52 Ancestors Week 47: This Ancestor Stayed Home

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 47

The theme for Week 47 is "This Ancestor Stayed Home." Like last week, there are numerous ways to interpret this theme! Homemakers, ancestors who lived their entire lives in one place, and someone who lived in a "home," are just a few possibilities.

  In the past I’ve talked about various ancestors of mine who have lived most of their lives in Haverhill or in other places around the world. No one ever really went west to seek out gold in “them thar hills”. I don’t think anyone was ever really interested in the Gold Rush and some people went to California well after it was over! To each their own, I guess. This week, I wanted to talk about the life of the only Coppola sibling who stayed home in San Pietro a Maida while her brother and sister lived in Haverhill. Her name was Caterina Coppola and this is her story.

Marco, Caterina and 
Adriana.

 Born on August 28th, 1870 to Paolo Coppola and Rosa Suverato.  She was probably one of the oldest of the siblings as Concetta was born in 1882 and Paolo in 1886. I say “probably” because I’m uncertain how many children my third great-grandparents had. However, her mother was around twenty-seven years old when Caterina was born. So, it’s possible that Caterina was probably one of the oldest if not THE oldest. Make of it what you will!

Anyway, unlike her siblings she opted to not go to America and instead stayed home. She married Marco Ferraiolo in the 1890s and they had at least seven children together including my great-grandfather Vincenzo. Most of their children ended up moving to all corners of the globe to places like Haverhill, Argentina and Switzerland.

You’d think that would have been the end of the story. While it is true that most immigrants in those days never returned home, this was definitely not the case here.

Everyone stayed in touch with their parents via phone calls, letters and visits. I imagine there would have been group texts and Zoom calls too if the technology was available to them! Those visits must have cost them a pretty penny! Vincenzo even went back home to marry Maria Tedesco in 1921 and she wouldn’t go to America herself until 1929.

Paolo and his first wife, Lena.

Keeping in touch was clearly important to Caterina as she often told her grandchildren about her brother Paolo the detective. She must have heard about his cases and the live he made for himself in the city. After all he had two wives and a very large family. That’s quite a bit of ground to cover! My cousin Caterina remembers hearing about those stories and stories about Concetta as well despite never meeting them. In the end, stories are better than nothing. I’m just glad they kept in touch. Family was important to her.

Interestingly, Concetta’s son Francesco ended up going back to San Pietro at some point in the 1930s. I’m fairly certain he shared news and information with his aunt if his mother was unavailable.  I still have no idea why he was sent back to Italy. But, the family did likely learn a lot about Haverhill from him and other people in the family.

I’d like to think that she stayed in touch with her daughter Caterina who lived in Argentina with here husband, Lorenzo Astorino. From what my cousin told me, they stayed in touch until the 1960s. Now that distances are shorter and we have the power of the Internet in our hands, I might have a chance to find the Astorino family. Knock on wood!!

In her later years Caterina lived with her daughter Rosa and husband, Giuseppe Serrao before they ended up moving to Rome to be near her brother, Paolo. Rosa cared for her mother as her eyesight began to fail. That had to have been rough for my 2nd great-grandmother because I am sure she loved to see her children and grandchildren all grow up. 

Thankfully, the entire family helped her out after her husband passed away in 1958. Contact with Haverhill likely continued via a phone call or two since she may have had trouble reading letters by that point. 

In December of 1962 at the age of ninety-two, Caterina passed away and yet that’s still not the end of the story!

In 1963, my great-grandfather Vincenzo asked the commune office in San Pietro for her birth record along with his aunt Concetta’s, my grandfather Marco’s  and a few more for unknown reasons. My father has no idea why he asked for them. The only thing I can think of is that he may have needed them for booking passage to San Pietro. He did go back several times with Marco and Nicolina. I shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth. I’m glad we have the document!

Caterina’s story is a nice one and she probably didn’t let being so far away from her siblings bother her as she spoke highly of them and their lives in Haverhill. In fact, the stories may have piqued the interest of her grandchildren as they often ask me about the city! Caterina had a large family and she tried to maintain contact with everyone despite the vast distances between family members and that’s something to be admired.

She  made the best with the technology available at the time and I’m sure she would have loved the technology we have now since it makes vast distances so much shorter. Even by the time of her death, the world was starting to feel a lot smaller. While it is sad that she lost contact with several family members over the years, I’m doing what I can to reconnect with “lost” relatives  and hopefully bring the band back together.

See ya next time!