Where do I Start Again?!?!

Yesterday I started making a list of all the things I still wanted to figure out about my family tree….. WHAT A LONG LIST!  Where do I begin?  There are so many things to look for and so many unanswered questions.  So…. I’m going to take the advice that I’ve given to so many friends and “clients”.  Start at the beginning….. with ME!

So I started with my own file.  Have you done that recently?  Have you looked at what information you have gathered about yourself and actually recorded or put copies of your documents into your own file?  My file basically contained my birth certificate…. that’s it.  Nothing else.  So, this weekend I’m starting over…. with myself.

Since I already have my birth certificate, the next step was to start gathering any documents I have on myself and make sure the copies are put where they belong!  So… my will, the title to my vehicle, mortgage papers, insurance records – both personal and thru employment, my business and personal resumes, and my school records have all been gathered and put where they belong.  Now it’s time to document “My Story”.  Who am I, what do I want others to remember about me, and what information do I wish I had on my ancestors that I can answer in a “journal” for future generations.  Once I get this finalized, then I will start again with my parents.  I plan to take my time and make sure I’m not only documenting everything that I know, but also making a detailed list on everyone in my tree of things that I wish I knew.  This will help me get a clear, generation by generation, list of questions that I can really dig into and research.

While I’m writing my story, I’m also working on another document…. a “To Do” list.  I’ve had a design for it in my head for a couple of years, but have never actually created it.  So, since I’m starting over and doing this the right way…. I’m also creating the forms I need along the way.

Stay tuned…. I’m already coming up with questions, just as I’m writing my own story.  Questions about my parents…. about where I lived… time frames…. deed records…. the list is going to be HUGE…. but it will be more manageable when I get it all on paper and organized.

What questions would you have if you were writing your own story for your family’s history?  What questions do you have about your own life and past?  I think you’d be amazed if you actually started documenting the questions!

I’ll be back with more of the story….. SOON!

Break Time is Over!

I had to take a break from my personal genealogy quest, as well as this blog.  Sometimes that’s the only way to refocus and truly figure out where your heart lies.  Mine truly does belong with family, but I had to find myself in order to realize that.  I’ve spent the past 3 1/2 years focusing on me and who I truly want and need to be.  Now that I have begun to see who I am…. and how I belong in this family tree….I feel like I’m ready to get back to doing my own research.

Those that know me understand my self-discovery quest.  Those of you following my blog that do not personally know me….  please understand that my love of genealogy has not changed…. only my love for myself.  I found a new energy that has renewed my vision and focus.  I’m not sure how often I will be posting to this blog…. but I have many ideas of topics and quests that I plan to pursue over the next few months.  I hope you join me and find your own “new energy”… BREAK TIME IS OVER!!

To DNA…or Not To DNA….That is the question!!

I have been pondering having my genealogical DNA done for quite a while now….and yesterday I took the plunge!!

It really wasn’t that I didn’t WANT to have my DNA done…I truly have wanted to get into the spit pool for a long time.  Its just that circumstances always seemed to block that path. Well, Friday an AncestryDNA kit arrived in my mailbox.  Saturday morning I sent it back to them.  It really was a fairly easy process…And I thought I would share all the details with my followers.

AncestryDNA Kit

Here it is…my kit.  The box was smaller than I expected…I’m not sure why I thought it was going to be a big box with a complicated process, but I did.  I was very pleasantly surprised.  It was about 5″x7″…very compact and well thought out.  I held on to it for a few minutes, thinking about all the possibilities of what the test might prove and the doors it might open.  …then I opened it.

The first thing you see when you open the kit.

This was the first thing that I saw when I opened the kit…its a very easy to understand instruction folder that walks you thru every step of the process.  Step 1 – Activate Kit Online.  This was super easy!!  It only took about 5 minutes and that’s because I was nervous and double and triple checked everything I typed or clicked on.  I set it to connect to a family tree I already had on Ancestry.com, but will be uploading my correct tree in the next few weeks and will switch the connection to that one soon.  You MUST have a tree to connect it to or you won’t get any connecting results.  To activate the kit and connect it to you, there is a 15-digit code that is on the collection tube that you use.  It’s your DNA’s identity code.  They advise that you mark down the code on the space provided on this instruction folder…Mine also had it typed out on a sticker on the back of the folder….So far…EASY PEASY!

Under the Welcome/Instruction folder.

This was the rest of the kit…The collection tube and stabilizer on the left, the plastic “bio-hazard” bag, and the Postage Paid mailer box.  Really simple so far.  I took each item out and checked out the process.  I can do this!!  I finished reading the instructions and immediately realized I GOOFED!!!  As I was doing this I was eating breakfast.  There is a big warning on “Step 2 – Gather DNA” that says “Do NOT eat, drink, smoke, or chew gum for 30 minutes before giving your saliva sample.”  DARN IT!!  Oh well…can’t change it now…I’ve already started eating my oatmeal…so I’m finishing my breakfast and then I’ll go brush my teeth to make sure no oatmeal gets into the test.

You always have to wait for the good things in life.

Tick Tock….Tick Tock…I sat watching the timer waiting for at least 30 minutes so I could begin my test.  I could’ve used my time a little better by doing laundry, washing dishes, or getting the house cleaned up…but instead I sat and watched the time slowly count down….Tick Tock…Tick Tock….BEEP BEEP BEEP!!!  SUCCESS…It’s been 30 minutes….

I took a couple extra minutes to catch my breath….And I slowly opened the container that held the collection vial and the stabilizing solution.  The instructions state simply to “Fill the tube with saliva to the black wavy line”…That’s easy enough.  OK…Maybe not.  All of a sudden my mouth went dry!  I’m panicking.  I remembered reading on a couple Facebook pages that people had to do their DNA test over because they had too many bubbles…not enough sample…contaminated sample…etc.  “What if” started racing thru my brain.  I can’t mess this up…my ancestors are counting on me!!!  I took another deep breath…and started spitting into the tube….as I did it I realized it really wasn’t that bad…they only needed  about 1/4 teaspoon…which isn’t much.  I kept tapping the vial on the table to try to pop some of the bubbles…and it was filling pretty quick.  It only took about 5 minutes to make sure that the sample was just above the wavy line (not including the bubbles)…and then I relaxed a bit.  The picture is a bit deceiving…the collection area isn’t the entire bottom of the vial…the collection area is really only about a 1/4 inch in depth…The bottom of the tube is empty!

Fill with spit to the wavy line (not including the bubbles)…

Next step is to take the funnel off the top and replace the funnel with the “cap”…it contains a stabilizing solution to stabilize the DNA in my saliva….

Take off the funnel and screw on the stabilizer solution…

See the blue tint to the cap…that’s the solution.  When you tighten the cap, this solution drops into your DNA sample…

When the cap is tight the fluid will drop…shake it for at least 5 minutes.

Perfect!  So far so good…..Now I just have to shake it for at least 5 seconds to mix the stabilizing solution with my DNA….this helps the lab process the sample easier.

Insert vial into the protective bag…

Now its just a simple packaging….drop the vial in the protective Bio-Hazard Bag….

Put in Postage Free box…

Pop it in the postage paid mailing box….

Close and seal it up…..its ready to go!

And seal it with the self adhesive strip…Super Simple…Very little room for error.  Now there is just one more step for the day…I jumped in my Jeep and drove to the Post Office…

Drop in the nearest mailbox….

I think at this point I started to breathe again.  I kept thinking about my ancestors and what they might think of this whole process.  Would they be grossed out?  Would they be scared of the technology?  I don’t think any of them would understand it….and that’s ok.  Right at the moment I’m having trouble wrapping my head around the whole process.

Unfortunately, now the waiting begins.  It’s going to take 6-8 weeks before I receive any results…and I’m still not sure how to interpret them…but I’m learning.  I’ve been doing the research…watching the webinars and videos…and taking lots of notes.  It might be easier once I have my own results back to use as an example.

I will chronicle my process here on my blog as this whole thing begins to unfold.  I will share EVERYTHING!  Where my ancestors came from…what the ethnicity results are…all the good and the bad that will soon be revealed.  So stay tuned!!!

Until the results come back I will continue to move my research forward.  Now that I’m back here in my blog I will help you all follow my steps…my research…my struggles…my questions…my trips…and even my failures.  The Genealogy Fanatic is BACK!!!

Why do they have to always hide?

****WARNING…WARNING…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…OOOO-GA….OOOO-GA!!!****

***Long post ahead…enter at your own risk!!! ***

I have always wondered why certain documents seem to “appear”, when they do, within my research. They might not even be on the family line that I’m working on, but all of a sudden…there they are!

Two weeks ago I went on “vacation”…ok, so I spent a week and a half walking cemeteries, staring at a computer screen in an air conditioned library, and looking at microfilm in a darkened room…its what I consider a “Vacation”. I was back home trying desperately to piece together another small part of my family history and the history of a dear, dear friend.

So I went to the county microfilm office to research. I knew the routine…I had done this before many times…but….There was an “index” book that I had never ventured into before, so I thought…”Why not”. It turned out to be the Naturalization Index for the county. There were actually 3 books total…2 were indexes for 1880-1952 and then another one that the clerk stated was prior to that time frame. So I checked in the 1880-1952 book and…sure enough I found my grandpa and his brother Dominico. It really only confirmed what I had already found out about his date of immigration. But I still got copies of the records ($3 per complete record seemed like a bargain to me). Then I continued on with the computer and microfilm…but I kept looking at the other index. I didn’t have relatives before that timeframe…but I grabbed it anyway…just to look. BINGO!!! It wasn’t prior…it was AFTER 1952. My grandmother has also filed for Naturalization. I’m still not sure why…her father and her husband had both been Naturalized and she was mentioned on both their documents. (So, technically this was the THIRD time she was “Naturalized”) But I also know that Nani (Grandma in Italian) was a VERY strong willed (a.k.a. stubborn as H*LL) woman who did what she wanted, not what others told her to do. So I had them pull her record too. WOW…I finally had a date for her immigration thru Ellis Island!!! She was one of the relatives that I couldn’t find. Her papers stated she arrived on the Duca Degli Abruzzi, September 1, 1908. BUT….IT ENDED UP BEING WRONG!!! <insert head banging on my desk>

Last night I searched for her in the Ellis Island database….I had tried to do this a million times before…this time I had the ship to search for and a date of the voyage. Page by page I searched for her and members of her family…I knew she wouldn’t be traveling alone because the date proved she was only 6 when she arrived at Ellis Island. But…NOTHING…Zip…Zilch…Nada…They weren’t there. <Back to banging my head on the desk>

So…I took another approach to this. I knew about the right time frame…Nani had always said she was 6 or 7 when she came here. So I tried doing an advanced search based on her year of birth, 1902 (+/- 2 years), plus the 1908 date of arrival (+/- 2 years) and put in a partial first and last name (“starts with”)… I didn’t put in more than 3 letters of each name. It pulled up 9 children…and the 3rd one down, even though it was not spelled right (which I knew it had to be mis-spelled), was HER!! Instead of being listed as Frances Minelli…which was what we always knew her name to be…she was listed as Franceschina Minetta. I knew it was her…it was the right location (town and province in Italy)…so I clicked on the link to show me the manifest…I was so excited!!! I checked line 25….And….She’s NOT THERE! <bang…bang…bang…THUNK>

Why do my ancestors do this to me CONTINUALLY?!?!?! I can almost hear her laughing…”HAHAHAHA…You didn’t find me, did you!!! BWAHAHAHAHA”…UGH!

I spent 2 1/2 hours last night, going page by page…thru the entire manifest for the S.S. Florida..August 11, 1907 arrival…but I finally found her!!! She arrived with her mother (Maria Somma), her brothers Pilerio (later known as Uncle Larry) and Natale (Uncle Nato), and her sisters, Ceralina (It was actually Terasina, Aunt Teresa eventually), Giuseppina (Aunt Josephine),and possibly Carmela (this one I’m still not positive about – If she did come here, she went back to Italy…and there is a family story about one of the daughters returning to Italy to marry). There is a note on the manifest that states their surname was changed on the manifest (originally they had been listed with mom’s maiden name of Somma, but it was changed to Minetta…which was still wrong…their father’s surname was Minelli).

Oh well…I won this round of the genealogy game of hide and seek….so…Now its your move Nani. What other road blocks would you like to toss in my way?

 

How did I get all these little pieces of paper…..

I am sitting in the middle of my living room with little scraps of paper all over the place.  I wish I could blame my puppy for the mess, but it’s all my fault.  I had this brilliant idea recently that I was finally going to organize all my genealogy files and paperwork into Surname Notebooks.  It sounded like a great idea, but I think someone needs to have me committed…I MUST BE CRAZY!!!!

I was feeling a bit overwhelmed when I made this choice and now I’m EXTREMELY overwhelmed.  By the time I pulled every file, stack of papers, bits of scrap paper with information jotted on it, and booted up my computer, I had more that I ever imagined possible.  But I couldn’t stop there.  I needed a sense of accomplishment on this project and also I desperately needed to make sure I had everything possible on my ancestors in my computer as well as their paper files.  I figured I better try to tackle this before it totally gets out of hand. <TOO LATE!!!>

STEP 1 – Make the notebooks

This was the easy part!  I grabbed 5 notebooks and made covers and spines for them.  They look really nice with the family Surname in fancy print and a copy of each surname crest.  Simple enough….I’m a graphic designer.  This part I could do with my eyes closed.

STEP 2 – Separating the pile

Now this part took some time.  I literally sat on the floor with the huge pile of papers in front of me and I sorted them, one at a time into piles by Surname.  Not bad….it only took me about an hour.  By this time I was beginning to see that there were several of my family lines that I could probably handle pretty quickly.  So I matched up each pile with the corresponding notebook.  At least my living room floor looked good again….until I let the puppy back in….then it was covered in a different kind of clutter.

STEP 3 – One Notebook at a Time

It’s probably cheating, but I took the notebook with the least amount of papers and started with that one.  Yeah…it was a cop-out….but what can I say.  I needed to see some more progress at this point.  Again, I sat on the floor and started sorting the papers.  This time by individual.  It actually was going pretty smooth…then I realized that I had some people that, obviously, crossed Surnames.  My Grandma Anna would actually be in 3 notebooks (her Maiden Name book, and also in the Surname books of both of her husbands).  Fortunately I was finding some duplicate papers, so I didn’t need to make a lot of photocopies.

STEP 4 – Making sure the information is in the computer

OK…so this one was definitely NOT the most fun…but it was a VERY necessary part of the organization project.  Once my notebooks were assembled I made sure that every document was carefully read and the information entered into my software program.  This served 2 purposes….I was sure I had the information logged, and it made me re-read each document.  I actually found several pieces of information that I had missed before.  I also made sure I had each item scanned and uploaded as media to my genealogy software.  This took more time than all the remaining organization steps combined….actually, I’m still working on this one.  But I still moved forward with the next step…

STEP 5 – Genealogical Cemetery Reports

This was a new step for me.  Something that I’ve been wanting to do, but just haven’t had the time or the desire to get it done.  Each “report” is individualized with an ancestors name and vital information along with a picture of their headstone, urn, etc.  There is also cemetery information or cremains location information and information on their Find a Grave Memorial.  As part of this process, I created a Find a Grave Memorial for each relative as I was creating these reports.

I do have one additional step that I’m working on and it will be a continuous process.  Making a list of what I still need….by individual.  This is going to be a very important step for me, as I found out I have duplicates of several documents.  Things I didn’t remember I had because it was in a pile somewhere.  Now I know what I have and what I still need.

NOW WHAT…..

Well…Truthfully…I’m not sure.  I’m still working on making sure that all the information is in the computer and scanned…and I’m still photographing graves and entering info into the Cemetery Reports.  But I know this for sure….I’m feeling much more organized and a little more sure of what I have and what I’m missing.  A little organization has gone a long way in helping me feel much better about my project…and my house!  I no longer get frustrated that I’m missing a little piece of paper that I wrote a couple dates on.  They have all been put where they belong…..FOR NOW!  The trick will be to keep the system going and not go back to my addiction for little pieces of paper.  I might need to create my own 12-step program eventually!

The final project…not complete…but, truthfully, they never will be totally complete!

Come out…Come out…Wherever you are?!?!?!

I can’t believe my ancestors would hide from me on purpose….I want to believe they are just shy…after all, most of them have never even met me.  I’ve tried everything.  Internet searching…name changing…even yelling “olly olly oxen free”….but still they remain hidden just out of sight.  OK…so I’m not really playing a game of Hide and Seek with my ancestors…I’m searching for them in US Census reports.  Some days I’d really rather be playing a game of Hide and Seek.  At least with the game, everyone comes out at the end.  But how do I get my ancestors to come out of their hiding places?  The only answer to this one is patience…and lots of time.

I recently went thru my family files and realized that I’m missing quite a few US Census reports on a bunch of my ancestors.  Most of the missing Census reports are from the 1920 Census.  After I looked at my list I actually wondered if I EVER checked the 1920 Census!  There were a LOT of holes in this one….more than a piece of Swiss Cheese!  So…off to the computer I went…I had to fix this problem.

Now you know as well as I do…Indexing of Census Records is not all its cracked up to be.  You put in the name of your ancestor and most of the time you don’t get what you’re looking for.  So what is a genealogist to do?  Keep looking is the only answer.

Now, I know that most of my Italian ancestors, in 1920, would’ve been in the Chicago, IL area…the family didn’t move to Southwest Michigan until the mid-1920’s…at least that I know of.  I really didn’t want to have to check the 1920 census page by page in an area as large as Chicago. So I headed back to my paper files…I needed some connections to look for to try and find those missing ancestors.  My first thought was to gather all the names of the ancestors in 1920 that I HAD found in the census reports.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t many….but it might just be enough.  If there’s one thing I’ve learned about my relatives, its that they all stuck together.  One didn’t move very far from another.  So if I could find a common area among the one’s I did have, I might be able to find some more of them.  NOTE TO SELF:  Remember to ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS check the page before and after the relatives that you find.  You never know who might be lurking down the street, or be their backyard neighbor.

So I knew my Great Grandparents were in Chicago…their names were Elia and Giovanna Giudice…Unusual, Yes!…but not the most difficult names in the world.  However…if you were a census taker in 1920 Chicago, I’m sure you were extremely frustrated with all the immigrants, their unusual accents, and trying to record all these strange names.  I give them a LOT of credit.  I’m not sure it’s a job I would want to take on myself!  Anyway…I try to find Giovanna…I find absolutely NOTHING…so I try her name as Jennie…I know some of the family referred to them as Leo and Jennie, and I’ve seen those names related to them on other documents.  BINGO!  I have a hit for Jennie Giudice.  Now…this is where the fun starts……….

Jennie Giudice, my great grandmother, is living in Chicago…at 2246 Wentworth Avenue to be exact.  She is living with (or at least “in the home” with), her daughter Sarah (actually it was Sadie), son-in-law Tony, and granddaughter Mary.  But where is Elia (or maybe his name is Leo now).  I know both of them are still living…they died within a few months of each other in 1937 and I’ve visited their graves many times….in Michigan.  So…I start checking beyond their address…not a difficult task…right below Jennie is her son, Dominick at a house either next door or across the street.  Looking further on Wentworth Avenue I find Joe Giudice, Jennie’s son, at 2216.  So this is the right neighborhood…

I take a step back and look at the enumeration district…I’m in Chicago Ward 1, District 34…but I’m on page 22 of 44 pages.  So instead of just looking a page ahead and a page behind them I figured what would I lose to look thru all 44 pages of the district.  It’s all in the same neighborhood…so I might find other relatives, too.  Obviously this is either “Little Italy” or at least an Italian neighborhood…there seems to be a LOT of people who were Italian immigrants listed.  So I paged back to Page 1 and started looking at each name.  I can feel it…there has to be other relatives here.

And I find them…on page 4 I find one of Leo and Jennie’s daughters…she and her children are recorded with her husbands sister and brother-in-law.  But, again this ancestor’s husband is missing….That’s now 2 husbands that have gone AWOL on me!  So…back to the computer screen I go…and keep scanning for familiar names.  Page 18 give me another hit…a BIG one this time…My Grand Parents!  Sam and Frances Giudice have been FOUND!  Six months after their marriage in Chicago…and they are found at 230 Alexander Street…obviously an apartment building due to the number of “households” at the same address….and 4 doors down from a Catholic Church!  Gotta love those Italians and their love for being near a church!

The last one I found in this “neighborhood”, was Joe…Leo and Jennie’s son.  So…that accounts for quite a few of the family members but not nearly close enough for me!  I’m still missing a few husbands…some of them are still AWOL.  Now if I was a truly suspicious person…and I started thinking about all the possible scenarios, I might be able to add about an hour to the Godfather movies…Italian fathers and sons missing…wives and children residing with relatives…Sounds like a “Protection” from the movies!  But…this is not the movies…it’s not “The Godfather”…its just a family with a difficult to spell (and pronounce) name in 1920 Chicago.  I still have a ton of pages of the census to look thru.  I’m sure they are here somewhere.  I better give my brain a rest…stop daydreaming about Al Capone, the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, and relatives that talk like Marlon Brando.  I have census documents to look thru.

Check back soon…I still have about 350+ pages of the Chicago City portion of the 1920 US Federal Census to check thru.  Keep your fingers crossed that I don’t suffer any permanent eye damage reading thru this one!  I sure hope a few more relatives come out of hiding….I’d really like to know where the wives hid these husbands!

My Lucky Number 13!

Everyone has a number that they consider their “Lucky Number”.  I’ve bounced this number around many times…sometimes its 17 (my birth day)…sometimes its 5 (my birth month)…but I’ve always been drawn to the number 13.  Even in my search for family records, 13 seems to be my lucky number.

Growing up I remember hearing a story that my great grandfather was one of 13 brothers that were all Sicilian Mounted Police.  I don’t know if that story is true or not because I have not been able to find any generation with 13 male children, but its an intriguing story.  I even have to laugh a bit because my cousins remember a different story with the great grandfather being on a different family line.  Someday, maybe I’ll be able to figure that one out….but it still reminds me that the number 13 is tapping me on the shoulder.

Well…recently, I hit the number 13 again in my research.  I had just returned home from a local Genealogy Society meeting, grabbed a few snacks, and settled down with my computer.  I wanted to run some searches with my “Minelli” surname….again.  Earlier in the day I had received a full translation of my Great Grandfather, Ferdinando’s birth record and the family was on my mind.  Ferdinando had been given up at birth and I finally had, not only the quick translation of the document, but a word for word translation of it.  It was the midwife that stated his name was to be Ferdinando and his surname Minelli.  Maybe this name had something to do with the family after all. There might still be hope of finding out who his parents were.  I wanted to see what other MInelli’s were nearby to the town of Castrovillari, Cosenza, Calabria, Italy.  So…I did like I had done a dozen times in the past year…click, click, click…..nothing…..click, click, click….nothing…over and over again.  Everything I was finding was the same stuff.  The stuff I already knew and had verified.  Now what?

The kids….lets look for info on the kids!  That would keep me busy for a while and maybe give me something that I didn’t already have.  So…I grabbed my files to see what I already knew and what was already in the files (I hate thinking I found something new, only to find out I had just overlooked it before).  I knew that Ferdinando and his wife, Maria Somma, had 12 kids.  Well…at least I had documented the births of 12.  I also knew that I had one death certificate and one of those children I assumed died before they immigrated to the US, as I have no record of that child coming here.  I also had one…their last child born…that I have no clue what happened to her.  She was born in 1913 (hmmm….is that a “13”?) but was not on the 1920 census…and I have not found a death certificate for her.

So…here I sit, with the files of the “kids” spread out on my bed.  Yes, I love to research while I’m curled up in bed in fuzzy jammies and a nice warm blanket on my bed (I live in Northern Michigan so it gets pretty cold here sometimes).  I start flipping thru the files….Theresina (Theresa)…Michele (Mike)…Pilerio (Lawrence)…Rosina (Rosie)…Natale (Nato)…Francescadina (Frances – my grandmother)…Giuseppina (Josephine)…Frances Rosario Pasquale (Birth in Italy, but not immigrated and no death record yet)….Carmelo (born and died in 1896)…Sam…Annie…and Antonia.  That’s 12 kids…WHEW!!  I knew the least about Carmelo and Frances…They were both born early in Ferdinando and Maria’s marriage.  Carmelo died as an infant.  I had his death registry.  Frances I also assumed has died before the family immigrated to the US because there is no record of him on a ships manifest or in any census records after they arrived here.  So I started with these two children.  Carmelo’s records were BAD copies…so I wondered if I could find them online and at least save them differently (I had found them on microfilm at the Family History Library during my trip to Salt Lake City in 2011).  So I started with Carmelo….

Now, anyone that has ever searched for records online knows the procedure….enter in basic information…wait for the results to pop up…refine your search…find nothing…go back and redo your search…over and over again.  All while hoping for a small hint of a relative.  I entered in  “CARMELO MINELLI” in the search fields…pressed enter….WOW…a lot of hits on this one. So I scanned the list…nope…nope…nope…maybe….click….nope….go back…over and over.  Then I saw a manifest into Ellis Island.  Hmmm…I wonder….who this might be…City says Cosenza, which is the right area.  And I knew that when I found the children’s birth record EVERY Minelli in Cosenza was this family…Fingers crossed.  Then I realized it said CARMELA….not CARMELO.  Female child not male.  Darn it….I was looking for a male child…but I looked anyway.  It said line 11…yep, there was Carmela…Female…age 16 (really?!?!?!)…I don’t have a Carmela…maybe its another family.  So I kept looking….Name and address of nearest relative or friend in country where alien came from….Grandfather Giuseppe Somma!!!!  THAT’S MY GREAT GREAT GRANDFATHER!!!!  I FOUND ANOTHER CHILD!!!  NUMBER 13!!! 

I couldn’t believe what I was reading.  I had just found the answer to another family story!  I had talked with my cousin Sissy about 3 weeks ago.  She told me she remembered her mom talking about a sister that had immigrated with the family to the US (to Chicago, specifically), and had gone back to Italy to get married.  I had heard this story before, but nobody could remember her name.  I think I might have just found her!!!  The best part is….I now added another family member…I had an Aunt Carmela.  She is my new Lucky Number 13!  Now I just have to find out what happened to her…who did she marry?  Did she have children?  Is she related to the Minelli’s that currently live in Cosenza?  Am I related to them too? There are always more questions to answer!  I’m off to find more answers…be back soon!

Trying it again….

Its been almost 2 years since I began my search for my dad’s military records.  I did like everyone else has done…download the form online…fill out the basic information…and wait.  Seven days later I received a form letter saying that my father’s military records were “most likely” lost in a fire in St. Louis in 1973.  Nope…I don’t believe it…so I sent a second request.  Again, I got the same exact packet and form letter…I bet they didn’t even look for his record.  Frustrated, I just pushed it aside and did nothing with the packet where they were asking me to recreate his military experience with dates, locations, and information that I didn’t have…if I had that information, I wouldn’t be requesting the military file in the first place.

Two years later…July 22nd, I sent a new request for the information.  This time thru the local Veteran’s Affairs office.  They said they might be able to help in the process.  Once again, on Monday, July 29th, I received my 3rd identical packet of forms and the same form letter.  I still don’t believe that everything is gone and I don’t believe they even looked for them.

Anyone that has tried to get their own or a relative’s Military Records has heard the story of the fire that swept thru the National Archives in St. Louis on July 12, 1973.  With the 40th anniversary of the fire just passing by, there has been a lot on the internet about, not only the fire, but the recovery and reconstruction of the records.  I have read these stories with  open eyes.  Is it possible that my dad’s records partially survived this fire?  Is it possible that I might be able to get something from the National Archives?  Yeah, I think it’s possible.  I’m not going to give up.  Somebody somewhere has something.  I know this deep in my heart.

In 1992, when my father passed away, we sent the paperwork for the bronze plaque, available thru the government, for the back of his headstone.   My mom filled out tons of paperwork with the help of the funeral home.  She gave them all the information to get the plaque…including his military rank…Master Sergeant.  However, when his plaque arrived and was installed it gave his rank as Sergeant First Class.  With this rank change, somewhere someone was able to verify his rank…so what were they looking at and what have I not been able to get a copy of.  I just want to be able to fill in a few details that I haven’t been able to figure out.  Things like what military base he served at in Ulm, Germany, what military hospital he had his surgery at during his service overseas, what exactly the surgery was and how long was he in the military hospital, what were his specific jobs (we knew he was a cook and oversaw the motor pool….what a combination!), and what was his Unit (many of them have websites).

So here I sit….waiting and wondering what will be in the envelope when it finally arrives in my mailbox.  It could be a week (like the last time) or it could take several weeks (which would mean they at least looked for the file). I really want to just see the papers.  I want to know if he received any commendations, when were his promotions, and get a better idea of his time in the military.  I have tons of pictures that he said were from his time in Germany, but he never talked about them and none of them identify anything or anybody.  But first I need to make sure I fill out everything I can….

I started writing this blog post in July…it’s now Labor Day weekend and I just found this draft copy.  I was going to re-write it, but decided to just continue it.  So let me start from today….

I have almost finished filling out the packet of paperwork that the National Archives sent me…I’ve decided to not only play their game, but I’m gonna win!  Thru my own research I have found newspaper clippings stating when he left to be sworn in, where he was going to serve his basic training, and thru the help of a total stranger I have found out what Military Base he served at in the States…including his unit identification!

As I was piecing together the information, I pulled up my dad’s Find a Grave memorial.  I needed to see the plaque on the back of his headstone to make sure I had the right information.  When his memorial opened on my screen I just sat and stared at it…I don’t think I even blinked for a good 5 minutes.  There was my dad in his military uniform staring back at me! A photo I have never seen before!   Just remembering that moment brings tears to my eyes.

728th Ordnance Maintenance Company, 28th Infantry Division, US Army

That one photo, uploaded by a kind gentleman that had HUNDREDS of photos in a Camp Atterbury Yearbook, opened up a whole new piece to my dad’s military mystery.  I contacted him to get more information about the photo, and found out so much more!  I now have information on his military unit, I have dates of when shipped out to Germany, when he arrived, and even the military ship he sailed over on.  I have purchased the 2 yearbooks from his unit and have hundreds of pages to go thru…but the books are mine and I can take my time and really absorb the information.  But this gives me even more information to send off to the National Archives in hopes of getting my dad’s records and hopefully a list of commendations that I can then purchase as replacements.

28th Infantry Badge
A.K.A. The Bloody Bucket

I’m finalizing his paperwork this afternoon…I finally think I’m ready to send it off and see what happens.  A part of me is scared to drop the envelope into the mail, for fear of yet another form letter ad no closure.  Another part of me is excited that maybe, finally, I will get some answers.

Stick with me…I’ll post my findings when the answer appears in my mailbox!

My Early Records were destroyed in “The Great Flood”….

I spent most of my Friday night reading some of the most vile, vindictive, and malicious comments I have ever read on a Genealogy-themed Facebook page in quite a while.  I still can’t believe that people can be so mean and hateful to people they have never met in their lifetime.  People calling each other names….arguing over who said what and how it had a nasty “tone” to it…and honestly, one of the nicest comments was “Prove it, LIAR”.  All these nasty comments were regarding sourcing your genealogy files and exactly how far back someone can really trace their family history.

I’m not the type of person that wants to brag about how far back I’ve traced my family.  Who cares if I have found royal blood in my family line?  Who cares if I’m related to someone famous?  Who cares if I have skeletons in my family closet?  It doesn’t make me a good genealogist to have more generations than someone I’ve never met.  What makes me a good genealogist is how accurate my tree is, and how I backup my findings.   These petty competitions between people, to the point of verbal bashing, is crazy!

I am very proud to say that I can only go back a few generations on my lines.  In fact, I can only go back to my Grandfather on my maternal line.  And I’m not ashamed of it.  I have clues to who his parents were, but no proof.  I have another line that ends with my great grandfather.  He was given up at birth and handed over to the municipality in Southern Italy.  I have no information on his parents, and probably will never be able to find out anything about them as they were not listed on his birth certificate.  And that’s OK with me.  I’m proud of my family lines and nobody can change that.

So what’s the fascination with trying to brag a bit about what you have and what you tell others?   I find nothing wrong it…as long as you don’t feel like you have to rip someone else apart to make yourself feel good.  When you start the verbal bashing it doesn’t make your tree better than anyone else’s…to me it make you a smaller person.  You become nothing but a genealogy bully.  And nobody likes a bully.

One of these genealogy tirades was, honestly, like watching a tennis match.  Back and forth the multiple participants volleyed the comments…I have a line of public officials…my line has a 3 star general…well, my line includes British Royalty…but the best one stated that if “The Great Flood” wouldn’t have happened, she would be able to prove her line back to Adam.  Even though you can get the rest of her line from your nearest Bible.  WHAT?!?!?!  Really?!!?!?!?!  Come on people!!!

I love to look at family trees…anyone’s family tree…not just mine.  Genealogy is more than a hobby to me.  But…COME ON!  This argument, as comical as it was, now had my full attention!  We’re now blaming “The Great Flood” for destroyed records?  I had to go back and re-read the thread just to make sure I wasn’t missing something.  What started as a discussion about citing sources and making sure you have proper verification, has now turned into a shouting match online about Noah’s Ark!  Some people never cease to amaze me!

Do yourself and everyone that views your tree a favor…make sure you have backup to the claims in your lines.  Don’t let it get out of hand by “tracing your ancestors” back to Noah and the Ark and then tossing a Bible at the nay-sayers as proof of the rest of your line, because “The Great Flood” destroyed the rest of your documents.   Use your Family Bible to gather information, not as a source of Biblical Writing that proves you’re related to Adam and Eve.

Document your sources….for yourself…for your family…and for future generations!  I’m heading back over to Facebook now…I just saw a thread about cleaning headstones and the flames are flying yet again.  I think I’m going to pop some popcorn…it just might be a double feature!

More than Good Stories…..

As I’m typing this blog entry, I’m sitting in my living room watching the latest episode of “Who Do You Think You Are?’.  They are helping Christina Applegate research her grandparents and what happened to their marriage and the custody of their son (Christina’s father).

The story they are telling, although a very emotional revelation for her, is one that happens in many families.  Most families have the same type of stories buried deep within their history.  The families bury those stories and sometimes even make up alternate stories to protect the children, or others in the family, from hearing the truth….trying to protect them from getting hurt.

My first priority to my family history is not to cover up the past, but to find out the true stories, whether good or bad.  Those involved in each situation are still my family and I love each of them dearly.  Their situations, troubles, successes, failures, etc. are part of who they were and make up the fabulous (although not perfect) family that I belong to.  It’s those imperfections that make each family member unique and a true treasure.

As I watch the end of this episode I’m reminded of my own quest to locate the grave of my mother’s brother Jimmy, in Indiana.  His grave location was “lost” in her memory and I told her that I would help find him.  Unfortunately, I didn’t find his grave until last summer…3 years after my mom passed away.  The fact that she died not knowing where Jimmy was buried hurt me deeply.  And part of my drive in finding my family history stemmed from this one search.  In the process of finding Jimmy, I also found my maternal great grandparents graves and also a great uncle.  None of them have headstones.

Watching Christina and her father go to his mothers grave and seeing their emotions as they laid flowers on the unmarked graves of his mother, grandfather, and aunt brought back the parallel experience I had at the foot of Uncle Jimmy’s and my other relatives graves in Hammond, Indiana.  To hear him say that he would get them a headstone and then watch as they revealed the new stone “Three months later”, was touching.  I will eventually get a headstone (or series of stones) for my relatives….someday.  It’s not an expense that I can afford at the moment.  But it is a promise I will keep.

I’m very pleased that the TLC network chose to film this type of story within this series.  Sometimes it helps those recovering from such tragedies to know that others have dealt with the same issues.  A lot of the previous “stories” in this series (when it was on NBC) showed good stories, war heroes, and happy endings.  To see that Christina and her father were willing to share such an emotional part of their family history is as refreshing as it is heartbreaking.  I cried along with them and have a new determination to make sure that my family will soon have proper headstones on their graves, too.

The Family Plot at Oak Hill Cemetery
James Drakopulos, Jr., Charles Lee, Carl Lee, Ida Lee, and a possible unoccupied grave