52 Ancestors Week 48: Family Recipe

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 48:

The theme for Week 48 is “Family Recipe.” Who made the dish that made holiday meals “complete”? Who was the best cook in the family? (Or who was the worst?) This would also be a good week to write about a favorite family recipe and the memories you have surrounding it. 

I think you can see where this is going.

I’m not about to throw anyone who has ever cooked for me under the bus. Why would I? Everyone in my life has been a great cook! Even my dad! Though, he has experimented with a few oddities over the years. I still can’t stomach liver and onions and I’d like to meet someone who can eat that dish!

My mother has always been the one who made holiday meals complete. She would make lasagna for us for Thanksgiving and the dish just makes the holiday meal complete. I honestly can’t imagine Thanksgiving without it, meatballs, sausage and braciole. I usually have that after a little bit of a turkey appetizer. Sure it’s heavy, but, the food coma is so worth it!

I bet you’re all stuffed looking at that image to your left. The recipe is prettily simple. You take the noodles and add layers of sauce, mozzarella and ricotta cheese and bake it in the oven. Many Italian families usually put in meat in between the layers of pasta. For some reason we’ve never used meat. This is probably because we had meatballs and sausages as a side dish.

Seeing pans of lasagna now often brings back memories of prior Thanksgiving feasts. Long before we ever had Thanksgiving in Virginia with my brother and his family we would have Thanksgiving at our house in Salem and our guests of honor would be my grandma Ollie and her sisters from time to time. Usually it was just Ollie because she lived in the next town over in Haverhill. Can you say convenient? It sure was! I loved having grandma Ollie nearby since my other grandparents were far away.

Now, you might think Ollie would be skeptical of someone who wasn’t Italian making lasagna. She never said anything bad about the cooking. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Ollie would give you the shirt off of her back! She would comment on my mom’s cooking and maybe offer a tip or two. I’m not even sure what prompted my mother to start making it all those years ago. Perhaps she just wanted to try it out.

The “worst” thing she probably ever did was talk to my mom about her mom Clementina’s cooking and how she prepared certain dishes. I remember asking her about certain recipes and she always smiled and said “It was always a pinch of this or a pinch of that. We used whatever was available.” That was true. I mean the Carrabs clan had five daughters to feed. Who had time to write things down? Don’t worry. She did! Some recipes are in the family. They’re just with various cousins at the moment.

While cousins had the recipes, we had Clementina’s rolling pin and ravioli cutter. My father once put both to good use when he made cheese ravioli. They turned out so good! The only problem was that it took so long to make! I know good food takes time to make. I just wouldn’t use it for Thanksgiving unless you start making it that Tuesday!

Anyway, seeing the dishes bring back a lot of memories of previous holiday dinners with the family. Ollie and my dad would talk about her parents, who he and his cousins called Nonmie and Nona. Oddly, they never really talked about Thanksgiving at their house.  Believe me, I’ve tried asking how they celebrated Thanksgiving and I never really got a solid answer from anyone. Maybe some things are best left to the imagination.

I do recall someone saying that  Giuseppe would use the holiday to test out his homemade wine. Giuseppe and his brothers Rocco and Pasquale had their own wine cellars and would make wine from the grapes they grew in their yards. My father and his cousins always told me Giuseppe’s wine was very sweet and that his brothers had very strong wine. I wonder if that was because my great-grandfather grew his grapes in the lush Merrimack valley. Or maybe he just picked them at a better time.

Either way, Thanksgiving was usually a time where we’d swap a lot of the family stories. My brother and I would just eat the lasagna and listen to our parents and grandma entertain us with stories from their youth or something Ollie remembered from the past.

The one thing she never did was criticize my mom’s cooking. Before we started eating she’d say “This looks so good, Diane!” She then looked to my brother and I tell us to “mangia”. 

She didn’t have to tell us twice! We were more than happy to dig in. My favorite part has always been the middle side. My brother on the other hand preferred the corners and the crunchy pasta. You can tell a lot about a person from which part of the lasagna they take!

Even today seeing a pan of lasagna brings those memories back to me. I close my eyes and picture my grandmother cooking alongside my mom in the kitchen. They’d be laughing and swapping stories and I’d come in for a visit. For the record, I was never hit by a wooden spoon for sneaking a peek or getting a snack. I wasn’t that naughty! I did, however, try to sample the banana crème pie a few times. Hey! It was good! It’s the perfect dessert to go with a meal like this!

Though, you won’t be able to move after eating. 

See ya next time! And if you’re in America, have a great Thanksgiving!

52 Ancestors Week 47: The Name's the Same

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 47:

The theme for Week 47 is “The Name’s the Same.” Chances are there are some people in your tree who have the same name as someone else. This is a good week to write about the people who carry a family name or a time when you’ve had to sort out two unrelated people who happen to have the same name. 

That’s a lot of James.

 What’s in a name? Would a rose by any other name smell as sweet? Would a name like “Anthony” be passed down through the generations because an ancestor was named Antonio or Antoine? In my family tree, of course they would. Names have been passed down for centuries. The last time this topic came up I talked about all the people named “Robert” in my tree. Admittedly , that was quite a wild ride. This week will be all about Paolo!

 When I first heard the name Paolo, the name honestly reminded me of a character in “The Godfather” or something. There’s always a mob guy named Paolo or “Paulie”. Not every mobster is going to be called “Nicky the Nose”, you know. So, imagine my surprise when I discovered that my third great- grandfather was named Paolo. It gets better. His last name was “Coppola”.  Of course I would have two of the most common Italian last names in my tree! For those of you keeping track, the other one is “Tedesco”.

 I don’t really have a lot on Paolo to be honest due to record availability and everything. Here’s what I’ve been able to piece together. He was the son of Francesco Coppola and an unknown woman and was born around 1843. He had a brother named Giovanni and a sister named Caterina. Both names were also passed down through the generations, by the way. The Coppola family is a textbook case of Italian naming conventions where someone in the family is named after a parent or grandparent in a specific pattern. The first masculine child would be named after the paternal grandfather and so on.

 Paolo married Rosa Suverato and had my second great-grandmother, Caterina and her siblings Paolo and Concetta. I don’t know if they had any more children. Chances are they did because Italians tended to have large families in those days. Some names would even be repeated in case a child unfortunately passed away before their first birthday. When you do research in Italy, you should keep track of the names used more than once!

 Anyway, Caterina, Paolo and Concetta all had children who had the same name as their grandfather. Caterina, though, was the only one of her siblings who stayed in Italy. She and her husband Marco had a son named Paolo in August 1896. Concetta and Paolo moved to Haverhill, Massachusetts and started having children named Paul, which is the anglicized version of the name Paolo. Here’s where research gets a little tricky….especially when the father and the son have the same name.

When Paolo came to America, he went by the name “Paul” in order to assimilate. His son Paul was born in 1909 in the city of Haverhill to Paolo and his first wife, Lena. He was the oldest of sixteen children and even he had a son named Paul! It’s nice to see the naming tradition continue on another continent! Too bad this can also lead to headaches if you aren’t a careful researcher.

I’m not going to say I’ve never made a mistake. However, when you look at documents like draft cards you always need to check when someone was born if they have the same name. Older men had old men’s draft cards and sometimes they look similar to the regular cards. Censuses can at least help you figure out who is who and which Paolo/Paul is who.

Thankfully,  birth records can really help you figure out people who have the same names. It can be really tricky when someone has the name Paul and a common Italian last name. At least a common name isn’t always common in one area.

Thankfully, Concetta’s son Paul was a lot easier to research! He was the son of Concetta and her husband Vincenzo Papatolo and was born in Haverhill in 1916.  It was easier researching him because the last name isn’t very common in Haverhill. The only thing that confuses me is how some members of the family spell the last name “Papatola” when documents in Italy spell it like “Papatolo”. It might have been a personal choice since no last names were changed at Ellis Island. 

Paul and Lorraine

Paul married Lorraine Pouliot in 1942 and they had a large family including a daughter that they named Paula. I don’t think that counts as a “Paul”. But it was so close! Paula is a DNA match and sadly she passed away in 2023. She went by the screen name “the great nana” and according to cousins who knew her, she really was a great nana!

She was also an avid Patriots fan and an education assistant. Can’t go wrong with that. Her obituary is really well written. Check it out: https://www.seacoastonline.com/obituaries/pprt0631672

I really wish I was able to talk  with Paula. I sent her a message or two on Ancestry when she showed up as a match to my father, great-aunt and I. To each their own, I guess. There’s no sense in dwelling on something you can’t control. I do talk to other relatives of Paula and they all said nice things about her! That’s good enough!

That’s pretty much all I can say about all of the people named Paolo/Paul in my tree. Like Giuseppe, Concetta, Maria and Giovanni, the names were passed down through time and anglicized once they arrived in America. If you study Italian records, the same names are going to pop up every once in a while. When that happens, you should be mindful of the dates, places and circumstances because a Paul Coppola on a death record could easily be the son or the father. You never know.

See ya next time!

P.s. As for the original Paolo from the early 19th century, I still need to figure out who his mother was. I think I’d need his marriage record. I’m 100% sure his father was Francesco thanks to dna evidence. 

52 Ancestors Week 46: Wartime

From Amy Johnson Crow Week 46:

The theme for Week 46 is “Wartime.” Who in your family has served in the military? Alternatively, do you have someone who couldn’t or wouldn’t serve? Have you had any breakthroughs using military records?

War. War never changes

     Who in my family has served, huh? Talking about everyone who served in the armed forces in any capacity would take a long, long time and I do like to keep these blogs short. There isn't anyone who hasn't served aside from my father. Both of my grandfathers were veterans of World War II. All four great-grandfathers served in World War I. I have three confirmed veterans of the American Civil War and about a dozen or so Soldiers of the American Revolution. It's a good thing I listed them all on a free space page on WikiTree for just these occasions! You need a scorecard to keep them all straight!

    Ironically, with all the men who served in my family, I only know about my grandfather Robert's service during World War II. He served in the Air Corps, the organization that eventually became the U.S. Air Force. He flew planes and the birth of my mother clipped his wings. He also traveled quite extensively to bases in Japan after the war. He was also well-decorated with tons of medals. Not bad for a kid from Brooklyn....er....Newburyport. Come on. Humor me. He was like Captain America to me! 

Fun Fact: He did chuckle a few times when I showed him some comics with Captain America. He said...and I quote "Hey! I remember that guy!" Now that's staying power for the leader of Earth's mightiest heroes!

    While I may have had heroes who served overseas, I would think that guarding America's shores is just as important as serving in Europe and in the Pacific. Enter my great-grandfather Giuseppe Carrabs. While both of my grandfathers were in Europe giving the Nazis what-for, he was stationed in Massachusetts as an air raid warden.

    Now, I already knew he served the country during World War I. I have a picture of him in his uniform that I'll be sharing in a bit. I just find it interesting that he was called into service once again.

    Giuseppe was born in 1882 and by the second world war he was in his sixties. Clearly, his draft card was one of those "Old men's draft cards".

    Nevertheless, he served and his service was noted in his obituary in 1974.  My dad's cousins make it a point to leave military markers and American flags at his grave in Haverhill. Not all heroes are on the front lines, you know. Some people have the daunting task of protecting the nation when a bulk of the fighting force is overseas. Their job is just as important as anyone else. While his time in World War II was admirable, let's go back in time a bit to the first World War and imagine what it must have been like for him.

The only pic I have of him with hair!

    On September 2nd, 1918, Giuseppe was drafted and served the U.S. army during the first world war at the age of thirty-three.  I honestly don't know much about his service during that time. However, I can tell you that it seems like he was the only Carrabs brother who served in that conflict since I can't find any record stating Pasquale or Rocco served with him.

    This isn't to say that they never served. Rocco and Pasquale both have old mens' draft cards from the 1940s. It's curious that they don't have World War I draft cards. Were they already too old to serve at that point? I'm not sure about that. Giuseppe was the oldest of the three since he was born in 1882. Rocco was born in 1887 and Pasquale was born in 1894. It's curious that he had a draft card and his brother's don't.

    I wonder if they did have cards and the cards were never digitized. Or perhaps it was because Rocco didn't speak much English or something. The possibilities are endless.

    In any case, Giuseppe clearly served toward the end of the war. My dad's cousin Dennis gave me the picture of Giuseppe in his uniform after asking him if he knew anything about his grandfather's time in the army He sadly didn't. He just told me that there was a picture of him in his uniform. He sent it to me and the weird thing was that when I saw it, I felt like I've seen it before.

  In my travels, I've seen many pictures and my grandmother Ollie and her sisters  had in their homes. I suspect that picture was at my great-aunt Louise's house. Louise was Dennis's mother and I must have seen the picture there along with many other photos. 

    Anyway, it must have been tough for Giuseppe being the only one of his brothers to serve in World War I. Sadly, I have no idea what unit he served in or what he actually did during the war. That's okay, though. Sometimes it's enough to know that he served.

    Still, I bet there is something on Fold3 about his service in that era. Then again, there may not be much considering he was discharged following year when the war ended. A lot can happen in a year. It remains to be seen what he was doing during that year. Uncle Sam called him back into service twenty years later as an air raid warden at least. I just wonder what he was doing in that year during the 1910s.

    I have a feeling he stayed in America since his daughters were very young during those days, My great-aunt Louise was born a month after the war ended in December of 1918. Because of his family situation, he likely opted to serve in the national guard and that's fine. It also syncs up with him being an air raid warden some twenty years later. Then again he may have volunteered for that service.

    In any case, Giuseppe clearly served the United States and was one of a few Italian immigrants in my tree to do so. That's pretty awesome in my book. He might not have been Captain America like my grandfather Robert. But, he was still pretty awesome. 'Nuff said!

See ya next time!

    

52 Ancestors Week 45: Multiple

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 45:

The theme for Week 45 is “Multiple.” Any twins or triplets in the family? What about someone with multiple names? Or, thinking a bit more creatively, what about a math teacher?

I still say this banner looks like a painting.

    When you work on your family tree chances are you're going to find someone with multiple spouses, twins and multiple siblings. I have them all! My 2nd great-grandmother Gertrude Stevens  had three spouses: Wilfred Felker, Walter Senter and Charles Berry. Her mother Evaline was a twin and sadly her twin brother didn't survive to adulthood. If he did, you can bet I'd be writing about him. Alas poor Edward Fisher. We'll never know if you were the evil twin or not. For more on Gertrude and her story, check out this blog from 2021.

    This week I've decided to take a look at someone who had multiple children and I have quite a few of them. Pun intended. I come from a mixed Italian and French-Canadian family. Large families come with the territory and getting every single one of the children in the same tree (let alone the same room) is a lot like herding cats. With that in mind, let me pick a couple of ancestors at random and let's talk about their many children.

Vincenzo Carrabis, looking like
Alfred Pennyworth.

    Vincenzo Carrabs and Maria Giovanna Capobianco are a couple of ancestors of mine who I don't really discuss that often in the blog.  I'm sure I have mentioned their children on more than one occasion. However, I don't really know as much about them as people as I'd have liked. I know more about my other Italian second great-grandparents and what they were like. Vincenzo and Maria on the other hand are a complete mystery to me. All I have are their pictures and sometimes pictures aren't enough.

    That isn't to say I don't know anything about them. I know they were both born in Gesualdo, Italy and that they got married in October 1880 in the Campanian town of Frigento. A cousin of mine did a lot of work researching the family and they had many children together. Not just the ones who went to America.

    Vincenzo and Maria ended up having nine children together and as far as I can tell only one of them died young. His name was Pasquale Antonio and had a younger brother who shared his name. It's a common practice in Italy to name a child after a sibling who unfortunately died young.

    

    As far as I can tell, Vincenzo and Maria's other children all lived exceptional lives. I only know of the four that ended up in America. My great-grandfather Giuseppe, his brothers Rocco and Pasquale and their sister Rosina sailed across the Atlantic in the early 1900s along with a few other Carrabis cousins who ended up near Worcester, Mass. If you've heard about the story where three brothers go to America, you might think that was a made up story. In my case it's true. Giuseppe went to Haverhill, Mass and the others ended up in Everett and Melrose. Sometimes those farfetched stories are true!

    The other children are a bit of a mystery to me. Angiola was born in 1881 and married a man named Francesco Pascucci and they had three children between 1907 and 1914. Maria Antonia was born in 1883 and passed away in 1904. Michele was born in 1885 and not much is currently out there about him. Raffaele was born in 1899 and he married Eugenia Finamore in 1921. I wish I knew more about what happened to the children who got married. I might have cousins still living in the Gesualdo area! You never know!

Rocco on the far left and Pasquale on the far right.

    I admit it's a dream of mine to come into contact with cousins living in Gesualdo, Frigento and Grottaminarda. I have cousins in San Pietro a Maida. It stands to reason that I have cousins in Gesualdo! Seems logical.

    Anyway, of all the Carrabis kids who lived in America Rocco was the one who had the most children. He and his wife Caterina d'Avino had eleven children between 1913 and 1934. To list them all would probably require a whole new blog and I have a feeling this blog will go on for quite a while

.

    To sum up many of Rocco's children had descendants who took DNA tests and I DNA confirmed six of the children on WikiTree. Many of the grandchildren have told me about how Rocco never spoke English and how he always made Italian ices for them. My father confirmed the stories as Rocco and his family would visit his grandfather Giuseppe in Haverhill many times. He was also an accomplished architect and built the houses on Windsor street in Melrose. Those houses still stand today!

    While Rocco and Caterina had their hands full with their children, Giuseppe and his wife Clementina had six children including my grandmother Olympia. I hope someone is making note of all of this. There'll be a quiz later.

    Pasquale and his wife Raffaela had four children and lived in nearby Everett and like Rocco's family they visited Giuseppe in Haverhill on many occasions. It's safe to say that the Carrabs brothers were very close to one another and it makes sense given how they were all strangers in a strange land. 

    Curiously, the odd one out of all the Carrabis siblings is Rosina. To date, I do not have a single picture of her. She lived near Pasquale in Everett and yet I've never seen a picture of her. It's so weird.

    This isn't to say I don't know anything about Rosina. I do. I know she got married twice. She married Antonio Pascucci in 1913 and Vincenzo d'Avino in 1923. Last year, I wrote a blog about how the family sort of lost touch with hers after she passed away in the early 1960s. She had one child with Antonio who died young and two with her second husband. Those two children had pretty big families as far as I can tell. I would love to get in touch with them. Maybe they have a picture of her! Dare to dream, Chris. Dare to dream. Maybe they'll show up as DNA matches on Ancestry! Fingers and toes are crossed.

    As you can see from this week's blog Italian families often have multiple children. Sometimes those kids share the same name. Sometimes people lose touch with one another. It's an unfortunate part of life. It tends to happen when you have large families. Keeping track of everyone is a full-time job and thankfully I have my online trees documenting everyone. I hope that those trees entice people to contact me because I'd love to know more about the Carrabis family. I'd especially would love to talk to descendants of Rosina and descendants of Vincenzo and Maria who are still living in Gesualdo. One way or another, I want to get the band back together! Dare to dream!!

See ya next time!

Edit: I discovered Vincenzo and Maria had a son named Carmine who was born in 1896. Will be researching him!