Register for RootsTech, Browse Sessions Early

 

It's not yet time to assemble a class schedule, but it's a good time to begin browsing the new class sessions already scheduled for RootsTech 2026. Here's the preview page.

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:

• Linda Debe, "Turning Tick Marks into People" 
• Sunny Jane Morton, "Religious Newspapers in the US"
• Cheri Hudson Passey, "Don't Believe Everything You Find"
• Seema Kenney, "Double Dates and Lost Dates"
• Laura Hedgecock, "Use Community Context to Transform Family Stories"
• D. Josh Taylor, "Resolving Conflicts and Building Sound Conclusions"

Index Alone Doesn't Tell the Story

 

On this day in 1871, Mary Ann McClure (1836-1901) married Reverend John J. Cook (1835-1916) in Wabash, Indiana. Mary Ann was my husband's great-grand aunt. 

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.

Register for FREE WikiTree Week Genealogy Activities

From November 2 to November 8, WikiTree is celebrating its 17th anniversary of building a free, collaborative worldwide family tree. Everyone is invited to register for WikiTree Week (to be eligible for free prizes) and join the fun!

Each day of WikiTree Week will have a different theme and activities. All free!

• Nov 2 theme: Connections
• Nov 3 theme: Ancestors
• Nov 4 theme: DNA
• Nov 5 theme: WikiTree Day! 
• Nov 6 theme: Technology
• Nov 7 theme: Symposium - Watch 12 great speakers during this day of genealogy education
• Nov 8 theme: Thank-a-Thon appreciation of WikiTreers who are helping to build this worldwide collaborative family tree.

I've registered and can't wait to dip in and out of activities during the week. Please go ahead and check it out here. 

Saluting Military Bandmaster Ancestors on Canadian Thanksgiving 2025

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

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.

One of John's brothers, Henry Arthur Slatter, became bandmaster of the 72d Seaforth Highlanders in Vancouver, serving from 1911-1925 and then heading up a different military band after that. At left is an excerpt from his Find a Grave page with photo and bio.

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!

Big Sale! My Genealogy E-Book for 99 Cents or 99 Pence

To celebrate Family History Month, my genealogy e-book is going on sale!

From breakfast time (California time) on October 9 through the morning of October 16, you can purchase the digital edition of Planning a Future for Your Family's Past for just 99 cents (on Amazon US) or just 99 pence (on Amazon UK).

No codes, no secret steps, just click and buy. 

My concise book provides a simple framework for organizing, storing, curating, safeguarding, and sharing old photos, ancestor stories, genealogical documents, and heirlooms, for the sake of future descendants and researchers. 

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. 

Thanks very much to readers for making my ebook a #1 best-seller on Amazon! 

Enjoy Family History Month, a great time to plan to protect your own family's history for today and tomorrow.

Happy 85th Anniversary to Harriet and Seymour

On October 6, 1940, my 1c1r Harriet Gladys Wirtschafter (1920-2013) married Seymour Joseph Farber (1912-1998). Harriet was the only daughter of Mary Schwartz and her husband, fashion furrier Edward Wirtschafter. The couple also had a son, Burton, nearly 6 years older than Harriet.

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.

Veterans at the Cemetery

I love putting in-laws on my tree and my husband's tree, and really enjoy researching their lives and connections. If any were veterans, I especially want to honor their service to the country.

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.

Bequeath the Story With Your Photos and Heirlooms

I'm writing some family history background to include in the archival envelopes at back of the new shadow boxes I had made this year. 

You can do something similar by putting an envelope or archival sleeve behind any photo frame and tucking in the story to go with the photo or object.

Top right, the page I wrote about the World War II military service of Dad (Harold Burk, 1909-1978). I slipped this page into the sleeve of his shadow box. For other photos, I'll paste a clear sleeve to the back of the frame and slip in a story or three.

Below that, part of the write-up for the shadow box I had made for the childhood jewelry of my Mom and her twin sister (Daisy Schwartz Burk and Dorothy Helen Schwartz). It's tucked into the sleeve behind the frame, too.

I signed and dated these write-ups for the sake of future generations. I included copies of Dad's discharge papers and, at the suggest of my Sis, I will slip a letter or note into the back of Mom's shadow box to show her signature.

There's room for even more in the envelopes behind the frames. My challenge is to avoid overloading the envelopes and overwhelming those who will inherit these frames in the future!

Even taping a paragraph or two to the back of a frame will be a good start to bequeathing a story with your photo or heirloom. I'm also writing a quick story to staple to underside of some wooden furniture so heirs know how they came into the family, when, and why. The last thing I want is for stories to be lost to those who come after.

Photos to Sketches for Ancestor Coloring Book

 

Coloring books are a quick and easy way to introduce ancestors to the younger generation. All you need is old photos turned into pencil sketches with white space for coloring (or scribbling). 

I'm testing different ways of turning digitized photos into pencil sketches, for free. (Ancestor sketches are also good to illustrate a bite-sized bio or any family history materials.)

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!

Note: Some free photo-to-sketch sites require registration with an email, some allow you to upload a photo and transform it into a sketch without registering. Give this a try and see how your ancestors look as a coloring book page!

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.

How I Write a Blog Post

Inspired by Nancy Gilbride Casey's recent post about how she writes on her blog, I'm going to share my process as well. 

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:

• 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks prompts by Amy Johnson Crow. Some weeks, the prompt gives me a nudge toward additional research or encourages me to look at ancestors in a slightly different light. Last week, for the prompt "in the news," I wrote about finding a report of my husband's grandmother's divorce, with the subhead: "Surprise of the season."
• Holidays. I like to post about family history traditions and artifacts related to major holidays, including ration books used by my hubby's family on Thanksgiving during World War II. Plus I enjoy posting vintage penny postal cards sent to my husband's family in the first decades of the 20th century.
• Heirlooms. This is a favorite type of post for me. Just last week I wrote about having a custom shadow box frame created for the childhood jewelry of my Mom and her twin sister. This year I also planned a custom shadow box frame to preserve and organize my Dad's World War II memorabilia.
• Book reviews. I recently reviewed a concise and handy new book by Elizabeth Shown Mills and last year I reviewed a terrific genetic genealogy mystery by Nathan Dylan Goodwin. 
• Resources. Just as I appreciate when other bloggers break the news of fresh resources, I also post about updated resources, such as my post about the Fold3 Korean War-era draft cards made newly available earlier this year. A particularly popular post was my discovery of a new (unannounced) index for free digitized New York City Muni Archives vital records. Another well-read post was about FREE sources of downloadable images for blogging, bite-sized ancestor bios, and more.
• Other bloggers. When another blogger writes an intriguing blog post, it makes me think about how that topic or resource or methodology applies to me. This post is a great example of being inspired by Nancy to write about my blogging process. 
• What's happening at the moment. Whether I'm writing a bite-sized ancestor bio or organizing old photos, I blog about it. Trying AI with an ancestor interview in Russian was this kind of post from earlier in the week.
• My two cents. Some blog posts represent me having my say about something, such as why I don't usually change Family Search profiles and sources. I also get on my soap box about planning to preserve family history materials and curating them NOW before we join our ancestors. 

Writing and illustrating a blog post

I type a first draft as it comes to mind, being sure to add links (to outside resources or to my own blog posts) and always including an image to grab attention. However, I don't post right away. I check what the post looks like in draft form, let it sit for a day or two, and then read it over again. 

Using the features of Blogger, I don't have to post anything right away. I like to "blog ahead" by writing posts and scheduling them to appear a few days or a week in the future.

Every post, ideally, should be accompanied by an image for reader interest. Maybe I'll post a family photo, maybe a genealogy document, or a copyright-free image (from Pixabay, Pexels, or RawPixel). The image at top is from Pixabay, and I changed the color slightly as well as adding the name of my blog. 

I don't include citations in my posts, but I do include links to relevant websites or collections or my own posts. Why? Because although a few relatives read my blog, they can get details from my public family trees and the family history books I've prepared over the years. If a reader sends me a comment about a post, I can answer with more info at that point. 

More posts are ahead!

Video to Audio to Transcript to Translation via AI

The well-known speaker Thomas MacEntee recently gave a presentation to my local genealogy club about how to use AI. During the Q&A period, I asked him whether AI could translate and transcribe foreign language audio for free. His answer was a definite yes. So this week I began to experiment.

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!

In the News: Two Marriages, One Divorce

My husband's paternal grandmother, Floyda Mabel Steiner (1878-1948) was married twice, I found out early in my genealogical journey. 

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. 

Framing the Childhood Jewelry of Mom and Her Twin

This elegant shadow box, in the works for two months, features the childhood jewelry of Mom (Daisy Schwartz Burk, 1919-1981) and her twin sister (Dorothy Helen Schwartz, 1919-2001). The creative design and meticulous archival framing were done by a truly terrific custom frame store in my area. 

All the jewelry items were gently cleaned and then carefully hand-stitched to the ecru linen background in a graceful arrangement. The 1920s photo, printed by Mpix, should look great for a century or longer behind high quality museum glass. The finishing touch: name/date plaques that identify Mom and Auntie and their birth/death years.

On the back is an archival envelope for storing a few photos, letters, and other documents related to these beloved ancestors, including a page of background about the jewelry items. Sis wants to include an old note with Mom's signature, too. Great idea!

Without question, this is an expensive archival solution to keeping special heirloom items safe and accessible. But off-the-shelf shadow boxes are widely available and less expensive if you want to try creating your own display of ancestral heirlooms.

For additional ideas about documenting and preserving ancestral items and other genealogical materials, please see my book, Planning a Future for Your Family's Past.

Appealing the VA's Skinny Extract of Dad's Claims File

A few weeks ago, the US Department of Veterans Affairs finally responded to my request for the claim records of Harold David Burk (1909-1978), my late father.  I faxed my official request to the VA on December 11 of last year. After waiting more than eight months, all I got was this pathetically skimpy, skinny extract (above) with nothing about Dad's military service, no spouse name, not even a birth or death date, only his parents' names. Grrrr.

Following the advice of Reclaim the Records, the nonprofit that aims to make public records actually public again, I am appealing. As next of kin, I am legally entitled to Dad's file.

I have to prove that I am, indeed, Dad's child, as part of the appeals process. But my official birth certificate, shown above (with judicious redactions), has NO NAME in the given name section, just under the words "Certificate of Birth."

Why? Because my parents were completely taken by surprise when not one but two babies were born. They weren't prepared with two names and needed a few days to decide. In the hospital, I was temporarily named "Burk A" and my sister's name was "Burk B".

Our names were filed with the Department of Health a couple of weeks later, then written on the back of our original birth certificates.

I have to explain all of that background in my appeal letter to VA officials. The birth cert clearly states that 2 children were born, and I'm the first. This should help.

In all, I included 7 attachments in my pdf file, including a copy of my appeal letter, emailed to the VA Office of General Counsel.

Unfortunately, I can't imagine that the harried VA officials will take much time to read the fine print in my appeal letter and documents. 😕 But I don't give up easily!

Watch for a post months from now on the outcome of my appeal. 

Uncommon Given Names? Um, Census Says...

I tried an experiment: On Ancestry, I searched ONLY the US Federal Census Collection for some of the more uncommon given names in my husband's family tree (at least, I consider those names to be uncommon). And each time, I learned that the Census period from 1790 to 1950 enumerated a lot of people with each of those seemingly uncommon given names.

Above, a screen shot from my search for Capitola, which was the given name of my husband's 1c1r on his maternal side. Including spelling variations, there are more than 19.6 million people named Capitola covered by the US Census.*

Here are some other names I searched and how many I found enumerated in the entire span of the US Census.

D'Alva - 10.4 million

Elfie - 34 million

Elroy - 32.6 million

Elveretta - 35.7 million

Floyda - 15.5 million

Lavatia - 25 million

Leander - 25.2 million

Ulysses - 490,000 (this was a surprise, given the popularity of the other names)

Compare these statistics with one of the most common given names in hubby's family tree: Jane, which appears 91 million times in the US Census over the years!

Have you tried this with some of the seemingly uncommon given names in your tree? 

*Randy Seaver notes, in a reader comment, that I didn't specify an exact match when searching for these given names. He's absolutely correct. The numbers would be far, far lower if I searched only for "Elveretta" without any spelling variations. I included variations (like "Elvereta") for two reasons. First, enumerators didn't always spell names the way those being enumerated would spell them. Second, indexing isn't always accurate. So I cast a wide net with multiple variations, for fun.