52 Ancestors Week 39: Surprise

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 39

The theme for Week 39 is "Surprise." Genealogy can be filled with surprises, both good and bad. This week, write about something that was surprising to you or that would have been surprising to your ancestors.

Who will it be next week? Your father's uncle's cousin's former
roommate?

    Surprises can come around every corner while you're on your genealogical adventure and believe it or not they can happen more frequently if you have a tree on WikiTree.com. I know I might be a little biased considering I have a rather extensive tree there. It's all good because while the site has a collection of wonderful and talented people working on a singular world tree, it is also great for cousin bait. Just this last week I had a huge surprise of my own and it all started with just one page.

Welcome to Wikitree.net. It's dot com!

        This is Domenico Marinaro and he was one of the many Italians featured in the book, "Italians in Haverhill". Like my great-grandparents, Domenico was born in San Pietro a Maida and immigrated to Haverhill, Massachusetts in the 1910s. So, naturally I have this guy in two one place studies AND in the Italians in Haverhill study. The overlap happens more times than I care to count!

    Domenico was the brother-in-law of my 2nd great-grandmother Caterina's cousin, Giovanni. I think I'd better slow down before this gets even more convoluted. I know we're all connected, but, sometimes there's a tangled web. And what a web this is!

    According to the book, the family stayed in New York for a couple of years before moving to Haverhill to be near family. That was pretty much the extent of his biography until I got an email last week about Domenico from his granddaughter, "Zelda".  The names are once again changed to protect the innocent!

    

    Zelda found the profile by chance and sent me an e-mail asking me why her grandfather was on WikiTree and if I wanted information. Naturally, I jumped at the chance for more information. I wanted to be as accurate as possible with these things and leave absolutely no room for error. All I knew was that he was in the Italians in Haverhill book and that he was a tailor by trade. I even found that one of his sons was killed in action in Europe.  Little did I know that things went a LITTLE deeper than that! You might say it was written in my genetic code.

DNA does not lie.

    Out of curiosity, I decided to see if I matched Zelda on Ancestry since she mentioned that she took a DNA test there. I figured "Why not?". What's the harm in looking? Well, it turned out that I share a mighty 15 cMs across 1 with her while my dad shares 17 across 1. I thought that was cool and then came the biggest surprise. My great-aunt Nicolina shares a whopping 32 cMs across 2 segments with Zelda! Was I blown away? You bet I was. How could I not be? It's rare that a DNA match would find me on WikiTree and Zelda didn't even know we were cousins. I think the evidence is clear here.

    I told Zelda that we were cousins and I wish I could've seen her face when she read the e-mail. She seemed to be very happy about it as she had wondered about my connection to her grandfather. That prompted her to send me a few pictures of the family while I tried to figure out what our connection could be.

    The only Marinaro connection I've found so far is my 4th great-grandmother, Domenica Marinaro. She was the mother of Pietro Francesco Gullo and I haven't been able to find her birth in the San Pietro archives, yet. That isn't to say there aren't many Marinaros in there. No, no. There are a ton! I just haven't found any other direct Marinaro ancestors.

    With all this talk about DNA and everything, I asked her how much she shared with a few DNA matches she and Nicolina share. Seemed like a logical step, right? I needed to find where she fit in the grand scheme of things and I was a little shocked by some of the findings.

    Zelda said her largest of the matches I asked about was a woman who shared over 100 cMs with her. That woman, as it turns out, is a third cousin of my great-aunt. That cousin descends from Frank Coppola, son of Giovanni.

    When I told my new cousin about that connection, she told me that a Frank Coppola was in her father's address book. She had no idea who that man was and as it turns out we have a few other Coppola cousins in common. As you can imagine, the gears in my head were turning!

The connection is somewhere in this
tree.

    In no time at all I finally got a place where I could potentially look for my connection! I made a tree on Ancestry and transferred it over to WikiTree with Zelda's blessing of course. From what I can see, I will have to see if I can find Bruno Marinaro's parents or Elisabetta Marinaro's parents.

    Then again, the connection might not even be in the Marinaro side of things at all! We could connect on her grandmother Angelina DeSando's side. I think that would make more sense because Nicolina and Zelda share some matches who connect at Domenico Desando and Angela Maria Timpano.

    When you match someone at 32 cMs, anything is possible!

    At any rate, this surprising discovery has opened up some insight into the pretty barren Coppola and Gullo trees I have. For all I know, I could match her on both trees since endogamy is a thing in Italian towns. It remains to be seen where we connect. For now, the best I can do is of course e-mail San Pietro a Maida's commune office and go to Haverhill city hall to make sure I have the Desando parents right and everything. I've been reassured that it's correct. It never hurts to ask!!

I've lost count how many people I connect with
in this book. I think I'm at like 60.

    Surprises are around every corner in your family tree and you can't really help but discover a few from time to time. Sometimes those surprises find you when you least expect it. If you have a tree online, you're bound to run into a surprise every now and then! The most surprises, of course, come from DNA testing. Some just happen by sheer coincidence. Zelda was surfing on the Internet and was surprised to find her grandfather on WikiTree and that a distant cousin was managing his profile.Talk about a surprise for her, right? Many more are out there. So, it's best to be prepared and take it in stride.

See ya next time!

"Italians in Haverhill" is property of Arcadia Publishing. Image comes from page 101.

52 Ancestors Week 38: Adversity

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 38

The theme for Week 38 is "Adversity." All of our families have had to face adversity at some point. Recognizing their struggles helps us recognize their humanity.

LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE!

        Adversity is this week's theme, huh? I don't know where to begin to tell you the truth. Every family has indeed had to struggle with something at some point in their lives. That's definitely the case when you look at the life of an immigrant and the uphill battle they had to endure in order to make a better life for themselves and their family. Life wasn't always fun, games and a neverending pasta bowl for Italian immigrants. Ugh. I can't believe I just referenced "The Olive Garden". Moving on....

Giuseppe and Clementina!

    On the surface it may appear that my great-grandparents, Giuseppe Carrabs and Clementina Forgione were the greatest example of the immigrant story. They came to America with their daughter Jenny in the 1910s and settled on Bartlett Street in Haverhill where they raised their family. Simple, right?

   Not really. A big part of the immigrant story is the fact that they had to learn the language of the land they immigrated to if they had any hopes of thriving there. I'm not sure how long it took them or any other Italian immigrant in my tree to learn English to tell you the truth. I can say that the process was hard because English is a hard language to master and some Italians like Giuseppe's brother, Rocco, never spoke a word of English! 

    It's true. Everyone I've talked to said that Rocco never spoke English or that his English was fractured. I'm not sure why he never learned. But, I can say that Giuseppe and his other brother Pasquale definitely knew some English by the time my father came around. I like to think that Rocco knew some English. He just preferred to speak to people in Italian. That's my story and I'm sticking with it!

Rocco's on the far left and Pasquale
on the far right.

    Language barriers aside an Italian immigrant had to also find work in the new land in order to make ends meet while learning the language. Giuseppe found himself employed by the Pentucket bank as a janitor after serving in World War I. Eventually, he even became one of the founders of the Haverhill Italian Credit Union.

   I would think that being a member of a union let alone a FOUNDER could have caused some adversity for him in the 1920s and 1930s. People weren't always kind to Italian immigrants back then and so he likely had to deal with prejudice as tension in Europe eventually erupted into open warfare. 

    The rough times didn't seem to bother Giuseppe too much as America entered the second World War and once again anti-immigrant sentiment reared its ugly head. He did serve the army again as an Air Warden and I'm sure Uncle Sam was more than happy to get a few Italians enlisted into the service. Though, being a member of a union probably would have caused people to bat an eyelash or two. I would love to see if there are articles about the union and my great-grandfather's role in the organization. Next time I go to the Haverhill public library, I'll be sure to check them out!

    The third hurdle an Italian immigrant had to face along with the language and getting a job is finding a social group that shares his or her common interests. The first Italian immigrants had to have had it rough because no one around knew any Italian and they probably felt a little isolated. 

    Giuseppe and Clementina came to America in the 1910s. You can imagine that the Italian population in Haverhill at the time was small. What did they do for companionship? Were they just going to talk to each other all night after he came home from the bank?

    Sadly, I'm not sure who their FAN club was aside from Rocco and Pasquale. They must have socialized with them before the community began to thrive in Haverhill. It must have been tough to make friends since Rocco was in Melrose and Pasquale was in Everett and those towns are a good distance from Haverhill. I hope they visited each other frequently!

    Thankfully, there was a growing Italian population in the city and the two likely made fast friends with other Italian immigrants. Part of me wonders if they ever talked to my other great-grandparents, Vincenzo and Maria before my grandparents got married. You never know. A group of fellow immigrants may have made the adversities not seem so challenging because in the end they thrived and despite everything they made great lives for themselves.

   Adversity happens in every family tree and unfortunately today's immigrants have the same struggles to contend with as my great-grandparents. History tends to repeat itself and we need to remember that it wasn't always easy for our ancestors living in a strange new land. If we keep that in mind, maybe we can use the lessons of the past to make a brighter future.

See ya next time!

52 Ancestors Week 37: Prosperity

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 37

The theme for Week 36 is "Prosperity." Prosperity is the condition of being successful or thriving. Of course, how one defines "successful" or "thriving" can be personal! Feel free to interpret the prompt however you'd like.

Or you could avoid the shoals of bankruptcy and seek the
strong winds of prosperity if you're a Ferengi.

         Prosperity can mean a lot of things to different people as evidenced by the header I created for this week's blog. In Star Trek, you have prosperity meaning both a long life and profit for two very different alien races. I like to think of prosperity as having a rich, full life with plenty of friends and family around to share everything with. After all what's the sense of having a ton of money if no one's around to enjoy it with you?  Wow, I would be the worst Ferengi ever. It's okay. Those huge ears are an acquired taste just like the ones Vulcans have. They are logical race though and there are several people in my family tree who have definitely lived long and prospered!

   Take my great-aunt Nicolina Ferraiolo for example. She was born in the Calabrian town of San Pietro a Maida in 1923 to Vincenzo Ferraiolo and Maria Tedesco. She lived to be ninety-nine years old! That is an incredibly long lifetime if you think about it. Can you imagine all the things she had seen and done over the course of her life? It's crazy to think about it!

    In just ninety-nine years, she witnessed humanity taking flight and eventually landing on the Moon. Diseases that once plagued her peers while growing up were eradicated. Distances between her home town and her home in Tennessee were made incredibly shorter thanks to the complex system of tubes you're reading this blog on. ;) 

    That's just the tip of the iceberg. A century is a long time and in that time so much of your world can change. A lot of people probably have asked her what her secret was to a long life. She would have probably said "Easy living and just taking it slow". Then again genetics probably had something to do with it!!

    The key to long life has always been something we as humans have always sought. Is it "clean living"? Is it "laying low" and just let world events occur? The answer to that is a bit beyond my paygrade as I am not a philosopher. But, I can tell you that longevity does seem to run on the Ferraiolo side of the family tree.

Ciao!

    Nicolina's aunt Concetta Ferraiolo was born on October 9th 1912 in San Pietro and passed away on March 5th, 2005 in Switzerland. She has the honor of being the longest lived child of my 2nd great-grandparents, Marco Ferraiolo and Caterina Coppola. At this point I'm beginning to wonder if there's something in the water in San Pietro which promotes long life. In that case, I should book a flight!!

    However, prosperty is more than just living a long life, right? Right! There's more to it than that. The Ferraiolo families all had many children and made their homes all around the world in places like Haverhill, Rome, Switzerland and in Argentina. Some stayed behind in Italy and had their own prosperous life. In the end, it's up to a person to decide if their live is prosperous as it's a subjective term. What's prosperous for one person can mean many things to somebody else.

    With that said, I think Nicolina was prosperous in both aspects. She had her own antique business which kept her living quite well and she had a large family scattered around the world. Once I came into contact with the family in Europe, she often asked me to ask them how things were going and I would report back on any family news or any other events. I was basically the go-between between Europe and her house! And I was happy to do it since her eyesight had been failing by the time I came into contact with my European family.

    What surprised me the most about the prosperity in the Ferraiolo line was this picture. The little girl in the photo is still alive and we talk on Facebook quite often. The people behind her are my 2nd great-grandparents, Marco Ferraiolo and Caterina Coppola! This photograph was taken some time in the early 1950s according to my cousin Adriana, who by the way is the girl in the photograph! I think she said she was like two or three at the time. Marco was born in 1868 and Caterina was born in 1870.

      You can definitely say that Marco and Caterina were very prosperous. I wish I could say why they were prosperous. Maybe I don't need to. Maybe I can just let the evidence speak for itself! They had a huge family who were spread out all over the world. Whether or not they stayed in touch is unknown. However, I do know that Concetta and Adriana's mother, Rosa made it a point to try and keep in contact with their sister Caterina's family in Argentina. Plus, I remember my cousin Caterina telling me that her grandmother often talked about her brother and sister in a little city called Haverhill. You might have heard of it. ;) I wonder if they kept in touch.

    Keeping in touch in those days were tricky, I admit. Can you imagine a trans-Atlantic phone bill in like the 1990s before the Internet became a thing?! Thankfully, the Internet is here to save the day and our wallets. I haven't been able to locate the family in Argentina. But, I'm sure I will some day. It'll just take time and probably a little bit of luck! Posting about this on the Internet certainly doesn't hurt!

    At the end of the day, it seems that prosperity in my family means a rich life that has little to do with riches. It's more about the people who you surround yourself with. That's really the secret to prosperity. Sure you may live a long life like my great-aunt or my grandfather Robert. But, Aaprosperous life should be a good, long life surrounded by people who genuinely care about you because riches can be turned into rags in a blink of an eye. That's definitely what they had in spades! Hmm..How logical. .Perhaps I am a Vulcan after all. Fascinating.

 See ya next time! Peace and long life. Live long and prosper!

52 Ancestors Week 36: Tradesman

From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 36

The theme for Week 36 is "Tradesman." Monday is Labor Day in the US. This is a good week to write about someone in your family tree who followed a trade. (Or, if you want to be more in the spirit of Labor Day, write about someone involved in the labor movement.)

Workin' 9 to 5....

    Finding just one tradesman in my family tree to talk about is a tricky feat in and of itself. If you look at my tree really closely you'll find tradesmen of all sorts from laborers in Italy to farmers in Quebec. It's as blue collar as you can get. Even my father, who is a dentist, has been no stranger to power tools. The same could be said for my mother who worked as a medical technologist and has helped my father with various household projects. That type of background is very common here in New England and has been for centuries. Immigrants brought their work ethic and skills to work in places like the various mills in cities along the Merrimack river. Their descendants picked up on those skills and those skills would be passed on for generations. However, if I were to pick someone on my tree who was really a "Jack-of -all- trades", I'd have to pick my great-grandfather Alfred Francis Hamel.

    Alfred was the son of two French-Canadian immigrants, Eugène Thomas Hamel and Marie Célanise Lefebvre and once his tour of duty in World War One ended, he opened a "Fix-it" shop in the city of Newburyport on Temple Street before moving to Inn Street.

    The shop would be open up until he passed away in 1962 and while he was there he would fix various things such as appliances. He was so good at his job that everyone who knew him ended up calling him "Mr. Fix It". He was just that good at tinkering with and repairing anything anyone might have broken. I wonder if he'd have been good at fixing computers. Probably.

    While I'm not sure if he was a member of a union or not, you can bet that he likely sided with them. If only they knew if he really DID repair boats during Prohibition. The statute of limitations is LONG over. I think it'd be okay to come forward with that information.

    In any case, Alfred was clearly loved by his community. His obituary from the Newburyport Daily News on April 11th, 1962 is evidence of that as great care was done in making sure the community never forgot the man they called "Mr. Fix-It".

    I'll be honest in saying it was quite hard to read through it all because one of his good friends found him dead in his home on Plum Island. That's not an end anyone should have. No one should die alone like that. It's just very sad, you know.

    At least he was remembered by all who knew him because this obituary outlined his many accomplishments from serving on the Mexican border in the first World War to being a sailor in World War II. Aside from his military honors, the author of the obituary later spent a great deal of time discussing his visit shop. The obituary here is just the first part!

    The second page talked about the shop and how he was even involved in municipal affairs in Newburyport and Plum Island. He was active with the Plum Island Tax Payers and Associates and even ran for City Council a couple times. It's a shame he never got elected. I totally would have voted for him. Curse the fact that I was born in the late 1970s! Wait. I take that back. I loved growing up in the 1980s and 1990s.

    While he was known around town as Mr. Fix-It, the obituary didn't mention his other business ventures. My mother often talked about how he made keys and was a locksmith. In fact, when she and her siblings were young, he'd make them keys for them to play with. I just hope none of them started a car. Then again cars were like tanks back then and required an engineering degree just to get in the door. "Built Ford Tough" indeed.

        At the time of his death, my great-grandfather was also a member of a number of organizations such as the Disasbled American Veterans and the American Legion. Speaking of the American Legion, he also played in that group's band. I wonder if that was where my Uncle Bob got his musical talent! You never know!

    In any case, it's clear that Alfred Hamel was a jack-of -all- trades. He literally did everything from being a soldier to being a humble repairman who everyone seemed to like. His death on Plum Island may have been sad. But, at least he left a mark in the hearts of the community.

        He clearly worked hard and that work ethic was passed down to his children and was ultimately passed down to me. Now, am I good with tools? Eh....No. I think my wood shop experiments from junior high is evidence that I should probably stay away from tools. Still, it's great to learn about a great jack- of- all- trades like my great-grandfather. I may not be as skilled as he was. But. I do have other sets of skills. ;)

See ya next time!