52 Ancestors Week 43: Dig a Little Deeper

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 43

The theme for Week 43 is "Dig a Little Deeper." Answers don't always come easily in genealogy. This week, what is something you had to dig a little deeper than usual to find?

That's....quite a hole.

        When you start out on your genealogical adventure, you tend to take whatever help you can get on the Internet be it from a Facebook group or even from a forum. For the most part people have been more than willing to help me out of a jam or two and I've had a moderate degree of success. However, there have been some instances where I've had to take matters into my own hands and dig a little deeper to find the information I was looking for.

    In 2017, I started talking to a man named Giuseppe Bova on Facebook about my family in San Pietro a Maida. Giuseppe worked at the commune office there and he would bring back all sorts of information for me. In one of his trips, he told me that my 2nd great-grandfather Antonio Tedesco's parents were Tommaso Tedesco and Angela Gatto. 

    I didn't want to push him for more information as I didn't want to make more more work for the guy. Luckily, he gave me the ages of Antonio's parents at the time of his birth. That gave me a ballpark figure for where to look for their own birth records. Antonio's birth record said the following:

Antonio Tommaso Tedesco, born 23 Jul 1876 to Tommaso Tedesco aged 26 and Angela Gatto aged 21. This meant that Tommaso was born in 1850 and Angela in 1855/56.

    Now, I didn't have access to San Pietro's records at the time this information was given to me. So, I decided to do something which was probably not the best idea I ever had. There's a forum on the Internet which specializes in Italian genealogy and I sought their help in finding the records. Were they helpful? Well, yes and no....

Tommaso Tedesco's birth record!

     Users on the forum found Tommaso's birth record easily enough. I thanked them and asked about finding Angela. Surely that would have been an easy find. "Gatto" wasn't a common last name. One user said that I had to have meant "Gullo" since "gatto" is "cat" in Italian. He said he found an Angela Gullo who was probably Tommaso's wife.

    I didn't want to fight with the user and said that while it's true that "gatto" meant "cat", the last name was in fact Gatto. I explained that the commune office gave me the name and everything.

    He told me that they probably misread everything and gave me a few other excuses along with the actual document. I looked at the record and I felt something strange in my throat. It was like I was being force choked by Darth Vader himself! I thanked him for his time and went about my business. I didn't want to tell him about the "force choke". But, that was a great indication that the information they gave me was wrong. I usually get a "spider sense" when I see wrong information. Never mind a "force choke". That information must have been incredibly wrong.

    Of course I wasn't about to explain my misgivings to those people. They probably would have laughed me out of the webpage and if it's one thing I learned early on in my days on the Internet  it's that you need to have a very thick skin when dealing with certain people. So, what did I do? Well, I took the Gullo data and make pages for them on WikiTree. It seemed like the best thing to do.

    

    I mean it wasn't a total loss, right? I do have Gullos in my tree and I MAY be connected to her and the hundred or so other Gullos in San Pietro a Maida. I just didn't feel right adding her as a mother to Antonio. Something just didn't sit right with me and I couldn't explain what it was to anyone.

    Once that was settled, I decided to take it upon myself to try and find Antonio's mother. I had a rough date of 1855 to work with and dogged determination on my side.

  

    My friend Kathy eventually showed me the San Pietro birth records from 1855 and I went to work hoping I could find the woman I was looking for. I knew she existed and I KNEW her last name was Gatto and not Gullo like the users in that forum assumed.

    In order to put the spelling issue to bed, I e-mailed the commune office asking for a notarized version of Antonio's birth record. In no time at all, they gave me the document and in high res black and white it said his parents were Tommaso Tedesco and Angela Gatto. I uhh...don't think it gets any more official than that, my friends.

FINALLY!

    Anyway, I looked through 1855 and I sadly didn't find Angela there. I did find my "friend" Angela Gullo fairly early on, though. I mean she was born in February so of course her record would be among the first for the year. I sat back in my chair wondering if she was actually born in 1856. The years you're given in those records are estimates after all. So, I decided to give 1856 a shot since it was clear the forum users never thought to look there.

      I found an Angela Gatto born on March 7th, 1856 in San Pietro to Antonio Gatto and Maria Ciancio. Her record also told me that Antonio's father was a man named Gennaro. That was a lot of useful information. Now I just needed proof that she was actually Antonio's mother even though it seemed pretty obvious to me.

    It seemed obvious because after checking 1857 and even 1854 I found no other baby born in San Pietro with the name "Angela Gatto". And you can see on the document that it was speelt g-a-t-t-o. I don't see a "u" there. Do you? Sorry if I sound punchy but I would think the commune office would know what they were talking about. They would not give me wrong information and if they did, they'd immediately correct any errors they made.

    Another thing to note was the names. Granted sometimes Italians didn't  always play by the naming conventions of naming a child after a parent or grandparent. However, there's too much of a concidence here. Antonio Gatto would be Antonio Tedesco's grandfather, right? And Maria Ciancio would in turn be  Antonio's daughter Maria Tedesco's great-grandmother, right? There's too much of a concidence here. She had to be the droid I was looking for.

    In order to seal the deal, I emailed the commune office and asked them if they could provide me with Tommaso Tedesco and Angela Gatto's marriage record. I figure they were probably married around 1874 or 1875 at the latest given when Antonio was born and what I know about him and his siblings. Seemed like a good place to start.

    As far as the forum goes, I haven't been back there since the whole Gatto/Gullo thing and I don't think I'll ever go back. I have other means of finding documents now and I have friends who won't give up so easily. Now, don't get me wrong. I have found some great things on that site. They just seem to rub me the wrong way and this honestly wasn't the first time they led me astray. That's a story for another time. I don't want to turn this into a hate blog! It just goes to show you that you should always be careful where you get help on the Internet. Lesson WELL learned.

So glad I finally found her. When I did, my throat didn't hurt and I felt a warm feeling come over me. No idea what that was. But, I'm gonna go see if I'm force-sensitive now. 

See ya next time!

52 Ancestors Week 42: Friends

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 42

The theme for Week 42 is "Friends." We all get by with a little (or a lot) of help from our friends. What about the friends of your ancestors? What about a friend who has helped you with your genealogy?

So no one told you life was going to be this way....

    Having been on the Internet since the 1990s, I've met all sorts of people I'm proud to call friends. From the message boards where I discussed comics with fans of various comic books to fellow video producers who have been gracious enough to provide tips and even a friendly ear from time to time. Friends are amazing and no one can tell me "online friends" aren't just as good as friends in person. Sure you can't do many of the things friends can do face to face if they are online. However, it doesn't mean they can't help you out of a jam.

Is that a tree or an atomical model?

    On the genealogy front, I've made some great friends over at WikiTree. You can't help but be a part of the larger community over there. As I've discussed many times before, people on that site are always happy to help with any genealogical problem you might have. It's a great place and I honestly can't say I've had an unpleasant experience there. As someone who has been around the Internet for a long time, I've seen my fair share of drama. Still, WikiTree isn't the only place you'll find genealogy friends. Sometimes one or two might show up where you least expect it.

    I've also been a user of the website, Familysearch and from time to time I've had to lock horns with people who for some reason or another could never see the forest for the trees no matter how hard you tried to explain things to them. Let's just say I've had to deal with some very strange people.  At least one person on Familysearch has been nice to me and now I call her one of my best genealogy friends. Though, it didn't quite start out that way.

    Back in July of 2017, I added this Francesco Tedesco to my tree and created a profile on WikiTree for him. I assumed he was an ancestor or a relative of my great-grandmother, Maria Tedesco. I let things simmer for a couple days and went about my business when suddenly I got a message on Familysearch about that profile! 

    A woman named Trish messaged me stating that there was no way Francesco was a relative of Maria since she was born in San Pietro a Maida and he was born in Santa Caterina dello Ionio. The two towns are a good hour away from each other on opposite sides of Calabria! I was a little confused. Thankfully, she was the calmer of the two of us!

    We exchanged messages back and forth and it turned out that Francesco was one of her ancestors. I was shocked to say the least and apologized profusely. I never meant anything by connecting him to my tree.  This is why it's hard to research anyone with the last name "Tedesco". It's a VERY common Italian name. It's basically Italy's version of "Smith"! Other Italian names like "Coppola" come in at a close second.

1850 birth of Tommaso Tedesco.

    Trish assured me that it was no big deal and no harm was done. Mistakes happen all the time while you're working on a collaborative tree and like I said Tedesco is a common last name. I laughed and agreed with her. One time someone had seriously messed up my second great-grandparents Antoine Legault and Lucie Cadran and made a HUGE mess on Familysearch. Somehow Antoine became the son of his father-in-law.

    I explained that I was trying to research the Italian town of San Pietro a Maida and I thought Francesco was a connection. Trish then offered to help me research the town since at the time I had no way of actually looking at the records. San Pietro's records are locked behind a firewall where you can only see them if you're at a FS affiliate library and they are currently not on Antenati. To make matters worse, it's hard for me to get to an affiliate library or a Familycenter since they are pretty far away from here. I think the closest is in Boston!

       Anyway, I gave Trish my blessing to see what she could find in San Pietro. I didn't expect much. I figured I'd get one or two documents and she'd be tired of helping me. At worst, I felt like maybe she'd give me one document and say the next five would cost me. You can't blame me for being skeptical! I've had to deal with shady characters online. One guy even told me to "pick a Tedesco to be your ancestor" on a genealogy forum. Shady, much? Eh, I've seen shadier and thankfully Trish proved me wrong! So very wrong!

1843 birth of Rosa Suverato.

    Not only did Trish research and email me various documents concerning my direct Ferraiolo line, she researched and found documents for the Tedesco family, Coppolas and countless other profiles. She single-handedly pushed my Ferraiolo line back to the late 1700s in San Pietro and provided much needed sources for almost all of the San Pietro lines and their extended families.

    THAT was a lot of work and I was impressed, for sure. I have to admit her work inspired me to create the San Pietro a Maida One Place Study! As you can imagine, I was beyond grateful for all of her help and I was glad that one user on Familysearch wasn't a jerk. 

    Our friendship didn't end there, though. To this day we talk back and forth about various discoveries we've made and some personal stuff. We update each other on what we've been doing and every once in a while she would dive back into the San Pietro records for me and come back with another juicy nugget of information I would have never found.

    She was actually the one who discovered Francesco Coppola for me and that discovery eventually led to a huge brick wall coming down. Francesco was the son of Giovanni Coppola and the brother of the Giovanni Coppola who went to Haverhill, Mass. To make a long story short, that Francesco's grandfather, Francesco turned out to be my 4th great-grandfather! Without her help, I probably wouldn't have found out about him until much later.

1812 birth of Marcantonio Ferraiolo

    I could tell you more about what Trish found. But, the results speak for themselves. She has been a tremendous help at a time when I was honestly skeptical of some of the help I was getting at the time. I was just restarting my genealogical adventure when I met her and I already crossed paths with some strange people. I didn't know what to expect and I for one am glad Trish showed up when she did because chances are I'd have been more than a little jaded about working with others on a project!

    She can't take all of the credit. People on WikiTree were nice to me as well and still are. My experience elsewhere on the Internet may have altered my perceptions on certain people. However, I've found that for the most part the genealogy community online has been pretty decent. Like Mr. Rogers says "Look for the helpers."

    I'm forever grateful that she jumpstarted my research in San Pietro because not only did she give me documents, she imparted some very good words of wisdom and hey she appreciates my sene of humor, too. So, that's a plus!

    Finding good friends on the Internet is hard sometimes and thankfully I've found many who have been kind, made me laugh and offered advice. They never judge and have always been there. Good friends can be found all over the world. You just need to find them and a group of people who you can connect with. They're out there! And who knows? Maybe someone you once crossed paths with while making a huge mistake will one day become one of your good friends. Hopefully!

See ya next time!

52 Ancestors Week 41: Travel

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 41

The theme for Week 41 is "Travel." Travel impacted our ancestors in numerous ways, including migrating, traveling as part of a job, and traveling for vacation. What about any genealogical travels that you've taken?

Oh, the places you'll go.

    It's hard to believe that the last time I wrote a travel blog was during the height of the pandemic. Back then we couldn't go anywhere and we had to travel using our imagination. Imagination can take you just about anywhere. Though, I do admit actually being in a place is probably a lot better than just dreaming about the places you want to go. The last time I wrote about traveling, I talked about how my great-grandfather, Vincenzo Ferraiolo traveled back and forth between Haverhill and his hometown of San Pietro a Maida. This time we're going to do things a little differently. So, pack your bags because we're going on a little trip!

    While I would love to go to Italy, I'm not sure it's possible at this time. That isn't to say I don't want to go. I definitely do! Who wouldn't want to check out the castle in Gesualdo before going to San Pietro a Maida? Forget the Colosseum and all the other touristy places! I'd be the guy who ditches the tour group and makes a break for the Italian countryside! SAN PIETRO HERE I COME!!

   

    Nah. I wouldn't do anything like that. That'd be crazy and could potentially spark an international incident. I think the world has enough problems at the moment. I tell you what I would do. I'd totally stop those tourists who have been carving their names into the priceless and ancient monuments. Who does that?! Jerks. That's who. Careless jerks with no class or a sense of history.

    If I can't travel to Italy at the moment, I can do the next best thing. What do you say we travel around Haverhill and check out the places my ancestors lived? We don't have to travel too far! Well, I don't anyway.

        I know it's probably feels like I'm cheating a bit by traveling to the city that's the next town over. However, that's where most my genealogical adventures take me. All roads really DO lead to Haverhill and that's fine because it makes life so much easier. For this week's blog, though, let's look at the houses I've never featured in the blog before. That should make things a little interesting.

Good a shot as I can get.

     Our first stop is 36 Pilling Street where Vincenzo and his family lived at the time of the 1930 census. I'm not sure if the house changed much since those days because the Ferraiolos did not live there that long. By the 1940 census they were living on Irving Avenue, which is 2.1 miles away from this house.

    The house here looks pretty cool. I just wish the tree wasn't blocking the rest of the shot. It can't be helped, I guess. Perhaps on my next genealogical trip to Haverhill city hall I can ask for a bit of a history on the house. I'm not sure who lives there now and I'm not going to check Whitepages.com to find out! Eh, I'm sure they're nice people. Though, they probably wouldn't care about the historical significance of this place.

    This old house was the first place in America where Vincenzo, Maria, Marco and Nicolina all lived and I would love to check it out in person. It's one thing to take a look at it on Google Earth. It's another thing to just be there. The odd thing is my father never drove past it in our trips around Haverhill. It was always one of Vincenzo's other houses that he pointed out along with my grandmother's house.

    While we have seen Grandma Ollie's house plenty of times in this blog, there's another house which also has some historical significance to my family. This time we're going 2.9 miles away from Irving Ave to 134 Spruce street to the home of my third great-grandparents, Jeremiah Felker and Elizabeth Fellows.

    I have to say it was a bit of a challenge finding this place. Not long after the 1880 census this part of Spruce street became part of East Broadway and it was here that Felkers raised their children and grandson, Austin. By the 1900 census, the house resided at 63 East Broadway and who knows if this is what the house looked like back then.

    Haverhill underwent so many changes over the years that it's hard to say which houses remained the same. There may have been additions, removals and even new paint jobs. It's hard to say. I will have to ask my great-aunt Elaine if she has any pictures of this house as it appeared in various time periods because I would love to see how it looked back then. I can almost guarantee the house wouldn't have an air conditioning unit sticking out of the window.

    Still, this area is significant to my family as this was the first place the Felkers in Haverhill called home before going off to Margerie street. I think I have pictures of that house somewhere. I'll be sharing it sooner or later.

    You may have noticed that I forgot to talk about the house Antoine Legault and Lucie Cadran called home. Yeah. There's a reason for that.  They lived on Water street across from Pentucket cemetery and their house is now a Sunoco gas station. That's unfortunate.

    Don't worry. All isn't lost! Just around the corner from their old house is Lucie's last residence at 118 How Street. This house was actually the home of her daughter Blanche in the 1930s and it is unfortunately the place where Lucie passed away in 1937.

    After her death, Blanche and her sister Henrietta moved just up the street to a two family home. I'm not sure how long they stayed there as she and Austin lived in that house on Margerie Street for a very long time.

    I wish I could see more of How Street because at one point my 2nd great-grandmother Gertrude Stevens lived at 36 How Street according to the 1900 census and now the road is considerably shorter than it was in the past. Yay for urban renewal, huh? I'm beginning to wonder if there's anything truly untouched by city planners in Haverhill! Eh, there are a few historical landmarks that have been left alone. FOR NOW! Who knows what the future will bring?

    Maybe the next time I'm at city hall I can convince everyone that these places have great historical significance! To me, anyway. Yeah....That'll go over real well, right?  They'll have me committed.

    While it would be beyond amazing to travel to Italy, a short trip around Haverhill would be just as fun. It wouldn't take long to go to each of these houses and thanks to Google Maps, I could get there pretty quickly. I just hope the current residents wouldn't mind their pictures of their houses being on the Internet. I'm sure I can explain everything to them. I hope!!

    I love to travel because I like going to new places and seeing these houses makes family history seem more real to me. Facts and figures are good and everything. But, seeing pictures and  the actual buildings everyone lived in would be equally amazing. 

    I do wonder something, though. I wonder if someone in San Pietro could find the Ferraiolo house there and take a pic! I hope that house is still standing! I know the Tedesco one is at least. Dare to dream, Chris. Or at least buy a plane ticket to Italy!

See ya next time!

All Google Earth images are property of Google.

52 Ancestors Week #40: Longevity

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 40

The theme for Week 40 is "Longevity." Longevity doesn't have to be about someone who lived a long time. It could be anything that lasted longer than usual, such as a family business or a marriage Be creative with the prompt!

A lot can happen in fifty years.

    Marriage. Marriage is what brings us together today. That blessed arrangement. That dream within a dream. You know, I could seriously do that whole bit from "The Princess Bride" but I won't because we'd be here all day and some of us just might want to skip to the end. While some people in my family tree have lived a long time as I've discussed a few weeks ago, others have been married for ages. I thought I would talk about one couple in particular and my experience being at their fiftieth wedding anniversary party.

Everyone smile and say "CHEESE"!

    My grandparents, Robert Hamel and Natalie Felker were married on his birthday in 1948. From what I understand the bridal party, including my grandmother, actually made their dresses. The guys? Well, they were out of luck and had to buy their tuxes from the precursor to "Gentlemen's Warehouse". They liked the way they looked. I guarantee it!

    What I like most about this photo is how hopeful about the future everyone looked and I get a bonus picture of my great-grandfather Austin  in the process! Can't beat that! He looks dapper in that tux!

   Let's now go fifty years into the future! It is the spring of 1998. "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" and "Star Trek: Voyager"  had just wrapped up their sixth and fourth seasons, respectively. Semisonic's "Closing Time" was topping the Billboard Music charts and I had just finished my freshman year at Merrimack College. A lot had changed for Robert and Natalie since that late spring day in 1948. I bet the couple in photograph had no idea what the future held for them.

Livin' it up in the late '90s!

    By the spring of 1998, my grandparents had six children and nine grandchildren with the tenth arriving in that July. At that point, we were spread out all over the country. Some of the family still lived in the area while others had long since moved away. In fact, as an anniversary present, my parents gave them plane tickets to see my Aunt Peggy in California since she was very pregnant at the time and obviously couldn't make the trip.

    My Uncle Brian also couldn't make it since he was living in Idaho at the time. So, my grandparents visited him on their way to visit Peggy in California. Not a bad deal, right? Eventually Peggy and her family moved to New Hampshire and we see them every now and then.

    Despite missing a few family members, we were all invited to the anniversary party at my great-aunt Elaine's house in Haverhill. It always goes back to Haverhill, doesn't it? Well, when your family's lived in the same place for a long time it's bound to happen. You can't help but be drawn to the place where your family came from! There's another "longevity" point for you! Both sides of my family have been in the "Queen Slipper" city for a very, VERY long time and there's nothing wrong with that!

That's a look that says
"Bob! Take the picture already!"

    One of the things I remember the most about my great-aunt's house was how inviting it was. I remember seeing pictures of her parents, Austin and Henrietta on the walls of her sun room along with pictures of the Dupré cousins. Sadly, I didn't have time to really look at all of her photos and trust me she has many of them in albums and in boxes. I'll be looking at them more in depth soon enough!

    Elaine and her husband Richard  lived not too far from where she grew up. That part of Haverhill isn't as developed as say the street where Grandma Ollie  and her sisters lived since there was a large wooded area nearby. Haverhill is set up kind of differently from other cities. There's a booming downtown area where all the factories were. Those factories eventually became apartment buildings, offices, private businesses and schools. Then there's the more rural area where Elaine lives and it looks like suburbia. Haverhill tends to mix rural and urban together like most cities and towns in the Merrimack valley.

    I remember my great-aunt greeting me at the door and giving me a big hug and a kiss. She then asked me how my freshman year at college went. I thought that the family grapevine should have reached her by that point. I told her everything went well and I was ushered inside and wow there was a crowd!

    In fifty years, a couple can accumulate a ton of family and friends and my grandparents were no exception. I saw relatives I had not seen in years. I barely remembered their faces and in no time at all they greeted me like I saw them the week before the party. They obviously remembered me! I was taken aback by all the attention. That's what happens when you come from a large family. You get a lot of attetntion, hugs and maybe a conversation or two. After all of the meet and greets, my brother and I saw two of our cousins and hung out with them for the rest of the day.

Could this photo *BE*  any more '90s?.

   The four of us were easily the youngest people at the party since our other cousins couldn't make it. That didn't matter because we still had a great time talking to everyone about summer plans and everything. 

    My grandparents being the amiable people they were thanked us all for coming. They shared a few stories of how they met. Basically, my grandfather skated his way into her heart at Plum Island. True story. They met at a skating rink! 

    They exchanged gifts and took many pictures and some like the ones I've shared in this week's blog have found their way to me. The pictures were all in an album in one of the boxes my aunt Linda gave me during the pandemic. I spent a good while looking at the pictures and remembering the good time we all had in those years ago. That's what photographs are all about. They bring back memories of an event from from years past.

    All in all, it was a nice party because we got to be with family we hadn't seen in a very long time and catching up with people is always fun. It's sad that not everyone was able to make it. That's what pictures like these are for! To preserve memories and to tell stories. I don't remember if I asked my great-aunt about any juicy family history stuff or photos that day. Probably not because I wasn't really that deep into genealogy at that point! I probably should have as it was a great opportunity. Don't worry, though. I'll be talking to her soon!

    Anniversaries are an important milestone and fifty years of marriage is quite the accomplishment. My parents should have had a fiftieth anniversary themselves. Sadly, that was not to be because we were in the midst of a pandemic in 2021. I wonder if there's a precident for creating a 53rd anniversary party? Something to think about. Anyway, my grandparents marriage clearly stood the test of time and to me they always shared the love they had for each other with everyone around them from children to grandchildren. What good is an anniversary if you don't have a warm, caring family around to share it with? My grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary showed me that a family that truly loves each other can stand the test of time.

See ya next time!

I swear I have my grandfather's ears....