52 Ancestors Week 1: Beginnings

 From Amy Johnson Crow:  Week 1 is all about "Beginnings." Who inspired your first search? (For me, it was wanting to find more about my maternal grandmother.) Who is at the beginning of one of your ancestral lines? Who are you beginning to research this year? 

From the day we arrived on the planet....

    We made it, everyone! We made it past the sheer horror of the year 2020. Sure we emerged on January 1st a little bruised. Some of us might look like we went a few rounds with Mike Tyson. That's okay. That's fine. The point is that we made it! We made it through a year of pain and misery and now we're looking at an optimistic future. I try to be optimistic. What else can we do? And you know what? Optimism is really helpful when you want to look up family. And this year I'm full of optimism. Why? I'll tell you! The first thing I need to do, though, is provide some background for why I am in a hopeful mood. Some of you might be asking why I'm so much more energetic than I usually am with these entries. And if you're new to the blog, HI! Pull up a chair! Your waiter will be with you, shortly!

Domenica and Antonio!

    This story starts when I was first learning about my family history. When I started in 2006, I had a decent tree and my great-aunt Nicolina told me all about her relatives: the Ferraiolos, the Coppolas and the Tedescos. The one person she left out was her grandmother, Domenica Gullo. I don't know if this was intentional. I think she may have forgotten to give me information about her. That makes the most sense.

    For YEARS that woman has been a brick wall in the tree. She was the only one of my 2x great-grandparents that I hadn't had a  tree on. I thought I could solve the problem by myself and I admit that was probably a little lame. What I did was I sent e-mails and e-mails to the commune office in San Pietro a Maida, Italy where she was born and later died. She was born in 1876 and died in 1959 according to her gravestone. Since I don't have an exact date, the commune office has been unable to help me.

    I was not sure what else to do. I have access to my great-aunt's DNA test on Ancestry and I saw a few distant matches who didn't fall under the Ferraiolo, Coppola or Tedesco lines. They all had trees with last names like "Serratore", "Donato", "Falbo" and other last names. I even found a tree for a woman named Santa Amelia Gullo who was born in San Pietro in 1871. She lived in Haverhill, Mass for a time before moving out west to Los Angeles where she died in 1961. Her parents were Francesco Gullo and Bettina Medaglia. Could Santa Amelia be Domenica's sister?

Amelia? Are you Domenica's sister?

   If she was a sister, theoretically the Medaglia DNA matches would have higher centimorgans in common with my great-aunt. So, she could be a cousin. It's still definitely worth checking out. So, what I did was I created this floating tree on my tree on Ancestry. That was my first step.

    I still reached an impasse. What else can I do? I didn't have the exact date for birth. I have POSSIBLE relatives for Domenica who were born in the same town. I didn't know what else to do. I was stuck.  Or so I thought.

    The plan this year is to finally break through this brick wall. I've researched all I could on the Tedescos from here. It was time to move onto the Gullos. I needed a plan, though. I wasn't going to be able pull this off by myself. I was going to need help.

   A few days ago, I asked my 2nd cousin Caterina for help. She lives in San Pietro a Maida and has helped me with the Tedescos and was the one who gave me the pic of Antonio and Domenica that I've used on the site many times. I told her about the trouble I had been having and she said she would look things up for me. She has a horse in this race because her grandmother, Caterina, was my great-grandmother Maria's sister.

    Caterina asked me to share with her what I find past Domenica's parents. She knows that not all information is online. I told her that Familysearch has records from 1800-1861 on their site. She said she will do what she can. I have faith in her because not only does she live in San Pietro. Caterina is a counselor/lawyer for the community. She works in the commune office. I am beyond grateful for her help. You have no idea.

    The plan is to take the info she gives me and see if I can build a tree. I've been making good use of Familysearch's offer to have research sessions. San Pietro's records can only be seen at a family center. I'd have been crazy to pass up the chance to use the website! Besides, those sessions have helped me crack some cases on the Tedesco side. So, I am good to go. I just need names and dates. I will definitely provide everyone with up to the minute updates from CNN and other news sources. Or Twitter. CNN hasn't returned my calls....

    The sky is the limit and I will of course share what I find with Caterina. I'd be crazy not to. As she is a lawyer, she'll probably want to see documents. That, I can definitely do. I'll do my best and show her what I am capable of. 

    This isn't the only thing I'll be doing this year. I'll be researching other things of course. But, that up there is my main focus. To quote Captain Picard from the season one finale of Star Trek: The Next Generation:

"There's still much to do; still so much to learn. Mr. La Forge - engage!"