52 Ancestors Week 43: Organization

 From Amy Johnson Crow: This week's theme is "Organized." Organizing can refer to papers, files, etc., but it can also refer to people. Did your ancestor belong to any organizations? Did your ancestor organize any activities?

Yes, sir. I'll have this organized and on your desk by 5.

   

     Genealogists can be a bit untidy when it comes to accumulating tons and tons of documents. It's the nature of the field of study! We all know genealogists tend to have a lot in common with writers, scientists and any other field where you're almost always required to have a messy office. If you're doing anything creative or any kind of research and your office is clean, you have to wonder if you're really into the field or you just like to keep things organized.  Also, I have to wonder if your computer is organized, too. Believe me when I say that it helps! Here's what I do to keep my computer organized.

Somehow I STILL have space left over.

    My brother works in IT for the University of Virginia and every once in a while he pokes at my computer remotely to see if things are running properly. In his own words, he has said that I practically live in my computer. Who doesn't in this day and age? Look at the image. I have folders for my comics, my old videos and yes even a genealogy folder. 

    I've always made it a point to keep everything in its own folders since long before I started doing genealogy regularly. Everything has its place and it's been like that since I got my first computer many years ago.

Let's take a tour of the genealogy folder shall we? Let's!

    As you can see there isn't much to see here other than a bunch of subfolders. I have folders for articles, the images I use in the blogs, DNA stuff, photos, stuff for a friend's tree that I'm working on and WikiTree stuff. I've downloaded many things and it didn't take long for me realize that it was all going to take over my computer. The folder itself takes up one gigabyte and I don't think I have to worry about space for a very, very long time. If you have a decent amount of space and memory, you should be fine.

    However, if you're worried that you will run out of space for that and your favorite PC games, you could always put your genealogy stuff on a flash drive or an external hard drive. I use a flash drive myself and on it are my comics and of course documents from my genealogical adventure. 

  Since I have a ton of stuff, I'm not going to go over every single thing I have. That'd be crazy! So, instead let's talk about the articles, documents and photos folders!

    As you can see I've amassed quite a few articles from Newspapers.com and the Newburyport Public Library. I should organize the articles better by saying where I got each article. But, I don't think it makes much of a difference. I will say that it's nice to have a pdf of the article rather than just something from a screencap. I like it because you get a chance to see what else is on the page and some of the advertisements are just hilarious to me in hindsight.

    Don't forget to try Bob's Elixir of Life! Guaranteed to add twenty years to your life! I swear I'm not a crook! (Spoilers: He was.)

    I think the real meat of my genealogy folders is probably the pictures. You'd think the documents folder would have a lot of stuff and it does. I just have more photos than anything in there!

    All of my photographs are carefully organized into colorizations, maternal, paternal and miscellaneous as I have a ton of photos like I said. I like to keep the colorized photographs in their own folder as I'm not really a fan of them to be honest. They're nice and everything. But, MyHeritage and other places that offer colorization and repair don't seem to get certain details right.

    For example, they give my great-grandfather, Vincenzo Ferraiolo blond hair when his hair was actually brownish before it went completely white. According to my mother, my great-grandfather Austin Felker had the bluest blue eyes ever. Colorization makes them brown. It's cool if you like them. It's just really hit or miss with me. There's not much else I can say about this folder. That's what it says on the tin.

    Now it's time to look at the genealogical gold! Not that the photographs aren't gold. They are. It just takes up the most space.

    The documents folder is where everything else goes. In there you'll find everything I've ever saved that isn't a photograph. I've downloaded every document I could find about my ancestors and various relatives and put them in here for safe keeping.

    This folder also includes several Excel sheets I've used for organizing my DNA matches and creating Leeds charts for them. I've also got drafts for letters to the commune office in San Pietro a Maida and various other files.

I guess you could say I am very well organized! And yes I do have a backup for all of these files.

    Why wouldn't you have a backup? Like I said before, you could always save the documents you have onto an external hard drive or even a zip drive like I have done. Genealogists accumulate a lot of material and there is a fine line between hoarding and collecting. If you're going to be a genealogist, the best way to go about dealing with the gigabytes of data you will accumulate is to keep it organized and in a safe place. Oh and as far as physical copies of stuff goes, don't worry. Those are well organized too and in safe spots. I may talk about them some other time. I hope you enjoyed this sneak peak into my computer. =)

See ya next time!

52 Ancestors Week 42: Lost

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 42

This week's theme is "Lost." As family historians, we deal with a lot of things that are lost or on the verge of it...  memories, records, people...  This week, you could explore something that has been lost or the experience of losing something.

We've got to go back! This is the "FRIENDS" font!

    Over time priceless records could be lost due to fire, improper storage and even careless television executives. Some people might not have the foresight to preserve documents of great importance and it falls on diligent record keepers working at city halls and genealogists to make sure that valuable information is never lost again. This week I regained some important facts for my family tree when I took on Haverhill's city hall!

Nice pic. But, like everything in Mass, there
was a ton of construction.

    I know that I make it sound more epic than it really is. Long time readers of my blog know that I've had this itch to go to city hall for quite some time. I had asked my dad's cousin Bob to take me there as he wanted to look for information for his tree as well. This week, the time to visit the place where a majority of my family's records are kept finally arrived and I asked my followers on Twitter what information I should seek out while I'm there. 

    Truthfully, there were a ton of facts that I needed from city hall and I had to narrow it down to two things: The death certificates for my great-grandmother, Maria Tedesco and my second great-grandfather, Wilfred Felker. Their exact dates of death had eluded me for some time and I wanted answers!

    Information about when the two passed away were lost for some time and no one around me knew exactly when the events occurred. I thought I would find the dates in my grandmother Natalie's box of stuff and in grandpa Marco's possessions.  Nope. Not there. You'd think Marco would have had his mother's death certificate, right? I remember going right to the source and asked my great-aunt Nicolina when her mother died. She couldn't remember. She knew the year was 1943 and that was about it. The date was on her gravestone, too. I was at a loss for words. But, I was NOT about to give up.

    Marco and Vincenzo's possessions did offer up a delicious nugget of information, though! Among all the birth certificates, deeds to the motel on Salisbury Beach and everything was the list of people who gave flowers to the family the day of Maria's funeral. The funeral was dated March 5th, 1943. With that in mind, I knew she passed away prior to that date. 

    As far as Wilfred goes, I had even less to go on. My grandmother told me time and time again that he died in 1951. Again there was no exact date. I guess I can't really fault people for not remembering certain bits of information. We're only human and we don't have positronic brains and some of us don't have eidetic memories.

    With that in mind, I marched into city hall armed with what I knew. I wrote down the notes on my iPad and that was about it. I handed the information to the clerk on a piece of paper and then I had to play the most annoying game of all time--The WAITING GAME!

    It didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would to find the documents. Could it have been the fact that I had such good notes or the fact that both Maria and Wilfred passed away in the same relative timeframe--the early 1940s and 1950s. It's hard to say because no one was allowed to go in the back where the magic happens. I had to sit by the counter and wait for the very helpful clerk.

    After a few moments, she returned and gave me Maria's exact date of death. It turned out that she passed away on March 3rd, 1943. This aligned perfectly with the date of her funeral on March 6th! I asked the lady if I could have a copy of the death certificate. She said it was no problem. All I needed to do was hand her ten bucks in return. I did as she asked and I finally got hard evidence on when Maria passed away. Part one of my mission was completed! 

    There was a bit more information on the death certificate too including her address on Shepherd Street, cause of death and the informant.  

Not bad for my first try. Now I needed to wait for information on Wilfred. 

    When I had asked for Wilfred's information, the clerk circled the date of death and his last name. This might have been because I didn't have a ballpark figure for when his date of death actually was. She asked if I had anything specific. I said that I didn't and that I was sorry. She said it was fine and again went to the back.

    I'll admit that the wait was a little bit longer than it was for Maria. I didn't have much to go on other than what was on his gravestone and the basic information about his life. My grandmother never really talked about her grandfather that much. When she would talk about her grandparents, it was usually about Gertrude Stevens or Lucie Cadran. She never really talked about her grandfathers. Though, in fairness Antoine Legault DID pass away a good twenty years before she was born. I should cut her some slack. Don't want to fall victim to "spectral vengeance". 

    Eventually, the clerk came back out and gave me the information I needed. Wilfred passed away on March 9th, 1951.  Don't think I didn't notice both of my ancestors passed away in early March! "Beware the Ides of March", indeed! (I know the Ides of March is really March 15th. Go with it.)

    The clerk asked me if there was any more information I needed. I thought to myself....or rather screamed internally "YES! There is a ton more! LET ME GO BACK THERE!!" I thought better of it and said I was good for now. I didn't feel like getting arrested. Although, that would make this blog a lot more interesting. "Greetings from the Haverhill Police Department! You might be wondering how I got here...."

Biggest cemetery in Haverhill? Yes. Yes, it is.

    Actually, Bob had a few errands to run and we went on our way. We went to Linwood Cemetery to clean up his mother's grave and then to Saint James where his grandmother on his paternal side was buried. Coincidentally,  Saint James is the final resting place for Antoine Legault. My spider-sense started to buzz. Dare I look for Antoine here? Eh....Well, look at the picture.

    Saint James Cemetery is probably the biggest cemetery in Haverhill. I think I would get lost looking around for Antoine. Bob said it would be best to call the cemetery office and ask them where Antoine's located. I mean....He's not going anywhere unless someone had the "Book of the Dead". I didn't feel getting lost there!

    Discretion was a better form of valor and I decided to side with my cousin on this one. We did go to Saint Patrick's Cemetery, though and I thought I would take some pictures. The problem was that the sun was setting behind me and some pictures were not coming out that great. It's a shame. But, it happens when it's Fall and it was like 4 pm. I ain't afraid of no ghosts. I just don't want to get lost!

    The trip wasn't a total loss. I asked Bob if we could go to city hall again. I wanted to ask them about Lucie Cadran's date of death as I have a vague date for her like I did for Wilfred. I also wanted to see if I could get the death certificates for Giovanni Coppola and Paolo Coppola, too. I don't know if I really need them because I have DNA confirmation connecting me to the two men and I have their dates of death already. I also have a pretty good idea who their parents were. I'll think on it. I definitely have time and I will definitely return to city hall!

    This story goes to show that in some cases lost information can be recovered with a little determination, ingenuity, time and effort. While we tend to forget certain events of the past, sometimes the events have been recorded. Important events like births, marriages and deaths are all recorded and ready for public use at your local city/town hall. Random events? Maybe not. The point is that lost knowledge can be recovered if you know where to look. So, start looking! Your friendly neighborhood city clerks are available to help you find what you're looking for!

See ya next time!    

"The wisdom of the ages! It's lost!" 

"No, not lost. We're all a little wiser now."

"But the Matrix is empty!"

"It's up to all of us to fill it again—with the wisdom we accumulate from this moment on. Autobots, transform and roll out!"

--- Hot Rod and Optimus Prime; "The Return of Optimus Prime Part 2", Transformers Season 3, Episode 30.

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 41: Passed Down

 From Amy Johnson Crow: The theme for Week 41 is "Passed Down." We can pass down lots of things: stories, clothes, special items. What is something that has been passed down to you or that you've passed down to someone else?

This belongs in a museum!!

    I originally intended to write a blog about my grandpa Marco's sword, which was passed down to me by my grandmother in 2002. However, I got some sad news this week and it kind of derailed my blogging plans. My great-aunt Nicolina passed away on September 17th, 2022 at the age of 99 and a half. My dad's cousin Cathie informed us a few days ago of her passing and a lot of feelings came bubbling to the surface. Of course I was sadden by her loss. Who wouldn't be? My cousin Caterina said it best when I told her the news. "Ninety-nine is a good age. She lived a long and hopefully happy life." That, we can definitely agree on! She did live a long life and the more I thought about it, the more I realized that she passed down some amazing things to me whether she realized it or not.

    It's often said that the older generations are like a library of information waiting to be checked out and that's why it's a good idea to respect your elders. To me, Nicolina was an older generation connection to my grandfather. Sure I had my father who could have told me anything I wanted to know about him. However, Nicolina had the inside scoop about what her brother was like growing up in Haverhill in the 1930s. Talking to her was like talking to my grandfather--something I never really got the chance to do.

    From her, I learned about that story where she and her brother answered the door and spoke Italian to some random guy who probably thought he had the wrong house! That story stuck with me because I can just imagine the two of them deliberately trolling a strange man who dared to knock at the door while their parents weren't home! I'm not saying I would have done the same thing. Who am I kidding? You readers know I would have done something similar. I had to have gotten my silly/sarcastic streak somewhere. Though, knowing me I'd have gone that extra mile and told the man to visit "Al Fresco" down the street.

    Funny stories aside, Nicolina also provided me with a love of genealogy without ever really telling me it WAS genealogy. That's the best way for some people to learn! She would share photos with me with no prompting whatsoever and I just ate it up!

    Take this photograph for example! Over Thanksgiving one year she sent this fantastic photo of her family to me. It shows her parents Vincenzo, Maria and her brother shortly after their arrival in 1929. While we do have a copy of this photograph, it still meant a lot that she would pass down a very important piece of family history. I told her "Thank you!" so many times I think she got tired of it after a while! Can you blame me? It's a great picture! I call it the "Coming to America" photograph. 

    Over the course of many years, I've gotten so many photos from her and I think I like this one the most mainly because it's one of only two photos I have of Maria. It's also nice to see my grandfather so young and with hair! That's another rare sight. Trust me! 

    This photo was also the first of many I was given over the course of maybe an hour. I was getting a ton of e-mails in such a short period of time that I hadn't had time to really process everything. Apparently, Cathie was taking pictures of them with her phone and sending them that way. I eventually clipped out the unnecessary bits.

    As I continued on my genealogical adventure, I ended up sharing pictures I found with her. 

I think I know who some of these people are!
My grandparents are easy to spot on the left!
Vincenzo is near the middle.

    When Caterina sent me this photograph from her wedding, I sent it to Cathie to share with Nicolina. The response I got was what I expected. They loved the photograph and wanted more! Additionally, they both wanted to contact Caterina so I exchanged e-mails with them so that they could talk to one another.

More photos were eventually exchanged along with a story that had been passed down in the family. Don't worry. This doesn't have anything to do with lost Italian gold buried in the floorboards of the house they grew up in. Wouldn't that be amazing? Yeah, I don't think the current residents would like it if I showed up in Haverhill with a pickax and a miner's hat....

    Photographs are just some of the many things that have been passed down in my family over the years and I've been fortunate to have a veritable library of photos and items. My house could be a museum if I wanted it to be. One room alone could be dedicated to toys from the 1980s and 1990s. I can't guarantee they'd be in MINT condition.

    As far as Aunt Nickie goes, I'll always remember she did more than just pass down various photographs. She passed down some great memories and stories that I'll always remember. In fact, I should probably share more of them here, right! Nicolina was always willing to share because she saw her family in New England so rarely. She passed down a love of genealogy without saying it was genealogy. Her approach was always more "Here's a story about so and so" and she never really stuck to specific dates unless asked. That's how I learned to appreciate the stories she told. And I will definitely continue to tell those stories here in this blog! I hope you enjoy them because I sure did!

See ya next time!

RIP Nicolina Caterina Ferraiolo (1923-2022).

 

52 Ancestors Week 40: Preservation

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 40

The monthly theme for October and Week 40 is "Preservation." Think for a moment about all of the records you've used in your family history research and what it took to preserve them. What are you thankful that was preserved (or what do you wish had been preserved)? What are you working to preserve?

Still a bargain at 25,000 dollars!

    I agree that it takes a lot to preserve things in your family history. You want to preserve that picture of your great-grandparents or your great-aunt or uncle in the same way they would have preserved that picture of you in the bath tub when you were little. Fess up. I know you all have at least ONE of those baby pictures. I...have a couple. Adorable baby pictures aside, what do you do when you've allocated a ton of these genealogical artifacts? What items from your family's past do you keep and what ones do you do away with? As a collector of comic books, it's a question I've often asked myself since space is at a premium and I do end up selling things on eBay or at the local comic shop. So, the question is. What is worth keeping and what is ultimately destined for the recycling bin or your local historical society?

So much stuff.

    My grandfather Robert Hamel has collected a lot of things over the years from golf balls to model airplanes. He even went so far as to save the electric bills from his father Alfred's Fix-It shop in Newburyport. There weren't just one or two bills in the boxes my aunt Linda gave me back in 2020, mind you. There were at least thirty bills in there all dated from the 1950s to the early 1960s! 

    There's a fine line between collecting and hoarding and sometimes that line gets blurred when you want to save various documents. What do you do with these electric bills for a shop that's been out of business for over sixty years? My family had no idea that my grandfather saved those bills! It was a complete shock and yet my mother understood why he kept them all these years. Maybe they reminded him of his father? I have no clue. Grandpa Bob passed away in 2017. If he was still around, I'd have definitely asked him WHY he kept the bills. From a genealogical perspective they may not offer much information other than what the cost of electricity was in 1960. Again I ask. What do I do with the bills?  Do I honestly need them taking up space?

    I have two heavy boxes full of stuff from his home. What I have done was divide the items into two groups. One was "KEEP!!!!" and the other one was "TOSS!!" Let's evaluate the kinds of things I kept. Keep in mind one of my other aunts has two suitcases full of MORE stuff that I have yet to go through! It's always an adventure for your friendly neighborhood genealogist.

    The things that I have obviously kept include items like this picture of Alfred Hamel and various other photos. My grandfather loved to take pictures and he had a ton of photo albums saved. Those were keepers. He also saved various photos from the Felker clan as well along with several sympathy cards from when grandma Natalie passed away in 2004. I kind of want to keep those as that was basically their FAN club or "Friends and neighbors". It's a good idea to keep them and the guestbook from the funeral home for that purpose even though I was obviously there.

    Small envelopes held photos of myself, my brother and our eight first cousins growing up. Some photographs, like the graduation photos, were obviously duplicates and were put in a safe place. Other photos were given to various family members in the off chance that they would like to see them. Wedding albums were also saved and so those photos were given to various family members, too. Side note: I was the most adorable ring bearer ever. Just sayin'. It's hard work balancing a ring on a pillow, you know! ;)

    In the mix was his service record, Alfred's service record and even directions to his brother Alfred's marker at Arlington National Cemetery. Those, I kept for obvious reasons. It's genealogical gold and you definitely need a map to find a specific gravestone at Arlington. Talk about a needle in a haystack!

Early 20th century Hugo Boss glasses? Maybe....

    Naturally, he also kept various items that belonged to my grandmother including some of her needlepoint, Felker family albums and assorted letters they wrote each other during the war. That was to be expected. They were married for over fifty years and her things sort of melded into his to the point that it was hard to tell which items belonged to whom.

  Obviously I've also kept things like their birth certificates, marriage certificates and things like that. You don't throw that genealogical gold away, my friends. Those are items worth saving and I can see why my grandparents kept them. 

    They had sentimental value and some items were passed down through time like these glasses! They could be Alfred's or his father's. I'm not sure. It was a surprise, though!. There were no lenses in there. But, it's still cool. We took those out and put them in a place of honor. This is just an example of a few items we kept. What DIDN'T we keep?

I think Nana would have appreciated
the "spring cleaning".

    The first thing to go was obviously the bills to the Fix-It Shop. Shocking, right? I don't know, guys. There could have been genealogical gold there. We could have found out how much money Alfred owed the city of Newburyport! That could have been a crucial fact that needed to be preserved for all time!!! If you can't read the sarcasm in this paragraph, then yes that was intense sarcasm. We tossed those.

    Another thing we probably should get rid of are his golf magazines. They were from as recently as 2016 and were still in good condition. I didn't think we really needed them. I don't golf. My dad used to golf. But, he doesn't seem too interested in the magazines. They just don't seem to have any value and needed to be tossed. Ironically, it made the box they were kept in MUCH lighter! You'd have thought the albums would have made it heavy. Nope! It was the golf stuff! They had to go!

    Miscellaneous items such as those are best sent to various collectors or someone who would appreciate them if you don't want them. Your mileage of course may vary! 

    In the end, you'll want to preserve the items that really should be preserved. Some items can stay and some items unfortunately have to be tossed. If family members want a specific picture, you could always scan and share on social media. Speaking of photos, if there are really old ones that your family wants and you want a copy, you could always scan and save to your computer. I put whatever I want to keep into a zip drive and store it there. It's a handy idea! Just make sure you keep them in a safe place!

  

I totally have this comic from
1974....

    I also have an interesting trick I want to share. If you have several relatives who want a picture of say your third great-grandfather or something and you have the only known copy, there IS a way to stop the drama before it strikes. You scan the image and once it's on the computer you can print it out on super glossy paper. It'll look just like a real photograph. I've done it for various comic covers I would have never have access to and put them as a backdrop to my reviews. The results speak for themselves. Just let them dry! You may also want to stock up on ink. I'm just saying. Printing out that comic cover you see over there took a lot of ink!!

    I don't think anyone actually believed I owned a mint copy of "Giant Size X-Men #1",  "Amazing Fantasy #16. Or even "Action Comics #1". Still, it was fun to print out comic covers to put on display like actual photographs. The same principle can be used if there's several family members who want a specific picture. Sharing them on social media is one thing. It's another to have a physical copy. I like having physical copies and it's a great way to share photos. I should honestly try it with some photos. What's the harm? It's a great way to preserve a photo for all time!

    Preserving the past is a great way to remind the family of those who came before us and where we all came from. There are stories with every photo and every document you find. However, you are likely to find junk from time to time. It's important to remember that sometimes your relatives save some things that probably should have been tossed out ages ago. So, if you have inherited a ton of stuff be sure to sift through what you want to keep and what you don't. There is a difference! Be mindful of that and happy hunting!

See ya next time! Oh and I actually do have several copies of "Giant Size X-Men #1" and "Amazing Fantasy #16" as reprints! =D