52 Ancestors Week 39: What Wasn't Written Down

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 39:

The theme for Week 39 is “What Wasn’t Written Down.” We deal with a lot of written records, but we can also learn from things like photos and the spoken word. What is something you’ve learned about an ancestor in a different way? (Or what do you wish had been written down, but wasn’t?)

The rest is still unwritten.

    There are a lot of events that just aren't written down and as genealogists we only get a snippet of peoples' lives in official documents like birth records, marriages, censuses and everything in between. Some things are never written down and some stories are forever going to be internal whether we want them to be or not. Not every waking moment is written down and we have to accept that. Still, there are some things I wish were written down. I honestly would have loved a journal or something detailing an ancestor's trip across the Atlantic or across the New Hampshire border.

    Think about it. I have four great-grandparents who landed in New York in the early 1900s and unlike some of their contemporaries they didn't stay in the Empire State. They went on to Haverhill, Mass and I really want to know what happened between their arrival in American and suddenly showing up in Haverhill. That's always been a question on my mind because Haverhill is a good four hours away from the Big Apple.

la famiglia di Ferraiolo

    My great-grandfather Vincenzo was certainly no stranger to traveling. After all, he made the trip from America to Italy many times. He first went to Haverhill in March of 1912 and stayed with his aunt Concetta and uncle Vincenzo. He went back to Italy and married Maria Tedesco in 1921. He stayed there for a few years and went back to Haverhill by the later part of the decade. In 1929, Maria and her children then traveled to America to join her husband.

    That's all well documented. We have the passports, the ship manifests and everything else that synchs with the story. The only thing that's missing is how they got to the city of Haverhill! They didn't exactly take an uber to the Merrimack valley did they? No. Of course not. Ubers didn't exist then. And I honestly doubt they took a rental car for the journey. We have to keep in mind that Maria was traveling alone with two small children when she arrived in America and I really doubt Vincenzo was there to greet her at the harbor! Then again he might have been there. It's hard to say. It wasn't written down!

     With all that in mind, there's a huge plot hole in the story. I'm a writer and if there's one thing I don't like is a plot hole. Neither my grandfather Marco or his sister Nicolina ever told anyone how they got from New York to Haverhill. Of course I asked her on many occasions but Nicolina always found a way to change the subject and talk about something else from her early days in America. I can't really fault her for that. She may have forgotten at that point. I mean she was six when she arrived in America. Even now I have a hard time remembering exactly what I did when I was six years old!

On the boats and on the trains....

   Since people didn't remember how they got to Haverhill from New York I had to come up with my own theories and it's a pretty solid one. It also would explain how everyone got to Haverhill, too. 

    To put it simply they took the train from either Boston or New York to Haverhill. When Maria and the kids arrived in America, railroad clerks who spoke fluent Italian would guide her, the kids and anyone else not staying in New York to the next leg of their journey. They walked the arrivals to the platforms and sent them on their way once they told them where their final destination was.

    Once they boarded the trains and everything the story pretty much wrote itself. The Ferraiolos likely left from Penn Station or Grand Central and went to Boston since there was no direct line to Haverhill. They arrived at South Station in Boston and from there they took the Boston Elevated Railway across town to North Station. Once at North Station, they boarded the Boston and Maine Railroad express, which carried them right over the Merrimack River iron bridge and straight into the downtown Haverhill Depot. I bet Vincenzo at least met the family there. I would hope!

On the boats and on the planes....

        As a writer, I really wish there was more to the story and it's a shame that I never heard more about the trip. What did grandpa Marco and Nicolina do the whole time they were at sea? What did they do on the train ride? What did they think of America at the time? Sure they were young but they had to have remembered something from the journey. No one documented the real human aspects of the trip at I think that would have been amazing to learn and not just from a writer's standpoint. It's from a genealogical standpoint, too. After all we're talking about peoples' lives and moving from one corner of the globe to another was not another day at the office!

    There is a silver lining, though. Nicolina did tell me how they spent their first few months in Haverhill. They reconnected with family and spent a lot of time with Vincenzo's aunt Concetta who they called "Aunt Zia". There was even a story or two about how they handled policemen coming to their house from time to time. Nicolina would answer the door, speak in Italian, and the cop would be so jarred that he ended up running away. Sadly, I don't see that tactic working these days. It's a sign of the times.

    I suppose I really would have just liked some stories about their travels and it's a shame they were never written down. Their story may have been similar to my other great-grandparents but I think hearing about what everyone did at the time would have added a human element to the saga. For now all I can do is simply make an educated guess about what they did based on my own childhood experience traveling to places like Florida. My parents gave my brother and I things to do and we kept each other occupied during the long trip since there were no screens. We did have plenty of books, though!  For Maria, Marco and Nicolina, I think I can just imagine what the trip was like even if it wasn't written down. It's all you can do!

See you next time! 

52 Ancestors Week 38: A Document with Personality

From Amy Johnson Crow:  Week 38:

The theme for Week 38 is “A Document with Personality.” Let’s be honest – some records we work with can be a bit dry. But others are oozing with personality. It could be a will with an interesting clause; an obituary that paints a picture of the person’s life; and don’t forget photos and tombstones! What is something you’ve found that has personality?

Everyone. Is. Here.

    Amy has a point. Some documents can be a bit dry unless you come across a man who tried to be drafted not once but twice during the first world war. Looking at you, Paolo Coppola! I've even found an Italian guy's naturalization paper in Montana. That's right. Montana. His original document was stolen and the whole sordid affair was well documented on his new naturalization form in the Treasure state. The story of Giuseppe Barberio isn't really mine to tell as I'm not related to him. Though, he was at my great-grandmother's funeral in 1943 and was born in San Pietro a Maida. Who knows? We might be related after all. 

    Anyway, it goes without saying that I've found many crazy documents out there over the years and it's hard to pin down which one I want to talk about the most because they're all good and some are comedy gold for all the wrong reasons. Instead, I thought I'd look at a document that you definitely won't find online....because it's in my parents' wedding album and it's in a very safe place. I am, of course, talking about their wedding guest list and by the end of the blog you may be able to see that just one innocent list of invitees can have a ton of personality attached to it.

     I may have mentioned the list on more than a few occasions.  However, I felt like it was necessary to bring it up again after last week's semi morose blog entry. In may ways, the wedding guestlist is similar to the funeral pamphlet because like it I have a ton of DNA matches who descend from people in there. There's also a very good reason for that and it's the main reason why the list fits this week's theme.

    If we go back to the 1970s when my parents were tying the knot, we'd find their parents making plans for the celebration. It was obvious that they'd be at the happy event and all four of them wanted to make sure everyone else was either there or invited to the party in Haverhill. This actually doesn't surprise me at all because every party my grandparents Robert or Natalie put together always had relatives there I barely knew or seen. 

       Marco and Ollie were pretty much the same way. They wanted to make sure all of their Italian friends and family were at my parents' wedding as well and it wasn't just second cousins who were invited! The Tedesco cousins from Woburn were invited or attended along with distant relatives from both sides of the family. It was a veritable who's who of relatives and while you might think that the list was competitive that isn't the case. The list was big because the families were big and my grandparents were simply trying to see how many people were available and can fit into the church/reception hall.

Austin and Henrietta

    One of the things that surprises me the most was the appearance of three of my great-grandparents on the list. Giuseppe Carrabs was not able to make it for various reasons. He was mentioned at least! Austin Felker and Henrietta Legault were there along with several of their children and grandchildren. Included at the table were several of Austin's half-siblings, the Senters and their families.

    I guess that's proof that Austin knew his Senter half-siblings as well as his Felker half-siblings. It's too bad they were at the event. They were in Indiana at the time and I have no idea what Austin's relationship with them was.

    Joining them were my great-grandmother Clara Laplante and an army of Hamel relatives. Henrietta's sisters, their spouses and other relatives were there too. Another big surprise was seeing Oliver Legault's daughter Agnes on the list. She, sadly, couldn't make it to the wedding. I think that made sense given that she and the rest of her family were living in the Buffalo area far from Haverhill. The invitees seemed to be who were local. Then again Matilda Legault and her family made the trip up from Connecticut. So who knows? Maybe the Buffalo Legaults just couldn't get away for a few days?

    The Italian side was represented by local Italian families who were related to Marco and Ollie. To say representatives from the seven families were there is a bit of an understatement. And it's no joke! There really were seven Italian families represented: the Carrabs the Villanuccis, the Tedescos, the Coppolas (by way of Angelina Soterakopoulos and her sister Rose), the Forgiones, the DeLeos (representing the Pentas), and representing the Ferraiolos were my grandfather and his sister Nicolina. 

    I think that lineup would have made my great-grandfather Vincenzo happy. 

    I think it's pretty clear why I think this document is chocked full of personality. The people I've listed weren't just names. They were real people with plenty of personality to spare. I knew some of them personally and trust me not much changed after my parents got married! I haven't even listed everyone who was there or invited to the event. That list is safely on a spreadsheet! The people on the list came from different worlds The Italians lived in Haverhill, Everett and Woburn and had ancestors who worked in mills. They also had vivid memories of "the old country" for the most part. The Italians had to mingle with people from my mom's side of the family and with the majority of them being descended from French-speaking Quebecois, I imagine they broke bread with the Italians over a nice glass of vino. 

    In the end, two worlds came together because my brother and I are here after all. The list isn't just a list. It's a melding of two different cultures into one harmonious union and sure there were hiccups along the way like my great-grandmother Clara saying she loved calamari and hated squid. Did anyone ever correct her?! I'd have kept the joke going but that's just me!  I think that when you read between the lines in a seemingly innocent document and have some context behind the people on a list you can definitely come up with a document that has some personality as long as you know the story and the people involved. 

See ya next time!

52 Ancestors Week 37: A Small Detail I Love

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 37:

The theme for Week 37 is “A Small Detail I Love.” Breaking through a brick wall is awesome, but finding a small detail can bring its own kind of joy. (For some reason, it made me smile when I discovered that my great-grandfather had a tattoo.) What is a detail that seems insignificant, but makes you smile when you think of it? 

If I get any closer, that will be a pixelated mess!

    Outside of traditional genealogy there's a ton of little things I've found here and there that I love. It could be my grandfather Bob's VHS copy of "Golf's Funniest Moments" or some random photograph where someone's just having a good time. Little things like that make genealogy fun for me because it shows that our ancestors were people. I can't stress that enough. Now, I don't know if any of my great-grandfathers had tattoos or anything. However, I can tell you that I like the details my great-grandmother's funeral guestbook.

    Now, don't get me wrong. Maria Tedesco's death was tragic. She passed away when she was just forty-three as as a result my father never knew his grandmother. All he and everyone else had to go on were pictures, memories and stories and in a way it actually mirrors how I grew up never really knowing my grandfather Marco since he passwd away when I was four. I just find the list of people who were there interesting because one of the people there links to several DNA matches!

Vincenzo and Maria

    On March 5th, 1943, the Pitocchelli Funeral Home in Lawrence, Mass hosted a very sad gathering. Maria Tedesco, a mother of two, was laid to rest and a veritable who's who of well-wishers from the Italian community in Haverhill were there that day to pay their respects. If you were to look at the list of the attendees, you would naturally find my great-grandfather Vincenzo, my great-aunt Nicolina and my grandfather. That makes sense since they were her family. 

    On the list were various family members including the Tedescos from Woburn and even the Pitocchellis themselves! That seemed pretty logical since it was their funeral home. Then again, how many funeral directors do you know who'd sign a random guestbook?

    My family is actually connected to Guido Thomas Pitocchelli, the man who ran the funeral home. His wife Concetta Coppola was the daughter of Giovanni Coppola who was the first cousin of my 2nd great-grandmother Caterina. Whew. That's quite the connection and it's backed by DNA evidence. My father has a DNA match on Myheritage who descends from Guido and Concetta. Connections like that are easy for me to spot but there's one name on the guest list that sparks my curiosity and also links to a ton of DNA matches. Let's take a closer look!

    On this page alone I see a ton of people I am pretty familiar with. I see several relatives of Vincenzo and many members of the greater Italian community including the ancestor of the guy who founded Benedetti's Deli, Nazarene Benedetti. That is a small detail I love. I can't think of anyone in the Merrimack valley who doesn't love the deli. If you're ever in the area, I highly recommend checking the restaurant out! I recommend the Nero. It won't give you agita like the aptly named "Caligula" will.

    You might be wondering where Maria's side of the family was and at first glance it does seem like attendance from her family was a little sparce. I think we need to keep in mind that aside from the Tedescos of Woburn, most of her family was on the other side of the Atlantic in San Pietro a Maida at the time of her death. Or were they?

    I'm honestly not sure to be honest. It is a small detail I love because my great-aunt Louise used to work at Benedetti's a long time ago and I am a big fan of the subs. I do wonder why he was there. He was probably a friend of the family. Though, I should note that Nazarene had a brother Marcellus who was married to Molly D'Agosto. Molly's sister, Julia was married to Joseph Francesco Medaglia who was the son of Giovanni Domenico Medaglia and Santa Gullo. I hope I didn't make anyone go cross-eyed reading that mess. There's seven degrees of Kevin Bacon here. Or in this case seven degrees of delicious cold cuts.

    Now, the reason why this is important is because Santa Gullo may or may not be a half-sister to my second great-grandmother, Domenica. I say "might be" because apparently Santa's father was named Francesco and Domenica's father was also named Francesco. There's also the fact that my great-aunt Nicolina has a ton of DNA matches who descend from Joseph. I can't find any Medaglias on the list of well-wishers and attendees. Santa and her family did live in Haverhill, though and her presence makes me wonder if she was Maria's half-aunt.

Antonio Tedesco and
Domenica Gullo

    I discussed Santa way back in this blog from January 2021. In the blog, I outlined a plan to prove or disprove her identity. I had been in contact with several descendants of hers and while they did provide me with information about who's who and who actually lived above Benedetti's Deli they didn't know what the connection was.

    Today, I am happy to report that I sent an e-mail to the commune office in San Pietro a Maida and I asked what I couldn't ask in 2021. I asked for  Santa's birth record and I even provided them the details of Domenica's life that I hadn't had back then. Back then I didn't know Domenica's father was Pietro Francesco Gullo. Now, I am wondering if he's the father of Domenica. DNA doesn't lie.....especially if one of those matches shares over 80 cMs with your great-aunt.

    I am curious, though. If she was Maria's half-aunt, why didn't she sign the guestbook?  Perhaps she or her family didn't sign it. Either way, I do think it's odd that there weren't many members of the Tedesco family there that day. There were plenty of Coppolas! That's an understatement!

    I think we have to keep in mind that this funeral took place in 1943 and there was a war on. Gas wasn't cheap and Captain America himself was urging people to buy bonds. Not everyone could make it to the event and perhaps the venue was so crowded that she couldn't sign the book. You never know and I don't have access to a Tardis so I can't find out who was actually there. All I have to go on is a list of names in a pamphlet. She may have been there. Who knows? Perhaps she was already in California at that point?

    At least the pamphlet is full of details I love. The connection to Benedetti's deli is just one of the details in there that I love. There's a lot of names in there and I managed to find most of them on Familysearch. Some people I created profiles for and added them to my tree. Others? Not so much. Hopefully, I'll find that birth record of Santa Gullo and it can tell me whether or not I actually have a connection to Benedetti's. I do love that their name is forever enshrined in that document. Finding the connection beyond "well-wisher" or "friend of the family"  would be the icing on the cake!

See ya next time!

52 Ancestors Week 36: More than a Name

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 36:

The theme for Week 36 is “More Than a Name.” I’ve said for ages that our ancestors are more than names on a chart. They were real people with real lives. What is something you’ve found about an ancestor that really made them come alive for you?

RIP Peter Cullen

         I have to agree with Amy. You can add all the vital statistics you want into your family tree and you'd never find what made them special or real for that matter. That's why pictures are literally worth a thousand words. They tell you more things about someone than a birth record or a census would. Stories are another thing that make an ancestor come alive. Even if you have a picture of your ancestor, a story that goes along with it will transform your perception of that person. For example, if you have a picture of your ancestor and thought he/she was a decent person and then you hear a story where you find out that person isn't who you thought they were, it tends to add a little depth to them. 

    As readers of the blog know, many of my ancestors are more than just their names on my family tree. I've done my best to try and make them come alive because the stories need to be told and I definitely am not one to just say "Vincenzo Ferraiolo was born in San Pietro a Maida in 1894". There's so much more to my great-grandfather than that juicy nugget of information.  With that in mind, let's revisit my third great-grandfather Jeremiah Felker and learn about why his life was more than meets the eye. (I said what I said.)

Jeremiah and Elizabeth

    If you take a quick glance at Jeremiah Felker's page on WikiTree, you'd only get the basics. He was born in Raymond, NH in 1838 and passed away in Haverhill, Mass in 1918. He married Elizabeth Fellows and they had a family together. When I was starting my genealogical adventure back in the day, that was all I had.  As time went by, I gathered more information from descendants of his and from various records online. The more I learned about Jeremiah, the more I was able to fill in his biography and create a story that frankly should be a movie. 

    A few years ago I learned that Jeremiah was born out of wedlock to Elias Felker and Martha Smart. That wasn't the end of it. Nope. It turned out that her father Jeremiah and her sued Elias for custody of the child shortly after he was born. It is interesting that he was named after his grandfather, isn't it? Keep reading and make sure you have popcorn handy. Jeremiah's life has more twists and turns than a country road from here on out!  I actually recently sent an email to the courts in Raymond to see if they had anything more on that case. Let's hope they have some information for me.

    Time went by and his mother married Jonathan West in 1840 and had three children with him. She married Joseph Miles in 1846 and remained married to him until her death in 1875. Meanwhile, Jeremiah served with his half-brother George Mace in the American Civil War on the side of the Union. My third-great-grandfather was in the 1st New Hampshire Heavy Artillery and married Elizabeth Fellows in February of 1863. It's safe to say that the first thirty or so years of his life was full of one crazy thing after another. Sadly, this was just the beginning! Poor guy never really had the chance to settle down.

Wilfred (left) wishes he had swagger.

    Jeremiah's son Wilfred was born in 1871 and while the family was enjoying the sweet life in Haverhill, Massachusetts, young Wilfred met and married Gertrude Stevens of Wakefield, Mass in 1891. Within a year of their marriage, Gertrude was pregnant with my great-grandfather. Normally, this would have been a happy time but it seems that Wilfred took after his grandfather and also had a roaming eye.

    Wilfred met a woman named Mary Pierce in nearby Newburyport and got her pregnant while Gertrude was pregnant with their other son.  Austin was born a few months later and Wilfred and Gertrude got a divorce due to his infidelity.

    There was a bitter court battle over my great-grandfather Austin and once the dust was settled he was sent to live with his grandparents, Jeremiah and Elizabeth in Haverhill. Gertrude left town and stayed in touch with her son. Wilfred? He married the other woman and had a family with her! Sad thing is that those kids moved away from Haverhill the first chance they got. Rumor has it Wilfred was not a nice guy!

    Austin clearly broke the cycle of infidelity when he married Henrietta Legault in 1913 and stayed married to her until their deaths in the 1970s. Jeremiah passed away five years after Austin and Henrietta got married and I like to think that he was there for his grandson during that event. I would definitely love to see the guest list for that event. It should be noted that on his own death certificate, his wife Elizabeth put Jeremiah's grandfather Joseph Felker as his father. I think that made sense given how Elias died in 1844 and because of that Jeremiah likely never knew the man or had no memories of him.

Austin and Henrietta

   See what nine years of digging and talking to people about one man can dig up? And this was just a third-great-grandfather! I think I know more about him than any of my other third great-grandparents combined! Sure there are a lot of things about them online or in stories but the story here clearly needs to be a movie.

    All it took was me asking the right questions of people and seeing what information was available. The story, I will admit, isn't for the faint of heart. I do have to commend him and Elizabeth for taking in their grandson and giving him a great life. The cycle had to be broken and I think they did a great job from what my mother told me.

     As you can tell from this week's blog, there's definitely more to our ancestors than meets the eye. They had their faults, foibles and lives wrought with drama just like we do today. They're more than just names and dates. They were people. Sometimes you want to praise them for doing the right thing. Sometimes you wonder just what were they thinking. I think the story of Jeremiah proves what I've been saying this whole blog. You aren't done looking at an ancestor after you add their names and dates to your tree. There's always going to be more to their story!

See you next time!

P.S. I would have written about my grandfather Marco but since he died when I was four I really didn't want to pull at that thread!!!!