Thank you to Maryann Zelenak for saving part one of the kinship project from disaster. I thought there were two Michael Kanes married to Mary Phillipses in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Maryann provided me with the evidence that they were the same people.
See my report at Substack by clicking on the button.
I used DNA to locate possible descendants of George Bentley Sr. of Greenfield, New York and then I followed the paper trail to verify the connection. See my report at Substack by clicking on the button.
In 2022 I stopped blogging and started posting at Substack (you can subscribe for free), but Substack posts don’t show up in internet searches so I’m posting here and directing you there.
The Brasiles were a family of mojolica ceramic makers until it went out of fashion. Two cousins left Scafati for towns on the other side of Mount Vesuvius — Gregorio went to Capua, and Angelo went to Acerra. A few years later, Gregorio left Capua and joined Angelo in Acerra. Three of their descendants settled in Chicago.
Beautiful day to go walking in Lexington, Massachusetts, and where do I end up? The Old Graveyard. I am grateful for Find A Grave volunteers who are preserving a record of gravestones across the country.
Today I gave my first genealogy presentation for the Hudson, New Hampshire Library’s genealogy club via Zoom. Then I posted my slides with my presentation notes on Substack so the audience could share the presentation with others or refer to it later.
Leonardo Fusco’s Niles, Trumbull, Ohio death record says he was born on 22 September 1884 in Messina, Italy, the son of Frank Fusco and Rosaline Anzolldi, but no record for him was located in Messina.
Since Fusco is not a common name in Niles, Ohio, I looked to see where the other Fuscos in the neighborhood were from.
One of the first was Mrs. Mary A. Fusco born in 1872 in Tursi, Italy the daughter of Frank A. Fusco and Rose Anzoloti. She was married to Nicolas A Fusco which is why her maiden name and married name are the same. This looks like a sister.
Sure enough, Leonardo’s birth record was in Tursi. FAN (Family, Associates, and Neighbors) pays off again.
I’m not going to apologize for not blogging recently, I’ve been busy.
I continue with the Acerra, Italy project. There are now 23,210 individuals in The Town of Acerra, Naples, Italy family tree at Ancestry.com I recently completed Picardi and Piscitelli. Moving on to Pipolo. Don’t think I’m almost done. I have finished all the surnames that begin with E, but then after my family names, I moved on to P. I figure the tree should have about 80,000 names when I’m done.
Today I wanted to share the answer to a question I got yesterday, “Are they the same person?” See the document I created to compare the two men and answer that question. When you are evaluating two individuals on FamilySearch, look at the change history (bad merges and individuals adding unsourced information can make the person unrecognizable from the original entry) and the sources.
6 November 2021
I created a YouTube video to walk you through adding a name to FamilySearch. I also included adding an unconnected name which you won’t do very often if ever.
21 October 2021
This week’s email from American Ancestors included an article about how the Colebrook Library (Colebrook, Coos, New Hampshire) has put their local historical newspapers online. I followed the link and you don’t need a library card to see the collection.
The same CommunityHistoryArchive has the Nashua papers that I access through my library and I now discover you don’t need a library card to see them. And with more research, I find there are public libraries all over the United States that are using the service.
So of course I dove right in and located the newspaper Forest Leaves which serves Oak Park, Illinois. I did not find obituaries for the couple I was looking for, but I found one for the second husband that named the wife with maiden name and first married name and his step children. Great find.
published 2 September 2021
I saw an announcement that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has a Nationwide Gravesite Locator for veterans and their families. The database has veterans buried in private cemeteries “when the grave is marked with a government grave marker,” and military cemeteries are also included. But “we do not have information available for burials prior to 1997.”
Try it anyway. My grandfather, George Bentley, was called up for World War II. He was in training when the war ended so he his service didn’t last very long and he died prior to 1997 and is buried in a private cemetery. The search does not allow me to limit by state so Bentley turned up more than 1000 entries. George Bentley didn’t turn up my grandfather, but George W Bentley, Jr. buried in Weston, Massachusetts looked like a possible family member.
George W. Bentley Jr; PFC US Army; World War II; born 25 September 1923; died 26 September 2014; buried in Linwood Cemetery, Boston Post Road, Weston, Massachusetts. There is no link to the gravesite so I went to Find A Grave and looked at the entries at the Linwood Cemetery in Weston, Massachusetts. George W. Bentley Jr. is not listed. The cemetery is only 50% photographed so they might not have gotten to him yet. But there is a George William Bentley born 14 September 1859 in England and died 11 October 1929 in Massachusetts. Family?