52 Ancestors Week 39: Surprise

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 39

The theme for Week 39 is "Surprise." Genealogy can be filled with surprises, both good and bad. This week, write about something that was surprising to you or that would have been surprising to your ancestors.

Who will it be next week? Your father's uncle's cousin's former
roommate?

    Surprises can come around every corner while you're on your genealogical adventure and believe it or not they can happen more frequently if you have a tree on WikiTree.com. I know I might be a little biased considering I have a rather extensive tree there. It's all good because while the site has a collection of wonderful and talented people working on a singular world tree, it is also great for cousin bait. Just this last week I had a huge surprise of my own and it all started with just one page.

Welcome to Wikitree.net. It's dot com!

        This is Domenico Marinaro and he was one of the many Italians featured in the book, "Italians in Haverhill". Like my great-grandparents, Domenico was born in San Pietro a Maida and immigrated to Haverhill, Massachusetts in the 1910s. So, naturally I have this guy in two one place studies AND in the Italians in Haverhill study. The overlap happens more times than I care to count!

    Domenico was the brother-in-law of my 2nd great-grandmother Caterina's cousin, Giovanni. I think I'd better slow down before this gets even more convoluted. I know we're all connected, but, sometimes there's a tangled web. And what a web this is!

    According to the book, the family stayed in New York for a couple of years before moving to Haverhill to be near family. That was pretty much the extent of his biography until I got an email last week about Domenico from his granddaughter, "Zelda".  The names are once again changed to protect the innocent!

    

    Zelda found the profile by chance and sent me an e-mail asking me why her grandfather was on WikiTree and if I wanted information. Naturally, I jumped at the chance for more information. I wanted to be as accurate as possible with these things and leave absolutely no room for error. All I knew was that he was in the Italians in Haverhill book and that he was a tailor by trade. I even found that one of his sons was killed in action in Europe.  Little did I know that things went a LITTLE deeper than that! You might say it was written in my genetic code.

DNA does not lie.

    Out of curiosity, I decided to see if I matched Zelda on Ancestry since she mentioned that she took a DNA test there. I figured "Why not?". What's the harm in looking? Well, it turned out that I share a mighty 15 cMs across 1 with her while my dad shares 17 across 1. I thought that was cool and then came the biggest surprise. My great-aunt Nicolina shares a whopping 32 cMs across 2 segments with Zelda! Was I blown away? You bet I was. How could I not be? It's rare that a DNA match would find me on WikiTree and Zelda didn't even know we were cousins. I think the evidence is clear here.

    I told Zelda that we were cousins and I wish I could've seen her face when she read the e-mail. She seemed to be very happy about it as she had wondered about my connection to her grandfather. That prompted her to send me a few pictures of the family while I tried to figure out what our connection could be.

    The only Marinaro connection I've found so far is my 4th great-grandmother, Domenica Marinaro. She was the mother of Pietro Francesco Gullo and I haven't been able to find her birth in the San Pietro archives, yet. That isn't to say there aren't many Marinaros in there. No, no. There are a ton! I just haven't found any other direct Marinaro ancestors.

    With all this talk about DNA and everything, I asked her how much she shared with a few DNA matches she and Nicolina share. Seemed like a logical step, right? I needed to find where she fit in the grand scheme of things and I was a little shocked by some of the findings.

    Zelda said her largest of the matches I asked about was a woman who shared over 100 cMs with her. That woman, as it turns out, is a third cousin of my great-aunt. That cousin descends from Frank Coppola, son of Giovanni.

    When I told my new cousin about that connection, she told me that a Frank Coppola was in her father's address book. She had no idea who that man was and as it turns out we have a few other Coppola cousins in common. As you can imagine, the gears in my head were turning!

The connection is somewhere in this
tree.

    In no time at all I finally got a place where I could potentially look for my connection! I made a tree on Ancestry and transferred it over to WikiTree with Zelda's blessing of course. From what I can see, I will have to see if I can find Bruno Marinaro's parents or Elisabetta Marinaro's parents.

    Then again, the connection might not even be in the Marinaro side of things at all! We could connect on her grandmother Angelina DeSando's side. I think that would make more sense because Nicolina and Zelda share some matches who connect at Domenico Desando and Angela Maria Timpano.

    When you match someone at 32 cMs, anything is possible!

    At any rate, this surprising discovery has opened up some insight into the pretty barren Coppola and Gullo trees I have. For all I know, I could match her on both trees since endogamy is a thing in Italian towns. It remains to be seen where we connect. For now, the best I can do is of course e-mail San Pietro a Maida's commune office and go to Haverhill city hall to make sure I have the Desando parents right and everything. I've been reassured that it's correct. It never hurts to ask!!

I've lost count how many people I connect with
in this book. I think I'm at like 60.

    Surprises are around every corner in your family tree and you can't really help but discover a few from time to time. Sometimes those surprises find you when you least expect it. If you have a tree online, you're bound to run into a surprise every now and then! The most surprises, of course, come from DNA testing. Some just happen by sheer coincidence. Zelda was surfing on the Internet and was surprised to find her grandfather on WikiTree and that a distant cousin was managing his profile.Talk about a surprise for her, right? Many more are out there. So, it's best to be prepared and take it in stride.

See ya next time!

"Italians in Haverhill" is property of Arcadia Publishing. Image comes from page 101.

52 Ancestors Week 38: Adversity

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 38

The theme for Week 38 is "Adversity." All of our families have had to face adversity at some point. Recognizing their struggles helps us recognize their humanity.

LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE!

        Adversity is this week's theme, huh? I don't know where to begin to tell you the truth. Every family has indeed had to struggle with something at some point in their lives. That's definitely the case when you look at the life of an immigrant and the uphill battle they had to endure in order to make a better life for themselves and their family. Life wasn't always fun, games and a neverending pasta bowl for Italian immigrants. Ugh. I can't believe I just referenced "The Olive Garden". Moving on....

Giuseppe and Clementina!

    On the surface it may appear that my great-grandparents, Giuseppe Carrabs and Clementina Forgione were the greatest example of the immigrant story. They came to America with their daughter Jenny in the 1910s and settled on Bartlett Street in Haverhill where they raised their family. Simple, right?

   Not really. A big part of the immigrant story is the fact that they had to learn the language of the land they immigrated to if they had any hopes of thriving there. I'm not sure how long it took them or any other Italian immigrant in my tree to learn English to tell you the truth. I can say that the process was hard because English is a hard language to master and some Italians like Giuseppe's brother, Rocco, never spoke a word of English! 

    It's true. Everyone I've talked to said that Rocco never spoke English or that his English was fractured. I'm not sure why he never learned. But, I can say that Giuseppe and his other brother Pasquale definitely knew some English by the time my father came around. I like to think that Rocco knew some English. He just preferred to speak to people in Italian. That's my story and I'm sticking with it!

Rocco's on the far left and Pasquale
on the far right.

    Language barriers aside an Italian immigrant had to also find work in the new land in order to make ends meet while learning the language. Giuseppe found himself employed by the Pentucket bank as a janitor after serving in World War I. Eventually, he even became one of the founders of the Haverhill Italian Credit Union.

   I would think that being a member of a union let alone a FOUNDER could have caused some adversity for him in the 1920s and 1930s. People weren't always kind to Italian immigrants back then and so he likely had to deal with prejudice as tension in Europe eventually erupted into open warfare. 

    The rough times didn't seem to bother Giuseppe too much as America entered the second World War and once again anti-immigrant sentiment reared its ugly head. He did serve the army again as an Air Warden and I'm sure Uncle Sam was more than happy to get a few Italians enlisted into the service. Though, being a member of a union probably would have caused people to bat an eyelash or two. I would love to see if there are articles about the union and my great-grandfather's role in the organization. Next time I go to the Haverhill public library, I'll be sure to check them out!

    The third hurdle an Italian immigrant had to face along with the language and getting a job is finding a social group that shares his or her common interests. The first Italian immigrants had to have had it rough because no one around knew any Italian and they probably felt a little isolated. 

    Giuseppe and Clementina came to America in the 1910s. You can imagine that the Italian population in Haverhill at the time was small. What did they do for companionship? Were they just going to talk to each other all night after he came home from the bank?

    Sadly, I'm not sure who their FAN club was aside from Rocco and Pasquale. They must have socialized with them before the community began to thrive in Haverhill. It must have been tough to make friends since Rocco was in Melrose and Pasquale was in Everett and those towns are a good distance from Haverhill. I hope they visited each other frequently!

    Thankfully, there was a growing Italian population in the city and the two likely made fast friends with other Italian immigrants. Part of me wonders if they ever talked to my other great-grandparents, Vincenzo and Maria before my grandparents got married. You never know. A group of fellow immigrants may have made the adversities not seem so challenging because in the end they thrived and despite everything they made great lives for themselves.

   Adversity happens in every family tree and unfortunately today's immigrants have the same struggles to contend with as my great-grandparents. History tends to repeat itself and we need to remember that it wasn't always easy for our ancestors living in a strange new land. If we keep that in mind, maybe we can use the lessons of the past to make a brighter future.

See ya next time!

52 Ancestors Week 37: Prosperity

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 37

The theme for Week 36 is "Prosperity." Prosperity is the condition of being successful or thriving. Of course, how one defines "successful" or "thriving" can be personal! Feel free to interpret the prompt however you'd like.

Or you could avoid the shoals of bankruptcy and seek the
strong winds of prosperity if you're a Ferengi.

         Prosperity can mean a lot of things to different people as evidenced by the header I created for this week's blog. In Star Trek, you have prosperity meaning both a long life and profit for two very different alien races. I like to think of prosperity as having a rich, full life with plenty of friends and family around to share everything with. After all what's the sense of having a ton of money if no one's around to enjoy it with you?  Wow, I would be the worst Ferengi ever. It's okay. Those huge ears are an acquired taste just like the ones Vulcans have. They are logical race though and there are several people in my family tree who have definitely lived long and prospered!

   Take my great-aunt Nicolina Ferraiolo for example. She was born in the Calabrian town of San Pietro a Maida in 1923 to Vincenzo Ferraiolo and Maria Tedesco. She lived to be ninety-nine years old! That is an incredibly long lifetime if you think about it. Can you imagine all the things she had seen and done over the course of her life? It's crazy to think about it!

    In just ninety-nine years, she witnessed humanity taking flight and eventually landing on the Moon. Diseases that once plagued her peers while growing up were eradicated. Distances between her home town and her home in Tennessee were made incredibly shorter thanks to the complex system of tubes you're reading this blog on. ;) 

    That's just the tip of the iceberg. A century is a long time and in that time so much of your world can change. A lot of people probably have asked her what her secret was to a long life. She would have probably said "Easy living and just taking it slow". Then again genetics probably had something to do with it!!

    The key to long life has always been something we as humans have always sought. Is it "clean living"? Is it "laying low" and just let world events occur? The answer to that is a bit beyond my paygrade as I am not a philosopher. But, I can tell you that longevity does seem to run on the Ferraiolo side of the family tree.

Ciao!

    Nicolina's aunt Concetta Ferraiolo was born on October 9th 1912 in San Pietro and passed away on March 5th, 2005 in Switzerland. She has the honor of being the longest lived child of my 2nd great-grandparents, Marco Ferraiolo and Caterina Coppola. At this point I'm beginning to wonder if there's something in the water in San Pietro which promotes long life. In that case, I should book a flight!!

    However, prosperty is more than just living a long life, right? Right! There's more to it than that. The Ferraiolo families all had many children and made their homes all around the world in places like Haverhill, Rome, Switzerland and in Argentina. Some stayed behind in Italy and had their own prosperous life. In the end, it's up to a person to decide if their live is prosperous as it's a subjective term. What's prosperous for one person can mean many things to somebody else.

    With that said, I think Nicolina was prosperous in both aspects. She had her own antique business which kept her living quite well and she had a large family scattered around the world. Once I came into contact with the family in Europe, she often asked me to ask them how things were going and I would report back on any family news or any other events. I was basically the go-between between Europe and her house! And I was happy to do it since her eyesight had been failing by the time I came into contact with my European family.

    What surprised me the most about the prosperity in the Ferraiolo line was this picture. The little girl in the photo is still alive and we talk on Facebook quite often. The people behind her are my 2nd great-grandparents, Marco Ferraiolo and Caterina Coppola! This photograph was taken some time in the early 1950s according to my cousin Adriana, who by the way is the girl in the photograph! I think she said she was like two or three at the time. Marco was born in 1868 and Caterina was born in 1870.

      You can definitely say that Marco and Caterina were very prosperous. I wish I could say why they were prosperous. Maybe I don't need to. Maybe I can just let the evidence speak for itself! They had a huge family who were spread out all over the world. Whether or not they stayed in touch is unknown. However, I do know that Concetta and Adriana's mother, Rosa made it a point to try and keep in contact with their sister Caterina's family in Argentina. Plus, I remember my cousin Caterina telling me that her grandmother often talked about her brother and sister in a little city called Haverhill. You might have heard of it. ;) I wonder if they kept in touch.

    Keeping in touch in those days were tricky, I admit. Can you imagine a trans-Atlantic phone bill in like the 1990s before the Internet became a thing?! Thankfully, the Internet is here to save the day and our wallets. I haven't been able to locate the family in Argentina. But, I'm sure I will some day. It'll just take time and probably a little bit of luck! Posting about this on the Internet certainly doesn't hurt!

    At the end of the day, it seems that prosperity in my family means a rich life that has little to do with riches. It's more about the people who you surround yourself with. That's really the secret to prosperity. Sure you may live a long life like my great-aunt or my grandfather Robert. But, Aaprosperous life should be a good, long life surrounded by people who genuinely care about you because riches can be turned into rags in a blink of an eye. That's definitely what they had in spades! Hmm..How logical. .Perhaps I am a Vulcan after all. Fascinating.

 See ya next time! Peace and long life. Live long and prosper!

52 Ancestors Week 36: Tradesman

From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 36

The theme for Week 36 is "Tradesman." Monday is Labor Day in the US. This is a good week to write about someone in your family tree who followed a trade. (Or, if you want to be more in the spirit of Labor Day, write about someone involved in the labor movement.)

Workin' 9 to 5....

    Finding just one tradesman in my family tree to talk about is a tricky feat in and of itself. If you look at my tree really closely you'll find tradesmen of all sorts from laborers in Italy to farmers in Quebec. It's as blue collar as you can get. Even my father, who is a dentist, has been no stranger to power tools. The same could be said for my mother who worked as a medical technologist and has helped my father with various household projects. That type of background is very common here in New England and has been for centuries. Immigrants brought their work ethic and skills to work in places like the various mills in cities along the Merrimack river. Their descendants picked up on those skills and those skills would be passed on for generations. However, if I were to pick someone on my tree who was really a "Jack-of -all- trades", I'd have to pick my great-grandfather Alfred Francis Hamel.

    Alfred was the son of two French-Canadian immigrants, Eugène Thomas Hamel and Marie Célanise Lefebvre and once his tour of duty in World War One ended, he opened a "Fix-it" shop in the city of Newburyport on Temple Street before moving to Inn Street.

    The shop would be open up until he passed away in 1962 and while he was there he would fix various things such as appliances. He was so good at his job that everyone who knew him ended up calling him "Mr. Fix It". He was just that good at tinkering with and repairing anything anyone might have broken. I wonder if he'd have been good at fixing computers. Probably.

    While I'm not sure if he was a member of a union or not, you can bet that he likely sided with them. If only they knew if he really DID repair boats during Prohibition. The statute of limitations is LONG over. I think it'd be okay to come forward with that information.

    In any case, Alfred was clearly loved by his community. His obituary from the Newburyport Daily News on April 11th, 1962 is evidence of that as great care was done in making sure the community never forgot the man they called "Mr. Fix-It".

    I'll be honest in saying it was quite hard to read through it all because one of his good friends found him dead in his home on Plum Island. That's not an end anyone should have. No one should die alone like that. It's just very sad, you know.

    At least he was remembered by all who knew him because this obituary outlined his many accomplishments from serving on the Mexican border in the first World War to being a sailor in World War II. Aside from his military honors, the author of the obituary later spent a great deal of time discussing his visit shop. The obituary here is just the first part!

    The second page talked about the shop and how he was even involved in municipal affairs in Newburyport and Plum Island. He was active with the Plum Island Tax Payers and Associates and even ran for City Council a couple times. It's a shame he never got elected. I totally would have voted for him. Curse the fact that I was born in the late 1970s! Wait. I take that back. I loved growing up in the 1980s and 1990s.

    While he was known around town as Mr. Fix-It, the obituary didn't mention his other business ventures. My mother often talked about how he made keys and was a locksmith. In fact, when she and her siblings were young, he'd make them keys for them to play with. I just hope none of them started a car. Then again cars were like tanks back then and required an engineering degree just to get in the door. "Built Ford Tough" indeed.

        At the time of his death, my great-grandfather was also a member of a number of organizations such as the Disasbled American Veterans and the American Legion. Speaking of the American Legion, he also played in that group's band. I wonder if that was where my Uncle Bob got his musical talent! You never know!

    In any case, it's clear that Alfred Hamel was a jack-of -all- trades. He literally did everything from being a soldier to being a humble repairman who everyone seemed to like. His death on Plum Island may have been sad. But, at least he left a mark in the hearts of the community.

        He clearly worked hard and that work ethic was passed down to his children and was ultimately passed down to me. Now, am I good with tools? Eh....No. I think my wood shop experiments from junior high is evidence that I should probably stay away from tools. Still, it's great to learn about a great jack- of- all- trades like my great-grandfather. I may not be as skilled as he was. But. I do have other sets of skills. ;)

See ya next time!

52 Ancestors Week 35: Disaster

 From Amy Johnson Crow: The theme for Week 35 is "Disaster." (I want to point out that this theme was chosen long before any of the catastrophic events that we've seen in the past few weeks.) Disasters come in may forms. They can be personal or they can affect an entire community. You can also have a disaster in your research.

That's great it starts with an earthquake...

    The last time I wrote about a disaster was back in February 2020 before the world shut down thanks to the human malware aka Covid. Oof. Talk about bad timing. That blog was about an error in my tree that I have since corrected. Let's now turn our attention to disasters of the natural sort. Since I live in New Hampshire we don't really have many earthquakes and when we do they're usually very minor. We typically have blizzards, the occasional hurricane and other storms here in New England. 

Lush and fertile lands come at a price.

    However, one part of the world is known for its many earthquakes and volcanos. It has been said that Italy's natural beauty comes at a price since the country sits near many fault lines and many volcanos dot the landscape. In fact, millions of people still live near Mount Vesuvius! I guess they didn't learn much from their experience with Pompeii.

      It's not like Vesuvius stopped erupting in 79 AD. The volcano erupted many times in the early 20th century and could very well be the one of the reasons why people left the country. Hey. Would you stick around if a volcano kept erupting? Is good pizza really worth your life at this point?!

    Seriously, there may be some truth to natural disasters being the reason why people leave one country for another. Sure economic factors played a role in people leaving. You can't forget that natural disasters also were contributing factors and Italy definitely didn't have an organization like FEMA around to help them out at the time.

    I don't know for certain if any of my ancestors in Italy left the country due to natural disasters running rampant at the time. However, I can say with certainty that some people in my family tree were directly impacted by those events and one in particular may have forced him to move clear across the planet.

La famiglia di Coppola

     In the Italians in Haverhill book, it was said that Giovanni Coppola's  unnamed daughter was lost in an earthquake. Could her death have been the reason why this Coppola family moved to Haverhill? When did it happen exactly? Well, if you look at Giovanni's page on WikiTree, you'll notice that there is a ten year gap between the births of his daughter Angelina and his son Frank.

    Angelina was born in San Pietro in 1898 and Frank was born in Haverhill in 1908. This means that somewhere in middle of those years a daughter could have been born to Giovanni Coppola and Natalina Marinaro. That's just conjecture at this point because Giovanni arrived in America in 1898. Though, he could have made the trip back to Italy after arriving.

    Let me pitch this scenario to you.  We know Giovanni and Natalina were married in San Pietro in 1898 thanks to information provided in the blurb below the picture. Angelina was born on September 16th of that year. Giovanni arrived in America on November 18th, 1898 with a Marinaro who was his brother-in-law. Would it be out of line to say that he stayed in America for a short time, went back to Italy for a couple years and had another daughter before coming back to America? I think this scenario works. 

    Between 1898 and 1908, Calabria was hit by three earthquakes with the strongest being a 7.2 magnitude quake on September 8th, 1905. Twenty-five villages were destroyed and 5,000 people lost their lives. San Pietro a Maida wasn't listed as one of the villages hit. However, you can bet that there were aftershocks. The next one to hit Calabria was on October 23rd, 1907 and registered a 5.9 on the richter scale. That quake was at the tip of the peninsula and the same area was hit again in January 1908.

 

      Frank was born on April 12th 1908. This meant that the Coppolas narrowly missed being involved in the great Messina earthquake. That one happened on December 28th, 1908 and caused unfathomable amounts of destruction since the cities of Reggio Calabria and Messina were almost completely destroyed. Between 75,000 and 82,000 people perished as well.

  Could this have been the earthquale mentioned in the book? I'm not sure. Maybe. The Coppolas were known to go back and forth many times and the earliest reference to them aside from Frank's birth was in the 1910 census in Haverhill. The only ship manifest I found for Natalina was in 1929 and I have a feeling that was just a visit.

    With all that said, is it possible that the constant earthquakes pushed the family to move clear across the planet? I would have to say "Yes." only because after everything that happened to his family Giovanni seemed to be quite eager to get family members out of southern Italy! I don't think anyone can blame him! So many families owe their passage to that man it's not even funny at this point. He may have thought "I want to get my friends and family out of Italy as soon as possible!!" The poor guy lost a young child to a natural disaster and I wish I knew her name so I could immortalize her on WikiTree. I doubt he wanted to lose any more friends and family.

    There is a solution of course. I could ask San Pietro if there were any Coppolas born to Giovanni and Natalina between 1898 and 1908. Her details would provide valuable insight into what prompted Giovanni and co to leave that town behind.

    The Coppola family's story is like many others Italians in that era had to face. It's easy to see why a natural disaster coupled with economic hardship forced them to move. I could be right about my theory. I could also be wrong. That's the fun thing about genealogy. You can make a theory and there may or may not be a right answer.

    At least we know that the Coppolas made a great home for themselves in Haverhill after the death of the daughter. The long lost daughter's documents may turn up in the future. Only time will tell. Many other Italians likely share the same story like I said. It's sad. But, in a way they managed to thrive in a new land despite whatever our small blue planet threw at them.

See ya next time!

P.S. This week's banner song was also the theme song for my high school graduating class's video yearbook. I wonder if that's a bad sign. Keep in mind I graduated in 1997.

52 Ancestors Week 34: Newest Discovery

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 34

The theme for Week 34 is "Newest Discovery." What is the newest discovery you've made in your family history? Mine was discovering that an ancestor's brother served in the Civil War.

Let's see what's out there. Engage!

     Genealogy takes you on all kinds of adventures and chances are you will discover many amazing things along the way. There's no doubt about that. You could find yourself walking through your nearest cemetery and discover a long-lost relative or you could be combing through various records in the comfort of your own home and find a new ancestor or two. However, there are some occasions where some discoveries may need to be scrutinized and placed under a microscope.

Did you know Andresano and Indresano are
interchangeable? Wild.

    Meet my fifrth great-grandmother, Rosaria Giuseppa Cappuccio. That name is clearly a mouthful, I know. She was born around 1775 in the Campanian town of Mirabella Eclano. She married a man named Giovanni Andresano in 1800 and they had at least three known children together. 

    This all seems pretty straight forward doesn't it? Nothing seems sketchy right now as this is pretty much a standard Italian profile with standard records being sourced. Just wait. Things are going to be a little bit complicated.

    The only sources I've found for Rosaria have been on Antenati, the Italian government's respository of births, marriages and deaths in Italy from 1809 to the early 20th century in most cases. On the site, I've found her in the following documents in Mirabella Eclano.

1. A reference to her on her husband's death banns from 1823.

2. She was mentioned on her daughter Maria's marriage record from 1830.

3. She was listed as the mother of Maria Antonia Andresano on her death banns from 1881.

Right. This woman clearly existed and she was definitely the mother of my 4th great-grandmother, Maria Antonia. There's no mistaking it. Rosaria was my 5th great-grandmother, alright. What seemed to be the problem? Glad you asked!!

I've got my eye on you, FS....

    A while back I discovered someone had added parents for Rosaria on FamilySearch. Their names were Giuseppe Cappuccio and Agnese Frascella. While someone might go right ahead and add these people to their family tree, I'm erring on the side of caution here because Agnese does not have any sources attached to her or even a note and while her husband does have a source, it's a bit confusing.

   My friend and fellow member of WikiTree's Italy Project found a source confirming Giuseppe's death on February 2nd, 1810.  The year 1809 was when Italian cities and towns started recording civil registrations and Mirabella Eclano was one of them. 

    What's interesting and ultimately confusing is that while most of Giuseppe's children were listed on the document one was not. Can you guess who that was?

    If you said "Rosaria", then you'd be correct. Now, these could just be the surviving children of Giuseppe because Rosaria supposedly passed away in 1807 which was two years before civil registration began. I say "supposedly" because I'm not really sure about the information that was given to me by a friend and fellow researcher.

    My friend informed me that she poured through the church records herself and that's how she was able to get Rosaria's death record and her marriage in 1800. Church records, after all, had been a thing long before Napoleon Bonaparte instituted civil registrations. I trust the information she provided me and put that information on the tree. However, I'm not too sure if the parents are accurate here.

    I'm not sure if my doubts are coming from the fact that there are no sources for Agnese or if it's because Rosaria wasn't mentioned on her father's death banns. It's a sticky situation, to be sure. Do I add them or not? That is the question.

    I could fudge it and say that the children listed on the document were the surviving children of Giuseppe. However, there's a chance that I could be wrong. I've been bitten by erroneous branches far too many times in the past. So, it might be a good idea to put a pin in it and come back to it later. 

    The only other option, I think, is to contact the user on FamilySearch and see where the information came from and if it's accurate.  Here's what I'm thinking of sending:

Hi,

 My name is Chris and I couldn't help but notice that you added parents to Rosaria Giuseppa Cappuccio in 2019. I was wondering if you could tell me where the information came from because civil registration in Italy did not begin until 1809. Please help me determine if the information is accurate or not as Rosaria was my 5th great-grandmother. Any help would be invaluable. Thanks for your time!

     Sometimes a short and sweet message is all it takes! I hope I get a response because I definitely would like to add more people to the tree! It's very rare for me to get Italian sixth and seventh great-grandparents because of civil registations. I'd have to go to Italy and pour through church records to see if  dates before 1809 are accurate. 

    Genealogy is a fun hobby and while it can be exciting when you find a new ancestor, sometimes you have to be cautious. You don't want to go barking up the wrong tree. Literally! Here's hoping I get a reply AND that I get to add Rosaria's parents and grandparents in the near future!

See ya next time!

52 Ancestors Week 33: Strength

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 33

The theme for Week 33 is "Strength." Strength comes in many forms: physical, emotional, spiritual, just to name a few. What ancestor do you think of when you think of strength?

Hulk smash puny banner! (That works on so many levels. If you 
know, you know.)

    The last time I wrote a blog about an ancestor who had a lot of strength of character was back in 2021 when I talked about Lucie Cadran and how she basically raised a bunch of kids by herself in the wake of her husband Antoine Legault's death. She turned a tragedy into a family story that stood the test of time as she managed to keep her many children relatively close by after his passing. You can read all about it here. Now, what do I have for you this week? Well, we haven't really discussed strong Italian women have we? I'd be remissed if I didn't write at least one blog about those nonnas who were ever ready with a soft hand and a rolling pin if one of yoots stepped out of line.

Olympia "Ollie" Carrabs

    Enter: Grandma Ollie. Sure she was a sweet tiny Italian lady who would welcome anyone into her house and serve you a ton of food. She was one tough cookie and everyone knew it. That isn't to say she was bitter or anything. Far from it. Grandma Ollie just knew when to smile and when to fight back.

    Case in point, When my father was growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, she and my grandfather Marco would invite an African American man into their home on a regular basis for dinner. To say that were friends would be an understatement. I don't really remember the man's name and I'm sure my father told me. But, what stuck out to me was how much she was willing to go outside the social norms at the time and invite him into her home. Whether they knew it or not, she and Marco took part in the Civil Rights Movement.

   

     What a strong way to start this week's blog, huh? I dunno if anything can top that. Oh, wait. Many things can! Not only was my grandmother unknowningly taking part in the Civil Rights movement, she and many other ladies were employed at Western Electric at around the same time she and Marco were breaking bread with just about everyone in Haverhill.

    Looks like grandma Ollie is two for two in the strength department. Sure she was on the Philomathians in Haverhill High and everyone in school called her a "cheerful girl". But, she still fought the societal norms at the time since women were not expected to have jobs in the 1950s and 1960s. So, where did all this strength come from? To answer this, you'd have to look at her own mother.

Giuseppe and Clementina

    From what my father and his cousins have told me, Clementina Forgione was not someone you'd want to mess with. You know the expression "Don't go against the family"? That was her! My cousin Bob told me a few stories about her. 

    One time Giuseppe was thinking about going back to their native Gesualdo and nonna Clementina told him flat out:

"I am not getting on ship or a plane again, Joseph!!!"

    The context here is that she had been tired of traveling and wanted to just settled down. That's a fair point. She wanted to just relax and I can hardly blame her for that since they were raising six children at the time---ALL DAUGHTERS!

    So, now you see where Olympia got her steely resolve and determination to not go with the societal norms. I guess the moral of the story here is to know when to pick your battles. From what I understand Giuseppe was a reasonable guy. I guess he understood that traveling back and forth at that time would be a hassle. Besides, his brothers and sister were a few towns over. in Melrose and Everett. It's not like family was that far away!

I still think they're all waiting for a bus.

    Perhaps Grandma Ollie's strength of character came from the fact that she was the youngest in her family. She grew up with five siblings and trust me when I say that the lot of them were future fiesty little old Italian ladies™, too. 

   

    Watching her mother raise the girls while their father worked at the bank probably solidified her resolve. It could not have been easy. Bear in mind that was also during the Great Depression so you know times were tough. And when times were tough what did most people do? They did the best they could given the circumstances!

    I do have a feeling that her upbringing during the Depression played a pivotal role in how strong she was as a person. When people were having a tough time of things, she would always lend an ear, invite someone into her home and dispense with the sage advice. She simply didn't want people to suffer as she did being the daughter of two Italian immigrants and everything. That shows a lot of character does it not? Forget physical strength. Sometimes you just need strength of character. It works and sometimes it can be even better!

What you don't see is me facepalming off camera.

      Olympia's strength could be owed to her upbringing growing up in Haverhill during the Great Depression or being the daughter of a tough as nails Italian woman. In the end, it doesn't make a difference because my brother and I knew her as one tough nonna years before we heard anything about how strong Clementina was.

    She would never back down from any confrontation as long as the cause was just and would still be warm and caring at the same time. To my brother and I that was the definition of  "grandma". Not saying Natalie didn't have her moments, too! She totally did!

     I think grandmothers are inherently strong based on the kind of things they've had to put up with. Years of experience hardened them when they needed to get tough and let them be softer when the situation called for it. She may be nice one minute but the second you go against the family, you'd better watch out or else you will get that rolling pin across your wrist. I'm not saying that never happened to me. But, hey. Respect to all the grandmas out there! Especially the little old Italian ladies ™. 

See ya next time!