52 Ancestors Week 17: Favorite Place

From Amy Johnson Crow: This week's theme is "Favorite Place." So many records that we use (and memories that we have) are tied to a place. What is a favorite place to research? What is a favorite ancestral home? Feel free to interpret this theme in your own way.

Where in the world can that be?

    In my forty-two years and counting, there have been several places I loved visiting. I loved taking vacations to places like the Bahamas. Fishing on the boat was always a fun time. I've even been up to Canada for a dental convention with my parents. Now, I wouldn't call myself a world traveler. But, I do like going to different places and I really do like geography. Learning about our small blue planet is great and it helps make sure you never get lost. Of course, I learned all about geography way before Google Earth became a thing and now you can just ask Siri to give you directions on how to get from point A to point B. Though, I should point out that Google Earth can be wrong and you still might end up right in the middle of nowhere!

Grandma Ollie!

     One of my most favorite places in the world to go was my grandma Ollie's house in Haverhill, Massachusetts. What wasn't to like? She lived closer to my family and I than my other grandparents did since they had a house about an hour north of us. Ollie always made everyone feel welcome there, too. It didn't matter who you were, where you came from and how long it took you to get there. You were still welcome and she'd still have a smile on her face!

    I remember going there with my parents and on the journey over the river and through the woods, I felt a connection to the city that I just did not understand until I was much older. I mean look at the blog's title! All roads really do lead to Rome Haverhill. 

    Grandma's house wasn't the biggest house in the world and that didn't matter. What I liked most about it was how you'd walk in and feel like you were home. It was the first ancestral house I've ever been to and it just felt good being there. I would always go right in, sit at the kitchen table while my grandmother entertained visitors. Usually her sisters stopped by while we were visiting and that was when a crash-course in family history would begin! Everyone would talk (Loudly. I mean come on....) and I would listen. If something important was discussed between my father and everyone, my brother and I would go to the den and that was usually where the pictures were kept. 

    My brother and I would watch TV and hanging on the wall were pictures of my great-grandparents, Giuseppe and Clementina and various other relatives. Some of my grandfather's paintings would even be on the wall. There was even a picture of his parents, Vincenzo and Maria.

    I remember one time I was so fixated on one of the pictures that I didn't even hear being called for lunch. I know. That's a first. Grandma came in to see what I was up to and I was looking right at the picture of a landscape. She came over to me and talked to me about Marco's painting for a bit and then we went to eat. If you remember, I have no memory of my grandfather since he died when I was four. I guess, in a way, the house and many things in it was a great connection to my grandfather just like the house I grew up in. 

    There is also a bit of a story behind her house, too. A story that goes back to the 1950s!

We really did go over the river to get here.

    Built in the 1950s, Grandma's house was once the home of my great-grandfather Vincenzo and his second wife, Fortuna. If you look him up in the census, you'll find that he moved quite a bit around Haverhill. He and his family were first in a house on Pilling Street in 1930. Then they moved to Irving Avenue by 1940. By the mid 1950s, he moved to this charming house on Washington Street. Why he moved around so much is anyone's guess. 

    When Vincenzo died in 1970, he left the house to my grandparents and it had been their home ever since. Marco and Ollie only moved a quarter of a mile down the road. It wasn't exactly a hard move!

    Visiting the house and especially my grandmother was always fun to do because of the stories that were told and the laughter that was shared by all within the walls. When she died in 2002, I helped to get the house ready to be sold and I swore I heard her voice in my head. That's a tale I told in an earlier blog! There were a lot of memories in that old house and every time we go to Haverhill, we make it a point to drive by and see what has become of it. Little has changed save for the addition of a pool in the back and that's probably a good thing. I'm glad it's still there and that little has changed!

The house on Barlett St.

    Grandma's house wasn't the only ancestral house I went to in Haverhill on a regular basis! Far from it. We would also go to the house where Giuseppe and Clementina lived on Bartlett Street. Naturally, they were long gone when I came around. However, two of my grandmother's sisters lived there.

    Unlike Vincenzo, Giuseppe and Clementina did not move around nearly as often as he did. They stayed at the house from the the 1930s until they died. It was funny. Each sister took over one floor of the house. Louise had the ground floor. Giuseppe and Clementina were on the second floor and Jennie had the top floor. It's even more hilarious knowing that at one point Vincenzo and Maria lived right around the corner from the house!

    I digress. I have a few memories of this place as well. Like my grandmother's house, Aunt Louise would also have various photographs around the place and she would tell stories as well. It wasn't hard to confirm them because often I'd go to my grandmother's to get them confirmed! We had plenty of meals there including Sunday dinner and like my grandma's house, I always felt welcome there. 

    I remember one time I was there with my parents and we'd just be visiting. I would talk to my great-uncle and he liked calling me "Superman" despite my admiration for all things Marvel. My favorite character is Spider-Man. I still humored the man. What's not to like about the Man of Steel? And I confess I did have a Superman t-shirt. I was six. Every kid had one! Uncle Arnold actually called me "Superman" up until he passed away.

    I also remember my great-aunt's cooking. Like my grandmother, Aunt Louise excelled at making cookies for everyone who visited. She also made this dessert she called "icicles". It wasn't anything too complicated. It was basically angel food cake topped with shaved coconut and Hershey's syrup. It really is the simple things in life, isn't it?

    These are just a few of the many stories I have about these two houses and they all centered around the same theme. Both houses were owned by family who loved having guests over and made anyone who entered feel right at home. Each house has a story behind it that's full of laughter (I hope) and memories. Even though I didn't grow up there, I still felt like I did. They were really my second and third homes now that I think about it. 

    They were the places which sparked my interest in genealogy because family history was always talked about there. It was at those houses that I learned about my grandma's uncle Rocco and how he built all the houses on Windsor Street in Melrose. It's where I learned about Pasquale and his family in Everett. The list goes on and I can't focus on all of them or else this blog will be gigantic! I will say this. There's something about the houses that always made me feel at home. They were just some of those places that gave me a big connection to the city of Haverhill.

    My mother pointed out her grandparents' houses in the area, too. But, it was always the houses on my father's side that I went into and felt a deep connection to. It was sad to see them change hands as the years went by. And that's okay. Change can be good because new families can have new memories in the special place that you once called home and hopefully those memories are good ones. As long as those houses like any other house still stand, the memories will always be there in those walls.

See ya next time!

Images of Google Earth are property of Google Earth.

52 Ancestors Week 16: DNA

 From Amy Johnson Crow: DNA. It's amazing how three letters could so completely change the field of genealogy. What's a discovery you've made with DNA? What about a brick wall that DNA might help break down?

Originally I was going to type a genetic code in but...nah.

        DNA testing can definitely change your life and frankly your entire world could be flipped upside down in an instant. Sure you can find out where your ancestors came from and confirm or deny stories you've heard growing up via admixture results provided to you by your favorite vendor (Ancestry, MyHeritage, 23andme etc.). However, there's more to it than that. DNA testing allows you to find out about relatives a world away or as close as your own backyard. Whatever happens when you take a DNA test, you are going to find surprises. Like the one below....

I'm sure "Sara" wouldn't mind me sharing this. Relax. This is photoshopped.

    Shameless Starbolts reference aside, I've definitely found my fair share of surprises in my DNA matches. My most recent one occurred just a few months ago. In February, I talked about how I came into contact with a cousin of mine on Myheritage in this blog. To recap, she is an Italian woman living in Switzerland and her mother is my great-grandfather Vincenzo's niece. Vincenzo and my grandparents, Marco and Olympia, went to Switzerland for her wedding back in 1969. The rest, as they say, is history.

OR IS IT?!

I wonder if I should ask for Swiss cheese.

  
Not long after I started talking to my cousin, her daughter showed up as a DNA match to me and my father. She shares 88 centimorgans with me and 210 centimorgans with him. I honestly didn't see that one coming! Yes, I knew she was a cousin. I just didn't know she tested. That in and of itself was very cool. Then more people started to come out of the woodwork!

    My match's son and a first cousin also showed up as matches, too! It was incredible! I love finding new family and I like figuring out where they all fit into the grand scheme of things.

Your kids went all over the place.

    As it turns out, they all descended from my 2nd great-grandparents, Marco Ferraiolo and Caterina Coppola. Vincenzo's sister, Concetta is the link. She married a man named Giuseppe Aleardi and moved to Switzerland. Concetta wasn't the only Ferraiolo offspring with a bit of a wanderlust. Rosa went to Rome after marrying a Serrao. Caterina married Giuseppe Astorino and moved to Argentina.

    I think that's why many of my Swiss relatives have tested. Since Caterina moved to Argentina, it stands to reason that they lost contact with them. At least that's what my cousin told me. After Concetta passed away, the family lost contact with the Astorinos and I guess they wanted to reach out to family all over the world. I'm not sure if that's 100% accurate. But, it makes the most sense. It's a big world out there and family can be everywhere. I've told my cousins about the family on the Coppola side in America who tested on Ancestry. They are very happy to learn about them and that makes me happy as well because I like to help people and bridge the gap so to speak. The more people learn about their family and where people came from, the more whole a person becomes.

Concetta Ferraiolo

        I suppose the moral of the story is that you should test on the biggest vendor out there first before putting your DNA on other platforms. In my case, I tested on Ancestry back in 2018 and put my DNA on MyHeritage. My parents and I didn't get any really, really close matches until recently save for one or two people. After so many years of playing the long game, I finally got a few European matches and that is VERY exciting! Is it worth it? You know it is!

    If you have recent immigrants, it's probably a good idea to put your DNA on a site where many people who test are in Europe or in other parts of the world. That way you can find a DNA connection to the grandparents of your immigrant ancestor and beyond. Sure you might be playing the long game like I did. But, in the end it's great because you get to see who you might connect with worldwide. It's a big world out there. DNA matches aren't going to be found just in your small corner of it.

    As Ancestry.com is based in the United States, I never really got full Thrulines or DNA matches who descend from just Marco and Caterina. This was because their children moved around and their descendants did not go to America. If you're a descendant of a recent immigrant like I am you may find there isn't a Thruline on Ancestry. That may be due to any number of reasons. You might have the wrong ancestors like I did for Antonio Tedesco or your ancestor has descendants who stayed in Europe or went to South America like mine did. This is also why I don't have Thrulines for Domenica Gullo and her family. As far as I know, her brothers and sisters stayed in Europe. I could be wrong.

Paolo Ferraiolo and Elisabetta

Rosa Ferraiolo

    My experience tells me that it's a good idea to fish in every pond imaginable. You aren't going to find what you want just by sitting at Ancestry or 23andme. So, get out there and make some amazing DNA-related discoveries. Your cousins are all over the world. For the longest time, I thought I wouldn't find any Ferraiolo cousins who descended from Marco and Caterina and now I have and I am definitely glad that they're out there and that they can help fill in the gaps on my family tree. DNA testing and paper trail genealogy should work well together as it strengthens the tree and sorts out the messes that need to be sorted. This is just one reason for uploading your DNA to another vendor. You have matches you wouldn't get anywhere else. It just so happens that Myheritage has a lot of European testers. So, what are you waiting for? Download your DNA and upload it to another site! Yeah, it sounds weird when I put it like that. But, it's worth it! See for yourself and make some amazing discoveries!

See ya next time!

52 Ancestors Week 15: Brick Wall

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Brick walls—we all have them. This would be a good week to write down what you know about your brick wall problem. (Sometimes just writing about it can help!) You could write about an ancestor who used to be a brick wall. Or get creative—maybe an ancestor who was a bricklayer?

Welcome to Atop the Brick Wall....

       I'm not going to lie. "Atop the Brick Wall" does sound like a great name for a genealogy show on YouTube. The problem is that the name sounds way too similar to that of a friend of mine's show called "Atop the Fourth Wall". Click the link and take a guess what he reviews. Though, I suppose if you really wanted to use "brick wall" in the name of your show, there are other options. 

Who are your parents, Domenica?

    Anyway, let's discuss those genealogical brick walls! We all have them. Don't lie. I can tell. Especially you back there with the "Smith" in your tree. I have a couple of brick walls myself and I've dedicated a great deal of time in trying to break down the closest one to me. Her name is Domenica Gullo and I'm pretty sure I've talked about this woman many, many times. If you're new here, here's what you need to know about her:

1. She was born in San Pietro a Maida, Italy around 1876 and died in 1959.

2. She was the wife of Antonio Tedesco. I have no clue when they were married. It would have had to have been some time before 1900.

3. They had at least three children: Tommaso, Maria and Caterina.

4. My great-aunt has a few DNA matches who point toward a "Catanzaro" family.

5. Another DNA match has a woman named "Santa Amelia Gullo" in their tree. She was born in San Pietro in 1871 and her parents were Francesco Gullo and Bettina Medaglia. The match comes in at 19 cMs. That could mean anything according to the shared cM project!

6. My great-aunt has a closer DNA match who fits in the Gullo line and she shares 94 cMs with her. No tree.

    A cousin of mine who descends from Antonio and Domenica has offered to help me break the brick wall and I haven't heard much from her on the subject. She's a lawyer who works for the commune office. So, I'm not going to press too hard. I hope she finds something. I know she didn't forget about my problem.

I'm honestly amazed at how this paper survived.

    While I await the results, there has been a slight development in the case. Remember my deep dive into the metal box last week? In the box there was a list of everyone who attended the funeral of my great-grandmother, Maria. On the list were several names I recognized from the Coppola family.

    There were several other names that caught my attention because I had seen them on a few trees. Last names like "Serratore" and "Catanzaro" were on the list and it got me wondering what the connection was. I mean sure a majority of these people were most likely friends of the family. However, it's too much of a coincidence that my great-aunt would have Serratore and Catanzaro DNA matches and these same names show up in a metal box sitting in my parents' basement.

    Using the list of names from the booklet, I've been working on a list of the Ferraiolo family's friends and neighbors. This would be their "FAN" club. It's basically everyone they knew and based on what I've found, several families lived on the same street in Haverhill.

    As you can see by the image to the left, I've started to make some real headway into the fan club. Do these people have any connection to the Gullos? I have no idea. However, through process of elimination I have discovered family members for the Ferraiolo, Coppola and Tedesco family. 

Several other names, like "Frank Ferraiolo" piqued my interest. I have GOT to look that guy up. Who was he?! That was the first I ever read that name. Back on topic. As you can see, the list is extensive and I have a long way to go before I can pinpoint where everyone is and how everyone is connected. Some are blood relatives. Some look to be friends. However, there's always a possibility of there being more than meets the eye.  

    There you have it. I'm a little bit closer to solving this puzzle. I have a list of names and potential leads. I have DNA matches and as you all know DNA does not lie. I have a cousin who is actively helping me and since Italy has been dealing with the pandemic, I'm not going to push her too hard. That would be incredibly rude. Things do look promising at least. The clues are right in front of me and some day this tree will be filled in with family members.

You can almost see the tumbleweeds....

    I do have a few brick walls on my mother's side. Don't get me wrong. But, this is the one I really want to solve because Domenica is closer to me genealogically. She's in my first 30 on the tree and that's something I really like to work on. I've done all the research I can on other branches of my family tree. It's time to finally solve this puzzle. This blog represents where I am now in the grand scheme of things. I hope that by the end of the year I'll have something to share and this blog written in April of 2021 becomes an anecdote. 

    Once I do solve the puzzle, I won't be finished. I'll still have to look up the parents and see how far I can take Domenica's tree. Here's hoping for some good news on the horizon! So, right now I can safely say this brick wall is wobbly a little bit. Just needs a wrecking ball or perhaps even the "Kool-Aid Man". Will I find the answer? Probably. I'm not giving up!

See ya next time!

    

52 Ancestors Week 14: Great

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 14 should be great... because that's the theme! It could be someone many generations back (like a great-great-great-great-great-grandfather), an ancestor who did something "great," or someone who was great in some other way. Have fun with this theme! (And remember -- there is no "wrong" way to interpret a theme. It's whatever the prompt makes you want to write about.)

Would you call this header "great"?

        Great things tend to happen when you put puns in the prompt for this week. =) What shall I talk about? Great-grandparents? Sure. That's a given considering what type of blog this is. Though, I have dabbled in the Starbolts' own genealogy over at my sister site. Shameless plug, Chris. Let's try to be a bit more specific. Which great-grandparents? Vincenzo Ferraiolo and Maria Tedesco? Hmmmm.....Getting warmer. How about a great discovery I made involving those two? NOW YOU'RE TALKING!

What's in the box?!

    Last week, my mother was cleaning out the basement and stumbled upon this metal box. This is the same box which had my 2nd great-grandmother Caterina Coppola's birth certificate inside. Well, I decided to take a deeper dive inside the box to see what other great treasures I could find.

    The box (tm) came to us as part of a collection of items from grandma Ollie's house. She saved so many things belonging to her family that this small box is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. What's inside? Well, there are plenty of things! Let's take a look! Keep your arms inside the blog at all times and make sure your seat-belts are secure. The captain has turned on the "No Browsing" sign. Let's-a go!

That's a high belt....

    Our journey begins with a photo album carefully placed near the box. Inside are assorted photographs of my grandfather during his time in the army. There were plenty of photographs of him with his friends and a few of grandma Ollie and her sisters. However, the one on the right caught my attention the most as I never saw a pic of the two together. Never mind how young they looked.

    If I were to hazard a guess, I would say that the photo was taken in the mid 1940s before they got married in 1946. It was probably even taken right after the war. This was taken in the backyard of her parents' house on Bartlett Street in Haverhill as evidenced by the fire station in the background. The photo caught my attention because I have rarely seen pictures of my grandmother with black hair. When I knew her, she had reddish-blond hair. Her hair dresser convinced her and her sisters to all go blond. At least it wasn't blue? Between this, her high school picture and another one we have in our collection, these are really the only evidence we have of Ollie's natural hair being black. She had gone grayish before I was born and I suppose she felt like changing her color.  Ah well.

     Moving onto the box itself, we see a collection of birth certificates for Concetta Coppola, grandpa Marco and his grandmother, Caterina. Concetta was Marco's great-aunt.  Why were the documents even in there? Well, it turns out that they were all ordered in the 1960s. After discussing it with a friend, we realized that perhaps they were needed to help secure passports for travel to Italy. Makes sense given that everyone did go back and forth.

    The box also contained a variety of bank statements from Haverhill's Pentucket bank, Marco's service record, a certificate involving his receiving a Purple Heart and a document concerning my grandfather's cancer diagnosis. Yeah. I was not going to look at that too much. He died when I was four. So, it's a little touchy. It's a little hard for me to look at that, you know?

    Both my great-grandfather Vincenzo's will and my grandfather's will were inside. They were pretty fascinating and a little short. Vincenzo made certain his siblings were well taken care of in Rome, Switzerland and in Argentina. That was nice of him. He had left his house and many other things to his second wife, Fortuna and that brings me to my next great discovery!

Not married in Italy? Hmm...

    I always knew Fortuna Grasso was Vincenzo's second wife. What I didn't know was where the two were married and what the circumstances surrounding the event were. I knew it was after Maria passed away. But, how long afterward? A year? Well, it turns out I wasn't far off. They were married on August 5th, 1944 in Lawrence, Mass. I assumed he went back to Italy. I assumed wrong. Never assume anything, guys. You won't know the facts until they're dancing in front of your face! That's my great discovery for Vincenzo covered!

    Other items in the box included a deed to a random property. It wasn't any of the houses Vincenzo and Marco owned. It certainly wasn't the motel on Salisbury Beach. More on that in a bit, by the way. I checked it out on Google Earth and it was a random house. Not much I can say. I will definitely ask my father if he knew anything about it.

    One of the strangest things in the box, though, would have to be this blank Naturalization form. It was with my grandfather's war record. Why would he have that? Did people question his Naturalization? So weird.

Survivor of fires, hurricanes and nor'easters!

    Next up we have the motel that my grandfather and my great-uncle Arnold Villanucci both owned. The building still stands on Salisbury beach despite having suffered a small fire in the 1960s. Don't worry. No one was harmed. Having seen it in person, it is a decent place. But, by the time I got around to seeing it, Arnold was much older and my grandfather was long gone. It's nice to know both it and my grandparents' houses in Haverhill still stand, though. 

  

    
    The next item I found may not seem great given the context. But, it is great from a genealogical point of view. This is the automobile list for the funeral of Maria Tedesco. The funeral was held on March 6th, 1943 and based on that date I can assume that she passed away a few days prior. It's the only logical assumption I can make.

    The automobile list shows who gave flowers and who offered presents. Right away I noticed several people whose names seemed familiar to me. Many of Vincenzo's relatives were in attendance from the Coppola family. His aunt Concetta was there with her children. Giovanni and Paolo were there as well with their children, too. The Tedescos from Woburn were even there from her side of the family.

    As far as blood relatives go, everyone seemed to be there save for the family still in Italy. And since it was 1943 I....don't think communication with famiglia back home was easy. The second world war was in full swing. That might explain why some people were there and others weren't.

    The list itself provided me with enough information to create a FAN club for my great-grandparents. A FAN club stands for "friends and neighbors". I started putting together a list of names and I found some interesting things. Check it out:

1. Virtually everyone on the list had an Italian last name. Some I recognized from the "Italians in Haverhill" book like "Sgro" and "Azzarito". You can bet I looked them all up. Many of them lived on the same street in Haverhill in the 1940 census. That is pretty cool!

2. One name really stuck out to me. The family of Nazarene Benedetti was present. Benedetti is an interesting and famous last name in Haverhill because of the sandwich shop that was opened by his family a few years later. My great-aunt Louise used to work for the family, too! They make great subs and it.....really is a small world after all. 

3. Many of the names repeated themselves and it's interesting to see who all was able to fit in one of those tank-like cars of the 1940s. Perhaps that was the inspiration for the SUV.

4. Pitocchelli handled the funeral and attended the funeral. It makes me wonder who they were and what connection they had with the family.

    Wow. This blog is getting pretty long. There were so many other great documents and photos I didn't cover. I'm glad I made such great discoveries because it meant closure on a few questions I had about my great-grandparents. When did Vincenzo marry Fortuna? When did Maria pass away? Those questions were answered by digging into a metal box now stored in a dry spot with the rest of my grandparents' things from Haverhill. There's still another box of items from my grandmother's house. I hope I get a chance to look at the contents some day. Who knows? I might make even greater discoveries.

It would be great if I could find my grandparents' wedding album. Just saying....

    Oh! And before I go, I have one last thing to report. My dive into the box yielded a great surprise for my cousin Caterina in Switzerland. Inside was a photo of people at a wedding. I wasn't sure who they were. So, I scanned the photo and sent it to Caterina in the hope that she would know. She said that the guys in the photo were her brothers, Pasquale and Marco. Caterina had never seen the photo before and it made her smile. In fact, it made her Easter. I was happy to do that for her. It was indeed a great surprise. She wondered how we got the photo. Grandpa Marco must have taken it and brought it with him to America where it stayed with us since the '70s. It's a great discovery and I'm glad I made Easter special for her. =)

See ya next time!

Now that is a GREAT surprise!

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.