52 Ancestors Week 1: In the Beginning

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 1:

This week’s theme is “In the Beginning.” (According to “The Sound of Music,” the beginning is a very good place to start.) Who was the first person you wanted to find when you started your genealogy journey? Was there a family member who sparked your interest, maybe by giving you a bunch of genealogy “stuff”? This would be a great week to write about them!

Our whole universe was in a hot dense state....

    This year's 52 Ancestors is off to a great start and I have to thank Amy for providing a prompt which also doubles as a jumping on point for new readers. It's been a long time since I started writing this blog and this week's entry is actually my 300th blog! As a writer I know how important it can be to include a refresher so new readers can see how you got to a certain point. You see it all the time in comic books and I've been known to do a few recaps every now and then for my own webcomic. In those cases, you kind of have to repeat what has happened in the past because a reader will get lost with all the lore. And as anyone who's read the biggest comics out there know, there are decades worth of lore out there.

    Hopefully, this won't be too bad. It's a good idea to look back and see how far you've come as a genealogist and sometimes you either wince at what you did wrong or nod approvingly at some discovery you made. Looking back can be a good thing. So, let's take a minute and see just how I got to this point.

      My name is Chris and I was born in 1978 to Dr. James Ferraiolo and Diane Hamel. I'm the youngest in the family and the second oldest of ten grandchildren on my mom's side. Since I grew up in the 1980s and 1990s, you've likely seen many references to the popular culture of the era. That hasn't effected me one bit, right? Heh.....Sure it hasn't.

Dig those '70s sideburns, dad. 

     My father is, as many genealogists have said, "All Italian all the time". Basically, this means that his tree is one hundred percent Italian. Makes sense because he's the son of Italian immigrant Marco Ferraiolo and Olympia Carrabs, the daughter of two Italian immigrants named Giuseppe Carrabs and Clementina Forgione.

    My mother on the other hand is a healthy mix of French-Canadian ancestry and colonial American ancestry. Her father Robert Hamel comes from a very French-Canadian family with a teeny, tiny sliver that goes to Scotland by way of my 2nd great-grandmother, Georgianna Ross. My maternal grandmother Natalie has French-Canadian roots as well. However, there's that line from my great-grandfather Austin Felker that leads to colonial New England.

    From all of that you might have gathered that I'm some sort of New England mutt. To that, I say....You're right. Millions of Italians immigrated to the United States in the early 20th century and my ancestors were no exception. The same could be said for the French-Canadians in my tree and they were on North American soil since the 1600s. The only ones who have been in New England since the 1600s have been my ancestors on the Felker side of things.

    Through some cosmic twist of fate, everyone somehow ended up in two cities in the Merrimack River valley. This would be the cities of Newburyport and Haverhill where my parents were born. In fact, this blog gets its name from the Queen Slipper City because even the people in Newburyport were in Haverhill at one point! All roads really do lead to Rome...er...Haverhill. 

    Of course the reason why people settled there couldn't have had anything to do with the shoe and textile mills opening up at the height of the Industrial Revolution. Those mills were looking for workers and they came on the boats and on the planes.

*record scratch* Yup....That's me on my grandma's
lap.

    By the time I came around many stories I would end up hearing about happened. I was one of those kids who'd ask their grandparents a million questions about where we came from and everything. Sadly, my grandfather Marco passed away when I was four and I really don't have any memory of him. There was a silver lining, though. Marco's sister, Nicolina was around and she often filled me in on the stories her brother obviously wasn't around to tell.

    She told me stories about how they were born in the Calabrian town of San Pietro a Maida and she told me that I had family still living there. Some family members came to America while others remained in Europe and somehow they kept in touch with the family over the years. Some even went as far away as South America!  It's very rare for Italians to keep in contact with family in Europe and my great-grandfather Vincenzo made it a point stay connected with them.

    Vincenzo even had a box full of genealogical gold confirming a great deal of information. He had guest lists, naturalization papers, documents, photos and more inside what could only be described as a black box. Meanwhile, my maternal grandparents had boxes of information and pictures as well. For information on the contents of each box, please check the blog archive.

    Not to be outdone, my grandmother Olympia and her sisters (Who I call the "Little Old Italian Ladies") had stories of their own. The sisters always talked about their parents and how they were born in the Campanian town of Gesualdo. The sisters also would talk about their uncles Rocco and Pasquale who ended up in Melrose and Everett and had huge families of their own. In addition, several relatives from the Gesualdo area ended up in America and yes stories have been told about them, too! Pictures were also shared!

Nana and Papa's 50th wedding anniversary!

        My maternal side has just as many stories as my Italian side. My grandfather Robert was a staff sergeant in the U.S. Air Force and the father of six children. My grandmother Natalie was one of six children and like Ollie she was always more than happy to talk about family history.

    She told me stories about how her father Austin had ancestors who fought in nearly every major American conflict starting with the American Revolution. She told me how her mother Henrietta Legault  was one of twelve children born to mill worker Antoine Legault and Lucie Cadran.

    I'm grateful that my grandparents indulged me with the questions. How easy would it have been had they said : "Get lost, kid"? Thankfully, they didn't1

    Fast forward to 2006. By that point both of my grandmothers had passed away and my only living grandparent was my grandfather Robert. I think it was "Papa" who encouraged me to make a family tree and at that time Ancestry.com was the only game in town for tree creation. There was no geni and WikiTree wouldn't launch for another two years. I started working on the tree after he encouraged me and I got to wondering something. Were the stories I heard growing up all true? Sure I could've asked my parents about them. But, I wanted to check things out for myself!

    My great-aunt Nicolina even chimed in and said that I should see if I could find some relatives in San Pietro who could help me out. She gave me some names and I let them sit on the backburner of my mind for many years as I had no means of contacting them. Fortunately, they found me on Facebook!

Austin and Henrietta

    To the surprise of no one, my maternal side was just as accurate as my grandparents described in the family tree they made. I worked on that side first because I knew records would be relatively easy to come by. Massachusetts keeps wicked good records, kids. Remember that. We'll discuss it over coffee at Dunkies.

    The colonial American side filled up really quickly and soon the French-Canadian side followed once I signed up for WikiTree back in 2017. Up until then I was doing genealogy off and on because I was working on my webcomic and I had my own video review show where I reviewed comic books. I still checked on Ancestry every once in a while, though.

    Once I started up again, a lady who turned out to be a distant cousin on the Carrabs side uploaded what could only be described as a treasure trove of information onto Ancestry. Her name is GesualdoGenie and as the screenname implies she researched the town of Gesualdo. She went to the town and scanned virtually every birth, death and marriage record she could find. Afterward, she compiled all that data into one big 80,000 person tree on Ancestry. Included in the tree was my grandma Ollie and her complete family tree.

Giuseppe and Clementina.

    Naturally, I messaged her and she helped me fill in the Carrabs side. It grew upwards toward the 1700s and outwards in the space of a week. Through her I learned about Antenati, the Italian government's repository for every single civil record in Italy from 1809 to the early 20th century. She assured me that the records she and Antenati had were indeed legit and I rapidly filled in the tree.

    I found that the stories about Gesualdo were all true and that my personal "three siblings who came to America" story was in fact true. Some genealogists out there have a similar story where an ancestor was one of three brothers who came to America or something and those brothers went in different directions. In this case, the story was not only true. But, it was backed up with pictures! Lots of pictures!

    To say that I was on a roll would be an understatement. Nothing could stop the wild roller coaster of genealogical  finds. There was still one last thing I had to do. I needed to spit in a tube. Gross, I know. But, there's no way to sugarcoat the desire to take a DNA test. Nicolina had done one herself and she asked my father and I if we would take one, too. 

    Genealogist Mary Tedesco even got in on the act! She and I had been talking off and on for a number of years as well ever since she found me on Ancestry. Her family and mine were both from San Pietro and to make things even more interesting her grandfather was my dad's godfather! Grandpa Marco was very close to the Tedesco family. They all lived in Woburn, Mass and often visited Marco and his family in Haverhill.

    Mary had been wondering about our connection for some time since my great-grandmother was San Pietro native Maria Tedesco, the first wife of my great-grandfather Vincenzo. I'm pleased to say that we found our connection through careful research. She is my 5th cousin! The story of my connection to the Tedesco family was proven to be true!

Vincenzo Ferraiolo and Maria Tedesco

    In doing a DNA test, the floodgates really opened for discoveries. Stories ended up being confirmed left, right and center. I found connections to virtually all of Mary's relatives including Mary herself. I found descendants of people who were at my parents' wedding. I found adoptees who were trying to find their place in my ever expanding family tree. 

    I found everything except the connections my great-aunt Nicolina asked me to find. That all changed when I went to the San Pietro a Maida Facebook group and asked them for help. They found me there and we still talk to this day. Over time even more European cousins found me as I put my AncestryDNA test on MyHeritage.

    The funny thing about MyHeritage is that I uploaded my DNA there and let it sit for ages before getting any really substantial DNA matches. That was until my Swiss relatives did their DNA tests there and confirmed yet another story. This one was about how my grandfather Marco, Ollie, my great-grandfather and my great-aunt all went to Switzerland for a wedding. Little did I know that I'd meet the lady whose wedding they all went to! 

Alfred Hamel, king of swagger.

          Caterina and I stay in touch and I do my best to keep in touch with my European cousins and cousins in South America. They've been very helpful in helping me to understand the family story beyond just photographs and information I find online.

    The funny thing is that almost all of the stories I heard growing up turned out to be true. I don't know if it's because the information was fresh in their minds or if there was no reason to really embellish the stories of those who went before us.

    Whatever the case is, I'm more than grateful to see that everything has been more or less true on my family tree. I wouldn't call it boring! Read my past blogs. It's anything but boring. You'll find that drama exists even in a fully completed tree. Trust me. 

    If anything, a complete family tree leads me to more questions and that kid who used to ask a million questions still wants answers!

    And that's the story of how I got to this point on my genealogical journey and how I became a genealogist. I just wanted to see if the stories I heard were true. Did I miss a few things? Probably. Like I said. It's a condensed history of the road I took to get to this point in early 2025. If you want all the dirty details, there are a ton of blogs here to read.  As I look back I wonder what I would have thought of all the discoveries I made if I made them back in 2006. Knowing me there'd still be a great deal of excitement. It's probably best that I made them in small bursts as I'd feel overwhelmed if everything was handed to me all at once. Some things would have gotten lost in the shuffle.

    I'm just glad people were there to help me on the journey and I'm glad I have people still helping me now from cousins in Argentina and Europe to fellow genealogists on WikiTree. Genealogy doesn't have to be a solo gig and I don't think I could have gotten as far as I have without their help and guidance. Now let's see what else we can find on this journey!

Happy 300th blog, All Roads Lead to Haverhill! Here's to many more epic tales!

See ya next time!

52 Ancestors Week 52: Resolution

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 52

The theme for Week 52 is "Resolution." This time of year, many of us make plans for what we want to accomplish. Do you have a genealogy resolution -- maybe a brick wall you want to break through or a collection of letters you want to digitize?

My first resolution should be to update this banner.

    Here we are at the end of 2024 and I don't have to tell you how much of a roller coaster the past year has been. The genealogy front saw nothing but amazing highs and all of you were here to share them with me. I couldn't be more grateful for that! Not only have I shattered the Gullo brick wall into itty bitty pieces. I met and got to know several cousins who I am proud to call friends. The cousins came from as far away as Argentina to just the next state over. Genealogy connects all of us and to be honest those connections put everything into perspective.

    So, with everything I've accomplished this year where would I go from here? There are a couple routes I could take and still so much more to learn. You're never really done your genealogical adventure. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something.

    One of the things I want to resolve is finally finding the burial place of my 2nd great-grandfather Antoine Legault. I know I'm beating a dead horse with this one. But, hear me out. The dedicated users of Find a Grave have been working on Saint James Cemetery in Haverhill and have cataloged over 8,000 memorials at the time of this blog's posting. That's a lot of work and I'm not kidding when I say that the cemetery is one of the largest in the city.

    I know for a fact Antoine is buried there since it's been confirmed by his death certificate. This isn't some white whale I'm chasing. Though, I do have a sinking feeling he might be in an unmarked grave. I hope not. Time will tell and hopefully someone out there will give me the answers I seek and piece of mind.

So many Coppolas!

    On the Italian side of things, there's still much for me to explore. I'd like to fill out the descendants of my fourth great-grandfather Francesco Coppola and his wife a bit more. I'd also like to find the identity of that wife, too. That would be nice wouldn't it? I can't keep calling her "Unknown Lady" now can I?

    I'm still not sure how I would go about solving that one unless I'm on the ground in San Pietro a Maida. Speaking of San Pietro. Did you hear the news? Antenati, the Italian government's repository for all Italian births, marriages and deaths will have the births from San Pietro a Maida on their website in the not too distant future. The records from 1809 to 1861 were on FamilySearch. I only hope that they expand on those records into well...maybe the early 20th century. It couldn't hurt!

    I'm hopeful that the records will be put online in due time and that they'll be expanded upon. Perhaps asking the commune office about a marriage or two would be a great idea. The well is getting dry regarding what I could ask the commune office. They also tend to fulfill requests more of the person asking the question is a direct descendant of the person they're tasked with looking for. I suppose that makes sense. Otherwise you'd get a lot of questions from them.

Waiting for Mr. DNA Sequence
to show up.

    On the DNA side of things I figured out where many DNA matches fit in the grant scheme of things over the past year. I figured out where "Isadore" belonged and numerous other ones as well. Some were easy to place. Some were solved thanks to AncestryDNA's new comparison tools. Not bad for a year's work, right?

    As more DNA matches come in, I think there'll be more puzzles to solve. Also, you may want to keep in mind that I still have older puzzles I'd love to solve. Though, I am closer to solving one or two of them thanks to cousin connections and the new AncestryDNA tools. I seriously cannot praise them enough for rolling that out. Let's hope they send me a check.....

    As you can see there's still a lot for me to do on the genealogy front. As more questions get answered, new questions start to emerge. You never really finish your genealogical adventure because we're always looking for new questions as well as answers. The curiosity to see what's out there is the driving force for many genealogists like myself. We know part of the story. But, we want to know more. I don't think that's selfish or anything. It's just what's been driving us. We search for the truth and ways to preserve it. 

    I wonder where I'll be a year from now on my genealogical adventure. Will I have solved the puzzles I mentioned? Will I have found new ones? It's hard to say. To borrow a line from Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country, the future really is the undiscovered country. 

Let's see what's out there. Engage!

52 Ancestors Week 43: Lost Contact

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 43

The theme for Week 43 is "Lost Contact." Many families have someone with whom they've lost contact, either by choice or by chance. Who is that person in your family tree?

Stars in the same galaxy, but light-years between us.

        Genealogy and the Internet often go hand-in-hand. With the Internet, you can make friends with people all around the globe and if you're a genealogist like I am you could find cousins by simply doing a DNA test at your favorite DNA testing site or create a family tree on a website like WikiTree, which has a world tree connecting you with millions of people. The possibilities are endless and I'm proud to say that with the Internet I've been able to make contact with family members from virtually every branch in my family tree save for a few lines here and there.

   Not too long ago I would have talked about the Astorino family and how no one had heard from them since the 1990s. The Astorinos descended from my great-granfather Vincenzo Ferraiolo's sister, Caterina. Caterina married a man by the name of Lorenzo Astorino and they moved to Argentina. The family stayed in touch for many years via letters, phone calls and visits. Then came the summer of 2024 when my third cousin Melina Astorino found me on WikiTree. The rest, as they say, is history.

Giuseppe and Clementina.

    I'm glad we made that connection and I still talk to Melina every chance I get. However, now that she reconnected with me, I find myself wondering about someone else on the Italian side of my family tree.

    I've mentioned my great-grandfather, Giuseppe Carrabs many times. He had two brothers who went to America and their names were Rocco and Pasquale.  Did you know he had a sister named Rosina?

    Like her brothers she was born in the Campanian town of Gesualdo to Vincenzo Carrabis and Maria Giovanna Capobianco. She was born there in 1892 and she also immigrated to America. And that's where things took an odd turn. I know for a fact she's a sister to the guys. You can see her birth record on Antenati!

      Growing up, I've only heard bits and pieces about Rosina from my grandma Ollie and other members of my family. She lived near Pasquale in Everett, Mass and married a man named Vincenzo d'Avino in 1923. Shockingly enough, that was it. To date I've never seen her picture and any information I do have is a bit fragmented. It really didn't help that even the extended family like my DNA matches never heard of her.  As you can imagine, I was more than a little frustrated about the prospect of there being a lost Carrabs cousin out there.

    I never really understood why no one talked about her. Was there some sort of rift or something? Did she go against the family? Did her husband not want her talking to her Carrabs relatives? I honestly have no idea. The more I think about it, the more I keep coming up with crazy ideas and scenarios. It's best to keep those under my hat because the truth can be stranger than fiction.  I should also note that Vincenzo was the brother of Caterina d'Avino and Caterina was Rocco's wife. The families were well connected and yet no one ever talked about Rosina.

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

    Anyway, frustration can turn into determination pretty quickly as far as I'm concerned. I may not know why Rosina seemingly fell off the face of the Earth. But, I can definitely find out what happened to her through some fancy genealogical jiggery-pokery!

     Rosina married a man named Antonio Pascucci in 1913 at the age of 21. They had one child in 1919 who unfortunately passed away the following year. The two remained together until sometime before the 1930 census. By then Rosina had two more children with her second husband Vincenzo d'Avino and their names were Melinda and Frederick. 

    The children did pretty well for themselves. Frederick married Jennie May Coppola (No clue if she's related to the Coppolas in my tree. The odds are astronomical.). Fred and Jennie had three children together and two may still be around at the time of this blog's posting.  Melinda and her husband John Nichiniello had five children and three of them are still living!

Rosina on WikiTree

      Wow. That's some fancy genealogical footwork, huh? Now that I know that Rosina's descendants are out there, what do I do now? Well, the smart thing would be to play the waiting game and see if anyone from that family takes an AncestryDNA test. Another option is to see if they're on Facebook and try contacting them that way. 

    You might ask yourself if that's stalking. There's a fine line between genealogy and stalking. And besides I just want to see if they're out there. No one has to take a DNA test if they don't want to. I just want to offer up some cousin bait. The first thing I should probably do is beef up Rosina's profile, huh? Maybe add the children and hopefully that will encourage people to contact me. Fingers crossed.

    I've been having a run of good luck contacting "long lost" relatives. They find me on WikiTree and most of the time they've been very receptive to my questions. I suppose the first thing I'd ask Rosina's grandchildren would be if they heard about Giuseppe, Rocco and Pasquale. Like I said. No one ever talked about Rosina and when they did it was just basic information here and there. Here's hoping that someone contacts me either via this blog or the work I do on WikiTree. Fingers crossed!

    It's just really unfortunate that I had so little information on Rosina to begin with. I had to dig through a lot of information to find her, her descendants and fill in the gaps. The reason why she got lost in the shuffle is probably really simple. Italian families are big and sometimes people fall through the cracks for one reason or another. At least we now have a means to contact Rosina's descendants. Will they do DNA tests? Perhaps. For now the hailing frequencies are open on all channels and a general message has gone out to the d'Avinos and Nichiniellos. Here's hoping they take the "cousin bait" and here's hoping they have a picture of Rosina, too!

See ya next time! 

52 Ancestors Week 20: Taking Care of Business

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 20

The theme for Week 20 is "Taking Care of Business." Many of our ancestors ran businesses, either as their full-time occupation or on the side. "Taking care of business" can also be a euphemism for getting things done. Who does the phrase remind you of?

Playing this song solo in Rock Band takes skills.

    Taking care of business is the theme for week twenty and I certainly got things done when I found my connection to a distant cousin! Did I finally find that link to "Isadore" that's been vexing me for years and years? Well, no. Not exactly. Don't lose hope on that front by the way! I fully expect to get closer to solving that puzzle by the end of the year. Fingers and toes are crossed. For now you can read the whole "Isadore" saga here. 

    This week I found my connection with a DNA match named "Zelda". Remember her? She was the one who contacted me about her grandfather Domenico Marinaro in 2023 when she found his page on WikiTree. I wrote a blog about her, the Marinaro family and mused about what the connection would be. Check THAT blog out here!

    In the blog I went over the various possible connectiions we had. Was I connected to her via the Marinaros since I have an ancestor named Domenica Marinaro?  In retrospect, that wasn't actually a bad guess. Marinaro is a fairly common last name in San Pietro a Maida and you have to wonder how many families were connected THAT far back.

    If you look at the screenshot, you might see another last name that's ALSO in my tree. Do you see that "Ferraiolo" in there? Interesting huh? I wonder what would happen if you were to dive into that branch!

    That's exactly what I did! I went to Haverhill city hall to see if I could get the death certificates for Domenico and his sisters, Natalina and Elisabetta. All three death certificates had the name "Elisabetta Ferraiolo" listed as their mother. Clearly Elisabetta was my link to the past. All three were born in the Calabrian town of San Pietro a Maida. So, there were a few things I had to do next. I e-mailed the commune office in San Pietro to see if I could find the marriage of the trios' parents, Bruno Marinaro and Elisabetta.

    While I awaited word from San Pietro, I thought it would be a good idea to see if I could find Elisabetta online. After all she had to have been born in the 1850s and records for San Pietro from 1809 to 1861 were online. I did my search and the only Elisabetta I found was a girl born on April 25th, 1851 to Bruno Ferraiolo and Natalina Arena.

    I did some more digging and found that Bruno was the son of Domenico Ferraiolo and Angiola Cortese. Domenico's parents turned out to be Giovanni Ferraiolo and Antonia Russo, my 6th great-grandparents.

    The stage was set and all I needed to do was find out if the Elisabetta on the death certificates in Haverhill was the same woman I found born in San Pietro in 1851. I told Zelda about everything I've found and all I had to do was play the waiting game and see if I could find any more Elisabettas in San Pietro. Like I said there weren't any which was weird beause there were like fifty Elisabetta Butruces out there.

    Finally the big day came earlier this week when I got an e-mail back from San Pietro and a document saying Maria Elisabetta Ferraiolo and Bruno Marinaro were married on May 28th, 1871. Her parents were Bruno Francesco Ferraiolo and Natalina Arena. As you can imagine I had a big smile on my face and before I even added the information to my tree I e-mailed Zelda and told her the news!

    Once the excitement died down, I built the tree down to Zelda and it turns out that she is a fifth cousin 2x removed. She's also a 4th cousin once removed of my great-aunt and a fifth coussin of my dad's. That makes sense when you look at the cM counts:

Nicolina: 32 across 2 segnents

My dad: 17 cMs across 1 segment

Me: 15 cMs across 1 segment

        I looked at the possible shared relationships and see that they being 4th cousins once removed is indeed a possibility. Over at the shared cM project, there is a 53% chance of that being accurate. You know what? I'll take those odds! I already proved the connection via a paper trail.  DNA here is just the icing on the cake at this point.

    So, that's how I finally discovered my link to Zelda. Are there more connections? It's hard to say. When I look at Zelda's and Nicolina's shared matches, I see a lot of Coppola cousins who descend from Giovanni Coppola and Natalina Marinaro. I see the same cousins when I look at my shared matches and my dad's as well. I think it's safe to say that this case is closed. If only all DNA matches were this easily solved, right? 

    At the end of the day I guess you could say that I took care of business here. I had a DNA match I was trying to figure out for a while. She provided me with some information and I used it to see if I could take things one step further. The moral of the story is that when you work together with a DNA match, you can solve any puzzle. It gets harder when you don't have a helpful DNA match, I know. However, if you have the tools and the drive you can do just about anything!

See ya next time!

52 Ancestors Week 18: Love and Marriage

From Amy Johnson Crow: The theme for Week 18 is "Love and Marriage." There are so many ways you could approach this theme! Ancestors who got married multiple times; elopement stories; ancestors who were married a long time; or even the surname of Love!

We're no strangers to love....

    In my family tree there's no shortage of people who have been married for a very long time. As of this blog's posting, my parents have been married for fifty-three years and had their big fiftieth wedding anniversary at the height of the Covid pandemic. My maternal grandparents had their fiftieth anniversary in the summer of 1998 and I wrote about that awesome party last year. What do you say we talk about an anniversary I couldn't possibly remember unless I was a Time Lord? Get inside the Tardis because we're going back in time to 1963!

    The early 1960s saw many of today's pop culture icons make their debut. In 1963 alone many of my favorite characters first burst onto the scene like "Doctor Who", "Iron Man", the  "Uncanny X-Men" and Earth's mightiest heroes, "the Avengers". The year certainly saw some tragedy of course with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. However, time marched on and people still found time to celebrate in the midst of all the chaos going on around them.

    Enter Austin Felker and Henrietta Legault. My great-grandparents celebrated their fifttieth wedding anniversary in the fall of 1963. They were married by a Justice of the Peace in Haverhill City Hall on November 29th, 1913. Back then the city must have been so different. Think about it. Automobiles were just starting to be developed and if you wanted to get anywhere you had to take a train.

    By 1963, the happy couple had six children including my grandmother Natalie and twenty-two grandchildren.  If they were going to have a party, I hope they either rented a room or just had one big party in the backyard. That's quite the army, huh? The family still continued to grow as the decade marched on!

    The party took place the week before Kennedy's assassination and my mother remembered everything that happened in that historic month. I don't think anyone who was around in November 1963 will ever foget that month! My grandfather Robert had driven the Hamel clan from California to Haverhill for the anniversary celebration. He was on a month's leave from the Air Force and they had plenty of time to travel and stay in the city for as long as they wanted. They stopped once in Wyoming and went straight to Massachusetts from there.  According to my mother, Wyoming was pretty nice. Though, having to share a car with four siblings was NOT her idea of a good time!

Blanche Legault-Yerxa

    My mother and her family ended up staying with my grandmother's sister Elaine for the whole time they were in town.  The odd thing was that despite traveling clear across the country the party was adults only! Can you believe that? You travel clear across the country only to find out that no children were invited! I guess that means I don't have any story to tell, huh? WRONG!

    There's still plenty to tell and there are plenty of pictures of the event in my archive somewhere. I just have to look for them. My mother remembered that whole month-long stay in Haverhill vividly because of how chaotic things were on the news as events unfolded. The children weren't even allowed to watch the news after the tragic events took place in Dallas! Instead, they ended up watching Lee Harvey Oswald getting shot on live television in her cousin's house. Wow. So much for shielding the kids, huh?

    Well, they weren't going to be sheltered forever, guys....

   Back to the party itself. At the time my mother was fourteen years old and even though she wasn't invited, she got to talk to her great-aunts like Blanche and various relatives from New York afterwards. So, the party wasn't a total wash as far as family gatherings go. She got to see relatives she hadn't seen in a long time and catch up on all the latest gossip.

Austin and Henrietta circa 1949.

    As far as Austin and Henrietta go, I'm sure they had a wonderful time with their friends and family. I'm not sure who all went to the "no kids allowed" party. But, I'm sure some of Henrietta's sisters and Austin's half-siblings all went to the event. 

    My mother said that the party was likely held at a hall or someone's home. It's hard to tell just based on the picture I have here.  The background looks like it could be from someone's house. I'm not sure. Either way, it's a shame that none of the kids were there. I'd have loved to hear stories from the event and all I have is a few pictures here and there. It's fine. Both Austin and Henrietta were at my parents' wedding in 1971 and I KNOW that was definitely a good one. Always is when Italians are involved. Just sayin'!

    A fiftieth wedding anniversary is a huge milestone for any couple as it shows that a marriage has stood the test of time. Austin and Henrietta were a couple from similar backgrounds since her father died when she was eight and Austin's parents divorced when he was a baby. They both had to endure a lot of drama and that usually brings people together. They stuck it out through thick and thin and as a result they had an amazing family. It's just a shame that the kids were left out of the party. I don't think I'll be letting that one go right away! But, it is what it is. A 50th anniversary shows a good, strong marriage and having a veritable army of grandchildren was their legacy!

See ya next time!

52 Ancestors Week 16: Step

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 16

The theme for Week 16 is "Step." When I wrote this theme, I thought about all of the "step" relationships in our family trees and how they are often overlooked. But there are numerous ways to interpret "step" -- steps in a house, long walks, steps in a process, etc. Feel free to be creative!

Not sure where I'm going with those footprints.

    Stepping into the step-relationships in your family tree can be an interesting challenge. Though, you are bound to find drama. Let's not kid outselves. There are multiple reasons why there are step-relationships in your tree stemming from a death of a parent to even divorce. I have instances of both in my family tree and today I am going to share the unique step-relationships my great-grandfather Austin had with his step/half-siblings in the Felker and the Senter clan. 

Austin and Henrietta

        Austin's life could not have been an easy one. His parents Wilfred and Gertrude were divorced shortly after he was born and they would go on to marry other people and have many children together. Wilfred married a woman named Mary Anne Porter Pierce in 1901 and Getrude married a man named Walter Howard Senter in 1899.

    I'm not sure how often Austin saw Walter and the Senter family because shortly after they got married he and Getrude moved to Farmington, New Hampshire. You would think that this would leave Austin in the care of his father in Haverhill. I'm not sure that's the case.

    Austin was seen living with his grandparents Jeremiah Felker and Elizabeth Fellows in the 1900 and in the 1910 US census in Haverhill.

    Curious, isn't it? I could understand him being in the census there if he was visiting his grandparents in 1900 when he was just seven years old and the enumerator recorded him as being a resident of that house. However, he was again in the same place just ten years later as a seventeen year old! What on Earth was going on here? It can't be a coincidence. You know what they say. First time it happens is a coincidence. The second time is when a pattern starts to  emerge! Where was his father?

  

Wilfred Felker

    Well, I haven't been able to find him in the 1900 census. Instead I found him in the 1910 living with his wife and three children George, Richard and Grace. A fourth child, Clara, was born in 1915.  Once again Austin was nowhere to be seen. Odd, isn't it?  Some people are enumerated twice and yet my great-grandfather was at Jeremiah's house on East Broadway. What's even more strange is how George was listed as a stepson in that census when he definitely was NOT a stepson. More on that another time. 

    I'm not sure what the family situation was at the time and at first glance you might say to yourself that Austin didn't get along with his stepmother or his half-siblings. I would have agreed with you had I not found an article which sheds a different light on their family dynamic.

    You might recall me talking about an article where Austin and his wife were in a skiff that hit a Coast Guard boat in the Merrimack river. The boat capsized and the passengers all had to be saved. Well, one of the passengers was his half-brother/step-brother George. I don't know about you. But, I wouldn't go boating with someone you didn't like. Sufficed it to say I think Austin got along well with his new siblings. Let's just hope they laughed about the incident because I know from firsthand experience that swimming in the Merrimack is not fun.

    Meanwhile in Farmington, Walter and Gertrude had their own growing family to take care of. I'm not sure how often they saw Austin or what kind of relationship he had with his half/step-siblings in Farmington and wow there were alot of them. Gertrude had seven children with Walter and they were: Theodore,  John, Lawrence, Ruby,  Clarence,  Hilda and Helen. That's quite a bunch, huh. A Brady Senter Bunch.

Gertrude and the Senters

    The distance between Farmington and Haverhill is a little over fifty-five miles and so you might think Austin didn't see his new stepfather as often as he saw his stepmother and his half-siblings. Fifty-five miles does seem like a good distance. However, let's consider the fact that during the era in which they lived trains were running up and down the east coast all the live long day. People traveled in the 1910s before cars were readily available.

    In fact, a few of the Senter children moved to Haverhill once they reached adulthood. Did they contact Austin? You bet they did!  Now, I'm sure no one went on an ill-advised ride in a skiff. So, let's just get that out of the way!

    I think relations with the Senters went well because my mother has good memories of meeting them and being around them for special events. In fact, Theodore and John Senter were both at my parents' wedding in 1971. So, I guess you could say they were close? You don't invite enemites to a wedding unless your last name is Lannister.

    All in all I would say that Austin had a good relationship with his half/step-siblings despite the admittedly rocky start to his life. I wish there was more information about the Felkers. Unfortunately,  many of them moved to Indiana and all contact was lost until I came across Wilfred's page on WikiTree. Richard's son, Rick made the profile for him and Jeremiah. Naturally, I sent him a message and he filled me in on a few things here and there.

    For one Rick told me that his father grew up with Austin since they lived in the same house. I'm a little confused by thate statement because if that were true why was he in his grandfather's house in two consecutive censuses? Was he really just visiting or was something else going on? I think a trip to the Haverhill courthouse may be in order. They might have information about his parents'divorce and why Austin ended up living with his grandparents.

    Austin and his relationship with his step-mom and step-dad is definitely something I want to explore further in the future. However, I may not have to since it's clear he got along well with his half-siblings clandestine trips into the Merrimack aside. At least things turned out well for Austin in the end. I think that's all anyone can ask for to be honest. He had a good life and plenty of plenty of family around him.

See ya next time!

52 Ancestors Week 14: Favorite Recipe

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 14

The theme for Week 14 is "Favorite Recipe." Food has a way of bringing up memories, whether it's the cooking of a favorite recipe, meals shared with loved ones, or memories of kitchen mishaps! This week, explore a favorite recipe and the person or people who make that recipe special.

Gambit says you better like his jambalaya.

    A while back Ancestry conducted a poll on their website and one of the questions they asked was "How often do you have the food of your ancestors?" I chuckled to myself and said "I plead the fifth". When I was growing up we had an Italian dish for dinner every week. It was usually a pasta of some kind served with chicken, lobster or shrimp. That tradition still continues to this day and I should probably check to see if my heart is okay. At least all that carbo-loading is good for people like me who are into running. Yeah. I'll keep telling myself that while I order some pasta Bolognese for dinner. It's not my fault pasta just slides down real easily!

    It's honestly hard for me to pick a favorite Italian recipe. I had only one Italian grandmother and Olympia and her sisters, the "Little Old Italian Ladies™" , cooked up so many great dishes from eggplant parmesan to various cookies. Now, I bet you are all drooling and lapping the screen right now. That's gross, guys. Stop that!

    I guess if I had to choose a great Italian recipe it'd have to be pasta fagioli. It's a simple dish and to be honest it's a comfort food for me because it reminds me a lot of my grandma Ollie. 

    Preparing the dish is easy. You take tomato sauce, a pasta of your choice and some cannellini beans and you put them all together into a soup. The standard recipe usually calls for ditalini as the pasta of choice. However, you can use almost any small form of pasta and it'll come out great!

    What's really good about pasta fagioli is that you can put various leftovers into the soup or garnish it with any type of meat ranging from ground beef to sausage. If you want, you can even toss in bits of carrot and no one would mind. I swear the soup is the ultimate comfort food to have on a rainy day. It narrowly beats "Italian Wedding Soup"! However, it's not quite as good as escarole soup!

    Pasta fagioli is so versitile and because of that every Italian house has their own version. Grandma Ollie often elected to just use the recipe I described. She rarely put in sausage or any meat for that matter. If she did, it was usually ground beef.  However, nine times out of ten it was just straight up pasta and beans. And that's not a bad thing!

    I have many good memories eating the soup at her house. I think I was probably eating it when grandma Ollie and my father were talking about her father Giuseppe and his brothers Rocco and Pasquale. I guess you could say my genealogical adventure started with a heaping bowl of pasta fagioli! Hmm....It could be worse, right? It could be liver and onions!

    Seeing and eating the soup just reminds me of simpler times, you know. It reminds me of being at that big round table in my grandmother's kitchen and enjoying a meal together. The funny thing is that every time we were over her house, she'd make us bowls of the soup. It didn't matter what time of year it was or what the weather was like. She'd make it and you better believe that we ate it and enjoyed it. We even took some home with us! Why not?

    Food really does have a great way of bringing up memories and like I said every time I see or even have some pasta fagioli takes me back to that kitchen table. As time goes on, the memories of being with grandma Ollie and talking to her about her parents and living in Haverhill over a bowl still has a place in my heart.  Sure Ollie's other dishes had the same effect. But, there was just something special about the way she made the soup for us every time we came over. She somehow always had a pot ready for us even if we stopped by unexpectedly. It was a good soup and I'd honestly give anything to have another bowl.

If you want to check out the recipe yourself, follow this link: https://www.willcookforsmiles.com/pasta-e-fagioli-soup/#recipe

Mangia!

See ya next time!

52 Ancestors Week 13: Worship

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 13

The theme for Week 13 is "Worship." The lives of many of our ancestors were shaped by their choices (or lack of a choice) in how and where they could worship. This week, consider an ancestor and how their worship practices influenced their life.

Today's service will be conducted in the new Latin.

If you're like me and you come from a predominantly Catholic family, you'll find out pretty quickly that church is a very big deal in the lives of virtually every ancestor in your family tree. You'll attend various services and see people who haven't seen you in ages that will undoubtedly pinch your cheeks until they turn red. Later in life, you'll find that the church you attended was basically attended by just one ethnic group in the city and that various ethnic groups had their own church all around the same city. This was the case with one church in Haverhill, Mass called the Saint Rita's Parish.

All Saints Parish

    Saint Rita's Parish was once the Italian church in Haverhill much like how Saint Joseph's was the French-Candian church and Saint Michael's was the Polish church. I say "was" because in the summer of 1998 those churchs along with Saint George's became the All Saints Parish.

    To say that there was a lot of heartbreak when the churches closed and became All Saints was a bit of an understatement.  After all Parishoners called those churches home and their ancestors very likely attended the same church. The really sad thing is that my Google fu failed me and I couldn't find a picture of Saint Rita's as it was before 1998. So, all I have to show is a picture of All Saints from Google Earth.

    At least I know a great deal about Saint Rita's so it isn't all bad. As you might have guessed it was the main church for everyone in the Italian community in Haverhill. My father, paternal grandparents and both sets of Italian great-grandparents attended services in that building for much of their lives. According to the book, "Italians in Haverhill", Saint Rita's opened in 1915 at the height of the mass immigration of Italians to the city. For eighty-three years it served the people. So, you can imagine there were many strong feelings when it closed.

Grandpa Marco's communion and
girl looking bored behind him.

        I'm not sure why all decided to combine into one church. Did they want to save money? Who can say? My own research into the whys and hows have turned up empty. I do know that all of the congregations converged onto the former Saint Joseph's church once all the is were dotted and the ts were crossed.

    Perhaps they combined because by the 1990s the population of Haverhill wasn't as ethnically diverse as they were when my grandfather Marco had his first communion. More people spoke the same language so there was less a need to have a church for each ethnic group. Sure the city was still diverse in terms of ethnic backgrounds. However, they still spoke the same language.

    It's possible that the Archdiocese in Boston just felt that having so many Catholic churches in one city was a bit cumbersome and they wanted to downsize.  At the end of the day at least the parishoners had the chance to vote on a new name for the church and that is how All Saints got its name. Thankfully, they didn't ask the Internet. I don't the "Churchy McChurchface" would have caught on.

    Of course declining attendance and efforts to save money may have been the main reason why the Archdiocese decided to close the decades' old churches.

    Despite Saint Rita's being long gone, the memories are still there and references to it are found in obituaries, photos and other documents. It may be gone but it's definitely not forgotton as many important events from my own family's history took place there. To list them all would take some time. Trust me.

Marco and Ollie's wedding. Need
to edit out that glare.

        I can talk about two events, though. It's very likely that my grandmother Olympia was baptized in the church in 1920. Some twenty plus years later she married my grandfather Marco in the same place. That's the case for anyone who attended the church and has lived in the same area for decades. When Ollie passed away in 2002, her services were held at All Saints.

    It should be noted that all of Ollie's sisters naturally all attended Saint Rita's! No shock there.

       The church was more than just a place where people could worship and seek counsel from a priest. Due to the fact that there was no "Y" or youth community center in its heyday, many community activities were held there. Sports such as basketball were played on the nearby courts and other events were held like dances and the like. It was there that many youths in the congregation and beyond could come together and hang out without parental supervision. That's not a bad deal if there is no Boys and Girl's club around and afterschool activities were kept to a minimum.

    As you can tell Saint Rita's was an iimportant landmark in the lives of those in Haverhill who were of Italian descent. I only managed to cover a few events from my family tree. There are many, many more. I have an "Italians in Haverhill" tree on Ancestry and virtually every person I've researched has links to Saint Rita's. The church, like many others in the area, still has a place in everyone's hearts. After all two decades isn't all that long. People have fond memories of it closing and while they were saddened to see it go, the memories of generations of baptisms, weddings, funerals and community events still live on and will continue to do so for years to come in digital media and in stories.     

  I just wish I could find a picture of the place!! Sigh. Google Fu failed me.

See ya next time!

All Saint's church picture is property of Google Earth.

52 Ancestors Week 11: Achievement

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 11

The theme for Week 11 is "Achievement." There are many forms of achievement, whether it's winning an award, winning a race, or accomplishing what it was you set out to do. This week, celebrate an achievement (great or small) that one of your ancestor's made.

Imagine if Ancestry had X-Box-style achievements popping up.

    Achievements can come in many forms and when I was thinking about what to write in the blog this week, I was wondering what I could talk about. Do I talk about my dad and how he became the president of the New Hampshire Dental Society? That's cool and everything. However, many steps were taken before he ever banged the gavel at one of those meetings and got the coveted presidential chair that now sits in our dining room. What exactly led to that moment? That's where my great-grandfather, Giuseppe Carrabs comes in because his achievements made my father's big achievements all possible.

Achievement unlocked: Tony Stark
'stache
.

    The first thing that comes to mind when you think of Giuseppe, Vincenzo Ferraiolo or any other Italian immigrant it's that crossing the Atlantic to make a better life for yourself in America is a great achievement. It is. There's no disputing that at all. It's just that many immigrants share that same achievement.  

    To set Giuseppe apart from all the other immigrants, you just have to look at the records and that includes his obituary. In it, you'll find that while he was a custodian at the Pentucket Five Cent Savings Bank in Haverhill he was one of the founding members of the Haverhill Italian Credit Union and that was a huge deal.

    The credit union offered loans to Italian immigrants and their families so they could make a better life for themselves when other banks would deny them loans. And trust me that happened a lot more frequently than you'd think. Banks had issues trusting immigrants. Giuseppe's organization took care of the people they denied.

    That's a pretty big accomplishment. However, there was more to the man than just his work and even his service to the United States during both World Wars. Giuseppe and his wife Clementina raised five daughters including my grandmother at a time when there were a lot of anti-immigrant sentiment. He encouraged the girls to go to school and make better lives for themselves. He clearly valued an education because sadly that was lacking in his and wife's hometown of Gesualdo at the time.

Achievement unlocked: 
Daughter gets married!

    As the years passed, he got to see his children have an education and see them get married to men who valued them and their intelligence. With all daughters, I'm sure that was a pretty big deal for Giuseppe. I don't think he was about to see them off to just anyone.

    Enter my grandfather, Marco. Marco himself was an Italian immigrant who had many achievements of his own like crossing the Atlantic. While he didn't go to Haverhill High like my grandmother, he was still a skilled craftsmen. He learned those skills from his father, Vincenzo. He ended up building things and that for sure likely impressed Giuseppe.

    Giuseppe likely knew the family well and gave the relationship his blessing. Marco and Ollie were married on June 13th, 1946 in Haverhill. Being at the wedding and giving Ollie away was definitely another big achievement for him because she was the youngest of the Carrabs sisters and Ollie was named after a child who died young. So, that was likely a very big deal for Giuseppe and Clementina.

  When my father was born both of his  grandfathers instilled in him the importance of an education and hard work. They told him stories of the trials and tribulations they had growing up, immigrating to America and the struggles they had to endure. All of Giuseppe's grandchildren had the same lesson!

Achievement unlocked: Parents married.

    By the mid 1970s, all of Giuseppe's grandchildren graduated college and were professional doctors, teachers and engineers. When he attended my parents' wedding in 1971, my father had already started dental school and his cousins were all doing well in their various professions.

        It must have been amazing for him to see his children and grandchildren succeed in life when he came from a very humble background. Sure he may have lived vicariously through their achievements. However, it was largely thanks to him and his daughters that everyone managed to get as far as they did. The best part is that he actively encouraged everyone and was an active part of their lives up until he passed away in 1974. That in and of itself is a huge achievement. He lived long enough to see his family do pretty well for themselves.

    

    As you can see, achievements don't always have to be about money or fame or anything like that. Just teaching others and watching them grow into professionals in various fields is enough of an achievement. Giuseppe literally came from nothing and in his life he saw his children and grandchildren become something special. They learned from his lessons and those lessons continue to this day. If that isn't a great achievement, I don't know what is!

See ya next time!