Tombstone Tuesday - Jonathan and Thankful Hunt

From the Bridge Street Cemetery in Northampton, Massachusetts

Buried here ye bodies of Jonathan & Thankful Hunt children of Deacon Jonathan Hunt who were killed by lightening July 5 1799 in ye 13 year of his age & ye 7 year of her age.

Surname Saturday - Griggs

My most difficult quest has been my finding my family in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania. Many of the records I needed were lost in a local flood, to time or because they did not exist yet when my family arrived there in the early days of the county. When they arrived Susquehanna County did not exist yet. Pictured here is my 2nd great grandfather Abel Kent and on the back of this picture is a notation my grandfather wrote "Etta's father, Abel, son of Carlton and Sally taken before Etta's marriage". Indeed! Her father died when she was only 7 years old. Abel Kent died on 15 September 1868 so the picture must predate that. Aside from the name Sally, I did not know anything when I began looking into the Kent family. I found references that her surname was Griggs but those references also included parents that could not possibly be hers due to their ages. So I put Sally off to the side...until this week I discovered Ancestry had put church records for Susquehanna County online which included Methodist Churches. I knew Etta Kent married Charles Dewey who was a Methodist so I had high hopes. I searched each and every record for Susquehanna County and I found a baptism record for Sally! Not only that but the record dated August 20, 1797 stated "Polley Griggs wife of Noah Griggs and children Lucina, Salley and Susie". So, now I finally have verification of her parents and know they arrived in the very early days of the county from Connecticut. I already knew they came from Connecticut and her father was probably Noah so I went to my Griggs notes and was able to trace her Griggs line back to Salem, Massachusetts. Sally's 3rd great grandfather was Dr. William Griggs who began his life in the colonies in the same place as the Kent's, Gloucester, Massachusetts. He removed to Salem as the town doctor where he got caught up in the infamous witch trials. Sadly he "diagnosed" people as witches during this time. There is an abundance of information on him so I will be busy researching her family for some time. One thing is clear...his sons left Salem shortly after the witch trials for Connecticut. I am certain the participation of their father in the witch trials had everything to do with that but I am hoping I will be able to find documents that prove this. Doctor William Griggs died 4 months after the conclusion of the witch trials. Which leads me to wonder if there is a story behind that as well. In the meantime, I am so grateful to have access to so many new records becoming available online. I have found so much this week, my head is spinning! I even found newly released records for my mother this week so it pays to never give up and keep checking.

The farm of Abel Kent, Jr. and Diadema Horton in Herrick, Susquehanna County

Wordless Wednesday - Nonno at Work

My grandfather, Joe Napolitano, at his job as chef at The Chicago Club, Michigan Avenue, Chicago

Shopping Saturday - Ebay and Genealogy?!

For years I have used Ebay as a resource for genealogy. Besides the obvious - books, it can be used for so much more. In the days before Google Earth it provided a great resource for vintage pictures of my Italian ancestral home towns. I learned early to check both the American Ebay and Ebay Italia for rare books and found many old postcards in these searches. On Ebay Italia I even found a postcard of a small country store run by the Zingone family in Montalto Uffugo. I knew exactly who this family was! I also found a historical document from the neighboring town of Rende that would have been posted in the town and throughout the area as well as mailed to other officials throughout Italy. The letter was a plea for help after an earthquake to outsiders and a notice of comfort to the citizens that help would be coming soon. This original historical document described the destruction and even gave a precise time the earthquake stuck. I was able to purchase it for a very modest fee and put it on my website to share with anyone with roots in the area. This letter gave me a insight into the suffering of my ancestors.

I have also been able to use Ebay for my American roots as well. For those with early American roots it is possible to read about our direct line ancestors in a multitude of books as well as the early days of the towns they settled. These books are (naturally) available for sale on Ebay but so much more can be found. Early post cards offer images of places our grandparents and great grandparents lived as it looked in their lifetimes. I have even found postcards of ancestors homes. Since most of these postcards (if they are truly vintage) are copyright free, they can be used on your websites and scrapbooks. Artwork can also offer views of towns that go even further back in time and if you are very lucky, you may find vintage portraits or photographs of family members. Vintage letters and envelopes can also be found that were addressed to or written by someone's ancestors. Perhaps it was yours?

Tombstone Tuesday

I have been totally renovating my website for my Early American family so I have been going through my pictures from my genealogy trip in May. So today I have decided to combine Tombstone Tuesday and Wordless Wednesday. I will offer no commentary, I will be posting just captions of the location and names of the cemeteries tombstone pictures . The pictures will tell all I want to say. There really are no words that can describe what I want to say better than the pictures can.

Riverside Cemetery, Middletown, Middlesex County, Connecticut

Resting Place of some of the founders of Middletown and Hartford, Connecticut

Old Center Cemetery, Suffield, Hartford County, Connecticut

Detail of the same grave to show the several broken headstones lying flat around the base of the Remington monument.

In this picture: Many crushed headstones line the side of the church.

Old North Burying Grounds, Middlefield, Middlesex County, Connecticut

Notice the other broken stones surrounding these fallen, broken stones.

Surname Saturday - Scrugli

The mother of my grandmother was Natalina Scrugli. Not a common surname either here or in Italy. This week I had a major breakthrough with her family that got me 3 more generations of her family. This made me think about her...her life, her struggles and what an amazing woman she was. I am so proud of her. So today I would like to share her story. Natalina Scrugli was born about 1866 probably in Tropea, Italy. I still have not found her birth act, however, her other siblings were born there. Her father was a lawyer around the time of her birth and she grew up in a life of privilege. She was very close with her sisters Carmela and Maria and her brother Gaetano. According to the family story her family moved from Tropea to Cortale when her father was assigned a political post by the Italian government there. They lived in "Upper Cortale" in an area known as "Donnafiore" and had servants and dress makers on staff to attend to their needs. Her older sister Carmela was the first to marry and she married the Italian Ambassador to Egypt. Natalina married Giuseppe Maiuolo and had 4 children with him. Natalina's second child, a daughter named Caterina was outside the house playing on summer day when she was 4 years old. When Natalina went to check on her she found the lifeless body of her daughter. Caterina ate some poisonous berries according to the family story. Her older sister Maria told us the screams of Natalina when she found her daughter could be heard throughout the town. When my grandmother was born, she was named after this sister. It is unknown when Natalina's husband died, however, Giuseppe Maiuolo died leaving Natalina with 4 children to care for alone. Around the same time her sister Carmela became a widow after her husband contracted malaria on one of his trips to Egypt. Her younger sister Maria also became widowed around the same time. Natalina's brother who was living in Chicago arranged a marriage between his youngest sister Maria and a friend in Chicago who was also from Cortale. In April, 1904 Natalina had to say goodbye to her sisters Carmela and Maria and her niece Francesca as they left Cortale permanently for Chicago. This must have broke Natalina's heart. On the 8th of September 1905 an huge earthquake rocked Cortale. It's epicenter was in the nearby town of Nicastro (now Lamezia Terme) which buried the town and a large portion of it's population. This must have been the last straw for Natalina because in November of the same year she packed a steamer trunk and brought her 3 children to Chicago. Natalina bought a 3 flat on Loomis Street in the heart of Chicago's "Little Italy". Today that building is gone and in it's place is a statue of Christopher Columbus. Soon after, she joined the organization Societa Italiano. She opened a butcher shop in the lower level of the building and she began sponsoring Italians to come to Chicago from Italy.

She used the upper floors of her apartment building as a boarding house for recent Italian immigrants, many of whom she sponsored to come here. She would rent space for them to live until they could find jobs and homes of their own. She helped so many families come to Chicago and begin their new lives. Unfortunately her ledgers of the boarders names was destroyed in a local flood. To honor Natalina and all the work she did for Societa Italiano, they purchased her headstone which identifies her as a member. I am proud of my great grandmother and her choices which led her to more difficult journey in life to help others. Her ancestry is:
Antonino Scrugli and Caterina Cipollini
Antonino Scrugli and Caterina Morano
Antonino Scrugli and Natalina Merotta
Girolamo Scrugli and Carmela LaTorre

Relatives of the Day - Gaetano and Antonio Cipollini

The mother of my grandmother was Natalina Scrugli. She was the daughter if Antonino Scrugli and Caterina Cipollini. On 18 March 1850 at Santa Caterina Church in Tropea, Antonino and Caterina were married in a double wedding ceremony. Also married that day in the same church at the same time was Antonino's sister Natalina Scrugli and Caterina's brother Ferdinando Cipollini. This story is about the son's of Ferdinando and Natalina. The first child of Ferdinando and Natalina they named Gaetano in honor of his paternal grandfather as was Italian tradition. He was born on 18 February 1851 in Tropea. Sometime before February, 1857 Ferdinando and Natalina moved to Monteleone Calabro (today this town is the City of Vibo Valentia) because on 15 February 1857 a second son named Antonio was born. These two children would go forth to write beautiful music which included an opera that takes place in Monteleone Calabro.

Gaetano showed an amazing aptitude for music at an early age and was sent to a music conservatory in Napoli for further training and instruction. In the late 1800's in Italy, if you wanted to see your opera performed, Milano was the place to be. Gaetano left for Milano to pursue his dream. While in Milano he wrote an opera and called it Simeta. The story called for very opulent sets and costumes. Although this ambitious opera was well received by the press when the libretto was printed, and even compared to Puccini's La Scala, poor business transactions, the costs to produce expensive costumes and sets and long negotiations lasting over 7 years prevented this work from premiering onstage. This failure would haunt Gaetano to the end of his life. He wrote many others both with and without his brother Antonio, including "La Calabria". At the age of 80 Gaetano entered a home that was set up in Milano for aging musicians called Casa Verdi named for Giuseppe Verdi. Gaetano died at Casa Verdi, on 2 October 1935.

Antonio began his career as a teacher of Latin and Greek languages which he taught for a time in Monteleone Calabro schools. Antonio possessed a gift with words and began writing poetry, novels and short stories. He also translated and published works from Latin and Greek and became an esteemed critic of literature. In 1884 he collaborated with Pietro Mascagni and together they wrote the romantic opera "Alla Luna" (The Moon). He joined his brother Gaetano in Milano and wrote several opera with his brother Gaetano including Il Piccolo Haydn, Simeta, Gennarello, and Ninon De Lenclos. Antonio Cipollini died in 1920 in Milano. When I think of Calabrian culture, I think of the 2 brothers who spent their lives doing what they loved and promoting the Calabrese culture in the process.