52 Ancestors Week 29: A Source I Want to Understand Better

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 29:

The theme for Week 29 is “A Source I Want to Understand Better.” Some sources that we use are fairly straightforward. Others… not so much. This week, explore a source that you don’t quite understand and the ancestor that it pertains to.

Just some light reading.

    When you're out on your genealogical adventure, you're bound to find a ton of sources and many of them will be easy to understand. A census can tell you where a person lived and who their neighbors were. A birth/death record can tell you all about their parents and give you important dates in their lives. A word of caution. Do not look up certain causes of death on WebMD. Just trust me on this one. I never should have looked up black lung. There's a reason why I never became a doctor.

    Now, those sources are pretty easy to figure out, right? You look at the information, add them to a family tree and walk away. Some sources, though, tend to confuse me a little bit. My friend and fellow genealogist Melanie McComb thought I should write about finding aids and books like the Great Migration Directory. While those are great resources, it got me thinking about other books I could talk about that used to confuse me quite a bit back in the day and frankly still make me give it a second look.

    In the late 19th century there was a bit of a fad in America. And no I'm not just talking about women wearing tight corsets and men wearing monocles and ridiculous top hats. People were looking up their family histories left and right in an attempt to either connect themselves with royalty or someone who came over on the Mayflower. It was a thing and as a result hundreds and hundreds of genealogy books were published showcasing who was related to who based on the records people found. You might be saying "Wow! That's great!" and you'd be right. It does sound great.....on paper.

    Sadly, a lot of those books miss their mark. My friend Erica Howton, a genealogist on Geni.com, used to tell me how people just made stuff up and published a book in the hope that no one would notice. This was in the era of "yellow journalism" so it doesn't surprise me that some of the books were not worth the paper they were printed on. Those poor trees sacrificed their lives for something that amounts to fanfiction. I wish I was kidding. Erica showed me a few of the books and they were just horrible. Lie after lie.

    What does all this have to do with me? Well, I do have ancestors who are in these books that were published in the 1890s to 1900s. My second great-grandparents, Wilfred Felker and Gertrude Stevens were basically my links to colonial New England. Their trees include several soldiers of the American Revolution and several people who were featured in Anderson's "Great Migration Begins". Naturally, I'd have ancestors who were featured in their own family genealogy books. These weren't family Bibles or anything. They were just books with people in them with facts and short biographies. Some even had town histories.  As a result, the books seemed like an early version of Wikipedia.

    Erica first showed me the book "Sargent genealogy : Hugh Sargent, of Courteenhall, Northamptonshire and his descendants in England" when I traced Gertrude Steven's line to my 4th great-grandfather John Sargent Fisher. She suggested I look for books on Archive.org that had the Fishers and the Sargents in them. This was back in 2017 or so and back then I knew Archive.org to be a place where someone could look up very old websites on the Internet. I've done that from time to time considering how long I've been a user of the web. I remember when eBay was not even close to how big it is now. Yeah, I was there when Strong Bad checked his first e-mail. That's how long I've been here.

Hi, 12th, great-grandfather. What up?

    On it's surface, the book seems pretty straightforward. It tells you all the facts you need to know about a person's life and if you're lucky you might even get a profession or two. These were people who lived a very, very long time ago and any information about their lives is priceless to me and every genealogist out there. 

    I'm lucky in that this book and the various other genealogy books I've found on Archive.org have gelled with records in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. There hasn't been anything that gave me real pause and I'm not sure why. Were the people writing these books that meticulous? Were they under the gun by some members of the various families they were reporting on? The world may never know. But it is fun to think about why these books are so accurate whereas others are not that great.

    Okay. So, now that I've introduced the book I bet you're wondering why I want to understand it better. Well, the only thing I am often curious about is why they never bothered to cover the ladies in the book very well. They just covered the men. I mean I know the reason WHY in the general sense. They wanted to focus on the male bloodlines and all of that. It just strikes me as a missed opportunity from the perspective of someone living in the 21st century. Wouldn't it have made sense to include a daughter of Joe Jones and her children?  I'm fortunate that several generations of people are mentioned in the books.  However, the second one of the ladies in my tree are mentioned, there's zero information about her and I'd have to rely on town records.

And there's my 5th great-grandmother, Sarah.

    For the Sargent family I can get to the children of Amos Sargent, my 6th great-grandfather. He was one of my dozen or so soldiers of the American Revolution and was a privateer! Not bad. 

    My 5th great-grandmother was his fourth child, Sarah and as you can see Sarah married a Fisher and as a result there'd be no mention of her descendants. She obviously had children. They just aren't mentioned in this book. You might be wondering "Was there a Fisher genealogy book, Chris?"

        Oh, yes. There definitely was a Fisher genealogy book. I'm glad you asked! That book thankfully picked up where the Sargent book left off. Unfortunately, it was more of the same. Don't get me wrong. Everything gelled with the records in Massachusetts. It just was annoying how the women were all sidelined. I know I should have accepted that reality. But it's just something to think about and it's a sharp contrast to how records were kept in Italy and in Quebec at the same time! The ladies and their families were all documented there! Maybe it was just a culture thing.

    The Fisher genealogy book is more of the same. I guess all of the authors got together and wanted to have the same format for all of these books. Makes sense if the families were intertwined like this. What's annoying is that if you published one book and your ancestor is in another book, you'd have to buy two of the books! Yay, capitalism!

    At least the books are now digitized and on the Internet for people to look at. The Fisher book also comes with a history of Malden, Massachusetts where the Sargents and Fishers all lived. That is pretty awesome. I still wish the ladies got their due in these books. I know. I know. I need to stop thinking like someone born in the 20th Century. Look. I can't help it. French-Canadian and Italian records spoiled me! They documented everybody!

    I will say this for the Fisher book. The biographies are more fleshed out than the Sargent one. I've seen some interesting stories on here that would more than flesh out any profile on your favorite genealogy program. There's a lot of great information that could be put to good use. Sadly, the problem is still there when it comes to the ladies. At least the history is still there and the information gels with records I have found. I've found several people who lived in Haverhill but they were few and far between. Having more of them would have been the icing on the genealogy cake.

    The really weird thing about this book is that it should have provided a number for readers for certain people in the family. Ideally, my fifth great-grandfather Lewis Fisher should have had an entry in the book. He should be entry number 473 instead of Salem.  I guess if you bought the Fisher book hoping to find the rest of Sarah Sargent's line you'd have been out of luck. It's just really weird how the author never went into details on Lewis's line.

    This is just another thing that really confuses me about the books. While the information is undoubtedly correct, some people are omitted for one reason or another. My guess is that they didn't have the tools we have today. Genealogy in those days meant you had to lug around heavy books and spend hours looking through them hoping to find that juicy nugget of information.

    The weird thing is that I thought I once saw my 4th great-grandfather mentioned in the book. It's like the Mandela effect where you think something was one way when in fact it's another. Maybe he was mentioned in another book? Perhaps. It's just as well. I really shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. These genealogy books are a treasure trove of information and while it does bother me that the ladies aren't covered as well as the men it does go into exhaustive detail on the history of various towns in Massachusetts.

    I've been told that I'm extremely lucky that these books were well researched. I haven't really found anything wrong with them unlike some of the other books out there. Were the Massachusetts ones better? Or were records in Massachusetts just that easier to come by. Even genealogy books documenting New Hampshire were pretty decent. I guess with a little care and some digging some books were better than others. And unfortunately history repeats itself. These books were basically printed Wikipedia articles for your ancestors. Take them with a grain of salt the size of Rhode Island. You might be lucky with them like I was or you might find something that's wrong on so many levels.

See ya next time!

*  "Sargent genealogy : Hugh Sargent, of Courteenhall, Northamptonshire and his descendants in England" by Sargent, Aaron, 1822-1913; Sargent, John S., 1839- is property of Google.

*"The Fisher Genealogy: A Record of the Descendants of Joshua, Anthony, and Cornelius Fisher"

by Philip A Fisher is property of Google.

52 Ancestors Week 28: Leisure Time

 Week 28:

The theme for Week 28 is “Leisure Time.” Sure, our ancestors were hardworking people, but they also would enjoy themselves from time to time. What is a leisure activity that an ancestor did? Have any of those been passed down to you?

Farming or fishing. Let's let fate decide.

    As we all know our ancestors worked hard for their money. So hard for their money. As a result they've had to set aside some time to relax and take their minds off of everything. Here in the Merrimack valley you have a wide variety of options to choose from. You could either fish in the river/open ocean, golf, mess around in a garden or take part in any other activity your heart desired. There is literally nothing you can't do around here! This message has been brought to you by the greater Merrimack Valley Tourism Board. Where's my check?

    In all seriousness, there is one constant among everyone in my family tree who has lived in the Merrimack valley. You know it. I know it. I've written about it loads of times. Virtually everyone at one time or another has either gardened in their time off, went out on the ocean or hit the beach. What else can you do when the sun is blazing overhead? It does get warm here in the summer and the cool sea breeze does wonders to sooth the nerves. Aye, there's noting quite like the siren's call of the open ocean. Or is that just somebody telling someone else to turn down the music? It's honestly hard to say.

    This picture of my 2nd great-grandparents Joseph Laplante and Georgianna Ross is quite possibly one of the earliest pictures I have of an ancestor at the beach. It was taken during the mid 1920s and as you can see they all looked pretty stylish in their '20s era beachwear. Believe it or not this picture is exactly one hundred years old. I wonder if it was taken one hundred years ago this week!  It's very possible! I know the date because my grandfather or my grandmother labeled the picture themselves. I just cut off where they wrote notes. They did that a lot with old photos. Relax. I have a copy of original with the notes. I just cropped it out for easy viewing!

    I wish I knew what beach they were hanging out at on was. The Laplantes lived in Newburyport and there were three beaches you could cool off at during the summer.. Salisbury Beach, Plum Island and Cranes Beach were all a quick drive from the city. The safest bet is that this is Salisbury beach. Back in the day the town center was hopping with activity and people came from all over to have fun at the local arcade. Yes, they had arcades back then. Just no Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat. Oh, wow. Can you imagine?!

    Many people even had beach houses on Plum Island that are still standing today. In fact, whenever we visited my mother would point out her grandparents' Austin and Henrietta's beach house. My mother visited them there quite frequently and Austin would teach her and her siblings how to fish. The funny thing is that he never told the grandkids about the time their skiff hit a Coast Guard cutter in the mid 1930s The boat capsized and the sailors had to fish three people out of a very polluted river. Obviously they survived. It would have made for a great story. When I found the article in the Newburyport archives, I had to show my aunts and uncles what happened. To say everyone laughed is a bit of an understatement. They never heard the story and I guess they never expected their descendants would find out about their adventure.

    Naturally, the Italians also went to the beaches.  I'm pretty sure there are Carrabs sisters in this picture. My father and I spent a considerable amount of time trying to figure out who was who. I swear the lady in the back in the sort of bikini is my great-aunt Louise. I'm not sure who the rest are, My grandmother cold be sitting on the ground front and center for all I know!

    Yeah, I know. I'm a bad grandson for not being able to pick out my grandmother in a lineup. Cut me some slack! I've never known her with dark hair. For as long as I could remember her hair was blond (dyed, of course). I didn't know she and her sisters had black hair until most of them passed away. Do you honestly think five little old Italian ladies would tell me that their hair color wasn't natural?!  No. I rest my case! One day I'll figure out who all those people are. And the guy in the middle with a ton of swagger, too.

    Judging by the two pictures here it's clear that life has always been a beach for ancestors of mine who made their home in the Merrimack valley. People from both Haverhill and Newburyport flocked to the sandy beaches when the weather got hot. Generations later my parents did the same thing. We'd go to Salisbury beach, Cranes and Plum Island many times. We even went to where ye olde arcades used to be and play all kinds of games. The area is still abuzz with activity and every time I visit I get a little nostalgic about days gone by. As for my ancestors? Well, I'm sure they felt the same way. When you live near a beach, the experiences you have there can last a lifetime.

Just don't swim in the Merrimack. Trust me, bro.

See ya next time!

52 Ancestors Week 26: A Hard Choice

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 26:

The theme for Week 26 is “A Hard Choice.” We usually don’t know exactly what an ancestor thought about a choice they faced, but when you remember that they were human, it isn’t hard to imagine. For instance, imagine how it would feel to contemplate moving to the other side of the country – or the other side of the world.

Where do all these free sign post images come from?!

    Life is all about hard choices and our ancestors are no stranger to making difficult ones over the course of their lives. Earlier this year I wrote a blog about how hard it must have been for my great-grandmother Maria Tedesco to leave San Pietro a Maida for Haverhill knowing she might not ever see that Calabrian town ever again. Sadly, she never did. It's a risk you had to take when traveling across the ocean. However, immigrants didn't always travel by sea. They traveled by land as well. I know I don't talk about it a lot but can you imagine the hard choices a French-Canadian immigrant had to make when they went south to the United States? I'm not talking about just their toppings for French fries. Poutine does sound good, by the way.

     Like the Italians, they had to contend with a language barrier because they spoke a different language than most of the people in America.  French was not spoken in New England like it is in Canada. There's no doubt about it. French-Canadians had to make hard choices like the ones their Italian friends had to make.

    Now picture another hard choice. Imagine being a French-Canadian woman living in Haverhill in 1901. Your husband unexpectedly passed away at the age of forty-nine leaving you with several small children including an infant. You two had been through a lot together. You and your husband lived with your parents in a very crowded house and moved out when it was financially possible. Do you attempt to raise the kids by yourself or do you try and find a husband who could help you raise your many children?

    Enter my 2nd great-grandmother Lucie Cadran. She was just forty-six years old when her husband Antoine Legault fell ill and unexpectedly passed away. When he died their oldest child Lucy was in her mid twenties and their youngest Oliver was an infant. In between those two she had young adults, teens or young children to look after and keep in mind there were a lot of them! People say Italians have large families....

    When he passed away, Lucie had to make some pretty hard choices and at the turn of the century there weren't a lot of options available for her.

    The most logical choice we in the twenty-first century would say would be "Lucie should get a job!" Uhh...that would be pretty difficult. I would imagine it'd be pretty hard for her to find a job in 1901. Women like Lucie didn't even have the right to vote until the 1920s. The right to work was still in its infancy. She still needed someone to help with the children.

    In the 1910 census in Haverhill, she was living with her children Blanche, my great-grandmother Henrietta, Clara and Oliver. This was the first census without Antoine being present and from the looks of things they were living a decent life. The children's' ages at that point ranged from eight to 17 and I'd like to think that seventeen year old Henrietta was helping her dear mother with the rest of the motley crew.

Austin Felker and Henrietta Legault

    Eventually, Henrietta moved out since she married Austin Felker just three years after the census was enumerated. She and Austin still lived in Haverhill and chances are she still helped her mother with the kids whenever she could. 

    After Henrietta and Austin got married, Lucie was still likely feeling pressure. She was raising quite a few children by herself and most of her children were married by the 1910s.They were living their lives and grandchildren were being born at the time so time with the family and with their mother became a bit of a balancing act.  She still needed help with her children after spending more than a decade as a single mother.

    In those days, being a single mother was a bit of a taboo topic. Though, I think a widowed mother might have been less of a hot topic. Regardless of age, single motherhood was probably looked upon with pity and maybe a little scorn. Once Henrietta was out of the house and living her own life, she had a choice to make. Should she stay a single/widowed mother and raise Blanche, Clara and Oliver by herself? Or should she find herself a husband. 

    From a 21st century perspective she seemed to be doing alright for herself. I didn't see a job listed but she did have plenty of help. Though, I understand the need to find someone. She might have been lonely and wanted someone to help with the children. And that's where Paul LaHaye came in. I don't really know how he met Lucie. Chances are they met in church or something. However, I do know that they were married in 1917. That was four years after Austin and Henrietta got married.

Blanche and family (Not her grandkids.)

  How the children reacted to the new man in their mother's life is anyone's guess. Was he a good stepfather? I honestly have no idea. I assume he was but then again it's hard to say. By the 1920 census, the only child living with them was Blanche and her first husband Frank Paradis.

    Blanche had changed her last name to "Lahaye" and everyone else was scattered by that point. Some of the Legault siblings obviously still lived in Haverhill. Matilda was living in Connecticut and I'm not sure where Oliver was living. I suspect he was living in Falmouth, Mass. since he married a woman there. I'm not entirely sure about that. 

    I do know that in the end Lucie may have made the best decision for her. Sadly, Paul passed away sometime in 1932. This meant that he and Lucie had a good twenty years together before he passed away. At least we can say she wasn't lonely.

    Lucie passed away in 1937 and for some reason she's not buried with her second husband. I'm not sure why. She's buried with her daughter Mary , her husband Oliver Gariepy and her family in Saint Joseph's cemetery in Haverhill. To date I have not been able to find Paul's final resting place. He may be buried with them. I'm not sure and I'm not in any real rush to try and find him. Finding him is not as important as finding Antoine's final resting place to me. As of this blog I still haven't been able to find his grave! It's so annoying!

    Anyway, Lucie clearly had to make a hard choice. She chose to be a single mother for over a decade before marrying Paul. In those days, being a single mother was extremely hard, and possibly looked at as a less-than-desirable situation. One has to wonder if she felt pressure to find a husband after Antoine passed away. Some widows do not waste any time and get remarried right away. Some remained single and in the end it was really her decision to get married again. I don't like putting words in peoples' mouths. But I do know she likely made the right decision for her family. She had over a dozen children and while they likely helped when they could. Of course they had lives of their own and she more than likely respected her children's lives. Though, she probably would have accepted help. It takes a village and she had that for a good while before Paul came along.

    In the end, it was a tough call getting married after so many years being a single mother. In those days it was not an easy thing to do and one has to respect her hard choices. I like to think that the kids all turned out okay despite their mother's choices. Were they happy with Paul? Who knows? All I know is that it happened and Lucie had to do what she could. She likely didn't want to be alone and they seemed to have a nice life together. What more could anyone ask for after losing your first husband at a relatively young age?

See ya next time.

52 Ancestors Week 25: The Ancestor Who Stays With Me

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 25:

The theme for Week 25 is “The Ancestor Who Stays With Me.” Sometimes you find something about an ancestor, and their story lingers with you. They end up in a special place in your heart, even if you never met them. This week, share that person and why you feel so connected to them. (You could also take this prompt more literally and write about an ancestor who has lived with you.) Remember, there’s no wrong way to interpret the prompts!

And here comes the "Full House" theme

      Growing up it wasn't always just my parents, brother and I living under one roof. During the 1980s my aunt Linda and her dogs also lived in our house. If that sounds like the plot of a sitcom from that time period, I don't know what does. I know she wasn't an ancestor but a relative living with us is nothing new. However, one ancestor of mine did sort of live with us from time to time. She would stay with us over Christmas, Easter and basically any time. She was always welcome at our house any time of the year and though she lived in nearby Haverhill it definitely felt like she lived in our house. I am of course talking about my grandmother Olympia.

    Grandma Ollie started staying with us over Christmas after grandpa Marco passed away in 1983. Before his death they would visit us and take part in the festivities. Once he passed away, my parents invited Ollie to stay for Christmas and she would leave a few days after New Years. This was great for me because my birthday was in between those two holidays! I never really saw my other grandparents during my birthday except on special occasions and so having Ollie around was very special to me. Don't get me wrong. They still showed up for a few Christmas Eve parties! They just weren't around for my birthday. I still got a card from them. And twenty bucks.

    We'd pick Ollie up a few days before Christmas and she would sleep in the den at the top of the stairs. Unfortunately, that den was designated the toy and video game area when my brother and I were growing up. Many of our toys were in that room and since grandma was the most relaxed lady ever she never really minded being in that room. Of course she wanted to know about the toys. That's where things got interesting.

    During the 1980s, my brother and I played with a ton of the era's greatest toys. Almost every toyline was represented in the den. We had "Transformers", "Star Wars", "Go-Bots", "Thundercats", "Voltron", "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", some "G.I. Joe", "M.A.S.K.",  "Centurions" and "Masters of the Universe" to name a few. I may have skipped a couple lines. Give me a break. I haven't had time to catalog every toy we've had. Needless to say we were no stranger to the toys of the '80s and '90s. Being a kid, I did my best to explain the toys to my grandmother. She just listened and smiled. I think she just liked the fact that my brother and I were so creative with the toys. Our parents liked giving us toys that had some creative aspect. Hence why most of that list involved sentient transforming robots and aliens from far, far away. Our parents didn't like toys that glorified war. They liked the fantasy elements more.

 

The cause of many jump scares.

   One Christmas morning she wanted me to play with a toy called "Snake Mountain". I had gone into her room just as she was waking up and we were talking about what I wanted for Christmas. I always wondered if she asked because she knew something my brother and I didn't know.  She was also looking at the toys and was a little curious about this playset in the corner of the room.  My brother was fast asleep in the room adjacent to the den and my parents were making breakfast downstairs. We had a rule. Breakfast first and then presents. Believe me the urge to just dive into the presents was great many Christmas mornings! 

    Anyway, "Snake Mountain" was a companion piece to "Castle Grayskull" from the Masters of the Universe line. It was a purple mountain that the bad guys all lived in. The playset had a number of features. Trap doors, weapons racks and more. Snake Mountain had a bonus feature. There was a microphone with a snake head attached to the "mountain" and you could use it to your heart's content.....as long as you had batteries. Those were sold separately! Gotta love the 1980s and mass consumerism.

    I knew full well that there were a set of fresh batteries in "Snake Mountain" and so I said into the microphone "WAKE UP, JIMMY!" A second later my mother called my name and about five seconds after that my brother comes into the den wondering what happened. Our grandmother at that moment was laughing her head off. I think she enjoyed the toy more than we did. We definitely got a lot of use out of it.  We didn't fight or anything. But we did torture each other with "Snake Mountain". Fair is fair. I do wonder if it still works. It's been forty years so the wiring may be a little shot.

I may have thought that was my
present.....

    My brother wasn't the only one woken up by my shenanigans that Christmas morning. My aunt Linda came out of her room wondering what was going on. My grandmother explained everything and we had a good laugh. Finally, we were called downstairs for breakfast.

    If it hasn't been made clear by now, I think I got my sense of humor from my grandma Ollie. She loved to laugh and she enjoyed playing with us. Grandpa Bob would often talk about a toy's alt mode if it transformed into a plane or a jet but it was Ollie who actually played with us and my brother and I always thought that was cool.

    I don't really remember what I got that Christmas. Knowing our parents it was more Masters of the Universe figures and that gave us more of a reason to use "Snake Mountain"'s microphone. My mother shook her head and my father just laughed. Hey. It was a playset and we were going to use all of its features no matter what! I think Ollie just liked the fact that we were enjoying ourselves more than anything. She DID ask about the toys and once we got a Sega Genesis in the den in the late 1980s, she asked about that, too! I don't think she ever quite followed "Sonic the Hedgehog". 

    Christmas wasn't the only time my grandmother came over and spent the week with us. She often came over when my parents had to go to a conference and watched us. My brother and I, naturally, were on our best behavior. I can see you rolling your eyes back there....especially in light of the "Snake Mountain" incident. I think we can all agree that it was Ollie's fault and not mine!

    Kidding. I'm not gonna throw Ollie under the bus. It was funny though and we talked about the incident for many years. 

    Grandma watched over us whenever she could and since she didn't live that far away it often felt like she stayed with us. We saw her and her sisters so often that I would tell her everything that happened and she gave me some good advice here and there. It was great having her around and she really was a lot of fun. I mean what other grandmother would actually play action figures with you or watch you play "Sonic the Hedgehog" and then cook some pasta and tell you stories?  I'm sure some grandmothers were like that too but she was special. She really was a great person and I was fortunate that we got to see her as often as we did.  Gotta admit, though. The "Snake Mountain" incident was GOLD. 

See ya next time!

P.S. My brother and I saw the new "Masters of the Universe" movie last week while he and his family were visiting and a lot of these memories came back to the surface. We did wonder if the old playsets still worked. You never know. ;)

52 Ancestors Week 23: A Place That Matters

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 23:

The theme for Week 23 is “A Place That Matters.” Locations are vital to family history research, not only in the records they create, but the memories they hold. What is a location that is significant in your family history? Is it an ancestral home town, a place of worship, a special vacation spot? 

San Pietro a Maida? That's one place.

        There are so many places in my family history that matter to me and I've talked about many of them here in the blog. We've discussed the Italian towns of Gesualdo and San Pietro a Maida quite a bit. In fact, the more I talk about them, the more I actually want to go there. Who wouldn't want to see a couple medieval castles?! Of course we've also talked about the city of Haverhill many times. I mean that's what this blog's title is a reference to. For those who don't know I named it "All Roads Lead to Haverhill" because many branches of my family tree converge on that one city in Essex county, Massachusetts.  Not to be outdone I've also talked about Haverhill's neighbor to the east, Newburyport. My family had a boat in Salisbury for many years and it's where my grandfather Robert was born. All of these places would make for a great blog topic. But I think I'm missing probably the most important place of all. While I was born in Lawrence, Mass. I was raised in Salem, New Hampshire.

Home sweet home

    Salem has always been an interesting town. It's about halfway between Boston, Massachusetts and Manchester, New Hampshire. Since it sits right on the border, the town gets a lot of traffic from northeastern Massachusetts and all points north. The town has always been a rather unique blend of rural and urban and I think that's why my parents built a house here and raised a family in the mid 1970s.

    They grew up in nearby Haverhill and Newburyport and wanted to get away from the city life while still remaining relatively close to friends and family in those two cities.

    I can't say I blame them. Growing up it was nice to be able to visit my grandma Ollie and her sisters in Haverhill from time to time. Haverhill is a great place to visit but there's something to be said about a place you call home. I was very fortunate that they were so close by because my other grandparents lived in Raymond, NH for the longest time and we saw them once in a blue moon. I grew up with my dad's maternal side and they all lived within driving distance of Haverhill. Italians tend to stay near family. It's a thing!

    Of course being close to family isn't the only reason why Salem is a special town to me. While my parents were busy working, my brother and I were taken care of by an older couple that lived near the junior high. Peter and Mary Matorian were basically the third set of grandparents my brother and I had growing up.

    After school I'd visit them and Mary would often have a plate of grape leaves ready for me to take home. I can't say they survived the trip home. Sometimes they did. Sometimes they didn't. The temptation to eat them on the car ride home was great because she made the best grape leaves ever and as of June 4th, 2026 I have yet to find any restaurant that can match her quality. Some came close. Others/ not so much.

    As my brother and I grew up we still found the time to visit Pete and Mary.  I would often visit them after school or after cross country practice since they lived pretty close to the junior high and high school. They were a great couple with many stories to tell and to this day whenever we drive by their street I often find myself looking down their road and seeing their old house. Sure it was repainted and was remodeled but the memories within those walls last a lifetime.

Soaking wet graduation picture. Lovely.

        Salem is also the place where I got an education and I was very fortunate in that both Peter and Mary saw me off to college in the late 1990s. They were always very proud of the education my brother and I received. Though, they didn't really like sitting out in the rain on Friday, June 13th, 1997 to watch me graduate. Wow. Has it been almost twenty-nine years since I graduated? Time flies.

        On the non genealogy side of things, it's the place where I made a ton of friends. I still remember going through the field behind my house to go to a friend's house.  I may have discussed those adventures. Old man Duston owned the land and let's just say he was not pleased when he saw us going through his field. He was one of those old men who'd constantly watch over the neighborhood and to this day when I walk down the streets that used to be his property I feel like I'm being watched. I feel like I might need a proton pack. Just in case.

    Salem means more to me than just memories. It's a great place to build new memories. My family and I take my nephews out to the places we used to visit from time to time--provided that they're still around of course. When they were little we'd take them to the elementary school playground we used to play in and we've even seen the high school I graduated from. We've made new memories at the various restaurants around town and new memories at the old homestead too. There's so much you can say about the place you grew up in. It's home. What else can you say?

    Of course these aren't the only reasons why Salem matters to me. I've made a ton of friends there and I've called the place home for almost fifty years. I've seen the town change and while it has become a bit more urban in recent years the heart of the town remains the same. Are the changes for the better? That's for everyone to decide on their own and if they like change or not.  I do miss certain people and places in town of course. But it will always be home to me.

See ya next time!

Picture of San Pietro a Maida is courtesy of Google Earth.

52 Ancestors Week 22: A Name with Meaning

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 22:

The theme for Week 22 is “A Name With Meaning.” We genealogists work a lot with names. But sometimes, we run across a name that has special significance, either because of it being a namesake or because of what the name means. Who in your family history has a name with a special meaning?

Someone open "The Big Book of Baby Names"!

    People of Earth, I'd like to take this time to tell you all that certain names will never, ever be cool. Certain names may sound good in your head but in the end that child of yours may find themselves getting beaten up on the playground by someone brandishing a name from "Game of Thrones" or something. Be sure to think long and hard about a name while you flip through "The Big Book of Baby Names".  That child's name may define their whole future unless of course they decide to change it somewhere down the line. This has been a public service announcement from your friendly neighborhood Wikitreer.

    With that out of the way, I have come across some interesting names in my family tree. I've gotten epic sounding names like Zebulon Drew.  I may have talked about him once or twice. I can't help it! The man's name sounds like it should be the name of a front man for a Scandinavian metal band. I see the name and I can hear the hot licks in my head. Other names are just as good and sometimes you'll find someone who shares the name of an older sibling who unfortunately died young. In Italian families, it happens very often like in the case of my grandmother, Olympia Carrabs.

    Grandma Ollie was born in Haverhill, Mass in 1920 to Giuseppe Carrabs and Clementina Forgione. She was the youngest of six children who frankly were all like Sophie from "The Golden Girls". Growing up with the little old Italian ladies around was basically a laugh a minute. You visit them and you'd be smiling the whole time. I guarantee it.

    You might be thinking that "Olympia" sounds like an odd choice for a name in an Italian family and you might be right. Her sisters were named Vincenza, Josephine, Eleanor and Louise. Olympia, I've discovered, is clearly of Greek origin and references Mount Olympus, the home of the Olympian Gods like Zeus. As a given name it it evokes imagery of divinity, grandeur and excellence.

    It kind of makes sense that an Italian would use a Greek name. I mean....the Romans DID adopt the mythology.

       Like any Greek myth there is a twist to the story. Imagine my surprise when I found out that grandma Ollie was not the first Olympia. She had an older sister named Olimpia who was born in Gesualdo in the July of 1912 and passed away in January 1913. In Italy and in other places around world, it's sometimes customary to name a child after grandparents and if the child died young they would use the name over again. I've seen the same name used three or four times once. It was not pretty and in the end you really feel for the family trying to have a child with a certain name. It's so sad. But that's just how life was in southern Italy at the time. Tragedy happens and the family tries to move on as best they can.

The first Olimpia

    How I discovered her existence is pretty interesting. During one of the "Cousins Day" celebrations, my dad and his cousins were talking about their grandparents and someone asked "Did any of you ever hear about Nonnie and Nonna talk about another kid?" There were a few nods here and there. Someone thought it was a boy. Someone thought it was a girl. There was a pretty lively discussion. I just sat there and listened. One does not interrupt an Italian family and their stories.

    .I did think about it for a few days and before I could ask Mary, the distant cousin who  had been researching the town Gesualdo for years, she sent me an email with this birth record and with it was a death record.

She asked me a question "Did you know Giuseppe and Clementina had another daughter?"

    I was taken aback by the email because I had just learned about the possible missing child from my dad's cousins. I replied to Mary and told her I was just talking with the cousins about this and told her the story. I went to Antenati to see if I could learn more about the girl who died and sadly all I could find were the documents Mary found for me.

Giuseppe and Clementina

           It makes sense that Giuseppe and Clementina rarely talked about the child they lost. In those days, no one ever really talked about a child who died young unless a kid were to ask why they had a certain name. I do find it interesting that virtually all of the grandkids heard Nonnie and Nonna talk about Olimpia without mentioning her name.

    That begs the question. Did my grandmother know she was named after an older sister who died just before her parents and Jennie left for America? Possibly. I can't say and I'm not about to put words in someone's mouth!

     Not long after the first Olimpia passed away Giuseppe, Clementina and Jennie left for America and once they were in Haverhill they had three more daughters before naming the last one after their second child.

    While I don't know for sure why Giuseppe and Clementina reused the name "Olympia" once they were settled in America, I can make an educated guess. Using the name "Olympia" one more time could mean that they wanted to honor their lost child's memory. Despite being thousands of miles from where the first Olimpia was born, they probably wanted to show that they thought of the daughter they lost and how she would always be with them no matter where they are in the world. Romantic notion, I know. But it's the one I'm going with!

    Names can have multiple meanings for many people. Growing up I always thought that Grandma Ollie's name was cool and a reference to the Greek gods. And to some extent that's true. Now when I look at it I can't help but think of how my great-grandparents wanted to bring someone into the world with a pretty interesting name. I do still wonder if grandma Ollie ever knew about her older sister. I like to think that she did and maybe that's why she was so nice and caring to everyone. You never know!

See ya next time!

52 Ancestors Week 19: A Question the Records Can't Answer

From Amy Johnson Crow: The theme for Week 19 is “A Question the Records Can’t Answer.” Outside of letters and diaries, most of the records we use in genealogy don’t tell us the “why” and “how” of our ancestors’ lives. We can read the records of what happened, but how did our ancestors feel? What was it like? This week, think about a question that goes beyond the names and dates. What would you ask that ancestor? 

Riddle me this, Batman....

    I think we can all agree that documents can only tell researchers so much about an ancestor. Birth records can only tell you who the parents were and where someone was born. Unless you lucked out and have Italian ancestors like I do and they'll give you the birth records. baptismal records and sometimes even the marriage record depending on the era someone was born. Italian records can sometimes be considered one-stop shopping in many cases. Sometimes grandparents are listed! All that's missing at that point is the father's favorite brand of vino.  Even Italian records don't tell you everything about someone. It sure would be nice if they did. However, you have to make do with what you can find. 

   There are so many questions I would ask various ancestors that records would never be able to answer. If I could, I'd talk to my grandfather Marco about everything he missed since he passed away in 1983. I'd ask my third great-grandfather Jeremiah Felker why his grandfather was listed on his death certificate instead of his father Elias. The list goes on and on. Since I've been trying to break down the Coppola brick walls I think it'd be a good idea to talk to my second great-grandmother Caterina Coppola and ask her a few simple questions.

Marco, Caterina and
Adriana

    While records in San Pietro a Maida would definitely have her vital statistics like her birth, marriage and death records. Those records wouldn't necessarily answer where the Coppolas came from. I know for a fact that no Coppola was born in San Pietro a Maida until 1860 when Caterina's cousin Francesco was born. There are no other Coppolas in San Pietro prior to that date so they all had to have come from somewhere in Italy.

    Records naturally may provide clues as to where the family came from but they wouldn't necessarily tell me why her father Paolo, her uncle Giovanni and her aunt Caterina left that town for San Pietro a Maida.  I'm sure it'd be an interesting story because three siblings just don't breeze into town, marry three locals and have families with them. Life isn't a Hallmark movie!

    I would definitely ask her about that and of course I'd have to have the universal translator on. Never go to another country without it. I would totally have to break the language barrier when talking to a few ancestors of mine. I'm not THAT fluent in Italian, you know!

        I think that would be a good start to my conversation with Caterina. I would totally rip the band-aid off and get to the point. Still, there are some other pointed questions I'd ask her. For example, I'd ask her how it felt to have several members of her family scattered around the globe. She would definitely have a lot to say about that, I'm sure. The family was everywhere and while my great-grandfather would write to his mother from time to time, I'm sure she thought about everyone quite often.

Vincenzo in black and white.

    Just to recap. Caterina's siblings Paolo and Concetta were in Haverhill with their families. Her cousins Giovanni, Marianna and Rosa Maria were there too along with her son Vincenzo and her grandchildren Marco and Nicolina. Her daughter Caterina moved to Buenos Aires with her husband and everyone else was in Italy.

    To say that's a big family is a bit of an understatement. Records can tell me where they lived and when they left. But they can't very well tell me how she and her husband Marco felt about having her family spread out like that. Somehow I don't think that'd be mentioned on their passports. 

    Little things like that can definitely add to a family's story and make them seem more real. Plus, you can bet that they'd have more color to the story than some random fact you find online. As a writer, I always want to try to fill the narrative with interesting bits of information. It's questions like these that add a human element to the family story.

    Finally, I think I would ask her more about Nicola and what he was like.  Nicola was a child of Marco and Caterina's who tragically died trying to save Caterina's boyfriend who was drowning. I'm not sure if it'd be a sore subject. I would have to tread lightly with that question. While San Pietro can certainly tell me when he was born and when he died, I don't think the records could tell me what possessed him to dive into currents like that and face certain death. He was pretty heroic. There's no denying that. There just has to be more to the story than what a cousin told me. Sure my great-aunt was named after him. There just has to be more  to the story like I said.

    Records always tell you one thing but a relative can often tell you more about their story. You'll never hear the context behind someone's trip to America by looking at a ship manifest. Oh, sure you can guess all you want. You could even imagine what the journey must have been like. In the end, hearing a story from someone's own words would mean more than any document you might have in your archive. That's why it's important to talk to the oldest generation you can because they can tell you stories that vital statistics and scans can't!

    I'm lucky that Caterina told me a lot about her grandmother. She's told me a lot about my second great-grandmother and I wonder if she has some of the answers to the questions I've asked. You never know....

See ya next time!

52 Ancestors Week 18: Tradition

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 18:

The theme for Week 18 is “Tradition.” Traditions can be an important part of family history, bringing context and connection between generations. What is an important tradition in your family, and who worked to keep that tradition going? 

Having pipe cleaner guys hold on to the 
Christmas tree for dear life is a tradition.

    There are so many traditions I've covered in this blog and sometimes I don't know where to start. For Christmas we have huge Christmas Eve parties. On Thanksgiving we have lasagna with turkey and all the trimmings. Mother's day is just around the corner and this week I thought it'd be a great idea to talk about how Mother's Day meals eventually evolved into something we like to call "Cousin's Day". I know it's not a real holiday but it is in our family! 

    Rather than just take my mother out to dinner every Mother's Day, we would take all the mothers in the family out at once. The results were amazing. Imagine a table full of Italians all talking to each other and over each other at a fancy restaurant. That was basically our Mother's Day every May for as long as I can remember.

Grandma Ollie, her sisters, my Grandma Natalie
and one of my grandma's friends.

    Like the Christmas Eve parties, I'm not 100% sure who started it.  Basically, it was a way for my grandmother to see all of her sisters at once on Mother's Day. It was odd considering everyone was close by anyway. All I can tell you is that every May we would dress up, go to Haverhill to pick up my grandma Ollie and then go to a random restaurant here in the Merrimack Valley for lunch. The restaurant was usually chosen after much deliberation. It usually depended on what everyone was in the mood for that week. Though, some places were honestly better than others. Looking back, I really wished Chef Gordon Ramsay visited the "Pond View". The food was positively ghastly!

    Sometimes we didn't go for the food. We went for the company. The five of us would arrive at the venue and we'd be greeted by all of Ollie's sisters, their spouses, my dad's cousins and their spouses. At its height there were well over a dozen people at the gatherings. To say the restaurants made a lot of money that day is an understatement.

 I shouldn't complain about the food too much. We once went to a place that had been open since 1686 and it was pretty good. The place was conveniently named "The 1686 House" and it's located in historic Kingston, New Hampshire. It's a typical surf and turf place and naturally I enjoyed it immensely. I haven't been there in ages and I'm glad that it's still open. I think if the quality of the food remains constantly good, a place should remain open to the public. If a place goes downhill thanks to a new chef, the food will of course suffer.

    After we had dinner, we would go to one of the cousins' houses for dessert or one of the sisters' houses and it was usually there that I got an earful of family history facts and figures. Normally this was because those restaurants were noisy and since I have hearing aids I wasn't able to hear what my dad and his cousins were talking about at the table. Once we got out of there I was able to hear myself think and that allowed me to interact with the cousins more.

    If we went to my great-aunt Louise's house in Haverhill, I got to see plenty of pictures of my great-grandparents Giuseppe and Clementina and thus asked questions about them and their siblings. Without the noise of the restaurants, I got to hear everyone better and was able take in the information I was told a lot more easily. Pro tip: Never ask for family history stuff in a crowded restaurant on Mother's Day!

    The desserts were always good, too. My great-aunts all made cookies and all kinds of goodies. So, I got to listen to some fun stories while eating Italian desserts in relative peace and quiet. You honestly can't beat that.

     I will admit going to those places now would probably make me miss my grandmother and her sisters more than the places we went for "Cousins Day"  because they were often hilarious. For example, Louise would take rolls from the table and put them in her oversized purse along with pads of butter. Why? Why not! "It's free bread!",  she would say. My grandmother, naturally, helped her pack the bread and kept an eye out for any wait staff that might be watching them. Just picture four little old Italian ladies in a classy joint and you'd get my grandma and her sisters. There was never a dull moment with that crew!

    Over time, the sisters passed away and my dad's cousins all agreed that everyone should still visit each other even though the mothers were all no longer around. It was a great idea and we would still go out to dinner at random places and usually they were at more local than the places we went with the little old Italian ladies.

Cousin Carol

    The evolution of Mother's Day meals to "Cousins Day" was pretty seamless and a natural progression since my dad and his maternal cousins were all close.  At the end of the meals we ended up going to his cousin Carol's house in Nashua and be treated to desserts she and her daughter made. Going to Carol's house was pretty fun as I got to talk to second cousins I didn't see too often. Plus, I got a chance to enjoy some of my great-aunt Josie's recipes that had been passed down to her.

       Carol was the oldest of the cousins and so she had a lot of photos to share along with the recipes. On one of the "Cousins Days", I told her I was working on the family tree. She smiled and dumped a shoebox full of pictures on me. Literally. One of the photos fluttered in my lap and it was a picture of Giuseppe, Clementina and all of the sisters looking like they were waiting for the bus or something.

    That was pretty cool, I'll admit. Naturally, I took a pic of the picture before we left. Why not? 

    These days Cousins Day has been more about the cousins visiting each other. We would still go out to dinner at a random restaurant and while we would still have a great time, I again found myself remembering the Mothers' Day meals of years past. I can't help it! My grandmother and her sisters were just too funny and they often had everyone at the table laughing. Just try to picture them as like the "Golden Girls" but all of them were Sophia. That was pretty much them in a nutshell!

    My father and his cousins all worked to keep the tradition going because it was very important to them. They grew up together in Haverhill and naturally it made sense for all of the cousins to get together every once in a while. I would love to do that with my own cousins, honestly. But, it depends on time and all of that. Perhaps one day we will have our own "Cousins Day". It wouldn't be a bad thing! The Mothers Day/Cousins Day parties were always a great time to learn family history and hear stories of years gone by and it's great that the tradition still continues. Who knows what shape it may take in the future. Perhaps I will make a similar tradition with my cousins. Time will tell.

See ya next time!