working for their family as soon as they were able to. It was hard work. What's really amazing is how both grandmothers stuck with high school AND graduated!

Then came the 1960s when my mother was in high school. That decade saw rampant social upheaval on all fronts and many of the reforms we now have came about during that time period. It's amazing to think about and hear stories from the 1930s or 1960s. I'm not saying my mother was a hippie or anything. But, it's still interesting to think about when you look at yearbook photos. Putting everything into historical context can really paint a picture of what school was like for your ancestors.

Historic moments were even happening when I went to high school in the 1990s. I think it's part of the Chinese curse. "May you live in interesting times". But, maybe given the context of everything we should take my mom's quote in her yearbook to heart. "Well, that's life." Ain't that the truth!

See ya next time!

WikiTree Livecast 5 September 2020: Italy Project

52 Ancestors Week 36: Labor

From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 36's theme is "Labor." How did your ancestors make a living? Have you found an unusual occupation in your family tree? Don't forget about the often unsung labor of female ancestors.

This week's header took five minutes to make. Not exactly labor intensive.

Hard work pays off. It doesn't matter if you're building a house or editing a video for millions of people on the Internet. Hard work ALWAYS pays off in the end. Of course for the latter it does help if you have a ton of subscribers, social media accounts, a Patreon or even an online store. Making money on the Internet is not for the faint of heart. Then again making money in the past before the invention of the Internet wasn't easy, either! 

Many people in my family tree have been laborers from my great-grandfather, Vincenzo Ferraiolo who was a laborer in Haverhill to my great-grandfather, Alfred Francis Hamel who had his own fix-it shop in Newburyport. Every one of my direct ancestors seemed to have this drive to do hard work and to make a better life for themselves and their families. I've discussed the reasons why in other blogs. However, it wasn't always just the ancestors who worked hard. In fact, many collateral relatives did their fair share of labor.

Rocco, his wife Caterina, James (son of Pasquale), Dolores and Pasquale

Meet Rocco Carrabis.  He's the guy on the far left in this picture with the bushy Mario-style mustache. Rocco was my 2nd great-uncle and was the brother of my great-grandfather, Giuseppe. Their brother, Pasquale, is on the far right. 

Like his brothers, he was born in the town of Gesualdo in the Campania region of Italy. Everything I know about the man came from stories I've heard from my grandma Ollie, my father and my cousins who all descend from him. There's actually a lot to cover. So, let's get started!

One of the things Rocco was most known for was building all of the homes on Windsor Street in Melrose, Massachusetts. His eleven children and grandchildren all lived in those houses. Can you imagine how long it must have taken him to build those houses from scratch?! Keep in mind that these were in the days before sections of houses were built off-site and later connected to the foundation like LEGOs.  My father and his father built the house I grew up in and that alone took a couple years to finish. Working on the houses must have taken a lot of time, dedication and hard work!

That isn't to say he was all business. Apparently, he was known to make Italian ices for the grandchildren and visit his family up in Haverhill. From what my father and several cousins remember, Rocco spoke fractured English. He would almost always speak in Italian. With that in mind, I often wondered who worked with him. Clearly someone had to have known Italian in order to help him build houses!

Rocco's wife and fam

A light bulb immediately went off in my head. His sons must have helped him build the houses! And he had many sons. His oldest, James, most likely helped the old man with everything. Rocco had a large family. So, it's entirely possible that he enlisted the aid of pretty much everyone in the household.

Not only was Rocco an accomplished carpenter and architect. He also made his own wine. I've had some experience with people making their own homemade red wine before. The little vino was a little strong! From what relatives have told me, that was definitely the case with Rocco.

I've gotten mixed accounts related to who he was as a person. Some say he was very tough. Some say he was very nice. It's hard to get a read on his personality because everyone in the family seems to have their own take on the matter. I think for sanity's sake I'll go by what my father remembers of him. My father has said he was tough but he was always good to his family. Family meant a lot to him. It had to have since he built everyone's houses! You don't build people you hate houses! It just doesn't work! Unless you have some seriously evil plan cooking.

Rocco lived a nice, long life and passed away a year after I was born. Growing up, I heard all kinds of stories about how hard of a worker he was and apparently he told great stories about Italy, too. That's always a good thing and I wish I could have met him. But, there's always my cousins who descend from him who could tell me stories! 

So, it seems like everyone in my family knew the value of hard work and they weren't just ancestors. I think that's pretty cool to think about. The best part is that the houses Rocco built are still standing today so the families that live there now can appreciate his work. That's very cool to think about, too! See ya next time!