52 Ancestors Week 34: Timeline

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 34's theme is "Timeline." Timelines are a great research tool. What discovery have you made after putting together an ancestor's timeline? Have you thought about how everyday life changed for an ancestor during his or her life?

It really is a big ball of wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff.

    I'm with Amy on this one. Timelines are unbelievably useful tools for genealogy and for getting a feel of who lived where during a set time period. For this reason alone, I created a sort of directory of where everyone was living in the various censuses from 1790 to 1940. I haven't updated it to include the 1950 census, yet. I will some day. When I have time. ;) *dodges tomatoes* Your groans give me strength, people!

    I don't think I'll be talking about the directory this week as there are tons of people to talk about as the families were QUITE large. Instead, let's narrow it down and create a timeline of when exactly people started to arrive in Haverhill and Newburyport and what was happening in the world around them at the time. This sounds like fun and it gives me an excuse to add a new page to this blog. I'm not going to lie. It does look kind of sparse at the top bar when you compare it to my comic site.

Ye Olde Red Sox Nation

    I'm not going to spend too much time on colonial New Hampshire and Massachusetts for obvious reasons. It would take too long to get into. For those who want to know, a quarter of my mom's tree had been in the area we now know as Massachusetts and New Hampshire since the 1600s. The rest of her tree at the time was located in present day Quebec. Eventually, the road they took would lead them to small farming towns on the banks of the Merrimack river called Haverhill and Newburyport.

    Haverhill, Massachusetts was founded in the 1640s and wouldn't be incorporated as a city until the 1870s for reasons that'll become clear in time. Among the many founders of the town was my 11th great-grandfather, Tristram Coffin.

      Newburyport was settled in 1635 and is situated at the mouth of the Merrimack. At the time, it was known as the smallest town in Massachusetts because the wetlands in the area was not conducive to agriculture. It was basically a fishing community where fish markets were common and where fish was sold at a fair price. Though, the mouth is considered one of the most treacherous due to its currents and everything. Look it up. It was also an important port known for its shipbuilding.

That and I'm willing to bet the colonists got eaten alive by the giant flies. Those things will kill you if you aren't careful. Why did evolution choose to give annoying flies SHARP FANGS?!

Eugene Hamel and
Celanise Lefebvre

    Two centuries pass and it is now the 1870s. The United States of America is recovering from a civil war that cost tens of thousands of lives. My third great-grandfather, Jeremiah Felker and my fourth great-grandfather, John Sargent Fisher were among the many Union soldiers who took part in the conflict. Jeremiah and his family settled in Haverhill on East Broadway and he likely witnessed a startling change in the valley! An Industrial Revolution was about to take place and a nation put out a call to workers from all over the world. Many would work in factories up and down the Merrimack or settled where they can find room.

    Several of my 2nd great-grandparents and a few of my third great-grandparents came to America from Canada at this time. Why? That's up for debate. Did they come to work in the mills? Did they come to make a better life for themselves and their families? Who can say? I'm not one to put words in peoples' mouths. But, I will say this. It was likely to make a better life for themselves.

    I really wish I could find naturalization papers or border crossing information which could help me figure out the reason why so many Canadians decided to leave their homes. That and I really want to know why my 3rd great-grandmother, Marie Eulalie Bibeau moved with her husband Pierre Cadran to Haverhill whilst her siblings went to Anoka county, Minnesota. Can you imagine the phone bill?! If they had a phone that is. =)

To put things into perspective, the population of Haverhill around the time of the 1860 census was exactly 9,995 people. By the time of the 1870 census, it jumped up to just over 13,000 thanks to mass migrations from all corners of the world. 

Gertrude Stevens and family.

    While the immigrants from Canada settled in, they found themselves interacting with the natives of the valley in a very positive way. It was common for Haverhill natives like Austin Felker, son of Wilfred Felker and Gertrude Stevens to marry a daughter of a French-Canadian immigrant like my great-grandmother, Henrietta Legault.

    That happened on November 29th, 1913. Other French-Canadians like Marie Eulalie Bibeau became known for being well-known figures in the French-Canadian community. It was at this point that communities of immigrants began to form in town. There was a French-Canadian quarter, an Armenian one and of course there was an Italian quarter.

    Newburyport was very much the same way. French-Canadians moved in, worked in the mills and even set up fix-it shops like my great-grandfather, Alfred Hamel did . At this point in time, he had married my great-grandmother, Clara Laplante on June 18th, 1916. Things were going pretty well in Newburyport. Minus the greenheads and the raging rapids. What was happening in Haverhill at this time? Well....

In truth, the town was about to get a whole lot bigger and a lot more uhh.....Italian. (And other nationalities were getting represented.)

Got a new pic of Giuseppe Carrabs this week.
Surprise!

     Italians had been in the Merrimack valley since at least the 1860s. However, it wasn't until the dawn of the twentieth century that things started to really move along. Italy had unified in 1861 and government policies that favored the north and left the south impoverished caused millions to flee Italy to the Americas, Australia and everywhere else on our small blue planet.

    Among the early arrivals in Haverhill were my great-grandfather Giuseppe Carrabs and his family and my 2nd great-grandmother Caterina Coppola's brother, Giovanni. They arrived in the 1910s and that point the population of Haverhill had swelled to over 44,000 people and it was then that the quaint little farming town on the banks of the Merrimack finally became a city.

    Haverhill and Newburyport benefited greatly from the influx of immigrants from all over the world. Mills needed workers. Workers needed places to live and the cities accommodated everyone who came on the boats and on the planes. They would bring their families over, have a ton of children and their children would have more children. Today we call this "chain migration". Back then? It was simply known as trying to help family find a better life.

       Over time, more immigrants arrived in Haverhill and many people like Giovanni sent for family members in the old country. People like my great-grandfather, Vincenzo Ferraiolo would arrive in America in the 1910s and return to Italy to marry. In Vincenzo's case, it happened in 1921, a year after my grandmother Olympia Carrabs was born.

 

"They're coming to America!"

    After five years living in San Pietro a Maida with his wife, Maria Tedesco, Vincenzo moved back to Haverhill and sent for his family who arrived in 1929. With her came my grandfather, Marco and my great-aunt Nicolina.

    At this point in time, Haverhill actually saw a sharp population decline. According to the 1920 census, there were 53,884 people in the city. By the 1930 census there were 48,710. What could have caused the decline? It could have been anything to be honest. I want to be positive and say that people were just moving out of town to the places around Haverhill like Lawrence, Salem and Plaistow. The decline could also be attributed to disease. It's honestly hard to say. It is worth looking up because Haverhill did have to deal with the "Spanish Flu" like every other American city.

    Unfortunately, the stock market crashed in 1929 and the United States plunged into the Great Depression. Like the rest of the country, the people of Haverhill and Newburyport has to struggle in order to make ends meet. The mills were in higher demand and the cities churned out more needed goods for the people in the valley.

   The Depression years saw many changes come to the Merrimack valley as mills started to close despite the demand for goods and services. Over in Europe, a war was brewing that would change the course of human history forever.

I swear he looks so dapper in this
pic.

     America found itself embroiled in the second World War in December of 1941 and as a result many natives of the valley found themselves drafted serve Uncle Sam. Men like my grandfathers, Marco Ferraiolo and Robert Hamel went on to serve with distinction.

    Upon their return home, they married their long-time girlfriends. Marco married Olympia Carrabs on June 13th, 1946 and Robert Hamel married Natalie Felker on June 5th, 1948. That's also the same day he was born! Coincidence? No. Not really. Knowing my grandfather he planned it all along. =)

    Haverhill and Newburyport in the post World War II era must have seemed more cosmopolitan than at any point in its prior history. Like many east coast cities, the city strived to be a representative of a rapidly changing world where people of many cultures lived and worked together. I'm not going to say there wasn't any conflict. Of course there were. BUT! That doesn't mean life wasn't getting better in the post-war years. Thank you, New Deal!

    As you can tell by the timeline, people started arriving in the Merrimack valley in the late 19th century and by the 20th, the area was dramatically transformed. New neighborhoods were built, people moved in by the thousands and the picture of Haverhill I have in my head was taking shape. The textile mills that dotted the river collapsed rapidly in the post-war era and eventually made way for office parks and apartment complexes.

Marco and Olympia!

    It's not hyperbole to say that immigrants changed the valley and made an impact on life in New England. They certainly did and their descendants thrive in the area today. I know because I'm one of them! But, just think about it for a second. Haverhill and Newburyport went from quaint farming communities to industrial powerhouses to cosmopolitan cities in just over a century. Can you imagine what it was like to see all of that?

    In my own lifetime, I've seen advances in technology and the rise of a communication tool we call the Internet. My grandparents have seen:

The rise of new modes of transportation.

Vaccines for diseases that would have likely killed their own parents.

New forms of entertainment in the form of television and movies.

My grandfather Robert always said it was amazing what we have now. And he's right. Up until the day he passed away he even had an e-mail address! Seriously. Sure his computer wasn't as advanced as mine. But, it got the job done! I think it just had e-mail and that was it.

And yes. I sent him an e-mail every once in a while.

    Time changes all of us and we're all witnesses to history whether we like it or not. That old Chinese curse "May you live in interesting times" happens all throughout our lives. That's why it's a good idea to sit back and look around because a moment won't happen again. A farm today may become a neighborhood tomorrow. Our ancestors knew that and they saw many changes come and go in the Merrimack valley. More changes are likely to come in the future.

Waiting for first contact on April 5th, 2063 in Bozeman, Montana.

See ya next time! And remember....Time may change you. 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.