If I Could Do It Over: Oral History

A few years before my late father-in-law Edgar J. Wood passed away in 1986, my husband sat down with him on two occasions, to ask questions about the past. He had a microphone set up on the coffee table and a cassette ready to tape his father's oral history. 

This was a first-ever attempt to ask the last of the older generation about family history and his personal history. Great idea, and I'm grateful my husband did this.

Because hubby has a journalism background, he was prepared with lots and lots of questions for Ed, and held a pad and pen to take notes. (Me, looking back now with hindsight: Pages of questions, taking notes--maybe too direct, maybe a little overwhelming for the interviewee.)

Of course, my husband did many things right: He tested his recording device just before the interviewee began. He smiled and looked interested even when the story seemed old. He asked for the time to interview and made sure the place was quiet and free from interruptions. He got his father's agreement to do the interviews. And afterward, he transcribed the recordings to share with family.

Set the stage for a solid oral history

If we could go back in time and redo this opportunity to capture oral history from Ed, I would:

1. Ask open-ended questions that encourage freewheeling answers. "How did you and Mom meet?" encourages the interviewee to tell a story. This should be a conversation, NOT an interrogation. Interviewers can guide the conversation but not force it or make the interviewee feel cornered. The beginning of an interview sets the tone. My late father-in-law was nervous and not comfortable for the first half an hour, I could hear from the recording, but then he got into story-telling mode and recounted some fascinating tales!
2. Allow time for thinking and remembering. It takes time to retrieve memories from decades in the past. When there are pauses in the conversation, take a deep breath and be patient. Don't push the interviewee, don't rush into the next question. 
3. Allow for natural follow-up. Reporters might have to get through a list of questions, but not family historians. Listening to answers, reflecting on what the interviewee says, will naturally lead to gentle follow-up comments and questions. Being overeager is a trap. After Ed got more comfortable, he was able to recall more vividly some high and low points of his life, and he did share some of his stronger feelings.
4. Try not to interrupt. There are stories that folks just love to tell, over and over. But those stories may lead down a fresh path if we listen with interest and respect...and wait for the right opportunity to pose a natural follow-up comment or question. While my husband was listening to a well-worn story, suddenly his father remembered a key new detail! Some of these memories may be positive, some painful, so I think it's best to let the interview unfold without rigid structure, but with an occasional subtle, supportive comment and open, accepting body language.
5. Interview for fairly short periods, with flexibility. Ed sat for two interviews, each an hour long. Now I think that was too long per interview. I would aim for half an hour and see how things go and continue if the interviewee would like to keep going (depending on age and health, etc). I would also encourage the interviewee to jot down stories he or she would enjoy telling in an interview. This should be a positive experience, not a chore. 

Questions and issues

Back in the day, nobody could envision how much genealogy research would or could eventually reveal about the past. So my late father-in-law had no way to know that eventually we would uncover some irregularities in his stories. Not just timing mismatches, but deliberate obfuscations. Looking back, we now know Ed left out certain details and deflected some questions to avoid disclosing difficult facts or feelings.

Even if we had known about these issues at the time of the interview, I believe it would have been a bad idea to challenge the interviewee's version, what that person wanted to remember/convey. 

If I could go back in time and help my husband redo those oral history interviews, I would recommend that he listen with his heart to what the interviewee was saying and the reason for telling the story that way. Maybe I would suggest rephrasing a particularly direct or sensitive question or give a gentle followup question, nothing confrontational. I wouldn't want the interviewee to get upset or to stop talking.

As the family historian who is lucky enough to have oral history content like Ed's interviews, I can always provide context if and when I retell parts of the story for the benefit of future generations. 

If something was too sensitive to disclose at this time (and that was NOT the case with Ed), I would simply leave a note in my files and let the next generation decide what and when to disclose.

What do you think? 

Honoring Three Generations of Moms

My beloved Mom (Daisy Schwartz Burk, 1919-1981, shown above) was born in New York City, the daughter of a Hungarian-born immigrant, Henrietta "Minnie" Schwartz Farkas (1886-1964, shown below) and the granddaughter of a Hungarian-born immigrant, Lena Kunstler Farkas (1865-1938, at bottom). 

My great-grandma Lena arrived in New York City 125 years ago to join her husband who had crossed the Atlantic first to make a fresh start for his family. My grandma Minnie sailed, as a teenager, with three other siblings, to be reunited with her parents in the Big Apple 124 years ago. She had hopes and dreams for her new life!

If not for these three mothers, I wouldn't be here. So on Mother's Day, I'm honoring the memory of these special moms in my family tree, with love. 

When Was That Volunteer Last Active on Find A Grave?

Something new at Find a Grave: Now when you look at a user's profile, you can see approximately when that person was last active on the site.

Before I submit an edit to a Find a Grave memorial, or try to contact that memorial's manager, I can check how long it's been since that user has been active. 

Here are the activity levels I've seen so far:

• Over a year ago. My interpretation of this activity level is I doubt I'll hear from the user if I ask a question or submit an edit.
• In the past year. Maybe I'll hear back, maybe not, but there's some hope.
• Last month. Active not very long ago, so I'll probably get a response to an inquiry or edit.
• This month. An active user! Better chance I'll get a response.

I like this new activity indicator and will aim to keep mine at "This month" if I can!

One Generation Back for $27 Plus an Eight Week Wait

Researching the Yurko family, an in-law line on my hubby's family tree, I wanted to discover the names of the parents of Joseph John Yurko (1873-1954), born on this day 152 years ago.

Believe the death cert?

According to Joseph's death cert, his father was John Yurko and his mother's name was unknown. Indeed, in Joseph's generation and later generations, the names of Joseph Yurko and John Yurko appear more than once. Clearly these were beloved family names.

However, the informant on the death cert was John's youngest daughter, Mary L. Yurko (1916-2001), I doubted her ability to remember her grandparents' names. Why? Mary was born 17 years after her own parents left their homeland to come to America. She was 37 when her father died. Although she may have heard her Yurko grandparents' names as she grew up, Mary probably never met those relatives, and I imagine the stress of her father's death impeded her ability to recall the names clearly. 

I didn't feel confident that Mary's memory was correct...which led me to shift my research in another direction. Where would I find Joseph saying the names of his parents?

Social Security application = first-hand info

Joseph applied for a Social Security card in 1937. The application form asks for birth place/place, current residential address, names of parents, and employer, among other details. This is first-hand info supplied by the applicant. 

In the past, I've had great success getting a generation back when I paid to receive a copy of the SS-5 (Social Security) application for other ancestors. IMHO, the information is valuable enough to invest in obtaining it for certain ancestors of interest.

As shown in image at top of this blog post, we can order either the SS-5, which costs $27 at the moment, or a Numident, which is an extract of the info on the application. ALWAYS spend the extra buck or two for the SS-5 because we should see with our own eyes what the applicant wrote on the form! Forget the Numident 👎

Eight weeks later, info arrives

Late in February, I made a Freedom of Information Act request for Joseph John Yurko's SS-5. I had to supply information to help the government ascertain that it was giving me the correct person's form. And of course I had to pay. Note that there are restrictions on such requests, such as how long the person has been dead. In my case, because Joseph was born in 1873 and died in 1954, there were no impediments to obtaining his SS-5.

After eight weeks, I received an email containing the image shown above. Just looking at the form, I think Joseph verbally gave the info and was shown where to sign his name. The info confirms what I believed were his date of birth and birth place, also showing that he worked for the WPA (as shown in the 1940 US Census), and confirming his long-time home address, a house in Cleveland that has since been torn down.

I was delighted to see the names of Joseph's parents. His father was NOT John but was Andrew Yurko. And now I also know his mother's full name for the first time. Joseph and his wife presumably named their older daughter Anna, after Joseph's mother. For me, all these details were worth the investment of $27.

By the way, Joseph and his wife Mary Gavalek (1879-1943) were married in 1896 in their hometown of Hazlin, according to his naturalization papers. Joseph and Mary had no sons named Andrew that I've found (still looking in their hometown) and no grandsons named Andrew either. Hmm. 

Paying for a record

I decided to pay for this record because it provided info that was furnished by the applicant, even though he didn't actually write anything but his signature. Having exhausted other avenues of research, I felt it would be worth my while to see this document and all the details on it. 

Not every ancestor in my ever-expanding family tree is worth an investment of $27, but I decided that the SS-5 was the only way I would learn about this ancestor's parents and be confident that the info was accurate because it came from the man himself. Plus I would see the actual image, not an extract or transcript, which is of great value.

In Ten Minutes, Learn How to Tune Up Your Cousin Bait!

When the Virtual Genealogical Association held its seventh birthday party a week ago, I presented a ten minute talk about how to connect with cousins via cousin bait. You can watch my talk for free and learn how to search for user-uploaded images and stories, see who uploaded these things (maybe your cousins?!), and make your own cousin bait more appealing to folks who are researching the same ancestors. 

For more free genealogy talks, see the VGA website here. Lots of excellent speakers and topics!

Back Up Your Family History!

Back up day! Back up your digital items in the cloud as well as using another method such as an external hard drive and/or a flash drive (or all three!). It's important to keep our genealogy info safe for today and tomorrow.

Also, consider periodically downloading a gedcom (family tree document in standardized format) from Ancestry and MyHeritage so you can keep those trees in your digital possession too, just in case. I have trees on both of these sites so I download a gedcom from each from time to time. Here's how I do it.

Ancestry download

At top of this blog post is a picture of the "tree settings" section of my Wood family tree, showing "tree info" that includes tree name and description on the left.

The button for downloading a gedcom is at lower right of this page (see blue arrow in image). I clicked the button "download your GEDCOM file" and very quickly the file appeared on my desktop (in your case, wherever downloads are supposed to go, since your destination may be different). 

The download will have a .ged file extension at end of the file name. I renamed the file to reflect the Wood tree but left the .ged extension. 

Wash, rinse, repeat for all trees. I have a few trees on Ancestry, including a speculative private tree, and want to download each as an occasional backup.

MyHeritage export

On MyHeritage, I go to the dropdown "family tree" menu at top of page, select "manage family trees," and then see options like "download original GEDCOM" and "export to GEDCOM." This is the image above.

Since I originally began with a gedcom upload from my software, I don't want to download the original now. I do want to export the current family tree to a gedcom now! 

Once I request the export, MyHeritage asks whether I want personal photos and photo album in the download. Yes, I do! See image at right where I checked those boxes for my export.

MyHeritage sends me an email when the export is ready, with a link to click to retrieve the gedcom. I change the name to describe which tree, but leave the .ged ending. Wash, rinse, repeat for each tree if more than one.

WikiTree download

Yes, it is possible to download a gedcom from WikiTree. You can read about the process (and any privacy concerns) here. 

Backing up isn't complicated, and it gives me peace of mind.

Olive and Rosebud Osborn, Teen Brides

The Osborn girls

From my husband's side of the family tree, I admire the romantic names of the Osborn sisters, as shown in their baptismal record at left, from 1868. The full names of these three sisters appear nowhere else but on their baptismal record! 

Harriet "Hattie" Verona Osborn was the oldest, Olive "Ollie" Violet Osborn was the middle girl, and Rosebud Charlotte Augusta was the youngest of the Osborn sisters. 

Olive gets married

On the 26th of April in 1874 in Toledo, Ohio, teenaged bride Olive Osborn (1856-1891) married William Henry White Wood (1853-1893). They were my hubby's great uncle and great aunt. 

When Olive married William, she was 17, her husband was 20.

Olive and Stephen, then Olive and William

This wasn't Olive's first marriage: In 1872, at only 15, she eloped to Detroit where she married Stephen Sylvester Babcock. Olive said she was 16, the minimum age to marry in Michigan at the time, and her older sister "Hattie" was a witness. No documentation of how that marriage was dissolved. Stephen married again later.  

Olive and William settled in Toledo and had a large family, their youngest born late in February, 1891. Sadly, Olive died in March of 1891 from "peripheral septicemia." William contracted typhoid some months later and died in 1893 from "typhoid relapse."

Rosebud and John

Rosebud married five months after her sister Olive, wed to John C. Werts in Toledo, Ohio in September, 1874. Although 16 was the minimum age to marry in Ohio, Rosebud was only 15. No record of her having a parent's consent to marry. She and John also raised their family in Toledo.

Thinking of Olive Osborn Wood and her husband, William Henry White Wood, on the anniversary of their wedding in 1874.

Tune Up Your Cousin Bait! VGA Birthday Party on April 27

 
This Sunday, you're invited to the FREE birthday party of the Virtual Genealogical Association. 

The party will feature a great lineup of genealogy presentations, from 1 pm to 5 pm Eastern time, on April 27th. Trivia games and prizes also! Free. 

For more information and to register for the Zoom link, see the announcement here.

My ten minute talk on cousin bait will begin about 1:30ish.

See you on Sunday!

New Indexes to Free NYC Digitized Vital Records

The New York City Municipal Archives has been digitizing old birth, marriage, and death records and posting them on this site for a while now. Not all years for all boroughs, but many are already posted and more are on the way. Free! 

The latest news: On April 11th, the city posted a set of indexes for the very first time, simplifying the process of locating the exact vital record.

New indexes! Part 1 of new search process

The indexes for NYC birth certs, death certs, marriage certs, and marriage licenses can be seen here. These online indexes streamline the entire process, still free.

Pick the index you want and start a search for the NAME of the person. Below, an example of a search for the birth certificate for Charles Lang. I entered his name in the search box. Results are displayed in ascending chronological order. The Charles Lang entry that I want is at the bottom, born in Manhattan, birth cert #22907, birth year 1906. 

This is part 1 of the search, so note those cert details or open another tab on your browser.

Part 2 of the search process

Now go to the NYC Muni search page for the type of cert you want, birth or marriage or death. This is part 2 of the search: Enter what you just learned from the index, as shown below in my sample search for a birth cert. Click the purple search button below the data entry boxes. 

The result

As shown in the image below, this search returns a color image, in a downloadable pdf format (printable as well). Vital records may not be available forever, so do grab a digital copy while you can. 

Free! No need to purchase a certified copy unless you have a special purpose in mind that requires certification. So first check the index, then do the cert search. In the old days (before the indexes), there was an extra step to this process to obtain the cert number, borough, and year. Usually those details can be found on Ancestry, FamilySearch, etc. 

FYI today, in April of 2025, FamilySearch does have these NYC vital records but the images are not visible from home, only in a FamilySearch library. And I want to eyeball the document image for myself, so I either use the free NYC Muni Archives or use my subscription to MyHeritage.

MyHeritage search - not free but really easy!

If you're a MyHeritage subscriber, like me, you are in great luck--MyHeritage has a unique collection of historic New York City vital records, with its own set of indexes and color scans of the certs. Plus MyHeritage indexes not only bride and groom but also the names of their parents!

Very easy searching. And the benefit of a full color image is that any marks or alterations on the certificate are quite obvious. See the example below from a MyHeritage search for a 1903 birth cert for my great uncle Fred. The magenta shows important corrections inserted years after this man's birth. Among other things, his birth was registered as female instead of male, his surname listed as Forkus instead of Farkas. Neither parent's name was correct either. But Fred straightened out all these details in 1942.

I can download and/or print the image, as well as connecting it to my family tree.

Happy ancestor hunting in the Big Apple!

PS FamilySearch image of Charles Lang birth cert is not in color. Same exact cert, not in color. 

1909 Easter Greetings from Toledo, Ohio

 
On April 8, 1909, this colorful Easter penny postal greeting was dropped in the mail and postmarked in Toledo, Ohio, bound for Cleveland, Ohio. I suspect the card arrived in time for Easter Sunday on April 11, 1909 because mail delivery was rather speedy back in those days.

The sender in Toledo was "Elton," actually Charles Elton Wood (1891-1951). The recipient in Cleveland was Elton's nephew, Wallis Walter Wood (1905-1957). Elton was 18 years old and his handwriting flowed! Wallis was not yet 4 years old but I'm sure he was happy to get pretty holiday cards. Who wouldn't be?

Happy Easter! 

Sarah Mahler Smith, Marital Expatriate

When my great aunt Sarah Sadie Mahler (1889-1974) got married in the Big Apple on April 16, 1912, she lost her US citizenship because her immigrant husband Samuel Smith (1889-1979) was not yet a naturalized US citizen.

Samuel (original name: Simon Solomowitz) was born in the city of Botosani, Romania, and came to New York City with his parents and siblings when he was a little boy. 

After they married in Manhattan, Sam and Sarah moved to Fort Edward, NY so he could work in the paper mills. By 1920, the Smith family was back in New York City, where Sam began working as a chauffeur. As shown in the 1925 New York Census excerpt at top, Sam became a US citizen in 1924 in New York City.

Sarah's citizenship status, however, was not affected by Sam's naturalization, because of the Cable Act of 1922, which separated the citizenship status of spouses. She was a "marital expatriate" - and decided, during World War II, to take steps to regain her US citizenship.

As shown here, Sarah filed Form NH-415, applying to take the oath of allegiance to the United States. She was once again a citizen after taking the oath on February 11, 1944. Sarah was outlived by all five of her children and her husband. Today I'm thinking of her on the anniversary of her marriage in April of 1912 (not 1911, as mistakenly shown on the oath document above). 

WikiTree Users Added 78,477 to Tree--I Added 75 Ancestors

During this past weekend's ConnectAThon XIV, the WikiTree community added 78,477 new names to the worldwide collaborative tree.

My personal total was 75 ancestors added over the course of the weekend, including many from my husband's Larimer family tree (which is quite extensive) and dozens of in-laws from my paternal aunts' side of the family. I 💜 in-laws!

Above, a profile I created for little Dorothy Goodfield, a premature baby who only lived four days. Dorothy was the maternal 1c of my aunt Miriam's husband, David Bourstein. I entered Dorothy's name, parents, siblings, and wrote a brief bio with the one source I have, without a lot of detail because I included the informative original source image.

Red arrows

At bottom right, the arrow is pointing to a sticker flagging Dorothy's profile as someone who "died young." She was one of five or six little ones who I flagged in this way, sadly, but with the hope that this helps keep her name and memory alive for the future. WikiTree provides a number of stickers like this to be added to profiles as appropriate. I insert them occasionally to highlight something significant related to the person's life or death.

At top left, the arrow is pointing to a death cert I downloaded for free from the New York City Municipal Archives. The cert names Dorothy's parents and their birthplaces, shows the baby's place of birth/death, details cause of death, and indicates place of burial as Washington Cemetery in Brooklyn, NY. This is the only proof I have of the baby's life and I wanted to share it, in full, for anyone interested in learning about her.

At top right, the arrow is pointing to "2 categories." This shows that I categorized Dorothy Goodfield in two ways: First, as being buried in Washington Cemetery, and second, as being of Jewish Roots. So if someone wants to see the profiles of people buried in that Brooklyn cemetery, they can click through and see the description and names here. Similarly, I added the Jewish Roots category because Dorothy's family was Jewish. 

Thank you to WikiTreers for camaraderie and fun during this intense weekend of adding profiles to grow the collaborative family tree in total beyond 41 million names.  

PS: Here's the "how to" page with more info about getting started on WikiTree.

Bartlett Larimer MD, Preceptor

Researching my husband's Larimer, Short, and Work ancestors (intermarried over decades), I've marveled at the family influence of Bartlett Larimer (1833-1892), an early physician in Indiana. Bartlett was a younger brother of hubby's 2d great grandfather, Brice S. Larimer. 

At top is an excerpt from the University of Michigan yearbook from 1869, showing John L. Short and William H. Short from Millersburg, Indiana are both medical students. "B. Larimee" is their preceptor.

Despite the small spelling mistake, this is clearly Bartlett Larimer supervising the medical studies (and maybe the internships) of his two nephews. 

Bartlett himself attended LaGrange Collegiate Institute in 1850, a prep school also attended by his brother David the following year (see alumni page at right). By 1853, Bartlett was studying at Wabash College before going on to University of Michigan. After graduating, he became the first physician in practice in Millersburg, Indiana, circa 1858. According to a news report in the Elkhart Truth, he was also a temperance advocate who personally paid lawyers to oppose any applications for saloon licenses in his town--successfully.

Three of Bartlett's nephews (including the two Short brothers listed in the image at top) became doctors and two became dentists. However, none of his own six sons and one daughter became either a doctor or a dentist. Bartlett died in his late 50s after a brief illness, much mourned in the family and the community.

This is my "mistake" post for Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors genealogy challenge of the week. 

National Library Week: I Heart My CT State Library

I 💙 my Connecticut State Library!

Just recently, the state library posted links to three of Connecticut military veterans records digitized by Family Search, as shown above. Instead of having to look through index cards, we can click on each of the hyperlinks to see individual images of documents about veterans in Connecticut. 

With my state library card, I can access a number of useful databases from home (in my bunny slippers if I wish), including Fold3 for military records and HeritageQuest for city directories, Census records, historical newspapers, and more. For free!

During National Library Week, please show your 💜 for local, state, and specialized libraries that offer so many genealogical resources!

Remembering Ira Caldwell: Union Vet, Farmer, Family Man

My husband's 1c3r on his McClure line was Ira Caldwell (1839-1926). This cousin was one of eight sons of Train Caldwell and Jane McClure, who also had one daughter, Mary Ann. All the sons helped out on the family farm in Indiana, raising prize-winning cattle and horses (I learned this from Ira's lengthy obit!). Most of the sons grew up to be farmers in their own right, including Ira.

US Civil War service and marriage

Ira was 23 in 1862 when he enlisted in the newly-formed Indiana Infantry, 84th Regiment, Company I to fight for the Union. This regiment was involved in the Battle of Chickamauga, the siege of Chattanooga, and the Atlanta campaign, among other key Civil War activities. I learned a good deal about his unit's wartime activities from a number of online resources, including Fold3 but also including the National Parks Service and a state historical marker (and another).

On April 11, 1865, two days after General Robert E. Lee surrendered, Ira was promoted to Sgt. Caldwell. His regiment was mustered out at Camp Harker, Tennessee on June 14, 1865. When Ira returned home to Fayette county, Indiana, he resumed farming with his father.

In October of 1866, Ira married Margaret Jane Kelsey (1841-1925), daughter of a farmer in Rush county, Indiana. They moved in with her family at first. Ira and Margaret were the parents of two children. Hester was born in 1868 (she later married and had four children). Santford was born in early 1869 but sadly died a few days later.

Family on the move

I knew where Ira and Margaret were during all the Census years of their lives, but his informative obit in the Bethany Clipper (Missouri) filled in the gaps between Census years very nicely. Also Ira was listed in the 1890 Veteran's schedule, with full dates for his military service. 

After living with Margaret's family, they moved to Harrison County, Missouri, then to Illinois, and back to Harrison County, Missouri, where they purchased land in 1874 and built a home. The obit noted that Ira and his wife Margaret and their daughter Hester were all baptized and converted to the Baptist Church during a church meeting in 1883. Ira was in his early 40s, Margaret in her late 30s, and Hester was a teen. 

Another news clipping, from 1892, indicated that Ira was working on a fence on his Blythedale farm when a nail flew up into his face and damaged his eye so badly he lost sight in that eye. 

By 1920, Ira and Margaret were living with their daughter Hester and her husband and children in Marion township, Harrison county, Missouri. Margaret died of heart problems in 1925, at age 84. Ira was still receiving a monthly Civil War invalid pension that continued until the time of his death at age 86 on May 3, 1926. 

Remembering Ira Caldwell as the 99th anniversary of his death approaches.