52 Ancestors Week 21: Brick Wall

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 21

The theme for Week 21 is "Brick Wall." Do you have an ancestor (or 4) who you can't seem to make any progress on in your research? This would be a good week to write about that ancestor and really think about what you know about that ancestor, how you know it, and where you might look to fill in the gaps. Writing is part of the research process!

Welcome to Atop the Brick Wall....

    "Atop the Brick Wall" would be a fantastic name for a genealogy blog, wouldn't it? However, it's far too close to the name of my friend Lewis's webshow, "Atop the FOURTH Wall", where he reviews comics, the occasional television show and all things nerdy and awesome. I think the name "All Roads Lead to Haverhill" works just as well because it's a play on "All roads lead to Rome". Besides, it's not like I haven't done anything nerdy and awesome in this blog, right? That and calling my blog "Atop the Brick Wall" would just confuse people into thinking I was Lewis....again.

    Anyway, brick walls are an annoying part of the genealogical adventure. For a while my 2nd great-grandmother, Maria Domenica Gullo was a brick wall made of solid titanium until I did some genealogical jiggery pokery to sort out who her parents were. Once that was solved, there was peace in the valley. Little did I know that a simple trip to Haverhill city hall would change my family tree and inadvertently break down another brick wall.

La famiglia di Coppola

    It started simple enough. I had a list of people I wanted to find the exact death dates for and on that list was Giovanni Coppola. You may have seen me mention him a few dozen times in the blog. He was the guy responsisble for bringing most of San Pietro a Maida to Haverhill back in the day. For a long time I just assumed that he was a brother to Paolo, Caterina and Concetta because of various factors here and there. Yeah....life has a way of throwing a wrench into the works, doesn't it? Fear not, true believers. This story has a happy ending!

    Giovanni passed away on October 4th, 1960 in the city of Haverhill and his parents weren't Paolo Coppola and Rosa Suverato as I originally assumed. Instead, they were Giovanni Coppola and Angela Suverato. I was a little annoyed at first. I then realized that several of my great-aunt's DNA matches who descend from him were a little on the low side. There was only one match of hers who decended from Giovanni who was in the triple digits range at 137 cMs. Curious, right? Well, it's about to get a lot more curious because I've actually seen the names of Giovanni's parents before!

1860 births, #73

    This is the birth record for Francesco Coppola, born in San Pietro a Maida on November 10th 1860 to Giovanni and Angela. Could Francesco be an older brother to our friend Giovanni? It's possible. There's only a fifteen year gap between the two births as Giovanni was born in 1875. Italain families back then tended to be huge. So, it's certainly possible that the 1875 Giovanni is this kid's brother. I hope that makes sense because I'm getting cross-eyed trying to explain the logistics.

    At any rate, Italian naming conventions come into play here because of the name "Giovanni". A lot of Italian families named their children after grandparents and even after themselves once they run out of parents. Speaking of grandparents, note how Giovanni's father Francesco was mentioned. Put a pin in that. We'll be going back to that one. 

    Now, I know what you're thinking. "Chris! Coppola is a very common Italian name! You can't jump to conclusions like this!!" Ordinarily, I would agree with you. "Coppola" is a very common Italian last name much like "Tedesco". Just hear me out because I've been researching the records in San Pietro and to date I've only found TWO Coppolas in the town. One was the wife of a guy named Nicola Mazza and the other was this family.  There may be a connection to Nicola Mazza as the woman's name was Caterina. The jury's still out on that one. Let's just focus on this story for now, shall we?

This must have been some party....

    Once I put Giovanni with his family, I started to think about a few things. He HAD to be related to me somehow. You can't fake a 137 cM match can you? That's a solid match because that's right smack dab in the middle of the 2nd to 3rd cousin range. The odds seemed pretty good, my friends.

    So, I got to thinking. What if Giovanni was a first cousin to Concetta, Caterina and Paolo? He was already a confirmed first cousin to Rosa and Marianna Stella. He paid the way for his cousins to come to America. What if he did the same for Concetta or Paolo? Why else would my great-grandparents, Vincenzo and Maria go to his house just after arriving in America in 1929? Why else would Concetta have been at that anniversary party in this photograph? Because she was his first cousin.

    I don't think this is as big a stretch as you might think. I'm not Marvel's "Mister Fantastic" after all. Many people paid for their family's trip across the Atlantic and it stands to reason that the Concetta had some help from her dear cousin as well like Marianna and Rosa. Were Paolo, Concetta and Caterina really first cousins with Giovanni? It's a distinct possibility when you consider desecendants of the three siblings are all DNA matches with my great-aunt's 137 cM match. The descendants of Rosa and Marianna are also DNA matches with her. Even if you take endogamy into account, this does seem to be the most logical conclusion.

    Eventually, I put in my great-aunt's DNA matches into "What are the Odds" on DNApainter to see where she would fit into the puzzle and if my theory held water. I ran the simulation and here's what I came up with once all the facts were in place.

    I eliminated the impossible and used the Pallaria DNA matches as a sort of anchor for everything I'm about to say. I really hope this makes sense! One of the Pallaria DNA matches, a 96 cM match, is a known 3rd cousin and I used that as a basis for my theory. He descends from a woman named Caterini Coppola who was a sister to my 3rd great-grandfather, Paolo.

    Using what I know, I scrolled down the page and saw that the 96 cM match appeared as a third cousin in two places. Which one is accurate? It's hard to say. I lean more toward hypothesis six given what I know of the family and everything. There isn't proof of a half-relationship as shown in hypothesis 2. 

Either way, two very strong DNA matches were holding this tree together. It couldn't be denied that there was a connection. After all DNA does not lie and at the end of all of this, the 137 cM match became a third cousin just like the 96 match. 

By the way, my father and I also match the same woman! I match her at 56 cMs and my father at 104 cMs.

    With that in mind, I've been able to deduce that the previously unknown father of my 3td great-grandfather was Francesco Coppola based on DNA evidence, family history and simple deductive reasoning. There can be no doubt that Francesco was the father of Paolo, Caterini and Giovanni. That brick wall was solved. However, I still had a problem. Ummm....Who was his wife?! I can't keep calling her "Unknown Unkown"! That doesn't sit well with me and that puzzle will have to be solved another time.

One of two Angela Suveratos.

    Another puzzle that will have to wait is the identity of Giovanni's mother, Angela Suverato. There were in fact two Angelas born in San Pietro who could have been his mother. One Angela Suverato was the daughter of my 4th great-grandparents, Giuseppe Suverato and Concetta Nistico. The other one was the daughter of Marcantonio Suverato and Elisabetta Desando. An entire year seperated the births of the two girls. So, either one of them could be Giovanni's mother! More research is clearly needed.

    Her identity probably wouldn't change anything other than the most recent common ancestor. This is just on one branch of the family tree and on this branch Giovanni's descendant who holds everything together appears to be a third cousin to my great-aunt. Was she Rosa Suverato's sister? Maybe. One set of brothers sometimes marry a set of sisters. That was a pretty common practice.

    It doesn't change the fact that I have potentially identified a 4th great-grandfather in the middle of all these genealogical gymnastics and that makes me pretty darn happy. I don't like calling people "Unknown". They had names!!! To solve that puzzle, I think a call to the commune office is in order.

    Brick walls are an annoying part to genealogy. I can't deny that it feels good breaking through one like the "Kool-Aid Man". This case wasn't so much breaking it down as it was going around it using the genealogical tricks of the trade, common sense and what I already knew about the family. Is this accurate? It's hard to say. You honestly cannot deny the facts once they've been presented. 

    That said, I did have to change a few things in the blog. Every post where I mentioned Giovanni as a brother to Caterina and the others had to have a notice attached that mentioned how things had changed since I posted the blog. I don't mind correcting mistakes because everyone makes them from time to time. No one is perfect. 

    Time will tell if this theory of mine proves to be accurate. The movie I had in mind for "Italians in Haverhill" may have changed a little. But, the plot is still the same. Giovanni is still an important member of the family and a key factor in the immigration story. Nothing about that has changed even if his position in the family tree did.

See ya next time!