52 Ancestors Week 6: Social Media

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 6 

The theme for Week 6 is "Social Media." Social media can connect us to people we otherwise wouldn't have encountered. Have you made a family history discovery via social media? (What about in the social column of their newspaper -- that was basically their Facebook!) Have you ever imagined how an ancestor would have used social media? Write about it this week.

Thanks go out to Mindy and Azure for this banner.

     We are definitely living in a golden age of genealogy. For all the good and bad social media has done for society at large, you can't deny that platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Mastodon have brought many genealogists together from all corners of the globe and helped to create a fantastic online community. Websites like WikiTree have even taken large steps to embrace the social side of the Internet with their own YouTube channel and Discord server. Social media and genealogy seem to go together like peanut butter and jelly and with it, I've made some pretty awesome breakthroughs on my family tree.

    To list every single discovery I've ever made using social media would honestly take forever and a day because I basically live on the Internet and so does everyone reading this blog. Don't lie. We're all living in a social media soup. It's everywhere and you cannot escape it no matter how hard you try! In the past, I've written a blog about how I came into contact with a cousin in San Pietro a Maida and that led to me finding information about my great-grandmother, Maria Tedesco and ultimately finding cousins across the pond in Europe.  All it took was one small step when I joined the commune's Facebook group in 2017 and the rest is history. 

    Speaking of Maria, I was thinking about her as I watched a video on Youtube and that eventually led to me feeling more connected to my cousins in Calabria AND Maria herself. Let me elaborate.

 

     I was watching a series on YouTube called "Carlo and Sarah". It's a show about an Italian man and his Italian-American wife and how he deals with everything America throws at him. They go to places like Olive Garden (Eww.) and try all kinds of dishes there. They've even gone to Italian-American festivals in Massachusetts and every once in a while there's a prank or two. Overall, it's a great channel and the hosts are pretty funny and insightful.

    Over Christmas and New Year's, the couple went to Italy and documented their trip in a series of videos. The last one they made, so far, had the two eat an amazing dinner with Carlo's family and I got to see some dishes I've never seen before and honestly they made me feel pretty hungry. It was probably a bad idea to watch the video before dinner. If you want to see it, check it out here. Don't forget to mash that like button, ring that bell and subscribe for more content!

    To make things even more interesting, Carlo's family lives in the same region of Italy where my father's paternal side came from. When I saw that he arrived in Calabria, a light turned on in my head and an idea was born!

    Growing up, the only Italian dishes I've ever had came from Campania or other parts of Italy. That makes sense because grandpa Marco died when I was four and grandma Ollie only knew how to make dishes from Campania. My father never knew his paternal grandmother and his step-grandmother Fortuna never cooked. I'm not sure if my great-grandfather Vincenzo cooked. But, on the whole the Calabrian dishes were noticably missing from the table whenever we'd have a big family dinner.

    The only time I ever had anything remotely Calabrian was usually some soppressata (cured meat) from a restaurant, sausage or some other treat. It's a shame, I know.  I had to think of a way to rectify this gross miscarriage of justice. For a long time I felt like there was a hole in that part of my Calbrian heritage and I needed to fill that hole with one or two options. Option 1: Go to Food Network and see what they had for Calabrian dishes. Option 2: Ask famiglia in San Pietro for help. 

    If you're thinking I went with option 2, then you're right. Why would I go with Food Network when I have famiglia a few keystrokes away? So, my idea was to ask them for any Calabrian recipe. It didn't have to be ones from the video. However, that would certainly help matters! Not to mention my appetite.

Vincenzo and Maria.

    After I finished the video, I went to Facebook and started messaging my cousin's wife, Rosa. Rosa had already shown me some very tasty dishes she had made and I figured she would be the one to ask about the dishes in the video.

    I took some screenshots, sent a link and asked her if she could tell me the names of the dishes Carlo and Sarah were eating since they didn't go into the details.  I also explained a little bit about the two YouTubers and what they were all about. Pretty straight forward ,right? I was not prepared for what happened next!

    

    Since it was late in Italy when I messaged her, I didn't expect a reply right away. So, I went to bed and the next morning I saw that I had a voice message. She explained what the dishes were and I thanked her. Rosa was online and said that I was quite welcome and that she had something to else share with me. I smiled and I typed "Oh?" 

Proscuitto + melon= awesome.

   Rosa sent me a few links to various Italian websites with Calabrian recipes. I thanked her and I sensed that she  that wasn't done sending me goodies. A few seconds later she sent me a book of recipes in English that her students made in the form of a .pdf file. 

    Rosa is an English teacher in Lamezia Terme, a town close to San Pietro, and she had her class create a book using their own family recipes a while back. She shared them with me and inside were the various dishes Carlo and Sarah were eating in the video.

    I was immediately blown away by her generosity. Then again, I've come to expect it from her because she is an awesome and very positive person.

    I looked through the cookbook and saw a few things I knew I could make. I would just have to convert the measurements and that would be it. The more I looked at the recipes, the more I wondered if the meals were the type of things Maria would have made. Chances are she probably did. I then got another idea. I had to show my dad the recipes. This may or may not end well. We end up having eggplant parmesan for DAYS!

    The more I thought about it, the more I realized Rosa gave me a great way to connect with the Calabrian side of my family tree. I already talk to her, her brother and sister-in-law. This was a great way to connect with an ancestor who sadly didn't live long enough to meet her grandchildren and share her recipes with them. So, this would be a great way to fill that part me that was missing.

    A couple days later, I emailed my cousin in Switzerland and told her about the Calabrian recipes I got from Rosa. I told her I was a bit nervous making the dishes since it'd be venturing into the unknown. She told me that the ingredients and everything didn't matter as long as you have passion. Passion is what really drives cooking.

    Caterina definitely made a good point. I told her and Rosa that I will do my best to bring these recipes to life.  Perhaps Maria's spirit will be watching me as I make them. I don't know. But, it's a good thought and it's definitely a good idea to try. What's the worse that could happen?

        These Calabrian recipes mean a great deal to me and you know I'll be treating them like gold. There are even PICTURES with the recipes. Rosa's students went all out and I thank her every day for a chance to connect with that part of my family tree. It means a lot to me and I know it'll mean a lot more to my dad. So, you can bet I'll be trying these recipes out. Perhaps I'll even let the old man pick one to try. Then again this may be a bad idea. Hahaha! Stay tuned! Thing could get interesting!

     Other examples like this one prove that these days the distances between point a and point b have become incredibly short and that the world has become smaller. Communication across vast distances are now instantanous and now every corner of the world is connected in a world wide network. We're living in a world that our ancestors could only dream of because if they left their home for good, there was a good chance that they'd never see their families again unless they wrote letters, called or visit from time to time. 

    It's now so much easier to stay in touch with family using social media. People around the world could share things with you that you can't find on Antenati or any other database. Talking to a relative halfway around the planet can help you better understand your family and allow you to make the discoveries you wouldn't normally make anywhere else. In essense, that is what social media has done for genealogy. Without it, I definitely would still be having a hard time with various things and I wouldn't have met some awesome people!

See ya next time!

P.S.: Because Mindy demanded it, here's the fake Facebook screenshot starring some ancestors of mine that she made ages ago. Enjoy!