52 Ancestors Week 24: Possibilities

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 24:

The theme for Week 24 is “Possibilities.” “There are so many possibilities.” That statement could point to limitless potential, or it could reflect a person mired in uncertainty. This week, you could write about an ancestor who had many possibilities to choose from. You could also write about the possible answers to a genealogy problem you’re trying to solve. 

This week's banner has no right going this hard. Wow.

    Let's face it. When you're out on your genealogy adventure you're going to hit some bumps in the road. Not everything will be laid out for you and chances are things you find are not going to be pretty. Life gets pretty messy and even back in the day things were pretty messy. And that's putting it mildly, Let's not kid ourselves. You have to have an open mind when dealing with a few problems that may pop up. Your ancestor may not be the person you thought they were either literally or figuratively. The possibilities are endless. You are going to find surprises around every corner and you absolutely need to have an open mind because you might end up thinking Lord Geoffrey von Hemsworth Esq is your ancestor when your ancestor was really a concubine living in the imperial stable next door.

    On the DNA side of things, there's more possibilities than you can shake a stick at because DNA does not lie. DNA will prove connections just as well as actual documents. Just keep in mind sometimes it can be the only thing linking you to a person. "Oopsies" happen and those sorts of things are not going to be documented! Granted, very low matches may or may not be accurate. However, if the cM range is in the double digits or higher you may get lucky and find a connection to a cousin. It just depends on what the paper trail tells you and everything. 

Maria Rosa Astorino e Giovandomenico Davoli

    The reason why I brought this up is because back in January I posted a blog about a theory of mine that was a work in progress. I was trying to figure out my connection with a bunch of DNA matches who connect with a woman named Maria Rosa Astorino. It is possible my father, great-aunt and I connect somewhere on her mother's side. The mother pretty much has to be a Coppola. Of course it is possible that the connection is a little further back. But I'm gonna bet on it being her mom. Call it an instinct. Call it a gut feeling.  I feel pretty good about that possibility because my cousin Flavia did say her mother was a Coppola. More details are coming soon. Stay tuned!

    If only things were always that easy to figure out. This is why genealogy should never be a solitary gig. You almost always need someone to help you out or bounce ideas off of. You should never work on a tree by yourself. If you do, you're bound to make more mistakes and that might sadly explain the minefield of bad family trees over on Ancestry.com. I know some trees over there are decent. But wow there are so many that just need to be either deleted or worked on. If it hasn't been clear already, I like working with people on puzzles like this. While I am confident enough to do things solo, I like hearing the opinions of other people. That's why sites like Wikitree work so well.

    Working with a group of people would definitely help me with another batch of DNA matches I have. My father, great-aunt and I have a bunch of matches who do not appear to match any other DNA matches except for themselves. I've messaged most of them in the hopes of figuring out what's going on and so far I haven't heard so much as a peep from them. It's very annoying. Mimes are more vocal than these people.

It just goes on and on....

    It all started some years ago with this guy. Let's call him Joey. As you can see from the chart from DNApainter.com's "What are the odds?" app, my father, great-aunt, my dad's cousin and I all match Joey. We all also match several of Joey's other relatives in one way or another. My great-aunt Nicolina obviously has the largest number of matches and from what I can tell they should connect somewhere in her maternal side.

    This is possible because of a few factors. Joey and his family do not match anyone on Nicolina's paternal side. So, that takes out any Ferraiolo or Coppola connection and leaves us with the Tedescos and the Gullos. Joey and his family do not match any Tedesco matches and so that just leaves the Gullos. If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and swims like a duck....it's a goose. Er...duck. Wanted to see if you were paying attention. =)

    Okay. So, it's possible that this family matches somewhere in the Gullo side. Cool. Where do we go from here? Luckily, several people in the family have made decent or semi-decent trees on Ancestry and filled it up a little bit. I have no idea how accurate they are. I just know that all of their trees point to a family with the last name of "Mazza". Mazza is a fairly common last name in the Calabrian town of San Pietro a Maida and sadly their trees do not mention the town at all. So frustrating. The trees claim their Mzza was born in San Pietro Apostolo, a town thirty-seven kilometers from San Pietro a Maida. The jury's still out on that. Some people seem to confuse San Pietro a Maida with San Pietro Apostolo.

Oh, hi random unconnected tree. 
What's up?

    Eventually, I decided to make a floating tree on Ancestry in the hopes of one day connecting the family to the main tree. Thankfully, we have MyTreetags now because I would not have been able to find it without it.

    After doing a little bit of work, I found that maybe the connection might be through Joey's ancestor, Maria Casale. The trees have next to no information about her. I'm not even sure if she was from San Pietro and Casale isn't a name I've seen in San Pietro records.

    I guess the Casale connection would be possible. Isn't genealogy great?! So many possibilities are out there! The only thing is I wish Joey and his family talked to me a bit more about these possibilities because I have so many questions to ask. Are they sure Giuseppe Mazza was from San Pietro Apostolo? Mazza is a very common last name in San Pietro a Maida like I said. What information about Maria Cassale do they have?  I haven't been able to find much aside from censuses, a marriage in New Jersey, a Find a Grave link and a few other odds and ends. No naturalization paper or even a ship manifest.

    I have a few other DNA matches that have floating trees like the Mazzas here. But none of those trees vex me as much as this one. It wouldn't bother me if it was just one or two people who matched people in my tree. But we seem to match quite a few of them and I really would like to talk to someone in Joey's family so I could figure out what's going on. At least other floating trees I have have some kind of possible link. That's why I didn't write about one of them. Some are pretty obvious Gullo or Coppola connections. This Mazza mess needs some work and I'm open to any possibility. I'm fairly sure these are legit DNA matches and I am open to all possibilities.

      Like I said. I'm pretty sure these people all fit in the Gullo side because they don't match anyone else. It's just a question of where, when and if it's a half-relationship. That's always a possibility too. You never know. The world is a strange place and you have to open your mind to a world of endless possibilities. I hope I get this mess solved someday!

See ya next time!