52 Ancestors Week 5: Oops

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 5

The theme for Week 5 is "Oops." We all make mistakes. This week, consider writing about a mistake that an ancestor made or that you've made in your research. One of mine would be looking for my ancestor Matilda Debolt Skinner Crossen Brown McFillin in the wrong county (for a long time!) because I misread something written in the family Bible. (I read "DeKalb" as "Decatur." In my defense, I was working from a rather poor photocopy!)

Oops! I used this banner again!

    Everyone makes mistakes. It happens. You deal with it and you move on. Anyone who says their family tree is one hundred percent fool-proof is probably covering up the fact that Billie Jean was not your great-grandfather's lover. She was just a girl who said he was the one. Oops. I may have gotten that song into all of your heads! Sorry!

    This year, I plan on revisiting some things I might consider small mistakes. I don't know if I'd call them mistakes. They're just a few things that haven't really sat well with me for a long time. Something set off my "spider-sense" and the more I looked at it, the more it rang in my head like church bells. Let me explain.

   This is the birth record for my third great-grandmother, Rosa Suverato. If you read the document, you will see that she was born on May 31st, 1843 in the Calabrian town of San Pietro a Maida to Giuseppe Suverato and Concetta Nistico. Naturally, I added the parents and went about my business when a friend of mine found it. The ages of both Giuseppe and Concetta were given so I was able to extrapolate a potential birth date for both parents as being in the 1810s. Seemed logical, right?

    Well, when Thrulines became a thing over on Ancestry.com, I got a potential ancestor for my 4th great-grandfather, Giuseppe. I thought that was cool and added them. I can already hear the audible gasps from the crowd already. Relax. There's no need to get the torches and pitchforks. I corrected this mistake, I swear! Of course it also proliferated through many trees around Ancestry. But, that's beside the point. Let's get back to my story! I have a very good reason  for why I did what I did!

    The reason why I added the people wasn't because I just thought "Oh! These HAVE to be my ancestors!" There was more to it than that. I was initially hesitant because I didn't see any cousins stemming from that branch. That's fair. Not everyone has tested or built a tree up. However, I checked out where the hint came from and checked out the other person's tree. 

    According to the tree, Giuseppe Suverato aka Giuseppe Francesco Soverati was born in Jacurso, Italy in May of 1814. Believe it or not, this was well within the realm of possibility. Jacurso is only eleven kilometers (6.8 miles) from San Pietro. This meant that there was a very real possibility that this person from Jacurso was my ancestor.

    The next thing I did was I contacted the owner of the tree and we discussed things at length. He agreed that it was definitely a possibility and saw no harm in me adding this information to the tree and thus allow it to proliferate all over the Internet like a virus.

Then, I started to take a deep dive into the records in San Pietro by myself and made a startling discovery.  

Giuseppe, you are probably
the father.

    A child named Giuseppe Suverato was born on April 10th, 1810 in San Pietro to Giuseppe Suverato and Catarina Giampa. I sat back in my chair and I was like "I think I have a problem".  Both men could definitely have been Rosa's father. If he was born in 1810, he'd be 33 years old. If he was born in 1814, he'd have been 29 years old. Both men could have definitely without a shadow of a doubt be Rosa's father based on their age, distance of the towns and a few other factors.

    I let everything simmer for a good long while until I went back and checked my friend's tree because I wanted to see if he made any discoveries. He knew I was looking for Giuseppe and Concetta's marriage since that would cement the claims we both had on our tree. I checked things and and he made some big changes! He changed the name to Giuseppe Antonio Soverati and had him married to a woman named Vittoria Dattilo in 1851. That was one strike against me. However, Rosa was born in 1843. So, I thought I had nothing to worry about. The guy could still be the father, right?

   Well,  I was adorably optimistic until math reared its ugly head.

    A child named Giuseppe Suverato was born to Giuseppe and Concetta on January 25th, 1833 and was likely their first child as he was twenty-two and she was twenty-five. This was about ten years before Rosa was born. In 1833, the other Giuseppe in Jacurso was about ninteen years old and while he could still be Rosa's father there was still a slight problem.

    The last names were clearly wrong and meant for different families. Unlike "Ferraiolo", which was spelled "Ferriolo" in the 1810s,  the last names "Suverato" and "Soverati" were similar but yet completely different names. In San Pietro's records, the last names were clearly "Suverato". I've seen that all across the board as I looked for more relatives of Rosa.

    To date I have found three of her siblings in San Pietro and their last names are all "Suverato". I haven't found more. But, I know they are out there. There's a huge gap of time between when her sister Angiola was born in 1834 and Rosa's birth date in 1843.

    With all this confusion, I decided to bite the bullet and change Rosa's parents to Giuseppe and Catarina because of the name spelling and how certain dates weren't adding up the way they should. Yes, I know that the Jacurso Giuseppe could still be her father. However, my "spider-sense" was buzzing and I don't like to ignore it. Something always seemed a bit off with the Jacurso connection and I was never able to figure out what it was. 

    I have looked up Giuseppe in the Jacurso records and they did gel with what my friend found himself. So, that wasn't the issue. Maybe I sensed something was off? The feeling oddly went away when I added the San Pietro Giuseppe to the tree. 

    Though, I suppose my first clue should have been the first and middle names as well as the last name. The records in San Pietro would have shown the father's other names if he had them. In Jacurso, the first and middle names were present. So, it's possible that they are different men entirely.

    The only way I can really put this issue to bed is if I can somehow get the marriage document of Giuseppe Suverato and Concetta Nistico. That would seal the deal once and for all. Unfortunately, that record is not online and the processetti does not have the document. I would have to ask the commune office in San Pietro for that bit of information.

    Now that I've fixed everything, I still have a bit of a problem. Many, many trees on Ancestry have Giuseppe Suverato and what are possibly the wrong parents attached to them. What do I do? Do I just let them continue to have their errors? I've already corrected the mistake on Ancestry, FamilySearch, Geni and WikiTree. I'd hate to have to message people about the changes. What do I tell them? 

    I think the best thing to do is probably wait and see if they come to me, first. With luck, they'd be understanding of the issues. With even greater luck, I'll be really clear as to why I changed things around. With even the BEST luck, maybe I'll be able to back it all up with a marriage document. Oh, that'd be the cherry on top of that sundae, wouldn't it? On the whole, I try not to worry about every else's trees. They can have all the mistakes they want. It's the world trees that need the tender loving care. So, that's why I quickly changed things on Geni, FS and WikiTree. We can't have inaccuracies over there now can we?

    Mistakes are bound to happen in genealogy. We're all human and I've got to be honest. I probably have a ton more mistakes on my tree that I don't even know about. But, I did learn some great lessons. Potential ancestors CAN lead you down the wrong path even if everything seems plausible. You need to examine all the details before jumping in and saying "Oh. This person's my ancestor. Cool!" There's always a hidden detail somewhere that you need to find, first. It's a good idea to look before you leap, my friends. And as far as everyone else's trees go, I'm not going to stress over it. People are going to post what they want. Let them come to me with questions.

    Now, will I make more mistakes? Probably. We're only human.

See ya next time! Live long and prosper!