52 Ancestors Week 11: Achievement

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 11

The theme for Week 11 is "Achievement." There are many forms of achievement, whether it's winning an award, winning a race, or accomplishing what it was you set out to do. This week, celebrate an achievement (great or small) that one of your ancestor's made.

Imagine if Ancestry had X-Box-style achievements popping up.

    Achievements can come in many forms and when I was thinking about what to write in the blog this week, I was wondering what I could talk about. Do I talk about my dad and how he became the president of the New Hampshire Dental Society? That's cool and everything. However, many steps were taken before he ever banged the gavel at one of those meetings and got the coveted presidential chair that now sits in our dining room. What exactly led to that moment? That's where my great-grandfather, Giuseppe Carrabs comes in because his achievements made my father's big achievements all possible.

Achievement unlocked: Tony Stark
'stache
.

    The first thing that comes to mind when you think of Giuseppe, Vincenzo Ferraiolo or any other Italian immigrant it's that crossing the Atlantic to make a better life for yourself in America is a great achievement. It is. There's no disputing that at all. It's just that many immigrants share that same achievement.  

    To set Giuseppe apart from all the other immigrants, you just have to look at the records and that includes his obituary. In it, you'll find that while he was a custodian at the Pentucket Five Cent Savings Bank in Haverhill he was one of the founding members of the Haverhill Italian Credit Union and that was a huge deal.

    The credit union offered loans to Italian immigrants and their families so they could make a better life for themselves when other banks would deny them loans. And trust me that happened a lot more frequently than you'd think. Banks had issues trusting immigrants. Giuseppe's organization took care of the people they denied.

    That's a pretty big accomplishment. However, there was more to the man than just his work and even his service to the United States during both World Wars. Giuseppe and his wife Clementina raised five daughters including my grandmother at a time when there were a lot of anti-immigrant sentiment. He encouraged the girls to go to school and make better lives for themselves. He clearly valued an education because sadly that was lacking in his and wife's hometown of Gesualdo at the time.

Achievement unlocked: 
Daughter gets married!

    As the years passed, he got to see his children have an education and see them get married to men who valued them and their intelligence. With all daughters, I'm sure that was a pretty big deal for Giuseppe. I don't think he was about to see them off to just anyone.

    Enter my grandfather, Marco. Marco himself was an Italian immigrant who had many achievements of his own like crossing the Atlantic. While he didn't go to Haverhill High like my grandmother, he was still a skilled craftsmen. He learned those skills from his father, Vincenzo. He ended up building things and that for sure likely impressed Giuseppe.

    Giuseppe likely knew the family well and gave the relationship his blessing. Marco and Ollie were married on June 13th, 1946 in Haverhill. Being at the wedding and giving Ollie away was definitely another big achievement for him because she was the youngest of the Carrabs sisters and Ollie was named after a child who died young. So, that was likely a very big deal for Giuseppe and Clementina.

  When my father was born both of his  grandfathers instilled in him the importance of an education and hard work. They told him stories of the trials and tribulations they had growing up, immigrating to America and the struggles they had to endure. All of Giuseppe's grandchildren had the same lesson!

Achievement unlocked: Parents married.

    By the mid 1970s, all of Giuseppe's grandchildren graduated college and were professional doctors, teachers and engineers. When he attended my parents' wedding in 1971, my father had already started dental school and his cousins were all doing well in their various professions.

        It must have been amazing for him to see his children and grandchildren succeed in life when he came from a very humble background. Sure he may have lived vicariously through their achievements. However, it was largely thanks to him and his daughters that everyone managed to get as far as they did. The best part is that he actively encouraged everyone and was an active part of their lives up until he passed away in 1974. That in and of itself is a huge achievement. He lived long enough to see his family do pretty well for themselves.

    

    As you can see, achievements don't always have to be about money or fame or anything like that. Just teaching others and watching them grow into professionals in various fields is enough of an achievement. Giuseppe literally came from nothing and in his life he saw his children and grandchildren become something special. They learned from his lessons and those lessons continue to this day. If that isn't a great achievement, I don't know what is!

See ya next time!