December 29th – Today in Family History

Today in family history in 1797, my fourth great grandmother Francesca Paola Innocenza Carusi was born in Farindola to Signor Nicola Carusi and Signora Giovanna Marzola.  Francesca grew up during the time of the brigands and the French occupiers in Farindola.  Her grandfather Paolo Carusi, the town’s scribe, was named as a Lieutenant of the Urban Guard, which was formed by the French occupiers to quell the actions of the brigands in and around Farindola.  It is suspected that Paolo had some kind of military experience that allowed him to be given that title.  The brigands happened to be made up of a lot of former soldiers who fought the French.  The worst of these were the local leader, Massimo Marcella, and the Dell’Orso family.  They used to meet in Massimo’s home in contrada Trosciano.  

When Francesca was 9, a large gang of brigands in Farindola had a gunfight with French occupiers and the Urban Guard.  6 brigands were killed and the rest went back into hiding.  Francesca’s father Nicola ordered the French to go after those that fled.  That did not go well.  Even though the Farindolesi sided with the French at the beginning of the gunfight, they did not afterwards.  Nicola and his entire family, Francesca included, and 4 of her siblings, one of which was a baby, were threatened with their lives.  So Nicola wrote to the French General Chavardes and asked to be hidden and be given rations.  He took his entire family to Penne to hide for a few weeks.  At this time Nicola was the miller in Farindola.  By 1809 he became the Cancelliere of Farindola.  See Storia di Farindola at gelsumino.it. (Some of this data also comes from my cousin G. Carusi in Italy.)

Francesca married 2 times before she married my 4th great grandfather Sabatino Massei.  She had no children with her other husbands, but had 4 with Sabatino.  Her sister Tomassina was a midwife and the town’s Receiver of the Foundlings at the church.  Francesca died at contrada Macchie at age 80.  These were my nonna’s ancestors.  The Dell’Orso family were ancestors of my nonno.  Massimo Marcella is likely a relation of my nonno as well.  By the way, if you take a good look at the transcribed baptism in the image below, you will see that a lady named Anna Dell’Orso was the midwife present at Francesca’s birth.  

Farindola Processetti

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Today in Family History

November 9

Today in Family History ~

In 1700 – my 6th great grandparents Jakob Johann Wenceslaus Leyies-Trauden and Anna Ottilia Schwartz were married in the Reformed Church of Contwig, Southwestern Germany, near the border with Lorraine.  These were ancestors of my grandmother Leies.  In this time period, the Leies surname was Trauden Leyies/Layies Trauden and recorded in church records as Lais, Leis, Loys, Trauden, Trauten, Traudi, Trauti, Traut, Leys, etc.  Genealogists have speculated that Trauden was a mother’s surname at one point.  But nobody really knows.  Jakob was the son of Wenceslaus (Wentz) Trauden Leyies and a woman whose name is unknown. 

After the Thirty Years War, Wenceslaus Trauden Leyies and his family were among the first 5 immigrant families to settle in the district of Oberhausen.  Wenceslaus came in 1686 and purchased 1 and 1/2 lots of land in 1706.  Each lot consisted of 14 acres of meadows, 3 acres of gardens, and 30 acres of manure fields. The primary source of livelihood for the inhabitants of Oberhausen was agriculture.  (The information on their land was received from the Leyes family with whom we share ancestry.  Their ancestor Michael moved to another village and the surname was spelled Leyes.  Our ancestors moved to Nuenschweiler and it began to be spelled Leies.)

The only clue about their origin is the fact that Wenceslaus’s son Anton went by the nickname Donges and Donges is used in the High German language – one can look to see where that language was spoken at that time period.  Lorraine spoke a German dialect, by the way.    

Anna Ottilia Schwartz was born in the area of Oberhausen and her father Hans Adam was the local Gerichtsschoffe which is like a sheriff.  We only know that her mother’s name was Magdalena.  They too were members of the Reformed Church. 

In 1717 – My 7th great grandparents Anna Apollonia Ziehl and Jean Michel Conrad were married in the Catholic Church of Hornbach, Germany, also near the border with Lorraine.  Anna Apollonia was the daughter of farmers Johann Christian Ziehl, a farm manager, and a lady named Anna Maria Barbara from Dietrichingen. 

Jean Michel was Hans Michael Conrad in the records at this time, but next to his name was the word Schweyen.  I discovered that it was a village in Moselle, France.  He was the first ancestor I found in my tree from France.  He was baptized Jean Michel Conrad on December 3, 1697 in Loutzviller, just over the border with Germany.  He was the son of Jean Gregor Conrad and Elisabetha Stauder.  Jean Michel’s grandfather was named Jean Stauder dit le Suisse.  “Dit le Suisse” means “known as”  Jean the Swiss. Jean Stauder was born in Volmunster, France though.  It was actually Jean dit le Suisse’s father who was born in Switzerland.  What was he doing in France? I do not know.  Jean Michel’s baptism is one of the photos attached.  He too was a farmer.  They were all ancestors of my grandmother too.

Finally, in 1881, also among these family members of my grandmother Leies, from this same area of Germany, there was a story printed in the Chicago Tribune newspaper involving her father’s immigrant uncle Ferdinand Bold, who had luckily survived the Grand Street Tenement Disaster in New York City.  His mother-in-law and brother-in-law did not survive, while his wife was severely injured.  His infant son was unscathed.

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Today in Family History

On today’s date (September 9), the following happened in my family tree:

In 1830, my 4th great grandparents Domenicantonio Rossi and Maria Domenica Della Bricciosa married in San Giovanni, Penne, Abruzzo. Domenicantonio was the son of Giovanni Rossi and Anna Saveria Barbacone. Maria Domenica was the daughter of Blasio Della Bricciosa and Vittoria Gambacorta. They were the great grandparents of Cesidio Marcella. (His mother was named Elisabetta Rossi.)

We have the signature of Domenicantonio Rossi and the signature of Maria Domenica’s father Blasio. I don’t know if this meant they were literate, but they were able to sign their names legibly on the marriage document as you can see. This couple, and other members of their families, moved around this area of Abruzzo to multiple villages during their lifetimes. I don’t know what that means or why. I would love to hear your ideas.

On my maternal side the following happened:

In 1594, my 9th great grandmother Vittoria Litieri was baptized in Sant’ Agnese Parish, in San Felice a Cancello, Caserta. I know almost nothing about her, except her parents’ names, Cesare Litieri and Tommasina Secondina, and that she was the mother of my ancestor Pietro Capobianco. A Portia d’Adamo is noted on the baptism and may have been the midwife or the godmother. What is your guess? What do you see?

In 1834, my 3rd great grandfather Joseph Anton Heinzen was baptised in the Catholic parish of Glis near the Swiss border with Italy in Valais. He was born the day before in the tiny hamlet of Lingwurm. The godparents noted in the church record were Felix Nillen and Maria Josepha Nillin. His parents were Johann Joseph Heinzen and Anna Maria Vollmar. They were farmers.

Coincidentally, his daughter, on September 9, 1886, my immigrant second great grandmother Anne Aloisia (Anna) Heinzen and Ludwig (Louis) Fritz Kirsch got married before a Justice of the Peace in Chicago. She was Catholic and he was Lutheran.

In 1864, during a cholera epidemic in Chicago, 10 month old Loretta Schuttler, my second great grandmother Katharina Schuttler’s baby sister died.

Finally, on the other side of the Atlantic, in 1886, in Montecalvario, Naples, Italy, Carmen Ferraro’s sister Elena Ferraro was born. In America she married Angelo Scarnecchia.

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Book Review – Ancestral Medicine by Daniel B. Foor, Ph.D

It has been almost a decade since I began researching my family history. It was an odd occurence that sent me on this path. Always a history lover, I was watching a documentary on the world wars and realized I knew nothing about my ancestors who fought in both wars. This blog is almost 8 years old too. I started a second one where I muse on the ups and downs of being a researcher discovering forgotten facts and forbidden secrets. As I wait patiently for more records on other continents to become available for researchers online, I tip-toed into the realm of ancestral healing. I think most of us, wishing to be the storytellers for our ancestors, are naturally honoring them, and thereby assisting with ancestral healing. How many reading this had a moment in their detective work where we said, “Oh, that may be why he/she did….” Right?

So you see where this is going. I do plan to continue translating all of the midwife records in my tree. This post is my brief review of the first book, of um…I think 5.

Ancestral Medicine by Daniel B. Foor, Ph.D, 2017

This was the first book I ever picked up on the subject. The author is a doctor of psychology and a licensed psychotherapist who has been leading workshops on this subject for almost two decades.

I can’t appreciate any book related to family history without the author providing information on how to accurately and respectfully research your family tree. First and foremost, he mentions the fact that online family trees should not be relied on for accurate information. That is a plus!

Daniel Foor believes our lineages are made up of the not yet born, the living, the remembered dead, the lineage between the remembered dead and ancestral guides (happy ancestors), and the collective human ancestors.

The author mentions that our ancestors are made up of, not just the collective dead, and those that are happy dead, that have made it to the realm of ancestors, but also, the unhappy dead, those that have not yet made it to the happy ancestors. I must note that the unhappy dead include disturbed souls, in the fashion of what we think of as ghosts who are still on this plain. If you are open to meditation, the book details many exercises to help you connect to ancestal guides and to heal each part of your lineage by finding the first unhappy ancestor and when you work through all of this, to sychronize all lines. This will take dedication and not a month of your time. It can take years.

If you are not open to this type of belief, the book does contain a few prayer suggestions and ideas on how to honor your ancestors. The middle section, and stories throughout the book that detail ancestral worship throughout the world, are worth the read if you are not intending to do the work the author has laid out.

The last third of the book mentions other types of ancestors, such as ancestors of place and affinity ancestors. Finally, he completes the book as a person with his medical training would….nah uh uh…won’t give it away…read it for yourself…

Growing up around relatives with little areas in the home dedicated to the deceased loved ones didn’t make this book a far-fetched read.

Thank you for reading this. I rarely leave online reviews and this was my second book review on genealogy. Go get this book if it interests you! Next book is Ancestral Healing Made Easy.

-cinziarosagenealogy@comcast.net