Let a DNA Match Guide Your Research for a While

Don't let family tree research plans overshadow a new DNA opportunity.

I recently heard from a DNA match I hadn't looked into before. And it's no wonder I hadn't gotten to her yet. We share only 10 centiMorgans. That makes us mostly likely 4th cousins once removed. (See "3 Steps to Identifying Certain DNA Matches".)

But she wrote to me and said we have a particular last name in common: Capozza. That's a great way to reach out to a DNA match. Tell them which name to focus on.

Luckily, that name rang a bell for me. I've researched that name because a man named Nicola Capozza was the witness to my great grandparents' marriage in upstate New York in 1906.

With a bit of digging, I found that my great grandmother's brother, Giuseppe Caruso, married Marianna Capozza. Her brother was Nicola Capozza, the witness to the marriage marriage. And the Capozza siblings' mother was a Caruso. So there's definitely a couple of tie-ins between the Capozza family and me. I even wrote about my tangled connection to this family.

I also knew immediately that this last name comes from my great grandmother's Italian hometown of Pescolamazza. Luckily, I have quite a decent collection of the town's vital records on my computer. The information is sitting there waiting for me to investigate.

I know these people will eventually have a connection to me.

In the past I spent 5 years visiting a Family History Center to view the vital records from my maternal grandfather's Italian hometown of Baselice. I documented absolutely everything. (Those records and more are now on my computer.)

More recently I've spent tons of time on my paternal grandfather's Italian hometown of Colle Sannita. I'm making insane progress piecing together my Colle ancestors.

But my Pescolamazza research—the birthplace of my father's mother's mother—hasn't gotten very far. That's why I decided to let this distant DNA match guide my research for a while.

Nicola Capozza, the man who witnessed my great grandparents' marriage, fits into my tree. But I have a bunch of completely disconnected people in my family tree named Capozza. At first I thought they were connected, but it was a mistake. Instead of deleting them, I gave them each a profile image that says "No Relationship Established" and hoped I'd find their connection later.

It turns out, my DNA match is closely related to my disconnected Capozza branch. There has to be a connection to me somewhere, right? And it's probably hiding on my computer in those vital records.

So I changed my research plan to work with this new DNA connection. I've added dozens of people to my family tree as a result. I added people related to me and people related to my DNA match. I filled out my family so much that 2 nights ago I discovered the names of one set of my 6th great grandparents! Hello, Girolamo and Giovanna!

Researching my DNA match's relatives led me to discover the names of my 6th great grandparents!

Based on my findings so far, my connection to this DNA match may be in the Capozza family, the d'Amico family, the Martino family, or the Caruso family. They're all connected. I need to keep plucking people with these names out of the vital records and seeing where they fit.

It's a jigsaw puzzle, and I'm missing that one piece that's all blue sky. It's fun and it's expanding my family tree. And I know there will come a moment when one of the "No Relationship Established" people—and everyone attached to them—becomes my relative.

When a DNA match reaches out to you, do your homework. Even if you can't find the connection, you will be expanding your family tree and enjoying the whole process. Enjoying the research is what it's all about.

Last Chance for Your 2019 Genealogy Goals

I'm not nagging, but wouldn't you like to finish another genealogy goal?

There's no guilt in missing some of your 2019 genealogy goals. But there should be joy in completing a few.

I've written about making your annual genealogy goals achievable. Don't bother with pie-in-the-sky goals like "find my connection to Julius Caesar". Make your list of goals short and highly possible.

It's time to make a dash for the 2019 genealogy goals finish line.

Here's where my 2019 list of goals stands today, December 3, 2019:

• DONE: Log the first five years' worth of birth records from each of my ancestral towns into spreadsheet.
• DONE: Search for all missing census forms in my document tracker.
• NO LUCK: Find a resource for Erie Railroad documents during the years my great grandfather worked in New York state.
• NO LUCK: Gather every available document of my great uncle's time spent in the Bronx to figure out the year he moved to Illinois (bet. 1906-1910).
• NO LUCK: Search 1920–1925 New York City newspapers for any mention of the mutual aid society to which Antonio Saviano belonged.
• POSSIBLE TO FINISH: Enter every Pozzuto baby born in Colle Sannita (1809–1915) into my family tree.
• NOT BEGUN: Enter every Muollo baby born in Sant'Angelo a Cupolo into my family tree.

As you can see, I completed 2 of my goals, and tried but had no luck with 3 more. The one goal I haven't begun can get pushed to my 2020 genealogy goals list.

It's easy to see where I should focus during this last month of the year. The second-to-last goal: entering the Pozzuto babies into my family tree.

That name features strongly in my family tree and in my DNA match list. I decided that fitting as many as possible into my tree will help me connect to more of my DNA cousins.

To make progress on the Pozzuto babies, I first completed a huge goal that isn't on the list. It was wildly ambitious. But it went so much faster than expected. I have on my computer all the vital records from my grandfather's Italian hometown from 1809–1942. There are gaps. The birth records end at 1915, and the birth and marriage records are missing between 1860 and 1931.

But I renamed every image in the collection to include the name of the subject. Now the entire collection is searchable on my computer.

What can you do to make your research more productive?

This was such a valuable project! In fact, my priority in 2020 will be to do the same for my other ancestral Italian hometowns. I have all their available vital records, too.

Finding the Pozzuto babies is as simple as:

• Opening the birth records folder for a particular year.
• Searching the folder for the name Pozzuto.
• Working my way through that short list (an average of 5 to 10 names) to see if I can fit them into my tree.

What I do is look to see if I already have their parents. If I don't, or I'm not sure they're the right people, I can search for the parents' marriage record. But those end in 1860 and don't pick up again until 1931.

If I don't have enough information to be sure who the baby's parents are, I do one of two things. I either:

• Put the family unit in my family tree with a profile picture that says "No Relationship Established", or
• Mark the image file with xxxxx at the beginning of the file name. That way I know that baby is not in the tree because I need more clues.

I'm up to 1877 which means I have 33 years' worth of babies to place in my tree. To finish this goal, I'll need to complete more than one year each day. I'd better shoot for 2 years per day because the holidays and other things will be nipping away at my time.

The important thing is that the end of the goal is in sight. And so is the end of the year. I want to make a run for it!

What about you? Take a careful look at your 2019 genealogy goals. If you didn't make a list, think about what you've been working on. Or come up with a way to make future project easier—like renaming your files or creating a new spreadsheet.

What's possible to attack and complete this month? Do what you can to set yourself up for greater things in 2020.

Using Documents to Imagine Your Ancestor's Job

Next time you complain about work, think about your hard-working ancestor.

Do you know where your ancestor worked? You may know their occupation. You can find that on a census sheet or ship manifest.

But do you know exactly where they worked? What was the name of the company? What did the company do? What did your ancestor do for them?

A search for the place where Grandpa worked delivered photos of the factory floor.

Start by taking another look at their draft registration card. In the USA, men were registered during World War I and World War II even if they were to old to fight "over there". These draft registration cards can be a treasure trove. You will learn:

• their exact birth date
• their home address on the registration date
• the name of their nearest relative (often a wife or mother)
• their physical description
• what their signature looked like

You may learn:

• The town where they were born
• The name of their occupation
• The name and address of the place where they worked

If your ancestor was a farmer, you may find the address of the farm. If they worked in a factory, you may find the name and address of the company. You can Google the company and try to learn something about your ancestor's workplace.

I was looking at my grandfather's cousin Giovanni's draft registration card. I discovered he worked at the same company as my Grandpa.

Grandpa's cousin was always a step or two ahead. His draft card gave me an important clue.

Giovanni was 9 years older than Grandpa. He came to America twice before Grandpa made his one and only trip to America in 1920. Like Grandpa, Giovanni traveled from southern Italy to Cherbourg, France, to get on a ship. Giovanni's 2nd trip to the U.S. was only one month before Grandpa's voyage.

Giovanni went straight to Pennsylvania where he worked for the National Tube Company.

Grandpa came to America a single man. His first stop was in the Bronx, New York, where his Uncle Giuseppe lived. He went north almost immediately to Newton, Massachusetts, where his Uncle Antonio lived. He worked at a bakery shop.

I'll never know why he didn't stay in the Boston area. Maybe the money wasn't very good. Whatever the reason, Grandpa followed Giovanni to work for the National Tube Company.

On 28 Jan 1924, Giovanni filed his petition for naturalization. Grandpa did the same 12 days later. Giovanni became a citizen on 19 Oct 1926. Grandpa's citizenship came through 4 months later.

Grandpa's year of birth dropped him into a sweet spot. He wasn't in America (or old enough) for the World War I draft. And he was too young to be included in the World War II "old man's registration". So there is no draft registration card for him.

Cousin Giovanni's card tells me that National Tube Company was on First Street in Ellwood City, Pennsylvania. So I Googled it to learn about the place where my relatives worked.

I had no clear idea what a tube was. But a photo taken shortly before Grandpa worked at the factory makes it clear. A steel tube is a pipe (duh). A long, seamless pipe. They used pipes in the oil industry or waterworks.

The company where Grandpa worked is gone, but the factory still stands.

After working in this factory, Grandpa went to Youngstown, Ohio. He moved into the home of his father's 2nd cousin and soon married his landlord's daughter Lucy. She was his 3rd cousin, and my grandmother.

In Ohio Grandpa worked for the Carnegie Steel Company and then the railroad. He became sick and tired of the filthy work. The story in the family is that Grandpa said his job "stinks on the ice."

A few years later he moved his young family to the Bronx. They stayed with his Uncle Giuseppe until Grandpa got a job and an apartment. For the rest of his working life, Grandpa was a stone setter for a jewelry manufacturer.

Imagine how much easier it was! Setting stones at a workbench instead of whatever he was doing in the steel mills and railroad.

And that's the point. Thanks to a little research, I can imagine what his days were like in the National Tube Company. It sure adds a new dimension to the "stinks on the ice" story.

What documents have you found with the name and address of your ancestor's job? Have you researched the company yet?

And speaking of draft registration cards:

• Why You Need Your Ancestor's Draft Registration Cards
• Was Your Ancestor in the Military? It May Not Matter