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!