Be a Good Ancestor and Share Your Own Story

Photo books are one way of sharing your story now.

Are you taking the time to tell your own story? Be a good ancestor and share your own story so future generations will have a sense of what your life has been like.

My choice: photo books

I began to systematically document my life and family experiences in 2007, when I made the first of what became an annual series of photo books. My goal was to capture some of the most significant or fun things that happened during the year, so I could look back and rekindle those memories. But I also realized that photo books look polished and can be passed down for decades to come.

Every year since, I've created at least one photo book of what my husband and I and our family did during the previous 12 months. I call the book something like "Our life in photos" or "2023 in photos." I caption every photo. If there's a large group photo or two, I include full names once in the book. At top, a photo of many of the photo books I've made over the years, displayed on a book shelf for easy access.

When we have a big family gathering of relatives from far and near, I often make a photo book to remember the fun and the food and the activities. This is where my family and I get those photos off our phones and into print or albums to browse again and again.

My system: I set up a digital folder at the start of every year and put photos into it as the weeks go on. By December, I have dozens of photos to arrange into a colorful book of memories. Not everything makes the final cut, but I have a good range of photos to use. This works for me, but do whatever works for you.

Of course I wait for sales and coupons before I press the buy button. My vendors of choice are Shutterfly, MixBook, and Snapfish, thanks to their quality and customization possibilities.

Your life, your way

There are so many ways to document your life so you can enjoy the memories and share with those who come after. Here are just a few ideas to start.

Well-known genealogy blogger Randy Seaver regularly blogs about his weekly activities. He stresses that family historians should make a point of telling their own stories, not just the stories of ancestors from the past. 

If you or your family like to send an annual Christmas or holiday letter, that's a good way to talk about the ups/downs of the year and include a photo or three. 

My husband writes a monthly letter to younger relatives, with highlights of what he's been doing and stories of interest. He sends his letters the old-school way, because he likes to include a photo and because snail mail doesn't get lost in a sea of emails.

Some folks have a private Facebook page or website for sharing family photos and memories. Since I'm unhappy with FB at the moment, I'm not going down that path but I do know people who have multigenerational FB pages to share family news, old and new.

Just do it

Experiment to see what works best for you and your situation and your budget. Don't worry about capturing every moment and every memory. Be a good ancestor and make 2025 the year you share key photos and memories with family today and keep your life stories available for descendants of tomorrow.

Remembering the "Walter Winchells" of the Farkas Family Tree

My maternal Grandma Hermina Farkas Schwartz (1886-1964) was part of the first generation in the Farkas Family Tree, founded in 1933 to keep the Farkas siblings and their descendants in close contact. 

Fortunately, the founders had the foresight to keep written minutes (originally in cursive, but quickly switched to typed) of their 10 meetings per year. And that's how I learned which member was the designated "Walter Winchell" of each year.

Good & Welfare Chair = Walter Winchell

The idea was to have one person in charge of gathering family gossip (good, bad, funny) and reporting during the monthly meeting. Even when someone had the mumps or broke an arm, the info was shared with a bit of spin to make it lighter if possible. The official title of that part of the meeting was "Good and Welfare." 

The star of that portion of the meeting was that year's Walter Winchell, nicknamed for the well-known newspaper columnist and radio personality who specialized in gossip. 

During 1942, when several members were serving in World War II, the yearend summary of the minutes included this cheeky comment: "Brother George F____ distinguished himself as the Walter Winchell of the Farkas Family Tree, ferreting out the military secrets and relating them with gusto at the meetings."

Grandpa as Winchell

My maternal Grandpa Theodore Schwartz (1887-1965) served as the family tree's Winchell in 1946 and 1947. In May of 1946, he reported 11 "items" such as who was home from the U.S. Army, who had new jewelry, who had a new job, who was out of the hospital, and who was planning a summer vacation.

Throughout his tenure, Grandpa's good and welfare items mixed sad news (the death of an older family member, a car accident that put someone in the hospital) with happier news (someone accepted to Yale, someone having a baby). 

Thank you to our Walter Winchells 

Even as the original tree members aged, the minutes were also filled with increasingly hopeful Winchell reports of the youngest generation: school achievements, graduations, first cars, first jobs, engagements, and so on. Having these moments captured on the page, as they took place, was a wonderful gift for the future. 

Thank you to the many Walter Winchells who served in the family tree, 1933-1964. 

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

1921 Census of England and Wales on Ancestry Hints

 The 1921 Census of England and Wales is now available on Ancestry. Subscribers can search that Census directly from this page.

You will soon be able to see 1921 Census hints show up under the category of "new collections" on the hints page. Above is a photo of my husband's Ancestry family tree hints page. So far, only 4 "new collections" hints have appeared but there's a reason.

Remember, to stimulate the hints system, you need to click on your ancestors and do a little searching. There are several dozen UK ancestors on the tree, but I've only researched four of those folks in the past week since the 1921 Census went live on Ancestry. 

So now I'm researching those UK residents and stimulating the hints system to list additional suggestions. I like that the 1921 Census is highlighted under "new collections" and hope Ancestry will continue doing that with major new databases it adds. 

Suits Meet Flapper at Thanksgiving Dinner, 1956

One of my favorite photos shows my maternal grandfather, uncle, and aunt at a very memorable Thanksgiving gathering of the Farkas Family Tree.

The family tree association, founded in 1933, had been getting together for Thanksgiving dinners for more than two decades. 

In 1956, the setting was the Hotel Gramercy Park in Manhattan, convenient to Farkas relatives and in-laws who lived in and around New York City. For this dinner, attendees were asked to come in costume. Many worked hard on elaborate (sometimes outlandish) outfits.

As shown above, my Auntie Dorothy Schwartz (1919-2001) dressed as a flapper. The two men with her wore suit and tie for the occasion: Her father, Theodore "Teddy" Schwartz (1887-1965) and her brother, Fred Shaw (1912-1991). My aunt all dressed up as a flapper makes me smile!

Here's another fun photo from this same batch of scanned snap shots, both colorized using the fantastic photo tools at MyHeritage.

During the dinner, costumed attendees paraded around the room in competition for the crowd's vote of "best costume." My Dad (Harold Burk, 1909-1978) dressed as a hayseed (he's at far right). Although he didn't win, he had a grand time working the crowd for votes.  

Amy Johnson Crow provides prompts for every week of the year in her ongoing #52Ancestors in 52 Weeks program. This week's prompt is "Favorite Photo."

Participating in 52 Ancestors and WikiTree Connect-A-Thons

In 2025, I'm adding to my family history stories and expanding my online family tree by participating in two free genealogy activities: Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks and the WikiTree Connect-a-Thons. 

#52Ancestors

Introduced in 2013, 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks is a great way to jump-start writing about family history because Amy provides a genealogy prompt for every week of the year. No rules, no obligation to write every week, not even a blog is necessary. Participants receive a helpful prompt open to personal interpretation, plus we can join Amy's Generations Cafe Facebook page to share stories. Write in any way, use any tools or technologies you wish.

I rarely write about all the prompts but I usually choose one per month as a starting point for blogging about some story or a new or interesting discovery. The first prompt of 2025 was "In the Beginning" and I wrote about starting to research an in-law line in my hubby's family tree. 

For the rest of January, Amy's prompts are: Week 2, favorite photo; Week 3, nickname; Week 4, overlooked. Interpret as you wish, write what you wish, with no deadlines. 

WikiTree Connect-a-Thon

To enhance my online family trees, with a bit of extra research as I go along, I'm also participating in the WikiTree Connect-a-Thons during this year.

The first is on the long weekend of January 17-20th. WikiTree is a free, collaborative family tree platform that emphasizes solid sources and provides plenty of space for ancestor biographies. I have individual family trees on Ancestry, MyHeritage, and other sites, but I've been adding to WikiTree to share what I know about ancestors in more ways and on more sites.

A Connect-a-Thon offers the opportunity to focus on adding ancestors to this worldwide tree in a fun and friendly atmosphere, with a touch of short-term competition if you choose to join one of the many teams. I'm part of Team L'Chaim.

WikiTreers have live video chats during each day of the Connect-a-Thon. Here's the video schedule, and if you miss the live chat you can catch up by viewing the recording on the YouTube channel. 

Hello 2025, hello more family history and genealogy discoveries to share. 

At the Beginning, A Sad End

I'm just beginning my research into the family background of two in-law ancestors in my husband's family: Piacentino "Peter" Pietroniro (1901-1979) and his wife, Anna Yurko Pietroniro (1910-1989). This couple married in 1929. I have the date and the officiant's name, and will be doing more research to identify the church.

Peter was an immigrant from Casacalenda, Italy who crossed the Atlantic in search of work and, like many from his area, settled in Cleveland, Ohio during the 1920s. 

Anna was one of 7 children born to immigrants from Hazlin, Czechoslovakia (now an area in Slovakia). Her father and some of her siblings worked in Cleveland steel mills. 

Multiple newspaper searches

Searching for the surnames Yurko and Pietroniro on multiple newspaper sites, I initially came across a surprising mention of Yurko in the Enakopravnost newspaper, a Slovenian-language publication in Cleveland that is in the OldNews.com database.  

Using the "Google Lens" app, I aimed the camera of my phone at the news item on my screen and took a photo of the translation.

It was a horrifically sad news report: Anna Yurko's 17-year-old nephew, Joseph Yurko, committed suicide by hanging himself after his widowed father "asked him to leave work during the holidays and stay at home with his four younger brothers and sisters."

Then I used GenealogyBank to look for any items about young Joseph's death and located a brief piece in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, p. 2 on 25 July 1947. The headline and subhead read:

Heartsick, Hangs Self--Boy, 17, broken up by request to quit job, says coroner.

This news item explained that the father had been unable to hire a housekeeper after the death of his wife the previous year. So during the summer months, when the father had to work but school was out, he wanted his oldest son to care for the younger children. But on the morning of July 24th, the father went down to the basement and found young Joseph's body 😥

Confirming Joseph's birth and death

Using the newspaper info as clues, I quickly found the mother's death a year earlier and learned that Joseph Robert Yurko was born on 11 June 1930 and died on 24 July 1947. His death cert confirms that death was due to suicide by hanging, a really tragic end to this high schooler's life. Joseph was buried in Calvary Cemetery in Cleveland, where many in the Yurko family were laid to rest. 

I was flabbergasted to see, from the 1950 US Census, that the Yurko family remained in the home where poor Joseph had died...his father had remarried and the household included the new wife, those younger children, plus a stepson.

So as I begin my Yurko and Pietroniro research, I've added all this sad news to the family tree.

"Beginning" is the first #52Ancestors genealogy prompt of 2025, from Amy Johnson Crow. 

Entering My 27th Year of Genealogy

Happy new year! My genealogy journey began in 1998, when a beloved maternal first-cousin-once-removed asked me a routine family history question about my father's father. I knew only the man's name, not his birth or death date or place. Curiosity led to determination and then to obsession and as I continued my research, I discovered loads of cousins who were new to me! 

Now 27 years later, I'm still excited about connecting with cousins and connecting the dots for a more complete, more accurate family tree. Most important to me is to keep sharing what I learn so the knowledge isn't lost to future generations. That means writing/posting more bite-sized ancestor bios and using other means of perpetuating the names and stories. It also means regularly backing up my genealogy data to keep everything safe.

These days it's so easy take photos with phones yet easy to forget to get those photos off phones and share. I'm making a point of sharing right now. And in the coming year I plan to get even more family stories into the heads of other family members to keep them alive.

During the holidays, two grandchildren asked about their immigrant ancestors who lived in Cleveland, Ohio. You know I have stories and info to share--redoing the research to find anything new for a new family history photo book I'll create this year, including when and why these ancestors left their homelands. Spoiler alert: they came to America in search of economic opportunity, settled in Cleveland where others from their home villages had already put down roots.

Happy ancestor hunting in 2025! You never know what discoveries await this year. 

Happy New Year with Vintage Postal Greetings

 

From the archives of Wood family history, two penny postal greeting cards sent to Cleveland in the early 1900s. Cousins, aunts, uncles, siblings all exchanged cards like these to keep connections strong in the Wood family.

May your new year in 2025 be peaceful and bright. 

Wow! Reclaim the Records Got BIRLS Files for Us for Free

Reclaim the Records, that terrific nonprofit fighting to make public records public, won a lawsuit that makes a huge US military veterans' database available to all for the very first time--at no charge. And they didn't stop there. 

Reclaim the Records created not just a neat searchable website for finding US veterans in the BIRLS (Beneficiary Identification Records Locator Subsystem), it built in a super-easy, super-convenient process for asking for Veterans Affairs records via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with just a few clicks and an electronic signature.

Read the fine print on the BIRLS site (birls.org) to see what documentation is included in these veterans' records. Also note that you don't have to be a relative or prove any connection to request the records. And be aware there may be a small charge for the records you ultimately want to receive.

In less than 5 minutes, I searched for a cousin's name in the database, found him, checked the details to verify, and submitted a FOIA request. This process ordinarily means writing a request, signing the document, and faxing it to the VA. (In fact, I used the old-fashioned "write a letter and fax" process just a few weeks ago.) Now, thanks to Reclaim the Records, those different steps are automatically built into the streamlined process right on birls.org. 

Today's request through the Reclaim extra-convenient process is the first of many I intend to submit. No doubt the VA will initially be overwhelmed by a tsunami of requests. But it will eventually catch up and oh boy I can barely wait to see what info I get that will become part of family history!

Vintage Christmas Greetings from the Wood Family

 

These colorful greetings are just two of the many penny postal greetings sent to a young Wood relative in Cleveland, Ohio from about 1907 to 1915.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy Hanukkah!

Remembering Alex and Jennie's Christmas Eve Wedding

On December 24, 1916, my maternal great uncle Alexander Farkas (1885-1948) married Jennie Katz (1886-1974). Alex, an immigrant from Hungary, was a salesman for Singer Sewing Machines, and would turn 31 years old on the day after his wedding. Jennie, also an immigrant, was 30 years old and an accomplished dressmaker, able to look at a fashion item and sew it up with her own special flair. 

Their wedding was a fun family affair, including Alex's many siblings and their spouses plus a few of Jennie's Katz relatives. The one child at their wedding was Alex's nephew Fred Schwartz, who was only four years old. In the surviving wedding photo, the guests are wearing party hats and smiling broadly. Must have been quite the celebration!

Alex and Jennie got married in what was then the First Hungarian Congregation Ohab Zedek, a beautiful Greek Revival-style synagogue on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. Today, the building is a performance space just a few blocks from the Tenement Museum that illuminates immigrant life in the Big Apple from 1860s-1970s. 

The couple had no children and doted on their many nephews and nieces. Jennie eventually became so successful under the professional name Madame Jennie Farkas that Alex quit his job to help manage her business. After Alex died in 1948, at age 62, Jennie continued to stitch custom creations for clients and also made fashions for special family events. She passed away at age 88 in 1974, deeply mourned by the Farkas family. 

Linking to Digitized Genealogy Booklets

When I began my genealogy journey in 1998, I had access to a photocopied edition of a Larimer family history booklet printed in 1959. My late mom-in-law had marked changes/corrections/additions, giving me a head start on tracing this line. Years later, I inherited the original (a silvery booklet) and now I can see the changes even more clearly. Plus I feel free to mark up my photocopied version 😉

Not all Larimer researchers know about this booklet. If I hadn't had the Wood family's photocopied edition, I probably would not have known! 

Yet this Larimer booklet has been available via Family Search for a long time; only in recent years has it been digitized for easy access by anyone, from anywhere. Now I've been including links to it on Larimer ancestor bios, hoping to help other researchers interested in the family's background. 

As shown above, I included a link to the Larimer book on the MyHeritage bio of Brice S. Larimer. Anyone can follow the link and see the entire book. There are other ways to add such links: as a link along with other sources, for instance.

I also included the link on Brice S. Larimer's profile on the public tree I posted on Ancestry (as shown above). 

Over time, I'm adding this link to other Larimer ancestors and on other genealogy sites, including WikiTree and FamilySearch--making it a snap for others to access the digitized booklet. Despite its limitations, the booklet has plenty of clues for researching the Larimer line. My good deed is sharing the link far and wide.

Good deed is the week 51 prompt for Amy Johnson Crow's fun #52Ancestors genealogy challenge. I've already joined Amy's challenge for 2025. If you want to join, here's the link. 

Looking Back at 2024 Family History Progress

This has been another busy year of genealogy, with many projects and ongoing plans for sharing family history with future generations.

• Bite-sized ancestor bios continue as a major priority, and I'm making great progress. Some bios are quite detailed, some are quite brief (2-4 sentences) but all are intended to keep ancestors' memories alive for the future. The chart at right shows the main surnames I've profiled so far on WikiTree during 2024. No one has posted more bio profiles of Larimer surnames than me! Larimer was the name of my husband's immigrant ancestor back in the 1700s. 
• I've been redoing genealogy research on key ancestors, because new documents, stories, and photos become available all the time. Lots of progress here too, searching not only vital records databases but also newspaper databases for mentions of ancestors. Plus I've begun the process of learning more about my Dad's WWII military service and postwar health, following the steps recommended by Alec Ferretti in his webinar about US military pension records. I'm awaiting a response from the VA about Dad's file, which should have lots of info. 
• Getting rid of unneeded paper in my genealogy files...an ongoing process that has resulted in many trips to the recycle bin. Bonus: I'm following up on details that now have more significance than they did when I first saw a document or photo a decade or more in the past--meaning I'm putting the pieces together and learning more even as I downsize my paper files.
• I'm still telling family history stories, in books as well as orally. This year I created a small (6" x 6") book about my husband's Mayflower ancestors so that descendants will have this important background in writing! One grandchild actually asked a question about it 👍
• Little progress on a project I began two years ago: moving old photos from archival boxes to archival photo albums for the convenience of the younger generation. I want them to be able to browse albums and read captions instead of pawing through archival boxes. Maybe in 2025.
• Cousin connections continue! I've heard from a number of cousins interested in our family tree and with additional info to share. I'm thankful for their assistance.

Remembering Abraham Berk and the Hebrew Sick Benefit Assn of Montreal

 

My grandfather and his older brother, Abraham Berk (1877-1962), left their home country of Lithuania around the turn of the 20th century. They stopped off with their aunt and uncle in Manchester, England, learning a new language and making extra money for their trip across the Atlantic. Both were trained in carpentry and cabinet making, both able to make a living anywhere.

While in Manchester, Abraham fell in love and married Anna Horwich (1880-1948) in 1903. By mid-1904, he was on a ship bound for Canada while she stayed behind, awaiting the birth of their first child. He found a place to live in Montreal and began working, sending for Anna and their daughter Rose in 1905. The couple soon added to their family with three more children: Lily, William, and Irving Isidore.

Incorporating the benevolent association

Redoing my research this week, I discovered a new-to-me legal notice published on Oct 31, 1919 in the Le Canada newspaper, via OldNews.com. 

Abraham Berk, contractor, was one of the people involved in incorporating the Hebrew Sick Benefit Association of Montreal. This association had already been active since 1892, and in fact it was the oldest mutual aid group of its type in Montreal. In 1919 it was being incorporated and as part of the process, the association published a legal notice about the change in status. Abraham was 42 years old at the time, and his wife Anna was 39. 

Buried in the association plot

In 1948, Anna Berk died, aged 68, and was buried in Baron de Hirsch Cemetery in Montreal, in the Hebrew Sick Benefit Association plot. Abraham was also buried there when he died on Dec 11, 1962, at age 85. 

Remembering great uncle Abraham on the anniversary of his death, a man devoted to family. 

Why I Love Address Books Handed Down from Ancestors!

I'm a big fan of scrutinizing address books handed down from ancestors in the tree. Especially since my maternal family tree has three men named Joseph Roth, it's been a challenge to determine who's descended from which Joseph and what the relationships are between the Roth branches. My connection is through a sibling of my great-grandmother who married a brother of Joseph Roth. 

Above, a snippet from the neatly printed loose-leaf address book of Joseph Roth (1858-1945), who was married to Julia Gutfried (1862-1937, name Americanized by others in the family as Goodfried). The book was handed down to a granddaughter who very kindly allowed me to scan and analyze the contents.

Matching names to the tree

I've worked my way through nearly all of this address book, matching the names and addresses to this Joseph Roth's children and grandchildren. This entry for Howard Weinberg initially puzzled me, especially the notation "private."

But I was also missing a spouse for Joseph Roth's granddaughter Vivian Ruth Rethy (1917-1991). Could Howard be Vivian's husband? Bear in mind, the address book didn't get handed down in Vivian's line, it was from one of the other Joseph Roth men in the tree 😉.

At the back of the address book was a list of names and dates. They were birth dates of Joseph's children, their spouses/children, and some in-laws. I matched "Vivian Weinberg" with her birthdate, and below her name was "Howerd __" meaning same surname as Vivian. 

Creatively spelled given name, but now I had a good hypothesis. I researched Howard Weinberg with the birth date in the phone book, and in conjunction with Vivian's name. I quickly found their marriage record and Census documents with street address, etc. 

Occupation and address matches 

Also I found Howard's WWII draft registration from 1940, showing his occupation as an optician. Continuing my search, I came up with a New York City phone book entry for an optometrist/optician in Manhattan, with both business and residence address/phone numbers.

These street addresses and phone numbers are an exact match for the address book kept by Joseph Roth, grandfather of Howard's wife. A bit more research and I had an obit for Howard Leonard Weinberg (1916-1985) who had retired from the Big Apple to Palm Beach, Florida. I'll do descendancy research to try to trace Howard and Vivian's two children.  With luck, more cousin connections are in my future.

Amy Johnson Crow's genealogy prompt for this week in her #52Ancestors series is "Handed Down."