52 Ancestors Week 34: Characters

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Characters — there's at least one in every family. Who in your family could be described as a character, someone who marches to the beat of their own drum? Or maybe you have an actor or writer in the family? Share their story this week

I STILL probably play way too much "Super Smash Bros".

    

    When the topic of "characters" came up last year, I wrote about someone who I've known since I was a kid. The blog was about my family friend, Alfred Coppola. He was definitely a character. Come on. He gave me twenty-one one dollar bills for my twenty-first birthday! Who doesn't look at that and just laugh?! There are a number of people in my life who were like that and I'd like to write a blog about all of them. But, we'd be here a while and I do like to keep these blogs short! You can read all about Alfred and the Salami Club here.

Marco and Cammie!

    This year, we're going to switch it up a bit because character doesn't just mean someone who's a joy to be around. Character, especially good character, can be a trait someone has which makes them a good person. As it turns out, my grandfather Marco had that in spades because he and my grandmother Ollie dared to defy societal norms in an age where the Civil Rights movement in America was in its infancy.

    For many years, my grandfather would invite a man named Charles Haigh into his home. Charles, as you might have guessed, was an African-American man. I haven't had much luck finding information about Charles. All that I know about him came from my father who clearly remembers him as he grew up around him.

    My father was never sure where his father met Charles. I assume they met at work. He had to have lived somewhere in the Merrimack valley. Where? I'll have to do some more digging because I would definitely like to find him. Genealogy isn't just about finding your direct ancestors after all. It's about finding your ancestors friends and neighbors, too. This is known as "The Fan Club" and Charles was definitely a member of that club!

    I think I'm getting ahead of myself because some context definitely matters. Marco, Ollie, my father and Charles all lived in Haverhill, Massachusetts. During the 1950s and 1960s, segregation occurred all over the United States. Even in Haverhill. It should also be noted that during that time Italians weren't considered white, either. Did the two families find some common ground and unite? It certainly seems that way. Or was this just one big coincidence?

    Regardless of intent, Grandpa Marco proved that he had great character and it was a trait passed down to my father and to my brother and I. Marco and Ollie were definitely progressive for their time and it's something I even noticed about my grandmother while I was growing up because she never had a mean word to say about anyone regardless of who they were or where they came from. I just wish I could remember Marco. =(

    What about my mother's side? Surely there are some great character traits from the Hamel and Felker clans, right? 

   

    It honestly goes without saying that my other grandparents were people of great character, too. Robert Hamel and Natalie Felker  were two of the most generous people I ever knew in my life. As my brother put it, grandpa Hamel was basically the model for what a grandfather should be. He never raised a voice to us or at his eight other grandchildren even though we probably got a little rowdy. 

   Their generous spirit extended out from the family and were always nice to friends regardless of where they came from. Sound familiar? I suppose this could be attributed to my grandfather's time in World War II where he saw action in Europe and even went to Japan in the post-war era. He saw how people lived. Not soldiers. People. And that probably had an effect on him.

Lookin' dapper!

    Not to be outdone, my grandmother was pretty amazing, too! She was the type of grandmother who cared about everyone. EVERYONE. Sometimes I swore she was a second Italian grandmother! She would knit sweaters for all of the grandchildren. We'd all get one. Every one of us. There was no escaping it regardless of age. From six to sixteen you were getting a Felker sweater. There was no getting away from it. And it wasn't just sweaters she made! She would make afghans and everything else you'd need. My mother's linen closet is full of blankets she made. It's really amazing! And yes I totally made forts out of them on cold New Hampshire nights!

    Natalie, like my grandfather, was also equally progressive. She didn't judge anyone and let people live their lives. They were both not shy about giving advice either whenever I had a bad day at school and I told them about what was going on. My other grandmother, too. They were just really good people and great role models to be around. Nothing else needs to be said.

    So, there you have it. My grandparents were progressive people who let everyone into their homes and were people who quite literally gave you the shirt they personally made or gave good advice. That shows what kind of people they were and by extension it shows who their parents were. Good character is often a product of a good environment. Sometimes it is. Sometimes it comes about when you see bad things happen and you want to do better. Regardless, they were great people of great character and I like to think it's been passed down through the generations. You never know. People who have kindness in their hearts all the time are the best people to be around and I think these stories definitely reflect their good character.

    How do you know for sure if they had good character? Well, stories like these help you decide for yourself if they did or not. That's why it's always a good idea to talk to your parents or relatives about your ancestors. This way you get to find out more than just the name, dates and places. The people you put on your favorite genealogy software are more then just stats. They were people and they will have faults and foibles despite the character they portray. Kindness goes a long way and these just small examples of the kind of character my grandparents had!

52 Ancestors Week 33: Tragedy

 From Amy Johnson Crow: There isn't a family tree that doesn't have at least one tragedy in it. What have you discovered? Did it change how you thought about that ancestor and his or her circumstances?

It was this or a sad clown and I couldn't find a free one.

    Normally I would post a story about some tragic event in my family's past and make some jokes. We'd have some fun along the way and I would sign off knowing that eventually something good did come from whatever tragedy I was going to write about and man do I have some whoppers. Sometimes something good does happen. Tragedy brings out the best in people and drama is everywhere. Don't kid yourself. Your family history has drama in it. Everybody's does. Yours. Mine. Mr. Perfect's. Everyone.

Gertrude Stevens, front and center (Senter).

    Today's blog post is actually ripped from the headlines on WMUR.com, the local ABC affiliate here in New Hampshire. It concerns an ancestor of mine and yet it doesn't. It's hard to explain. Let me share the link courtesy of WMUR.com.

   Are you back after clicking the link? Are you angry? Good. GOOD! I can feel your anger! Now to sum up. Approximately 100 headstones, monuments and obelisks were destroyed or damaged at Pine Grove cemetery in Farmington, New Hampshire. The incident occurred in the wee hours of August 11th, 2021.  

    Vandals destroyed many stones dating back to the 1800s and many of them were the final resting place of  people who did something for the town. The article wasn't very specific about whose stones were destroyed. Thousands of dollars worth of damage was done and it would take some time to replace, repair and restore the stones to pristine condition. That's a tragic event in and of itself. What does that got to do with me?

    As it happens, my 2nd great-grandmother, Gertrude Stevens, is buried there. She was born in 1875 and passed away in 1944 in Farmington. According to various articles I've found on the Internet, she was very well known and well liked in the small town. When I found out about the incident, I was pretty mad. I wondered. Was Gertrude's stone damaged in some way? There was no way for me to know for sure. Months ago I found where she was buried and I created a profile on Find a Grave for her. You can see it here. I also put in a photo request because I have never seen the stone before. I've never even been to Farmington and I have no idea where in the cemetery she was buried. The article did say it was a big cemetery. Where would her final resting place be?

Farmington News
March 17th, 1944

    Those are all very important questions on my mind. My 2nd great-grandmother already had some great tragedy in her life since she went through a bitter divorce, lost her second husband and a daughter who was born premature. If anyone should be resting in peace right now it's her! Leave her alone!! There's no sense in making her descendants depressed by messing up a stone, right? One of her grandchildren, my great-aunt, still lives and I don't know how I could tell her about the incident. I don't think she'd be thrilled.

    Odds are very good that Gertrude's stone has been untouched. She died in 1944 and the vandals targeted old stones with statues atop of them. There's a chance, albeit slim, that her stone is intact. There is a bit of good news on that front at least. One of my friends on WikiTree is located in the area. She's close by and offered to help me find her grave, take a picture and give me and by extension the family some piece of mind. See what I mean by tragedy bringing people together? You gotta love it when people are willing to go that extra mile to help someone. I still worried because I had no idea if her stone was effected and it's better to be safe than sorry.

    Right. So, what happens now? What's going to happen in Farmington? Well, if you read the article it goes on to say they collected some evidence and have some leads. However, if anyone has any information, they are invited to contact the cops and tell them everything they know. The Farmington Cemetery Association is left to clean up the mess as each stone has a hefty price tag of one grand to repair or replace. Many of the stones were heavy and very old. It will take time to repair everything. 

    

    Vandalism in cemeteries is nothing new, sadly. You see it all over the news whether it's a Jewish cemetery in New York or an African-American cemetery in the deep south. It's unfortunately something cemeteries have to deal with because it is an open space. The communities have to be mindful of what's going on. Some cemeteries have hours and yet that didn't seem to deter whoever vandalized Farmington cemetery. It boggles my mind why someone would actually go out in the middle of the night and trash a place. What's the point? In this case, there is no point. I have no idea what message they were trying to say and to be honest I don't really care. They committed a crime and they are so going to be haunted.

    See ya next time! I'll keep everyone posted when I get a picture of Gertrude's stone!

52 Ancestors Week 32: In the City

 From Amy Johnson Crow: "They went and built a skyscraper seven stories high / About as high as a building oughta grow!" (Sorry -- it's been awhile since I've thrown in a random song lyric.) Were any of your ancestors "city folk"? Did your farming ancestors leave any tales of trips to the big city? What was the "big" city they would have visited -- and how is it different today?

The irony of using the "Friends" font over the Boston skyline.

   I see Amy's "Kansas City" and raise her "Beat City" from "Ferris Bueller's Day Off". Before we get into the meat of the blog, I should mention that I have two new pages of content for readers to explore. First up we have a breakdown of my family tree. On that page I have outlined how many people in my family tree I've discovered and some notable ancestors I've found along the way. The next page is all about resources and what I've used in my genealogical arsenal. The big five (Ancestry, FamilySearch, WikiTree, Geni and MyHeritage) aren't mentioned because let's face it. Everyone knows what those five sites are and they're already linked on the sidebar. I hope everyone enjoys the pages! I will be adding more amazing content soon! Stay tuned! Onto the blog!

Home of "Benedetti's Deli".

    It was bound to happen. It's as inevitable as the tide. What else was I going to write about when this prompt was announced? Sure I could have written about Newburyport, which is another city near and dear to my heart. I decided to go with Haverhill because it's in the blog's name and I have a one place study dedicated to the "Queen Slipper City". Perhaps there will be a sequel for 52 Ancestors 2022? Hint! Hint! Nudge! Nudge!

    Haverhill is a city with a very long history. It was established in 1640 and one of the men who helped settle the area was actually my 11th great-grandfather, Tristram Coffin! How's that for an amazing coincidence? I was absolutely floored when I found that bit of trivia because I've lived in the area all of my life. That's pretty amazing and there's no doubt in my mind that Haverhill changed so much since his time.

    Where is Haverhill located anyway? Haverhill is just thirty-five miles north of Boston, Massachusetts in Essex county. The city is situated on the banks of the Merrimack river, a river which became very important in the city's history. Surrounding the city are the towns of West Newbury, Merrimac, Groveland, Boxford, Methuen and North Andover, Massachusetts. The city also borders the New Hampshire towns of Salem, Atkinson and Plaistow.

    As you can tell by the chart, the population exploded by the time of the 1870 census. There's a very good reason for that because around that time the Industrial Revolution came to Haverhill and forever transformed a quiet riverfront town into an industrial powerhouse. The 1870s gave rise to factories up and down the river from as far north as Franklin, New Hampshire to the mouth of the Merrimack in Newburyport.

    The factories needed workers to help run things and so the owners encouraged immigrants from all over the world to put their skills to good use. In doing so, the population of the Merrimack valley exploded and kept rising exponentially well into the twentieth century. Immigrants such as my 2nd great-grandfather Antoine Legault and my great-grandfather Vincenzo Ferraiolo raised their families and thus caused a great population boom. The population grew so much that in between 1910 and 1920 the children of those immigrants began to spread out all over the valley bringing with them the customs and traditions of "the old country".

    One of the major ethnic groups in the area of course were the Italians. I really think Tristram would have been shocked to see how much of an impact Italians had on his own city. Italians in his day weren't even called Italians because in the 1600s the Italian peninsula was divided into several areas such as the Kingdom of Sicily. And while the Renaissance was booming in the northern part of the nation we call Italy, conditions were still poor in the south.

Mi nonno and nonna.

    Poverty in the south was commonplace and after unification in 1861, Italian immigrants left in droves. Many of them went to places like New York and New Jersey. However, a fair few went to Haverhill and it left such a huge mark on the city that there was even a book published about the changes they made! Of course I made a free-space page on WikiTree about this topic. Check it out here.

    The Italian immigrants went on to establish credit unions, societies to help immigrants, bus companies and more. All of this went on to service the growing population in the city and the valley as a whole.

    The city gave them and other immigrants from around the world to thrive in a new environment free from the constraints back home. Because of this feeling of freedom more people were brought over from their old home and neighborhoods were formed. We normally think of these "Little Italies" as being only in places like Boston or New York. The truth is even Haverhill has it's own Italian neighborhood. Newburyport even had a French quarter! It was there that people like my grandparents, Marco and Olympia met and connected despite Marco's family being from Calabria and Ollie's from Campania.

Bonjour!

    Sadly, there were some stumbling blocks along the way. Italians and French-Canadians suffered a great deal of prejudice and were not always welcome with open arms. People who had far-flung roots in Haverhill weren't always quick to accept anyone different from themselves.

    Luckily, that didn't stop my great-grandfather Austin Felker from marrying Henrietta Legault in the early 1900s. She was a daughter of two French-Canadians, Antoine Legault and Lucie Cadran. Austin's roots were very much tied to America's past and Henrietta's family was new to Haverhill. They still managed to make it work. Hey. He even helped her own in her twilight years when a seizure caused Henrietta to only speak in French. Good thing my mother was always on hand to help translate!

    In three-hundred and eighty-one years, Tristram's city of Haverhill transformed from a quaint farming community on the banks of the Merrimack to an industrial powerhouse that supplied footwear to most of the nation to a city that is home to many different cultures from around the world. Today, Haverhill, Massachusetts is seen as one of the most diverse cities in New England. Abandoned factories from the dawn of the twentieth century have ironically become housing units for immigrants. Riverfront boardwalks opened up and the city continues to grow. Travel to Boston now takes mere minutes instead of hours on horseback. 

    Who knows where the "Queen Slipper city" will go from here. Tristram Coffin's city of Haverhill no longer exists and yet monuments to his time remain as the city celebrates its roots and moves forward. Museums dedicated to Haverhill's past exist and he'd have to visit them or even the old burying grounds to see something---anything familiar to him. Time travel is great and all. But, even the Doctor would warn you about changes to the timeline. Imagine what will happen tomorrow!

    Would he have liked the changes? It's hard to say. In many ways Haverhill's transformation reflects America's ongoing transformation today. There would definitely be a culture shock because Haverhill in those days was definitely more British and Puritanical than it is today. After all a small farming community can transform in the blink of an eye. For good or bad, change is inevitable and the city of Haverhill is proof that change can be a good thing. Just keep that river clean, guys!

See ya next time!

52 Ancestors Week 31: Favorite Name

 From Amy Johnson Crow: People sometime ridicule celebrities for the "unusual" names they choose for their children. Clearly, they haven't looked at some ancestral names, like "Strange Powers" or "Preserved Fish." Who's name in your family tree makes you smile? (Of course, feel free to interpret this theme however you'd like!)

Zebulon Caterina. If only I had the space for a third name....

    What's in a name? Would a rose by any other name still smell as sweet? Probably. It would still be one of the most shockingly expensive flowers on the planet. Over the course of my genealogical adventure I've definitely come across some names which are probably my favorites out of the whole tree. I have picked four names to talk about from each corner of my family tree so as to not play favorites with my favorites. Does that sentence even make sense? Let's get started. These are just four of my favorite names that either make me laugh or are just REALLY common. 

1. Zebulon Drew

    When I first came across the name "Zebulon Drew" after correcting a Smith line, the first thing that came to my mind was that he sounded like he was the lead singer of a Nordic death metal band from the 1980s. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. Zebulon wasn't Nordic and probably did not have big '80s hair. To make matters worse he probably didn't even play the guitar or had legions of groupies.

    My hopes weren't all dashed, though. Zebulon here was born in 1721 and was one of the ten soldiers of the American Revolution I have hanging out in my tree. He is a DAR ancestor and that means he's on the DAR website. 

    Drew is one of my 7th great-grandparents and was a son of a selectman in Dover, New Hampshire. I think that fact would have come in handy during high school as I had cross country meets in Dover....

    Zebulon may not have played heavy metal. BUT! He did work with metal as a blacksmith! That's another point in his favor! He did alright for himself, it seems. He married a woman named Sarah Chandler and had seven children. The name certainly left an impression on me because of how cool it sounds when you say it out loud. Is it shallow? Probably. It's still a cool name and aside from being the frontrunner for a metal band, Zebulon Drew sounds like a great name for a detective!

2. Caterina

    One of the most common Italian names in my tree is the name "Caterina". My second great-grandmother, a third great-grandmother, a fourth great-grandmother and several living relatives share the name all over my father's paternal side. You'd think seeing the same name over and over again would be annoying. Not really. It's cool seeing the name pop up as it's usually part of various Italian naming traditions.

    The name "Caterina" is actually important to me as it helped me figure out a few issues I had on the Tedesco branch. For a while, I had the wrong parents of Antonio Tedesco attached to the branch and over on Ancestry I was not getting any Thrulines for him and the parents I had attached to the tree beforehand. Now that was annoying because I KNEW I had Tedesco cousins. Over a dozen DNA matches from that line and no Thruline up to the fifth great-grandparents? Yeah. Someone messed up and it was probably me!! I know Thrulines are only as good as other peoples' trees. But, I think I can trust ones that are well sourced. That and DNA doesn't lie. 

    I did a little researching and changed the parents to Giuseppe Tedesco and Caterina Rocca. The Thrulines I looked for popped right up and things began to make SO MUCH SENSE! My mind was blown away! Why? Well, Maria Tedesco's sister was named Caterina and that's the name of a cousin in San Pietro. My great-aunt's middle name is Caterina. It's also the name of her daughter. Everything made sense! The answer was sitting in front of me this whole time! I know I probably talked about this before. But, it bears repeating ! I honestly don't think it's a coincidence because of the naming traditions in my family and several other factors. So, "Caterina" became one of my favorite names because it helped me solve a mystery. I just wish I had a pic of her. I had to use Caterina Coppola who is from a different part of the tree. They were born in the same area of Italy, though!

3. Jean Picard

    Jean Picard. I....There are a few things you should know about me. I read comics and I am a HUGE Star Trek fan. I grew up watching "Star Trek: The Next Generation", "Deep Space Nine", "Voyager" and "Enterprise". When I first saw the name of my 9th great-grandfather, I immediately thought of the captain of the USS Enterprise during that time. His name was "Jean-Luc Picard". 

    While Jean here did not have the "Luc" added to his name, my mind still went for the pop culture reference. It can't be helped. Certain names are going to sound like real people who really existed. I bet anything that there was a real Clark Kent or Peter Parker running around. That reminds me. I need to check the 1910s census in New York for Steve Rogers.

  I digress. If you really think about it. Both men are remarkably similar to each other. Jean-Luc Picard was a noted explorer and diplomat. Jean Picard left his native France and helped to explore Quebec. Not much of his diplomatic skills are known and I honestly doubt he was the most British sounding Frenchman ever. No disrespect to Sir Patrick Stewart, of course! The man is a legend. 

   

    As far as Jean goes, that's probably as far as the similarities go and I probably hurt myself by stretching that far. It's funny to see names you associate with pop culture show up in your tree. You might have an ancestor whose name is synonymous with a very evil character or a hero. It's just a fun thing to find every once in a while. Now, if only I had a Peter Parker....

4. Capobianco 

    Capobianco is a very interesting Italian last name. Maria Giovanna Capobianco was my 2nd great-grandmother and she was born in Frigento in 1856. Her last name means "white head" in Italian and it turns up quite a bit with her extended family because she was one of six children. Her father, Angelo was one of nine children and Angelo's brother, Giovanni Antonio actually came to America.

    While in America, Giovanni Antonio changed his last name to "Whitehead" for unknown reasons. He had at least two children and not much is known what happened to them after the 1910 US census in Michigan. Did they have children? I'd have to look. I haven't come across any DNA matches from this line, yet. But, I hope they are out there.

    I picked Capobianco to talk about because it's a fun Italian last name and I kind of wonder how it came about. Did an Italian guy have a head full of white hair? That's a possibility. The name sparks the imagination and I hope there are connections to the Capobianco family out there. To date I haven't found many Capobianco cousins. You never know. I did find Ferraiolo ones!

    Those four names are just a few that either have a great story behind them, make me laugh or have helped me solve a genealogical puzzle. I have many other favorites in my tree. It's honestly hard to pick one. But, these are the four that have either helped me in my research or had some entertainment value. Either way, they stuck with me and I'm sure everyone reading this blog has names that have done the same for them. Think about the names in your tree that make you smile as you do your research. Make it so!

And see you....out there.