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!

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.