52 Ancestors Week 51: Perseverance

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 51

This week's theme is "Perseverance." Who is an ancestor who had to persevere? Who is an ancestor you had to persevere in order to find?! Share their story this week.

It's been a long road....

    "Star Trek: Enterprise" received a lot of flack in its day when it was originally airing from 2001 to its cancelation in 2005. Many Trekkies called the show slow as molasses in terms of pacing and hated the clumsy writing during its first two seasons. Some people were probably feeling a bit of franchise fatique as well since three other "Star Trek" shows aired back to back starting in 1987. Whatever your feelings are for the show, you can't tell me that the title song, "Faith of the Heart" by Russell Watson doesn't excite or inspire you while you're working on your family tree. It's actually on my genealogy playlist believe it or not! It's right up there with "Remember Me" from the movie, "Coco"!

     The reason why I bring this up is because I think of the song whenever I look at a picture of an immigrant ancestor or someone who had endured much in their lifetime. It's basically become the theme song for perseverance and the kinds of hardship people had to endure in the past and in the present. They did what they could to build the brighter future we now live in.

    When I look at the Thrulines menu on Ancestry, play the full song, and scroll through the pictures I actually get chills looking at those photos and I can't help wonder about their perseverance in the face of moving from one area of our small blue planet to another. Would you believe the topic of this week's blog could have been the topic for Week 49: New Horizons? Better late than never, right?

Reunited in the afterlife, I hope.

    It goes without saying that my great-grandfather, Vincenzo Ferraiolo, had a lot of perseverance in his heart when he crossed the Atlanic several times in his lifetime in order to visit family, get married and through the years he still managed to find the time to stay in contact with relatives all over the world. I suppose that was in his nature. For better or worse he did his best to keep in contact with various family members as evidenced by his last trip to Italy in the late 1960s.

    There are days when I think that this trait was passed down to me because I'm determined to find out what happened to a sister of his who traveled from San Pietro a Maida to Argentina. Her name was Caterina Ferraiolo  and she was born around 1900 according to my cousin whose name is also Caterina. Note: The Caterina I talked to lives in Switzerland. Just want to avoid confusion! There'll be a quiz later.

    Caterina married a man named Lorenzo Astorino and shortly thereafter, they traveled to Argentina like many Italian immigrants. They didn't all just go to America. You would think that'd be the end of the story. But, it's not. I've been given hints as to their whereabouts and I'm determined to find out what happened to them. Here's what I do know.

1. Both Caterina and Lorenzo were born around 1900 in San Pietro a Maida. 

2. Lorenzo and Caterina moved to the Buenos Aires area. Talk about trying to find a needle in a haystack. Most of the population of Argentina live in that area! It's hard to find them. But, it's not impossible!

3. They had the following children: Roberto, Nicola, Giovanni, Giuseppe, Maria and at least one other child.

4. Contact with the family in Argentina stopped shortly after the death of Caterina's mother, Concetta in 2005.

Concetta Ferraiolo

    I know 2005 doesn't seem like it was that long ago to some people. But, bear with me. It's been seventeen years at this point and a lot can happen between 2005 and 2022. Does it really matter how long ago it was? Not to me. I'm determined to find out what has happened to them! It doesn't matter if it was a year or fifty. 

    

     From what Caterina has told me, her mother was the one who kept in contact with the family in Argentina the most. Makes sense since she was the matriarch and wanted to maintain contact after the death of her sister in the 1960s.

    I can see why she would want to stay in touch. Argentina is clear across the ocean from Europe. Like her brother, Vincenzo, she was determined to keep the family together despite how far apart various family members were from each other. Just think of how much easier communication with the other side of the world became in her own lifetime! 

    The advent of the Internet certainly made things a lot easier. Think about it. Sixty years ago, this "blog" would be in some newsletter and not coming at you in high res black and white and just thirty years ago we had dial-up modems connecting us to the web. The world has changed and genealogy must and will change along with it using the tools we have at our fingertips.

Maria Astorino

        Finding lost family members is going to be a challenge. All I have to go on are pictures like this one of Maria that my cousin gave me. I'm not sure when the picture was taken or even if she's still alive. However, I am confident in saying that she probably had children. 

   

    When Argentina won the World Cup this year, I was thinking of the Astorinos and I asked Caterina if they were watching the games. She told me Caterina's grandchildren likely watched and celebrated the victory along with the countless other Argentines all around the country.

    I thank her for giving me hope. It's that hope that drives me to find out what happened to the family. 

    So, with all the hope and everything, how am I going to find out what happened to the Astorinos? Well, posting pictures like this online are a good way to start. It's good cousin bait! However, I'm not about to go full T-1000 and knock on every house in Buenos Aires and say "¿Has visto a esta mujer?". That gets the cops called on you if you aren't hit first....

Thankfully, there are a few less dangerous options out there!

Guiseppe Astorino

    Option one is playing the long game and hoping that a DNA match turns up on MyHeritage. In my case, the long game clearly worked because Caterina also has a tree on MyHeritage and several members of the Aleardi family did DNA testing there. That site seems to be very popular for Europeans. Does Argentina allow for DNA testing? They seem to!

    MyHeritage also has various vital records from Argentina in their database. So, one could simply look through there and hopefully find the information they need. Using their resources, you could find immigration and various other odds and ends.

    The second option I have is to ask for help. I'm not ashamed to admit that I need help every now and then. Luckily, I know a genealogist or two who live in Argentina and one of them works with me on WikiTree!  Her name is Cristina Corbellani and she is definitely a rock star in the Italy Project.

    I've told my story to Cristina and she graciously offered to help me find my relatives in Argentina. With friends like her, how could I fail? We haven't found anything substantial, yet. But, I have hope that we will. Two heads are better than one, right? That IS the site's motto. Okay, technically it's "Where genealogists collaborate" but it's the same thing more or less!

Giovanni Astorino

    When you're working on your family tree or the family tree of someone else, you need some perseverance in the face of adversity. After all it's a big world out there. While I may not be trying to make a better life for my family like Vincenzo, Giuseppe Carrabs or any of my other immigrant ancestors did, I'm not about to give up trying to find the family in Argentina and no one is going to tell me otherwise! They're out there.

    Going back to the Enterprise analogy at the beginning of the blog, I do have faith that I'll find them. It may take years. But, they're out there and I hope somewhow they may even find this blog. It's good to have a little faith. How's THAT for perseverance? Gee. I wonder where I got mine. ;)

See ya next time!