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!