Happy Halloween and may your day be filled with treats, not tricks.
This special cousin painstakingly input all this info into a genealogy program, shared printouts with family. Eventually, she uploaded her family tree to a genealogy site, kindly making it public and allowing me to add to it on her behalf in the last few years.
Now I'm updating our joint research on in-laws (including her in-laws) to add documents and facts that have become available in recent years. It's a fun genealogical journey and I hope to turn up some paperwork that will help fill in a few blanks (maiden names, birth places, death places, etc.) Already I've corrected mistranscribed names and incorrect birth places, linking sources as evidence.*
I felt a bit sad that few of these in-laws (and their in-laws and FAN club) were already on public family trees--and when they were, they weren't shown accurately--so I'm fixing that to show my love for in-laws and to honor my cousin's research from back in the day 😃 By adding my cousin's in-laws as well as my own distant cousins and hubby's distant cousins plus their in-laws, I'm paying it forward in gratitude for those who began the research in the past.
*Linda, in her comment, notes that correcting inaccurate info online can be frustrating because folks can change things back or simply ignore evidence that is contrary to their trees. I totally agree--which is why I don't correct on FamilySearch but I do post accurate info and evidence on Ancestry, plus on Find a Grave, and I do share accurate info on WikiTree. Over the long term, I've seen some corrected info gradually percolating through the public family trees. 😀
I wasn't the only one who searched the database, found veterans in the family tree and the FAN club, and submitted multiple requests to obtain info about veterans in the family tree. My 13 requests were among the approximately 20,000 requests submitted since Reclaim the Records put up its database in late December of 2024.
But then in the summer of 2025, without warning, the US Veterans Administration began answering such requests with denials, only sending ridiculously "skinny" extracts from the records, rather than the actual records themselves. In some cases, the extract didn't even confirm the veteran's name, let alone the branch of the military or service dates or the veteran's birth or death date. More from Reclaim the Records is here.
Update: ALWAYS APPEAL
Now Reclaim the Records has posted excellent, detailed advice about appealing these FOIA denials. They begin with this advice: ALWAYS APPEAL.
What I particularly appreciate is that the nonprofit has created four suggested letters with detailed legal language for us to use in appealing these denials. You can see the sample letters here.
Time is of the essence. To appeal a denial, I have to send a response to the Department of Veterans Affairs that is received no later than 90 calendar days from the date of the denial letter. The clock is ticking, and I'm copying and pasting from Reclaim the Record's sample language into letters that I personalize as indicated in each sample.
At top, part of the suggested language for a situation in which I wasn't next of kin but I do know that the veteran was discharged from the military more than 62 years ago.
My fingers are flying over the keyboard. I'll post when I get any response. Go ahead and appeal!
The conference is set for March 5-7 in Salt Lake City and registration is here. You can choose to be an in-person participant, going to exclusive lectures and workshops in Salt Lake City for a fee (get an early-bird discount at the moment). Or you can choose to be an online participant for free, watching keynotes and 75+ classes with the option to chat with other online attendees.
I will be #NotAtRootsTech in person in 2026 but enjoying classes and downloading handouts when available.
Some of the online sessions I plan to put on my 2026 playlist include:
Reverend Cook was a veteran of the US Civil War, having fought for the Union in the 124th Illinois Infantry. He was ordained as a Minister of the Gospel three years after the end of that war. John and Mary Ann moved a few times as he led congregations in different places, but they often visited the McClure family so Mary Ann could stay in touch with siblings, nieces, and nephews (I found their visits mentioned in social items in local newspapers).
At top is their marriage license application, dated October 18, 1871 (a Wednesday), for the ceremony conducted on October 19, 1871 (a Thursday). This certificate was filed with the county in November of 1871.
However, if I had looked only at the index and not at the document, I would have missed the actual date of their wedding. Luckily, the image was easily viewable on Family Search and I was able to confirm that the license was dated Oct 18 while the ceremony was dated Oct 19.
Does a day's difference really matter? Well, I try to be as accurate and complete as possible, and following the Genealogical Proof Standard means looking at the actual image for confirmation. In this case, the license and the wedding were only one day apart.
Happy anniversary to Mary Ann and John, and happy I could clarify the date of their marriage, 154 years ago today.
Each day of WikiTree Week will have a different theme and activities. All free!
My husband had three great uncles who, after poverty-stricken childhoods in Whitechapel, London, grew up to become illustrious military bandmasters in different parts of Canada.
The most famous was Captain John Daniel Slatter, who was bandmaster of the 48th Highlanders of Toronto for 50 years. Here is an excerpt from his Find a Grave memorial page with a bite-sized bio and a portrait photo that my husband inherited.
Another of John and Henry's brothers became bandmaster of the 7th London Fusiliers in London, Ontario. That was Capt. Albert William Slatter, and his Find a Grave page with bite-sized bio is shown below.
Saluting my husband's military bandmaster ancestors who lived in Canada, on this Thanksgiving Day!
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Even if you have no obvious heirs for your genealogy collection, my book includes fresh ideas for how to protect and share information and items from family history. I also show sample forms such as a genealogical will to help you get ready to pass your genealogy to the next generation and beyond.
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Enjoy Family History Month, a great time to plan to protect your own family's history for today and tomorrow.
Cousin Harriet earned a two-year certificate at Columbia University before she became engaged to Seymour Farber just weeks after her 20th birthday. The family planned a lovely fall wedding at the swanky Concourse Plaza Hotel in the Bronx, with 65 guests treated to a fancy dinner after the ceremony.
The wedding notice in a New York newspaper described Harriet's outfit in detail: "The bride, given in marriage by her father, wore a white slipper satin gown on princess lines with a V neck, long sleeves and long train. Her fingertip illusion veil fell from a net cap trimmed with orange blossoms, and she carried a prayer book with markers of white orchids."
Harriet's groom, Seymour, was the oldest of three children born to Harry and Anna Farber. Harry was a Polish immigrant who established a successful silver-plating business with a brother, operating under the company name Farber Brothers. Seymour graduated from New York University and was an accountant practicing in New York City and in Westchester, New York. Updating my research for this blog post enabled me to update Seymour's family connections as well!
During World War II, Seymour served in the US Army (from 1943 to 1946.) More than once during his military service, he was able to meet up in England with my aunt Dorothy Schwartz, a WAC also posted overseas. Dorothy and Harriet were first cousins. They all remained in touch and when Dorothy visited Harriet a few years later, she brought a hostess gift: a set of hand-embroidered coasters she brought home from Europe. Harriet kept these coasters and when I met her in 2008, she kindly gifted them to me as a keepsake.
I'm thinking of Harriet and Seymour with affection, on what would have been their 85th wedding anniversary.
Last week, I was chasing some details on an in-law's family and found his Find a Grave memorial page.
The Find a Grave volunteer who manages this memorial page (and 28,000 other memorials) encourages users to transcribe obits and submit as suggested edits.
So I transcribed the in-law's obit, which included dates/details about his World War II military service, and I submitted it as a suggested edit. At the same time, I indicated that the man was a veteran.
One day later, the volunteer accepted my edits and also sent me the note shown at top of this blog post. "You have lots of Vet memorials that need your time. Time to concentrate on yours."
Even though I was a little taken aback at the slightly snarky tone of this volunteer's note, I took his advice. And I'm very glad I did!
Of course, I don't manage anywhere near as many Find a Grave memorials as this volunteer. Mine number under 700, actually, and many are folks (born in 1870s-1880s) whose headstones are in the same cemetery as ancestors in my family tree or my hubby's tree. Some of my memorials are for parents or children of in-laws who I added to Find a Grave in the course of my research.
Given the age of the folks on my Find a Grave memorials, I didn't expect to find too many veterans. Many are also married women who came to the United States as adults. So I also researched their spouses, fathers, and sons if linked. That helped up my count as I checked obits, military records, and other records.
After researching all of these people, I found 36 people who served in the US military! Where information was available, I listed the branch of the military, the war, and the dates of service.
In the case of Morris A. Dworkin, I uploaded this application for a military headstone to add to his Find a Grave memorial when I set the indicator to V for veteran.
Now the little V shows next to the names of those who served in the military, as it does on my Dad's Find a Grave memorial page (excerpt below).
"Cemetery" is Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks genealogy prompt for Week 40.
At top, a scan of a 1903 photo of my hubby's grandmother, Floyda Steiner.
At left, a terrific pencil sketch created by the free Canva Sketchify tool. It looks very much like Floyda and is clear and simple.
I especially appreciate the white space, inviting young ones to color and add special touches to the background.
In addition, I created sketches of a 1903 photo of Floyda's husband, Brice Larimer McClure, using two other free sites.
LunaPic's pencil sketch function offers a variety of options for sketch rendering. This is a great way to experiment with white space and sketch lines. I chose drawing for my sketch, but I also liked pen and ink. Again, an excellent likeness of this ancestor.
Then I tried InsMind.com's photo to sketch function, which includes numerous sketch options. The original photo is shown below with the various possible sketch looks (this is the "before" look, showing some of the many generic possibilities). An anime sketch of Brice might be fun for the preteens in my family!
For more about ancestor coloring books and other creative ways to share family history, please see my book, Planning a Future for Your Family's Past.
Where I get ideas for blog posts
Like Nancy, I often write a post after finding something new in genealogy research, maybe a new database or a new discovery or a new (to me) methodology. For example, I recently had to learn how to appeal a VA denial of my FOIA request for my Dad's military/medical file. I won't know the outcome for months, but I will definitely blog about what happens.
Other inspirations:
I have a 1998 video interview of my mother's first cousin, Viola, speaking emotionally about her experiences as a Holocaust survivor and her early years with her family. The interview was conducted in Russian in Israel through the USC Shoah Foundation. A decade ago, a friend who knows Russian kindly translated the gist of this video interview. Now I wanted to see what AI could do for me, for free, in better understanding family history comments that Viola made early in the interview.
Process: video audio to digital audio to transcript
First, I popped the DVD into my player and as soon as the interview began, I started recording a voice memo on my iPhone. My first audio recording was 11 minutes long. This was important because Thomas said that without a paid AI account, it's better to keep projects shorter and simpler to get things done.
Next, I had to change the m4a recording to mp3 format, which I did with a free online converter (I used CloudConvert but there are other sites out there).
I tried uploading the mp3 to ChatGPT (free version) and asked for a transcription and translation from the Russian. But the AI responded: "It looks like I can’t run Whisper (speech-to-text) directly in this environment, so I can’t transcribe the MP3 automatically here."
So I uploaded the mp3 recording in Russian to TurboScribe (one of many sites that do this) and I asked for a free transcription. I chose the best quality/accuracy and within minutes, I downloaded the written output as a pdf.
Formatted translation from the Russian
Finally, I took the pdf of the Russian transcription and uploaded it to ChaptGPT, explaining a bit about this being an interview. I asked for this transcript to be translated into English and formatted as interviewer and interviewee.
The AI had no difficulty distinguishing between the words of the person asking the questions and the person answering. It did ask whether I wanted a summary or a complete transcription (I wanted everything). Also it asked whether I wanted some original terminology left as is, with translation in brackets (yes).
ChatGPT finished that initial translation and asked for me to upload more so it could create a single, seamless document. So I went back and recorded 6 more minutes, going through the audio to digital audio to mp3 conversion rigamarole, next getting the free transcription, and then uploading the pdf from this second segment to ChatGPT.
This time, I named Viola as the interviewee and the AI showed her name in front of all of her responses. In the blink of two eyes, the answer showed me both segments compiled into one seamless interview about Viola's mother, father, and grandparents and their life before World War II. The top of page one is shown here.
Output: Formatted to my specs
Chapt GPT preserved some of the original terminology (see image at top, look for the word for tavern) and some of the less distinct words were picked up and translated, too.
No cut and paste for me. I just asked for a .docx Word document, which was quickly created for easy and free download. The output is in complete sentences, with proper punctuation, a smooth read. I added a note that ChatGPT had created the document and the date. Done!
Use with caution
ChatGPT warns that it can make mistakes (see image here). I also asked it to please delete the file at the end, after I had finished my download.
Given how many steps were needed to go from video interview to final document, there are multiple opportunities for mistakes/omissions/typos to creep in. Very likely there are some nuances that got lost along the way but in the end, I believe this was a successful experiment. Thank you to Thomas MacEntee for the encouragement!
First marriage
The first marriage was "in the news" in several Ohio newspapers, characterizing her first husband Frank Gottfried (1971-1961) as a popular young man. Floyda was just 20, her new hubby was 26 and a son of a successful brick manufacturer in the area when they married in 1898. Their wedding, according to the newspaper, took place at the home of Floyda's sister and brother-in-law in Upper Sandusky, Ohio. I found news reports in more than one paper and more than one newspaper database. The brother-in-law who hosted the wedding held a key job in county government, which added to the newsworthiness of Floyda's first marriage.
Second marriage
Floyda's second marriage, to Brice Larimer McClure (1878-1970) was also noted in a few Ohio newspapers and in more than one news database. Again, Floyda was married at the Upper Sandusky home of her sister and brother-in-law, a couple who would soon move to Columbus, Ohio where he served as a state accountant and auditor. That political connection alone ensured news coverage of what one report called a "quiet wedding." Floyda used her maiden name in the two-year period between the end of one marriage and the start of the second marriage.
Surprise of the season
Having called the local probate court a few years ago, I already have copies of the detailed divorce filings. Here was a 23-year-old wife charging her husband, a well-to-do farmer, with scratching her, threatening to hit her, and verbally abusing her on many occasions. The husband's lawyer asked for the case to be dismissed because "the facts stated therein are not sufficient to constitute a cause of action." Reader, the judge awarded Floyda everything she asked for!
But until now, I had seen no news coverage of Floyda's divorce proceedings. I found it by searching in Newspaper Archive, a database I added only this year. Newspaper Archive has digitized copies of the Cleveland Leader, which for a time was a dominant Cleveland newspaper.
Searching for "Floyda Steiner," I found this brief paragraph under the heading of "State News Condensed" on April 6, 1901, page 2:
Sues for divorce. Upper Sandusky, Ohio--The surprise of the season was the filing of a divorce case Friday by Floyda M. Gottfried against her husband, Frank Gottfried, one of Wyandotte [sic] County's prominent Democrats. They were married here three years ago, and have no children. The plaintiff charges her husband with extreme cruelty, asks for alimony, and wishes to be restored to her maiden name of Floyda M. Steiner.
I can see why this was the surprise of the season. How often did young women file for divorce in 1901? Not very often...and how often do they win? Descendants can be proud of Floyda's strength and determination to find a way out of her unhappy first marriage and be ready for a new love two years later.
"In the news" is the genealogy prompt for week 37 in Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks series.
