Thursday, October 28, 2021

52 Ancestors Week 43: Shock

 From Amy Johnson Crow: The theme for Week 43 is "Shock." Halloween is a time of surprises. What is something shocking or surprising that you've found about an ancestor? Shocking could also be a lightning strike or an electrical jolt. Remember — feel free to interpret the theme however you want!

SHOCKING!

      Having been around the Internet for ages I can safely say that nothing really shocks me anymore. I'm not sure if that makes me jaded or anything. At most it just makes me more aware of the world around me. The world isn't all sunshine and rainbows no matter how much we wish it was the case. Lord knows I sure do. If you take a peek into any fandom of your choice, you might see what I mean. That isn't to say people are always awful. It just means I'm more "on guard" for shocking behavior because I've seen quite a few things. I'm not tooting my own horn. I'm just saying it takes a lot to really, truly surprise me.

Gertrude and family.
    On the genealogy front, however, things have sometimes surprised me and made me wonder "Huh. Why did this happen?". This was definitely the case for my second great-grandmother Gertrude Stevens' brother, Arthur Plummer Stevens. More on him in a bit because I do have a bit of news to share about Gertrude!

    In August, I wrote a blog about how the cemetery she was buried in was vandalized. It made the news on WMUR and various other news outlets here in New Hampshire. Many stones in Pine Grove Cemetery were toppled and there was a mess everywhere. Check the blog here for details.

    News of the cemetery getting vandalized caused me to spring into action. So, I posted a request on Find a Grave to find her stone. A couple of days ago, I got the request fulfilled and the stone was found safe and intact. It was one of those stones embedded in the ground. It's hard to vandalize those! You can see for yourself here. I really want to clean that corner of the stone, though! I don't know if that's OCD or what. It just vexes me.

    I messaged the lady who took the photograph and uploaded the picture to my 2nd great-grandmother's profile. You can bet I was thankful. I told her why I needed to know if the stone was okay and the backstory of my connection to her. She said that the community in Farmington came together and cleaned up the place so that it was good as new in no time. All of the stones have since been repaired. There hasn't been any word on the culprits, though. I'm still betting that they are haunted and hey Halloween is just around the corner. Mwahahaha!

Umm...Arthur? Why aren't you with your wife?!
    Now let's turn our attention to the story of Arthur Plummer Stevens. He was born in Lynn, Mass and was Gertrude's younger brother. The two were the only children of Austin Stevens and Evaline Augusta Fisher to survive to adulthood. When I initially researched him the first time around, I didn't find anything unusual. I found his birth in Lynn and a marriage to a woman named Ida Sansouce in 1906. Seems rather straightforward, right? No surprises here!! Wait for it. It's coming.

    The more I dug, the more I found things that didn't seem to add up. Before he married Ida, he was in the 1900 US census in Lynn as a lodger in the house of Phebie Kimball. I thought nothing of it. The man needed a place to stay and at the time his parents were living in nearby Haverhill. Then things started to take a right turn into "Weirdtown".

Boston Globe, Apr 10th, 1942., pg 30


   On Newspapers.com, I found Arthur's obituary. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until I saw a woman named Caroline Kimball listed as his sister! I was confused. How could Caroline be his sister?!  His parents had the following children: Georgiana, Gertrude, Bennie and Arthur. There had to have been some mistake.

    I went back to that 1900 census and saw that Caroline was actually a daughter of Phebie! She was 31 years old in 1900 and it made me wonder something. Did Arthur and Caroline have a thing going? Were they romantically involved? If so, why was she listed in the obit as a sister? Was she just a friend? 

    I researched Caroline and found that she was born in 1870 and despite what what was written in Arthur's obituary, I have yet to find a spouse for her. She passed away in 1961. That and she was clearly the daughter of two people who definitely weren't Austin and Evaline! Phebie was clearly her mother as the birth records in Lynn proved.

    The weirder part was yet to come. I found Arthur's grave on Find a Grave! There were a few oddities on there that made me scratch my head and yes it was a little shocking. According to the stone, Arthur was buried with the Kimball family! That's not all. Bennie was buried with them! Why? This didn't make any sense and I like things to make sense! 

Strange things are afoot at the Circle K.
    I have so many questions and shock went straight into confusion. Maybe someone reading the blog can help. The biggest question is this:

    Why was Arthur and his older brother who died at the age of one buried with the Kimballs? Were the Kimballs really good friends of the Stevens family? Stones like this really vex me. There's clearly a story here and you know how much I love a good story.

    Phebie's maiden name was apparently "Plummer" and since that's Arthur's middle name, I really wonder if they were really good friends of the Stevens because I haven't been able to find any familial connection!

    I have also checked to make sure Arthur belongs to the Stevens and Caroline belongs to the Kimballs. They might really be good friends. I'm honestly not sure. 

    Now here's a question. Where's Ida Sansouce? She was born in 1880 in Lynn.  The last record I have of her is from the 1940 US census in Lynn. She was  living with Arthur and was around fifty-nine years old. The two didn't have any children together so I'm probably not going to have any DNA matches from that line. She did have a son from a previous marriage. So, perhaps a descendant from that line could have answers! It is curious that the obituary didn't mention Ida at all, right? What if they got divorced sometime after the 1940 census? What if she died before Arthur did? There are a lot of possibilities and each one is more shocking than the last!

    Arthur's situation can be a bit shocking for some, I will admit. For me it's more confusing than anything else. Shock turned to questions that need answers and I'm likely not going to get any unless there really are descendants of Arthur and Ida that I don't know about. If so, please message me and help a cousin out.

    I am curious, though. What are your thoughts? Why are Arthur and his older brother Bennie buried with the Kimballs and not with the Stevens? What do you think the story is? Flex those creative muscles, everyone! We've got a story to write and I want it on my desk by five!

See ya next time!

Friday, October 22, 2021

52 Ancestors Week 42: Sports

From Amy Johnson Crow: The theme for Week 42 is "Sports." Sports can bring a lot of enjoyment to our families, either as participants or spectators. Any sports memorabilia get passed down? Does your family have a traditional Thanksgiving Day football game? 

Clever way to avoid copyright issues. ;) Of course we all know it's the Garden!

    It's week 42 for 52 Ancestors and the name of the game is sports! Growing up in Salem, New Hampshire meant that everyone followed all of the major professional teams from Boston and the minor league and college teams as well. We have every sport covered! If you want to watch basketball, we have the Boston Celtics. If you want to watch football, we have the New England Patriots. The list goes on and on. However, there are other sports we New Englanders take part in and they don't require you to have an amazing amount of athletic skill. Though, some muscle would help and you do need a license.

Fine vessels!

    For as long as I can remember, my family has been one with a proud maritime tradition as people on both sides of my family tree loved to fish whether it was in Italy or on the Merrimack river. Fishing is quite literally in my blood as we've always had a boat docked at Ring's Island Marina, which is right across the river from scenic Newburyport.

    I'm pretty sure I've told that story many time before in the blog. Years before my father first put his first boat, "Articulator", into the water, my mother's side was already making waves on the Merrimack. Though my great-grandparents, Austin Felker and Henrietta Legault had a home in Haverhill, Mass they too enjoyed riding their skiff on the river.

    My mother has told me about how they had a house on nearby Plum Island and from there she and her brothers and sisters would go out to the beach and toward the clam flats to dig up worms and fish for flounder. They would bring home all the flounder they could carry and have a feast fit for a king! It's sad now to think about it because these days you are limited to only ten flounder per person and they have to be within a certain size due to very sound fishing regulations. I'm not arguing with them. 

    Fishing for flounder wasn't the only thing Austin taught his grandchildren to fish for. At the mouth of the Merrimack lurks a small fish that is the true terror of the deep because it is so mind-numblingly easy to catch. Seriously. All you have to do is sit by the side of the boat, drop the line in with a hook and in minutes you'll be knee deep in mackerel. You get more if it's a clear day. The fish see one friend get caught and they all follow. No one ever said these fish went to school, guys. Wow, I can hear your boos. Your boos gives me strength! 

Master anglers!
    While fishing at the mouth can be entertaining, it's not without its dangers. Remember that blog about how Austin and Henrietta's skiff hit that Coast Guard boat? Read about it here. That's only the tip of the iceberg. The waters where the Atlantic meets the river can be quite treacherous if you're not careful. Even my father, a seasoned sailor, had to contend with choppy waters! I even once saw a guy on a kayak at the mouth. He was either living his best life or was looking for some "adventure".

    The waves and wakes of other boats tend to add to the challenge of catching a fish as my great-grandparents found out the day they were saved. Don't worry. They both survived. I will say that it's interesting that neither my mother nor her five other siblings ever heard of that story! I guess they kept it under wraps until their great-grandson reeled the information up from the bottom of the Newburyport Library Archive. Whoops! Sorry, Austin and Henrietta! I was just curious!! I'm sure you were both hardy sailors!

    Fishing with the Felkers also brought the whole family together. Not just my mother and her siblings were out there on the water. Taking part in the fishing expeditions was usually several of their cousins and they would spend the night at their grandparents' house on Plum Island before fishing in the morning.  This was in the 1960s and chances were very good that they used the same skiff that was involved in the accident some thirty years prior. What can I say? They built ships to last in those days. I wish I had a picture of the skiff.

Rocking a Darkwing Duck shirt with my dog. 
What?
    We do have plenty of pictures of the "Articulator" and all of the ships to bear the name "Enterprise"....I mean "Toothfairy". Fishing brought a lot of enjoyment to me and my family for a long time and it's good to know that it's in my blood because I love fishing. It's also not just the Felkers who fished because you can bet my grandpa Hamel would also be on the Merrimack as well as family from my father's side.

    Fishing has a way of bringing people together because not only is it a sport. It's also a social activity where stories can be told, skills can be passed down and fan can be had by everyone provided you don't get seasick!

    While my family didn't have Thanksgiving Day football games or anything like that, my father still taught my brother and I the basics of fishing and I enjoyed every moment of it--mainly because I often caught more fish than my brother ever did. Let's be honest. That's the only reason I loved fishing! Yeah, we got a little competitive on the deck. Haha! Still, it's great to be part of a fishing tradition that spanned several decades. 

See ya next time!

Friday, October 15, 2021

52 Ancestors Week 41: Changes

From Amy Johnson Crow: The theme for Week 41 is "Changes." They say life is change. Think about the changes that your ancestors saw during their lifetime. (I think about my grandmother who went from using a horse and wagon to seeing Neil Armstrong step foot on the moon.)

Ch-Ch-Changes.....

    Last August, I wrote a blog about how an ancestor of mine would have viewed the changes in Haverhill since he lived in the 1600s. Check out the blog here as I talked about how a riverside village became one of New England's most diverse communities. A lot can happen in several hundred years! This week, I think it might be a good idea to focus on something a bit more recent. So, let's narrow down the time scale a bit and see how Haverhill and Newburyport changed from my grandparents' points of view. We all know about the huge world-changing events of the 20th and early 21st centuries. What about the subtle changes they experienced? How would that have impacted their lives?

Robert and Natalie Hamel.
    When I think about how times changed for me in my forty plus years of existence, it's really only a drop in the bucket when I compare it to the lifetime my grandparents all lived. True a lot has changed in forty years. But, think about this. My grandfather Robert Hamel lived to his nineties. Can you imagine how many things changed for him? He even had his own e-mail address! Granted his computer wasn't exactly a state of the art Apple or Windows computer. It just had one function: e-mail. It was as bare-bones as you could get! Hey. He liked it and that's what matters. At least he probably got way less spam than I did.

    I digress. He was born in 1920s Newburyport and at the time it was a bustling hub of activity. Nestled at the mouth of the Merrimack river, Newburyport was an important hub for goods shipped from up the river from mills in Haverhill, Lawrence, Lowell and Methuen. The mills didn't rise overnight. However, they did help boost the economy even if the river itself became horribly polluted.

    

    In his day, the city reeled a bit from the Great Depression much like Haverhill did. Wages were down and to make ends meet many people ended up working in those mills or had their own shops like Robert's father Alfred had. Walking around Newburyport, I can sometimes imagine what it must have been like for him as a child growing up in the city because little actually changed atmosphere-wise. I'll get to the reason why in a bit. Even though there are obviously no gleaming skyscrapers like you'd see in Boston, changes took place here as well.

The Merrimack on a good day.
    At the mouth of the river was a US Coast Guard station. I don't remember ever being there personally because it was long gone by the time I came around. But, my grandfather and my mother always told me how much of an important post it was. I can tell you from personal experience that the mouth can get extremely choppy. I've bumped my head more than a few times. That's why you always need to wear a life jacket and hang on for dear life! It still didn't stop speedboats, though. These days, the Coast Guard station is around Water Street in Newburyport as they moved further inland. There was even a lighthouse at the mouth that eventually became a restaurant. 

    That's not all that changed. Newburyport once had a railroad bridge connecting the city to the town across the river, Salisbury. By the time I was growing up, the bridge had long since fell into disuse because a drawbridge for vehicles was constructed nearby. It was that same bridge I used to walk over the river from the marina to go to the historic downtown area where the shops were located.

    Speaking of the downtown area, you can bet there was a lot of urban renewal even when my mother was living there in the 1950s and 1960s. Historic buildings were removed or replaced. Some were actually redone to look like they once did in the 1920s and 1930s. That's pretty impressive because as the world changed around the city, some things remined the same. Many people worked hard to keep that aesthetic alive and you can definitely feel like you're back in time if you walk around downtown Newburyport today.

    As time marched on, the city eventually grew and though the mills of Robert's youth were long gone, the city still thrived on tourism in the form of whale watching, town houses you could rent on nearby Plum Island and other ventures. Like Lawrence and other mill towns, the factories themselves eventually became apartment buildings and office parks. Had he seen Newburyport in his later years, I'm pretty sure he'd be impressed with how much the city changed because now it's easier to get from point a to point b. The only thing is, I think he'd be disheartened to learn that the house he grew up in was torn down because of the rampant urban renewal projects. Luckily, his grandparents' house still stands on Bromfield street!

    Despite Robert's home being lost to time, he handled the changes in Newburyport pretty well as he moved around a lot thanks to his duties in the US Air Force. Regardless of all the advancements and urban renewal, he still called the city home. My only regret is that he never got a chance to visit Newburyport again. He often spoke fondly of the city and New England itself. I suppose he was never really overly shocked about the changes because he readily accepted change and that's a good thing! Change can be hard for people and he took it in stride.

Marco and Ollie
    What happened in Newburyport also happened in Haverhill, too. My grandparents, Marco Ferraiolo and Olympia Carrabs saw many rundown buildings get revamped over time. To go along with all the renewal, they saw firsthand the rise of the Italian-American neighborhoods. Many of their family members, distant cousins and friends settled in Haverhill along with people from all over Italy forming a neighborhood much like the Little Italy that emerged in Boston and New York City.

    Marco's story, of course, is a little different from Ollie's because he immigrated in 1929 and she was born in Haverhill in 1920 to Italian immigrants. Despite that subtle difference, they made it work and still shared a similar experience.

    They saw Italians become an important fixture in life in Haverhill despite there being anti-Italian sentiment during World War II and into the 1960s. Despite the prejudices, important businesses began to thrive such as Marco's great-uncle Giovanni Coppola's grocery store. The Coppola family didn't just leave an indelible mark with just a grocery store, though. Nope. Giovanni's son, Frank, founded the Coppola bus company in Haverhill in 1936 and remained in business until parts of it were sold in 1984 and in 2004. The Coppola buses, however, still run with his name on them.

    Banking in Haverhill also changed during their lifetime as Ollie's father, Giuseppe was a founding member of the Haverhill Italian-American Credit Union. The union made it possible for Italians in the neighborhoods to have the money they needed to support their family. I often wonder if my great-grandfather Vincenzo benefited from the union since he moved around Haverhill quite a bit as evidenced by the 1930 and 1940 census.

Great subs here! Seriously!
    So, how did all of this impact their lives?  Well, having a lot of Italians around meant that they were never truly far from the culture of the mother country. Yes. Many people came to Haverhill from all over Italy not just Gesualdo and San Pietro a Maida. However, there's a certain culture that unites them whether they came from Milan or Sicily. There's just this bond that unites them all. Having a neighborhood or two of immigrants sharing similar experiences can unify a community and make them feel more at ease. Especially when the world seemed to be against them.

 
    Witnessing the rise of Italian neighborhoods in Haverhill was Natalie Felker, my other grandmother. She was a daughter of Austin Felker and Henrietta Legault. By all accounts, they were pretty accepting of Italians showing up and didn't really seem to mind the changes taking place in the city of Haverhill. This might be because Henrietta herself was the daughter of two French-Canadian immigrants who came to Haverhill around the same time the first Italians moved in in the 1870s. There was no culture clash as they were basically in the same boat if you think about it. Life went on as it usually did. However, if you think about it. the Felkers were witnessing the birth of what Haverhill was about to become--a city home to many cultures from all over the world. Was it scary? Probably. 

    Change can be a scary thing. In this case, many immigrants came in and created Italian neighborhoods in Haverhill and French quarters in Newburyport. Life changed drastically for people whose ancestors lived in those cities for centuries. Eventually, they had to learn to live and work together in harmony. Today, the cities take the lessons of the past and apply them to present-day immigrants. 

Change can also be good. Without change, the Merrimack river would still be polluted. Without it, people from various cultures wouldn't call the cities home. To evolve as a culture, one has to change. It may be scary. But, if you find common ground anything is possible. Like the song says....

 "Time can change me, but you can't change time."

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.

Images of Google Earth are property of Google Earth.

Friday, October 8, 2021

52 Ancestors Week 40: Preservation

 From Amy Johnson Crow: The theme for Week 40 is "Preservation." Not only is October Family History Month in the US, it's also Archives Month. What artifact or story are you working to preserve? Of course, there are other things that can be preserved, like food. Be creative with this theme!

The comic is in near-mint condition, actually...

    Preserving things is important and as a comic collector I've preserved many comic books in the most environmentally unfriendly way I could think of. I put them in plastic polybags, put a board on them and then place them in a cardboard box. Other people go that extra mile and put them in long boxes and store them someplace dry.  Preserving comics is one thing. How do you preserve things on the genealogical front?

Such an adorable baby. ;)
    In my family albums, I have many pictures like this one that I want to keep. That's me with my grandma Ollie and grandpa Marco. Aren't I adorable? The picture is the only one I have of Marco and I and as a result it's very special to me. It's probably more special than even his "Coming to America" photo with his parents, Vincenzo and Maria. I'm not saying that one isn't important. They ALL are. It's just that he died when I was four and I don't really have any memories of him and as a result pictures of me with nonno are extremely rare.

    With all that in mind, how do I preserve this photograph? The original is in a photo album on a shelf in my parents' den. It's high up so none of the elements or even furry creatures can dare get at it. It's good right where it is and the album itself is in fantastic condition. However, steps were made to take this and other photos I love into the digital age!

    When I reviewed comic books on YouTube, I would scan various comic books using our wireless Canon scanner/printer. It's a very handy device as images were beamed directly from the scanner to my computer where I would crop out the images I needed and straightened out the pages in a paint program. Believe me I straightened out a LOT of pages. Word to the wise: Always make sure you have the image straight before you push that scan button! That and scanning a hard bound trade paperback of your favorite storyline is tricky. Oh so tricky.

I'll give you one guess when this was taken.
Hint: Look at grandma Ollie's clothes!

    Of course I didn't just scan comic books back in the day. I've scanned my fair share of photographs and now they are in a special genealogy folder on my computer. In the folder, I have scans of everything from documents to photos and news articles I've found online or scanned. 

    There's quite a bit of information. How do I prevent all of it from getting lost? That's a good question. You never know when your hard drive will crash and your motherboard will just stop working. What do you do then? Luckily, I use a keychain-sized Sandisk jump drive. It's got a decent amount of space and I already use it for my Starbolts webcomic and various animations I've made. Not bad, right?

    You can also preserve the images by uploading them to your favorite genealogical website like WikiTree or family tree program. Storing images on a data cloud is a good idea, too. The possibilities are endless!

    I'm all set when it comes to saving images and making sure very important pictures and documents are saved. Remember those boxes of genealogical gold I have? Well, they're stored in dry places and sealed up much like my comic collection. Nothing can get at them and various docs and photos inside have been scanned. Preserving pictures is fun and I always keep in mind what I've learned as an avid collector of the funny pages. It's hard work and it's worth it for when relatives what it look at a various picture.

    What if the reverse happens? What if a relative of yours e-mails you a picture of your ancestors. How do you preserve that? That's easy! When I got this picture of Marco Ferraiolo and Caterina Coppola earlier this year from a cousin I saved it to my computer, uploaded it to WikiTree and saved it to my jump drive.

    If you're like me, you're going to want a physical copy of the photograph. Getting one is pretty easy. Just print it out on a piece of paper and be done with it. Yeah. You could do it that way. Or you could get really creative and have it look completely brand new! 

    When I was reviewing comics, I had a background full of classic comic book covers such as Avengers #1 and Amazing Fantasy #15. I clearly didn't have those comics. If I did, I think I would have REALLY kept those comics in mint condition!  I didn't just print them out, either.  There is a type of paper you can use which mimics a photograph. If you have enough ink, you can print out an old photograph from your computer and it will look like a real photograph guaranteed! Technology is amazing!

    These are just some of the tools you can use to preserve a document. The one thing I suggest you don't do is laminate something. You think polybags are environmentally unsafe? What about those laminated things? Avoid laminating objects like the plague. If you want to save articles, scan them and save them to your computer or cloud. There are just so many options available. You can even e-mail photos to yourself and save it in your inbox. Just change the password every once in a while.

    Genealogy in the 21st century has come a long way and it's always a good idea to adapt to the current methods of saving documents. That way things will never be lost. And if you have an object that you want to keep safe store those in a safe spot or display them in a spot where no creature can break it. Looking at you, cats of the world!

See ya next time!