52 Ancestors Week 21: At the Cemetery

 From Amy Johnson Crow: I'll admit it. I'm addicted to going to cemeteries. (I feel safe admitting that here!) Cemeteries are such special places; I feel drawn even to those where I don't have any ancestors buried. Which cemetery is special in your family's history? Do you have a story about "visiting" a special relative?

Where else can you find LARPers, genealogists and ghosts?

    When you think of cemeteries, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? Do you picture a Michael Jackson video? Or do you see a dark, foreboding area of land full of dead trees, tall grass and  ghosts around every corner? The latter is what most people seem to think of when they hear the word "cemetery".  It's a forbidden land where the undead will rise from the grave and do an unexpected dance number or a place where live action roleplays happen because there isn't a park around town. As for me, that's never really been the case. 

St. Patrick's Cemetery

    Haverhill is home to sixteen cemeteries and a few of them date back to the colonial era. Some of them, like Walnut Cemetery, are even said to be haunted by spirits from the Civil War! Hilldale Cemetery is supposedly one of the most haunted cemeteries in all of New England! It is there that the Essex County Ghost Project hosts annual ghost hunts. Please leave your unlicensed nuclear accelerators at home for that one!

    I suppose I'm not bothered by cemeteries because there is a real special one in my family. It's the oddly named Saint Patrick's Cemetery. I say it's oddly named because most of the graves in that cemetery have people of Italian descent buried in them. This isn't hyperbole. There are a LOT of Italians buried there! That isn't to say Italians in Haverhill weren't buried elsewhere. They were. Many of them just seem to be concentrated in St. Patrick's.

    Off the top of my head, I can tell you that four of my great-grandparents have their final resting place in St. Patrick's. Vincenzo Ferraiolo and Maria Tedesco share a plot with my grandfather Marco, my grandma Ollie and Vincenzo's second wife, Fortuna. Just down the "street" are Giuseppe Carrabs and Clementina Forgione. And that's just the tip of the iceberg!

The Ferraiolo grave

    Since we're local, my family and I go St. Patrick's every May to clean up the Ferraiolo plot, plant flowers and put down markers before heading to Amesbury where my other grandparents are buried. We even put a wreath around the stone every Christmas. My dad's cousins typically take care of Giuseppe and Clementina's plot and we stop by to check out the upkeep.

    The cemetery is easily the first one I remember going to because of the ritualistic clean-up duty. Every year we would go and I would clean the plaques embedded in the ground. These were your typical World War memorial plaques which briefly stated what unit they served and such. Next to them is another plaque simply saying "Buona Fortuna" in Italian.

    When I was little, I asked my father what that meant and he said it meant "good fortune". Basically, the memorial was wishing our ancestors buried there good fortune in the afterlife. I hope that's the case! I'd hate to think they were going without up there.

    As you can see from the picture, we take great care to make it look nice as we use only the finest plants from Home Depot. The cemetery itself is well maintained and there's nothing remotely scary about it. I will say this. The last time I was with my parents to clean the stone and everything was just about the only scary incident to have ever happened there. Though, it wasn't really scary. It was more gross than anything else.

    We needed water to clean the plaques and there is a faucet near the stones. We turn the valve and the water was a healthy dark brown. I think the reason behind that wasn't anything to do with pollutants. It was just a combination dirty Haverhill water and the fact that the faucet probably hadn't been turned on in some time. That or the pipes weren't in the best shape.

The Carrabs grave

    I wish I knew more about the history of the cemetery. There's not much I can find online about St. Patrick's. Find A Grave has over 2,000 memorials listed in their archives with more added every day. From what I can tell just by searching around is that it's at least older than the 1920s. 

    The name always seemed odd to me because St. Patrick was an Apostle of Ireland. Sure he was born in Roman Britain and is closely associated with Ireland. But, perhaps the cemetery started out as an Irish cemetery and it expanded? Who can say? Perhaps the answers can be found in the Haverhill library.

    Regardless, the cemetery is one that we've always went to. I remember going there to pay my respects to my grandparents buried there. I've even walked around a few times to see if I could find any other relatives. I've found a few people other than my great-aunts and uncles. It's nice to know that many relatives are there and that it's very well maintained.

    Cemeteries aren't anything to be scared of. They're memorials of people you've loved in your life. Sure there are legit scary ones tucked away in the woods. But, those haven't been maintained for a very long time. Aside from St. Patrick's, I've been to Linwood and a few other cemeteries in the city. I would like to go to St. Joseph's as that's where many of the French-Canadians in my tree are buried. Several of them are also in Walnut, too.

    I really want to check both out as my 2nd great-grandfather, Antoine Legault, could be at either one of those cemeteries. More research needs to be done. 

    St. Patrick's is a decent sized cemetery and I wouldn't mind going there again to see if I could find more relatives. Could Caterina Coppola's brothers and sister be buried there? Hard to say. I have found some Coppola stones..... Anything is possible! 

See ya next time!

52 Ancestors Week 20: Cousin Bait

From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 20's theme is "Cousin Bait," which is a term used to describe the ways we try to attract the attention of others researching our families. It could be things like blogging, having a public online tree, or leaving comments on a FindAGrave memorial. Have you successfully set cousin bait or got hooked by someone else's? (You could also take a more literal route and talk about fishermen in your family tree.)

Every great decision causes ripples

    Hello. My name is Chris Ferraiolo and I have a confession to make. I am a victim of cousin bait. I can "hear" the audible gasps and fainting through the Internet. I know it's shocking and it may be a little much to take in right now. We've got to be brave. We've got to be strong. We've also got to milk this gag in the opening paragraph for all it's worth. ;) Have you or a loved one been a victim of cousin bait? If so, please contact the law offices of  Nelson, Murdock and Walters. Well, there's not much you can do about it. Unless you register at WikiTree.

So many DNA confirmations.

    That's actually the origin of how I became a user on the site. WikiTree.com is basically the king and queen of cousin bait. I know I've talked about it a lot since I've started the blog and there's a good reason why I sing its praises. It's a free singular world tree which uses Wikimedia's coding as a base. The goal of the site is to have a profile for every human who has ever lived. That's a tall order and it can be done considering over 26 million profiles have been created at the time of this blog post. Not bad for a site that started in 2008 when most of the Internet was making videos on YouTube. Including me.

    Right. So, how did I become a victim of cousin bait? What is it exactly? Cousin bait is simply something on the Internet that attracts someone who may have a connection to you. For example, a third cousin of mine created Find a Grave profiles for my grandparents, Marco and Olympia. Other forms of cousin bait include blogs which might turn up on Google searches, photos and public trees on Ancestry and just having a small corner of a world tree like Geni, Familysearch or WikiTree would be enough to attract cousins. It's happened to me. It could happen to YOU!

I probably should have cropped more of that first pic.

    The Find a Grave profiles were just the beginning of cousin bait finding me. In 2017, I was just starting to get back into genealogy after a considerable hiatus. I was still doing videos on YouTube and I had a webcomic I was producing as well. I still produce it! Check it out!

    While that was going on, I thought I'd give MyHeritage a try. Over on Myheritage, they have hints like they do on Ancestry. The only difference is that they also show where on the Internet a profile for a certain ancestor of yours might be. They could be on Geni. They could be on Familysearch. They could even be on Wikitree!

    That's how I managed to find my 2nd great-grandparents, Vincenzo Carrabs and Maria Giovanna Capobianco. My third cousin, the one who made the Find a Grave profiles for my grandparents, made profiles for the two back in 2014, a good three years before I found them. That wasn't all! another cousin created profiles for Wilfred Felker and his father, Jeremiah in 2013.

    Right away, my spider-sense was buzzing. I didn't mind the profiles being there. I had never heard of WikiTree at that point. I checked it out and I registered on the site in July of 2017. I was surprised to see ancestors on both sides of my tree on the site already and naturally I e-mailed both cousins and asked them what the deal was. I had heard of my third cousin via my grandma Ollie and other relatives So, she wasn't a complete shock to me. She had messaged me on Ancestry and we talked there. The other Wikitreer was new to me. I e-mailed him and he gave me a LOT of information about the Felkers.

Buffed and waxed!

    Once I was all registered, I built the tree up to those profiles and like the Borg from Star Trek, I assimilated the profiles and added their distinctiveness to my own. Resistance was very much futile. After I built it up, I buffed and waxed the profiles with needed categories, sources, photos and eventually DNA confirmation. No fuss. No muss. And importantly no drama. 

    Some people may not be that lucky. To that I say, just try to present the sources as best you can when you connect. You'll find most WikiTreers to be okay with connections as long as they are sourced up before you connect the dots. And if there is an issue, people are encouraged to take it to the genealogist to genealogist forum. Though, chances are many of your ancestors will be on the site already if they were born in the 1600s-1700s.

    Setting up shop on WikiTree eventually proved to be one of the greatest ideas I ever had because since the tree is free and everyone can see the profiles you made, distant cousins will find them  and in time contact you. It's that simple. It's happened to me a few times as I've had cousins on the Forgione and Legault sides contact me saying that they found the profiles I made of their ancestors. Everyone was more than cool about this and eventually they too turned up as DNA matches.

    It wasn't always fun, though. There has been at least one person who took issue with my profile for "their ancestor" on the site. I've done my best to explain the situation and showed them them sources I found which mesh with what I have found and declared. The ball then is very much in their court. That's little else I can do. 

    So, that's my WikiTree origin story. Cousin bait can be a very good thing and WikiTree itself is basically cousin bait personified. Blogs also work as cousin bait and if a cousin sees this, I'll just say hi and that I hope to see you on WikiTree some day! Come on in! We don't bite!

    Cousin bait is good in that it let's you see what others have found about "your" ancestors. You can join a world tree like WikiTree and build up on what they found and combine it with stuff you found. Include some pics and info, stories and boom the profile will shine with its new chrome rims. It's really that easy and isn't something to be concerned about. So, don't be afraid to be a victim of cousin bait AND be ready to fish for cousins yourself as you work on a world tree. 

See ya next time!

52 Ancestors Week 19: Mother's Day

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Sunday was Mother's Day in the US. This week, let's take a look at the mothers you're researching. (They do make up half of your family tree, after all!)

All tied up in a neat little free to use bow.

   

     Mister T put it best. Without mothers you wouldn't be here and then he proceeded to sing a song about mothers. Seriously. Check it out here. Bless the Internet. There is nothing you can't find. I don't know if that's a good thing or not. I guess it depends on what you're looking for.

    For me Mother's Day was always a chance to get genealogical information, a picture or two and of course a really good meal. When I was little, my brother and I would give our mom her usual presents and cards in the morning and by midday we would pick up grandma Ollie and head out to dinner with her sisters and the cousins along with their significant others. We would all meet up at a nearby restaurant and have a great time catching up on what's been going on in the family and various other bits of news.

The Carrabs sisters!

    The quality of the food didn't really matter to me because we were spending time with family and for us that usually meant finding out what aunt Louise was doing that week or some other random thing. It was really just a chance to get together and have a good time. 

    However, if you ever go to a place in Kingston, New Hampshire called "The Pond View", turn around and GO HOME! That was probably the worst dining experience of my life because the food was HORRIBLE! It was just about the only time the food actually did matter. I forget what I had. I can only remember how disgusting it was. It's currently got two stars on Yelp. Gee. I wonder why. My mother says I put the curse on the joint. If only Gordon Ramsay visited. And I hear it's even closed down. Oh, well. Yeah, I wasn't a fan of "The Pond View". The 1686 House I liked.

    Regardless of the venue, one of the cousins would bring up their grandparents, Giuseppe and Clementina, and I would instantly perk up and listen. They would tell stories and I'd hear about Rocco or Pasquale's grandchildren or great-grandchildren from my grandmother and her sisters. I would just listen and ask questions at appropriate times. 

   I remember one dinner at my dad's cousin Carol's house some time after all the sisters had passed away very vividly. She mentioned that she had found some old home movies. At that point "Mother's Day" had become "Cousins Day" because we still wanted to get together and have a good time like we used to when the sisters were around. Naturally, the prospect of there being home movies piqued my interest and those of everyone at the table. 

   We all got comfortable in the basement and warmed up the old film projector. In no time at all, I saw my dad as a kid playing with the cousins at their house in Haverhill in the 1950s to 1960s and yes the Wonder Years theme popped up in my head while I was watching. How could it not? Yeah, pop culture ruined me. If you've been reading the blog for a long time, I think you probably figured that out by now!

Giuseppe and Clementina

    What was great about the films was that every now and then Giuseppe and Clementina would appear. It was fantastic seeing them in not just picture form. They were moving around and they seemed so real to me. It was so magical and not nearly as creepy as MyHeritage's "Deep Nostalgia" gimmick.  I liked seeing them in action and I could easily have spent hours looking at the reels. My only hope is that the films will be converted to DVDs at some point. I think my dad's cousin Joe is on that task. They need to be preserved and burnt onto DVD/BluRay/4K and digitally remastered. 

   Some background: Carol was the oldest of the cousins as her parents were Ugo and Josephine Messa. Josie wasn't the oldest Carrabs sister, though. That was Jennie. Jennie and her husband, Joseph, did not have children. So, as the oldest she would have hosting duties and we'd have "Cousins Day" at her house in the place of the "Mother's Day" festivities.

 

    During one of the last "Cousins Day" celebrations, Carol let me look through a bunch of old photographs and the one on the left literally fell on my lap. It's a picture of Giuseppe, Clementina and their daughters. Sadly, a part of my grandmother's head was out of the shot. It's okay. At least we got a great pic of Jennie, Giuseppe, Clementina and Louise on the couch. 

    I didn't expect to find such a fantastic photo. We took a picture of it along with a few others I found and of course I thanked Carol for letting me see the photo and others. She said it was a thank you for getting a tree for her on WikiTree. I had made trees for her and the other cousins. It was a lot of fun to do!

    Little did I know, that  visit was going to be one of the last "Cousins Day" feasts. COVID happened and naturally we couldn't see each other unless it was on a Zoom call. Carol had spent years fighting cancer and in the summer of 2020 it came back with a vengeance. There was nothing anyone could do for her other than make her comfortable. She passed away in June of last year and we have not had a "Cousins Day" visit since.

    Hopefully, we get together soon. Mother's Day to me will always be a time where we all celebrated not just the mothers (and grandmothers) in our lives. It was a time to be with family and learn something about the family's history. I'm lucky that I learned so much during the Mother's Day/Cousins Day feasts. I said it before and I'll say it again. You learn so much by just listening to your family members just sitting around the table. Facts and stories will present themselves with time and patience. I just hope Joe has put those film strips to DVD. That's a gold mine right there. GOLD!

See ya next time!

52 Ancestors Week 18: Crime and Punishment

 From Amy Johnson Crow: This week's theme is "Crime and Punishment." Our ancestors were human, so it tends to reason that someone in the family tree found themselves on the wrong side of the law. The up-side for us is that they often created more records than the law-abiding ancestors!

From the producers of "Law and Order".

    

    This week's prompt almost had me stumped. What was I going to write about? I couldn't find anyone in my direct line who committed a crime. Everyone was pretty much squeaky clean. The only person who came really close was a cousin named Francesco Papatola and I'm still not one hundred percent sure on what he did or if a crime really did take place given how relatives in Italy regard him today. He went to Haverhill with his parents and by the early l940s he went back to San Pietro a Maida and had a family over there. There doesn't seem to be any bad blood between the family he made in America and the family he made in Italy. So, it's hard to say what he did and I'm not up to poking the dragon to find out. That and I'm not sure if they even know!

The Salem Witch Trials

    So, what can I write about? This week, we're going to have to go back in time to the 1690s when New England was a colony of the British crown and paranoia was about to take root in what is now the Bay state. Yes, I am referring to the one and only Salem Witch Trials which took place between February 1692 and May of 1693 in the town of Salem, Massachusetts.

    A total of eight ancestors of mine were involved in the event where many people were accused of being witches. Many were executed and today they have a 7-11 near where they were hanged. I'm serious. Look it up.

    Don't worry. The accused and accusers have definitely left their mark on modern Salem as there are museums and monuments dedicated to the accused women (and some men). There are even several plays about the trials such as  Arthur Miller's "The Crucible", movies and all kinds of media surrounding the event. I don't think it'll be forgotten any time soon. It was one of those dark events in human history that left its mark on the world. 

    Since I have eight ancestors who were involved in one way or the other, let's talk about one of each as I have both an accuser AND an accused in my tree.

The Accuser

Yeah That's pretty concrete....

    You can imagine my surprise when I found out that Thomas Putnam Jr was my 9th great-grandfather. I grew up in nearby Salem, New Hampshire and we all had history classes devoted to the Salem Witch trials. In every class, Tommy here was presented in a very rough manner. Was it justified? Well, that's a matter of interpretation. It's important to remember that we are not our ancestors and Thomas here has thousands of descendants around today. I'm just a drop of water in the ocean. One of thousands who are connected to this man.

    That said, you can't deny what he did. His own daughter, Ann, pressured him to continue the trials as she accused several people including the Reverend George Burroughs of being a witch (Technically he'd be a wizard or a warlock. Going by Dungeons & Dragons rules, here.) and that he was the ringleader of every witch the area. Instead of sitting his daughter down and telling her to relax, he went along with all the crazy accusations she made and the rest is history.

    Thomas's motivations in proceeding with the trials were put into question in Miller's "The Crucible" where he was presented as a God-fearing man who worried that several of his children were killed by witchcraft. In reality, the Putnams had only one child who died young. Ann had accused a man named John Willard of killing the baby through witchcraft a few years before the trial ACTUALLY began. It can therefore be theorized that the apprehension he felt over the loss of his daughter and witchcraft being to blame for her premature death could be the reason why Putnam showed so much zeal during the proceedings.

    Now, I am in no way playing devil's advocate. He still sentenced a lot of innocent people to death. It  does seem like a reasonable explanation for what he did. Think about it. In 1690s Massachusetts, Puritanical beliefs were in full swing and there were a LOT of God-fearing people around. People today wonder if he was also influenced by the girls who accused people of being witches. It's hard to say because the Witch Trials themselves weren't the only time where he had shown a vindictive streak. Before the trials even began, he was known to be quite ruthless as he was the son of a wealthy landowner and the family caused much grief in the town.

    Thomas Putnam had many children and I descend from his youngest daughter, Experience. The actions of a man who died two hundred and seventy-nine years before I was born do not reflect who I am today. Did he do horrible things? Yes. There's no denying it. The best you can do is learn from the past in order to avoid mistakes. Just note the link and move on because even though you might be embarrassed by the connection, the person lived so very long ago. At some point you need to let it go.

The Accused

Another solid connection. Huh.

Time to bring out the accused! Her name was Ann Foster and her origin is a bit clouded in mystery. Some say she was the daughter of George Alcock and Anne Hooker. However, no evidence was ever presented and she was always known by her married name.

    Unlike many of the people accused of witchcraft, she wasn't actually in Salem since she made her home in nearby Andover. That didn't seem to matter to the local authorities at the time.

    Ann is noted for dying in prison even though she had a stay of execution. The story goes that she was in town and was arrested on July 15th, 1692. She confessed to her alleged crime and was sentenced to death on September 17th. To make matters worse, her children and a few grandchildren were even accused of witchcraft! At the time she was a widow and she refused to confess even in light of her family's fate being in the balance. Ultimately, she decided to confess in order to save herself and her family from certain death.

    While the family went free, she ended up dying in prison on December 3rd, 1692 at around seventy-five years of age, twenty-one weeks after the trials were discredited and ended. Her son, Abrahan petitioned authorities to clear her name and by 1711 the family received compensation for their loss in the form of six pounds and ten shillings. I wonder how much that'd be worth today if we take inflation into account.

    Ann's story is a tragic one to be sure. The main takeaway I get from her story is that she was a woman who risked everything to protect her family and that's something to be admired. She was in her seventies, which was quite old for that time period, and did not hesitate to do the right thing even if it meant the cost of her own life. In my mind, that's a pretty heroic thing to do. She faced incredible odds and though she died in prison, she would be regarded as a hero.

    The Salem Witch Trials were a period of history where paranoia ran rampant. Paranoia makes people do things they wouldn't dream of doing even on their best day. The cause for the paranoia is up for debate. Was it jealousy on the part of the girls involved? Was it grain that was tainted by fungi containing the active ingredient found in LSD? Scholars are still struggling to find the answer all these centuries later and there hasn't been one definite answer to why a whole town went crazy and started a movement that sparked paranoia. The best we can do is learn from the mistakes of the past to make sure things like this never happen again. 

    As far as Thomas and Ann go, it's interesting to have both an accuser and an accused in the same tree and almost the same branch. It makes a tree that's relatively uneventful come to life in a way I never thought possible. Having both an accuser and an accused in a tree means you get to see both sides of the story. There were no heroes or villains here. Just people going by what they think was right. It all happened centuries ago and yet we can still learn to not make the same mistakes they did. It's good that the families were compensated and memorials are all over Salem. But, it's the moral lessons that we should take from the tragedy of the Salem Witch trials along with the tangible items.

See ya next time.

52 Ancestors Week 17: Favorite Place

From Amy Johnson Crow: This week's theme is "Favorite Place." So many records that we use (and memories that we have) are tied to a place. What is a favorite place to research? What is a favorite ancestral home? Feel free to interpret this theme in your own way.

Where in the world can that be?

    In my forty-two years and counting, there have been several places I loved visiting. I loved taking vacations to places like the Bahamas. Fishing on the boat was always a fun time. I've even been up to Canada for a dental convention with my parents. Now, I wouldn't call myself a world traveler. But, I do like going to different places and I really do like geography. Learning about our small blue planet is great and it helps make sure you never get lost. Of course, I learned all about geography way before Google Earth became a thing and now you can just ask Siri to give you directions on how to get from point A to point B. Though, I should point out that Google Earth can be wrong and you still might end up right in the middle of nowhere!

Grandma Ollie!

     One of my most favorite places in the world to go was my grandma Ollie's house in Haverhill, Massachusetts. What wasn't to like? She lived closer to my family and I than my other grandparents did since they had a house about an hour north of us. Ollie always made everyone feel welcome there, too. It didn't matter who you were, where you came from and how long it took you to get there. You were still welcome and she'd still have a smile on her face!

    I remember going there with my parents and on the journey over the river and through the woods, I felt a connection to the city that I just did not understand until I was much older. I mean look at the blog's title! All roads really do lead to Rome Haverhill. 

    Grandma's house wasn't the biggest house in the world and that didn't matter. What I liked most about it was how you'd walk in and feel like you were home. It was the first ancestral house I've ever been to and it just felt good being there. I would always go right in, sit at the kitchen table while my grandmother entertained visitors. Usually her sisters stopped by while we were visiting and that was when a crash-course in family history would begin! Everyone would talk (Loudly. I mean come on....) and I would listen. If something important was discussed between my father and everyone, my brother and I would go to the den and that was usually where the pictures were kept. 

    My brother and I would watch TV and hanging on the wall were pictures of my great-grandparents, Giuseppe and Clementina and various other relatives. Some of my grandfather's paintings would even be on the wall. There was even a picture of his parents, Vincenzo and Maria.

    I remember one time I was so fixated on one of the pictures that I didn't even hear being called for lunch. I know. That's a first. Grandma came in to see what I was up to and I was looking right at the picture of a landscape. She came over to me and talked to me about Marco's painting for a bit and then we went to eat. If you remember, I have no memory of my grandfather since he died when I was four. I guess, in a way, the house and many things in it was a great connection to my grandfather just like the house I grew up in. 

    There is also a bit of a story behind her house, too. A story that goes back to the 1950s!

We really did go over the river to get here.

    Built in the 1950s, Grandma's house was once the home of my great-grandfather Vincenzo and his second wife, Fortuna. If you look him up in the census, you'll find that he moved quite a bit around Haverhill. He and his family were first in a house on Pilling Street in 1930. Then they moved to Irving Avenue by 1940. By the mid 1950s, he moved to this charming house on Washington Street. Why he moved around so much is anyone's guess. 

    When Vincenzo died in 1970, he left the house to my grandparents and it had been their home ever since. Marco and Ollie only moved a quarter of a mile down the road. It wasn't exactly a hard move!

    Visiting the house and especially my grandmother was always fun to do because of the stories that were told and the laughter that was shared by all within the walls. When she died in 2002, I helped to get the house ready to be sold and I swore I heard her voice in my head. That's a tale I told in an earlier blog! There were a lot of memories in that old house and every time we go to Haverhill, we make it a point to drive by and see what has become of it. Little has changed save for the addition of a pool in the back and that's probably a good thing. I'm glad it's still there and that little has changed!

The house on Barlett St.

    Grandma's house wasn't the only ancestral house I went to in Haverhill on a regular basis! Far from it. We would also go to the house where Giuseppe and Clementina lived on Bartlett Street. Naturally, they were long gone when I came around. However, two of my grandmother's sisters lived there.

    Unlike Vincenzo, Giuseppe and Clementina did not move around nearly as often as he did. They stayed at the house from the the 1930s until they died. It was funny. Each sister took over one floor of the house. Louise had the ground floor. Giuseppe and Clementina were on the second floor and Jennie had the top floor. It's even more hilarious knowing that at one point Vincenzo and Maria lived right around the corner from the house!

    I digress. I have a few memories of this place as well. Like my grandmother's house, Aunt Louise would also have various photographs around the place and she would tell stories as well. It wasn't hard to confirm them because often I'd go to my grandmother's to get them confirmed! We had plenty of meals there including Sunday dinner and like my grandma's house, I always felt welcome there. 

    I remember one time I was there with my parents and we'd just be visiting. I would talk to my great-uncle and he liked calling me "Superman" despite my admiration for all things Marvel. My favorite character is Spider-Man. I still humored the man. What's not to like about the Man of Steel? And I confess I did have a Superman t-shirt. I was six. Every kid had one! Uncle Arnold actually called me "Superman" up until he passed away.

    I also remember my great-aunt's cooking. Like my grandmother, Aunt Louise excelled at making cookies for everyone who visited. She also made this dessert she called "icicles". It wasn't anything too complicated. It was basically angel food cake topped with shaved coconut and Hershey's syrup. It really is the simple things in life, isn't it?

    These are just a few of the many stories I have about these two houses and they all centered around the same theme. Both houses were owned by family who loved having guests over and made anyone who entered feel right at home. Each house has a story behind it that's full of laughter (I hope) and memories. Even though I didn't grow up there, I still felt like I did. They were really my second and third homes now that I think about it. 

    They were the places which sparked my interest in genealogy because family history was always talked about there. It was at those houses that I learned about my grandma's uncle Rocco and how he built all the houses on Windsor Street in Melrose. It's where I learned about Pasquale and his family in Everett. The list goes on and I can't focus on all of them or else this blog will be gigantic! I will say this. There's something about the houses that always made me feel at home. They were just some of those places that gave me a big connection to the city of Haverhill.

    My mother pointed out her grandparents' houses in the area, too. But, it was always the houses on my father's side that I went into and felt a deep connection to. It was sad to see them change hands as the years went by. And that's okay. Change can be good because new families can have new memories in the special place that you once called home and hopefully those memories are good ones. As long as those houses like any other house still stand, the memories will always be there in those walls.

See ya next time!

Images of Google Earth are property of Google Earth.

52 Ancestors Week 16: DNA

 From Amy Johnson Crow: DNA. It's amazing how three letters could so completely change the field of genealogy. What's a discovery you've made with DNA? What about a brick wall that DNA might help break down?

Originally I was going to type a genetic code in but...nah.

        DNA testing can definitely change your life and frankly your entire world could be flipped upside down in an instant. Sure you can find out where your ancestors came from and confirm or deny stories you've heard growing up via admixture results provided to you by your favorite vendor (Ancestry, MyHeritage, 23andme etc.). However, there's more to it than that. DNA testing allows you to find out about relatives a world away or as close as your own backyard. Whatever happens when you take a DNA test, you are going to find surprises. Like the one below....

I'm sure "Sara" wouldn't mind me sharing this. Relax. This is photoshopped.

    Shameless Starbolts reference aside, I've definitely found my fair share of surprises in my DNA matches. My most recent one occurred just a few months ago. In February, I talked about how I came into contact with a cousin of mine on Myheritage in this blog. To recap, she is an Italian woman living in Switzerland and her mother is my great-grandfather Vincenzo's niece. Vincenzo and my grandparents, Marco and Olympia, went to Switzerland for her wedding back in 1969. The rest, as they say, is history.

OR IS IT?!

I wonder if I should ask for Swiss cheese.

  
Not long after I started talking to my cousin, her daughter showed up as a DNA match to me and my father. She shares 88 centimorgans with me and 210 centimorgans with him. I honestly didn't see that one coming! Yes, I knew she was a cousin. I just didn't know she tested. That in and of itself was very cool. Then more people started to come out of the woodwork!

    My match's son and a first cousin also showed up as matches, too! It was incredible! I love finding new family and I like figuring out where they all fit into the grand scheme of things.

Your kids went all over the place.

    As it turns out, they all descended from my 2nd great-grandparents, Marco Ferraiolo and Caterina Coppola. Vincenzo's sister, Concetta is the link. She married a man named Giuseppe Aleardi and moved to Switzerland. Concetta wasn't the only Ferraiolo offspring with a bit of a wanderlust. Rosa went to Rome after marrying a Serrao. Caterina married Giuseppe Astorino and moved to Argentina.

    I think that's why many of my Swiss relatives have tested. Since Caterina moved to Argentina, it stands to reason that they lost contact with them. At least that's what my cousin told me. After Concetta passed away, the family lost contact with the Astorinos and I guess they wanted to reach out to family all over the world. I'm not sure if that's 100% accurate. But, it makes the most sense. It's a big world out there and family can be everywhere. I've told my cousins about the family on the Coppola side in America who tested on Ancestry. They are very happy to learn about them and that makes me happy as well because I like to help people and bridge the gap so to speak. The more people learn about their family and where people came from, the more whole a person becomes.

Concetta Ferraiolo

        I suppose the moral of the story is that you should test on the biggest vendor out there first before putting your DNA on other platforms. In my case, I tested on Ancestry back in 2018 and put my DNA on MyHeritage. My parents and I didn't get any really, really close matches until recently save for one or two people. After so many years of playing the long game, I finally got a few European matches and that is VERY exciting! Is it worth it? You know it is!

    If you have recent immigrants, it's probably a good idea to put your DNA on a site where many people who test are in Europe or in other parts of the world. That way you can find a DNA connection to the grandparents of your immigrant ancestor and beyond. Sure you might be playing the long game like I did. But, in the end it's great because you get to see who you might connect with worldwide. It's a big world out there. DNA matches aren't going to be found just in your small corner of it.

    As Ancestry.com is based in the United States, I never really got full Thrulines or DNA matches who descend from just Marco and Caterina. This was because their children moved around and their descendants did not go to America. If you're a descendant of a recent immigrant like I am you may find there isn't a Thruline on Ancestry. That may be due to any number of reasons. You might have the wrong ancestors like I did for Antonio Tedesco or your ancestor has descendants who stayed in Europe or went to South America like mine did. This is also why I don't have Thrulines for Domenica Gullo and her family. As far as I know, her brothers and sisters stayed in Europe. I could be wrong.

Paolo Ferraiolo and Elisabetta

Rosa Ferraiolo

    My experience tells me that it's a good idea to fish in every pond imaginable. You aren't going to find what you want just by sitting at Ancestry or 23andme. So, get out there and make some amazing DNA-related discoveries. Your cousins are all over the world. For the longest time, I thought I wouldn't find any Ferraiolo cousins who descended from Marco and Caterina and now I have and I am definitely glad that they're out there and that they can help fill in the gaps on my family tree. DNA testing and paper trail genealogy should work well together as it strengthens the tree and sorts out the messes that need to be sorted. This is just one reason for uploading your DNA to another vendor. You have matches you wouldn't get anywhere else. It just so happens that Myheritage has a lot of European testers. So, what are you waiting for? Download your DNA and upload it to another site! Yeah, it sounds weird when I put it like that. But, it's worth it! See for yourself and make some amazing discoveries!

See ya next time!

52 Ancestors Week 15: Brick Wall

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Brick walls—we all have them. This would be a good week to write down what you know about your brick wall problem. (Sometimes just writing about it can help!) You could write about an ancestor who used to be a brick wall. Or get creative—maybe an ancestor who was a bricklayer?

Welcome to Atop the Brick Wall....

       I'm not going to lie. "Atop the Brick Wall" does sound like a great name for a genealogy show on YouTube. The problem is that the name sounds way too similar to that of a friend of mine's show called "Atop the Fourth Wall". Click the link and take a guess what he reviews. Though, I suppose if you really wanted to use "brick wall" in the name of your show, there are other options. 

Who are your parents, Domenica?

    Anyway, let's discuss those genealogical brick walls! We all have them. Don't lie. I can tell. Especially you back there with the "Smith" in your tree. I have a couple of brick walls myself and I've dedicated a great deal of time in trying to break down the closest one to me. Her name is Domenica Gullo and I'm pretty sure I've talked about this woman many, many times. If you're new here, here's what you need to know about her:

1. She was born in San Pietro a Maida, Italy around 1876 and died in 1959.

2. She was the wife of Antonio Tedesco. I have no clue when they were married. It would have had to have been some time before 1900.

3. They had at least three children: Tommaso, Maria and Caterina.

4. My great-aunt has a few DNA matches who point toward a "Catanzaro" family.

5. Another DNA match has a woman named "Santa Amelia Gullo" in their tree. She was born in San Pietro in 1871 and her parents were Francesco Gullo and Bettina Medaglia. The match comes in at 19 cMs. That could mean anything according to the shared cM project!

6. My great-aunt has a closer DNA match who fits in the Gullo line and she shares 94 cMs with her. No tree.

    A cousin of mine who descends from Antonio and Domenica has offered to help me break the brick wall and I haven't heard much from her on the subject. She's a lawyer who works for the commune office. So, I'm not going to press too hard. I hope she finds something. I know she didn't forget about my problem.

I'm honestly amazed at how this paper survived.

    While I await the results, there has been a slight development in the case. Remember my deep dive into the metal box last week? In the box there was a list of everyone who attended the funeral of my great-grandmother, Maria. On the list were several names I recognized from the Coppola family.

    There were several other names that caught my attention because I had seen them on a few trees. Last names like "Serratore" and "Catanzaro" were on the list and it got me wondering what the connection was. I mean sure a majority of these people were most likely friends of the family. However, it's too much of a coincidence that my great-aunt would have Serratore and Catanzaro DNA matches and these same names show up in a metal box sitting in my parents' basement.

    Using the list of names from the booklet, I've been working on a list of the Ferraiolo family's friends and neighbors. This would be their "FAN" club. It's basically everyone they knew and based on what I've found, several families lived on the same street in Haverhill.

    As you can see by the image to the left, I've started to make some real headway into the fan club. Do these people have any connection to the Gullos? I have no idea. However, through process of elimination I have discovered family members for the Ferraiolo, Coppola and Tedesco family. 

Several other names, like "Frank Ferraiolo" piqued my interest. I have GOT to look that guy up. Who was he?! That was the first I ever read that name. Back on topic. As you can see, the list is extensive and I have a long way to go before I can pinpoint where everyone is and how everyone is connected. Some are blood relatives. Some look to be friends. However, there's always a possibility of there being more than meets the eye.  

    There you have it. I'm a little bit closer to solving this puzzle. I have a list of names and potential leads. I have DNA matches and as you all know DNA does not lie. I have a cousin who is actively helping me and since Italy has been dealing with the pandemic, I'm not going to push her too hard. That would be incredibly rude. Things do look promising at least. The clues are right in front of me and some day this tree will be filled in with family members.

You can almost see the tumbleweeds....

    I do have a few brick walls on my mother's side. Don't get me wrong. But, this is the one I really want to solve because Domenica is closer to me genealogically. She's in my first 30 on the tree and that's something I really like to work on. I've done all the research I can on other branches of my family tree. It's time to finally solve this puzzle. This blog represents where I am now in the grand scheme of things. I hope that by the end of the year I'll have something to share and this blog written in April of 2021 becomes an anecdote. 

    Once I do solve the puzzle, I won't be finished. I'll still have to look up the parents and see how far I can take Domenica's tree. Here's hoping for some good news on the horizon! So, right now I can safely say this brick wall is wobbly a little bit. Just needs a wrecking ball or perhaps even the "Kool-Aid Man". Will I find the answer? Probably. I'm not giving up!

See ya next time!