Book Review: "Ultimate Guide to Mastering FamilySearch"

 

Truly, this book is the ultimate guide to mastering FamilySearch.com!

Even genealogy researchers who have been using the free FamilySearch site for a long time will find valuable tips and tricks in this brand-new book. 

The author is Dana Ann Palmer, who has years of experience working with FamilySearch and also has been teaching people how to use the site for quite a while.

The 226-page book, just published by the Genealogical Publishing Company, covers the entire range of tools available on the free FamilySearch site, soup to nuts. 

Check out this robust table of contents, with my notation about "memories" being a great place to post bite-sized ancestor bios. 😉

Chapter 4 is of particular interest to me, because I'm still learning my way around the newish full-text search part of FamilySearch. Already I've discovered some fabulous records and with Dana's help, I expect to find out even more about ancestors via full-text search.

Not only does Dana offer an incredible variety of excellent suggestions, she shows the reader step-by-step what to do in color, which allows us to follow along and see everything very clearly. 

On the page shown here, the red arrows identify where to search in each case. The blue box labeled "apply" is exactly as it would appear on my screen as I conduct my own search. So useful, especially since the book is 8.5 inches x 11 inches, large enough to clearly read even the tiny type.

Hardly a day goes by when I don't use FamilySearch, because it's free and because it has a wealth of information from worldwide sources. I'm delighted to have Dana Ann Palmer as my guide to being more efficient and more effective in using FamilySearch. 

I would like to see a slightly more detailed index, but that's just my preference. Really, I can't say enough good things about this terrific new book. 

Note: I received a complimentary copy of this book for review purposes but the opinions in this post are entirely my own. 

Ancestry Wrapped: 70 Uploaded Items to Share

Ancestry.com has begun giving members a summary of their stats for the year, sort of similar to what Spotify Wrapped does for its listeners. 

Among the stats for me in 2025, this one jumped out: I uploaded 70 items to share with other researchers and relatives.

Most of these uploads were birth, marriage, and death certificates I downloaded from the New York City Municipal Archives Historical Vital Records databases. The vast majority of my ancestors came through Ellis Island and Castle Garden, often staying in the Big Apple to work, raise a family, and live out their lives.

My research was super-charged this year when the New York City Muni Archives finally introduced indexes to free (uncertified) digitized vital records. 

So when I'm looking at an ancestor who lived in New York City and I don't have all of their original vital records, I click over to the Muni site and try to locate a birth, marriage, or death record. Then I download the record and upload it to Ancestry, attaching it to the pertinent people on my family tree.

A great deal of info is on these documents: names of the ancestor, ancestor's parents, dates and places, and more. Scans of originals and in color too.

Importantly, these documents serve as proof of what I assert on my family tree. If, for example, someone wants to see why I named "X maiden name" as the mother of Y, they can look at the original birth record scan I uploaded. The Genealogical Proof Standard in action!

These uploads are also my way of showing appreciation for the kindness of relatives and family historians who added vital records scans to their family trees in the past.

Adventures in Ordering an Alien Registration AR-2

Inspired by a wonderful blog post written by Nancy Gilbride Casey, I decided to email the US National Archives (NARA) to order an Alien Registration Form (AR-2) just before Thanksgiving. 

According to NARA, the Alien Registration Program registered more than 5.6 million noncitizens between August 1, 1940, and March 31, 1944. If you, like Nancy and me, have an immigrant ancestor who was not naturalized at that point, maybe your ancestor will also have registered using the AR-2 form.

To learn more about the AR-2 and the ordering process, please read the NARA info on this page.

Why order AR-2?

Nancy's post and the NARA website show why an AR-2 can be a valuable document for genealogical purposes. Above, a sample page from an AR-2 form taken from NARA's info page. 

The form asks for current name and other names used by the noncitizen, as well as address, birth date and place, marital status, physical characteristics, date and place of arrival in America, occupation, employer, organizations involved with, military service if any, other close relatives living in America, and more!

Process for searching and ordering

For an excellent, detailed tutorial, see the Allen County Public Library's Genealogical Center's video here.

I checked Ancestry's collection of alien registrations here and discovered a number of ancestors had filed AR-2 forms. Here's NARA's search page and be sure to check the FAQs if this is your first search. You need the A-file number of your ancestor to make your request.

After finding my great aunt Jennie Salkowitz in the database, I followed the instructions to email an inquiry, as follows:

Greetings! I would like to order the Alien Registration Form of:

    Name: Jennie Salkowitz [female]

    Country of birth: Russia

    Date of birth: 1888

    A-file number: A4_41071

    Registration place: Bronx, New York

I then wrote that I would like NARA to quote me the fee or bill me so I could pay for non-certified pdf copies. I included my full mailing address, phone number, and email (vital to be able to receive response).

UPDATE: Quote received today! 

Because Nancy received her response within days, I was hopeful that maybe I would have a similar experience. 

Hours after I published this blog post, I heard from the National Archives that they confirmed the availability of my great aunt's AR-2 file. The response quoted a price of $20 and explained exactly how to place the actual order with my payment, to complete the transaction. 

NARA notes a response time of 1-2 weeks for the file I just ordered, with a possible delay due to the holiday season.

If all goes well, I'll blog again soon about what I learned from great aunt Jennie's AR-2 form. And of course I'll begin submitting additional requests.

Remembering Vesta, AKA Mrs Byron Wood

On this day in 1892, Vesta Maude (or Maud) Craft was born in Huntington, West Virginia to farmer Oliver Craft and his wife, Mary Gilmore Craft. On June 4, 1914, she married my husband's 1c1r, Byron Thomas Wood (1891-1968). Byron and Vesta Maude had ten children together, although two sadly died in infancy.

Over the years, Vesta was mentioned in the local newspaper (The Daily Sentinel-Tribune of Bowling Green, Ohio) a few times...as Mrs. Husband's Name, which I know was the custom of the day. Her given name was not written in the newspaper.

In 1929, Mrs. Byron T. Wood won a $10 prize in a kitchen inspection contest that looked at improvements such as new pressure cookers (her category). It was Vesta.

When Vesta died in 1949, her obituary (excerpt at top) read: Mrs. Byron Wood Rites Saturday. In four paragraphs, Vesta's given name was not written in the newspaper. Not once.

Yet her married daughters were listed as survivors, with their given names and married surnames. On the other hand, her three surviving sisters were listed as Mrs. Husband's Name.

Was Vesta named for the Roman goddess of home, hearth, and family? I don't know, but today I'm remembering the Wood family's only woman named Vesta.

"Written" is this week's #52Ancestors genealogy prompt from Amy Johnson Crow.

Happy Birthday to Mom and Auntie

On December 4, 1919, my grandmother and grandfather were quite surprised by the arrival of twin daughters, my Auntie Dorothy and my Mom, Daisy. 

Here's an old photo of Dorothy Schwartz, 1919-2001 and Daisy Schwartz Burk, 1919-1981. 

They look very cute holding hands, and of course their proud mother dressed them identically.

Very likely this photo was taken a couple of years earlier than 1927.

I had some fun with this photo, first colorizing it using MyHeritage's excellent photo enhancement tools. At left is the result. 

I have no reference for whether the colorizing is accurate, but my guess is their hats matched the coats and were either light brown or grey. 

Lilac hats, as colorized, would have been cute too. And oh those clunky shoes.

--

Then I used the iColoring site to turn the black-and-white original photo into a pencil sketch, for free. The result is at bottom of this post. I especially like this version for an ancestor coloring book! In fact, I already sent the page to my niece for her two little ones to color.

Thinking of Mom and Auntie with much love on this 106th anniversary of their birth in the Bronx, New York.

PS: Dorothy was 5 minutes older than Daisy 😉

Searching Reclaim the Records' New York State Death Index

Hooray for Reclaim the Records, which has once again, through legal cases and perseverance, forced the public disclosure of vital records that should be public. This time, the result is the disclosure of millions of historical death records from New York State, covering the years 1880 to 2017.

Our friends at Reclaim the Records created an innovative, easy-to-search website that also functions very well with natural language search queries. Here's the link to this new site.

Above, a screen shot of the home page, showing suggested natural language search queries. I tried this search: "Ruth Markell died in New Rochelle in 1941," referring to a 1c1r who died young. I have her obit but not her death cert. 

In a split second, I got a result. And when I clicked on that Ruth Markell result, I got a bit more detail PLUS an unusually helpful bonus: "People with the surname ____ who died nearby." Above, an excerpt from the bonus, showing this little girl's brothers, who both died in New Rochelle, New York in the 1970s. 

Do give this new database a try if you have New York State ancestors who died between 1880 and 2017. Thank you very much to Reclaim the Records!

Thanksgiving Greetings to 12513 Lancelot Avenue in Cleveland

On November 23, 1910, a first cousin sent this penny postal greeting to Wallis W. Wood, my husband's uncle. 

At the time, the Wood family was living at 12513 Lancelot Avenue in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. 

The house was built by Wallis's father, James Edgar Wood (1871-1939), who built dozens of homes in and around that area. Typically, James would construct a home on spec, finish one floor, move his family in, and slowly complete the inside while framing the outside of yet another home. The family wound up moving every year or two as James sold off each house. 

His homes have stood for more than a century!

At left, a street view from Google Maps of 12513 Lancelot Avenue in Cleveland, dated 2022. Clearly, this house is still going strong.

The Wood family celebrated a couple of holiday seasons there before moving to yet another almost-completed home.

Wishing you and yours a happy and healthy Thanksgiving.

The End of the #GenChat Era

The social media genealogy chat #GenChat began in 2013. (For more about its history and evolution, see here.) Christine McCloud became #GenChat co-host in 2018 and sole host in 2022. Sadly, this chat will end in mid-December, as shown in her announcement.

 

Christine presided over some major changes during her long tenure. Most important, as the social media world evolved, Christine expanded #GenChat from the Twitter platform to the Mastodon platform. This meant she hosted four chats each month instead of two. 

Then, when many genealogy folks fled Twitter, she moved #GenChat to BlueSky and contributed to the vibrant genealogy community there. 

Christine has maintained the two chats format twice per month, a challenging schedule on top of mastering the technology to operate both chats.😲 Not to mention that she actually has a life of her own!

Meanwhile, BlueSky gained two other genealogy chats, #GenHour (on Thursdays) and #AncestryHour (on Tuesdays). Both of these chats are weekly, lively and unmoderated, with BlueSky folks posting informally about their current genealogy activities and sharing ideas and info with other chatters. 

The final two #GenChats will be November 28/29 (Friday on BlueSky, Saturday on Mastodon) and December 12/13 (Friday on BlueSky, Saturday on Mastodon).

A heartfelt thank you to Christine for keeping #GenChat going with such enthusiasm and dedication! You have done a superb job, and you are much appreciated. 😍 

Happy Anniversary to Mom and Dad

 

On Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend in 1946, Daisy Schwartz (1919-1981) and Harold Burk (1909-1978) were wed at the Hotel McAlpin in New York City. Above, a photo from their wedding album, showing them reading congratulatory telegrams (the text messages of the time).

The Hotel McAlpin was a gigantic hotel, built in 1912 and boasting a Turkish bath, an in-house orchestra, plunge pool, and even a women's only floor. 

Mom got dressed in her gold lame wedding gown and matching gold shoes in her room upstairs (I can see from the photos). After the ceremony, she returned to her room to pick up her suitcase and put on her Persian Lamb winter coat for the train trip to honeymoon in Atlantic City, New Jersey. 

Happy anniversary to Mom and Dad, much loved, much missed, never forgotten.

Update: US Veterans Affairs FOIA Appeals Under Review

 

I'm beginning to hear back from the US Veterans Affairs authorities about my appeals of requests for ancestor veterans' files, which I asked for on the basis of the Freedom of Information Act. 

The very first request I sent, way back in early December of 2024, was for my Dad's veteran's file. Many months later, I was sent a skimpy extract with bare-bones info. I followed the terrific advice of the Reclaim the Records experts and appealed. Then as more skimpy extracts or denials arrived, I continued to appeal.

Above, the email I received this week from the US Veterans Affairs office, telling me they are "obtaining relevant records and/or information concerning" this particular appeal, and can't even estimate when my appeal will be completed. I imagine all the responses will look similar to this.

Just looking at the letter above, you can see how long the VA took to respond to my request for this particular veteran. More than 8 months, to be precise. And now I have no idea when I will receive a determination. I expect to have to wait. And wait. And wait. 

PS: Already I have 6 of these letters in 2 days, with more on the way. Identical in wording, only the case number and veteran's name are different on each letter.

Deeply Wrong Results Via AI Deeper Dive

Every year around this time, I redo my research on Leona "Lee" Wallace (1903-1989), who ran the legendary Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade from the late 1940s until the early 1950s. Lee was born on November 24, 1903 in Poland. She was my aunt Dorothy's life partner and is remembered fondly as a devoted aunt. I really enjoy keeping her memory alive through my role as family historian.

Of course I use genealogy and newspaper sources but I also use a regular ole Google search just in case. And...the online search results were interesting, to say the least.

No relation to the actor Lee Wallace

My initial Google search included the above "AI Overview" of results. It says "Lee Wallace is primarily known as an actor, but there was also a Leona "Lee" Zonna Wallace who, along with her company, helped manage the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and its special events." [Correctly, it indicated no info connecting the actor Lee Wallace to this parade, and went on to list some of the actor's film credits.]

OK, the AI results do show "Lee Wallace Associates" which was, in fact, my aunt Lee's company. And there's a distinction in the results between the actor and the person who ran the Thanksgiving Day Parade, also true. Mind you, the info used by Google's AI was directly from my own genealogy blog posts about Lee Wallace Associates. 

Google's AI next asked whether I wanted to take a deeper dive into the AI results. Sure. 

Deeper dive: cue the hallucinations

See the deep-dive results above? The assumption is that Lee Wallace was male. Nope.

Then came fascinating and utterly fanciful hallucinations about Lee Wallace's "portfolio of events." 

Some of the parades and events listed in the so-called results didn't even begin until after my Aunt Lee retired. There is no possible way that Aunt Lee had anything at all to do with the St. Paddy's Parade or the NYC Marathon. Not the Orange Bowl Parade either. Hallucinations!

These deeper dive AI results gave me and my family a big laugh. But no correct or usable info in this case. 

Good news - New news stories!

Anyway, I did find a new (to me) newspaper story about Lee when I searched NewspaperArchive. It was a human interest feature that appeared in late December, 1950 in several Midwest newspapers, about Lee planning the 1951 Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade in New York, also discussing her early working career. A nice new article I hadn't yet uncovered. It's fun to see how far and wide the Macy's parade was known.

Ask for a Newspaper to Be Added to Database

One newspaper I would dearly love to search is The Home News, originally The Bronx Home News, from my hometown of Bronx, New York. The microfilm for these issues is available at the main branch of the New York Public Library, in Room 315.

I know my mother's family appeared in this newspaper more than once, because Mom saved clippings about her twin sister (who served overseas as a WAC in World War II). 

At left, one such clipping from April, 1944, with notations in my mother's handwriting.

My guess is there are more news items from The Home News that I simply don't know about.

Although getting to New York City and back from where I live is an all-day project, it's doable. Or I could hire a researcher and provide a list of names and addresses to be searched.

But there's something else I can do (and did do): Ask the big newspaper databases to look into acquiring and digitizing this run of newspapers.

Being a GenealogyBank subscriber, I used the "Contact Us" link on the Help menu to provide "feedback" in the form of a request for this newspaper to be added. I included a link to the Library of Congress description (shown at top). I received a reply thanking me and saying the request would be passed along to the acquisitions department for follow-up.

I also submitted a "Newspaper Addition Request" to newspapers.com, including a link to the New York Public Library's research page for newspapers. (I subscribe to newspapers.com as well.)

Plus I submitted the same request to OldNews.com, with the same link to the NY Public Library, because I'm a subscriber via MyHeritage. The same day, I received an appreciative response saying my request would be forwarded to the development team.

These newspaper databases invite such requests and want to hear what subscribers are interested in. With luck, my request for The Home News will translate into digital availability sometime in 2026. 🤞🤞🤞 Acquisitions and digitizing take time.

I encourage you to speak up and submit requests for specific newspapers to be acquired and digitized!

More Background on WAC Experiences in World War II

Recently, I was contacted by a researcher interested in my blog post about a magazine article describing the tense World War II trans-Atlantic crossing of the RMS Aquitania in 1943. 

My Auntie Dorothy Schwartz (1919-2001) was among the 650 members of the Womens Army Corps who sailed on the Aquitania on July 8, 1943. Also on board were many thousands of soldiers and support personnel, sailing from New York to Scotland, amid heightened U-Boat activity and worries of German attack. I happily shared my copy of the article with this researcher.

Seventy years after that voyage, I was very fortunate to be introduced to my aunt's lifelong friend Penelope, who met Dorothy on that voyage. They bonded over their anxiety about enduring days at sea without a military escort. Penelope also told me stories of the antics of the male troops trying to attract the attention of the WACs, in defiance of official edicts against socializing. 

The researcher who contacted me was kind enough to share a link to a book that provided broader background about the Aquitania and other Cunard ships that carried troops to war. The book was written by an officer in the Royal Australian Navy Volunteer Reserve who served on the RMS Aquitania for that voyage, among other voyages. I had not known about this book and was glad to have the link.

Available for free on Internet Archive, Running the Gauntlet is a well-researched and often personal account of Alister Satchell's experience on the Aquitania during wartime. Shown here is a page from that book, in which he describes the presence of WACs on board in July, 1943 as being "mental diversion" for the servicemen. Well, that was his view as a member of the crew, anyway. 

By the way, "WAC" is not in the index so I had to look for that voyage by following the chronology of the chapters. Always a good idea to look beyond the index and table of contents! 

Satchell also provides lots of historical details to frame the achievement of how the three Cunard ships successfully carried one million men and women to war during the 1940s. He also notes, poignantly, that if even one of those Cunard ships had been sunk while carrying troops, it would instantly have sent some 10,000 mothers into bereavement. 😓

Finally, the author has his say about everyday life in Scotland, England, and big American cities during the war. He had time off to see sights and particularly enjoyed New York City and Washington, D.C. during his travels. Interesting to think about the home front, not just the experiences of service personnel.

Remembering Nurse Emily Hartman from World War I

For Remembrance Day and Veterans Day: My paternal great uncle Abraham Berk married Anna Horwich in Manchester, England, in 1903. He was Lithuanian-born, stopping with relatives in Manchester before continuing on to build a new life in Canada. Anna followed him across the Atlantic in 1905, leaving behind a family that would soon be caught up in World War I.

Anna's first cousin Emily Hartman (1895-1918), a daughter of Aron Hartman and Dora Hurwich Hartman, volunteered her services during World War I. She trained as a Nurse in the Voluntary Aid Detachment of the British Red Cross. After a month of training in a Manchester hospital, she was sent to the Military Hospital at Bermondsey, London on June 1, 1918. 

Less than five months later, Nurse Emily contracted influenza at the hospital as the epidemic swept through military facilities and the general population. Flu led to pneumonia and she sadly died on October 20, 1918. She was buried at Ecclesfield Jewish Cemetery in Sheffield, England, where many of her family were also buried.

Memorializing Nurse Emily

After the war, Nurse Emily was memorialized on the Roll of Honour near "The Sisters Window" at York Minster--a special window dedicated 100 years ago. In addition, the British Red Cross lists Nurse Emily among those who volunteered. Plus, she was memorialized on the Commonwealth War Graves website. And she was memorialized on the British Jews in World War I site.

She has also been memorialized on Remember the Fallen, a free UK-based website created by Sandra Taylor to highlight the lives of those who died during World War I, so they are more than just names on stone. Sandra researched Nurse Emily and posted the results here, along with a brief statement from me pointing to a free Fold3 memorial page I created for Emily. 

If you're researching ancestors who lost their lives in wartime, do cast a wide net because there are many potential sources to check! Nurse Emily was mentioned on the British Red Cross WWI site, on the York Minster site, on the Remember the Fallen site, on Find a Grave, on the Commonwealth War Graves site, and on family trees, among other sites. I created her Fold3 memorial to have sources gathered in one place.

Nurse Emily and the millions of others who gave their lives in service of freedom are not forgotten. 

This is my post for the wartime prompt of Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors challenge. 

Affordable Bite-Sized Family History Booklet

This week I finished another affordable, bite-sized family history project, just in time for a family visit. 

I created this 20-page booklet in Microsoft Word, arranging photos and maps and other illustrations in between and around brief paragraphs to tell the story of these folks from my husband's family tree. 

20 pages = bite-sized?

I broke the project down into multiple bite-sized pieces: researching the parents of Rosemary and John and then moving backwards to research their grandparents. One parent was an immigrant, one the child of an immigrant, who met and married in Cleveland, Ohio. 

I wrote as I researched and I put their lives in the context of time and place, from birth to marriage to families to working lives to retirement and beyond. I included a page or two about the lives of their siblings, who moved in and out of family homes over the years. The purpose was to show that the main focus ancestors were not "dropped from Mars" but grew up in a household with other siblings, and sometimes relatives from older generations staying in the same home.

Adding in burial details, plus photos and maps and lots of other illustrations, the total page count inched higher, one bite-sized bio at a time. I left a half page empty after the final sentence: Please add your memories here, to encourage recipients to jot notes of their own.

The title page previews the story, as shown above. The reverse side of the title page includes the notation "Researched and written by Marian Burk Wood, 2025," so future generations will know the source of the booklet. 

Definitely not boring

Every page has color to draw the eyes of younger relatives, who routinely complain that black and white is boring. Even when I included a black-and-white image (such as a marriage certificate), I tinted it slightly to help it stand out on a white page and I put a narrow color border around it.  

Boring lives? Nope. During my research, for instance, I discovered that one couple lived with the bride's parents for more than 5 years during the Depression--even while they coped with a lack of steady jobs and the tragedy of a stillborn first child. My bite-sized narratives showed the drama and also noted the pride when a much-loved child was the very first in the family to attend college. 

I kept the paragraphs short and punchy, with enough white space to make the text seem less dense and more readable. Each heading was in color and there were plenty of headings to add to the lively look. Interspersing illustrations everywhere spread out the text and mentioning the dramatic twists and turns helped me to entice readers to turn the page and see what happened next.

Professional presentation

I took the advice of the local print shop and had the booklet digitally color-printed on heavier quality paper. The text and images are sharp and clear as a result, more professional looking than something I could print at home. 

The print shop put on a tight spiral binding, with a clear cover to protect the title page and a thick back cover to support the entire booklet. Very professional and much sturdier than stapling the pages together.

Total price: $10 per booklet, printed and ready to pick up in one day. Affordable and professional and readable!

This is one of the ideas I demonstrate in my genealogy presentation, Bring Family History Alive in Bite-Sized Projects. By focusing on a couple or a family (or a special occasion or special place), I can make the family history project practical and doable, not sprawling and overwhelming.