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.

Dance Fest at PS 105 in the Bronx

 

Bronx, New York elementary schools used to regularly hold a summer folk dance festival at PS 105, located about four miles from my neighborhood school at PS 103. The school's yard had a hard surface for playing games or spinning Hula Hoops. It was an ideal level surface for a dance fest, drawing dancers from many elementary schools across the Bronx.

Dancers from each school would prepare in advance by rehearsing specific folk dances with a teacher during a summer program. Then, at the dance fest, each school's dancers would perform in their own circle and finally all would dance as part of the group (see family photo at top). 

I used MyHeritage's "restore colors" photo enhancement feature to turn the faded original color snapshot into a vibrant photo that brings the scene alive.

How do I know the restored colors are even close to being correct? 

I compared the color of the school with a current Google photo of the school, at right. 

MyHeritage got it right! 

I am so happy to have this restored photo to go with the family story of these long-ago dance fests.

Full-Text Surprise: Divorce Papers!

My husband's grandmother Floyda Mabel Steiner McClure died 77 years ago this week, on November 2, 1948. She was 70 years old then, and had been married to Brice Larimer McClure for more than 45 years. 

But 20 years ago, when I first ordered their Ohio marriage license from 1903, I learned this was Floyda's second marriage. That sent me on a long quest to learn what happened. 

Old way: Phone, send $3 for photocopies 

When I first tried to find Floyda's Ohio divorce, I called a couple of courthouses in her area, and was advised to try showing up in person. Not logistically good for me, being in New England. I called back a few years later and spoke with the Clerk of Courts for Wyandot County, Ohio. She kindly listened to my brief explanation and told me to call back in 15 minutes, giving her time to check through the files for the relevant names and dates. 

I waited a full 20 minutes before calling back. Eureka, the clerk found an entire file on this divorce from 1901! I could have photocopies for a grand total of $3 plus snail-mail postage. When the envelope arrived, I was excited to learn the story of how Floyda's first husband was verbally abusive and threatened harm, so she initiated divorce and won alimony too--very unusual and rather courageous for a young woman of that time.

New way: Full-text search for Floyda

With the full-text search capabilities of Family Search, this week I decided to search again for Floyda among the many, many unindexed digitized documents. My search term was Floyda Steiner (her maiden name) and I filtered by dates 1878-1948, her birth and death dates.

Wow! On the first page of results, up popped her divorce papers, among other key documents digitized but not indexed from Wyandot County, Ohio probate and court records. At top, a screen shot showing the handwritten ledger on the left and the AI transcript on the right. The ledger is what the court clerk photocopied and sent me for $3. Now it's freely available through Family Search's full-text search and who knows what else I'll discover! Divorce documentation can be challenging to locate so this was a real surprise. And, as Lisa points out in a comment, finding these documents allows me to have a specific online source I can link to my family trees. 

Full-text search is giving me lots of clues and documents to add to my knowledge of family history. I've been working my way through hubby's family tree and my family tree, plugging in names and dates and places to see what unindexed records might show up. Wishing you luck as you try your searches!

Halloween Last Century and This Century

More than a century ago, my husband's very young uncle in Cleveland received this adorable Halloween greeting from a relative in Chicago. It's still in the hands of his descendants and treasured as a memento of the closeness of family.

Just a couple of years ago, a young relative colored this stack of jack-o-lanterns for us, and now it's a memento of that visit with a kiddo who is growing up fast!

Happy Halloween and may your day be filled with treats, not tricks. 

Showing Lotsa Love for In-Law Ancestors

One of my older cousins began researching our family tree 45 years ago, cranking microfilm and laboriously noting names, dates, places, and events. She also contacted far-flung relatives to ask about our ancestors--and theirs. 

Back then, the families were fairly large and she was able to document many in-laws and their siblings/descendants. In-laws often attended or hosted family gatherings and she knew their names, if not their stories.

This special cousin painstakingly input all this info into a genealogy program, shared printouts with family. Eventually, she uploaded her family tree to a genealogy site, kindly making it public and allowing me to add to it on her behalf in the last few years.

Now I'm updating our joint research on in-laws (including her in-laws) to add documents and facts that have become available in recent years. It's a fun genealogical journey and I hope to turn up some paperwork that will help fill in a few blanks (maiden names, birth places, death places, etc.) Already I've corrected mistranscribed names and incorrect birth places, linking sources as evidence.*

I felt a bit sad that few of these in-laws (and their in-laws and FAN club) were already on public family trees--and when they were, they weren't shown accurately--so I'm fixing that to show my love for in-laws and to honor my cousin's research from back in the day 😃 By adding my cousin's in-laws as well as my own distant cousins and hubby's distant cousins plus their in-laws, I'm paying it forward in gratitude for those who began the research in the past.

*Linda, in her comment, notes that correcting inaccurate info online can be frustrating because folks can change things back or simply ignore evidence that is contrary to their trees. I totally agree--which is why I don't correct on FamilySearch but I do post accurate info and evidence on Ancestry, plus on Find a Grave, and I do share accurate info on WikiTree. Over the long term, I've seen some corrected info gradually percolating through the public family trees. 😀

The Clock Is Ticking: Appeal Denials of FOIA Requests for Veterans' Info

I thought all hope was lost for receiving US military veterans' service and medical info requested since December 2024 under the Freedom of Information Act, at least if I wasn't the documented next of kin for the veteran.

It's thanks to Reclaim the Records that the public has much much much easier access to requesting such records in the first place. They sued on our behalf, won, and created an easy-to-search, free website with built-in request functionality to find the names of US veterans who made some kind of claim to the US Veterans Administration over the past 150+ years. Wow! 

Back story 

I wasn't the only one who searched the database, found veterans in the family tree and the FAN club, and submitted multiple requests to obtain info about veterans in the family tree. My 13 requests were among the approximately 20,000 requests submitted since Reclaim the Records put up its database in late December of 2024. 

But then in the summer of 2025, without warning, the US Veterans Administration began answering such requests with denials, only sending ridiculously "skinny" extracts from the records, rather than the actual records themselves. In some cases, the extract didn't even confirm the veteran's name, let alone the branch of the military or service dates or the veteran's birth or death date. More from Reclaim the Records is here.

Update: ALWAYS APPEAL

Now Reclaim the Records has posted excellent, detailed advice about appealing these FOIA denials. They begin with this advice: ALWAYS APPEAL.

What I particularly appreciate is that the nonprofit has created four suggested letters with detailed legal language for us to use in appealing these denials. You can see the sample letters here.

Time is of the essence. To appeal a denial, I have to send a response to the Department of Veterans Affairs that is received no later than 90 calendar days from the date of the denial letter. The clock is ticking, and I'm copying and pasting from Reclaim the Record's sample language into letters that I personalize as indicated in each sample. 

At top, part of the suggested language for a situation in which I wasn't next of kin but I do know that the veteran was discharged from the military more than 62 years ago.

My fingers are flying over the keyboard. I'll post when I get any response. Go ahead and appeal! 

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!