52 Ancestors Week 12: Joined Together

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 12's theme is "Joined Together." Could it be a marriage? Could it be an organization? Could it be a carpenter/mason/builder? It can be whatever you make it out to be!

Care for some vino?

    Marriage is usually the first thing that comes to peoples' minds when they hear the term "joined together". That makes sense. Marriage brings two different people together in holy matrimony. Two families unite and they HOPEFULLY live happily ever after. There are, of course, other ways people can join together. Groups of immigrants can band together to form communities in another country where they all speak the same language and have the same basic values and ethnic origin. You see this happen with various "Little Italies" in places like New York and Boston. Did you know it happened elsewhere, too? There was and still is a "Little Italy" in Haverhill, Massachusetts.

La famiglia di Coppola

     During the late 1800s and into the early 1900s, the "Queen Slipper City" saw wave after wave of Italian immigrants come to the city to work in various textile mills along the banks of the Merrimack River.  The first immigrants came from the northern areas around Milan and Florence. By the early 1900s, they were coming from southern towns like San Pietro a Maida and it was all largely thanks to one man: Giovanni Coppola.

  

      Giovanni "John" Coppola was born in San Pietro a Maida in 1875 to Giovanni Coppola and Angela Suverato.  It's easy to say that he took the credit for bringing many Italians from his native San Pietro to Haverhill and there is actually quite a lot of truth to this claim. I've talked to several DNA matches on the Coppola side and they all said the same thing. John brought their family to America. At first I thought it was a coincidence. By the second and third time I heard the story, coincidence started to become fact. Evidence began to pile up thanks in part to ship manifests and one has to wonder why he did this. Why did he bring so many of his fellow villagers to Haverhill?

Definitely not some other Giovanni
Coppola.

    To understand that, you have to understand the conditions in San Pietro a Maida and Calabria at the time he was growing up. Southern Italy was suffering from great economic turmoil after Italy unified in 1861. The Italian government instituted policies which left the southern portions of Italy high and dry. Conditions were bad and this caused many Italians to leave Italy for good or to seek work and send money back home.

    John first arrived in America in 1898 when he was just twenty-two years old according to the Italians to America index.  I wish the index went into more detail because I'd have liked to have known where he went AFTER New York. Did he go to Haverhill? Where did he go? It could just be my imagination, but, perhaps he was going on a fact-finding mission. It never hurts to scout an area and look for potential work. This was smart thinking on his part! 

    We might not find the exact answer. But, he did return to San Pietro a Maida where he and his wife started a family in the late 1890s. Some time after that, he returned to America and then he sent for more than just his wife and kids. That's when the ball really started rolling!

Vincenzo Ferraiolo and Maria Tedesco.

    People like my great-grandparents Vincenzo Ferraiolo and Maria Tedesco made a beeline from San Pietro to Haverhill.  Giovanni's nephew, Vincenzo, made his first visit to America in the early 1910s when he stayed with his aunt, Concetta. He left by the decade's end, returned to America, and sent for his wife and two children by 1929.

    Giovanni even paid the fare for his first cousins, Marianna and Rosa Maria Stella. He was also instrumental in bringing over the Pallaria family as well. Wow! Is there anyone he didn't help? Well, it's important to remember that this is just one case of one man bringing over his friends and family. It couldn't have been a common occurrence. Could it?

    Oh, you bet it is a common occurrence! Let me put it like this. If you're an immigrant living in a country where you don't know the language or anyone else, you're more likely to invite people over who share your culture with you in order to stave off the loneliness. Giovanni lived in an age before the Internet. There was no instant communication with people across the ocean. Sure you could send letters to family and friends. But, it's better to have friends close by because they can help when things are rough. And if you're an immigrant things can be really rough, especially if anti-immigrant sentiment was common in your town. It was just a fact of life and sadly history tends to repeat itself.

Everyone in that pic FINALLY has a Wikitree 
profile.

    This was why "Little Italy" was formed in places like Boston and New York. People joined together because of shared heritage and culture. In the case of Haverhill, a similar neighborhood was formed. Giovanni Coppola had his grocery store on High Street. Nazarene Benedetti's family created the now famous Benedetti's Deli on Washington Street. The list goes on and the Italian community had such a huge impact on the city that it would take way too long to get into here!  If you're really curious, I would check out the book, Italians in Haverhill. It goes into great detail on how huge the impact really was. You can still feel the impact to this day as descendants of those immigrants are still in the area.

    

    While the Italian neighborhood in Haverhill may not be as prevalent as Boston's historic North End,  it still influenced my life and the community as a whole. I remember going to my grandma Ollie's house and seeing all the Italian shops in downtown Haverhill. Since my father was born there, he'd point out various buildings and talked about who owned what shop when he was a kid or who lived in what house. Most of the time my grandmother had someone over her house when we arrived. She was rarely alone! Everyone knew everyone because while they lived in the same general area, they also went to the same nearby church. They also attended festivals such as the "Feast of the Three Saints" in nearby Lawrence, Massachusetts.

La famiglia di Carrabs

    Sometimes I wonder if that was how my grandparents, Marco and Ollie met. When I look at the Haverhill city directories, I noticed how close the Carrabis and Ferraiolo houses were at one point. They were quite literally around the corner from each other! My father has never really been sure how his parents met. But, I think it's safe to say they probably met at church or at an Italian community event. I'm going to go with the latter because in all honesty it would go hand-in hand with what I've been talking about.  As I've discussed before, the Italian community looked out for each other as more and more people arrived from the "old country".

    It's important to remember that they didn't just come from San Pietro a Maida or Gesualdo. They joined together with Italians from all over Italy to create a community where everyone spoke the same language, had the same culture and needed support from their fellow countrymen. Was Giovanni Coppola the first Italian in Haverhill? Probably not. But, you really can't stress the importance of what he did for the community. Difficult circumstances caused many people to leave a land they once called home and they joined together to recreate a piece of that home in America.

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.

52 Ancestors Week 11: Flowers

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 11: Flowers

Spring isn't far off for those of us in the northern hemisphere, and with that comes thoughts of flowers — which, not coincidentally, is this week's theme! Any Roses, Daisys, or Petunias in the family? What about a family member who had a real green thumb? Be creative with this theme!

There's a zombie on your lawn.

    Spring is definitely in the air and as I type this week's blog it's a balmy 56 degrees Fahrenheit outside. It's not quite warm enough to plant flowers around the house. But, I know for a fact that my mother and many other relatives are already planning to decorate their yards with the finest flowers you can find at your local Home Depot or flower shop. My mother has a pretty good green thumb and by the end of the blog I think you'll see where she gets it from!

Man of many talents.

    Not only has my grandfather, Robert Hamel skated his way into my grandmother Natalie's heart. Not only was he a decorated staff sergeant in the US Air Force. He was a man of many hobbies. I've already discussed his love of photography at great length. What if I told you that taking pictures was just one of his many tricks of the trade? Robert Hamel was also an expert when it came to growing orchids!

    For as long as I can remember, my grandfather grew them and they seemed to flourish the most when he was living in Florida. Did the warm climate make it easier to grow them in the Sunshine State? I'm not entirely sure. As far as I can tell orchids can grow just about anywhere on North America. It's not exclusive to JUST Florida. They're everywhere! There's probably one right outside your window right now being pollinated by bees.

    I digress. My grandfather loved to talk about the orchids he was growing every chance he got. He was very proud of them and thankfully I have some pictures I'd like to share! You want to see the pretty flowers? Of course you do! Prepare yourselves for a botanical feast for your eyes! If only you could smell them through your screen. No wait. Bad idea. No one wants to smell anything through the Internet. Think of what YouTube would smell like. Gross. Let's not go there!

Gaze in wonder at the following flowers. You might want to back away from the screen in case you want to sniff. Just a warning!

Pink flowers are pink.

There they are. Fine examples of Orchidaceae, right? I wish I could tell you more about these flowers. I know next to nothing about them. In fact, I had to look up the scientific word for them. Lame, I know. Let me make it up to you.

    I remember my grandfather being very proud of his orchids. The day they bloomed made him very happy. I wish I could say that I smelled them in person or anything like that. Like I said before. He was living in Florida and was growing orchids as a hobby. I never had a chance to see them. But, he did take pictures of them and shared them with anyone and everyone. Look at them! He had every right to be proud! They were amazing! The story of how he got started growing them is about as basic as you can get.

    It all started when he and my grandmother moved to Florida in the 1990s. Grandpa saw some seeds in a grocery store and decided to give growing them a try. Why not? What's the worst that could happen? He was retired and needed something to occupy his time. So, he and my grandmother took the seeds home and in no time at all one plant became so many that it took up an entire room in his house! That room was known as the "orchid room" up until he passed away in 2017.

At least we're not flytraps?

    From another angle the same flowers look like they could be featured in a botanical magazine. The only thing is that now they look purplish in the light. I didn't edit anything, I swear! These are untouched photographs. I feel like they should have watermarks on them or something.

    The photos were taken by my grandfather and I don't know if he took them with a special filter or anything. They just look so spectacular. I'm surprised he never submitted them to a botanical magazine or something because I'm sure they'd love them!

    Growing plants is a great hobby and my grandfather was clearly good at it. I'm not sure what exactly drew him to orchids. Maybe it was the color? I mean they seemed to look pink in one picture and suddenly they look purplish. They are nice to look at, aren't they? I wonder if caring for them took as much skill because they look kind of delicate. Probably! I hope you all liked the flowers!

See ya next time!

52 Ancestors Week 10: Worship

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Religion played an important role in the lives of many of our ancestors. Write about how a person's faith impacted their life, how an ancestor was involved with their church, or a discovery you've made in church records.

Going to the Chapel of Love....

   

 The topic of religion, like politics, is a minefield you have to be careful to cross on the Internet. It's one of those topics where if you say the wrong thing, it can be taken the wrong way. The other topics are of course: politics, child-rearing and fandoms. ESPECIALLY FANDOMS! With that in mind, I'm going to go a different route and talk about some cool things I've found over on Ancestry.

    As you may or may not know, I come from a predominantly Catholic family. Shocking, I know. My dad's side is entirely Catholic and my mom's side is too for the most part. I don't really consider myself a practicing Catholic even though I've gone to an Augustinian college. The nuns there were pretty cool and no I didn't find myself on the business end of one of their rulers. It was a yardstick. Church was more or less an option growing up. We'd go for funerals and weddings. That was about it. My ancestors on the other hand were all about the church and lately some of those records were popping up as hints on Ancestry.

    Take my great-grandmother, Henrietta Legault for example. Recently a hint for her showed up on Ancestry and I thought it would be worth checking out. Most hints are. The hint was in the "Massachusetts, U.S., Boston Archdiocese Roman Catholic Sacramental Records from 1789 to 1920" directory. The record, despite not having a scan or anything attached, appeared to be Henrietta's baptismal record when she was baptized in Lynn, Massachusetts.

    Henrietta was born on November 20th, 1892 to Antoine Legault and Lucie Cadran in the city of Lynn. That wasn't news. What was interesting and worth noting was that she was apparently baptized the same day she was born.

    It was a bit of a surprise for me to find that because I thought the practice of baptizing a baby on the day of their birth normally occurred in Italy and in Quebec. It happened in America? Who knew? You learn something new every day! My initial reaction was that it was pretty cool and probably a timesaver if you think about it. I jest. Finding the record of her baptism also gave me a clue as to what her birth name was according to the church.

    Henrietta was baptized Francoise Henriette Legault on November 20th, 1892. This was a bit of a revelation for me because my mother always knew her as Henrietta Frances. In life, she more than likely went by that name and on various censuses she was known even as "Hattie." "Hattie" is of course a nickname for Henrietta. 

    I also thought this document was interesting in that it gave me yet another spelling for the last name "Cadran". I swear that last name seems to have no definitive spelling. Just today I had to edit some Cadrin profiles on Wikitree to "Catrin".  I think I'm up to at least half a dozen spellings for that name. The quest for the definitive spelling will have to wait for another day.

    Unfortunately, the actual scan of the document is behind a paywall on AmericanAncestors.org. That's not too big of an issue because I'm sure there are other ways to finding the record. Aside from paying for a subscription, I could always go down to Lynn and look for the church records myself. It's not that far and it could be worth the adventure now that Covid restrictions are being lifted nationwide.

50th in 1963. So many things in
pop culture happened that year.

    It really shouldn't surprise anyone that my French-Canadian side is very Catholic. After all Henrietta's grandmother, my 3rd great-grandmother, Marie Eulalie Bibeau was heavily involved with the French-Canadian community in Haverhill and that included the church.  I don't like putting words in anyones' mouths but I am pretty sure she was excited to find out that her granddaughter was baptized the same day she was born.

    While the discovery confirmed a few things for me, new questions started to emerge. For example, when Henrietta married Austin in 1913, did they have a Catholic ceremony? To answer that question, one would only have to look at the marriage certificate to find that they were married by a Justice of the Peace.

    That's pretty interesting in and of itself. But, of course it led to more questions. Austin never converted to Catholicism. So, I wonder.... Did they eventually get married in a church? There were several Catholic churches in Haverhill at the time and many are still standing like the All Saints Church, the church my grandma Ollie attended.

    Grandma Ollie's sacramental record was another one I found. For some reason these records from Haverhill were popping out of the woodwork. I'm not sure why. I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth, either! These records are great!

    Being born in 1920, her record was near the end of the archive. However, unlike Henrietta's there was a slight discrepancies I noticed. The document said she was born in Chelsea when she was definitely born in Haverhill. That might have been where the baptism took place. Her parents were also listed.

    Regardless, I found it and I bet I could find the actual document by either paying for it OR by looking for it somewhere in the archdiocese.  In this case, it might be easier to get it from American Ancestors.

    I've been finding that sacramental records have been helpful in not only understanding their faiths with they were born but those of their parents as well. Of course this is old news to me. But, if you were just researching the families in my tree, you'd find many Catholics and after I added those sources to the tree, I began to get records for others like my grandmothers' sisters. The records also helped to identify where they eventually went to church on Sundays. That's always helpful. I knew my grandmother attended mass at All Saints and so did her sisters. 

    So, if you have Catholic ancestors in Massachusetts I suggest you make use of the great resource. It's not a bad research tool and it's good to see Ancestry work with AmericanAncestors on such a great research project because it helps someone like me who has an overwhelming amount of Catholic ancestors and someone who's just interested in researching Catholics. Check out the sites and see what you can find.

  

    It should be noted that sometimes the documents may be in Latin. You might get the Latin names of the person. But, usually you'll get the anglicized or the Italian/French name of the person you are looking for. And it's also important to keep in mind that the Latin name wouldn't necessarily be the name they used in life. It's the same with Italy and Quebec. They'd use the name on their civic record.

Have fun digging and I'll see ya next time!    

52 Ancestors Week 9: Females

 From Amy Johnson Crow: The theme for Week 9 and for March is "Females." March is Women's History Month. What better time to write or record someone about one of your female ancestors!

Look who's pretty in pink.

     I wonder when the color pink became associated with females. I'll have to look it up. Anyway! March is indeed Women's History Month and what better way to kick things off than with a blog all about the ladies in our tree. They could skate their way into your heart like my grandmother did last week for my grandfather. OR they could be a strong woman handling a bunch of kids by herself like my 2nd great-grandmother, Lucie Cadran. I have a very eclectic group of ladies in my tree and it's hard for me to pick just one of them to talk about sometimes because they are all pretty strong and awesome! So, I'm going to do things a bit differently this week. This week I intend to blow some minds. Did you know that in Europe most women keep their maiden names when they get married?

Mmmm...Fancy mid 19th century penmanship.

    It's true! It's a centuries-old practice that predates any feminist movement. Take a look at this recently discovered birth document for my 3rd great-grandmother, Angela Gatto for example. Angela was born on March 7th, 1856 in the Calabrian town of San Pietro a Maida to laborer Antonio Gatto and his wife, Maria Ciancio. 

     In Italy, it was very common for a woman to keep her maiden name after she got married. The same could actually be said for Quebec and predominately Catholic countries like Mexico and Argentina. The only notable exception is Spain since they often hyphenate last names (derived from BOTH parents) or use the letter "y". For example someone could be named Maria Francesca Rodriguez y Lopez". It's important to keep this in mind when you research roots in those places. I wish could say it makes things easier to research because it doesn't necessarily put genealogy into "easy mode" all of the time. All it is is a useful tip to finding the mother's birth. I say this because you might find a LOT of "Maria Ciancios" in town.  Look at the birth document again. Do you see the word "ventisei" after her name? That's her age. Maria was twenty-six when she gave birth to Angela.

    Based on her age we can deduce that Maria was born sometime in either 1829 or 1830. All you would have to do now is check the births in town for those years to see if your hunch is correct. There are some caveats, though. She might have embellished her age at the time of her daughter's birth so she might be older or younger than she said the day her husband presented the baby to the people at the commune office. It's a hunch and sometimes it's a good one. You just need to do some digging. She may not even be born in that town. It's a gamble. But, it's odds I am comfortable playing. Never tell me the odds! 

    Later documents sometimes have her father's name if you're lucky. You might be better off looking at marriages because you would find the names of all four parents and if they were living at the time of the wedding. However, birth documents like the one above can still bear delicious fruit and can help you on your genealogical adventure.

She died two years after I graduated high school.
I wish I could've met her. =(

    The practice continues to this very day. When you look at this stone for Angela's granddaughter, Caterina Tedesco, you will see her maiden name carved into the marble. At first glance you might think she never got married. That is not the case here because she married a man named Francesco Papatolo. I know this because I have talked to cousins who descend from the couple and when I send a card via snail mail, I make sure to always use the maiden name of the person I send the card to as well as my cousin's name. It's just polite.

    This isn't to say EVERY Italian woman you meet is going to have their maiden name. There are exceptions and these days Italy gives women an option to take their husband's name if they so desire. Most don't. Most even keep their maiden names if they go to another country on Europe. It really depends. Okay. That takes care of Europe. But, what if an Italian woman goes to America?

Vincenzo Ferraiolo and Maria Tedesco

    The answer here is quite simple. Let's look at Caterina's sister, my great-grandmother Maria. She married Vincenzo Ferraiolo in Italy, right? Yes. It happened in 1921. Eight years later she got on a boat with her two kids and set sail for America. When she landed, she decided to take her husband's last name and that was the end of it.

    If you were to research her in America, you would probably have better luck looking for her as "Maria Ferraiolo" rather than "Maria Tedesco". In a way, that makes things a little bit easier because the last name "Tedesco" is just so incredibly common like "Coppola".

    That's all well and good and everything. But, you might be wondering why this practice of keeping the maiden name is in use. I've found that there are several reasons and are very valid! Check it out:

1. They see no reason to change their name, much like men often see no reason to change theirs.

2. Objection to the one-sidedness of this tradition.

3. Being the last member of their family with that surname.

4. To avoid the hassle of paperwork related to their change of name.

5. Wishing to retain their identity.

6. Preferring their last name to their spouse's last name.

7.To avoid professional ramifications.

    A lot of these might seem like relatively modern reasons for choosing to keep the maiden name. If we go back to Italy in the 1850s, the reasons might change just a little bit. The name of her father could hold a special meaning to her. There could be other women in the village with the same last name and doing this could ease confusion.  It could also have something to do with tradition. Remember Italy at the time was not unified and though many customs changed since unification in 1861 some remain the same.

    I remember having this discussion with my friends in WikiTree's Italy Project and it's one of the many inspirations for creating this blog entry. We never really figured out the origin of this practice. Does it really matter? In the long run, it doesn't. We all decided it's a helpful bit of information for when you research in Italy or most other predominately Catholic countries. To learn more, check out this Wikipedia article.

    I personally like the practice because while it may seem like genealogy is put on "easy mode", there's still a challenge in finding her parents. I haven't found Maria Cianco's parents yet and I'm sure I will some day. They're out there just waiting to be found! I'm going to keep searching and I hope everyone learned something from this week's blog!

See ya next time!