What I Learned from Nellie Block's AR 2

Earlier this month, I sent for a digital copy of the Alien Registration Form (AR-2) filled out by my paternal great aunt Nellie Block (1876?-1950). Nellie was the oldest sister of my paternal grandfather Isaac Burk. She gave inconsistent answers to each US Census in which she was enumerated and even her death cert raised questions. So I spent $20 to try to learn something new about her. It was worth it.

This is not my first adventure in AR-2 ordering. An earlier order (fee $20) gave me a bit of detail about a different immigrant ancestor. This time I got more for my money.

1) Nellie did not come through Ellis Island

One of the key pieces of new information: Nellie said she immigrated through the Port of Boston in May, 1890. I will now research this port and date to try to find her passenger list. Most of my ancestors came through Ellis Island but not Nellie, apparently!

I have long puzzled over the fact that Nellie was the first among her siblings to leave Lithuania (which was part of the Russian Empire at the time) and come to America. By finding her passenger manifest, I may discover that she did not come directly to America but, like two of her brothers, might have stopped in another country en route. Finding her Boston arrival is now on my genealogy to-do list!

2) Nellie gave a different birth date

She was inconsistent about her age on every document I've seen. For the AR-2 she gave a specific birth date of July 10, 1872. That means she was 78 years old at the time of her death in 1950--not 85 as her gravestone shows. 

Which birth date is real? Even her younger brothers didn't seem to know her actual birth year. I'm just going to have to go with what Nellie swore to in her AR-2 statement.

3) Nellie's activities and occupation

From 1930 on, Nellie was involved with Beth El Hospital, now Brookdale Hospital Center in Brooklyn, New York. Presumably she was a volunteer, but no additional info is on the AR-2 Form. By 1940 Nellie was almost 68 years old and probably she was not employed regularly so she might have had time to be a volunteer.

Her occupation was listed on the AR form as housework and sewing. I wonder whether she sewed for private clients to make extra cash. Earlier in life, for at least 15 years, she was an "operator" on furs and other materials, according to Census answers about occupation.

4) Nellie never applied for citizenship

Of course I looked diligently for any sign of a naturalization document and now I see Nellie told officials she had not applied for first citizenship papers. She would know.

5) Nellie was mostly truthful (I think)

She told the truth about having no living parents, spouse, or children in America. She told the truth about never being in the military. 

However, she definitely didn't tell the truth about her marital status: She was actually widowed, not single, in 1940. Possibly she was not presented with the opportunity to explain how she was widowed not long after her marriage. 

More Penny Postal Greetings from Early Last Century

In the early 1900s, my husband's Wood family mailed each other penny postal greetings for every conceivable holiday.

Here's a colorful postcard sent to Wallis W. Wood in Cleveland, Ohio more than a century ago.

The card was from his aunt Rachel "Nellie" Wood Lewis Kirby in Chicago, staying in touch for Washington's birthday (traditionally February 22nd).

Happy President's Day!

What the NY Census Suggests About Citizenship

I am so fortunate that so many of my immigrant ancestors settled in New York, because I can use the New York State Census, as well as the US Census, to learn more about their lives. Of course, all the details are only clues until confirmed by additional research.

Above, part of the 1925 New York State Census from the Bronx, showing my maternal great-grandparents, Morris (Moritz) Farkas and his wife Lena, plus 5 of their children: Julius, Peter, Rose, Fred, and Regina. 

What I particularly love about this New York Census is the question about citizenship and where/when naturalized. As marked above, Great-grandpa Morris told the enumerator he was a citizen, naturalized in New York in 1907. Great-grandma Lena Kunstler Farkas said she was a citizen under "husband's papers." Two Hungarian-born children, Julius and Peter, simply were shown as citizens with no further details.

Actually, Morris was naturalized on June 22, 1906 in the Eastern District of New York. According to the concept of derivative citizenship, at that time, the wife and their young children derived their naturalized status from the status of Morris. As a result, this New York Census suggests (but doesn't state) that as youngsters, Julius and Peter were naturalized because their father Morris was naturalized.

Good thing Morris didn't wait to become a citizen because after March 2, 1907, Lena and the minor children would NOT have been able to claim US citizenship by virtue of Morris's naturalization papers. Each would have needed to apply for naturalization individually. More about searching for citizenship documentation online can be found here.

"What the Census Suggests" is this week's genealogy writing prompt from Amy Johnson Crow's #52Ancestors series.

My Book Reviews Leading Up to America 250

As the 250th anniversary of US independence approaches, I'm looking back at just a few of my reviews or appreciations of books connected to American history. These books added to my knowledge and understanding of family history context during the past 250 years of American history.

Here are links to my reviews or appreciations of:

• The Quest for Annie Moore of Ellis Island (I have Ellis Island immigrant ancestors in my family tree)
• The Road That Made America (hubby's ancestors walked this road from Philly to Virginia)
• History for Genealogists (helpful for understanding what was possibly influencing the lives of my ancestors, both immigrants and US-born)
• The Last Ships from Hamburg (some of my ancestors actually sailed to America on these ships)
• Essential Guide to Researching Your Kentucky Family History (helpful as I was researching a still elusive ancestor in hubby's tree)
• The Pioneers (helpful for understanding the hype that whipped up Ohio Fever among some of hubby's East Coast ancestors)

Looking forward to reading more books as background for family history in the coming months!

Updating the Family Tree Association Book for My Cousins

 
In 2013, I scanned the meeting minutes from my grandma Minnie's Farkas Family Tree association. The minutes covered tree meetings from 1933 to 1964. This was a six-month project of scanning, sometimes retyping, also annotating, inserting a directory of who's who, adding the tree's official constitution (two versions LOL), a couple of group photos with captions, and more.

Crucially, I painstakingly created a detailed index. Without an index, this is just a doorstop. With an index, it's a super-useful resource for family history that will be passed down because it's easy to locate the mentions of every ancestor named in the book.

At the time, I printed a few spiral-bound copies (1.5 inches thick, as shown above) for cousins who were especially interested. Soon afterward, I scanned the 500 pages in pdf format, then mailed it out on a USB flash drive to each of my second cousins.

Now, 13 years later, one of my second cousins is asking about this volume. And instead of sending out a USB right away, I'm updating the book in two ways.

First, I'm fine-tuning the index to reflect what I've learned since 2014. Above is one of the handwritten notes I made a few years ago when I discovered the exact relationship of Bela Roth. He was actually a brother-in-law of my great-grandma Lena. Changes like this improve accuracy and may even provoke new memories from my cousins who read through.

Second, I'm updating my list of "who's who" showing which ancestors were the founding members, who their spouses were, who their children were, who their children married. Since 2014, a few of these people have passed away and sadly, I needed to insert death dates. 

When finished, this gigantic volume will be ready to again be sent electronically or via mailed USB flash drives to cousins. Also, I will tape a USB to the printed book on my bookshelf, just in case. 

My ancestors had the inspired idea of keeping minutes of every monthly meeting and then having these minutes bound into books to be saved and passed down. The least I can do is to keep alive the memories of these people and the family tree association they created and loved so much by sharing the book with cousins. Again!

Mind the Gap: Alex and Blanche Married Far from Family

I've wondered about the marriage of my 1c2r Alexander Roth (1893-1949), related to me via my great-grandmother's Kunstler family. Alex was a son of Sali Kunstler Roth and Bela Bernard Roth, Blanche was a daughter of Frank Schwartz and Freida Klein Schwartz.

Both had immigrated from Hungary with their parents, settling in New York City in the early 1900s. 

Mind the gap

Alex was enumerated as living with his parents on East 19th Street in New York City until the 1920 US Census. Then a gap of 11 years. The next record I found was his name in a Boston city directory from 1931, married to Blanche Schwartz (1892?-1986). 

Blanche was enumerated with her parents in Jewish East Harlem, New York City in the 1915 New York State Census. Then a gap of 16 years. The next record I could find showed her as the wife of Alex in that Boston directory of 1931. 

Marriage in "the gap"

Clearly, Alex and Blanche married during the gap years where I couldn't seem to find any documentation of their whereabouts.

Knowing that different websites use different indexing and search algorithms, I recently redid my research using MyHeritage--and immediately discovered where and when the couple got married during the gap. I followed the link to obtain a scan of the original license/certificate (shown at top), which is housed on FamilySearch but didn't pop up when I searched that site several times. 

Why California?

Why Alex and Blanche married in Los Angeles, 2,800 miles from their parents and siblings, I can't even imagine. The Roth family was heavily into the garment district of New York City, so perhaps Alex was scouting Los Angeles for business opportunities in clothing. That's a guess, only a guess. 

Blanche had experience sewing neckties in the Big Apple. In fact, she may have worked for an uncle who owned a necktie factory in the garment district (my grandma Minnie worked for that same Roth gentleman before she got married). Still, how and why Blanche made the trip to Los Angeles and then married Alex in LA is a total mystery.

I note that Blanche and Alex were married by Rabbi Mayer Winkler, who headed up the Conservative synagogue Congregation Sinai in Los Angeles. Did this factor into their thinking? Nobody knows. I'm just glad I was able to locate their marriage record. 

Thinking of Blanche, who was born on February 3d, and of Alex, her husband for 26 years until his death in 1949.

Ancestry "AI Stories" in Beta

Another new feature just showed up in an email sent to me by Ancestry: AI Stories, in which added info is provided to help us understand the background of a particular document. 

UPDATE: There is another way to see AI Stories, see bottom of this post. Easiest way to access AI Stories is through an email announcing the availability of such hints. So be sure to watch your email for any Ancestry hint messages. When I clicked through, the hint itself appears on the right of the screen, with the document on the left. 

In my case, the document being described in an audio narrative is about my paternal grandma Henrietta Mahler Burk crossing the border from Canada to the United States, enroute from Montreal south to New York City. 

The written description and audio incorrectly state that Henrietta and her children are going to Montreal, when in fact this is a US immigration document about going from Montreal through Vermont to travel to her mother in New York City. Below is the actual source citation, clearly described as "From Canada to US"

The audio correctly identifies Henrietta as she is shown on the manifest, and links her to her mother, the relative she will be joining in New York City, as well as to her husband, Isaac Burk, who she left in Montreal. 

Below this initial audio and written narrative are other written AI Stories designed to help me "explore what shaped their life." Here's one:

The explanatory details about cross-border movement and documentation were interesting and I found this background helpful as a refresher. I see that the footnote only refers to the particular document, not the source of this historical background.

I will continue to look at AI Stories but not listen as I think I can glean the key details about a document more quickly by reading than by listening.

With luck, the "Ideas" beta will spread more widely and so will "AI Stories" in beta, so readers can share their experiences!

UPDATE: AI Stories can be accessed from the record page of a document in your hints or attached to an ancestor. They are not yet available for every record. Below, an image of a document record page that has the notation Listen and Explore. That leads to the AI Stories page for this particular record. I like the background for these records more than listening to a "story" about the ancestor in the record. See what you think!

MORE about AI Stories can be read in the Ancestry announcement here.

Randy Seaver wrote about this feature in beta here.

Living Heirlooms

One of my vivid memories of my grandparents' apartment (just off Tremont Ave. in the Bronx) is seeing a snake plant on the window sill. That tall snake plant was in Grandma and Grandpa's back bedroom as long as I can remember.

What happened to the plant? Since Grandma passed away 60+ years ago, I simply don't know. Many keepsakes were taken by neighbors, and this may have been one of them. But I'll never forget that snake plant. 

Today, my sister and I have house plants with back stories that are meaningful to us.

We each have a pot of oxalis given to us by a long-time friend who has since passed away. No wonder we take good care of these two potted plants, a link to our late friend.

At top, a different kind of plant legacy: A cutting from a plant that a younger relative has nurtured for at least 30 years. I was honored to receive this cutting last year and am keeping it going, hoping that maybe another generation will enjoy it (along with the back story).

Plants are not like the wonderful old photos we inherit or the insightful diaries or colorful maps or other heirlooms we treasure from earlier generations. But they can live on in a different way. If your plants have a family history link, please remember to tell the stories every so often, to let other relatives know the significance of these living heirlooms.