52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks #52 ~ You ~

The final theme for the 2019 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge is You.  Can you believe I made it?  I DID IT! 

Me – Why did I start studying my family’s history?

I began my journey when I realized that both my grandfather and great grandfather fought in the World Wars and I knew next to nothing about them.

After I made my resolution on social media to research my genealogy, cousins and other close relatives provided previous research, told stories, provided old newspaper clippings, and all kind of photos.  I was lucky because genealogy already existed on the web.  I began with the free two week trial online at Ancestry with the help of my cousin A.F. and then continued with a subscription.  I separated my trees.  One for my mother and one for my father.  I had a pink folder for my mother’s side, and a blue for my father’s side.  I really thought the research could be contained in small folders.  A few months later a pile of papers I had printed covered a large area of my small living room floor.  I sorted it and organized it surnames alphabetically in folders.  (This is now the same way in a cloud.)

For one side of the family, Ancestry was no help because one of my parents was an immigrant.  So I had to order microfilm from my parent’s Italian village of birth (Farindola) for use at the LDS Family History Center.  I do not miss microfilm.  I had had 7 years of Spanish in school and one year of French.  It was not hard to read along in another Romance language until I learned more on a Duolingo app.  After I started researching that way, Antenati in Italy put all of the civil records of that province online. By that time I had all of the films for Farindola on permanent loan at that Family History Center.  Italy is also great in the fact they have a several databases online for their war dead.

Then I ordered German films and films from Campania.  In 2017, Family Search, to save money, began the process of digitizing those films for viewing online.  Last I heard they would be done with their collections in 2020.  Around that time I started studying German but nothing could prepare me for Old German script.  So I concentrated on reading Latin instead in four different countries where my ancestors came from.

While I was researching on films I would email Italy and Switzerland asking for records. Switzerland is amazingly responsive and at that time Italy didn’t charge for scans of records.  I received military records for the first two men that sent me on the journey. Then, when I sent Euro or money transfers, I received records from Naples and Caserta.

I have found cousins and have been found by cousins on Ancestry, My Heritage, in Facebook Genealogy Groups, and here.  I have been sent photos of ancestors, research, and stories by cousins I have never met offline.  A few times I have received articles from distant relatives in Switzerland I never knew I had for both parts of my Swiss ancestry.

One spring I sent letters in German to the Brig area of Canton Valais in Switzerland to everyone with the Heinzen surname.  I provided a small photo of my great grandmother and my email address.  At that point in my research I only had the names of my immigrant great great grandmother’s parents.  This was a recommended strategy by another researcher who had been at it for over twenty five years.  Of the nearly thirty letters I sent, I received about 10 replies.  Some replied that we weren’t related to the same Heinzen branch and wished me luck.  One of those sent me a photo of the aerial view of the town from the a mountain pass.  Another unrelated Heinzen sent me coats of arms of the family.  And two others went to the archives to look up information on my ancestors for me!  One even sent me a small family tree!

One winter I was at a loss on how to find my Schuttler ancestor in Wachenheim.  I emailed the town hall with the only email I could find online.  It turned out to be the Mayor’s email.  He responded within 24 hours.  It was during our presidential election. The first thing he wrote after thanking me for the email was the fact that Wachenheim is not the ancestral village of Trump.  Obviously I was relieved.  The Mayor and his son-in-law D.S. were a huge help to me and sent me tons of information on the Schuttler families in Wachenheim.  Sadly, we didn’t solve the mystery of Johann Schuttler.

Growing up, I knew I was Italian, German, and Swiss, and that the immigrants in our tree were all considered recent immigrants to America.  I found out that a branch of those Italians way back were Roma.  I learned that some of the Swiss were from Northern Italy, that some of the Germans had Swiss and French roots and that some of that French had suspected Tyrol (Austria), Swiss, and Picardie in Northern France roots.

I learned to never trust a transcription in any language on Ancestry or Family Search without reading the record with my own eyes!   Two more tidbits I will tell anyone starting out is that – Don’t discount criminal case files or prison files because they contain genealogical truths and nuggets of information on people in your family; and – Don’t stop when you hit the Old Country because you miss out on the chance to travel in your research and learn a new language.

I know now that not all family stories that sound good are true and that anything less than 2% of some odd ethnicity on your DNA test that is unproveable is meaningless.  I learned the hard way that if you find a jerk in your tree, and you go about trying to prove that ancestor was less than a jerk than what you originally found, then you end up finding more proof of their jerkiness than you wanted to prove in the first place.  It should be shared with your family too.

I learned to never discount the 20 year old message board post on Ancestry about a distant ancestor posted by someone that is probably dead because it provides clues for you on where to go next.

Lastly, I firmly believe that when you suddenly scroll ahead or backwards on the microfilm reel for no reason, or press your mouse pointer ahead 57 pages for no reason to a batch of marriage records you needed on your ancestors in a jumble of un-numbered, un-indexed, non-chronological papers in your non-native tongue, that you definitely had help getting to that spot because one or more of them is standing over your shoulder.  Same goes for the genealogy-related dreams you have.  Pay attention to their nudges because they want their stories to be told.

Happy New Year!

 

 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks #51: Future

This week’s theme is not about an ancestor.  It is about the future – my 2020 research plans.

This year, I completed my family history challenge of telling the story of every immigrant in my direct ancestry.  This was a goal I started in early 2017. The number topped off at over 50 immigrants!

Currently, I am at the point in my research where I am waiting for more church records in Europe to become available to researchers who are across the pond.  I plan to continue to tracing descendants of all of my immigrant ancestors down to the present day to the best of my ability.

I also face what is likely a common problem for family researchers.  A bunch of my female German, Swiss, and French ancestors are at brick walls because their surnames are not referenced in records.  They aren’t like the Italian women who went by one surname for their entire lives and were identified by that surname in civil and church records.

THE GERMANS

The parents of my immigrant third great grandfather Johann Schuttler, a/k/a “My Wagon Guy,” are still unknown.  He was my first immigrant ancestor, arriving in 1849.  I cannot wait for DNA to improve and/or Wachenheim, Hesse church records to become available.  I also think he had non-Chicago relatives here way before his arrival in 1849 that we do not know about yet.

There is a branch of the Scheids from Rodalben that went to New York City before my third great grandmother Elisabetha Scheid Bold arrived in 1880.  I need to research them further and may be adding them to my family history challenge of telling the story of every immigrant in my direct ancestry.

Also in the Scheid ancestry, a branch of the Haucks of Rodalben left the Palatinate in the mid 1750s for current day Hungary.  Their ethnic minority became known as the Danube Swabians.  That is grandma’s Hungarian connection.  She is not Hungarian, but had cousins who went there in the 1700s and practiced their Catholicism and kept their language up until the time of the Nazis.  The Danube Swabians picked the wrong side in WWII though.  I would like to trace them down to the time of WWII.

Speaking of the Palatinate ancestors, I have long believed that the Leies branch has relatives that were in America way way way before the Civil War.

One last thing pertaining to the Palatinate ancestry – to keep in the back of my mind in the future – Huguenots living in and around where some of the my non-Catholic Palatinate ancestors lived.  I still think this could be a rabbit hole, but who knows.

Exciting news elsewhere for some of my other Germans!  Archion.de has scheduled the upload of Protestant records from Thüringen.  This is great news!  The immigrant Nicolai-Gerbing and Köppel-Eckebrecht families came from there to Chicago.  I recently received a book (thank you!) on the genealogical history of Niederzimmern where immigrant Marta Nicolai was born.  This will be a tremendous help!

The maternal side of my immigrant second great grandfather Louis Kirsch’s family is a mystery.  They came from Grohnde in the German state of Niedersachsen.  Hopefully those records will become available someday as well.  I can trace his father’s side to the mining industry in Sankt Andreasberg in the Harz Mountains where they stop because those church records are not available online either.

This leads me to the mysteries surrounding who/how/when Louis came to America as a teenager.  I don’t know for certain if he is the same man that was arrested for running brothels in Chicago’s red light district in 1909, although I know now he was unemployed that year and died of alcoholism.  If a new clue turns up, and he is confirmed as that Louis Kirsch, he will not be the only Chicago ancestor I have that was involved in human trafficking.  I plead for anyone reading this to share a photo of Louis Kirsch!

THE SWISS

Louis’s wife Anna Heinzen’s mother’s family has research blockages in Canton Valais.  Her mother was a Gentinetta, but which known Gentinetta brother from Bognanco, Italy did she descend from?  What about her mother’s ancestry from the same village of birth of the famous Cesar Ritz?  When will the records from the Catholic Churches in Canton Valais, Switzerland become available online?  Anna’s Heinzen ancestry traces back to an arrested “warlock” named Martin Heinzen tried in 1629 in Ganter, Brig, Valais, who was my 10th great grandfather.  He was Protestant.  Since there are records that show these lines, why not records for her mother’s family?!

Also, Anna’s brother Leo became a Spiritualist, despite being raised Catholic, and was a known mesmerist healer in Battle Creek, Michigan before passing away in the early 1960s.  You know there is a story there, right?  You knoowwwww it…

THE FRENCH

French genealogical records and their availability to researchers continues to impress me.  It is amazing what I have found concerning ncestors from the 1600s and a branch of foresters in the service of the Counts in Bas-Rhin going back to the 1200s.  I have an ancestor named Viko.  They don’t think he used a surname at all.  Cool name.

A branch of the Italians, some of the Massei, from Farindola, went to France as well.

THE ITALIANS

Everyone loves Italian.  I have been so lucky that for my Abruzzese and Campanians, most of the civil records I need are online for viewing in the comfort of my own home.  I await the availability of records from Teramo, where a branch of my Farindolesi lived for a few years after leaving Penne before coming to Farindola.  Cesidio’s mother Elisabetta Rossi was born in Arsita, Teramo.  His grandmother Anna Antonia Ricci on that side moved around with her family a lot.  I don’t know their origins.  Another branch of my Pennesi ancestry came from Castelli, Teramo.

I cross my fingers that records from Bognanco, Piemonte will become available so I can figure out which Gentinetta branch I descend from.

Wouldn’t it be great if the Catholic Church records of the Dioceses of Penne and Nola went online taking me back even further?!  (I should cut down on my explanation points and make sure my rambling doesn’t turn into 6 pages hehe.)

I want to know too what killed my fifth great grandfather Nicola Carusi in Farindola because I don’t think it was natural causes.

Finally, I was recently contacted by another researcher wanting to know what I knew about a brother-in-law of my great grandfather Carmen Ferraro.  I think Carmen definitely has more secrets.  His brother Antonio definitely did, am I right?  Does that mean his father has some too?

BLOGGING

In the past I planned to turn this space into a database that would require me to pay a monthly fee.  I don’t have this idea anymore.  I have my two major trees at Ancestry, continue to be active on My Heritage, check in on genealogy Facebook groups from time to time connecting with distant cousins, and have always been willing to share when contacted.  I have one more post in 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks and will be cutting back in 2020 because is too much to keep up weekly while I continue to attend Writer’s Wordshop meetings at the library.

There are great ideas on other genealogy blogs.  Maybe something shorter like series of sharing newspaper clippings I find on people in my tree would be great.  Thank you for that idea!

Do you have any comments or additions?  Please feel free to contact me at any time – cinziarosagenealogy@comcast.net

Merry Christmas!  Happy Hannukah!  Happy Yule!  

Buon Natale!

Frohe Weinachten!

Joyeux Noël!

 

 

 

 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks #50: Serafina’s Chicken Stew

This 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks theme is Tradition.  For this theme I choose to share my bisnonna’s traditional Abruzzese stew recipe.  She was from Farindola, Italy.  I am stingy with personal family recipes and do not like to share them!  But there is an online project in progress for genealogy addicts like me, where we can submit family recipes for a group cookbook, and will have the opportunity to purchase a copy after it is printed.  This is one of the recipes I will be sharing there.

If you are interested in checking out the details of this recipe project, you must be a member of the Genealogy Addicts Anonymous Family Recipes group on Facebook.  They are found by clicking here.

Now here is the delicious recipe I grew up with –

Serafina’s Stew

Saute about 1 pound or more of chicken and brown it.

Add one onion (cut julienne style) and three cloves of chopped garlic and cook until they are soft.

Add 2 cups of crushed tomatoes and about 1/4 cup of water.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Add a generous amount of either fresh basil or dried basil.  (The amount of your liking.  I usually eyeball my spice amounts and taste it while it is cooking to see if it needs more of something.)

Cube three Idaho potatoes, add to stew and cook until the potatoes are tender.

You may add chopped mushrooms if you desire.

Enjoy!

 

 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks #49: Craft ~ Vittoria Di Norscia and Vittoria Gambacorta of Penne ~

This week’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks theme is Craft.  Two ancestresses in my tree in Penne, Pescara, Abruzzo were spinners and lacemakers.   They both lived and died in the same Rione of Penne so they likely knew each other.  Perhaps they may have even been related.

Image via Pinterest

My 5th great grandmother Vittoria Gambacorta was born around 1770 in Penne to Massimo Gambacorta and a lady named Elisabetta.  She married Blasio Della Bricciosa and they had at least 6 children, as follows:

Lorenzo Giorgio

Sabatino Gennaro Stanislao

Domenico Antonio

Maria Domenica (my ancestress)

Barbara

Anna

Vittoria passed away in 1832 in Rione San Giovanni, Penne.  Who is she to me?  She is the great grandmother of Cesidio Marcella’s mother Elisabetta Rossi.

My 6th great grandmother Vittoria Di Norscia was born around 1750 in Penne to Giuseppe Lorenzo Massimo Di Norscia and Angela Maria Di Costanzo.  She married Massimo Nicola Auriano/Uriano/Uriani.  He is the longest living ancestor I ever found – whom I will likely visit later this month before the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge ends.

Vittoria and Massimo Nicola had at least 3 children as follows:

Massimo Antonio Nicola

Anna Domenica (my ancestress)

Maria Anna Massimina

Vittoria Di Norscia passed away in 1829 in Rione San Giovanni, Penne.  Who is she to me?  She is the great great grandmother of Maria Luigia Massei’s mother Angela Maria Di Massimo.

Do you have any questions, comments, additions, or corrections?  Please email me – cinziarosagenealogy@comcast.net.

 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks #48: Thief ~ Paolo Carusi, Commander of the Urban Guard of Farindola ~

This week’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks theme is Thief.  My ancestor Paolo Carusi was in charge of catching brigands in his village in the early 1800s.

Merriam – Webster defines brigand as one who lives by plunder usually as a member of a band.  A brigand would be a thief then.

According to Wikipedia, brigandage has exited in Italy since ancient times.  Wikipedia also notes that bad administration and suitable land terrain encouraged the development of brigandage.  When the Bonapartists came to Abruzzo, the local brigands evolved into a form of a political resistance.  It was mentioned in the book I have previously posted about here, earlier this year, called Storia di Farindola, Dalle Origini ai Giorni Nostri by Antonio Procacci, that some of the known brigands in the Farindola area were former soldiers who had fought against the Bonapartists in the north of Italy in the 1790s.

During the occupation of Italy by the Bonapartists, the French authorities formed the Guardia Urbana in Farindola to counteract the brigandage prevalent there and in its environs.  They appointed my 6th great grandfather Paolo Carusi commander of the guards in Farindola.  He commanded 12 French soldiers sent there to root out the local brigands.

In a town the size of Farindola, Paolo was likely responsible for the capture of some of our relatives.

While I was researching for this post, I found mention of a brigand named Marco Sciarra from Abruzzo who was the bane of the Spanish Viceroy in Naples in the 1500s.  I thought that was humorous since my 4th great grandmother from Farindola, in Abruzzo was named Maria Domenica Sciarra.  She was the wife of Massimo Nicola Marcella and was a midwife.

If you would like to read more about Italy’s brigands and checkout some photos, you may find the webpage called Made in South Italy interesting.  You can click here to go to that website.

You really didn’t think I would name all of the thieves in my tree did you?  

Do you have any questions, comments, corrections, or additions, please email me – cinziarosagenealogy@comcast.net.

The aforementioned book is available @ http://www.gelsumino.it (L’Aria di Penne).  The gentleman that has the website is very helpful and I am so very thankful he has made all of the information therein available to other researchers. 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING COUSINS!

 

 

 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks #47: Soldier ~ Colonel Gerard M. Leies ~

This week’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks theme is Soldier.

I again honor Colonel Gerard Leies, one of our nation’s first nuclear physicists.

Re-post – Veteran’s Day 2017.

Theme #48 is Thief.  Do any of my relatives have a suggestion for an ancestor that falls under the theif theme?

 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks #46: Poor Woman ~ My Great Grandmother ~

This week’s challenge is Poor Woman.  There are only 6 more themes left in this challenge!

People express forms of gratitude in November in the United States.  We give thanks to veterans during this month and to the harvest’s bounty with the holiday Thanksgiving.  It is also apropos to give thanks to our ancestors that made do for the good of their families. Their burdens obviously made it possible for future generations.

My immigrant great grandmother Serafina Merlenghi, who I have profiled in the past in several posts, lived in poverty in Farindola, Italy. When she was raising three young children, including my grandfather Biagio Filippo, my great grandfather Cesidio came to America, after World War I, to earn money to send home for food and clothing because there was no work in their village.

While he worked in New York City as a bird of passage for low wages, like hundreds of other Italian laborers helping build the skyscrapers, he would often go a little hungry to be able to send more money home to Serafina and his children. I have lately heard from a cousin that Serafina had knowledge of folk remedies and that she thought Serafina may have earned a little money in Italy that way or as a midwife. Sadly she is no longer around for me to ask… Regardless, they had so little, there was not enough money to send the children to school for more than a few grades.

I remember when we would visit my great grandparents in the United States. They had a nice house and the food was always plentiful. Their hard work, and Serafina’s famous, stubborn perseverance paved the way for their oldest son and their descendants in the United States to have opportunity.

Thank you Serafina and Cesidio.

Do you have any questions, comments, additions, or corrections? Feel free to email me – cinziarosagenealogy@comcast.net.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks #45: Rich Man ~ Jean Nicholas Scheidt, Owner – Moulin D’Eschviller ~

This week’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks theme is Rich Man.

My 5th and 6th great grandfathers of Farindola, Nicola Carusi, and Paolo Carusi, were wealthy men.  I have profiled them in the past.

This week I memorialize what I know about my 7th great grandfather Jean Nicholas Scheidt of Loutzviller, Moselle, France, who lived from 1655 to 1724 and wasn’t rich by today’s standards of living in a mansion with servants.  He was the town’s tailor and owned decent properties, one which included a business.  He also owned a fair amount of livestock, and had a large family.

Who is he to me?  He is the direct ancestor of my immigrant second great grandmother Elisabetha Scheid Bold, who was born in Rodalben, Germany in 1822.

Jean Nicholas Scheidt was born in 1655 in Loutzviller to parents Hans Nicquel Scheidt and an unknown wife.  It is believed his father was a miller.  In 1679 he married Catherine Budel/Bittel of Loutzviller, daughter of miller Nicolas Budel/Bittel and Catherine Zeigler.

They had the following children:

Jean Michel

Jean Georges

Pierre

Laurent

Frederic – my ancestor

Jean Nicholas

Phillippe

Marie Elisabetha

Agnes

and an unknown daughter

There are various summaries of transcribed and translated notarial deeds floating around on the internet from Archives 57 in France explaining transfers of properties involving Jean Nicholas.  Some of the terms describing land measure may not translate into today’s English terms.  A few are listed below.

• After Catherine Budel/Bittel’s father passed away in 1699, Jean Nicholas bought all of the estates of his father-in-law in Loutzviller, Eschviller, Ormesviller and Schweyen, which include the mills – Moulin D’Eschviller.
• A deed of  1704 specifies that he is a seller of half of the Moulin D’Eschviller on the Schwalb River.  Jean Nicholas sells this half to Jean Philippe Kneip for 300 Reichsthalers.
• On August 6, 1704, Jean Nicholas intervened with Etienne Martini, mayor, Guillaume Kinder, Jean Nicolas Maus, and Dominique Muller de Loutzviller to sell to Philippe Buchheit a communal land to build at the price of one ecus?   The same day, he intervened under the same conditions to sell to Guillaume Kinder a communal place at the price of 5 Florins.
• On June 14, 1707, Jean Nicholas, a tailor at Loutzviller, sold to the parish of Loutzviller, represented by Adam Scheffer, mayor of Schweyen, Mathias Drexler and Guillaume Kinder of Loutzviller, Nicolas Zimmermann and Jean Koch of Breidenbach, 10 feet? of Lorraine to serve as school at the price of 64 Reichsthalers.

Because his signature appears at the bottom of each document, his descendants can assume he was literate.

In 1708, during the census of the taxable homes of Loutzviller it is shown that –
– Jean Nicholas Scheidt is called laborer with 1 boy over 16 years, 1 boy under 16 years and 3 girls;
¤ In land he owns: 77 journals of cultivated land, 4 days of meadows and 4.5 days of wasteland
¤ In livestock he owns: 3 cows, 30 sheep, 15 pigs and 2 oxen
¤ In materials: 1 plow and 5 horses (to pull)
¤ House staff: 1 servant

The property on which the Moulin D’Eschviller of 1699 existed is now part of another mill containing a newer structure built in 1731.  Today it is also called Moulin D’Eschviller, and is an environmental museum.  Both mills were grain mills.

This is a link to Site Du Moulin D’Eschviller.

They also have a Facebook page where I learned they graduated a class of beekeepers earlier this year.

Do you have any questions on my sources, comments, corrections, or additions?  Feel free to email me – cinziarosagenealogy@comcast.net.

Happy Dia de Los Muertos!

 

 

 

 

 

 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks #44 ~ An Update on the Mysterious Antonio Ferraro ~

This week’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks theme is Trick or Treat. For me that means – trick or treat – there are only 8 more weeks left in this challenge!

This week I am providing an update on my great grandfather Carmen Ferraro’s brother Antonio Ferraro, who was one of the first immigrants I profiled back in 2017. That post can be found by clicking here (The Disappearing Antonio Ferraro).

It all started when I was contacted on Ancestry a few weeks ago by someone researching a man with the same name. I couldn’t believe the details she was telling me. Antonio had two sons and it turns out she is our cousin! I am so glad she found me and told me these new details.

She knew when Antonio Ferraro got to the United States! Finally! Antonio arrived in New York on November 3, 1899 with his wife Amelia Limoncelli on the Chateau Yquem. They left the Port of Naples on November 18, 1899. On the ship manifest, Antonio was listed as a laborer, being able to read and write, and was bringing $100.00 with him. He stated he was never in the United States before and was going to New York and would not be meeting any relatives. His health condition and that of Amelia were listed as good.

In 1901, Antonio and Amelia had a son named Angelo and another son named Giovanni Antonio in October, 1903. At the time of Giovanni Antonio’s birth, Antonio’s occupation in New York City, while he was residing at 156 Navy Street, was listed as stableman. Approximately a month and a half later, Antonio’s father, my second great grandfather Angelo Ferraro, came to America and gave his destination as that same Navy Street address to meet his son Antonio. At that time, the Italians living on Navy Street in Brooklyn were predominantly Neapolitans.

Shortly thereafter, it is believed Antonio went back to Italy, and Amelia when to look for him. On October 12, 1905, she returned with her sons and according to that ship manifest, without Antonio. Was he in Italy? If so, when did he come back?

Meanwhile, on November 12, 1906, Antonio married Elisa Peluso in New York City. Amelia was still alive, and as of right now, a divorce has not been found.

Antonio’s first wife, and the mother of his children, Amelia passed away on December 9, 1908. Eventually their sons were placed in an orphanage. Elisa went and took them with her into her home and raised them. We know Elisa received an Enoch Arden divorce from Antonio in 1920 on grounds of abandonment.

These are some of the mysteries surrounding Antonio that may or may never be solved:

• Did he go to Italy again before he married Elisa?
• Was his marriage to Amelia dissolved?
• If the first marriage wasn’t dissolved, what was it like for Amelia to have Antonio living in the same town married to another woman?
• Is there a possibility of more than two wives?  Do I have cousins from Antonio Ferraro alive in Italy today?

Do you find it fantastical too that he was later a professor in a monastery in Aversa, Italy? 

It was great to be relayed this information by a cousin.  Really great!  My great grandfather was not the only one in the family that makes their descendants scratch their heads.  Maybe some day we will find out more about Carmen’s and Antonio’s sister Giovannina.

Do you have any corrections, additions, or questions about my sources?  Please email me – cinziarosagenealogy@comcast.net.

 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks #43: Transportation

This week’s theme Transportation is wide open!

My third great grandfather Johann Schuttler came to America during the 1849 Gold Rush to live with his Schuttler relatives in Chicago and work at Peter Schuttler Wagons.   Peter Schuttler Wagons are classified in wagon lore as “Wheels that Won the West.”  The company steadily grew and enriched Peter Schuttler when they were awarded a government contract during the Civil War to build artillery and commissary wagons.  Johann became the company’s foreman.  During the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, Johann used his Schuttler wagon, filled with mattresses and blankets, to drive his family out of Chicago where they watched the fire from the prairie.  They returned a few days later on that wagon to discover that their house miraculously did not burn while those surrounding it were in ashes.

Steamships transported my immigrant ancestors to America, with the exception of the last one that used an airplane to cross the Atlantic.

The SS Anna Catharina, sailing under a Prussian flag, conveyed the Gerbings from Hamburg to Quebec City in 1852.  The voyage likely took around 90 days.

The SS Jenny, also sailing under the Prussian flag, conveyed the Eckebrechts from Bremen to New York in 1866.  I tried to locate history on this ship and kept on finding links to stories about a haunted ship of the same name, sailing under St. George’s cross for England.  This is clearly not the ship from Germany.

The SS Scheidam, of the Netherlands-American Steamship Line, sailing from Rotterdam to Castle Garden, New York conveyed Elisabeth Scheid Bold and her daughter Rosa Bold in 1880.

The SS St. Laurent, owned by Compagnie Generale Transantlantique, sailing under the French flag, conveyed Anne Marie Aloisia Heinzen from Le Havre, France to Castle Garden, New York in 1885.  The St. Laurent was built in a shipyard in Saint-Nazaire and operated up until 1902 when she was scrapped in Italy.

The SS Lombardia, sailing under the flag of the Kingdom of Italy, conveyed Angelo Ferraro, Carmen Ferraro, his three oldest sisters, and Filomena Napolitano in 1903 and 1904 from Naples to Ellis Island, New York in a voyage that took approximately 2 weeks.

The SS Giulio Cesare, also sailing under the flag of the Kingdom of Italy, conveyed Cesidio Marcella from Naples to Ellis Island in 1923.  It was commissioned by the Italian Societa Anonima di Navigazione and built by a British Company.  In 1936 it was transferred to Lloyd Triestino.  In 1942 she was chartered to the International Red Cross in Geneva.  In 1944, while off the coast near Trieste, it was sunk in an allied air attack.

The MS Vulcania, an historical Italian luxury ocean liner, sailing under the Italian flag, conveyed Serafina Merlenghi and her youngest son from Naples to Ellis Island in 1948.  The liner is known for being the first liner offering private balconies for tourists.  It was used to transport troops in the 1930s for Italy and re-patriated Italians from Africa.  She conveyed Italian immigrants to South America in 1940, including Italian statesmen, nobility, and opera singers to Argentina and Brazil.  The liner also was used by the Italian government to transport troops to North Africa in 1941 and transported American troops at the end of WWII.

When the Vulcania was returned to the Italia Line, she made numerous voyages from Genoa-Naples-New York.  It was on one of those that Serafina traveled to the United States to live with Cesidio in Philadelphia.  The MS Vulcania hit a rock off France in 1972 and sank on her way to be scrapped by a Taiwanese company.   You can read more about this liner here at Wikipedia.

The photo on the right is a brochure photo used to advertise the MS Vulcania.

Coincidentally, Serafina’s and Cesidio’s son was a passenger on the doomed SS Andrea Doria in December 1955 before she was hit by the MS Stockholm and sank near Nantucket.

Do you have any questions, comments, or corrections?  Please feel free to email me – cinziarosagenealogy@comcast.net.