52 Ancestors Week 25: Groups

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Humans are generally social creatures; that is, we tend to form or join groups. These groups could be familial or they could be by choice. Think about church groups, fraternal organizations, schools, jobs/trades, sports teams, or clubs that an ancestor belonged to.

This isn't the fantasy-based webcomic by the same name.

    Friend, are you an immigrant who just got off the boat at Ellis Island? Are you having trouble finding work in a strange new country? Are you perhaps having difficulty learning the language and assimilating into a culture that is very different to the one you left behind in the old country? Well, you're in luck! Many organizations will help you and your loved ones settle into American life just as long as you pay your dues and help others in the same predicament! 

Why did they call him "Bunny"?

    For as long as I can remember, I knew there were several groups out there designed to help immigrants in America. Some groups like the Order of the Sons of Italy in America were founded to help Italians assimilate into American society during the early 20th century. The organization was founded in New York in 1905 by a man named Vincenzo Sellaro. Over time, the organization expanded to include chapters wherever Italian immigrants were found. This included places like Chicago, Illinois and even Woburn and Haverhill, Massachusetts!

    I don't have any direct ancestors who were in the organization. However, my great-uncle Arnold Villanucci certainly was! I happened upon finding his application on Ancestry and I was surprised by what I found. It was nothing out of the ordinary. Arnold applied in 1951 and on the application was the lodge he was a part of (Victor Emmanuel), where he lived, who his parents were, who his wife was and everything else. What was surprising to me was that Arnold was born in Haverhill. Why was he a member?    

    Well, it turns out that if your parents were in the Sons of Italy, the door was open for the children of immigrants to join and help future immigrants find their way in a strange new country. Think of it as a way to keep the membership fresh whenever someone would pass away or for some reason they had to leave the order.

    The Order still exists today. Only now their efforts have turned to other issues such as encouraging others to study Italian, the preservation of Italian American culture, tradition, history and heritage. As an added bonus, the Order serves to promote close relations with the United States and Italy.

    I've found several other relatives who were part of the Sons of Italy in Haverhill or in the chapter in Woburn, Massachusetts. What was interesting to me was that sometimes the applications were in English and sometimes they were in Italian. That made a lot of sense to me because when you get off of the boat, you're not going to know the language. So, the organization likely had people who met immigrants at Ellis Island and showed them the ropes. I know it sounds like a devious way to recruit people. But, it works and it makes sense. If you don't already have family in America who can help you, what are you going to do once you're in America? That's where the Order came in. They can teach you the language and help you if you are discriminated against (As it often happened). However, once you're settled you're going to need money. That's where another organization called the Italian American Credit Union comes in.

    Not only was my great-grandfather, Giuseppe Carrabs, a custodian at Pentucket Five Cent Savings Bank, he was one of the founders of the Haverhill Italian-American Credit Union! The organization was founded in 1934 as a way to provide a sound financial institution for the Italian community during the height of the Great Depression. 

    Like the Sons of Italy, the Italian-American Credit Union started in New York City. Giuseppe was a founder of the Haverhill branch and what he and others like him did was to grant loans, fair interest rates and be a safe place for Italians to hold their money. Not a bad deal! And like the Sons of Italy they still exist!

    The Italian-American Credit Union and the Sons of Italy are just two of the major organizations out there helping Italian immigrants to succeed in a strange country. Over time, both organizations grew into powerhouses with a lot of clout among the Italian-American community. Other immigrant communities have organizations like these which help meet the needs of people new to America. It's a great concept and it seems to work very well. 

    It's very cool knowing that my great-grandfather and others in the family played a role in helping immigrants like themselves. They gave back to a community which needed them and helped protect against the prejudices they faced on a day-to-day basis back in the day. These days, the organizations thrive and still help those in need. I don't think you can ask for a better legacy. 'Nuff said!

See ya next time!

52 Ancestors Week 23: Father's Day

 From Amy Johnson Crow: In the US, Father's Day is this coming Sunday (June 20), so what better time to have the theme of "Father's Day"?

Yet another album cover!

      On Father's Day, my brother and I would take our dad out to eat at one of his favorite Italian restaurants. We'd eat, have a good time and of course I'd give him that tie he always wanted. It was always one of those Jerry Garcia "Grateful Dead" ties. He likes those ties and I can't say that I blame him. They're cool! With things opening up again as of June 2021, we are probably going to return to one of our favorite Italian places in town and eat the food of our ancestors....even though we had chicken cacciatore the other night!

Y-DNA Fan chart by Greg Clarke.

        As you might have guessed, my patrilineal line is pretty solidly Italian. The Ferraiolo family has been in the town of San Pietro a Maida for centuries with names like Marco and Vincenzo alternating with almost every generation. That's cool and all. But, what about the last name "Ferraiolo"? What does that mean? How do you pronounce it?!

    I've been asked that question my whole life and I admit I might have annoyed some substitute teachers in my day as they struggled to pronounce my last name. My classmates would try to get me to correct them. Instead, I would wait for just the right moment to explain my last name. The pronunciation really isn't that hard. It's not like it's Rumpelstiltskin or DC's  Mr. Mxyzptlk. It's actually a fairly common Italian last name believe it or not!

    Using Cognomix, you can see just how spread out "Ferraiolo" is in Italy. If you click on Calabria, you can then see how many families have that surname in San Pietro. Okay. That's all well and good, Chris, you say. How do you pronounce it?! It's really easy. You need to roll the "r"s and make the "a" silent. So, it's pronounced like "Fehr-e-oh-low". Here's a video explaining just how that works!

Marco Ferraiolo

    Now that we know how to pronounce my last name and how to potentially steal my fantastic superpowers, what's next? What is the origin of the name? There's actually two definitions of "Ferraiolo". The first one is that a ferraiolo is a form of priestly vestments worn by Cardinals and various other members of the clergy. It's sort of like a cape. I admit it's not the coolest definition out there. But, it is one of the definitions of ferraiolo. The second one is much cooler. MUCH cooler, indeed.

    When I was growing up, I would ask my father what our last name meant. He told me that it meant "iron worker". That made sense to me in my mind because "Ferro" is Latin for iron. This means that I descend from people who made suits of armor in a cave with a bunch of scraps! Eh, I wish. With my luck, my incredibly ancient ancestors came up with the last name "Ferraiolo" after an unfortunate smelting accident.

    Italian last names tend to be varied as they can be based on birds, insects and even ethnic groups. After all, Tedesco means German in Italian. Some names even refer to abandoned children and even orphans. These would be names like "Esposito" and "Di'gnoti". 

Vincenzo Ferraiolo

     There's actually another variant of "Ferraiolo" and it's a little hard to explain. The last name is "Ferrauolo". How is this different from "Ferraiolo"? There is literally no difference at all according to this website. The website does go on to describe the last name's incredibly ancient origin, though.  Apparently, it all started in Padova, Italy(Padua in English) in the 200s AD and from there it spread throughout what is now Italy.

    People with each of the two spelling variants eventually made their way to America. When my great-grandfather, Vincenzo, arrived in 1913 there was actually a bit of an error on the ship manifest because he was listed as "Vincenzo Ferrajolo". It was probably a stray mark of some kind. The error then led to a transcription error on Ancestry and Familysearch. It's a bit annoying to see. The document was still found and that's what matters. Either way, the last name WAS NOT CHANGED AT ELLIS ISLAND! 

    That still doesn't mean the name wasn't misspelled in various documents like the United States Census. It totally was in the censuses for Haverhill, Massachusetts. The family name was spelled "Feriraiolo" in the 1930 census and "Ferriolo" in the 1940. It'll no doubt continue to be misspelled for some time to come. As long as it's spelled correctly on important documents, right?!

Marco and Cammie

    So, that's what's in a name. It's a last name that's been passed down for centuries and it has a decent origin. My father's last name actually inspired me to look up what the meanings are of other names in my family tree. Not just the Italian ones. French names like "Hamel", "Legault" and "Laplante" surely have interesting stories behind them as well. "Felker" apparently has German origins. That line's been in America for centuries. But, that's another blog for another time. After all, I'd have to dig through Quebec and ultimately France to find those origins!

    Father's Day is also a good day to talk to your father about your last name if he's still around. If he is, ask him questions about your last name's origin. You might find some cool stories like I did. Or you might find something less than stellar. It doesn't matter. The last name is yours unless you legally decide to change it. If he isn't around, do some research. You might be surprised with what you find!

See ya next time! And I guess the truth is…..I am Iron Man. ;)

52 Ancestors Week 23: Bridge

 From Amy Johnson Crow: The theme this week is "Bridge." A bridge connects two things that are separated, whether it's land or people (maybe even time?). You could take the theme literally and write about an ancestor who worked on bridges or had to cross them regularly. How about someone who worked or lived on a river? What about someone who played bridge (the card game). You could take a more figurative take on and think about who has been a bridge in your genealogy -- who has connected you to the past? Lots of possibilities this week!

Get that babelfish in your ear and don't panic!

    When you are a grandson of a recent immigrant like I am, eventually you are going to come across a language barrier in your research. A birth document might be in Italian and a marriage record might be in French. What do you do if you aren't fluent in the language of your ancestors? You use Google Translate to translate a document and if you're fortunate enough to have relatives in the "motherland", you can use it to bridge the gap between nations and unite with relatives all over the world.

Italia!

    I'll be the first to admit that my Italian isn't that great and neither is my French. When I was in high school, I took Spanish all four years and I never had the opportunity to learn the languages of my ancestors. French was offered, of course. I just never took it. Spanish was the closest to Italian and I already knew some words thanks to my father and grandmother Ollie. So, I picked that language to study.

    As the years went by, I learned a bit more Italian from my grandmother. Grandma Natalie would teach me various French words. This was all basic stuff. When the Internet came around, I even used Babelfish to translate random words out of boredom.

    When I got into genealogy, I realized that I should probably learn some more Italian than what I already knew. My father and great-aunt always told me that I had relatives in Italy and Switzerland. There was a slim chance that they could contact me! I was cautiously optimistic!

    I joined an Italian Genealogy Facebook group shortly after joining WikiTree. There was a user in the group who mentioned how he used Google Translate to aid him in his quest. He used it to contact the commune office in his ancestral town. I replied and asked some questions. The first one was "How accurate could Google Translate be?" The answer, surprisingly, was "Pretty accurate."

    Translation algorithms for certain languages have changed a lot since I played around with Babelfish back in the day. The user in the group reassured me that the translations were sound. An admin who lives in Italy even chimed in and sang its praises. They said that while there were some hiccups here and there it was still a useful tool to use. Apparently, Google has people working around the clock to fine-tune the translations. Are they completely accurate all across the board? You tell me. The next thing my friends in the group suggest was to join the town's Facebook group and ask my questions there using Google Translate.

    After thinking about it for a bit, I decided to join the group. I needed help with a few questions and I decided to try. What did I have to lose? Would I have been laughed out of the group? It's possible. Thankfully, the users on the page were fantastic and so helpful.

Caterina Tedesco

    It did not take long for a descendant of my great-grandmother sister, Caterina to notice my post and ask "Are you related to Nicolina Ferraiolo?" She then mentioned how she last saw her when she was a little girl many years ago when she visited Italy and that she descended from Maria Tedesco's sister. My jaw dropped as I read the translation. I sent my cousin (Nicolina's daughter) a text about the Italian cousin and she said that the woman talking to me was indeed a cousin. A second cousin to be exact! Nicolina's daughter also said that she was going to send me contact information for other cousins in the area.

    My new cousin mentioned that my Italian was pretty good. That surprised me because I was still using Google Translate and I had no idea if it was accurate at the time. I told her I was using the program and she said that was fine. 

    To make a long story short, I ended up using Google Translate to talk to her and several other relatives in San Pietro. I got a lot of valuable information and I've even used it to get information from the commune office! Not bad, right? It worked very well and I'm very thankful for that and for understanding cousins half a world away.

Marco and Caterina

    My experience with Google Translate later prepared me for when cousins on the Ferraiolo side contacted me on Myheritage earlier this year. We know how well that turned out. =D Check out the blog posts from February! My cousins in Switzerland gave me an even greater insight into the Ferraiolo side of the tree just like my Tedesco cousins did. They understood I was clearly using Google Translate and were very happy to be in touch and were patient as well. I am continually floored by the amount of patience and generosity my European relatives have. 

    As you can see, using Google Translate to talk to relatives across the pond has its advantages. Every once in a while, I have used it to talk to cousins in Canada who speak only French. But, that's usually on rare occasions. It's very fortunate that my cousins have been warm and understanding. Without the tool, I would not have had much success in the field of Italian genealogy and keep in mind it is just a tool. I've been thinking about getting Duolingo and giving it a try. What's the harm in that? Learning new languages is fun and Google translate has helped me learn some Italian and now I practice every day. Will I ever be fluent? Probably not. But, it is nice to use it to talk to relatives in distant lands. 

    I guess in a way I am bridging the gap between the ocean and a language barrier. Pretty cool, huh?

Arrivederci alla prossima! CIAO!

52 Ancestors Week 22: Military

 From Amy Johnson Crow: The theme this week is "Military." What have you learned about one of your military ancestors?

Be all that you can be....with Photoshop.

    Getting involved with the military runs deep in my family. Well, mostly on my mother's side of the family tree because her father, grandfathers, great-grandfather, 2nd great-grandfather and MORE have all taken part in almost every single conflict in American history going back to the American Revolution. My mother would tell you that she is an Air Force brat. My aunts and uncles would do the same. However, being in the military wasn't just for my direct line. For example, I have a great-uncle who was buried with high honors in Arlington National Cemetery!

Alfred Hamel Jr

    Meet Alfred Francis Hamel Jr, son of Alfred Francis Hamel and Clara Laplante. He was born in 1919 and was the older brother of my grandfather, Robert and like him he served with distinction in the Second World War, the Korean War and Vietnam. He was a Warrant Officer who served the U.S. military for thirty years. His great deeds in the service earned him a plot in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia when he passed away on July 20th, 1972.

    Obviously, I've never met my great-uncle as he passed away a few years before I was born. That isn't to say I never heard about him or saw his picture. I have. My grandfather kept much of his brother's belongings and even directions to where here was buried IN Arlington. He clearly cared about him very much since he kept everything concerning his brother. And I mean everything. Grandpa Hamel did not throw anything away!

    In genealogical terms, this is a good thing. That means there's more than enough information about the man floating around. All you have to do is take a deep dive into a box and see what long forgotten goodies are inside. Yes, Alfred had a sweet life. But, what was really surprising to me was finding out he was a hero even AFTER the war. Check this out.

Newburyport Daily News and Newburyport Herald,
 Pg One. 6 March 1947

    After the war, Alfred became a member of the Dorchester Fire Department. While he was on duty in March of 1947, he responded to an alarm at his own home. Once there, he had to rescue his wife and three small children who were unfortunately caught in the blaze.

    Hamel was alerted by a teenager who ran to the station to tell him about the fire. The kid had been visiting the home and witnessed the three-story wooden apartment building go up in flames. Alfred quickly got his wife, Veronica McNamara and his three children out of the building. Thankfully, no one was hurt.

    Apparently, the fire had started in the basement. I'm not sure if it was arson or if there were just some shoddy electrical issues down there. It's more likely that this was an electrical fire. In that case, man am I glad everyone made it out of there okay! Yikes!

   From the look of everything, you could probably tell that Alfred was pretty heroic. I mean he was already a firefighter so he was risking his life on a daily basis putting out fires. Sufficed it to say he was pretty heroic. 

He has a dedication plaque in 
Amesbury.

    Alfred is just one of many relatives of mine who served in one way or another and I do my best to try and honor all of them. It's really all I can do because I've never met him and my mother doesn't really have any memories of him. I know his children mentioned in the story are all grown up and more than likely have kids of their own by now. And even grandchildren!!

   Will this blog will entice them to get in touch with a long-lost cousin? Hopefully. Blogs do make for great cousin-bait. Here's hoping they contact me. I'd love to talk to them and maybe learn more about Alfred than what I have in newspapers and various documents. They might even would like to look at some of the documents that are in the box of things my aunt gave me during the worse of the COVID pandemic. 

    Time will tell. I remain cautiously optimistic. For now, the blog honors a marine/fire-fighter who had a lot of guts and was clearly a hero. 'Nuff said.

See ya next time!

    

    

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!