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!