Honoring Ancestors on Ellis Island

My great-grandparents, Moritz Farkas and Leni Kunstler Farkas, came to America from Hungary at the turn of the 20th century. Both entered through Ellis Island. 

All four of my grandparents were immigrants. Three came through Ellis Island and one sailed from England to Canada and then crossed into the United States. All made the difficult decision to leave everything they knew and forge a new life in a land they'd never seen.

A Memorable Visit to See Ancestral Name

Nearly 25 years ago, Sis and I joined several cousins on a visit to Ellis Island. We knew that one of our cousins had donated to have "The Moritz Farkas Family" inscribed on an early part of the Wall of Honor erected at Ellis Island, as a monument to immigrants.

It was emotional to see the family name on the wall and think about these ancestors' hopes, dreams, and realities. It felt wonderful knowing these ancestors were memorialized in a place so important to the arc of their lives (and ours). And that we could visit this memorial, which will stand for many years!

Ellis Island Wall of Honor

Late in 2019, Sis and I decided to honor our four immigrant grandparents by donating to have their names inscribed on the Wall of Honor. We memorialized the married couple of Theodore and Hermina Farkas Schwartz (as shown above) and the married couple of Isaac and Henrietta Mahler Burk. 

Their names were added to the wall last year! Although we haven't yet had an opportunity to visit Ellis Island, a website search of the Wall of Honor shows who they are, where they came from, and who made the donation.

We are delighted to have this tangible, enduring memorial to the courage and determination of our immigrant ancestors, the journey-takers who made our lives possible. 

Paying to Check Out Clues Takes Me Back A Generation

Over the years, I've gotten some intriguing clues from researchers who are investigating people in my ancestors' FAN club (friends, associates, and neighbors). Of course, sometimes it pays to actually pay for documents if I want to go beyond the clue stage.

FAN club: sailing to America together

This week, I heard from a lovely researcher whose female ancestor sailed across the Atlantic with a distant Farkas female ancestor of mine in 1914. They not only were listed one after another on the manifest, their U.S. destination was the same: they were going to Herman Weiss in New York City. Herman's wife, Ida Farkas Weiss, was my 1c3r, I knew from previous documented research. 

In further investigating the FAN club connection (Farkas-Weiss-Schwartz and more), this researcher found interesting clues in transcriptions on the Sub-Carpathia Genealogy website, devoted to Jewish genealogy in the region shown on the map above. Her finds put the site at the top of my research priorities for learning more about my Schwartz family from Ungvar, Hungary (now Uzhhorod, Ukraine).

Revisit old sources and be willing to pay

In the past, I have searched the Sub-Carpathia site, but not for several years. I should have revisited before this. Many more records have been transcribed and posted. Yesterday and today I spent hours searching the site, jam-packed with birth/marriage/death documents, gravestone photos/transcriptions, and other useful resources for researching Jewish ancestors! It includes extremely helpful and detailed suggestions for exactly how to search and what spelling variations may be found in the records from this region. 

Full original scans are available for a modest fee, and the info was so compelling that I opened my wallet to see the originals. Actually, I've already spent a small fortune buying excellent scans of various documents that mention my Schwartz family and intermarried ancestors. It's an investment that has truly paid off.

To my amazement and joy, the site has taken me a full generation back on the Schwartz side in Ungvar, and maybe even another generation back before that. 

Keep traditions in mind

The Ashkenazi Jewish tradition is to name babies after relatives who are deceased, not after the living. Also, the tradition is to inscribe the gravestone of someone who has died with "son [or daughter] of ___[insert father's first name]___". Knowing the father's name, from the gravestone, takes the line one more generation back.

I was thrilled when I found the gravestone photo of my paternal great-grandmother Hani Simonowitz Schwartz, who died on April 25, 1933 (documented date and name, awaiting death record itself). The inscription says she was the daughter of Nisen. So one of my great-great-grandfathers was Nisen Simonowitz! -- CORRECTION: Stone doesn't match original death record I received after writing this. SO according to written death record, great-great-grandpa's name was Shmuel Simonowitz. 

Another gasp when I saw the gravestone of my paternal great-grandfather Herman (Yehuda) Schwartz, who died on January 21, 1921 (documented date and details, confirmed by written original record). The inscription says he was the son of Moshe. This means I've found another one of my great-great-grandfathers, Moshe Schwartz. 

But wait, there's more: I visited JewishGen.org for more research. In the same area of the Ungvar cemetery, according to the JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry, is a Moshe Schvarcz, who died in August of 1880. According to the transcription (no photo), Moshe's father's name is Yehuda Schvarcz. 

Combine personal knowledge with new info

In my Schwartz family, the naming pattern looks like this, based on the new info and what I know from relatives:

• Yehuda in the early 1800s had a son named Moshe
• Moshe in the mid-1800s had a son named Yehuda
• Yehuda in the late 1800s had a son named Tivador (my grandfather--he had brothers, but I don't know all their names yet--not found a Yehuda at this point)
• Tivador in the early 1900s had a son named Yehuda
• Yehuda in mid-1900s had a son whose middle name is Moshe. 

All of which supports (but doesn't quite prove) my theory that Yehuda Schvarcz is likely my 3d great-grandfather. Further research is in my future, and I'll open my wallet if needed.

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"Fortune" is the theme for this week's #52Ancestors challenge. Despite spending a small fortune on these ancestors who lived and died many generations ago, I consider it a worthwhile investment!

Enhancing, Colorizing, Animating Tillie and Leni for International Women's Day

Today is #InternationalWomensDay, a good day to honor the memories of two immigrant ancestors in my family tree by focusing on bringing their faces to life using My Heritage's amazing photo/animation tools.

Possibly I'm one of the last genealogy fans on the planet to finally try My Heritage's "Deep Nostalgia" animation tool. I also enhanced and colorized their photos with My Heritage's wonderful photo tools. 

Great-Grandma Tillie Rose Jacobs Mahler (1852?-1952)

Tillie was my father's Lithuanian-born grandmother, who came to New York City in 1886. She was widowed in her late 50s, with 7 of her 10 children still living after the death of her husband Meyer Elias Mahler (1861-1910). Tillie made her home with one or more of her grown children after being widowed, and died at the age of either 99 or 100 (no one was ever quite sure).

Above is her picture. I used My Heritage's automated tools to enhance (sharpening facial features) and colorize (more lifelike, although I don't know how accurate the result actually is). 

Great-Grandma Leni Kunstler Farkas (1865-1938)

Leni was my mother's Hungarian-born grandmother who came to New York City in 1900, a year after her husband. Soon afterward, they sent for their children to join them and all were settled in New York by 1903. Leni, who ruled the household finances with a firm hand, outlived her husband Moritz Farkas (1857-1936) by only two years. 

The enhancement and colorization brings Leni's face to life for me and other descendants who never had the opportunity to meet our great-grandma.

Save Family History for More Than One Generation

During my "Planning a Future for Your Family's Past" webinar for the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Boston on Sunday, I spoke about how to plan ahead to save your family-history collection for future generations. An attendee asked a very important question:

Does the strategy change if thinking into future generations, more than one generation ahead?

Oral history lost after three generations

As background, let me point to an old news item quoting archivist Aaron Holt of Fort Worth. He said “it only takes three generations to lose a piece of oral family history. … It must be purposely and accurately repeated over and over again through the generations to be preserved for a genealogist today." 

Today, I'm thinking not only about oral history--the stories we hear and tell about our ancestors--but also about photos, documents, and other physical items that connect us to generations in the past. What can we do to keep our family history alive in the family for more than one generation into the future?

Top priority: Share information widely

In my experience, the best thing we can do to keep family history safe for the future is to share the information widely among family members now. We must be sure that the next generation will be aware of our genealogy and key pieces of information about our family's past. 

The more relatives who know stories, names, faces, and facts today, the more likely that family history will survive into the generations beyond our own. 

Case in point: My maternal grandmother's Farkas Family Tree. She and her siblings formed the tree association in March, 1933. They kept typed and handwritten notes from monthly meetings stretching from 1933 into 1964. I remember attending meetings when I was a little girl. From my perspective, it was a time to see cousins and eat. I had no idea what the adults did during the meeting.

In fact, I had no idea written notes were taken at each meeting until one of my mother's first cousins mentioned it casually about seven years ago. He had two volumes of meeting minutes that had been bound for safekeeping. Did I want to see? Absolutely! What a gold mine of genealogy these minutes turned out to be. If not for this chance comment, the existence of the books of minutes might have not be known or remembered by the next generation.

My cousin allowed me to keep the books long enough to scan the 600+ pages, filled with details of family life and social gatherings for 31 years. I had the scans printed and bound for some cousins and, later, shared the scans electronically with a larger circle of cousins. Some of the cousins were too young to go to a meeting and were quite interested to read the month-by-month doings of our family. The "Farkas Family Tree" will live on in these meeting minutes, now in the hands or computers of more than a dozen cousins across the country. They can discuss with their families and share with descendants.

Provide context for future generations 

Without sufficient context, how will relatives two or three generations from now understand who's who and where ancestors actually fit into the family tree? 

I was lucky enough to be able to discuss the Farkas Family Tree minutes with four older cousins who attended meetings back in the day, and get their perspective on what I read in the minutes. I also conducted genealogical research to fill in gaps where needed. In essence, I was a connecting link from the past to the present, and learned enough context to share with future generations.

As a result, the package I sent to cousins was more than just the minutes. I included a 60-year-old family photo with identifications, an alphabetical list of names from the minutes, and an explanation of who each person was: Hermina Farkas Schwartz was the oldest daughter of Moritz Farkas and Leni Kunstler Farkas, the wife of Theodore Schwartz, and the maternal grandmother of Marian Burk Wood. 

So my advice for keeping family history alive two or more generations in the future is: share info/documents/photos/stories now as widely as possible, and provide context so later generations can understand the names, relationships, and lives of ancestors from the distant past. 

For more ideas, please see Amy Johnson Crow's post about LOCKSS--Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe. And, of course, keep in mind the privacy of people still living.

"Stinking Cheese" and Other Family Tree Traditions

Among the artifacts handed down in my mother's family were bound books of typed notes from 30 years of Farkas Family Tree monthly meetings. Founded in 1933 to keep the bonds strong among Farkas siblings, in-laws, and cousins, the Tree association celebrated every occasion (birthdays, anniversaries, Thanksgiving, start of summer, end of summer, etc.) with food. Hosting duties rotated around the tree, and hosts outdid themselves in feeding the many relatives who attended each meeting. 

Children and adults alike filled their plates during the main meal, then adults stayed at the table for the "business meeting" which consisted of a treasurer's report (yearly dues: $5 per adult), secretary's report (reading minutes from previous meeting), entertainment committee report (organizing card parties, fishing trips, picnics), and constitution committee (as children of immigrants, they believed in clearly delineating how the Tree association would function). 

What the hosts served changed with the seasons. Even the two "Bachelor Brothers" (my great uncles, Julius Farkas and Peter Farkas) enjoyed hosting and putting out a mouth-watering spread. As shown above in an excerpt from the minutes, when they hosted in April of 1937, the brothers and their sister-in-law Sadie served: hot dogs, sauerkraut, pickled tongue, pastrami, breads, mustard, and "stinking cheese." The brothers operated a dairy shop specializing in cheese, and the "stinking cheese" they brought to most meetings was a running joke and treasured tradition for 30 years. 

In all weather, in all economic circumstances, the minutes make clear that the family embraced its tradition of eating together, playing together, and staying together. When the older generation began to pass away, the family mourned together. My maternal grandfather Teddy led a moment of silence every March, honoring the memory of Tree members who were gone--but never forgotten.

This is my "In the kitchen" post for week 5 of #52Ancestors. 

Grandma Minnie Goes to the Ball (Spoiler Alert)

This photo puzzled me for a long, long time.

I recognized my maternal grandmother, Hermina "Minnie" Farkas (1886-1964), who was born in Hungary and came to New York as a teenager, just after the turn of the 20th century.

I couldn't imagine what she was doing in this strange get-up, photographed in a  studio on the Lower East Side of Manhattan where she and so many other immigrants lived. 

The outfit and pose was uncharacteristic of the somber older woman I remember, to say the least. What was the back story? The spoiler alert is in the title, but please keep reading for the steps I took to come to this conclusion.

Comparing Faces in Photos

To date the photo and get more context, I compared the faces, hair styles, and fashions of all my old photos of Grandma Minnie. 

One stood out as very much like the head and shoulders of Minnie as pictured in the costume photo. It was a miniature headshot among a constellation of headshots taken to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the Kossuth Ferenc Hungarian Literary Sick and Benevolent Society. 

Minnie's brother Alex Farkas (my great uncle) cofounded this group, which helped immigrants pay for medical and burial services. Minnie was a member, as were other Farkas ancestors, paying dues and volunteering their time. I had inherited a few loose pages from this booklet, with names and faces of Farkas ancestors highlighted (by an ancestor in decades past).

Pages Lost, Pages Found, Mystery Solved

The pages I inherited were almost entirely in Hungarian, so all I could make out was that the booklet was produced for the group's anniversary.

Then a cousin sorting through her family history files found the entire glossy booklet and gave it to me. It was printed in Hungarian with a few key pages in English. 

The mystery was solved!

Shown here is the English-language title page of the booklet for this fundraising event. Grandma was almost certainly in costume to attend the Kossuth Assn's "Mask and Civic Ball" held on December 4, 1909 in New York City. The studio where Grandma Minnie was photographed in costume also produced all photos for this fundraiser, and was credited with an ad in the program as well. 

No wonder Minnie's miniature headshot nearly matched her face/hair in the costume photo--my best guess is she was photographed twice on the same day in the same studio. One photo was a sedate headshot, showing her in a fashionable dress with a long locket around her neck. The other photo showed her in her eye-catching ball costume. Minnie was in her early 20s and a lovely young lady! 

Sharing with Other Researchers

A number of archives collect booklets such as this, documenting immigrant life and the role of benevolent societies in New York City. My plan is to keep this booklet safe for the future by donating it to an archive that will preserve it and digitize it for other researchers to investigate in the years to come. 

Grandma Minnie would approve, I am sure, knowing that this donation will also keep our Farkas family alive in the archives while sharing the story of the Kossuth Assn with the wider world.

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This is my #52Ancestors post for week 4, "favorite photo." 

No Heirs for Your Family History? Ideas, Part 1

One big reason I wrote Planning a Future for Your Family's Past four years ago was to provide ideas for curating a family history collection and preparing it to be passed to the next generation. The concept struck a chord in the genealogy community -- and my book has been selling steadily ever since.

My book didn't explicitly address what to do if you have no family heirs to take over your genealogy collection, although many of the ideas in the book do apply. 

Today I'm beginning a new series of posts with ideas about possible paths forward if this is your situation. The goal is to keep your family's history from winding up in a garage sale or dumpster. The new year is a great time to begin thinking about what happens to your genealogy--before you join your ancestors! These ideas are meant as starting points for your own plan to protect family history.

NOTE: If you're considering finding a non-family home for your collection as a whole, please read this informative article about the process before you make any changes to your collection.

Idea: Try to coordinate with relatives

Whether you are in touch with nieces, nephews, 1st cousins or 1st cousins once/twice removed or 2d cousins (on either side of your family), you may be able to find someone or more than one relative willing to accept at least a few of the key items in your genealogy collection.

Often, nephews/nieces/cousins are willing to accept a gift of a group family portrait that includes their parents/ancestors as well as yours. Maybe you have such a portrait from a family wedding or reunion. Even if the photo was fairly recent rather than decades in the past, ask whether your relative would be kind enough to take possession of your [hopefully good condition] original for the sake of future generations. 

If you know a certain relative was especially close to your mother or father or a grandparent, consider approaching that relative with the request to safeguard some or all of your family history collection. At the very least, your relative may be willing to accept photos/documents related to part of your shared family tree.

If nothing else, a cousin or niece or nephew who appreciates the value of family history may be willing to take some (or all) of your collection and hold it for their heirs to avoid having that info lost to future generations. 

Idea: No cousin left behind

Also coordinate with relatives to protect photos and documents related to ancestors who had no direct descendants. It's possible that a few relatives could agree to share the collection of these ancestors. 

That's how I ended up with the wedding portrait and childhood photos of my 2d cousin Iris, shown at top of this post. She had no direct heirs; her collection went, by default, to her 1st cousin. That cousin held onto the bulk of Iris's photos but asked me to take a few key items because of my interest in the Farkas family's genealogy. She also shared a few photos with another cousin who remembered Iris with great fondness.

Now a selection of Iris's photos will live on with my heirs, labeled and captioned so future generations understand who she was and how she was connected with my grandma Minnie Farkas's family. I want them to at least know Iris's name and her smile, even if they never knew her in person.

Idea: China or silver? Offer one place setting at a time

If you have your own fine china or silver (or an ancestor's tableware inherited in the past), consider asking relatives whether each would accept a single place setting. One setting doesn't take up much space and it would keep the tradition alive in a different household--multiple households, ideally. 

In my extended family, a niece and a cousin accepted a single place setting apiece from an ancestor's tableware, just for the uniqueness and the tradition. Mix and match is in style, remind the younger generation! 

FOR MORE IN THIS SERIES: Please see Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.

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"Beginnings" is my #52Ancestors post for Amy Johnson Crow's 2021 challenge. 

Happy Birthday Lady Liberty, From My Immigrant Ancestors

 

"The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World" was dedicated on this day in 1886. A gift from France to the United States, Lady Liberty is situated on Liberty Island in New York Harbor. She doesn't look a day over 134, does she?

My maternal great-grandparents (Moritz Farkas and Leni Kunstler Farkas) passed the iconic statue when arriving in New York City from Hungary. Moritz sailed in 1899 and Leni sailed in 1900. Four of their children (including my maternal grandma, Hermina Farkas), followed them to New York in 1901. I remember folks in the Farkas family expressing a fondness for Lady Liberty, a symbol of freedom and opportunity for our immigrant ancestors.

My widowed paternal great-great-grandmother (Rachel Shuham Jacobs) and her daughter (my great-grandma Tillie Jacobs Mahler) both arrived in 1886. Along with Tillie came her two children, my grandma (Henrietta Mahler) and great uncle (David Mahler). All of these immigrant ancestors saw the Statue of Liberty on their way into New York City. 

My paternal great-grandfather Meyer Elias Mahler (husband of Tillie Jacobs Mahler) arrived earlier, in May of 1885, so he definitely did NOT see the statue, which was brought to America in June of 1885. 

On behalf of my immigrant ancestors, I wish Lady Liberty a happy birthday--and I salute the courage and determination of my ancestors who sought a better life in America! To celebrate, I enjoyed a breath-taking virtual tour of the State of Liberty, seen here. 

Curating My Genealogy Collection: New Home for 1911 Postcard

This photo postcard, sent in 1911 to my maternal grandma by a younger brother, is on its way to a new home--returned to the sender's grandson after 109 years. This is part of my ongoing efforts to curate my genealogy collection, keeping items most important to my family and finding new homes for other items.

Entrepreneurial Albert Goes West

My great uncle Albert Farkas (1888-1956), born in Hungary, was quite an entrepreneur. In his early 20s, he left New York City to establish a manufacturing business in the Pacific Northwest. Simply making that cross-country journey by train must have been an adventure in 1911, when he set out.

Albert bounced between Seattle, Washington and Vancouver, British Columbia, as he made contacts and arranged his new business. He registered with the Canadian Consul in 1916, saying he was a U.S. citizen (by virtue of his father's naturalization in 1906) and had entered Canada in 1912.

Farkas Family Vacations on the Farm

In August of 1911, my grandma, Hermina "Minnie" Farkas Schwartz (1886-1964), was taking a two-week vacation with her mother and younger sisters. (She married my grandpa later that year.) To escape oppressive heat in New York City, they boarded with a farm family in Hudson, New York, and enjoyed fresh air and greenery. 

While Minnie was at the farm, this postcard arrived from her brother Albert ("Berti") in Seattle, Washington. Another cousin who reads Hungarian translated  the postcard as, loosely: "Is it still hot in New York State? If so, you can come here, where it's cold." Now this picture postcard is in an archival sleeve, protected by cardboard in a padded envelope, and winging its way to Albert's grandson--who lives in Washington state! 

Ancestors Followed the Subway Out of Manhattan

1989 map of New York
City subway system

Sometimes a map or multiple maps can help us understand ancestors' movements within a city or region. That's the case with my immigrant Farkas and Schwartz ancestors who lived in New York City around the turn of the 20th century. 

Although they began their new lives in Manhattan, my maternal great-grandparents and grandparents were able to move to less-crowded residential neighborhoods in the northern borough of the Bronx because of the subway.

The Farkas family rode the subway and "the el"

My collection of now-obsolete
New York City subway tokens

My great-grandfather Moritz Farkas (1857-1936) was escaping financial ruin after hail destroyed his crops in Hungary. He sailed to New York and initially was a boarder in someone else's Lower East Side Manhattan tenement apartment. This was in August of 1899, before any modern mass-transit systems were even built. Once his wife, Lena Kunstler Farkas (1865-1938) and their children arrived from Hungary, they moved to an apartment of their own on the Lower East Side.

By 1920, however, Moritz, Lena, and their family (and many of the married children) were living in the borough of the Bronx, just north of Manhattan. This move was made possible by the expansion of the city's subway lines into what was then a much less-populated area. Ironically, many of the subway lines were actually overhead, not underground, and were usually called "the el," short for "elevated."

Now Farkas family members could ride the subway to work and to visit each other, not to mention go to the Bronx Zoo, the Bronx Botanical Gardens, and Coney Island by train! Family stories, corroborated by more than one cousin, say that to save money, Lena sometimes gave her two middle sons only a nickel each per day to ride the subway to work...one way. They had to walk home when the nickels ran out.

Teddy and Minnie never needed a car

My maternal grandpa Theodore "Teddy" Schwartz (1887-1965) also came to New York City from Hungary, arriving in 1902, before the subway opened to the public. He lived as a boarder on the Lower East Side for the first nine years, then married my grandma Hermina "Minnie" Farkas (1886-1964) in 1911. At that point, the subway system was growing by leaps and bounds, reaching far and wide year after year.

With affordable mass transit within walking distance, Teddy and Minnie moved their family from Manhattan to the south Bronx, then a fast-growing residential area with new schools and parks. They settled on Fox Street, directly across from an elementary school, and Teddy opened a grocery store down the block.

Teddy and Minnie never had a car and didn't need one, given the ongoing improvements of the New York City subway system. Here's what the network looked like in 1939. By that time, all three of their children were working--taking the subway into Manhattan and back to the Bronx on every business day. The price was right and the subway was the fast track to better-paying jobs in the heart of New York City.

"On the map" is the #Genealogy prompt for week 38 of the #52Ancestors series.

Authentic or Enhanced Images in My Family Histories? Yes!

Sgt. Dorothy Schwartz, serving in WACs, 1942

Currently, I'm working on a dual family history of my mother (Daisy Schwartz Burk, 1919-1981) and her twin sister (Dorothy Schwartz, 1919-2001).

My goal in writing and printing family history booklets is to introduce my relatives and ancestors to future generations who never knew them in person.

Authenticity AND clarity

Authenticity is very important--but so is clarity. Enhancing the scanned versions of creased, faced, or out-of-focus photos doesn't change the original. In my view, enhancement helps my readers (and the readers who will see this booklet in 10 or 25 years) see these ancestors more clearly, more vividly. Better digital images make ancestors look like real people without damaging the originals.

The above digitized snapshot shows my Auntie Dorothy in her WAC coat and hat during World War II. Doesn't her face look clearer in the photo on the right? I used MyHeritage's photo enhancement to make my aunt's facial features less fuzzy. The effect is subtle but makes all the difference.

Who's hiding in that photo?

After Vivid-Pix enhancement: Dorothy Schwartz
in flapper costume (and surprise! her mother is at right)

Here's the enhanced "after" version of a snapshot from the late 1950s that shows a different side of my aunt's personality. She's dressed as a flapper for a family masquerade party. Staring at the "before" image, Sis and I strongly suspected the face at right was Dorothy's mother, our grandma Minnie Farkas Schwartz.

So I used Vivid-Pix's Restore software to rescue the faces and the costume from near-oblivion, and was able to confirm that Grandma was most definitely in the picture.

The "after" version is far better and can now be inserted into the family history booklet, along with the story of the party, for posterity. Of course, the original photos are all sitting untouched in archival envelopes, carefully stored and ready for future genealogists of our family.

I don't feel I have to colorize the b/w and sepia photos to catch my reader's eye. There are more modern, full-color photos to scan and sprinkle throughout the booklet--after being digitally enhanced to correct the faded colors and give these ancestors a true-to-life look.

Who Tells Your Story? Choosing to Be Family Historian

With a nod to the now-iconic musical Hamilton, I've been thinking a lot lately about the question: "Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?"

Long after my grandparents and parents were gone, I chose to be the family historian. I was curious about all those stories I didn't hear (or didn't pay attention to) when I was growing up. And I was especially motivated to dig out the stories NOT told, about my family and my husband's family. Remember, I married him for his ancestors ;)

By the time I chose our families as my focus, there were faces I could not recognize in old photos. There were important family stories and cousin connections that had somehow been forgotten.

I chose myself to tell the stories of who lived and who died--and that's how I came to understand that their stories are our stories, too.

Honoring the memory of ancestors, finding "new" cousins

My paternal grandfather Isaad Burk died years before I was born. Only after years of research did I come face to face with his face, on his naturalization papers. That clue helped me identify him in other family photos.

I really don't want to be the last person on Earth to recognize grandpa. In addition to captioning, I wrote a brief booklet about Isaac and his wife, my grandma Henrietta Mahler Burk, whose face I did recognize. This honors their lives and preserves their stories for future generations.

Happily, my family history activities put me in touch with delightful cousins from the Burk and Mahler families. The same happened when I investigated my Schwartz and Farkas family tree--I forged new and treasured connections with cousins near and far.

Forgotten heritage, now preserved

Hard as it was for me to believe, my husband's Wood family somehow didn't inherit the knowledge of their Mayflower ancestry. Only thanks to my hubby's 2c1r did we find out about 5 Mayflower ancestors in his Wood family tree: Degory Priest, Isaac Allerton, Mary Norris Allerton, Mary Allerton, and Francis Cooke. Needless to say, I'm not letting family forget this story, especially during this year of Mayflower 400 remembrances.

My research also led to uncovering the tragic story of many Schwartz family members killed in the Holocaust. I watched my mother's first cousin tell that story on video for the USC Shoah Foundation project. Her courage and survival against all odds gives me hope.

It's up to me, as guardian of family history for both sides of the family tree, to document who lived, who died, and to tell their stories.

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"Chosen family" is Amy Johnson Crow's prompt for week 34 of #52Ancestors.

Dancing the Night Away in New York City: May, 1941

Revlon Products 4th Annual Dance in New York City, 1941

This large (20 inch by 12 inch) and wonderfully sharp photo has been safely rolled and stored in a sturdy mailing tube for nearly 80 years.

The occasion was the Revlon Products Corporation 4th Annual Dance at the glamorous Hotel Roosevelt in New York City. Art Paulson & his orchestra entertained (they're shown at top right of photo).

The face in the green oval is my Mom, Daisy Schwartz Burk (1909-1981). She wore a flowery dress and a corsage to this Saturday night dance held on May 17, 1941. Mom was 21 years old, working as a secretary/typist to help her twin sister through college.

I noticed the man in uniform at the far left front of the crowd, apparently a U.S. Army private. America had already instituted a peacetime draft, in anticipation of possibly entering World War II. After Pearl Harbor and the U.S. entry into the war, my mom's twin sister Dorothy Schwartz enlisted as a WAC, even as several first Farkas cousins joined the U.S. military. Soon Daisy and Dorothy's older brother was drafted. No doubt many of the young men at the Revlon dance also served in the military.

When this photo was taken, Revlon had only recently changed its corporate name as it expanded beyond its well-known nail polish into lipstick and other cosmetics. The New York-based company, founded in 1933, was also involved in patriotic activities during World War II.

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The #52Ancestors genealogy blog prompt for week 31 is: LARGE.

Old Country Images as Cousin Bait

Excerpt of results from image search for "Ungvar"

My maternal grandfather Theodore "Teddy" Schwartz (1887-1965) was born and raised in Ungvar, Hungary--known these days as Uzhhorod, Ukraine. He left in 1902 and he never returned to the "old country," although his son visited twice during the 1930s.

Ungvar was a bustling market town--really a city, and so well documented! A simple search for images of Ungvar turned up hundreds of vintage photos, old and new postcards, travel posters, vacation photos, and much more. Actually, any image tagged as Ungvar wound up being included in my search results.

Ungvar Tag as Cousin Bait

At top, a snippet of the images in my pages of results. These results included numerous old photos I have posted in blogging about ancestors from Ungvar. In this small excerpt, you see a photo of one of my Schwartz great aunts and her husband, along with a link to my blog as the source.

Could such images, tagged as Ungvar, serve as cousin bait for distant relatives researching the "old country" where our mutual ancestors lived? That's my hope.

The Kossuth Connection

Kossuth Lajos "space" in Ungvar, 1915

The 1915 photo above was among the first results in my search. I smiled when I read the name of this wide street, as printed on the postcard: Kossuth Lajos. Kossuth was a legendary politician and orator who advocated for Hungarian freedom.

In 1905, my Schwartz and Farkas ancestors organized a benevolent society in New York City, named for Kossuth's son Ferenc, also a freedom fighter.

The 1915 street scene gives me another sense of connection between the old country of my grandfather's birth (Ungvar) and his home in the new world (New York City).

"Old Country" is this week's #52Ancestors prompt. Thank you to Amy Johnson Crow for these thought-provoking genealogy prompts!

For Kids of All Ages: Family History Coloring Book

Family history coloring book created for a young relative

With the pandemic keeping me close to home, I had time this week to follow the easy how-to instructions in Lisa Alzo's excellent article in Family Tree Magazine about creating a genealogy coloring book.

I quickly got hooked and wound up creating not one but two family history coloring books. One is for a preschooler on my side of the family and the other is for a kindergartener on my husband's side.

Each "book" consists of about a dozen pages printed on sturdy paper. Each page features an ancestor, a married couple, or a family from our family's past. The pages are held together in a report binder, easily removed for coloring.

I used the "pencil sketch" tool in my image software, as Lisa suggests, to create a black-and-white version of each old photo (see left).

I captioned each photo in large lettering, using full names and relationships. Moritz Farkas, shown here, is the great-great-great-grandpa of the youngster who gets this coloring book. On the cover is a pencil sketch of myself (aka Auntie M) and my hubby cuddling the cutie-pie who will color these pages.

My hope is that coloring the people, clothing, and backgrounds will make the names and faces more familiar to this youngest generation. And maybe while coloring, the kids will ask a question or listen to a story or two about our family's history.

To encourage the parents to actually let the children scribble (ooops, I mean color) each page, I'm sending the coloring book file electronically as well as mailing a printed version. Then parents can reprint a page or the entire coloring book whenever they wish.

Maybe this will wind up to be a multi-generational arts project?! It's certainly an easy way to make family history fun for all ages.

Crafting, Heirlooms, and the Pandemic

Crewel embroidery on velvet
by Daisy Schwartz Burk, 1950s

The coronavirus pandemic has people crafting like crazy, me included.

This reminded me to continue documenting handcrafted items in my possession that will be heirlooms for the next generation.

At top, a pretty crewel embroidery picture stitched on velvet by my Mom, Daisy Schwartz Burk (1919-1981). She loved needlework like embroidery, petit point, and crochet.

Her mother, my grandma Hermina Farkas Schwartz (1886-1964), was a really expert seamstress and careful embroiderer. I have an embroidered bureau topper made by her that will be passed to the next generation. Grandma was such a perfectionist that the front and back of the topper look nearly identical. (Grandma wouldn't have approved of the messy wrong side of my embroideries!)

 Afghan made for me by my oldest niece. 2000s

The tradition of needlework has continued throughout my family. My sisters and I learned to crochet at an early age and we taught that skill to the kids when they were in kindergarten.

Here's a much-used, very colorful afghan made for me during the early 2000s by my oldest niece.

Afghan I'm stitching for my oldest niece, 2020

With the pandemic keeping me at home, I'm beginning to crochet an afghan for this same wonderful niece.

She picked out the pattern, my Sis bought the tweedy yarn, and I'm stitching while listening to genealogy podcasts during the Covid-19 pandemic.

There are more heirlooms to be documented and I see more crafting in my future as we play it safe and remain home, for now. 

PS: I wanted to include this lacy knit baby afghan, now in the hands of the little girl who slept under it decades ago and has grown up to love needlework herself!

V-E Day for Farkas Family Members in the Service

My 1C1R Robert Farkas in the 303d Medical
Battn of 78th Infantry Division, U.S. Army

The June, 1945 meeting of my Farkas Family Tree was a joyous one, taking place just weeks after Victory in Europe Day on May 8.

This tree group had been formed in 1933 to maintain the close relationships among children and grandchildren of my immigrant ancestors, Moritz Farkas (1857-1936) and Lena Kunstler Farkas (1865-1938).

The "tree" met ten times a year, bringing together dozens of family members from around the New York City area.

During World War II, the highlight of every monthly meeting was when the group listened to the reading of letters written home by Farkas relatives serving in the military. Emotions ran high as the family hoped for the safe return home of all service members.

My aunt, Sgt. Dorothy Schwartz,
served as a WAC in WWII

When the Farkas Family Tree met in June of 1945, it was an especially happy occasion because of the Allied victory and pride in the role of family members who did their part. The minutes singled out the accomplishments of two family members in the service.

I'm highlighting in yellow the quoted excerpts from the minutes of June, 1945 to distinguish them from my explanations.

Sgt. Dorothy Schwartz - Bronze Star Medalist

"Dorothy, now in Belgium, seems to have had quite a riotous time on V-E Day." - This sentence refers to my Auntie, Sgt. Dorothy Schwartz (1919-2001), who was a WAC serving in Europe. She was in an important administrative support role for the 9th Air Force, and by the time of V-E Day, had been moved from France to Belgium as battles were fought and won. Alas, I don't have Dorothy's letter describing her "riotous time" but I am so glad to know that she celebrated.

"Dorothy was awarded the Bronze Star Medal." - In fact, my aunt's citation read: For "meritorious service in direct support of operations against the enemy." During 17 months of bombardment leading up to V-E Day, she took shorthand listening in as commanders discussed when and where to bomb the enemy. Her key role was to quickly and accurately transcribe the bombing orders so they could be distributed to flight commanders right away. She was always cognizant that lives were on the line, and she took her responsibilities very seriously, according to her letters home.

Technician 4th Class Robert Farkas - Three Battle Stars 

"Regional censorship being lifted in the ETO [European Theater of Operations], Bob wrote what he could about where he is and it wasn't much even though a 3d party was not reading the letters." - Robert "Bob" Farkas (1924-2014) had enlisted in the U.S. Army at age 18 and was part of the medical corps. After training, he was sent to England, France, Belgium, and Germany to provide care for wounded service members.

"Bob has three battle stars." - He served in B Company, 303d medical battalion of the 78th Infantry Division of the U.S. Army, and I believe I spotted him in this photo of the 303d. He's smiling in the next-to-back row, 6th from the right. Bob was one of the most prolific of the letter-writers, sending home frequent descriptions of what he was doing and seeing during training and all over Europe. He wrote that he learned more from the aftermath of the first combat experience in Europe than he did from all of his previous training.

Let me salute all the servicepeople who participated in the Allied war effort leading up to V-E Day.

This is my post for week 19 of Amy Johnson Crow's #52Ancestors genealogy prompts - service.

Why I Love the 1900 and 1910 US Census

Is it wrong to play favorites? I have two favorite years in the U.S. Census: 1900 and 1910.

As shown above, these are favorites because of the specific questions asked during those two Census years. The answers that ancestors gave were clues to further researching their lives. Here are just two examples.

1900 US Census Clues: Farkas Family

As enumerated in the 1900 Census, my maternal great-grandfather Moritz "Morris" Farkas (1857-1936) was a boarder in the household of a Roth cousin. His birth year is shown as 1857. The month is not indicated (it's omitted from many on this page).

Thanks to this Census hint about birth year, I went looking for Moritz's birth in the Hungarian records a few years ago. At the time, I had to request FHL microfilm #642919 of Jewish records gathered at Fehergyarmat, Hungary. Very exciting to find him there (as "Moses Farkas") after two hours of cranking the microfilm reader at a nearby Family History Center!

1910 US Census Clues: McClure Family

Here's the 1910 Census for my husband's great-great uncle Train Caldwell McClure (1843-1934). Look way over to the right on this record and you'll see "UA" in the column reserved for recording veterans. UA = Union Army!

I searched for and found his Civil War service in Company A of the 89th Indiana Infantry. Train entered the Union Army on August 3, 1862, and was mustered out nearly three years later on July 19, 1865 at Mobile, AL, according to the Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Indiana.

These are only two examples of why I love the 1900 and 1910 U.S. Census. For now, these years are my favorites.

But in April of 2022, I'll have a new favorite: The 1950 U.S. Census, which will be released that year with a lot of detailed information about my ancestors. I can't wait!

His and Her Heirlooms from When We Were Born

With the Covid-19 pandemic keeping us inside since mid-March, I've been documenting family history by writing about heirlooms that will be passed to the next generation.

Wally's baby book and silver porringer

Today is a look at keepsakes from when my husband and I were born.

His: Baby Book and Silver Porringer

My late mother-in-law (Marian Jane McClure
Wood) was given a small baby book to record milestones in the life of her first-born child, my wonderful hubby.

Shown here is the baby book alongside a silver porringer, engraved with baby's initials (WEW). Although the book contains the names of several dozen well-wishers who gave baby gifts, this silver porringer isn't listed. Nor is it listed as a gift for "baby's first Christmas." Although we don't know who presented it to my husband, it's still a treasured heirloom.

The baby book turned out to be a bonanza for my family-history research. In it are the names of many people identified by family relationship, such as "Aunt Nellie Kirby" and "Grandparents McClure." Over the years, as I've fleshed out the family tree, I've recognized other gift-givers as great aunts/uncles and cousins.

By correlating the book with other sources (such as Census records and the diaries of my late father-in-law, Edgar James Wood), I've confirmed who's who in the family's inner circle, and also narrowed down dates for the death of people who don't appear.

Hers: Silver Napkin Ring

Marian's silver napkin ring from the Farkas Family Tree

In my mother's Farkas Family Tree association, the traditional baby gift was a silver napkin ring.

On one side was engraved the baby's initials (mine is shown here).

The other side was engraved with the birth date and "Farkas Family Tree."

No matter whether a baby was a boy or a girl, the Farkas Family Tree bestowed this napkin ring, personalized for each child.

Because I have the Farkas Family Tree meeting minutes from 1933-1964, I know that controversy erupted when the mother of a baby boy asked whether the gift might be something other than a napkin ring. After heated discussion during a family meeting, the mother was out-voted.

According to the minutes, this aunt asked for reconsideration several times at meetings over the years, only to be voted down every time.

Tradition won out, and all babies in the family continued to receive silver napkin rings. That's part of the legacy I'm sharing with my heirs along with this keepsake.

Grandma Minnie's Lavalier Pendant

Minnie Farkas Schwartz's pendant

My immigrant maternal grandma Hermina (Minnie) Farkas Schwartz (1886-1964) lived a modest life, with not a lot to spare for frills like jewelry. She and her husband worked long hours, standing on their feet in the Bronx grocery store they owned.

They took one "honeymoon" trip to Florida during retirement, decades after they were married. Otherwise, their big retirement extravagance(!) was renting an inexpensive bungalow outside New York City for a few weeks each summer.

Yet Minnie left each of her granddaughters a couple of fine jewelry pieces. I received the delicate gold pendant shown here, plus a diamond ring. Sis's inherited earrings have lovely European-cut diamonds. I'm documenting these heirlooms for future generations, and telling Grandma's stories to go along with the jewelry.

The question that Sis and I want to answer is . . . where did Grandma Minnie get this jewelry, and when?

Minnie's Immigrant Background 

Minnie was the second-oldest child of Moritz Farkas (1857-1936) and Leni Kunstler Farkas (1865-1938). The family lived in Beregszasz, Hungary, where Moritz managed agricultural land and leased some land for his own crops.

According to family legend, Moritz was so successful for so long that one year, he didn't bother insuring his crops. That year, a big hailstorm wiped out his plantings, leaving him financially ruined.

In 1899, Moritz sailed for America to make a new life, leaving his wife and children in Hungary. In 1900, Leni's mother sent her to America to reunite with Moritz, while the children remained behind. Finally, Minnie (age 14) and her older brother brought two of their younger siblings with them to New York to reunite with the parents. It wasn't until 1903 that the entire family was together in one small apartment on East 3rd Street in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

Minnie and Teddy in the Grocery Business

Minnie immediately went to work to help support the family. She met her future husband, Tivador "Teddy" Schwartz (1887-1965) in a Hungarian deli in the Lower East Side. Initially, her family was against the match, but she eventually persuaded them to give their consent. Minnie and Teddy married in 1911, both 24 years old.

Teddy had to give up being an agent for steamship lines when World War I erupted. Instead, he opened a grocery store in the Bronx. For nearly 40 years, Teddy ran a store and Minnie worked alongside him, often relying on her younger sisters to care for her son and twin daughters.

The grocery business helped Minnie and Teddy to weather the Depression with sufficient food, but the stress of long hours standing on their feet hurt their health. Teddy moved his store several times as the population of the Bronx moved northward to more suburban-like neighborhoods. They took their first out-of-state vacation only after selling the store during the 1950s, when they were already in their late 60s.

Who Had Money for Jewelry?

Sis and I wonder how Minnie (or possibly Teddy) acquired the pieces of jewelry that we girls inherited. We agree there was little extra money until possibly after the sale of the grocery store. Maybe Teddy splurged for Minnie's special birthday or their 25th or 50th wedding anniversary? Or Sis wonders whether customers may have paid for groceries with jewelry during the Depression?

Next step: Asking an older cousin whether Minnie's mother might have brought some good jewelry with her from Hungary or inherited jewelry heirlooms from her ancestors. UPDATE: Cousin doesn't know of any inherited jewelry that came from Hungary, so the origin of the lavalier pendant remains a mystery.