52 Ancestors Week 30: Teams

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 30

This week's theme is "Teams." Did any ancestors play on a team (or root for one)? Don't forget about teams at work. There are also teams of horses and oxen. Let your imagine run!

I think you know where this week's going....

  Parish has the ball at the top of the key! The Lakers' defense has left McHale wide open! Parish passes to McHale just as Magic covers Bird! Parish passes to Bird after seeing an opening! Johnson fell for the fake pass to Ainge and Bird goes for THREE AT THE BUZZER! YES!!! The Celtics win the NBA Finals!!

Behold the new hotness! The old net rusted away
Years of snowstorms will do that to ya. Replace
your nets!

    For as long as I can remember I've been a fan of the Boston Celtics from the golden age of Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish to the age of Dee Brown, Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce to the athletes of the present day. It really can't be helped. New England is Celtics Nation! It's also Red Sox, Bruins, Patriots and Revolution Nation. However, it's the Celtics that I stuck with. Out of all those sports, basketball is the only one I am sort of decent at! Soccer is a runner up, though! And you really can't go wrong with running!

    While I was growing up, my brother, father and I would play basketball in our driveway and our father would watch us reenact several great moments in then recent Celtics history. For example, we'd reenact the plays we just saw on NESN (The New England Sports Network.) Hey. It beats reenacting some stupid stunt from a movie, right? Don't try this at home, indeed! 

      Through my father and my brother, I learned how to play the game and even though I was never that great at free-throws, I did okay. Lay-ups is where I fail spectacularly. I...may have hit Jim on the head a few times with the ball. Whoops. Good thing I didn't play dodgeball with him!

     It didn't seem to matter in my family if we were good at the game or not as long as we were outside. Jim was good, though. Still is! Though, we did have several basketball related Sega Genesis games to occupy our time on rainy/snowy days. One of the games was even called  "Lakers vs. Celtics and the NBA Playoffs"! There's a storied rivalry between those two coastal teams and frankly it'd take WAY too long to explain. Look it up. It's all I can say!

We got this at a Boys Club auction!

    My father often took Jim to the mecca of professional sports in Boston whenever he managed to score tickets to a game. Back then the Celts were playing at the famous Boston Garden and Jim got to see the Celtics play live while I stayed home. It was okay. I was still young and probably wouldn't have remembered the games like Jim does now. I did get to hear about it the next day.....and for several weeks after the fact!

    All wasn't completely lost because eventually we DID go to a Celtics game and I remember the event quite well! I forget who was playing the Celtics. But, it was an enjoyable experience for everyone. The first time I ever went to the Garden was in the '90s/early 2000s when the Boston Garden was replaced with the FleetCenter. (The FleetCenter eventually became the TD Banknorth Garden in 2005.)

    While that first time was fun and everything, it paled in comparison to the trip my entire family took with my sister-in-law, Kathleen.

Jim's Celtics memorabilia and yes that's a piece
of the old Boston Garden.

        It all started in the early 2000s and I think Jim was engaged to Kathleen at that point. It had to have been just before the wedding because I remember them talking about various plans here and there. I was also asked to do the "Godfather wedding speech" for the rehearsal dinner. But, that's a story for another time.

    After my father bought tickets to the game, we drove to Medford, Mass and boarded the commuter rail at North Station.  In no time at all we were at the Fleetcenter and we had some time to kill before the game. We were all kind of hungry and we didn't feel like having any of the food at the concession stand. So, what did we do?

    Why we had fine dining at the restaurant known as McDonalds. Tired of salty oversized and overpriced pretzels? Not a fan of those hot dogs made of mystery meat? Have some McDonalds, instead! Yeah. Given the options McDonalds seemed like the best bet. While everything else was gross, it really is the lesser of two evils. Your stomach will thank you later! (This advertisement is paid for by McDonalds.)

    On our way to the seats, we stopped by this small museum in the stadium which housed memorabilia from Celtics greats like Larry Bird. There was even a small section dedicated to Reggie Lewis who left an impact on the NBA and died quite tragically in 1993. We saved articles about Reggie and I think we still have a few. He was a great athlete and was truly one of the Celtics' greatest players. 

    After we were sufficiently fed, we sat down and watched the game along with the thousands of screaming Celtics fans. One guy even had his hair and moustache cut to look exactly like Larry Bird! That, my friends, is Comic Con levels of dedication. He seemed pretty nice, too. He didn't seem to mind being called "Larry" and I wondered if that was really his name. If that were true, it'd be an amazing coincidence.

    I don't really remember who won the game. Does it matter? Well, it was an exhibition game and not a playoff game. So....Make of that what you will. All that really mattered was that we went as a family and hey we all wore matching green fleece sweaters with Celtics logos on them. I'm the only one who still wears his! It still fits and it's so comfortable in the winter!

        Going to the game as a family is something I'll always remember. We had a lot of fun and even though it was a bit noisy we had a great time. That's really what it's all about. If you're with friends or family at a sporting event or any event for that matter it'll be something you will always remember! In fact, just a few months ago, the cycle began anew as Jim took his oldest son to a Celtics playoff game against the Golden State Warriors. Yeah, that kid's gonna be remembering the excitement for years to come.

    The Celtics have always been one of my favorite teams growing up and it was so great seeing them live with my parents and my entire family. Can't really ask for more! Go Celts!

We clearly didn't have as much fun as this guy! See ya next time!

52 Ancestors Week 29: Fun Fact

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 29

This week's theme is "Fun Fact." Not everything in family history has to be serious. This week, think of something fun you've found during your research.

That Jokerman font just screams "fun" doesn't it?

    A wise YouTuber genealogist once said "If you aren't having fun doing genealogy, you're doing it wrong!". That genealogist's name is Devon Noel Lee and she makes a great point. It isn't all just data entry, you know. There's finding fun information, pictures, DNA matches and anything else you can think of! You should definitely check out her and her husband's stuff on their YouTube channel here. 

    As for me, I like to have fun in my research, too, as evidenced by my blogs. Sure I can be serious sometimes. But, in the end it's best to have fun while doing something you like. Crack a joke here and there and share what you find with a friend, family member or fellow genealogist.  If you show someone you're excited about something, chances are they'll be excited too. Or....possibly call the men with the white coats on you. With that in mind, I want to talk about something fun that happened a few weeks ago!

The wedding of Domenico and
Mary Rose.

    My great-aunt, father and I have several DNA matches who descend from a man named Domenico Pallaria. Domenico, like my great-aunt Nicolina, was born in San Pietro a Maida and was the son of Domenico Pallaria and Maria Azzarito. Domenico married Mary Rose Giampa in the city of Haverhill in 1923 and to make a long story short she descends from the same unknown Coppolas who are the parents of my third great-grandfather, Paolo Coppola.

    Ever since I saw Domenico's grandson Domenic as a DNA match, we'd talk via e-mail and exchange information about our families. I was surprised to learn that his family still lived in the Bay state for the most part. So, we exchanged trees and he told me all about his tree and the information he had. I compared it with my tree and for the most part it gelled pretty well. There wasn't any real complaints and that's really what you want when dealing with a DNA match. Well, aside from a reply or two. That would be nice wouldn't it? At least Domenic was very animable and he seemed like a cool guy. Plus his father was still around and he was very helpful! 

    Basically, our conversations all dealt with how interconnected the Italian community in Haverhill was (And to an extent still is.). I mentioned the "Italians in Haverhill" book to Domenic and he said that I was more than likely connected to half of the people in that book! He's not wrong.  To date I am connected to over fifty people in that book via DNA matches and dozens more via marriages. That little book has certainly helped me find so many connections! That's why I made a study of it on WikiTree!

A small sample.

    As time went by, we got to know each other a little more and he suggested talking to me on the phone. I wasn't hesitant, really, as I've talked to other DNA matches on platforms like Skype and Facebook messenger. Domenic initially wanted me to use WhatsApp so we could talk with relatives in Italy. The problem was that it never worked and we had to try another means of communication.

    So, we went with the tried and true phone method and after a slight hiccup, I received a call from Domenic. As I imagined, Dom was a very nice guy and we talked a bit about San Pietro and the people there. He told me how he was a regular visitor to the town much like how my great-aunt was back in the day.

    We continued to talk and he told me something interesting. There is apparently a tavern in San Pietro owned by someone with my last name "Ferraiolo". He thought it was important to share it with me and of course I had no idea who he was. It would be interesting to find out how he is connected to me. The owner's name is Leonardo Ferraiolo and there may be a connection as my second great-grandfather, Marco, likely had siblings who stayed in the area. As he was telling me about the bar and everything, the gears started rolling in my head. I needed to ask him more questions while I had him on the phone.

And ask I did!

        A while back, Domenic had sent me a tree which was very Pallaria oriented since one of his relatives made it. I asked him if anyone was able to help find the Coppola connections. I did have two Coppolas who needed names and I was hoping he could help me out. But, first I wanted to show him some of the research I had done.

Domenico

    I had found the 1859 birth of Domenico Pallaria which confirmed much of the tree his cousin worked on. This Domenico was the father of the Domenico who went to Haverhill and married Mary Rose Giampa.  With all these Domenicos, it gets a little confusing. I hope no one is lost!

    Anyway, he was very impressed with what I found. I told him I would appreciate any help in finding the identities of the missing Coppolas. He said he would definitely help me out as he knew some people who knew some people. Here's hoping he finds something. I definitely have faith in him!

    I had also sent him the birth of Marianna Stella and a few other odds and ends. Dom seemed to be very grateful and I hope that he and the family in San Pietro can find the information. I'd be very grateful as well. Marianna was the sister of Rose Stella who was the mother of  Mary Rose. Like I said before. So many connections in Haverhill. I think I need a scorecard at this point. Or at least a well sourced family tree!

    So, I guess my fun fact is that aside from the bar in San Pietro with the Ferraiolo owner, I have a cousin who is going to go the extra mile to find what he can about the Coppolas. I appreciate any and all help I can get on this one because I am stumped. I had told him that I needed a lot of eyes on this because Coppola is a very common last name. Here's hoping he and others find the information I need and soon! 

See ya next time!

52 Ancestors Week 28: Characters

From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 28:

The theme for Week 28 is "Characters." Every family has a person who might be described as a "character." But that's not the only way you might interpret this theme. What about someone named for a famous character, working through a language that uses characters other than what you're used to, or deciphering a character on a tombstone? Be creative and have fun!

The character banner is too good to not use again.

        When I first started looking at Italian documents, I started to notice something strange. It wasn't so much the language itself. I knew some basic Italian and I knew it was a Latin based romance language like Spanish, French and Portuguese. Still, some letters looked kind of odd to me and I later found out that the modern Italian alphabet was very different from what I've been used to as a non native speaker.

Sometimes I've even seen "Ferriolo".

    Take this birth document for my 4th great-grandfather, Marcantonio Ferraiolo for example. Notice anything different about the last name of his father? If you take a closer look, you will see that the last name is spelled "Ferrajolo". That's pretty odd, right. You'd think people in 1812 would know how to spell the last name "Ferraiolo". However, here's the thing. This is going to blow your mind. In those days the letters "i" and "j" were interchangeable! DUN DUN DUNNN!

    It's true! Earlier Italian used the "i"s and the "j"s interchangeably in various dialects. It's something to keep in mind when you're looking at documents from the 1800s and earlier. Language evolves over time. Even English. How many new words have we added to Webster's Dictionary in the last twenty years? I've lost count. This is definitely something you have to keep in mind when you're transcribing an Italian document. This is only the tip of the iceberg. Italian has so many variations. It might be a good idea to keep a character sheet around just in case things get complicated!

    Good thing the FamilySearch Wiki has one. I'll be relying on it a lot this week. Eventually, I did end up seeing the letter "i" in "Ferraiolo" and in other last names. However, as I moved forward in time I started to pick up on a few things. Certain letters disappeared because the modern Italian alphabet was taking shape.

Caffefe?!

    It's honestly hard to pinpoint when exactly the change occurred. Blink and you'll miss it on various documents. In modern times, the Italian alphabet has no "J", "K", "W" or "Y". You won't find them on many Italian documents and yet towns like Jacurso clearly kept the "J" in their name. You can see that on various documents and official websites.

    Various documents can also make the letter "f" look like an "s" if it's not capitalized. I've actually seen that happen on birth documents like the one for my third great-grandfather, Tommaso Tedesco. His mother was Cecilia Cassese even though it looks like "Caffefe" in the document. When I got the birth document from the commune office, they used the more modern spelling of the name. Interesting, huh? Tommaso was born in 1850. So, things haven't modernized quite yet as the language was still evolving into the Italian we all know and love today.

    My friends in the Italy Project on WikiTree have also noticed various other changes here and there. Sometimes a capital "R" when there should be a "b". The letter "D" sometimes would have the stick curl back in on itself, almost making the "@" symbol.

Now I know my ABCs

    Transcribing Italian documents can be tricky and it's important to note these things just in case you want to venture into the wild world of Italian genealogy. Hopefully, this will allow for easier transcriptions because I have found some serious errors in transcribing things. It's no one's fault. Sometimes people can be in a hurry and don't see things everyone else does. That's where collaborative genealogy comes in. If I have trouble reading something, I can always ask a friend for help. Genealogy isn't an individual hobby. You can always get by with a little help from your friends.

    One last thing before I end the blog. While certain letters are missing in the Italian alphabet, Italians do write the "missing" letters. For example, I have a friend who was born in Worb. They would write the town's name even though there is no "w". Same thing with the town of Jacurso that I mentioned earlier. So, when you look at the old timey documents, it's a good idea to keep in mind that these are definitely not misspellings. That's just how things were written back in the day!

    Languages change over time. Look at American English. We use "color" in America as opposed to "colour" in the UK and other English speaking countries.  Rules of grammar evolve depending on the country and it's only natural that Italian does as well. So, the next time you want to look at an Italian document, keep these in mind. You never know what surprises you might find!

See ya next time!

Note: Worb isn't actually in Italy. Worb is in Switzerland.

    

52 Ancestors Week 27: Extended Family

 From Amy Johnson Crow: The theme for Week 27 is "Extended Family." We often focus on those people from whom we descend. But what about their siblings, aunts, uncles, and cousins? They played a role in our ancestors' lives, just like those people play a role in our own lives. This is a good week to explore the lives of these other people in the family tree.

Never go against the family....

    Let's face it. Writing about my extended family would take a long, long time. I have eight first cousins. My mother has over fifty and my father has six. Yeah, we'd be here a while talking about everyone wouldn't we? Why don't we pare the list down some?  A few months ago, I wrote a blog about an adventure I had with my great-aunt Louise. For more details check the blog out! It's a fun read! 

    What do you say we now turn our attention to one of my other great-aunts? What do you say we talk about my grandpa Marco's sister, Nicolina Caterina Ferraiolo? She turned ninety-nine this year and so this is as good a time as any to write about her, right? Right! Spoilers: You're going to see the name "Caterina" a lot in this week's blog.

Nicolina's in front of her
dad.

    Nicolina was born in the Calabrian town of San Pietro a Maida to Vincenzo Ferraiolo and Maria Tedesco in 1923. She was named after a brother of Vincenzo's who tragically died while trying to save the boyfriend of one of his sisters. His name was Nicola Ferraiolo and I don't really know much about him save for a few odds and ends my cousin Caterina told me about. From what I've been told, the young man dove into a river trying to save the boyfriend and perished in the attempt. The event was so sad that many family members in San Pietro took the name "Nicola" to honor his memory.

    Fast forward to March of 1929 and Nicolina set sail to America with her younger brother, Marco and her mother aboard the Roma. A week or so later they arrived in New York and eventually they made their way to Haverhill, Massachusetts. Like my grandfather, she did okay in Haverhill as she had many of her cousins around and her great-aunt, Concetta, who she and Marco liked to call "Aunt Zia". Side note: You want to talk about an extended family? My great-aunt and grandfather had so many cousins I'm still trying to find them all! Many of them lived in Haverhill! They descend from Concetta and her brothers, Giovanni and Paolo.

        By the 1940s, things started to change. America plunged headlong into the second World War and while both grandfathers served their country, Aunt Nickie also served!

Agent Ferraiolo?

    I don't think she was anything like Agent Peggy Carter from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, she did serve in a veteran's hospital in Tennessee.  She worked in the orthopedic braces and artificial limbs department. Nicolina sewed the heavy fabric and the thick leather used at that time to make the braces for the veterans. That was where she met and eventually married a man named Walter Jans. He was the department's chief. The two were married July of 1945 and they ended up staying in Tennessee while the rest of the family was in the Bay State. 

    Walter and Nicole started a family there and she still strived to keep in contact with everyone via phone calls and letters. When I was growing up, I would often exchange letters with my great-aunt and talked to her on the phone. This was exceptionally helpful because grandpa Marco passed away when I was four and Aunt Nickie was really one of a few people who could tell me all about her brother. And man did I hear some interesting stories.

    One of the good ones involved this stranger coming to the door and Marco and Nicolina answered. They only spoke Italian and the guy was so surprised that he walked away, never to return. I have no idea what that one was all about. But, it just seemed so funny to me! He definitely went to the wrong house! Whoops!

    I loved getting letters from Aunt Nickie because they often had great stories like that in them. It was through her letters and phone calls that I got a better connection with her and her daughter, Cathie.  I just need to find them. I know I've kept them. They're probably in the black hole known as my desk. Yes, I can see you shaking your heads, fellow genealogists. I'll find them and put them in polybags. Will that make you happy?! Will it?!

Nicolina, Vincenzo and Cathie. The dog's name is
She She.

        Letters and everything were great and all.  However, it wasn't until the early 2000s when I actually got the chance to visit her in Tennessee. My parents and I made the trip in late 2005 and I remember my brother telling me I needed to be careful. Why? Well, Nicolina's business was the buying and selling of antiques and because of this she had a lot of fragile stuff laying around her house. There was enough to fill a warehouse!

    I kept that in mind and reminded him both of our grandmothers had antiques, too. I didn't think that helped my case. In fact, it more or less made my brother's case to be careful around there. It's unfortunate that he never made the trip. That was okay. He had me to relay any messages, well wishes and all that fun stuff.

        The plane ride was pretty uneventful. I do remember when we arrived at Memphis International, that we had trouble finding Nicolina and Cathie. It turned out they were right behind the same kiosk in the "Arrivals" area as we were. We just didn't look around the MASSIVE sign. After a good laugh, many hugs were had and we made our way to her house. I made a comment about the Baptist churches on every corner and she replied saying "Yeah. It's a southern thing." We did drive by Graceland on the way to her house. That was pretty cool.

This was taken the same day
as the other pic. Kinda obvious!

    Over the course of our visit, I made sure to never touch the antiques. They were precious and kind of smelled funny. We did have our customary Italian dishes for dinner and we talked for hours while I looked at various photographs. Some of which have been included in this week's blog. =)

    While I wasn't looking at the pictures, I was entranced by all of the stories she told us which would be confirmed many years later. These stories include:

1. Her various trips back to San Pietro a Maida in the '60s to '80s.

2. The famous story involving her father, grandpa Marco and grandma Ollie going to Switzerland for a wedding.

3. Many stories involving the Tedescos who lived in Woburn, Massachusetts.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg!

    Needless to say, that was a lot of information to absorb in just one visit. I needed to do something so I did what anyone in my place would have done. I wrote what I could in a notebook that I used for my stories and that was that. I made a makeshift family tree and that became the basis for my eventual genealogical adventure I started in 2006. My only regret is not asking about Domenica Gullo's parents at the time. Whoops. I know I eventually found out who her parents were but it would have saved me a bunch of time and aggravation. Hindsight is indeed 20/20.

Marco, Caterina and Adriana

    All wasn't completely lost. She told me all about her grandfather, Marco and his wife Caterina and how the family was quite literally spread out all over the world. She told us about their daughter Caterina who moved to Argentina and she told us about the family in Europe. In fact, she said to me to try and get in contact with her aunt Caterina Tedesco's descendants. That didn't happen until 2017 and I didn't find my Swiss family members until 2020. I think I might have been playing the long game here.

    Before we left for New Hampshire, I made a point to exchange e-mail addresses with my cousin Cathie so that we'd have another means to communicate. Plus it'd save money on calling Tennessee every month or so. Ever since then we've been in touch even though I changed e-mail providers twice since 2005. We also exchanged numbers in order to text one another. This way we'd always be in touch with family no matter where they were in the world! Hmm....I may have made that sentence sound more creepy than it needed to be! =D

    Overall I enjoyed my trip to Tennessee. To date it was the furthest west I've ever gone and it seemed nice there. My father had visited his aunt when he was younger. But, that's a story for another time. 

  

    I think it was this visit that finally got me interested in genealogy because it wasn't long after that I started a family tree on Ancestry. I had all of my notes on my father's side and info from my mother's side. I had to put it all somewhere. The next logical step was to create a tree and the rest as they say is history. (Family history, even. Ugh. That was corny.)

    I have to thank my great-aunt for inspiring me to finally get started on genealogy because the idea had been cooking in my head since I was born. I needed to find out if the stories were all true and for the most part they were. No one ever really stretched the truth. Certain events certainly happened as I described in other blog entries. I guess you could say that this was where my genealogical adventure got started. Here's hoping Nicolina gets to celebrate her one hundredth birthday next year!

And, yes, I still keep in touch with her, Cathie and everyone! 

See you next time!

Edit: I have been informed that the dog's name was "She-She" and was a Pekingese. It's always a good idea to e-mail relatives about these things. 

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 26: Identity

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 26

The theme for Week 26 and July is "Identity." In genealogy, we seek out the identities of our ancestors. But they were more than just names. One way you could approach this prompt would be to share something about an ancestor besides just his or her name. Be creative and have fun!

Who am I?

        In genealogy, we tend to seek out the identity of our ancestors. We wonder who they are, where they came from, what their shoe size was and all that good stuff. Those are only natural questions to ask because like they say "Dead men tell no tales". The only thing you can rely on are the bits and pieces of information they've left behind and maybe a photograph or two. Photographs are great and everything. But, what about you, the person researching your ancestors? The more information you find, the more your identity could shift. Would you consider yourself Irish-American if a sliver of your tree hailed from Ireland? What would you identify as as your research progresses?

The "Little Old Italian Lady Squad" (TM)

    Growing up I've always identified as being Italian-American. My last name is "Ferraiolo" and I grew up surrounded by my grandma Ollie and her side of the family. Since she and her sisters lived in Haverhill, we'd visit each other very often and have traditional Sunday dinners and have basically every Italian dish you could think of for meals. That's just how it was. And I may have had some vino. Always take the wine!

    To make things even more interesting, my mother embraced "la dolce vita" to the extent where she would make lasagna, sauce and prepare all kinds of pasta for my father, brother and I. She even made caprese salad for the Salem High cross country team!  They loved it, of course. My coach always asked for it whenever he saw her....and me! He even asked for it when I saw him a few years after I graduated!

    This isn't to say that I never learned anything about grandpa Hamel or my grandma Felker's family. No, no. Don't get me wrong. I did. You never got away from grandpa Hamel's stories about being stationed in Italy and North Africa or something like that. It just never happened. They talked just as much as my Italian relatives did. TRUST ME! I just didn't see them as often as I saw grandma Ollie, her sisters, my dad's cousins, my great-aunt Nicolina and my second cousins on that side. That's just how life turned out for my brother and I.

Mmm. Diverse pie.

    When I took a DNA test on Ancestry, I wasn't the least bit surprised by my results because half of my tree is Italian. Those branches are just evenly split between Calabria and Campania. My results reflected that pretty well as it consistently hovered around 50% Italian or more specifically "Southern Italian" with each passing update. Does this mean I can consider myself Italian-American? Is the Pope a Catholic?

    Your mileage will vary with these DNA tests, of course, as they don't automatically tell you what you nationality can or should identify as. All they can tell you is where a certain percentage of your DNA comes from. Sure you can still identify with one nationality or another. It's your choice and it should be a personal one regardless if you were adopted or not. I'm not going to be the guy who tells someone what they should identify as according to their DNA. That's a personal matter which should be left to the person on a case by case basis.  You do what you want to do. I have a good friend who found out he is 46% Indigenous. He identifies as Indigenous and now works to promote change in Canada. 'Nuff said there!

    I've often asked my mother about my French-Canadian roots and traditions despite growing up in an Italian-American household. I was curious and I wanted to know more about those roots because I saw those relatives very rarely. She said there wasn't much to tell because grandma Felker never really made anything remotely French. The only French she knew was when her grandmother Henrietta would talk to her sisters in French while she was in the room.  The joke was on her. Eventually, my mom studied French and when Henrietta had her stroke in the 1970s she could only speak French for some reason. My mom became the only person who could talk to her aside from her husband, Austin.

Clara liked calamari but hated squid!!

    Now that I think about it, many people on my mom's side more or less embraced Italian traditions. It's very common in the Merrimack valley for people to just go with the flow. There are less conflicts that way and I think it can be mostly attributed to the fact that my mom's side is also predominantly Catholic.

    Grandpa Bob always told me how Grandpa Marco was a good man whenever I asked him about him. From what I gathered they got along pretty well. In fact, while my parents were dating there was this party and both sets of grandparents were all invited.

    My great-grandmother Clara tried calamari for the first time in her life. She said she loved it. But, she hated squid. I wonder if anyone ever told her calamari was squid. Maybe she did know and she was just trolling. Who knows? I'm just glad both sides got along famously! Both cultures do have similarities.

    Genealogy allows everyone the opportunity to see what their heritage is. In my opinion, it can only tell you so much because how you are raised can also help you to identify with one culture or another. Like I said before, it's a very personal thing to choose between one or the other. In my case, I have both French-Canadian and Italian (with some English) to work with. To be honest, they kind of blended together because I live in a very cosmopolitan part of the United States. I can easily say I'm Italian-American. I can easily say I'm Canadian-American as five of my second great-grandparents on that side were born in Quebec and immigrated to America. But, in the end I was brought up surrounded by my dad's side of the family. That's just how it was, like I said.

    Perhaps these days I should take both and see what comes up. Cousins on both sides of the tree have been very helpful. I can't only say I'm Italian-American. I can say French-Canadian as well. (Ironically this blog is being posted on Canada Day.) I may have been raised a certain way but there are other facets to a person that paints a bigger picture. You can identify with whatever you want to be and that's what it is to have free will. No one else can make that call but you.

See ya next time!