52 Ancestors Week 48: Thief

From Amy Johnson Crow: 

Week 48
The theme this week is "Thief." We don't always like to admit it, but sometimes our research uncovers people who have run afoul of the law. Have you found someone who didn't exactly have a clean record? 

                                     “Coming at you like a thief in the night.”

This week’s blog is about the criminal element that exists in the family tree, huh? I think I can help with that. No, there isn’t any Mafia or Godfather stories here. At least I don’t think there is. And even if there was, why would I post it online for everyone to see? Never make that stuff public. See nothing and hear even less! 

That being said, let me regale you all with the tale of someone in the tree who might have had a sketchy past. His name was Francesco Papatolo and he was the son of Vincenzo Papatolo and Concetta Coppola. Concetta, if you recall was the sister of my 2x great-grandmother, Caterina. She moved to Haverhill with her family in the early 1900s along with her two brothers.

Francesco was born in San Pietro a Maida on March 4th 1908 and traveled with the family to make a life for themselves in America. When I first found out about him, I thought he lived a relatively normal life. He married a woman named Mary Louise Proulx on December 21st, 1932 and had two children with her. I had no idea when he passed away at that point. He wasn’t even in the 1940 census with his family. I thought that was odd.

When I discovered him, I did what any genealogist would do. I asked my great-aunt about him.  The following conversation happened:

Me: Aunt Nickie, do you remember anything about Frank?

Nickie: Frank? Oh, he was Aunt Zia’s firstborn child. 

Me: Cool. I haven’t found much about him. All records kind of stop in the 1930s.

Nickie: Oh. There’s a reason for that.

Me: Okay. 

Nickie: Yeah. He was shipped back to San Pietro.

Me: What?! Why?!

Nickie: I don’t remember.

That was understandable. My great-aunt was in her 90s. I didn’t expect her to remember everything. Though, her memory is pretty good. I still had a bit of a puzzle. What did Francesco do that got him sent back to Italy? What did he do?

I wasn’t about to find out what he did by sitting around. I wanted to know what he did. The way my great-aunt put it made it seem like he stole something. Would that be enough to warrant deportation? What if his immigration paperwork failed somehow? Perhaps I was just trying to romanticize it as I was looking for the truth.

Eventually, I came into contact with a DNA match who descended from one of the daughters. She said that her grandfather ultimately passed away in 1983 in San Pietro. He apparently divorced her grandmother and married someone else in town. She was unsure about what he did. He just was not in the country by the time of the 1940 census and his wife was listed as married. That just leads to more questions.

No one in the family seemed to know. So, the case is still open. What did Francesco do?! I have a theory. 

People aren’t shipped back to their mother country for no reason. From what I can piece together from testimony from my great-aunt and my cousin, a crime was definitely committed in the town of Haverhill some time before 1939. The political scientist in me thinks that he may have violated some laws concerning his immigration papers or something.

We could spend ages speculating on what happened. After all, once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains no matter how improbable must be the truth.

The only way I will ever find out for sure is if I were to check out newspaper archives and court records in Haverhill. That is the only thing I can think of. For now, this will have to be an unsolved mystery. This post may have to be amended to in the future. Anyone want to hazard a guess as to what he might have done?

See ya next time!

52 Ancestors Week 47: Soldier

From Amy Johnson Crow:

Week 47:

"Solider" in the theme for Week 47. What discoveries have you made regarding ancestors who served in the military? What about an ancestor who tried to stay out of the military? You could also interpret it as someone who "soldiered on," always trying to reach a goal despite some hardships.

“When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree by the river of truth, and tell the whole world 'No, You Move.”-- Amazing Spider-Man # 537, J. Michael Straczynski (Inspired by Mark Twain.)

There's nothing like a good old Captain America quote and that one up there was written by comic legend J. Michael Straczynski. You might have heard of him. His works include shows like Babylon 5 and comics such as Amazing Spider-Man and Superman. The quote itself was the first thing I thought of when I first read this week's prompt. Over the years, there have been so many variants of it. It's hard to pin down the original. Still, it definitely applies to more than a few of my ancestors who soldiered on despite adversity and hardships.

Last week, I discussed the hardships my great-grandfather, Giuseppe had to endure as an Italian immigrant from a part of Italy which suffered during the unification period. This week my attention turns to my great-grandfather, Austin Wilfred Felker. This life could not have been that easy. And yet like the quote said he planted himself like a tree and told the world "No. You move."

Austin Felker and Henrietta Legault

Austin was born on September 25th, 1892 to Wilfred Felker and Gertrude Frances Stevens and from what I've recently discovered, his parents probably did not have the best relationship. They got married fairly young in 1891 as she was sixteen and he was twenty. The marriage did not last long as while Gertrude was pregnant with Austin, Wilfred had an affair with a woman named Anna Pierce and she became pregnant with his child.

This already beginning to sound like one of those daytime soap operas isn't it? Anna gave birth to George Amos Felker in Newburyport, Mass on February 2nd, 1893, just months after Austin was born. It doesn't take much imagination to figure out what happened next.

Sufficed it to say, Gertrude filed for divorce on what I assume to be adultery charges. I won't know unless I look up the court records. But, it's very, VERY likely. The marriage was annulled and on September 13th, 1899 there was a custody battle over Austin. Neither side were awarded custody and Austin was sent to live with his grandfather, Jeremiah Smart Felker and his wife, Elizabeth Fellows.

Austin and Henrietta's marriage certificate.

Austin lived with his grandfather up until 1913 when he met and married Henrietta Frances Legault, my great-grandmother. During that time, he still couldn't have had an easy life because his father lived in town and started a second family with Anna after they got married in 1901. His mother ended up marrying Walter Howard Senter in 1899 and had several children with him. They ended up in Farmington, New Hampshire.

I honestly get the feeling that he had a better relationship with his mother than with his father because my mother remembers growing up hearing about and meeting the Senter children. In fact, a few of them were at my parents' wedding along with Austin and Henrietta. Take that for what you will, gentlereaders.

I'm not one to read into it. But, sometimes in life you have to read in between the lines. I wouldn't make any conclusions. I'll leave that up to you! Wilfred passed away some time in 1951. I hope that before he died Austin and his father patched things up. There's no way of knowing. I just hope that they did. Gertrude passed away in 1944 and I know my great-grandfather kept in touch with the Senter clan as evidenced by them being at my parents' wedding and the stories my mother told me about the family.

Toward the end of their lives in the 1970s, tragedy did strike the Felker clan as Henrietta had a stroke which caused her to speak mostly French. I would imagine Austin had to brush up on the language when that happened. According to my mother, that's exactly what he did.

Despite his hardships growing up, Austin still managed to do several things.

1. He served in both World Wars.
2. He raised my grandmother and her siblings very well.
3. Was a great grandfather to my mother and her siblings.

Austin ultimately soldiered on through a tough life and managed to bring some sense of stability to an otherwise chaotic story. His father went off with his mistress. His mother left him to live with his grandfather, but still managed to maintain close ties. It takes a strong person to deal with that and come out the other side still willing to fight.

In the end, Austin's life was a testament to how much one man can endure in a crazy world. It's hard to imagine how he dealt with it until you take a minute and walk in his shoes. It was tough. But, in the end he planted himself like a tree and told the world "No. You move." And I think he did alright for himself. See ya next time!

The Felker clan circa 1950.

52 Ancestors Week 46: Poor Man

From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 46

The theme for Week 46 is "Poor Man." Like last week, I encourage you to be creative with this theme. How could a person be poor -- financially, "pitiable," poor judgement? Or perhaps you have an ancestor who helped the poor.

On the boats and on the planes. They're coming to America.

In the early to mid 1800s, the Italian peninsula underwent a radical transformation. The people were tired of being controlled by outside forces and by countries who have determined their destiny for centuries. Nationalistic sentiment fueled the masses from the snowy mountains near Milan to the sun-drenched islands of Sicily and Sardinia. Beginning in 1814 with the Congress of Vienna, the Risorgimento or Italian unification took place. By 1861, the country was unified as the Kingdom of Italy with Rome becoming the capital. However, things didn't go as nearly as planned.

The northern part of the country quickly became an industrialized powerhouse thanks to their close proximity to Germany, France and other nations that were undergoing the Industrial Revolution. Milan grew to become the fashion capital of the world. Venice once again became an important port of trade and commerce. Florence became a hub for the arts. Things were great in the north! However, the south was struggling as it had been before unification began.

Gesualdo, Italy

After unification, Italians in the south had hoped that unifying the nation under one banner would pull that part of the country out of poverty. New policies favored the north and the south was seen as backwards. The people were forced into military service. Taxes, crime and social upheaval were at an all-time high. This period of time became known as "La Miseria".

By the mid 1870s, conditions worsened as disease such as cholera ran rampant. People were feeling hopeless and began to seek refuge by migrating to other parts of the world. That is where my great-grandfather, Giuseppe Carrabs comes in.

Giuseppe was born to farmers Vincenzo Carrabs and Maria Giovanna Capobianco on August 25th, 1882 in the Campanian town of Gesualdo. His parents no doubt experienced unification firsthand as they were born in the 1850s and were quite young when the country was finally unified. Unification woes aside, the family did have many children. Some unfortunately died young. Some stayed in Italy while Giuseppe and his brothers Rocco and Pasquale left for America with their sister, Rosina.

He married Clementina Forgione on March 11th, 1905 and had the following children:

Born in Gesualdo:

1. Vincenza (Jennie): 1907-1984
2. Olimpia (1912-1913)

Born in Haverhill:

3. Josephine (1915-1997)
4. Eleanor (1916-2003)
5. Louise (1918-2010)
6. Olympia (1920-2002)

Shortly after the untimely death of the first Olympia, Giuseppe, Clementina and their young daughter set sail for America. They probably did this because conditions at the time were not conducive to raising a family. Let's not forget that shortly after her death, World War 1 started. That must have been a pretty big incentive to get out of the country!

The death of Olimpia had such a profound effect on the couple that she was spoken of only rarely. I only found out about her a few months ago because my dad's cousins asked me to look up information on the missing Carrabs daughter.

Giuseppe Carrabs and Clementina Forgione

While his siblings settled in the Massachusetts towns of Everett and Melrose, Giuseppe, his wife Clementina and their daughters settled in Haverhill. Life there became much better for him and is family as he worked at Pentucket Bank as a janitor. He also became one of the founders of the Haverhill Italian Credit Union and was also a past president and past treasurer of the former SS Maria Campagna Society. He was an air raid warden during the second world war.

Giuseppe passed away on May 9th, 1974 in Haverhill and was often remembered by his daughters and grandchildren as being warm and caring. Because of his nature, the family in Melrose and Everett stayed in touch over the years.

Every Italian immigrant has a story similar to this one as hundreds of thousands of people left the peninsula in search of a better life. Some ended up staying in America for a short amount of time and ended up returning to their homeland. Some, like my great-grandfather and his siblings decided to stay in America in the hope of making a better life for themselves. In total, more than four million Italians from all over Italy left the country for places such as America, Brazil, Argentina between 1880 and 1924. The majority of these people were from the poverty stricken south.

I picked my great-grandfather to talk about for the "Poor Man" segment because the plight of immigrants leaving their homeland still resonates today. If we understand why people left in the first place, we could better understand their situations which can often be far worse than poverty stricken communities. Giuseppe or Joseph as he was known in America grew up in a time of great social upheaval. Southern Italy was denied a great many things that the north had in abundance.

However, things weren't always that great in America as prejudice and distrust was commonplace. I'm not entirely sure how much of that my great-grandparents faced. I do know that it was probably hard for them to leave their families in Italy and come to a strange land with little possessions.

I'd like to think that despite coming from absolute poverty, things did turn out for the better for them. Back in Italy, things have certainly improved in the decades since Giuseppe and Clementina last set foot on Italian soil. I recently found out that they have been immortalized on Ellis Island's "Wall of Honor" thanks to my dad's cousin, Dennis and his wife! For those who don't know, the Wall of Honor is a monument dedicated to immigrants from all walks of life and almost every country on Earth. On there are many Italians including my great-grandparents.

Life wasn't easy for my great-grandparents. But, in the end I'd like to think that despite coming from poor conditions in southern Italy, he and his family left their mark on the world in small ways. You can still come from poverty and still manage to have an impact. That's the lesson I'm taking from this story!

Giuseppe and Clementina Carrabs and their daughters.

Interesting facts:

~1.5 million Italians migrated to Brazil.

About 3 million Italians settled in Argentina.

Italians are the 7th largest ethnic group in Canada.

About 15% of all Mexicans have full or partial Italian descent.

>4 million to U.S.A.

Italian Americans make up 6% of the US population and are the 4th largest ethnic group in America.

Images of Google Earth are property of Google Earth.

52 Ancestors Week 45; Rich Man

From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 45

The theme for Week 45 is "Rich Man." I encourage you to be creative with this theme. Of course, if you have the proverbial "rich uncle," feel free to write about him, but think about other ways that one can be "rich." Also think about names. Any Moneypennys or Banks in the family tree? How about an ancestor with the first name of Wealthy?

Hmm.....If only I was related to a genius billionaire playboy philanthropist. I am seriously going to have to reach for this one. So, like Amy said. I am going to have to get creative. This week I'll be talking about my 5th great-grandfather, Richard Sprague Frothingham. He was the first person in the tree I could find who had anything to do with riches. He was also the first "Richard" I could find. I don't have any Ricardos. Would be cool, though because Ricardo is an awesome name.

Look at the mutton chops on this guy!

Without further ado, here's Richard Sprague Frothingham. He  was born on June 10th, 1792 to James Frothingham and Phebe Southwick in what's now Danvers, Massachusetts. Being born in the late 1790s in New England had to have been an interesting time. Think about it. The United States of America was freed of English rule for a few decades.

It's unknown if Richard actually had money or anything. I'm not completely sure. I say this because his father, James, died without a will in 1801 and was a chaise maker. Chaises, by the way, are carriages. He could have made a decent living making them. I just don't know at this time.

 Since his father died when James was only eight, he most likely had to rely on his mother and his siblings for support while he was growing up. His siblings were:

1. James (1785-)
2. Johnathan (1786-1820)
3. William (1794-)
4. Sara (1794-)
5. Phebe (1796-)
6. Sally (1798-1869)

That's a nice size family, right? I think so. I'd have linked their Wikitree profiles. However, I haven't gotten around to making them. Perhaps I will after I finish the blog. We'll see.

Life wasn't TOO bad for Richard. His middle name, Sprague, was actually the last name of one of his ancestors who came to the New England colonies during the Great Puritan Migration. His name was Ralph Sprague. He descended from a long line of Spragues and his paternal grandmother was Huldah Sprague. So that's where the "Sprague" part of Richard's name came from.

Richard ended up marrying a woman named Eliza Folsam Pillsbury and believe it or not there's a connection with her and the Pillsbury pastry company we all know and love. She was the 5th cousin once removed of company founder, Charles Alfred Pillsbury. Pretty cool. The things you find online.

I digress. Richard and Eliza had eight children including my 4th great-grandmother Frances Miranda Frothingham from 1817 to 1842. Not bad. Perhaps there's a lesson here. Money can't really buy happiness and you CAN be rich in other ways. Not just monetarily.

Richard lived a long life as he passed away on July 26th, 1864 at the age of seventy-two. His death certificate in Danvers listed him as a tallow chandler. That is a person who makes and sells candles for a living. Before the advent of electricity a decade or so later, I am sure his services were much needed in the community.

Most of the information I got for Richard came from a variety of sources. Records in Massachusetts are always so helpful. If you find that you have ancestors from the Bay State, check them out. You will find rabbit hole after rabbit hole of information. It's second only to Minnesota. I also checked out The Frothingham Genealogy book. Information there is pretty solid. But, like most genealogy books you are going to want to be careful. Some of them have errors. Some are good. It's a gamble to see which is which. Always a good idea to cross reference with the actual town data.

As far as Richard goes? Well, I think he was rich in that he had a large family and was fortunate that most of his children survived to adulthood. Was he a simple candle maker? Yeah. But, that still doesn't mean he wasn't rich in other ways.

See you next time!

52 Ancestors Week 44: Trick or Treat

From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 44
Halloween is upon us, so it seems fitting to have the theme of "Trick or Treat." Any Halloween stories (or photos)? How about a good ghost story? Maybe an ancestor who has been tricky to research or an unexpected treat in a record? This could be a fun theme!

"The Blackest Night falls from the skies,

The darkness grows as all light dies.

We crave your hearts and your demise,

By my black hand, the dead shall rise!"

-- Black Lantern Oath

I love Halloween! Growing up I had a myriad of costumes ranging from a vampire with real fangs my father crafted in his dental lab to the amazing Spider-Man. My aunt Linda actually made a comic accurate costume for me when I was thirteen. It also scared my then two year old cousin, Ryan. To this day I have no idea why. It wasn't even Spidey's black costume! It was the classic red and blue one and it has served me well. My aunt's work got me first place in the 8th grade Halloween dance. I still have the costume all these years later and I've used the mask in videos from time to time.

With great power, there must come great responsibility

Halloween was and still is one of my favorite holidays and I could spend ages talking about the various things my friends and I did trick-or-treating around town. I could even talk about the visits my brother and I made to the old couple who used to take care of us when we were young. Instead, I'm going to regale you all with a couple of ghost stories. MWAHAHAHA!

If you didn't believe in ghosts, you might after these stories. Just saying....

This first one takes place a couple of months after my grandmother, Ollie, passed away.  It was the spring of 2002 and I was bummed because my nonna was going to miss two major events on the horizon. I was graduating college that May and my brother's wedding was going to be that August. It was a sad time. But, we had to make the most of it like my parents said.

That spring, we put my grandmother's house up for sale and had a huge yard sale. Don't worry, genealogy peeps. We saved all the important things like pictures, documents and all that fun stuff. We really ended up selling a bunch of clothes and maybe some appliances. Pictures, postcards, a collection of canes and swords and all of those things came home with us. Yes, I said swords. What? =)

I also want to say that the house once belonged to my great-grandfather, Vincenzo and he left it to my grandfather. So you could say the house had been in my family for decades. It was a special place because I spent a lot of time there. We didn't live that far away so visits were very frequent.

My parents were outside making sales and doing all kinds of things while I was inside the house by myself. I looked around and all I could think about were memories of my grandmother. I saw myself sitting at the kitchen table listening to her tell stories and watching her cook. In the living room, I even saw myself watching television with her. While I was in there, I looked at pictures of her parents, Giuseppe and Clementina as I sat on the couch I spent many hours playing with Transformers on. I put the album down after a few minutes and picked up my own reading material. It was going to be a long day so I brought along "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" to read.

Did my grandmother really visit us?

As I was reading, I heard a voice call my name. It wasn't either of my parents. This voice sounded a lot like my grandmother and she kept saying "Christopher" over and over again. I also felt something touch my shoulder the second I got up from the couch. Naturally, I was a little freaked out. I went outside and my mom saw that I was a little shaken.

I told them what had happened and my father decided to conduct an experiment. He was a dentist. So it's in his nature to conduct experiments. He also tended to believe in spirits because sometimes when he worked in our house he could sense his father's presence and even smelled him! Apparently he had an unmistakable odor. Before we left for the night, we put a candy bar on the kitchen table. We locked up and left.

The next day we went back to the house and saw that the candy bar was gone. All that was left was a wrapper and next to it was a crumpled up tissue. My grandmother tended to use tissues instead of napkins. There were no signs of a break-in. Everything was still as we left it. When we were leaving again, I could hear a voice say "I love you". When that happened, I was less scared and I guess a lot calmer. It was just surreal. I hadn't heard her voice since that day.

This wasn't my family's first run-in with a ghost. A few years later, my family and I were up at the historic Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. We were attending the wedding of a family friends' daughter. I grew up with her and her family. Naturally, we were close and still are. The thing about the Mount Washington Hotel is that even though it's great for skiing.....the place is haunted.

Princess Carolyn

The ghost in this case is a woman named Carolyn Salome Foster de Faucigny-Lucinge. In life, she was the wife of a famed designer named Joseph Stickney. Together, they built the grand hotel in the middle of Bretton Woods. He passed away in 1903 and she ended up marrying a French aristocrat named Aymon-Jean-Baptiste Marie Faucigny-Lucinge.

We went on a tour of the hotel and the guide explained how Carolyn liked to observe guests from her room. She tended to try to make herself look prettier than the other women present. She was jealous and wanted all eyes on her. There's more to the story. You can read it here.

That night, my parents and I were heading down to dinner via the grand staircase. I was talking to my mother and suddenly an earring popped out of her ear and fell down the stairs. We quickly realized that Carolyn made her presence known and was kind of jealous about how my mother looked that evening. Crazy.

Ghost stories are one in a million. They can help use connect with loved ones long gone or scare the pants off of us. If these stories taught me anything it's that....I ain't afraid of no ghosts. 

Happy Halloween!!

52 Ancestors Week 43: Transportation

From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 43 is all about "Transportation." Did an ancestor take a long trip? Did anyone have an occupation involving planes, trains, or automobiles?

Each bond you buy is a bullet in the barrel of your best guy's gun!

I had a great time working on last week's blog. Thanks go out to Amy for the shout-out in the e-mails everyone got for #52Ancestors this week. I try to be entertaining and informative. It's how I did my videos and I like continuing the trend here. Thanks for all the support! Now it's time to move on. Or rather: higher, further, faster. Wow. Two Marvel Cinematic Universe references in one blog so far. Not bad. However, these things tend to come in threes. ;-)

Tech Sargent Robert Eugene Hamel, U.S. Air Force

This week's blog is all about transportation and what stood out to me about this week's prompt was the word "planes". To me, that meant I HAD to dedicate this blog to my maternal grandfather, Robert Eugene Hamel. I think I may have talked about him a little bit before. But, now is the time to toss him into the spotlight because planes was his life.

Robert was born on June 5th, 1923 in Newburyport, Massachusetts to Alfred Francis Hamel and Clara Laplante. In World War II, he served in the Army Air Corps, the organization which eventually gave rise to the United States Air Force. I discussed all of this back in Week 21.  However, I did leave out a few details about his life.

Since my grandfather served, he naturally traveled to many different places around the world. This was evident by all the stories of Italy and North Africa he told my brother and I growing up. There were often pictures to go along with them because, again, photography was a hobby of his. When you tell stories, it's always a good idea to photographic evidence to support you. That was all during the war.

After the war and after my mother and her siblings were born, the Hamel family spent a lot of time living on various airbases all over the country because my grandfather was still in the service. In fact, he was flying the day my mother was born! From Newburyport, Massachusetts to Sacramento, California, the family stayed at the finest accommodations Uncle Sam could provide. Of course this meant that my mother, my aunts and uncles were effectively Air Force brats.

My grandfather was stationed in Saudi Arabia and Japan and served as an adviser to their military branches as well as the Air National Guard in this country. Due to him serving in different countries and flying over their airspace, he must of gotten a real feel for the people and customs there. Because of that he was very worldly.  

He told me plenty of stories about how he flew planes and what kinds of planes he flew. But, the birth of my mother permanently clipped his wings as a private pilot. =)  He still kept various models of planes and cars around the house, though. When I was growing up, he would tell me what kind of car or plane it was. I would listen intently and he certainly didn't mind me playing with them which was strange. Why trust a six year old with your models?!

Robert Hamel passed away in 2017 and left behind six children, ten grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. We're all grateful for his excellent stories and photographs. My brother put it best at his funeral. He was the ultimate grandfather. Never raised his voice. Always had a great story. He'll be missed. But, his legacy will live on. 

52 Ancestors Week 42: Adventure

From Amy Johnson Crow:

Week 42: Adventure: Week 42 brings "Adventure." Do you know of an ancestral adventure, be it great or small? How about an adventure that you've had while researching?

The Hitchhiker's Guide to Genealogy is a remarkable book. Perhaps the most remarkable and certainly the most successful book to ever come out of the International Genealogical Publication Corporation of Earth. More popular than Dr. Blaine Bettinger's "Fun Things to do with your Genes". Better fitting than WikiTree's "Get that Banana out of my Family Tree" and certainly more controversial than "We're all NOT Related to King Henry VIII. Deal with it". It has also supplanted the Encyclopedia Genealogica by being a wellspring of knowledge of how to best research your family tree and have fun while doing so. First: It's slightly cheaper and second it has the words "Don't Panic" printed in large friendly letters on its back cover.

I love Douglas Adams as much as I love Stan Lee. Both writers were awesome and will forever be legends in their respective fields. Making a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy reference was too good an opportunity to pass up considering the theme this week was "Adventure". I have had several adventures while researching my family tree and definitely could have used "The Hitchhiker's Guide to Genealogy" on more than one occasion. Though, videos on YouTube, talking to people and podcasts count, right? Yeah, I'm sure they do.

As far as adventures go, I've had my fair share. I've already talked about a few of them here in the blog. This week, we'll go with something that happened just last week after I posted #52Ancestors Week 41: Context. There's always an adventure to be had when you're climbing the tree and sometimes you need to know just where to look to find a gem or two. Sometimes things even show up when you least expect it.

After I posted the blog, I went to work on my webcomic like I usually do. I was in the middle of writing when my mother told me she was going to clean some stuff out in the basement. We regularly donate to the Salvation Army around Thanksgiving. I thought nothing of it because it was something we did every year.

I was half way into writing the next installment of my comic when my mother called me downstairs. She said she had something very interesting to show me. I wasn't sure what it was. She was in the basement. It could have been anything. We have a couple of arcade cabinets from the 1980s down there as well as a pool table, stuff from our old boat and outdated computers. Sufficed it to say, we have a ton of stuff including the belongings of my grandparents and great-grandparents. That's when we made the discovery of a lifetime.

My mother presented me with a small metal box and inside was the following:

1. Old bank notes
2. The last will and testament for both my grandfather, Marco and his father Vincenzo.
3. Vincenzo's original Naturalization papers.
4. A birth record for Vincenzo's mother, Caterina Coppola.

Out of everything in the box, THAT slip of paper with the birth on it surprised me the most. Before we made that discovery, I had an estimated date of birth for Caterina based on Vincenzo's birth banns and whatever my great-aunt Nickie told me. I put in "About 1872" ages ago figuring that it was a nice round number.

This document, however, was a lot more concrete! It wasn't the actual birth banns, though. That record is safely archived back in my grandfather's ancestral town of San Pietro a Maida. This document was clearly a copy given to my great-grandfather some time in 1963. Apparently, he sent for the record and the following was written on it translated from Italian for your reading pleasure. Use your babelfish. =)

"Caterina Coppola was born in the Municipality of San Pietro a Maida on the twenty-eighth day of August of the year eighteen hundred seventy.

Thus appears from the register of birth records of this commune of the year 1870 part 1. series 11. N 78 is issued for the US administered by the municipal residence on 9 Sep 1963."

From that record I was able to safely deduce that Caterina was born on August 28th, 1870. This bit of information allowed many things concerning the Coppola family to fall into place.

1. She was two years younger than her husband, Marco.
2. She was probably the oldest of Paolo Coppola and Rosa Suverato's children considering they were born in the 1840s. Logic dictates that they probably got married in the 1860s.

What's interesting is that she was so much older than her brothers and sisters that I know of. There may be more of them. I only know of three: Giovanni (1875) Concetta (1882) and Paolo (1886). She had to have passed away some time after 1920 because she was mentioned as being alive on Vincenzo's passport.

Vincenzo and Aunt Nickie

That was amazing to find and I went to work editing all of the family trees I have. Vincenzo's original Naturalization paperwork had some interesting facts, too. It stated that his height was a little over five feet, what color his eyes were. They were hazel. I had only ever seen black and white pictures of the man. So, this painted a better picture of him. Not a bad discovery.

Still, one question hasn't really been answered. Why did he send for the birth record in the first place? He sent for it in the 1960s. He was already in America for QUITE some time. So, why did he need it? Was he doing family research? Did he look into a crystal ball and see that his great-grandson was working on the family tree. If that's the case, "Hi!!"

I probably won't know the answer to that question. It's still fun to think about. I'm thinking it had something to do with his Naturalization work. I'm not sure. Why else would he send for his own mother's birth certificate? There are so many questions. Questions, I think, would be answered in another adventure that starts with a plane ride to Italy!

This was just the most recent adventure I had. Like I said before, I've had a load of them. Some good. Some bad. In general, genealogy is bound to have adventures. You're looking into the past of family members you may only have heard about in passing while growing up or never knew about. It can change you for better or worse. Life's funny like that. When you're going out there, don't be afraid to ask for help. And it's always a good idea to dig through stuff in the basement. You'll never know what you'll find. And above all.....

Editor's note: In April of 2023, I found that Giovanni Coppola was not the brother of Paolo, Caterina and Concetta Coppola. He is likely a first cousin of the three. Look for details in a future blog post.