52 Ancestors Week 25: FAN Club

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 25:

The theme for Week 25 is “FAN Club.” In genealogy the FAN club refers to someone’s friends, associates, and neighbors – the people we often need to research to find answers about our family. Who is a member of the FAN club in your family tree? Who did you make a discovery about because you looked a bit wider? Or… is there someone in the family who was known for being a fan of a certain celebrity? Be creative!

So no one told you life was gonna be this way.....

    If I were to include everyone from my parents' FAN club, my tree on Ancestry would double in size in less than a week. My parents have friends from the marina, work and just about everywhere else you can think of. A lot of them join my father in the "Grumpy Old Italian Men" club. In fact, I think I talked about them here on more than one occasion. My parents met many of their friends through their old accountant, Anthony Pappalardo and two of their friends definitely hold a special place in their hearts.

Need your car or boat fixed? Come
see Ron!

    Ron and Cyndi Abraham owned and operated Elm Street Auto in Andover, Massachusetts since January 1972 and have always treated their customers like family. That explains a lot because they have been friends with my parents since the 1970s.

    They also had a boat at the marina right behind ours called "The C-Camel". Get the pun? Sea Camel? Huh? I always thought that was pretty clever to be honest.  Then again I've always liked a well placed pun.

    Ron was always good at fixing things and naturally he and my father hit it off right from the start since he liked tinkering with motors, too. You would always find him working on either his engine or our engine. Lord knows the Toothfairy needed tune ups every now and then.

    The odd thing is that we've gone through like three boats while the C-Camel always stayed the same. This might be a testament to how well the Abrahams maintained their boat. Or it could be the fact that we all went on adventures with the Toothfairy more than the C-Camel!

    And OH the places we've gone with the Abrahams. We've had so many boating expeditions that I don't know where to start. We've gone to the Isle of Shoals, Portland and on many, MANY fishing trips. If my dad wanted to take the boat out, the Abrahams were definitely going to tag along. It should be noted that the C-Camel was for cruising and that the Toothfairy was for fishing trips. That's just how it was when I was growing up.

    The adventures didn't stop there. My family and I have even gone on vacation with them to the Bahamas and my parents went with them to fabulous Las Vegas once. Every once in a while my dad would reminisce about a trip or two with them and I swear the stories would make for a good movie or two. I mean Vegas is involved. How could there NOT be a good story there?!

Ron in the 1950 census!

    Speaking of stories, Ron's family story is pretty cool. I found Ron fairly easily in the 1950 census living with his parents and grandparents in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Finding him was relatively easy as his last name isn't very common in this part of the world. As you might have guessed from the census he is the grandson of Syrian immigrants. From what I've been able to piece together it looks like his family were mechanics. That must be where he learned everything there is to know about motors!

   Ronald's grandfather Abraham Shideed owned and operated a repair shop and his father, William Abraham, worked there. William's parents originally came from Kfartah, Lebanon and moved to Lawrence after living in New Brunswick, Canada for a while. That is quite a tale. I'm not sure if I could push the tree back further than others already have. It would depend on record availability and everything. I'm afraid I'd be way out of my comfort zone.

    At least we know that the Abrahams' story is like many other stories in New England. Immigrants from all over the world made lives for themselves in the region after escaping hardships. Lives intersected and lifelong friendships began. 

    I'm actually not sure about Cyndi's family story. I've never really asked her as I've only ever heard stories about Ron's family.....over some hummus and Syrian bread. 

   You knew I was going to bring up the food at some point, right?  I've told you all that the marina was like the United Nations. Food from every corner of the globe was represented.

    Seriously, if there was a cookout I'd start at the C-Camel and get some Syrian bread and come back with spinach pie, grape leaves and a hamburger for good measure. You never went hungry at the marina! Trust me!

    I will admit that researching the Abraham's family tree does sound pretty appealing. The next time I see them I should ask a few questions. I already know a lot about the Abrahams after a quick search on Ancestry. I'd like to know about Cyndi's family. Perhaps I'll ask them and perhaps I'll put their tree on WikiTree for all to see. Couldn't hurt. Every family has a story no matter what corner of the globe they came from.

    My parents have friends from all walks of life and it's a trait they likely inherited from their parents and so forth. New England has been called a melting pot like New York City because of the various cultures living in that part of America. When you live here, you never know who you'll meet and what kind of amazing stories they might have in their tree. Will I dig deeper into the Abrahams? Probably. Time will tell!

See ya next time!