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.
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| 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!
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| 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!
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| 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!
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| 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!
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