52 Ancestors Week 52: Resolution

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 52

The theme for Week 52 is "Resolution." This time of year, many of us make plans for what we want to accomplish. Do you have a genealogy resolution -- maybe a brick wall you want to break through or a collection of letters you want to digitize?

My first resolution should be to update this banner.

    Here we are at the end of 2024 and I don't have to tell you how much of a roller coaster the past year has been. The genealogy front saw nothing but amazing highs and all of you were here to share them with me. I couldn't be more grateful for that! Not only have I shattered the Gullo brick wall into itty bitty pieces. I met and got to know several cousins who I am proud to call friends. The cousins came from as far away as Argentina to just the next state over. Genealogy connects all of us and to be honest those connections put everything into perspective.

    So, with everything I've accomplished this year where would I go from here? There are a couple routes I could take and still so much more to learn. You're never really done your genealogical adventure. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something.

    One of the things I want to resolve is finally finding the burial place of my 2nd great-grandfather Antoine Legault. I know I'm beating a dead horse with this one. But, hear me out. The dedicated users of Find a Grave have been working on Saint James Cemetery in Haverhill and have cataloged over 8,000 memorials at the time of this blog's posting. That's a lot of work and I'm not kidding when I say that the cemetery is one of the largest in the city.

    I know for a fact Antoine is buried there since it's been confirmed by his death certificate. This isn't some white whale I'm chasing. Though, I do have a sinking feeling he might be in an unmarked grave. I hope not. Time will tell and hopefully someone out there will give me the answers I seek and piece of mind.

So many Coppolas!

    On the Italian side of things, there's still much for me to explore. I'd like to fill out the descendants of my fourth great-grandfather Francesco Coppola and his wife a bit more. I'd also like to find the identity of that wife, too. That would be nice wouldn't it? I can't keep calling her "Unknown Lady" now can I?

    I'm still not sure how I would go about solving that one unless I'm on the ground in San Pietro a Maida. Speaking of San Pietro. Did you hear the news? Antenati, the Italian government's repository for all Italian births, marriages and deaths will have the births from San Pietro a Maida on their website in the not too distant future. The records from 1809 to 1861 were on FamilySearch. I only hope that they expand on those records into well...maybe the early 20th century. It couldn't hurt!

    I'm hopeful that the records will be put online in due time and that they'll be expanded upon. Perhaps asking the commune office about a marriage or two would be a great idea. The well is getting dry regarding what I could ask the commune office. They also tend to fulfill requests more of the person asking the question is a direct descendant of the person they're tasked with looking for. I suppose that makes sense. Otherwise you'd get a lot of questions from them.

Waiting for Mr. DNA Sequence
to show up.

    On the DNA side of things I figured out where many DNA matches fit in the grant scheme of things over the past year. I figured out where "Isadore" belonged and numerous other ones as well. Some were easy to place. Some were solved thanks to AncestryDNA's new comparison tools. Not bad for a year's work, right?

    As more DNA matches come in, I think there'll be more puzzles to solve. Also, you may want to keep in mind that I still have older puzzles I'd love to solve. Though, I am closer to solving one or two of them thanks to cousin connections and the new AncestryDNA tools. I seriously cannot praise them enough for rolling that out. Let's hope they send me a check.....

    As you can see there's still a lot for me to do on the genealogy front. As more questions get answered, new questions start to emerge. You never really finish your genealogical adventure because we're always looking for new questions as well as answers. The curiosity to see what's out there is the driving force for many genealogists like myself. We know part of the story. But, we want to know more. I don't think that's selfish or anything. It's just what's been driving us. We search for the truth and ways to preserve it. 

    I wonder where I'll be a year from now on my genealogical adventure. Will I have solved the puzzles I mentioned? Will I have found new ones? It's hard to say. To borrow a line from Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country, the future really is the undiscovered country. 

Let's see what's out there. Engage!

52 Ancestors Week 51: Good Deeds

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 51

The theme for Week 51 is "Good Deeds." Is there someone in your family who is known for their kindness? Maybe someone who benefited from the good deed of another? (You could also think of deeds as in land records!)

First Starbolt to stick the superhero landing wins!

    

    People doing good deeds for other people seems to be a common theme in my family tree. The last time I wrote about a good deed was back in 2020 when I talked about Giovanni Coppola, the man who had brought people to Haverhill from the Calabrian town of San Pietro a Maida. Not only did he pay for several relatives' trips to America. He was also a grocer for the Italian community there. Sufficed it to say he was a big deal in Haverhill. Well, at least as far as the Italian community goes.

    As it turns out, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree of generosity. A while back my third cousin Melina took a trip from her home in Buenos Aires to our ancestral town of San Pietro. Naturally, I thought she was just going to look up her Astorino relatives while she was there. I had helped her build her tree up to her fourth great-grandparents, Giuseppe Astorino and Marianna Sgro. I was only able to get the basics and while she was actually on the ground in Italy she managed to get more information than I ever could by just e-mailing Italy. Then she did something truly unexpected. She looked up information for me AND managed to take pictures of the actual documents!

Hello, century old document. You
look like you're in near-mint condition.

    My jaw hit the floor. Meli didn't just take photos of Astorino records.  She took photos of the following records I needed for my tree.

* The marriage of my great-grandparents Vincenzo Ferraiolo and Maria Tedesco in 1921.

* Maria Tedesco's birth record from 1900.

* Vincenzo Ferraiolo's  birth record from 1894.

* Our second great-grandfather Marco Ferraiolo's birth record from 1868.

* Her great-grandmother Caterina Ferraiolo's birth record from 1904. 

    That's a lot of information! And this isn't including the mountain of Astorino documents she obtain the same week! Not too bad, right? To say I was happy to get all this information is a bit of an understatement. I was already happy she was in Italy. She really went above and beyond for me and I'll always be thankful for her. She didn't have to do this. And yet she did!

    The reason why I'm so excited to have the actual documents is simple. Records from San Pietro a Maida from 1862 on are not online in any way. I had to e-mail the commune office for the records and they sent back notarized copies that were transcribed from the actual document. This is as close to seeing the real thing as I can get until the fine folks at Antenati decide to upload the rest of the 19th century to the website for all to see. And maybe a little into the 20th? It couldn't hurt!

Birth of Vincenzo Ferraiolo. Note that both
grandfathers are mentioned.

    I didn't want to look a gift horse in the mouth and ask her how she managed to get all these documents for me. I can take a wild guess, though. Meli is a very nice person and I'm sure this is how the scenario worked out:

    She likely explained to the clerk that she traveled very far and was wondering if he/she could help her look for some records. After doing that, she may have mentioned needing help finding other documents and it just grew from there.

    I think the trick was how she asked. If you're polite and ask the right questions in a government building, you're going to go far. If you're loud? Probably not.

    Presentation is everything and if you're a visitor from another country, you really have to be on your best behavior. We've all heard the stories about the tourist who carved his initials in the Roman Colosseum of all things! Oh, did that make my blood boil. The guy didn't think it was that old. Did he....not see the ruins?! I mean.... 

I digress. Back to the blog before I write a rant about that fool.

Birth of Maria Tedesco.

    As you might have guessed I was very happy Meli got this information for me. Generosity works both ways. I did something nice for her and in turn she provided me with pictures of the actual documents! This is genealogical gold right here! Meli has proven that she's good at genealogy. There's no doubt about it!

    I did wonder if she was going to get our second great-grandmother Caterina Coppola's birth record. I was going to ask her about it. But, she was leaving San Pietro when she showed me the record and honestly it might have been a moot point since I have a record of the record in a toolbox in my basement along with her sister Concetta's record. I really didn't want to push it and if someone gives you a gift you really shouldn't ask for more.

    You really should be modest when someone gives you genealogical gold like this. It would make it more likely that people would help you out in the future. Should I have asked for Caterina's details? Nah. Meli did enough for me. She got her documents. She got mine. She took pictures at the town cemetery. She rocks. It's really that simple. And to think this all started when the Boston Celtics won the NBA finals in June. Maybe that was a sign? I'm taking it as such!

    As you can see good deeds happen a lot when you're on your genealogical adventure. Like I said before. She didn't have to go through all the trouble. And yet she did. I had to thank her over and over again. Over on WikiTree it's pretty common for people to help others out. And with all the vitriol elsewhere on the Internet (And lord knows there's a ton of it), it's refreshing to have a cousin help another cousin out despite not seeing each other face to face. Perhaps that'll happen some day. Until then I just have to thank Meli for all of her hard work. She definitely made the second half of 2024 memorable. What's next? Who can say, true believers? But, you know....like the man himself once said. "I guess one person can make a difference. 'Nuff said."

See ya next time!

52 Ancestors Week 50: Chosen Family

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 50

The theme for Week 50 is "Chosen Family." Family isn't just those you are genetically related to. What about the special family friends who become "Aunt" and "Uncle"? Who was chosen to be part of your family?

Italian or Italian by association.

    I can't believe it's been four years since the last time I wrote about a chosen family member or two. Back in 2020, I wrote about the couple who used to take care of my brother and I when we were little. Their names were Peter and Mary Matorian. They were a great Armenian couple who often took my brother and I shopping (Or as Pete called it "The Cleaners". I think you can figure out why.) among other things. Mary was a great cook and it's honestly a wonder we didn't gain weight from eating her cookies that were like 90% lard. They were an amazing couple and I miss them dearly. However, they were far from the only chosen family member we had!

    Longtime readers of the blog will remember me writing about the marina I went to with my family every summer growing up. It was a lot of fun and this week I thought I'd share some memories and stories about some of the people there who definitely made every summer more enjoyable than the last!

Formally known as "Dawn Mari-Na".

        I've already already written about Marina Schell, the woman who got me into writing and helped me sort out the first version of my Starbolts story. She was an avid comic reader like me and we'd spend a while talking about various comic book characters and the latest movie/television show. She was a huge fan of Spider-Man. So, you know I made friends with her very easily!

    Marina and her husband Peter were just two members of the group my parents dubbed "The Ancient Mariners". Though, that title didn't really catch on until maybe the early 2000s for obvious reasons.

  The ancient mariners were a fun group. Everyone was from various towns in and around the Merrimack Valley.  We'd all go fishing together either at the mouth of the Merrimack or we'd take to the high seas. Though, I think we've only ever gone as far east as the Isle of Shoals and maybe Maine if the weather was nice. Sometimes we'd all be in the same boat and sometimes we'd even tie our boats together and make a raft in the middle of the ocean. That was fun to do. Though, I can imagine it was an interesting sight for passing boaters.

    Now, you might be wondering "Chris, didn't you have anyone around your age to hang around with?" I did. There were always children at the marina when I was growing up. These were the sons and daughters of the "ancient mariners". Wow. Way to make it sound epic. My earliest memories were of two kids named Tara and and Eddie whose parents had a boat across the dock from us. They moved away early on so I don't know what happened to them. I don't even know if they continued boating and to date I haven't been able to find them. There were other children, too. But, they were around my brother's age and of course he spent time with them and they had their own adventures cruising around the river and going to the arcade at Salisbury Beach.

What a couple of troublemakers.

    When Tara and Eddie moved away, I wasn't alone for long. I was quickly introduced to my friend Matthew who was the son of my parents' friends Bob and Edie Jones. They had a boat called "Mi Casa" and Matthew and I spent a lot of time there.....mainly because his television was able to pick up the signal better than ours. We often used their set to either play various Sega or Nintendo games or watch a movie. That wasn't our fault. Our boat was docked at the outer docks and the Mi Casa was docked  a little bit closer to land. It was probably for the best because we watched a LOT of  "R" rated movies. 

    Of course that wasn't the only thing we did.

    Matt and I wouldn't laze about the boat all day. This was the late '80s and early to mid 1990s. We were outside a lot and when we were outside we got into plenty of trouble. I remember getting some fish heads from various other boaters to put in Matthew's crab traps. We uhh..."accidentally" left one of the heads out of the traps and left it on the dock once. You can imagine the smell. It stunk from the top of the dock to where my boat was.  At least we got a lot of river crabs? Right? Right?! Don't worry. We released them back into the wild.

    The funny thing is we never really got in trouble for any of the things we did. I guess our parents thought Matthew and I were just being kids and that's a fair point. We were just goofing around and the fish thing was an accident. We still had a great time.

    The two of us also often went across the river to Newburyport to buy comics and explore the flea market. I swear that was our go-to spot for thrift. I found some cool stuff there and came home with various old toys and even some small Lego sets. 

Less obvious troublemakers.

    Accompanying us on our trips every once in a while was the son of Sam and Charlene Fragala. His name was Ryan and he had two older siblings who were more my brothers' friends than mine. So, naturally we hit it off. 

    Ryan is like the polar opposite of Matthew. He didn't get any trouble at all really. In fact, most of our adventures involved fishing and hanging out.  His father Sam on the other hand was the one who'd always pinch my cheeks whenever he saw me. It wasn't all bad. 

    His mom made the best brownies ever. So, sometimes you have to suffer before having a treat. That's life, I guess. Or maybe a little Pavlovian. I don't know. It didn't matter as long as we got some brownies. I just hope Ryan got the recipe written down! 

     Like me Ryan is half-Italian. His mother's side is Irish. So, Ryan and I connected over the usual Italian stuff and how our fathers had the same attitude on life.  The Fragalas came from Sicily and I've yet to figure out where in Sicily they came from. When I asked Sam about it he said he wasn't sure. He thinks his grandfather came from Palermo. More research is clearly needed.

Sam on the far left with Carl, Al and my dad.
The Grumpy Old Italian Men.

   Boating season wasn't the only time we ever saw our ancient mariner friends or their kids. Every once in a while they came over our house during the off season. Usually it was for Christmas Eve or a random gathering. I think we even did New Year's Eve at the Fragalas' house once.

    Sometimes, I even went to Matt's house and watch those "R" rated movies properly without any static and interference. We would also play various video games. The Sega games stayed at my house, though. He and a few other friends had both Sega and Nintendo games. Thanks to him I got to play many of the Nintendo classics like Mario and Zelda.  The console war was no joke. Ironically, now you can play both Sega and classic Nintendo games on current consoles like the Nintendo Switch. I guess Sega lost the war.

    I digress. Matt and Ryan along with their parents were chosen family. They were like cousins to me and their parents were like aunts and uncles. Uncle Sam still punches my cheeks like it was 1993, by the way. He hasn't lost his touch!  I'm just glad he never did it when I had my wisdom teeth removed.

    These days both Matt and Ryan are married with children of their own and every once in a while I get together with both of them every chance I get. Sadly, our adventures aren't nearly as entertaining as they once were.  That doesn't mean we've forgotten how to party. They were and still are good friends. Our lives may have changed and we have grown up. But, we'll always remember the good times we had at the marina under the ever watchful eyes of the ancient mariners. 

See ya next time!

52 Ancestors Week 49: Handed Down

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 49

The theme for Week 49 is "Handed Down." Do you have something that has been handed down to you, whether it's an item, a story, or even a name? This week is a good time to write about it!

   I said it before and I'll say it again. My house is like a museum. We have a ton of things here from both sides of the family and every item we have has a story behind it. What our ancestors leave behind is something memorable to them and to preserve the memories they pass it down to the next generation. Sometimes it's a sword like the one I talked about in this blog from 2020. Other times it's a VHS copy of "Golf's Funniest Moments" your grandfather left you. Look. Not everything handed down by our ancestors are going to be winners.

    Don't get me wrong. We have some literal gold here. I've talked at great length about the swords, the canes, the coffee table, the clocks and even a pair of candlesticks. That stuff is great. But, so are the stories that have been told. Don't forget those can be handed down from generation to generation along with various belongings. You always have to be careful with them, though. Some stories are true and some can turn out to be false.

Nicolina, Vincenzo and Cathie

   When my parents and I visited my great-aunt Nicolina in 2004, she had a lot of stories to tell us. Some stories backed up the stories my grandmother Ollie and my father told me back in the day. This included the story of when everyone went to Switzerland to attend my cousin Caterina's wedding in 1969. It's always good to have someone back up a story or two and thankfully people have been honest about the tales they've told.  They didn't need to be fact-checked or anything and I'm very grateful for that. I just wish I got the photographic evidence of the wedding in Switzerland a lot sooner. My grandmother would have loved to have seen the group picture she was in!

    Nicolina handed down a couple other stories during that stay. One of them was likely to be true given the time period. The other seemed a little sketchy. I'll share both of the stories with you all and at the end we can decide which one was true and which one isn't. Sound good? Well, you made it this far. So, you can stick around for the rest of the ride.

Vincenzo and Maria

    When Nicolina and my grandfather Marco were little, they didn't speak much English. They were both born in San Pietro a Maida in the 1920s and came to Haverhill with their mother Maria Tedesco in 1929.  I naturally wanted to learn everything I could about her since Nicolina was the only one around who actually knew her. 

    She told me all she could about her mother and handed down some stories about her and growing up in Haverhill in the 1930s. Nicolina and Marco's mother was a kind woman from what I've been told. Everyone was often taken aback by her looks, too. I guess Vincenzo had an eye for beauty, huh?

    Anyway, her parents went out and left Marco and Nicolina to their own devices. I think they had a babysitter. I'm not sure. I would hope they did! I think a family friend might have watched the two while they were out. Marco and Nicolina didn't have much other than a few games to play and a few friends to play with in the neighborhood. One of Haverhill's finest saw the kids playing in the yard and watched them as they went back into the house. A few minutes later the cop knocked on their door. 

    She and Marco didn't know what to do. They realized he was a policeman judging by the uniform. They didn't know if they did something wrong or what. All they did was play in the yard and that was it. As far as Nicolina and Marco were concerned they were innocent. The cop continued to knock while the kids were freaking out. After several knocks, Nicolina finally answered the door since the person who was watching them was napping. How she slept through the knocking is beyond me.

    The officer asked where their parents were and Nicolina just talked to him in Italian. I have no idea what she said. But, the cop was so startled that he backed off and ran away. In hindsight, I guess the cop didn't know what neighborhood he was in or didn't know how to react to two Italian kids. Either way, I think he learned a valuable lesson. Don't follow random kids to their house and knock on their door! 

    Right out of the gate this next story Nicolina handed down is going to seem less than plausible because we've heard it a million times in genealogy circles. It doesn't matter where you come from. Someone somewhere will always say "My family descended from royalty."

    While that's certainly true for many people (Particularly those of English descent), it seems really unlikely for someone of Italian descent to say "Yeah. We descend from the Prince of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies". I think you can see where this is going.

    My great-aunt told me that the Ferraiolo line descended from royalty and that we had a castle in the San Pietro a Maida area or something. I asked her a bit more about it but she said she didn't know all of the details. So, all I could do was smile and nod. What else could I do? It was 2004. I didn't have access to the Internet. 

    I think it's safe to say that the first story is true. It seems the most plausible because cops will randomly patrol neighborhoods immigrants lived in. I'm just glad the cop had the sense to walk away after hearing the kids talk. He must have filled out an interesting report at the station. I guess the man was just surprised that the kids were seemingly home alone when they obviously weren't.

    
    The story about being connected to Italian royalty was easily disproven once I started doing genealogy. Actually, no. It was disproven once I had access to the Internet  and looked up San Pietro a Maida. I didn't find a castle anywhere in the vicinity. I might still be connected to royalty on my father's side. However, it seems unlikely. For now it's best to take that story with a grain of salt the size of Pluto.

    At least most of the stories Nicolina told us turned out to be true. She told us about the Astorinos and how they moved to Argentina. The only thing is she made it sound like many of Vincenzo's sisters went to Buenos Aires when it was really just Caterina. I couldn't blame her for that mistake. She was 81 years old at that point and a lot of things get jumbled in the old noggin. She was still sharp. Don't get me wrong. But, mistakes happen and when they do you just smile and nod.

    It was a fantastic visit and I don't regret seeing her and her little yappy dog. She may have missed a few details here and there. At least she handed down some stories that later got strengthened down the road and that's what's important. I like to think that Nicolina handed down a rough draft or an outline of how things played out. Over time the actual story gets filled in and more details emerge. You should still be careful. You never know which stories are true and which ones aren't unless you do a genealogical deep dive into the records or get information backed up by other sources.

See ya next time!

P.S. What AM I going to do with that VHS tape? It's not like I have a device to play it on....