52 Ancestors Week 32: Free Space

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 32

The theme for Week 32 is "Free Space." Use this week to write about anything you want! Or, if you want to stick to the theme, consider someone who moved to where they had more space (land), a homesteader, or maybe someone who played a lot of bingo.

This universe is just one of many in the totality of existence

    I love writing these free space blogs. The last time we had this prompt for 52 Ancestors I wrote about the genealogy of the Incredible Hulk aka Bruce Banner since "She-Hulk: Attorney at Law" had just debuted on Disney Plus. It was a fun and goofy romp and it allowed me to really exercise my comic nerd AND genealogical muscles. What do you say we do this again? Who is it going to be this time? I think you'll find this next character to be quite....amazing.

And thus a legend was born!

    Spider-Man. Spider-Man. The wallcrawler has been doing whatever a spider can for as long as I can remember and Marvel celebrated his 60th anniversary in 2022. Created by Marvel legends Stan Lee and Steve Ditko in 1962 during the creative boom that saw the debut of iconic comic characters such as "Fantastic Four", the "X-Men", "Iron Man" and the "Avengers". What set Spidey apart from all of the other heroes at the time was that he was a teenager and back in 1962 publishers balked at the idea of a teenager headlining his or her own book. They were almost always the sidekick to the main hero. In Spidey's case, he was always his own sidekick.

    Publisher Martin Goodman fought with Stan Lee over the concept since he felt that people weren't keen on teenage heroes at the time other than DC's "Robin" and people didn't like spiders in general. Eventually, Goodman went along with Stan's pitch and put the story into the last issue of a comic book that was due to be cancelled thanks to sagging sales. The book was of course "Amazing Fantasy" and in its heyday it was known to have science fiction and horror stories for readers to enjoy. The very last issue, issue 15, saw the debut of the webhead and it is now priced at over a million dollars if the comic is in near-mint condition that is. Thankfully, it's been reprinted thousands of times over by now! 

     Sometimes taking a chance on a character really pays off.  People liked the character because he was all too human. He had faults and foibles like many of Stan's other characters. And these weren't your average cookie-cutter superheroes, either! They were people like you and me since they fought each other and illnesses as well as the baddies. Sometimes these tales to astonish came with lessons akin to the ones found in Greek mythology. In fact, the very first Spidey story came with a very important lesson that readers all over the world took to heart: "With great power, there must come great responsibility".

     Over the years, we've seen Spidey grow, fight a literal menagerie of animal themed supervillains, go into space, go to college, get married, become a teacher, photographer and scientist. Eventually, he even join the ranks of Earth's mightiest heroes, the Avengers. Not bad for a kid from Queens, right?

Such a sweet moment!

    On the genealogical side of things we learn about Spidey's family quite early on in the pages of Amazing Fantasy. Right off the bat we learn that Spider-Man is really a youth named Peter Parker and was being raised by his doting aunt and uncle, Ben and May Parker.

    Parker's parents weren't mentioned for a good while in the comic and I'll get into details on that in a bit. Over time we were given bits and pieces of information regarding his origins. He was born in Forest Hills, Queens to Richard and Mary Parker and if you were in the Marvel Universe, you would find his birth records in the New York State Archives. Benjamin was significantly older than his younger brother Richard and once young Peter was orphaned at a very young age, he and his wife took the child in and raised him as their own.

    Life was pretty sweet for the Parkers despite Ben losing his brother and sister-in-law. Ben worked as a carnival barker on Coney Island in his youth and eventually he met a beautiful young woman named May Reilly who just so happened to live in the same Brooklyn neighborhood as he did. Unfortunately, another man put a wrench into their relationship plans. In the end, Ben won her heart and the two lived happily ever after.

    Parker's last name is of English origins and while we don't know much about Ben and Richard's parents; we did get some canon information regarding their names. 

Heroes of the Golden
Age

    When Marvel was celebrating the seventieth anniversary of the company in 2009, they used the in-universe newspaper known as "The Daily Bugle" to tell stories about various events happening in the Marvel universe at the time of the company's humble beginnings in 1939. 

    The "newspaper" printed stories about two of Marvel's first heroes, the android Human Torch and Namor, the Sub-Mariner and other articles referenced characters who would one day become important players in the Marvel Universe.

    Among the various articles were human interest stories and birth announcements like the ones you'd find in old newspapers today. One of the stories was one where Peter and and Ann Parker announced the birth of Benjamin Parker.

    Sadly, Benjamin Parker would show up in the Daily Bugle newspaper archives many years later when the robber his nephew failed to stop at a wrestling event murdered him in cold blood. Ironically, it was this event that caused publisher J. Jonah Jameson to take an interest in the kid. I say it's ironic because we all know how much Jolly Jonah sees Spidey as a menace.

          As it turns out, J. Jonah Jameson wasn't the only Marvel character who was watching out for young Peter in ways both large and small. Peter's parents Richard and Mary weren't your typical parents. They were actually agents of the C.I.A. and Richard himself was recruited by none other than Nick Fury, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Yikes. Good luck finding information on his parents. I hope you have level nine clearance.

Awww!

    Mary was already a C.I.A. operative herself at the time and the two hit it off. She was a translator and had a studious nature which complimented Richard's tendency to make jokes from time to time. Gee. I wonder which one their son takes after. The answer is BOTH!

    Eventually, the couple got married and not long afterward they found themselves involved in plots revolving several longtime Captain America villains such as the Red Skull, Baron Zemo and Baron Strucker. Since Cap was under the ice at the time, it fell on their shoulders to fill the void he left behind. 

    Hey. Someone had to help save the world while Cap wasn't around.

 

    Despite the hardships they had to endure from mission to mission, Richard and Mary were overjoyed when they learned they were having a baby boy. Fate changed their plans when they were called into service shortly after Peter was born.  After leaving Pete with Ben and his wife, they embarked on a mission to Algeria. While there they discovered one of Red Skull's goons was a mole in the F.B.I. They tried to expose him and were tragically killed in a sabotaged plane.

    To make matters worse Richard and Mary were called turncoats by that mole and their reputations were tarnished in the intelligence community until their son cleared their names years later as Spider-Man. The mole really didn't do them any favors as he broadcasted the news and papers everywhere told the same story. Ben and May tried their best to shield Pete from those stories while he was growing up. Thankfully, their names were cleared and the stories were redacted.

Totally not "Scarlett"
from G.I. Joe.

       The only thing about Richard and Mary you'd be able to find in the Marvel Universe is unfortunately the exposé on their so-called "betrayal" and eventually their vindication. You definitely wouldn't find information about Peter's sister, Teresa.

    That's right. Peter Parker had a hidden sister all this time and no one knew about it. Not even Peter! Comics are weird and let's not even get into the time when Peter's parents "came back from the dead" as robots. 

    Anyway, Teresa here claimed to be the daughter of Richard and Mary Parker. She was born in secret thanks to her parents' profession and was adopted while Peter went to live with their aunt and uncle. The two siblings eventually crossed paths when Parker was saved by two gunmen. I think Peter would have been fine, lady. Spider-sense and all that.

   

    Well, she couldn't have known Peter was bitten by that spider and gained all those powers. So, you can't really blame her.

    After a very confusing story involving several of Spidey's oldest villains she left the C.I.A. and was recruited by Nick Fury to join S.H.I.E.L.D. Like I said. Fury has a vested interest in the Parker family. They teamed up a few more times in various comics and eventually she was introduced to their aunt. However, they decided it was best to not reveal her true identity to her. Sigh. Comics. Ya gotta love 'em.

    The jury's still out on whether or not Teresa really is the daughter of Richard and Mary. You would think Peter would take an AncestryDNA test. Then again....they'd find abnormalities in Peter's spit linking him to Spider-Man. That's okay. There are other options. He and Teresa could just visit the Baxter Building and have Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four conduct the test himself. With the way Reed works, the results would be in by the time Teresa and Pete get a cup of coffee. Unfortunately, writers like to drag this stuff out at the reader's expense.

 

They actually televised this
wedding believe it or not.

    Aside from a family deeply entrenched in the espionage racket, Peter has had numerous girlfriends whose names would definitely be in various articles and magazines.

* Former Receptionist turned Reporter Betty Brant.

* Gwen Stacy, the daughter of a police captain. She was killed by Spider-Man villain Green Goblin and her death signaled the end of the Silver Age of Comics. Her death would definitely be in various newspaper archives in New York.

* Felicia Hardy aka the Black Cat

    And most famously of all, supermodel/actress Mary Jane Watson who he eventually married. Despite the intervention by various interdimensional entities claiming to be the Devil, I like to think their marriage record is STILL being held at City Hall in New York City. Yeah....I'm not a fan of "One More Day" a comic which saw the end of the Parker/Watson marriage in the lamest way ever. I won't go into details here. Let's just say it was......BAD. Very bad. Check the Wikipedia article for details. I am not a fan.

    Don't worry, friends. Peter and MJ still have an on again/off again relationship and she still remembers him being Spider-Man. There are even versions of Peter in the multiverse (Or Spider-verse if you prefer) who have had children with MJ. My favorite is Mayday Parker aka Spider-Girl.

MAYDAY!

    Named after her great-aunt. May comes from a world where MJ had a baby with Peter and that child was kidnapped by one of Spidey's villains. She was rescued by one of Peter's many clones. (I really don't want to go into too much detail on his clones. They're basically his brothers if you think about it.)  

    Anyway, she developed her spider-like abilities at an early age and upon becoming a teenager she decided to follow in her father's footsteps as a spider-themed heroine. She joined her universe's Avengers and had many adventures with other spider-characters within the Spider-verse.

    Peter and MJ had a second child in that universe named Ben. It remains to be seen if that kid will be crawling on the walls like his old man. She has met the Spider-Man of Earth-616 who is "our" Spider-Man and like many of Marvel's other children of heroes from alternate realities she tries very hard not to compare him with her father. Though....would Earth-616 Spidey still be her father? Try explaining that to Ancestry.com.

   

    As you can see, the family history of Spider-Man is quite the web of intrigue. We've got CIA agents, secret sisters, daughters from alternate universes and all kinds of drama involving the loves of Peter's life. Through it all, fans all over the world still love the adventures of our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Are the stories convoluted? You betcha. They're still fun and in the end that's what comics are all about.  

   

    Despite the crazy tales I mentioned in this week's blog, Spidey is one of the most grounded heroes in the Marvel pantheon. His tales of tragedies and triumph make him one of the most beloved characters of all time. And hey there are probably some family stories out there that make this tame by comparison. I think that's what makes Spidey so relatable. If you take away the fantastical elements, his life as Peter Parker is still a family story well worth checking out.

'Nuff said!

See you next time, true believers!

Spider-Man and related characters are property of Marvel Comics.

    

52 Ancestors Week 25: Storyteller

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 25

The theme for Week 25 is "Storyteller." Genealogy is more than names and dates. It's the story of our family. It seems like every family has a storyteller, whether it's Uncle Pete with his tall tales or Grandma Adah who quietly told stories of growing up in the early 1900s. Who is the storyteller in your family?

Not to be confused with the Jim Henson show by the same name.

    Welcome back to All Roads Lead to Haverhill, true believers! Stories are a common aspect of your genealogical adventure. You might hear about tales of daring-do like when your great-grandfather narrowly avoided capture by the police or you might hear some off the wall story about how your great-uncle claimed he invented the left-handed turn. Whatever the case is there are sure to be yarns out there spun so tight that even your cat will want to play with it! Are they true? Are they fictional? Well, friends. It's up to you to decide that once your relative finishes talking!

    I love talking like Stan Lee. It's fun. As far as storytellers go, I have quite a few of them in my family tree. My grandfather Robert  was known to tell a few tales about growing up in Newburyport. My grandmother Ollie and her sisters definitely told a ton of stories in their time. You just can't beat a yarn spun by a group of little old Italian ladies. Now, picture three of them all sitting at the table trying to tell you the same story at the same time! Are there tangents? Yes. You bet there is! That comes with the territory. I think this week I'll focus on one story Ollie and her sisters told me a long time ago.....in a city not so far away.

    Growing up, my family and I would visit my grandmother Ollie's house in Haverhill quite regularly. It didn't matter if we were unannounced or not. She was always very happy to see us. She would also somehow have a meal prepared for us and we would dig in. It didn't matter if you already ate. You were still getting fed!

    I remember one visit really well. We arrived at her house on Washington street one summer day and sitting at the kitchen table were Ollie and her sisters, Ellie and Louise.  My brother went into the den to watch some television after being hugged by everyone and I being the curious kid wanted to know what was going on.

  

    Grandma Ollie had a pot of pasta fagioli on the stove and she and her sisters were just talking about "the old days".

    I wondered what that meant and I asked her to continue. Apparently Ollie and her sisters were talking about their parents and visiting their uncles in Melrose and Everett. At the time it was the first time I had ever heard of her uncles Rocco and Pasquale. They also had an aunt named Rosina who also came to America. So, naturally I asked for more information about them. I was only ten years old at the time and I was unaware of the story that awaited me AND its many, many tangents!

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

    To set things up properly, the three of them explained how their parents, Rocco and Pasquale were all born in the mountain town of Gesualdo in Campania. They immigrated to America in the 1910s and made lives for themselves in the Massachusetts cities of Haverhill, Melrose and Everett.

    Since the cities were in close proximity to one another, the families would get together quite frequently.  This started tangent #1 when my father brought up Rocco's wine and how it was so strong it could peel the paint off of a boat's hull. Then someone mentioned how Giuseppe's wine was strong too and a big debate ensued!

    Naturally, I had no idea what everyone was talking about. I was ten and I obviously couldn't drink. In fact, the only time I ever had wine was during communion. I started to look confused by what was happening and before I knew it my grandmother brought out this old photo album. She told me I needed the faces that went with the stories we were talking about. She also told me that every good story needed to have faces attached to it. Maybe that's why I like pictures so much now!

Master storytellers!

    I looked at Rocco's picture and I remember saying "He looks like Mario!"  My brother heard me and ran into the kitchen to see what was going on and I showed him the picture. Jim was like "Oh, wow. He does!"  My grandmother and her sisters were a little confused and had no idea we were referencing the video game character.

    Italian men in those days had thick moustaches and wore them proudly. Rocco was no exception. His was thick like his accent. We talked a bit more about Rocco and everyone talked about how he never really spoke English and how he had eleven children.

    This was the next tangent! I learned so much about each of his eleven kids that I wish I took notes. That would have been quite the time saver years latter when many of Rocco's grandchildren turned up as DNA matches on Ancestry.

    My parents even mentioned how some of Rocco's children were at their wedding. That was very cool.

   The stories about Rocco continued for some time and I never got to hear about Pasquale or Rosina during that visit. When it was time to leave, I asked my grandmother about Pasquale and Rosina and she said there'd be time for it the next time we visited or she visited us. 

    Looking back, I figured Rocco stories took up the most time because he was the one who had a ton of children. Rocco and eleven kids. Pasquale had four. Giuseppe had six. Rosina had a few, too. More on her in a future blog.

    As you can see little old Italian ladies are a veritable library of stories. They have many to choose from and many branching tangents going from one topic to another. I remember asking my grandma about my grandpa Marco and somehow we ended up talking about the African American family who used to visit them in the 1950s. Stories just went all over the place and there are some stories that should probably remain internal if you know what I mean. Definitely not safe for WikiTree.

    If there's one thing I learned from the stories my grandmother told me it's that most of them turned out to be true. It was cool seeing the pictures that went with the names and I'm glad that my grandmother had the forsight to just give me a photo album to look at while my parents and everyone else talked. That was pretty cool and I daresay that was probably the start of my genealogical adventure. I'll forever be grateful to my grandma for giving me pictures that went with the people she was talking about. I'm sure she and the sisters would be happy to know I reconnected with many of the Carrabis cousins via dna so that the stories can continue.

'Nuff said.

52 Ancestors Week 4: Witness to History

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 4

The theme for Week 4 is "Witness to History." What historical events did your ancestor witness or live through? Don't forget that local history is just as important as world history!

It was always burning as the world's been turning.

“Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the moon. July 1969 A.D. We came in peace for all mankind.” — plaque on lunar module.

    I think it's safe to say that landing on our moon was one of the most pivotal moments in our planet's long history. In the last one hundred years we've gone from looking up at the stars and dreaming about what was out there to identifying several Earth-like planets located in a solar system's "Goldilocks Zone". In the middle of all that, we fulfilled President John F. Kennedy's dream of landing on the moon by the end of the 1960s. It wasn't done because it was easy by any means. It was done because it was a challenge that we as a species was willing to accept. I'm just paraphrasing his "We choose to go to the Moon" speech here. It was just so epic. Sadly, he never saw that dream become a reality. However, a great many people did watch the moon landing on that fateful day in the summer of 1969 including several of my ancestors.

Lookin' dapper, Dad.

    In 1969, my parents were dating while history was being made. Like many Americans, they heard about the eventual moon landing thanks to newspapers, radio and television reports. While social media was in its infancy, word spread around the world that a great achievement was about to be made and so the world watched and waited in classrooms and in living rooms all around our small blue planet.

    Since they were in school at the time my parents vividly remember the teachers wheeling in a television. It didn't matter if they were in high school or college. All eyes were glued to the set as they watched Neil Armstrong say the immortal words "That's one small step for man. One giant leap for mankind."

   I can just picture all of the cheers. It was indeed a cause for celebration! The space race aside, humanity needed a big win after the second world war!

     I can only imagine what it must have been like for them to be in that moment. My dad has long been a fan of the really bad science fiction movies like the kind "Mystery Science Theater 3000" would riff on and various classics like "The Day the Earth Stood Still".  He also watched the first "Star Trek" series! For him science fiction became science fact (la la la). My mom was likely thinking of her father, the former pilot. He flew planes that were considerably less advanced than a rocket. He definitely had some thoughts on space exploration!

    Robert loved planes and he loved to travel. He was definitely impressed by all the innovations that had been made in his lifetime. When he was growing up during the Great Depression, space travel seemed like a fantasy. I have to admit he was probably right. It was hard living in those days and the very notion of getting off of this rock seemed like something straight out of a comic book.

    When my brother and I were growing up, he told us about where he was when man first landed on the moon. Like everyone else he was watching on television at home. He often had this twinkle in his eye whenever he told that story. I like to think he was proud of what we accomplished. By "we" I don't necessarily mean just Americans. I think he was amazed by what we as a species did. We as a species have an inate desire to push our boundries. In his lifetime we had already mastered the skies. The final frontier was the next logical step for all humanity.

    Robert Hamel was always a man who looked toward the future and beyond his years. I mean he DID have his own e-mail address! Though, his computer was just for e-mail and that was it.

    I wish I knew what the moon landing was like for my other grandfather, Marco since he passed away when I was four and I obviously never got the chance to ask him myself. I suspect he might have had the same reaction as my father and grandfather. Not to the same degree he had obviously. Considering what I know of the man, I can make some reasonable assumptions.

    Marco was known as a builder. He built a motel, a dentist's office and helped to build the house I grew up in. He was all about building the best things for people. So, it's safe to say that he was probably impressed by the space program and its innovations.

    I'm not sure what he thought about my father taking an interest in science fiction. But, he probably liked it just as much as he did. Let's face it. Those old movies were entertaining for all the wrong reasons.

    Still, I'm willing to bet he also thought it was cool. I wish I could have been able to ask him about the space shuttles which were considerably more advanced than the rockets from the 1960s. Grandpa Hamel loved them and I can only imagine Marco felt the same way. Both men did have experience with planes. Marco had been a paratrooper and Robert flew planes. It is a mystery. However, I like to think that he was watching along with grandma Ollie and her sisters at the time of the landing.

   A few months after the landing Ollie, Marco and my great-grandfather Vincenzo  went to Italy and Switzerland to attend my cousin Caterina's wedding.  It's a safe bet that they discussed the historic event over espresso.

    The moon landing was a huge deal for people all around the world and it's safe to say that it inspired generations of people to continue expanding our knowledge of the great unknown. In the years since the landing, we've landed rovers on Mars, sent probes into the farthest reaches of our solar system and even downgraded Pluto to being a dwarf planet. Sigh. We can't win them all can we?

    As far as my ancestors who watched Armstrong and Aldren are concerned, they were pretty much glued to the television set at the time. They all had great memories watching the event in class or at home with their loved ones. The moon landing proves that not all historic events needed to be disasterous. Some can help a generation feel like the future won't be so bad after all. There are endless possibilities when you witness a historic event that brings people together. You get a sense of hope and accomplishment knowing that your world will be in good hands when you leave it. The moon landing will always been one of those events where you remember exactly where you were that day and it gives people positive feelings and stories to share.

    Who knows what the next major historic event like the moon landing will be. What event will inspire us like landing on the moon in 1969 did? Time will tell. The future really is the undiscovered country and I can't wait to see what comes next.

See ya next time!

"A whole world looks to see what we shall do.We cannot fail that trust and we cannot fail to try." -- John F Kennedy's "New Frontier" speech, set to Darwyn Cooke's "Justice League: The New Frontier".

52 Ancestors Week 40: Preservation

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 40

The monthly theme for October and Week 40 is "Preservation." Think for a moment about all of the records you've used in your family history research and what it took to preserve them. What are you thankful that was preserved (or what do you wish had been preserved)? What are you working to preserve?

Still a bargain at 25,000 dollars!

    I agree that it takes a lot to preserve things in your family history. You want to preserve that picture of your great-grandparents or your great-aunt or uncle in the same way they would have preserved that picture of you in the bath tub when you were little. Fess up. I know you all have at least ONE of those baby pictures. I...have a couple. Adorable baby pictures aside, what do you do when you've allocated a ton of these genealogical artifacts? What items from your family's past do you keep and what ones do you do away with? As a collector of comic books, it's a question I've often asked myself since space is at a premium and I do end up selling things on eBay or at the local comic shop. So, the question is. What is worth keeping and what is ultimately destined for the recycling bin or your local historical society?

So much stuff.

    My grandfather Robert Hamel has collected a lot of things over the years from golf balls to model airplanes. He even went so far as to save the electric bills from his father Alfred's Fix-It shop in Newburyport. There weren't just one or two bills in the boxes my aunt Linda gave me back in 2020, mind you. There were at least thirty bills in there all dated from the 1950s to the early 1960s! 

    There's a fine line between collecting and hoarding and sometimes that line gets blurred when you want to save various documents. What do you do with these electric bills for a shop that's been out of business for over sixty years? My family had no idea that my grandfather saved those bills! It was a complete shock and yet my mother understood why he kept them all these years. Maybe they reminded him of his father? I have no clue. Grandpa Bob passed away in 2017. If he was still around, I'd have definitely asked him WHY he kept the bills. From a genealogical perspective they may not offer much information other than what the cost of electricity was in 1960. Again I ask. What do I do with the bills?  Do I honestly need them taking up space?

    I have two heavy boxes full of stuff from his home. What I have done was divide the items into two groups. One was "KEEP!!!!" and the other one was "TOSS!!" Let's evaluate the kinds of things I kept. Keep in mind one of my other aunts has two suitcases full of MORE stuff that I have yet to go through! It's always an adventure for your friendly neighborhood genealogist.

    The things that I have obviously kept include items like this picture of Alfred Hamel and various other photos. My grandfather loved to take pictures and he had a ton of photo albums saved. Those were keepers. He also saved various photos from the Felker clan as well along with several sympathy cards from when grandma Natalie passed away in 2004. I kind of want to keep those as that was basically their FAN club or "Friends and neighbors". It's a good idea to keep them and the guestbook from the funeral home for that purpose even though I was obviously there.

    Small envelopes held photos of myself, my brother and our eight first cousins growing up. Some photographs, like the graduation photos, were obviously duplicates and were put in a safe place. Other photos were given to various family members in the off chance that they would like to see them. Wedding albums were also saved and so those photos were given to various family members, too. Side note: I was the most adorable ring bearer ever. Just sayin'. It's hard work balancing a ring on a pillow, you know! ;)

    In the mix was his service record, Alfred's service record and even directions to his brother Alfred's marker at Arlington National Cemetery. Those, I kept for obvious reasons. It's genealogical gold and you definitely need a map to find a specific gravestone at Arlington. Talk about a needle in a haystack!

Early 20th century Hugo Boss glasses? Maybe....

    Naturally, he also kept various items that belonged to my grandmother including some of her needlepoint, Felker family albums and assorted letters they wrote each other during the war. That was to be expected. They were married for over fifty years and her things sort of melded into his to the point that it was hard to tell which items belonged to whom.

  Obviously I've also kept things like their birth certificates, marriage certificates and things like that. You don't throw that genealogical gold away, my friends. Those are items worth saving and I can see why my grandparents kept them. 

    They had sentimental value and some items were passed down through time like these glasses! They could be Alfred's or his father's. I'm not sure. It was a surprise, though!. There were no lenses in there. But, it's still cool. We took those out and put them in a place of honor. This is just an example of a few items we kept. What DIDN'T we keep?

I think Nana would have appreciated
the "spring cleaning".

    The first thing to go was obviously the bills to the Fix-It Shop. Shocking, right? I don't know, guys. There could have been genealogical gold there. We could have found out how much money Alfred owed the city of Newburyport! That could have been a crucial fact that needed to be preserved for all time!!! If you can't read the sarcasm in this paragraph, then yes that was intense sarcasm. We tossed those.

    Another thing we probably should get rid of are his golf magazines. They were from as recently as 2016 and were still in good condition. I didn't think we really needed them. I don't golf. My dad used to golf. But, he doesn't seem too interested in the magazines. They just don't seem to have any value and needed to be tossed. Ironically, it made the box they were kept in MUCH lighter! You'd have thought the albums would have made it heavy. Nope! It was the golf stuff! They had to go!

    Miscellaneous items such as those are best sent to various collectors or someone who would appreciate them if you don't want them. Your mileage of course may vary! 

    In the end, you'll want to preserve the items that really should be preserved. Some items can stay and some items unfortunately have to be tossed. If family members want a specific picture, you could always scan and share on social media. Speaking of photos, if there are really old ones that your family wants and you want a copy, you could always scan and save to your computer. I put whatever I want to keep into a zip drive and store it there. It's a handy idea! Just make sure you keep them in a safe place!

  

I totally have this comic from
1974....

    I also have an interesting trick I want to share. If you have several relatives who want a picture of say your third great-grandfather or something and you have the only known copy, there IS a way to stop the drama before it strikes. You scan the image and once it's on the computer you can print it out on super glossy paper. It'll look just like a real photograph. I've done it for various comic covers I would have never have access to and put them as a backdrop to my reviews. The results speak for themselves. Just let them dry! You may also want to stock up on ink. I'm just saying. Printing out that comic cover you see over there took a lot of ink!!

    I don't think anyone actually believed I owned a mint copy of "Giant Size X-Men #1",  "Amazing Fantasy #16. Or even "Action Comics #1". Still, it was fun to print out comic covers to put on display like actual photographs. The same principle can be used if there's several family members who want a specific picture. Sharing them on social media is one thing. It's another to have a physical copy. I like having physical copies and it's a great way to share photos. I should honestly try it with some photos. What's the harm? It's a great way to preserve a photo for all time!

    Preserving the past is a great way to remind the family of those who came before us and where we all came from. There are stories with every photo and every document you find. However, you are likely to find junk from time to time. It's important to remember that sometimes your relatives save some things that probably should have been tossed out ages ago. So, if you have inherited a ton of stuff be sure to sift through what you want to keep and what you don't. There is a difference! Be mindful of that and happy hunting!

See ya next time! Oh and I actually do have several copies of "Giant Size X-Men #1" and "Amazing Fantasy #16" as reprints! =D

52 Ancestors Week 35: Free Space

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 35's theme is "Free Space." I intended for this to be a week for you to choose whatever you want to write about. (Though that's true every week!) But also feel free to riff off of the theme -- maybe an ancestor who went West for land, going to a family vacation spot, or a bingo-playing ancestor? Have fun with this theme!

Can't get more wide open than this.

    If you're following me on Twitter, you might see where this is going. "Free space" or "open mic" nights are where I tend to get more creative than usual. Whenever we would have a "#genchat" and an open mic night is the topic of the evening, I would offer up random topics and sometimes I would bring up superheroes. Shocking, right? Hear me out before you click away from the blog! Comic book characters and their stories have long been considered to be the modern mythology since their humble beginnings in the late 1890s/early 1900s. Since the 1960s, they've evolved into characters with faults and foibles thanks to the creative minds of writers such as Stan Lee and artists like Jack Kirby. Over time, many of these writers would develop extensive family trees for the characters in order to fill out the world in which they live and make it seem like our own reality. Other universes have dabbled into this idea too like Star Wars, Star Trek and especially Game of Thrones.

    For this week's blog, I thought I would transport ourselves into the world of comics and figure out how we might research one of the characters inhabiting the pages. In the real world, I highly advise against creating a tree linking yourself to the mighty Thor or someone mythological. The Allfather looks down upon false genealogy and may smite you! Big talk coming from him, I know. Wait. No. I'm confusing him with Zeus. You know. That OTHER thunderous character. Odin has far more chill. ;)

That's right. Hulk was GRAY
in his first appearance!

    There are literally millions of characters out there who we could turn our attention to. You could research the Kents and learn about how their ancestors were some of the original settlers of Kansas. You could research the parents of Bruce Wayne and learn about how they came into their vast fortune. You could even learn about the parents of Peter Parker provided you have a level nine S.H.I.E.L.D. authorization code and access to the C.I.A. database. Spidey's parents were really important. Whew knew? Let's make it simple on everyone and research Bruce Banner aka the Incredible Hulk.

   

    Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in the pages of "The Incredible Hulk" #1 in May of 1962, the character has seen many iterations over the years from the Bill Bixby/Lou Ferrigno television series to his appearances in the Marvel Cinematic Universe where he was portrayed by Mark Ruffalo. Like in the comics, Bruce is a charter member of the Earth's mightiest heroes, the Avengers. He was bombarded by gamma radiation when he pushed a teenager out of the way of a nuclear explosion and now whenever he got angry he would turn into a gargantuan green....well....hulk. 

    If you were a genealogist in the Marvel Universe and you were researching Banner, his superhero origin would be well known. It's not like he has a secret identity or anything any more. In fact, Bruce is actually considered to be one of the greatest minds on planet Earth. His intelligence matches those of his contemporaries like his science bro, Tony Stark, Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four and noted geneticist Professor Charles Xavier to name a few. Not too shabby, huh? Marvel is not short on royal smart people. Benevolent or otherwise.

    Bruce was born in Dayton, Ohio to atomic physicist Brian Banner and his wife, Rebecca. Thanks to the Marvel sliding timescale, no specific date has ever been given. In the current comics, it's been almost twenty years since Reed and his family took to the stars and received their fantastic powers. Back to Bruce. This is where things get a little heavy.

    If you looked up newspapers in Dayton, you might find articles where young Banner was praised for his scholastic achievements. Since Brian was semi-famous, you could go to the Dayton city hall and libraries and research Bruce's birth, try to find his parents' marriage certificate and dig up all kinds of information about the Banner family. He had a grandfather who was also named Bruce and his ancestors worked with gamma radiation similar to how Marie Curie worked with radium. That's honestly an interesting spin on things and it's clearly a recent revelation as writers have spiced up Banner's backstory. Sometimes this works in a character's favor. Sometimes it just adds more confusion. Look up Wolverine: Origins for example.

    Banner's ancestor, Samuel Sterns studied the then unknown gamma radiation around the turn of the century (Again. Just like Madam Curie!) A crafty researcher would be able to dig up some information on him. There was apparently sordid affair involving him, his brother Robert and Robert's wife, Beatrice Banner. Gotta love all this alliteration, right? Information on the Sterns and the Banner families may be a little hard to come by because they haven't been too fleshed out in the comics so far. For example, there is a brief snippet about an ancestor who fought in the first world war.  You could possibly find that ancestor's draft card. Writers haven't given him a name. He was probably Brian Banner's grandfather. I really wish they had a link to Captain America and his adventures during the second World War. But, that would have been too convenient since a lot of characters already connect with Cap. Let's go back to Bruce because his life, was about to become anything but sunshine and rainbows. 

    Young Bruce was a victim of relentless abuse brought on by his own father who was actually jealous of his son since his wife showed the child more affection than she showed her abusive husband. To make matters worse, Brian felt that his work in radiation somehow made his son a mutant. (Oh, boy. THAT would take way too long to explain. Let's just say people born with their powers in the Marvel Universe are umm...looked down upon, hunted and feared just for being born different. It's an allegory for racism and prejudice in general.)

    Since Brian was a noted atomic physicist, that information may not be widely known and hidden in Bruce's S.H.I.E.L.D. file somewhere. His wife may not of filed for divorce or anything for fear of her life. However, this next part would have definitely made the papers in Dayton. In a fit of rage, Brian murdered his wife and was sent into an institution for his crime. Articles would be written and of course there would be court documents, and records at the institution where Banner would live for a good portion of his life. Yes, he was eventually released. This is comics. Everyone escapes from institutions somehow. I swear there's a revolving door at a few of them. Looking at you, Arkham Asylum. 

    After his mother's death, Bruce was sent to live with his father's sister, Susan. There's not much about her in the comics aside from her marrying a man with the last name Drake and eventually getting divorced from him. Chances are good those records would be available. She apparently never wanted to deal with Bruce's father after what happened in Ohio. She did try to undo what happened to Bruce and she was not alone!

   Brian's sister Elaine and her husband, L.A. Sheriff Morris Walters lived out in sunny California and did what she could to help young Bruce, too. Also helping Bruce to deal with his trauma was his cousin, Jennifer who would one day become She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. (Now playing on Disney +!).  Bruce's aunts did their best to help the young boy grow and even though he was withdrawn and angry it was found that he was in fact a child prodigy. 

    Bruce's scholastic achievements wouldn't be too hard to find. There's no stigma attached to success after all. So, you can bet the newspapers covered everything from his time at Science High School (Yes. That's the name.) to when he began studying Nuclear Physics at "Desert State University" in Navapo, New Mexico. At this point, a genealogist in the Marvel Universe could look up his yearbook photos if he or she desired. Just look for the nerdy looking kid with the glasses and the alliterative name.

    Young Banner still had unresolved issues from his childhood. So, chances are good that you would be able to find medical records as his aunt tried to help him cope with the years of abuse at the hands of his father. You would also find more articles about this next big milestone in Bruce's life. In fact, you could even argue that it was the one event that changed his life forever.

    

That's gonna leave a mark.

    After college, General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross recruited Banner as he saw potential in the young man as he excelled in the field of nuclear physics at CalTech, one of his many alma maters. Ross gave him command of a nuclear bomb testing facility and things were going well until teenager Rick Jones wandered onto the test site when a bomb was going to go off. (Rick actually went in on a dare.)

    Naturally, Bruce ran onto the site and pushed the teen into a ditch, saving him. However, his life was never going to be the same ever again. Banner was bombarded by what should have been a lethal dose of gamma radiation! However, something inside his body prevented him from dying and now whenever he got angry, he became the rampaging jolly green giant we all know and love. 

One of Smilin' Stan's final creations
for Marvel!

        From this point on a genealogist in the Marvel Universe would have no trouble looking up information on Banner and his alter ego, the Hulk. Bruce did not stay out of the news and honestly you can't really miss a seven foot tall fighting mad rage monster. It also didn't take long for the government to put two and two together and figure out Banner was the Hulk. It's hard to keep THAT a secret!

  

    The Hulk's exploits were common knowledge for the most part and Banner tried hard to live as normal a life as possible. All further information can be found in various newspapers. Banner even attempted to reconnect with his cousin, Jennifer at one point during his self-imposed exile. That event nearly turned tragic and Bruce had to save her life using his own blood.

   Thanks to Jennifer and Bruce sharing the similar "mutation" that saved Bruce's life when the gamma bomb exploded, she was transformed into the sensational She-Hulk!  I'm not sure if that story is widely known in the Marvel Universe. However, Jennifer IS a very famous lawyer  having been a member of the Avengers AND the Fantastic Four. 

    Though, as a researcher, you could conceivably use Jennifer's own interviews as a way to research her cousin. I think she even has an in-canon book about her life. She never lost control as a Hulk. In fact, she can control her Hulk form most of the time and embraced her "Gammazon" lifestyle as a lawyer and as an adventurer. That's something Bruce was not always able to do unless Hulk had Banner's brain in control. This is attributed to the abuse Bruce suffered.  This is a debate about that is best left to a psychology blog.

Language.

    Despite all of his adventures and wanting to be left alone, Bruce has found himself in many romantic relationships. From General Ross's daughter, Betty to even aliens from other planets. As a genealogist working in this universe, you probably would have no idea about that relationship or The Hulk's children. And man did he have many! You'd have to go into space to research those kids or other realities. These are his known children:

1. Skaar, a son he conceived on Sakaar while being a gladiator.

2.Lyra, a daughter from an alternate future. Comics have a lot of those types. A lot.

3. Two children who claim to be Bruce's. But, they haven't taken a DNA test. Of course they could just ask Bruce to administer it himself. I mean he IS qualified.

     If you really want to get down to it, researching Banner or any other superhuman would be no different from researching a celebrity. Information would be widely known and you could find various tidbits of information in newspapers, records, biographies and everything else. Comic writers have always strived to make their characters as human as possible and characters like Bruce Banner have decades worth of lore to dive into as different writers have added into the mythos. Some bits may have also been retconned. Some may have been added onto in order to spice up a character. It's all about how you can hook the reader in with the story and it's been working for over half a century at this point!

    Banner's family history is definitely not one for the faint of heart. But, it is interesting to see how a genealogist could find out information on how his family has always worked with gamma radiation. At the same time, you can only hope Bruce broke the cycle of abuse that plagued his family for generations. Of course that really depends on who is writing the Hulk at the time. Banner has gone into therapy for his issues and there have actually been different forms of the Hulk himself. It's complicated.

    I've only covered a small portion of  Banner's family history here. There are tales involving alternate futures and what happened with his offspring. Comics are weird. But, they have been entertaining us haven't they? Can't say they aren't creative!

    I've had fun delving into the genealogy of a character I sort of like. If I'm going to be honest, I like She-Hulk a bit more than Bruce. But, that's more because she tends to break the 4th wall and has been doing so for a decade before Deadpool came around. If you're going to do genealogy on fictional characters, I suggest you try it because it can be fun and you never know what amazing things you can discover when you look into a character's family story. The stories have been written and there are definitely more stories to come. So, pull up a couch and start reading, true believers!

See ya next time! Excelsior!

The Incredible Hulk and related characters are property of Marvel Comics.

(Man, this was fun. I hope we get a chance to do a free-space blog again. I want to tackle Captain Picard, next. I mean there is an autobiography of him....)