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!

52 Ancestors Week 17: Working for a Living

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 17:

The theme for Week 17 is “Working for a Living.” Our ancestors’ occupations can give real insight into their lives. This week, choose an ancestor and focus on how he or she made their livelihood. What did you discover about that person’s life?

BEEP! BEEEEEEEEEEEEP!!!!

    The jobs our ancestors had can really tell you a lot about them and you can unfortunately learn a lot about their jobs when you read through their medical journals at the tender age of eight. I can't tell you what an eye-opening experience that was. Let's just say I was brushing my teeth MORE than the recommended two times a day for like a month after reading my father's copy of the New England Journal of Medicine! Nine out of  ten dentists say you should stay away from medical journals. The tenth is being sued for malpractice.

    I've talked about my father the dentist in the blog before. He had his own practice in Salem for a little over fifty years and was very good at what he did. Of course I'll never forget the weird looks he gave me when I pulled out my own teeth in his operatory chair just moments before he was going to work on my teeth. They were loose! One good tongue flick popped it right out!

   While my father was working on peoples' teeth and making sure they flossed, my mother was also a medical professional. She too had her own medical journals and yes they were also just as gory as my father's books. There's a reason why I never went into medicine. My mother was a lab supervisor at Merrimack Medical Labs in nearby Andover, Mass and the environment there was quite different from than the one at my dad's office.

    Long before Diane Hamel worked at that lab she was first a graduate of Suffolk University where she studied laboratory medicine. She also interned in Hartford, Connecticut in 1970. She later worked as a Lab supervisor in Bayonne, New Jersey before she and my father moved back to New Hampshire.

    Once she and my father were back in the Granite State, she worked in the hospital and at Lawrence Medical and testing. 

    I think it's pretty clear by now that my mother was every bit a medical juggernaut as my father. What's interesting is that out of all of her siblings, she was the only one who went into medical school to pursue medicine as a profession. She has three sisters and two brothers and none of them every really followed in their father's footsteps and he was okay with that as long as they were happy.

    By the time I was born she was already working in a private laboratory in Lawrence and Salem, New Hampshire.  As a lab supervisor she counted blood cells and checked for various coagulation factors for patients and helped to diagnose medical conditions for doctors at area hospitals. Say a patient might have sickle cell anemia or any other blood-related illness. Her job was to examine blood cells for any irregularities and conduct other tests.

Goriest image in the blog ever.

    Every once in a blue moon I would join my mother at her office and it was a little bit more relaxed than my dad's place from time to time. It might have been because my mother's boss, Phil, was a very nice guy. He would often set me up with a microscope and I would check out blood cells for myself. I also got to see bacteria, paramecia and all kinds of microscopic organisms long before I ever learned about them in biology class. 

    Talk about getting a head start, right? Alas, medicine was never my thing. I understood it of course but I still had to turn my head whenever my mother took my blood at the dining room table. Yes, she did that! Not everyone is cut out to be a medical professional. We all have our own strengths and weaknesses. 

    All in all, I would say that my mother's job complimented my father's work as a dentist quite nicely if you think about it. As a dentist, my father made sure that peoples' oral health was in tip top shape. After all, poor oral health can lead to very unfortunate medical conditions. My mother and her fellow lab rats worked to make sure people were healthy all throughout the Merrimack valley. There was even a time when Merrimack Medical's services were definitely needed.

    In the early 2000s, I was a student at Merrimack College and there was unfortunately a small pandemic spreading among the student body. People were getting sick in their dorms. People were spreading whatever the illness was all over campus. If you're thinking this was a precursor to the Covid times, you would be right on the money.

    Her lab was called in to help diagnose the problem and come up with a solution as quickly as possible. I remember being tested when I got home. I commuted to college since it wasn't that far away. Thankfully. I never had the bug that went around campus. I did have to drink lots of water for days and we couldn't drink the water that was on campus. To this day we still don't know what caused the outbreak. Needless to say my mother was channeling her inner Doctor Crusher when she saw me and I was thankful that I didn't get sick.

    And that was how my mother earned a living. After the lab closed she went to work with my father at the office. She was already sort of working there whenever he needed help with a patient or if one of his staff members couldn't make it into work.

    I would say that she liked doing what she did for a living. She met some interesting people and maybe helped to save a life or two. Diagnosing a person's medical condition is never easy and to this day she still helps people whenever a problem arises. She was very good at what she did and let's not forget she did it while raising two boys. 

    I have to give my mother credit for that. It's not easy looking at microscopic organisms and seeing what damage they're doing to a human. You have to have a strong stomach to work with blood and sadly I do not have that talent. At least I've learned from both medical professionals. I may not be a doctor but I do play one on tv. 

See ya next time!

52 Ancestors Week 14: A Brick Wall Revisited

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 14:

The theme for Week 14 is “A Brick Wall Revisited.” Sometimes it takes a set of fresh eyes to solve a problem. Has that happened with you in your genealogy? (Of course, there are other ways to interpret this theme. Any bricklayers in the family? 😉 )

Welcome to Atop the Brick Wall where bad gedcoms burn.

    According to my archives, this is the third time I've gone atop the brick wall. At this point I should make a webseries with that name! I won't, though. I don't want to step on my friend Lewis's toes. I already parodied him once years ago and I don't need to do it again! Even though that was fun....

    It's all good. When you're on a genealogical adventure, you're bound to run into brick walls that are made out of pure titanium. This is due to a lack of records, record availability and a bunch of other issues. You're going to find some trouble spots that you need to put on the backburner. Some brick walls do end up getting smashed. Remember my second great-grandmother Domenica Gullo? My second great-grandmother was a brick wall for years until that wall came crumbling down. It takes patience and hard work to deal with a brick wall. Some end up getting solved with ease and some need to be poked at with a hammer every once in a while.

     This week, we're going to revisit a blog from 2023 where I talked about my fourth great-grandfather Francesco Coppola and how I managed to discover him and his unknown wife. We'll see how things stand three years later and hopefully break the wall a little bit more.

    To sum up, I found out about Francesco via the birth record of his grandson Francesco in 1860. Francesco was the brother of Giovanni Coppola and several of Giovanni's descendants are DNA matches of my great-aunt Nicolina, my father and myself. 

    Other Coppola DNA matches link to Francesco as well via his daughter Caterina. My line comes from his son Paolo. The matches were all pretty solid and there's no question that every one of them descend from Francesco.

    It also helps that there was only one Coppola family in San Pietro a Maida. Coppola may be a very common last name. However, just because a name might be common in all of Italy it doesn't mean that it's very common in one tiny Calabrian town.

    Despite finding the connection to Francesco, I still have a few problems I need to deal with. The records never listed who Francesco's wife was. She could be anyone and I still haven't been able to learn her name! That's one question I would really want answered because I really don't like having her name be "Unknown Unknown" on WikiTree. That's just weak. Very weak. Thankfully, I think I might have a way to break that brick wall down!

    The answer I'm looking for lay in the marriage records of her and Francesco's children, Paolo and Giovanni. The brothers married to sisters from the Suverato family, Rosa and Angela. In Italian genealogy, you're going to find a lot of brothers from one family marrying sisters in another family. It's a thing and it happens in other parts of the world!

    Italian women also tend to get married in the town in which they were born and the sisters had to have married the Coppola brothers some time before their oldest children were born. I don't have an exact date for their marriages. However, I do know that Giovanni's son Francesco was born in November 1860 when  his parents were thirty and twenty years old.  

    Francesco had to have been Angela's first child. So, it stands to reason that she and Giovanni were married in either 1858 or 1859. Unfortunately, those records are not online. I would have to ask the commune office for the marriage and since I don't have an exact date, it may be hard to find.  Of course the birth years are conjecture. It's a wild guess when you're dealing with someone's age on a birth record.

    Marriage records might not be the only record I need to verify the parents' identity. Death records would work just as well. I might not know when the Coppolas or the Suveratos passed away. But I do know when Maria Coppola passed away.

    She was a daughter of Giovanni and Angela and passed away in 1962. Her death record would obviously list her parents and it might list her grandparents as well. If I were to ask for that exact record, it might give me the information I need to finally break down that wall.

    That's where the brick wall stands today and that's how I plan to break it down. When I wrote the blog I didn't really have an exact means to break down the wall on my own. All I could do was chisel at it a bit at a time and hope for the best. I would work on it, come back later and try to plan another way to attack the wall. Can it be broken? Oh, yeah. Totally!

    I now have a friend in Italy who might be able to help me figure this mess out and she likely also descends from Francesco and his wife. Of course that's to be determined. I'm sure my cousin Flavia would be more than happy to help me out. Perhaps San Pietro will even have the records online some day. It's hard to say. I do know I can break this brick wall and reveal my 4th great-grandmother's identity. The brick wall may still be there. But it's wobbling ever so slightly. I just need the ACME Jackhammer 9000.

See ya next time!

52 Ancestors Week 13: A Family Pattern

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 13:

The theme for Week 13 is “A Family Pattern.” There are so many ways this theme could go! Naming patterns, behavior, migration, following an occupation for several generations, even sewing! What family pattern will you write about?

I honestly don't think I can work a kilt. 

    You're bound to find family patterns on your genealogical adventure. Names will be passed down through generations and unfortunately certain types of behavior will be passed down as well. However, there's one thing in Amy's prompt this week that she didn't mention. Physical characteristics could also be a pattern. Sometimes these can be as plain as the nose on your face that you inherited from your great-grandmother and sometimes it can be subtle like the ability to curl your tongue.  In my family's case, eye color could definitely be considered a family pattern. This week we'll be covering the generations of people who had the bluest blue eyes ever. It's time to break out the Sinatra records because "Old Blue Eyes" is back!

Austin and Henrietta 

    The Felker family always had blue eyes and my great-grandfather Austin was no exception. My mother always told me that he had the bluest blue eyes ever. His eyes were apparently so blue that it was like looking at the ocean. When MyHeritage came out with their photo colorization tech, I put it to the test and sadly his eyes never turned blue. They were always this gross grainy black color. I guess I'll have to take my mother's word for it because I don't have color photos of him. Good thing his records confirmed that his eyes were indeed blue. Though, I don't think they'll be as descriptive as "blue as the ocean at dawn". They weren't that descriptive on draft cards. Fortunately. I have plenty of other pictures that show off the famous Felker blue eyes.

    Of course Austin wasn't the only one in the family who had amazing blue eyes. Several of his and Henrietta's children had them as well including my grandmother Natalie and her brother Austin.  Several relatives of mine also have blue eyes. Every family on the Felker side seemed to have one or two children with blue eyes. It's like that old saying. If it happens once, it's a coincidence. If the same thing happens again. a pattern forms. There's no denying the fact that having blue eyes is a common thread.

    Sometimes the trait even skips a generation like in the case of my cousin Kristyn. Her mother doesn't have blue eyes and yet my cousin does. Then again her father is Scottish/English. So, it could have come from that side of her family. Blue eye color either runs in the family or everyone got really fancy contact lenses. As I gather more pictures of the Felker clan I begin to wonder something. Where did the beautiful blue eyes come from? Who started it all? Unfortunately, I don't think I have an answer to that question. Or do I?

    It's wildly known that blue eyes are predominant in people from northern and eastern Europe. However, there have been some instances of it occurring in southern Europe. My grandmother Ollie had greenish-blue eyes and she was all Italian all the time! In fact, that actually led people to think she had Spanish heritage. She does not. I've looked! 

Jeremiah and Elizabeth

    I think the answer to that question lies with the origin of the Felker family. I traced the family line back to Germany in the 1700s. Could they have had blue eyes? It's hard to say. I have one picture of my third great-grandfather Jeremiah Felker and I can't tell if he has blue eyes or not. The picture's not in color and no amount of colorization is ever going to make that picture look great. For all I know the blue eye gene came from his wife Elizabeth!

    Could the Felker blue eye have been from Germany? Most likely. Without evidence it's hard to say. I was told that Jeremiah's children including Wilfred all had blue eyes for the most part. Unfortunately, I had to take my cousin's word for it. Without color pictures and other documents like draft cards it's hard to say who had blue eyes back then! And I definitely don't trust colorization tool as far as I can throw it. MyHeritage gave my great-grandfather Vincenzo blond hair and light skin even though he was from southern Italy! Colorization doesn't always work. I could write a long blog about why and why you shouldn't trust that gimmick!

    Back to the blue eye discussion. I'm of the belief that the blue eyes all came from northern Europe. The Felker side of the tree eventually goes to colonial Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The Felkers themselves actually came from Germany like I said earlier.  A lot of those colonists had British, German and Scottish roots. It's safe to say that the blue eyes I see in cousins like Kristyn and other members of my family came from that part of the world. There's no doubt about that. Who started it? I think we'd have to go back to Paleolithic times to answer that question.

Nana and her blue eyes!

     With so many people in my family having blue eyes, it's clear that there's a pattern here. The amazing thing is that most of the people who have blue eyes tend to have that piercing look that Austin had. His trait was clearly passed down and I doubt it'd be going away any time soon.

    It's just one of those neat family patterns that makes everyone stand out in the crowd. Though, I don't think a few of my blue-eyed relatives need help in that area! They'd stand out with or without blue eyes! They eyes really do have it!

See ya next time!

    

52 Ancestors Week 12: An Address With a Story

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 12:

The theme for Week 12 is “An Address With a Story.” So many stories are tied to a place. (For me, it would be my Grandma’s house.) What is a place that has special meaning for your family?

Over the river and through the woods....

    Over the years I've written about several addresses in my family and they've all had plenty of stories to tell. My grandma Ollie's house and her sisters' house in Haverhill were probably mentioned a few hundred times in the blog by now! Speaking of grandma's house, that house in the banner this week was her house for a very long time. It was left to my grandfather Marco after his father Vincenzo passed away in 1970.  Ollie's sisters lived in the house my great-grandparents Giuseppe and Clementina lived in on Bartlett Street. Those houses in Haverhill definitely have stories behind them and I remember them the most since I actually went to those houses!

    That isn't to say I don't have stories about the houses on my maternal side. It's just tough to write long stories about them since my mother moved around a lot thanks to her being an Air Force brat. This week we're going to talk about a house that won't be appearing in any census record until the 1980 US Census is released to the public in 2052. I am of course talking about the house I grew up in!

Green side up, boys! Green side up!

    My father and grandfather Marco broke ground on the property that would one day become my house in 1976. At the time of its construction they were living in nearby Derry, New Hampshire while the house was being built in Salem, New Hampshire.

    My father always told me that they picked the location because it was very rural. I suppose it made sense for him to pick a rural part of Salem since he grew up in Haverhill and as anyone who grew up in a city knows it can be quite noisy living in a city no matter the size. My mom agreed with the decision since she also spent her formative years in a city called Newburyport.

    I like to think that they built the house in Salem because it was close to my father's family in Haverhill and yet far enough away from the noise of the city. For a long time the neighborhood was very quiet. Our house was one of the first houses that was built on the street and over time we got to meet some neighbors. The house was also very close to my father's dental practice which started a few years before they built the house.  There were also great schools nearby and several of my parents' friends and family lived in the area.

AHH! This house is naked!

    With all that in mind, construction began in 1976 and the house was more or less finished that same year. There were still odds and ends that needed to be finished, of course. At least it was habitable by the end of the year. It's a good thing too. New England winters can be brutal!

    Still, I can't help but wonder about some of the initial design flaws in the house. While it's true that we made improvements over the years, I still have to wonder why the way into the attic was a hatch in the closet of my parents' master bedroom. Or why the stairs in the basement were always a little bit smaller than the average human foot.

    Those questions plagued me every time I walked up and down the stairs or helped my mother get Christmas decorations out of the attic. I think that would be one of the first questions I'd ask Marco. Forget about asking about life in San Pietro a Maida for one second. Let's talk about the crazy design flaws! I shouldn't be too hard on the design and everything. After all, the house is one of a few things my grandfather built. He helped to build additions on my father's office and built the house I grew up in. Not a bad legacy at all in my opinion!

 

Testing out Jim's first sweet ride.

  Marco sadly passed away in 1983 and we have a ton of pictures of him inside the house during various stages of its development. These pictures were all taken around Christmas time and other events and I like to think he was pleased with its development. Everything has more or less stayed the same since the day it was constructed.

   The only things that changed of course were the furniture, rugs, tiles and a few other odds and ends. We never built on any additions. We did change the paint on the outside a few times and installed electric garage door openers.

    From the pictures I can tell that he clearly loved the house. He put a lot of himself into its construction and definitely built it to last. Despite all its flaws and everything it's still a place my family and I called home. Still, I find myself wondering how he'd have reacted to a few incidents that took place after his death. I have a feeling he'd have been less than thrilled about the time my brother and I put holes in the wall of our bedroom. What can I say? It was the '80s and we watched a lot of wrestling!

  Those holes were of course patched up in no time and that incident wasn't as bad as the fire in the chimney. Ever since that day we've decided never to use the fireplace again. It's probably just as well. I was never a fan of fireplaces! We never really had any major disasters and that's a good thing. Let's hope it stays that way! Knocking on wood very hard here!

One of the first Christmas Eve parties

     At least Marco would have been pleased to see that we continued his Christmas Eve traditions in the house he and my father built. He may have missed out on a lot of them. Maybe he was there in spirit? You never know! My dad always maintained that he thought he smelt his father in the basement whenever he was working on something. Maybe his spirit does linger in the house. I'm not about to call the Ghost Hunters and ask them for help!

   The fact that the house is still standing after half of a century really says something about the work he put into it. Granted, repairs were made over the years. New paint was added to the exterior. New furniture came and went. That's honestly to be expected when you have a house that's been around as long as it has. As for the people? Well, Jim and I grew up and his kids call our house "New Hampshire Grandma and Grandpa's house". Some day I think my brother will tell them that it's only half of the story!

    In the end, my house is a lot like many other houses on our street aside from its Mediterranean exterior. There's a lot of history here and more than that it's been my home for all that time too. Its origins may have been pretty modest. However, the stories withing the walls have lasted a lifetime!

See ya next time!

Home sweet home!

52 Ancestors Week 11: Turning Point

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 11:

The theme for Week 11 is “A Turning Point.” In storytelling, there’s the pivotal moment – something happens and nothing is the same afterward. Think of a turning point in the life of an ancestor. It could be going to college, going to war (or not), or making an unpopular choice. You could also be more literal and consider ancestors who traveled. There's no wrong way to interpret the theme!

Greener pastures are this way!

    When you've been on a genealogical adventure as long as I have, you're bound to find many things that have been turning points in your research. Small things here and there turn into big things and before you know it your family tree on Ancestry looks like a forest and you'll be putting profiles in on WikiTree for a very long time. I know that's oddly specific. What do you expect from someone who's been doing genealogy off and on for ten years before finally deciding to register at WikTree?

    I actually think now might be a good time to reflect on some of my biggest turning points in my research. Many of them have been game changers. Some of them may not seem that big. They were big enough for me and that alone earns them a spot on this list! Without further adieu, let's get this party started!

Birth record of Angela Gatto.

    By far the biggest turning point in my research was when my friend and fellow Wikitreer Kathy Nava went to her local Familysearch library and downloaded birth records for me. Before she offered her services, my friend Tricia would also go to her library and get records for me.

    They went to the library because my area does not have a Familysearch affiliate library and for a long time that was the only place where you could find births in San Pietro a Maida from 1809 to 1861. 

    Sounds lame, I know. It was what we had to work with and I thank them every day for their help as they helped me break down several brick walls.

    Before they helped me my father's paternal side was an empty void that needed to be filled. Thanks to their work, I was able to find birth records for several ancestors in San Pietro AND I was able to break a brick wall or two. Tricia found the 1860 birth record for Francesco Coppola and that led me to connecting all of the Coppolas to his grandfather Francesco and his still unknown wife. I still need to find out who that is. That will be another turning point!

    Their help continued for many years and eventually I made a spreadsheet cataloging all of the births in San Pietro a Maida that we were finding. It wasn't until Christmas 2025 when Antenati, the Italian government's repository for Italian records, that the records became available without the need to go to a library. Talk about a great Christmas present! Now I make sure I everything's nice and accurate because while they were helpful with getting the scans, the scans on Familysearch looked like they were scanned using a potato. I had trouble reading them and now the scans are a lot cleaner on Antenati! This was a turning point because now I can look at those records with ease!

    Before I had access to the San Pietro records, the only other Italian records I had were the ones from Gesualdo that my cousin Mary found and uploaded to Ancestry. I saw those records long before I ever heard of Antenati and I would call that one of my earliest turning points.

    Mary had carefully documented, scanned and cataloged every single person who was born, lived in or died in the town of Gesualdo. That was the Italian town where my great-grandparents Giuseppe Carrabs and Clementina Forgione were born and seeing those records was a turning point early on in my research because they allowed me to get a firsthand look at what Italian records actually looked like. They pretty much prepared me for what I was eventually going to find in San Pietro. Not bad, right?

    I know a lot of my Italian research turning points sound odd since I had help from someone else. However, here's what you need to know. I was not well-versed in the Italian language early on in my adventure. I didn't know about the months of the year or how records were organized. The people who helped me out helped me to understand the records better and I am forever grateful for their help. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Genealogy shouldn't be a solo gig. It takes more than one person to help put the pieces of a puzzle together. Wikitree calls it collaboration and it helps people get further in their research than they ever thought possible!

    I'd say one of my other major turning points was finding out the nitty, gritty details surrounding my second great-grandmother Gertrude Stevens's divorce from her husband Wilfred Felker.

    I knew Wilfred and Gertrude were divorced long before I ever started on my genealogical adventure. My mother remembers growing up with various Senter relatives who descended from Getrude's second husband, Walter.  The only odd thing was that my grandmother Natalie and her sister never really spoke of their grandfather. 

    I didn't get an answer to that question until I sent a query or two to the Essex country courthouse. Eventually, I found out that Wilfred was not a nice man. He cheated on Gertrude and got another woman pregnant while she was pregnant with their son Austin. He had a fist fight with one of his other sons after presenting a child to him. Wilfred clearly had issues.

    The court documents I received ended up cementing those thoughts about Wilfred. The man claimed he was abandoned by Gertrude when in fact he committed adultery. So, not only was he a jerk. He was a lying jerk. Finding out the truth about him was a turning point for sure because it showed me that genealogy is never black and white. There are shades of grey and sometimes you need to take the good stuff along with the bad things you find out there.

    Speaking of genealogy not being always black and white, another turning point would be finding out that my great-grandfather Alfred Hamel wasn't simply a Fix-It Shop owner. No. He may have fixed ships for bootleggers on the Merrimack River during the Prohibition. I wonder if that was his side hustle. You never know! 

    Finding that bit of information was a turning point in my research because before my mother told me that information I had just assumed he was just a regular guy. He was drafted into the service during the first world war. He had my grandfather and was well-liked by the people of Newburyport. There was a reason why he was called "Mr. Fix-it". He could fix anything. Knowing what I know now adds a bit more to his story because now there's a bit more depth to his character.

    I knew there was something more to the swagger he had in this picture from the early 1900s. That swagger hid someone who was a bit adventurous!

    These were just four of my major turning points in my research. I have many more and they all involve DNA and other topics. I have potential turning points on the horizon and I'm sure I'll discuss them another day. These turning points happen when you least expect it. Though, to be honest, I think I'd rather call them "game changers" than turning points. To each their own, I guess!

See ya next time!

52 Ancestors Week 10: Changed My Thinking

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 10:

The theme for Week 10 is “Changed My Thinking.” Genealogy is all about discovery. What is something you’ve found about an ancestor that changed your way of thinking about them? Perhaps genealogy has led you to think about bigger issues differently.

No one's name was ever changed at Ellis Island? Never has been.

    Before you start on your genealogical adventure, there are a few things you need to know. Never assume anything because surprises will be around every corner.  If you ever need help on anything, never be afraid to ask because by and large the genealogy community is full of helpful people. And the most important thing you need to remember is that you should never, ever put an ancestor of yours on a pedestal. If you do, you're only setting yourself up for disappointment down the road.  If you know the expression "Never meet your heroes", this week's blog probably falls under the same category.

    Now, I've already discussed an ancestor of mine who turned out to not be someone I wanted to meet. Wilfred Felker, my second great-grandfather, was a man who clearly had a few demons running around in his head. Thankfully, that cycle of violence was broken and his son Austin went on to have a great life with a great family. It's just a shame that I can't ask my great-aunt about him. There have been some on the Italian side of the tree who also turned out to not be what I expected.

    When I was growing up, I learned a great deal about my great-grandfather Vincenzo Ferraiolo. He was born in the Calabrian town of San Pietro a Maida and was the first in his family to settle in Haverhill, Massachusetts. 

    My mother met him while she and my father were dating and he would actually sing to her in Italian. That sounds like a sweet guy, right? Italian man journeys to America and becomes quite the charmer. You could write a book about someone like that!

    Over time, my opinion of Vincenzo changed considerably thanks to DNA evidence and of course conversations with the people who knew him best.

        Conversations with my great-aunt Nicolina about her father were always a bit of a mixed bag because the stories were never that consistent. Sometimes he was described as a nice man who took his family to Switzerland to attend a niece's wedding. Other times he was described as a philanderer. I understand how one man could be both of those things. However, I just wish the stories I heard about him were consistent. I do know that he had a bit of a temper and was quite stubborn. That's true for a lot of Italian men. Now that I look back at Vincenzo's life, there was definitely some truth about him being a philanderer.

    When I took a DNA test in 2017, two of the top matches for my dad and I were more than a little unusual. The centimorgans they shared with the two of us were in the triple digits. I had no clue who they were and I asked Nicolina if I could see her results since she matched them. She accepted and my jaw hit the floor.  The two top matches shared FOUR digits with Nickie! I asked her if she messaged them and she said she hadn't. I'm not sure if she hadn't had the time to or was too nervous to talk to them. I went ahead and messaged them for her.

    One of the matches told me that their mother Joyce was a product of a union between Vincenzo and a woman named Louvia Mitchell. The match explained how this was possible. At some point in the mid 1930s, Vincenzo went to Alburg, Vermont for a job. He was working as a laborer at the time and stayed at her house as a boarder. In fact, the matches referred to him as a "Sicilian boarder". I had to correct them. He was born in San Pietro a Maida after all. Not Sicily. 

    Anyway, I was not skeptical about their claim. I knew Vincenzo was a philanderer and so did my parents and my great-aunt. We just didn't know the extent until we had our DNA tested. Well, I compared the matches and came to the conclusion that Joyce was Nicolina's half-sister.

    I told Nicolina and her daughter the news they took it well, I suppose. I mean they knew he was a philanderer like I said. My great-aunt was understandably angry, though. Who wouldn't be? Somehow she found the strength to contact her half-sister and they talked once before she passed away in 2019.

    Once Nicolina calmed down a bit, she asked me all sorts of questions that I definitely didn't have the answers for. Her father had a child with someone while still being married to her mother, Maria Tedesco. There was a lot to unpack. Did Vincenzo know about Joyce? Probably not as Louvia unfortunately died shortly after their daughter was born. Would he have taken care of the baby? It's hard to say. No one contacted Vincenzo and told him about the baby in Vermont.

  At the end of that story I realized that this whole story was just an example of Vincenzo's philandering. Did my opinion of him change? A little, yeah.  I knew he was a philanderer and the escapade in Vermont proved it without a shadow of a doubt. Though, to be honest we have no idea who came onto whom and everything. 

    I was actually ready to close the book on Vincenzo's past when a couple more DNA matches showed up and once again they were triple digit matches to my father, great-aunt and myself.  In my mind, I was thinking "Are we really doing this again, Vincenzo?"

    Apparently, we were. This time, however, things turned out a little differently. To date I have no idea who Vincenzo made a baby with. I don't even have a name! I only know that she had two children that she gave up for adoption and those children had at least two children that they gave up for adoption!

    Confused? Me too. Naturally, I messaged the matches and only one of them wrote back to me. I explained the situation. The adoptive mother of one of the matches filled me in on everything and unfortunately the birth mother had some mental issues.

    All isn't completely lost. The match's adoptive mother did tell me a few bits of the family story and I was told that contacting his birth mother was probably a bad idea. I understood and went on my way. 

    The new DNA matches put me in a rather difficult position. Do I tell Nicolina about the two new matches and yet another half-sibling? After Nicolina's response regarding Joyce, I decided not to because the pain would have been too great and at that point she was in her late '90s. I don't recall ever telling her daughter, either. It was just too much for anyone to handle.

    To make matters worse, I didn't even have a name for the mistress, the half-sibling or anything. I have
no idea when the match's grandmother was born or even if she's still alive. I have less to go on for that case and the match's adoptive mother gave me as much information as she could from the adoption agency. So, at the end of the day I just put that case on the backburner. What else could I do?

    Nicolina passed away in 2022 never knowing anything about the other DNA matches. Knowing about one half-sibling was enough. I did tell my dad everything and he agreed that it would have done more harm than good. 

    After learning about the half-siblings, I wondered just how many of them were out there. After learning about those DNA matches, my opinion of Vincenzo changed a lot. He was no longer just the first Ferraiolo in Haverhill who had a slight "oopsie" in Vermont. After two children came out of the woodwork, a pattern formed. It's clear that Vincenzo was not above cheating on his spouses. Now, granted I have no clue when the second coupling happened. However, I do think it's unfortunate that he kept doing it. 

    I'm not even sure if the family in Europe knew about his umm....antics. Though, I suspect my cousin Caterina might suspect something as she added Joyce to her tree on Myheritage and she has seen his profile on WikiTree. I suppose one could say at the end of the day he was definitely charming. Was he a good man? That's up for debate and not for me to decide. I can only go by the facts and while I definitely don't condone his cheating, I just wish things turned out a little differently.

    Now when I look at Vincenzo I don't just see a man who crossed the Atlantic to start a new life in America. I see a man who cheated on his wives and was more than a little charming to people. I can't really judge him as it's not my place. But I do see him in a different light now.

    Vincenzo is definitely one of those cases where you definitely shouldn't put an ancestor of yours on a pedestal. Other people have people who have done far worse than adultery in their trees. And while I knew Vincenzo was a philanderer, I never knew the extent until now and it's a little shocking. It's no wonder Nicolina got upset with her father. When you're on a genealogical adventure, you have to also remember that the people back then were people. They had their faults and foibles. Your opinions on people will change over time for good or ill. You just have to remember that not everyone in your family tree was a saint.

See ya next time!

52 Ancestors Week 7: What the Census Suggests

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 7:

The theme for Week 7 is “What the Census Suggests.” Census records are part of the foundation of genealogy research. This week, what is something surprising that you’ve found in the census? Is there something that helped break down a brick wall or give insight into the family?

Probably the most disappointing census ever. We all know why.

       

    Where would we be without the United States Census? For almost as long as the US of A existed there's been someone walking around taking a headcount of every man, woman and child living in every city and town from sea to shining sea. Personally, I haven't found anything earth-shattering in the census save for people being enumerated twice or the confirmation of someone's place of birth. I did find out that sea gulls once terrorized a poor enumerator in the 1950 census in Newburyport. Going by the notes in the back of the book he said that certain pages were stolen by sea gulls and that he had to redo a headcount of a neighborhood on Plum Island. I think that census suggests that sea gulls have always been jerks. I could have told you that. I once saw a sea gull steal a French fry from a guy's hand and fly away! They really are rats with wings!

    Of course that's not the only thing the a census ever suggested to me. They've also confirmed what I've always known about a certain area in Haverhill around both Washington Street and Bartlett Street. Growing up, I knew those streets to be the homes of my grandma Ollie and her sisters. When you look at the census, you quickly find that they were part of a much bigger picture. The house on Bartlett Street was once home to my great-grandparents Giuseppe Carrabs and Clementina Forgione. Grandma Ollie's house was built by my great-grandfather Vincenzo. And that wasn't all. Both houses were part of a huge Italian neighborhood within the city. Talk about being part of a larger universe.

The 1920 Census in Haverhill

    Granted, the neighborhood was far from being a Little Italy like in New York City or Boston. It was still a close knit community with many Italians leaving in the same area. It was like that for decades and at the center of it all was a "little" road called Washington Street. 

Follow the red road.....

    As you can see from the map, it is a very, very long road running parallel with the Merrimack river. I suspect many people settled along the river in order to easily get to and from work quickly. Makes sense, right? Haverhill had factories all along the river and they employed immigrants from all corners of the globe. Among them were Italians and in order to get to work quickly, they built or bought houses on Washington street and on the surrounding roads. If you look closely at the map, you might even see a landmark I've talked about from time to time that's still in operation--Benedetti's Deli. It's right on the road! Talk about convenience! 

    Everyone in Haverhill lived in the vicinity of that road. Everyone. In its heyday it was basically Italian central. You live on that road, chances are someone ten doors down might know your parents! It was that densely populated! I've found several articles in area newspapers that refer to the area around Washington Street as a village. I can see that. More on that in a minute.

    After a while, I thought I would take all the locations in Haverhill I collected from various censuses and see what they all looked like on a map. Using Google Earth, I put in each address and pinned them. Thankfully, the streets are still there along with the houses. I wish I could say the same thing about Newburyport. Sigh....They tore down my grandfather Robert's first house!!!  Let's go back to Haverhill before I get depressed.  At least the house on Bromfield street is still there. My mother once told me that the house had one of the old timey toilets with the pull string. .

  

      As you can tell from the first map and all of the pins in the second one, there's a lot of Italians living in that same general area. Most of the houses are located on several roads either on Washington Street or on roads perpendicular to the main road. Washington Street was clearly the place to be to find Italians. There's no doubt about it. If you were an Italian living in Haverhill, that's where you were living!

    This is just the tip of the iceberg since I only added my relatives' houses. Imagine if I put in every Italian whoever lived in Haverhill on the map! Chances are the whole map would be covered in little pins. I don't think I have enough time to put ALL of them on there!

Grandma's house on Washington St.

    In the end, the censuses' suggestions were correct. All of the Italians in Haverhill lived in a neighborhood in and around Washington Street. They settled in the area in order to be close to work and once the families grew, they bought/built more houses. This led to the creation of an Italian neighborhood that more or less still exists today.

    Another interesting thing to note is that the houses also center on High Street where Giovanni Coppola had his grocery store.  If you look at the map, you'll see that High Street meets Washington Street right near Benedetti's. Again, that's pretty convenient!

 It makes sense for an Italian neighborhood to have a grocery store.

    If only I knew where exactly on High Street the grocery store was. You're not going to find that in the census. You'll find that in the city directory for sure. 

    It was great confirming that the area around Washington Street was an Italian neighborhood. I always suspected that was the case when I was growing up. Family lived nearby and people always talked about how someone with a very Italian last name lived a few blocks away. When I looked up everything in the census, I learned right away that yes there was a vibrant Italian neighborhood in Haverhill. Does it still exist today? That depends on who you ask. Many people unfortunately passed away or moved from the area. Despite that, the people who lived on Washington street all those years ago undoubtedly left their mark on the city and made the area a great place to live!

See ya next time!

Photos and maps are property of Google Earth.