Just before clocking out from his job in the Specials Collections Department at the East Baton Rouge Parish Library on Goodwood Boulevard, John Ricca leans across the desk and picks up a yellow sticky note he set aside earlier.
“I need to put this in my folder,” he says. “I told them I would do some more research on it tomorrow.”
Ricca is a genealogist, and his job is to help people learn about their ancestry. But researching DNA is not new territory for the 76-year-old Ricca. For more than 32 years, he worked at the Louisiana State Police Crime Lab in Baton Rouge, becoming assistant lab director in 1998 and criminalistics director in 2000 with the introduction of DNA.
John Ricca, center, gives a brief overview of what students can expect to learn during an Introduction to Genealogy class at the Main Library in Baton Rouge, La., on Thursday, November 17, 2022.
As the son and nephew of two Baton Rouge pharmacists, John and Sam Ricca, the younger Ricca was exposed to the world of science early, later earning a degree in zoology from LSU.
“After graduation, I knew I was draft-eligible, so anything to follow up after that was a little unrealistic,” he said. “My brother-in-law was in the State Police, and he said, ‘You know, you might be interested in working in the crime lab.’ So that kind of stayed in the back of my mind for a while.”
Ricca was stationed at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he met his wife, Liz, a military widow with three young daughters, five-year-old Patricia and three-year-old twins Karen and Linda. The couple married on July 14, 1973, the same month Ricca was released from the military, and the family moved to Baton Rouge. They later welcomed daughter Christina. Within months, Ricca started his new job at the crime lab.
John Ricca, right, teaches an Introduction to Genealogy class at the Main Library in Baton Rouge, La., on Thursday, November 17, 2022.
“I was an analyst, so a lot of the cases just came in to me. I didn’t go to crime scenes or anything like that,” he said.
Working in the crime lab also meant going to court to testify on the analysis conducted, which could take up quite a bit of time considering the travel involved.
“And that was court throughout the state of Louisiana because it was the State Police Crime Lab,” said Ricca. “I had a map in my office and I’d color in all the parishes I was in and I just about hit ‘em all.”
John Ricca explains how to use a resource to find information on one’s ancestors during an Introduction to Genealogy class at the Main Library in Baton Rouge, La., on Thursday, November 17, 2022.
With advances in DNA science, Ricca suddenly found himself being interviewed by local media. Also, television series such as “CSI (Crime Scene Investigation)” and “Forensic Files,” which documents actual cases, generated a lot of interest in the crime lab.
“I think our lab has been on ‘Forensic Files’ twice. I was filmed but I was cut out of the scene,” he laughed. “That was always my luck. I’m kind of a ‘behind-the-scenes’ person so I kind of like it that way.”
Ricca started working at the lab at the former State Police headquarters on Foster Drive, now the location of Baton Rouge Community College. In 1982, the headquarters moved to its current location on Independence Drive, across the street from the library.
John Ricca, left, teaches an Introduction to Genealogy class at the Main Library in Baton Rouge, La., on Thursday, November 17, 2022.
Over the decades, paperwork from old cases was stored in the attic above the crime lab. Eventually, space was becoming limited so Ricca worked with the secretary of state’s office to get everything microfilmed. Years after Ricca retired in 2006, he once again came across those files.
“After I got the job at the library, I’d see these ladies come in and they asked me how to work the microfilm machine,” he said. “And, I’d roll up the reels and I saw they were crime lab cases and I said, ‘You won’t believe this but my project was to put all those old records on here.’ ”
In 2017, Ricca became a full-time employee of the library, only taking a break to care for his wife, who passed away in 2019. He now teaches genealogy classes three times a month at the Goodwood library, helping others start their own search for links to the past. From forensics to families, Ricca said he loves doing research.
John Ricca shows students different library resources to track down marriage records during an Introduction to Genealogy class at the Main Library in Baton Rouge, La., on Thursday, November 17, 2022.
“It was a great segue (from my past career) — still looking for clues, like I say,” said Ricca.
“Based on my past career, it’s just comfortable doing this,” he said about genealogy research. “You’re still looking for stuff, searching for stuff and doing research.”
John Ricca shows how to view historical records online through library resources during an Introduction to Genealogy class at the Main Library in Baton Rouge, La., on Thursday, November 17, 2022.
Ricca said he has no favorite story about his research because “they’re all good.” He tries to include a bit of history when he can because “the family tree is not just names and dates on a chart.”
He’s written a book about his family history which includes family members born in Sicily before settling in White Castle. He said he wants to preserve that knowledge for his own family, which includes seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
John Ricca explains how to find census records online during an Introduction to Genealogy class at the Main Library in Baton Rouge, La., on Thursday, November 17, 2022.
“To me it’s kind of ordinary (research) but to the (library) patron, it’s unbelievable,” he smiled. “You pull something up from a hundred years ago and they’re like, ‘It’s a miracle!’ and I’m like, ‘OK. I’ll show you how to do it.’”
