52 Ancestors Week 30: In the News

  From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 30:

The theme for Week 30 is "In the News." Have you found an ancestor in the newspaper? (I sure hope so -- newspapers are wonderful resources!) Another possibility for this theme is to consider what historical/newsworthy events an ancestor witnessed or would have read about in the newspaper.

Parker! Forget about covering that fancy wedding uptown!
I want pictures of Spider-Man!

    If you can hear J.K. Simmons's rendition of the cantankerous Marvel newspaper publisher,  "J. Jonah Jameson" in your head as you read the blurb underneath the banner, then we can be friends.  Anyway, as far as being in the news goes, I guess you could say my family has been in print in various forms over the years. Even I've been immortalized in the pages of the "Salem Observer" and the "Lawrence Eagle Tribune". In many of those instances I have the doofiest looking grin on my face. Don't bother trying to find them for blackmail, guys! They're THANKFULLY not digitized at the time of this writing and lord knows if they ever will be! You try looking calm and collected after a Cross Country meet. Of course I know this won't stop some of you intrepid genealogists from trying. You know who you are. I've got my eyes on you.

The Colonial Arms. Lady in the pic not included

    With that said, this is a picture of the fabulous Colonial Arms Motel located by the dunes of Salisbury beach. Salisbury is just a stone's throw away from Newburyport and the mighty Merrimack river. My grandfather Marco,  my grandmother Ollie's brother-in-law, Arnold and my father built the place in 1959 and it opened in 1960 to rave reviews! As far as I know. There could be some slight embelishment here! I'm kidding. I'm sure it was a great place!

    Why am I bringing this up? Well, that's because this motel was in the news more than a couple times during its lifetime. From what my parents told me, Salisbury beach was THE spot where everyone in the Merrimack Valley visited if they wanted to swim, catch an act at the Salisbury Frolics,  hit up various restaurants and arcades conveniently located on the boardwalk. Those arcades, by the way, remained opened until well into the 1990s. God, I loved the fried dough on the boardwalk. AND "Tripoli Pizza", a historic pizza joint on the strip is still open! At the Frolics during its heyday, many famous acts of the 1960s would pass through such as Paul Anka and Connie Francis.

    That sounds like a pretty sweet deal, right? If you need a place to stay before heading out into the ocean, why not stay at an admittedly very nice looking motel. It had plenty of space and it seemed like a great place to chill. I think that sentiment sums up this first article I ever found about the old Colonial Arms.

Oof. I'd love a cleaner image of this.

     From the pages of the "Newburyport Daily News" on July 12th, 1962, we have this rather grainy article I pulled from the Newburyport Public Library The three distinquished gentlemen are from left to right: my dad's cousin Joseph Villanucci, my father and Joseph's brother, Dennis. Joseph and Dennis are the sons of my great-aunt Louise and her husband Arnold helped run the motel. If this seems like the makings of a sitcom to you, you're not wrong! Oh, the stories I could tell. Some of them are best left internal. Trust me.

    Anyway, they're playing it cool as they can since this is the early days of rock and roll and everything. Joseph still plays music to this day and was a music teacher for many years.

    I really liked the picture despite its grainy nature. It actually made me want to find out all I could about the motel. Sure I've heard about it from my father and everyone else who was involved. I just wanted to see what else was out there. And what did I find? Well....

    This article is from the same paper and dated August 9th, 1962. It's...Sigh...it's another grainy picture. Let me clear it up for everyone. It'll just take a minute.

    THERE we go! Much better! How does he do it, folks?! Is it magic? Nope. I just asked Dennis for a picture of the actual article and he was kind enough to scan it for me using his phone. I'm good at editing but I'm not good enough to clean up THAT mess. At least now we can see what's going on here. I also have a new and improved version of the second picture of everyone playing it cool.

    In the picture we have my grandparents, Marco and Ollie sitting at the table with Arnold, Louise and Dennis while my father and Joseph are hanging out in the background.

    From the looks of things, it seems that the two families were planning a barbeque. Perfect time of year to do it and you just know things were going to be epic! An Italian barbeque? What's not to like?!

    Yup. Things at the Colonial Arms were going really well without any drama, right? They had a great place, great locale and great staff. What could go wrong? A lot, apparently. Here is one such incident.

Oof. That'll put a damper on the partying....

   In the wee hours of October 17th 1961, Salisbury firefighters responded to a 911 call saying a fire broke out at an unoccupied cottage owned by the Villanuccis and the Ferraiolos. The fire was so intense that it forced the evacuation of a family of six from an adjacent home. Firefighters from Seabrook and Newburyport managed to contain the blaze and sadly the cottage burnt to the ground. Thankfully, none of the neighbors were hurt and only one firefighter suffered from smoke inhalation.

    As you might have guessed, this story took place a good year before the barbeque planning session. To this day no one knows what started the blaze. Was there a gas leak? Was there a faulty electrical problem? No one knows. My father likes to tell stories about the fire as he was home in Haverhill at the time. He said he never found out what happened. For all we know it could have been an accident. 

    Despite that one major event, the motel thrived until 1970 when the two families decided to sell the place. Today, it still stands the test of time and from what I've seen it's still in pretty good shape.

    Not bad, right? I think the place should be considered a historical landmark as it was part of Salisbury beach's heyday. My father has many fond memories of the motel and building it with his father. We've driven by the motel since it's been sold and I think it held up pretty nicely over the years. Other buildings should be so lucky!

    It was great finding these articles and talking to my parents about them as I found them. It gave me great insight into the kind of person my grandfather was and many stories about the people I grew up with well before I was born. That's the great thing about newspaper articles. They give valuable insight into peoples' lives and if the people involved in the stories are still around, it can add more meat to an otherwise dry family tree. So, do yourself a favor and try to find out if someone in your tree did something amazing or if they ended up being "ye olde Florida Man". 

See ya next time!

52 Ancestors Week 29: Birthdays

 From Amy Johnson Crow: The theme for Week 29 is "Birthdays." Is there an ancestor with whom you share a birthday? (My dad and his sister shared a birthday -- and, no, they weren't twins!) You could write about an ancestor that had a lot of birthdays or a memorable birthday party. Don't forget newspapers. Small-town newspapers especially would have stories about birthday parties or "milestone" birthdays.

So many balloons. Somebody get me a needle!

    Birthdays have always been a big deal in my family for as long as I can remember. I wrote a blog two years ago about the awesomeness that was my grandfather Robert Hamel's 90th birthday celebration in June of 2013. Check it out! That, my friends, was the tip of the iceberg because we often pulled out all the stops when it comes to the birthdays of our friends and relatives. Though, being a Christmas baby it was often difficult for me to have a birthday party right between Christmas and New Years when most people were tired of parties. That's okay. We still had a great time in early January or mid December.

Three generations of Robert Hamel. The baby's
the odd one out. 

    Even though I don't share a birthday with any direct ancestor that I know of, there are still quite a few people in my tree who get to celebrate their birth on the same day. For example, my Uncle Bob shares the same birthday as his daughter, Katelyn. Katelyn's son, however, ALMOST has the same birthday has his mother and grandfather! So close....

    I'm not exactly sure how that happened but at least three generations can celebrate on the same day! Is it a coincidence or is it something more? Let's see if we can find any other bizzare coincidences in my tree and see if the universe is just playing some kind of cosmic joke on us all!

    To do this, I've enlisted the handy dandy anniversary list found on Wikitree.com. That saves me a LOT of time. I have thousands of people on my tree on Ancestry. Do you really think I have time to find them all?!

    I look at my list of December anniversaries (In late July no less) and the only person on there who matches my exact birthdate is Angela Tedesco, daughter of my fourth great-grandparents, Tommaso Tedesco and Cecilia Cassese. 

    Unfortunately that's basically it as far as birthdays that are remotely close to mine go. At least in July we'd get to celebrate the following births:

* My 2nd great-grandfather Marco Ferraiolo on July 1st.

* My great-aunt Nicolina on July 21st. She would have been one hundred this year. SO CLOSE!

* My 2nd great-grandfather Antonio Tedesco on July 23rd.

* My great-aunt Elaine on July 28th.

    Wow. How's that for an amazing coincidence? Two great-aunts on different sides of the family share the same birth month. You'd be spending a lot of money at Edible Arrangements and Hallmark that month! 

   

     The coincidences don't just stop there. One of my aunts and another uncle ALSO share the same birth date. At this point you might as well buy a Hallmark rewards card, right?

    There are other remarkable coincidences in my tree and to cover them all would take some time. It's fun to see them all on WikiTree's anniversary list and let's be honest if you have living relatives on that list like I do, it's a great way to keep an eye on when everyone's birthday is! Well, that and Facebook. That also helps!

 

    Birthdays in my family have always been special occassions and it's fun to check out who all shares the same special day. I still don't know if it's a coincidence or a pattern at this point. Ian Fleming, the author of James Bond, once said "Once is an accident, twice is a coincidence, three times is a pattern." I look at my uncle Bob, Katelyn and her son and I definitely see a pattern. You know what that means right? Save your money in July to buy them all presents!!! Your wallet may hate you but the smiles would be worth a lifetime!

See ya next time!

52 Ancestors Week 28: Random

From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 28

The theme for Week 28 is "Random." Sometimes we find the most random things about our ancestors. For me, it was discovering that my great-grandfather had a tattoo on his upper arm. You could also pick a random ancestor and write about him or her this week. Have fun with this theme!

This is the stuff ransom letters are made out of.

     While you're on your genealogical adventure, you find the most random things as you look through various documents. Some day you might find out that an Italian immigrant from San Pietro a Maida took up a mining job in Montana in the early 1900s only to find that his naturalization paperwork had been stolen! I kid you not. THAT HAPPENED! See this WikiTree profile for Giuseppe Barberio for details. I'm serious. Go take a look! I wonder if the thief kept the original document and it's now in someone's attic! It's something to think about! There's a story here! The statute of limitations is LONG over. If you have the original document, it's okay to come forward! I'm just saying.

     Oddly enough, Giuseppe's story isn't the most random story involving an Italian immigrant in my journey. Sometimes a story can seem really random and yet in the end everything gets tied up in a neat little bow. 

    Take Giovanni Ferraiolo here for instance. I originally found his birth document in San Pietro a Maida as I dug through the records of that town. I created a profile of him on WikiTree and let him stew, not knowing when or if I'd ever get back to him. At the time I made the profile, he was a guy who happened to share my family name and lived in my grandfather Marco's hometown.

       That's a pretty standard way to research a town. Note someone's birth and move on as you try to hopefully find another connection or two. Everything was going well until I discovered another Giovanni Ferraiolo who ended up in the wilds of upstate New York in a city called Utica. That was honestly the last place I expected to find an Italian immigrant aside from Montana!

    My friend Denise assured me that many Italians immigrated to Utica and in other places in upstate New York. In fact, she said that the Italian population could have rivaled that of Haverhill, Massachusetts. I don't know about that! I think it's a bit of tongue and cheek humor between Red Sox Nation and the damn Yankees. =) Gotta love sports rivalries.

Main street Utica. Where are the mountains?

    It is true. Utica has been home to a sizeable Italian population. In fact, my second great-grandfather Marco's brother, Giuseppe lived there for some time before settling in New Jersey. So, imagine my surprise when I discovered that another Ferraiolo was living in the same city as him! 

    I forget what led me to discover the man. I think someone had pointed him out on a ship manifest and asked me if he was related to me. I wasn't sure and I did some digging. It was then that I found something odd amongst all the various marriage documents and everything. His grave in Utica had the birthdate of 1846. That was pretty interesting and very helpful. I just needed to know WHERE here was born.

    As luck would have it, I found that he was born in San Pietro a Maida as it was sort of mentioned on his daughter Angelina's marriage document. I say "sort of" because whoever wrote down her parents' names wrote "San Pietro" Ferraiolo instead of Giovanni. In a later document it was confirmed that Giovanni was her father. Maybe someone goofed? Probably. Still, the name "San Pietro" caused my spider-sense to tingle and I went to the records right away!

    The only Giovanni Ferraiolo I could find in the San Pietro births from 1845 to 1847 turned out to be the same one I had already sourced and put on WikiTree. Giovanni was born on September 11th, 1846 to Francesco Ferraiolo and Caterina Costantino in San Pietro.

    Was this too much of a coincidence? Could the original Giovanni be the Giovanni who went to Utica with his wife and children? I asked around and everyone I've talked to seemed convinced that both men were the same. It's entirely possible that the two men were one and the same. Let's take a step back and look at it this way.

    Italy during the time when he was growing up was in utter turmoil. By the time the country was unified in 1861, policies were in place that favored the northern regions. The south was left in poverty and so droves of Italians left their country and Giovanni was likely part of that first wave of immigrants who arrived in New York.

    Anyone in my position would want hard facts to prove that this was indeed the same person. It's not like the Coppola case where I had DNA evidence to prove where Giovanni Coppola fit in my family tree. As far as I know, I have no DNA matches who link me to this family. Giovanni's daughters had many children. So, how could I prove that it's not just some random coincidence?

Giovanni's final resting place. 

    The answer is: I can't unless I have the Utica Giovanni's death certificate. He passed away on June 21st, 1924 in Utica and so far all the information about his passing does not list his parents. However, I might not need them considering he was the only Giovanni Ferraiolo born in the timeframe listed on the stone. Granted, stones can be inaccurate. Still, he was born in San Pietro a Maida. That much is obvious.

    His ship manifest points to that town and if he really was the only Giovanni born in that time frame, then chances are we have a match. It remains to be seen how accurate everything is, though. For now, I have merged the profiles and left a little note explaining the situation. 

    I honestly think he is the same guy. You never know. The stars could all be aligned and there could still be an error or two. I could be wrong. Some of my friends are putting Vegas odds on this being the same guy. Part of me wants to contact Utica and see if I can sneak a peek at the guy's death certificate so I can be absolutely sure. But, this case isn't really a priority for me at the moment. So, I think I can hold off for now. This is a good theory and it holds a lot of water. What do you all think? Do you think this is a random coincidence or do you think I'm onto something. Let me know in the comments below!

    Genealogy is full of random coincidences and everything. Even our DNA can be random! A 7cM DNA match could even be a 3rd cousin once removed. The randomness of the field is what actually excites me. You never know what you'll find. I just think it's totally random that someone found a Ferraiolo for me WAY out in Utica. Could I be connected to Giovanni? Probably. Time will tell. I'll have to do more research. I really hope the San Pietro Giovanni is the same guy as the Utica one. There's too much of a coincidence for THAT to be random.

But, you know what Sherlock Holmes says "If you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."

See ya next time!

Images of Google Earth are property of Google Earth.

52 Ancestors Week 27: The Great Outdoors

From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 27

The theme for Week 27 is "The Great Outdoors." (It's ironic that's the theme this week, considering I've had to stay inside most of the time due to smoke from the Canadian wildfires. Yes, I'm in Ohio.) Has your family enjoyed hunting, fishing, camping, or hiking? Or maybe their experiences with nature weren't so pleasant. Either way, this is the week to write about it.

The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker "Great Sea" theme intensifies.

        Imagine cruising down Route 495 in southern New Hampshire/Northeastern Massachusetts in an attempt to escape the intense summer heat. It's hot out there! You could probably fry an egg on your driveway because it's so hot! You're packed in the backseat of your mother's blue Toyota Camry with your older brother by your side as your father drives and plays the greatest hits of the 1950s and 1960s on the radio. You and your brother exchange a look like "This is standard dad behavior" as he sings a random song by the "Beach Boys". You shrug and look out the window as cars zoom by on the highway. Your destination? Dawn Mari-Na (Later named Ring's Island Marina) in scenic Salisbury, Massachusetts at the mouth of the mighty Merrimack river.

The original Toothfairy. Ain't she a beauty?

    As far back as I can remember, we've gone to the marina or "the boat" every summer when my brother and I were growing up. Our parents would put the boat in the water in May and we would head there every weekend until late September. That was pretty much my exposure to the great outdoors. Camping sounds fun and all. But, you haven't lived until you've slept in a v-berth as waves rock you to sleep every night. Of course there was always the possibility of someone zooming by in the middle of the night causing a wake to hit your ship like a photon torpedo hitting the Enterprise. Those instances were rare, trust me. It's getting in and out of the river that was really rough!

    My parents have been "ancient mariners" for a very long time and we've had quite a few vessels to take care of during the height of our boating days. Our first boat was called "The Articulator" and after that came three vessels to bear the name "Enterprise"  err..."Toothfairy". Bet you can never guess what my father does for a living! My friends always laughed when they heard the name. It just fits! To make matters worse, we had a little cartoon toothfairy drawn on the hull on the latest Toothfairy as you'll see later in the blog!

    Summer at the marina was always fun because we had many different boating adventures, cookouts and even a celebration or two. It's hard to focus on just one special event during one summer because every summer was special in their own way. So, it might be best to just summarize the kinds of activities and fun we'd have on the water. 

Jim with Tara and Eddie. I wonder whatever
happened to those two.

    One of the biggest celebrations occured just over the bridge in Newburyport, Massachusetts. The event is called "Yankee Homecoming" and it's held every late summer in the city. The event was inspired by the need to reunite Newburyport friends and families with those who had moved away. It was also a time to celebrate New England history and heritage, too. And what better way to do that than by buying comic books across the river at a low, low price?!

    My brother and I totally took advantage of Yankee Homecoming and we would walk over the bridge to Newburyport with our friends and do a little shopping. He would get candy and various magazines from the local news shop. As for me, that's where I got my first comic books and I was hooked ever since!

    It certainly didn't help that one of my parents' friends, Marina, was also an avid comic reader and always encouraged me to read the funny pages. She helped me sort out the details for my Starbolts story and we talked comics and movies up until the day she passed away. She was a great inspiration and was one of the many important people in my life at the marina. 

    While I'm sure everyone wants to hear the tales of my brother and I raiding various shops in downtown Newburyport and even the flea market, we did have other adventures out on the open ocean with nothing but the blazing sun above and the wind at our backs. Our boat wasn't a sailboat by any means. But, there was wind and lots of it!

The summer of 1990. I wish I still had that
tan.

    After properly ransacking our grandfather's ancestral town, brother and I would return to the boat to see she was getting ready to leave. The engines were running and our parents told us to get on board because another adventure was about to begin. They were boaters and who wanted to sit at the dock and bake when we could be on the ocean?

    We often took trips on the high seas for fishing expeditions just at the mouth of the river.  On rare occassions, we've even went as far as a the Isle Shoals as seen in the picture. That wasn't our boat, though. That was our friends, the Abrahams' boat named the C-Camel. Get it? "Sea Camel"! Can't have a boat name without a pun at this marina. It's bad luck.

    I really liked our fishing trips not just because I continually took my brother to school when it came to catching flounder and other fish. I just liked being out on the ocean and smelling that salty air. There was something about being on the ocean that just capitvated me. I almost always looked past our bow at the horizon and wondered things like "How long would it take for us to reach Europe from here and do we have enough gas to accomplish that task?" 

"Admiral! There be whales here!"

    Fishing was one thing. Seeing the wildlife for free was something else. Newburyport harbor has its fair share of harbor seals, rats with wings sea gulls and all matter of sea life you'd find along the shore.

    As you go further out into the Atlantic that's where you find whales, dolphins and the occassional shark we'd catch by accident. Don't worry. We never caught "Jaws" or anything. They were just your normal garden variety dog sharks whose skin were quite rough.

   When we'd catch something or spot it on the horizon, my dad would always tell me some cool facts about what we caught.

    Though, to this day I maintain that the mackarel is probably the dumbest fish in the sea. Check this out. It's a clear, sunny day and you drop a hook into the water without ANY bait. Those little guys will still bite it because it's bright and shiny. To make matters worse, once you catch a fish and drop the line back in, its friends bite the same hook that got its other friends. Evolution did the macakrel wrong, my friends.

The current Toothfairy.
This ship was built in 1989.

        At the end of our Yankee Homecoming boating expedition, we would head back to the dock with our cargo hold full of flounder, lobster and anything else we've caught on the ocean. Nature's bounty was pretty much our dinner that evening unless a big cookout at the top of the dock was planned. Anything we didn't eat, we'd fillet and put in the fridge to take home.

    I can tell you one thing. The sea gulls really did like it when people filleted fish on the docks. Rats with wings, indeed. They eat just about anything and according to one enumerator in the 1950 census, they stole some of the sheets! Feathered jerks.....

    The real highlight to Yankee Homecoming came a few hours after dinner and we got to watch a fireworks extravaganza which rivaled the Boston Pops Fourth of July Fireworks show. Just past the bridge to Newburyport, the city would launch fireworks and because of where our boat was docked, we had the best seats in the house! 

No, that grill isn't on.

    Yankee Homecoming also meant that summer was coming to an end because it was held in late August. So, we often made the most of the remaining days on the water by visiting with friends, going to the local arcade, shopping across the river and of course fishing. 

    These days, the tradition continues as we still have the boat we spent so many great weekends on and my parents still put it in the water every year. My parents may have slown down a bit with the boating adventures. However, the boating expeditions still continue from time to time and I still see the people who made every summer at the marina so very memorable.

    It's hard for me to describe just how much going to the marina meant to me. I liked being on the water and I never, ever got seasick. To this day when I head to the docks a flood of memories come back to me like it was just yesterday. I can almost hear my friends greeting me as I walk down to our boat. I just had so many good times there that it's hard to pick just one story to talk about. There's just something about the sea air and the people you hang around with that make the most memorable experiences. 

Plus, I got to hear stories of my mom growing up in Newburyport with some context. I mean her home city was right there! Kinda hard to miss. 

    I may never have gone camping. But, boating was definitely the next best thing.

See ya next time!