Wartime Letters Going to a New Home, Part 2

I'm nearly finished curating my family history materials and finding safe new homes for artifacts that don't have a close, direct connection to my family. This is Part 2 of the saga of letters and cards written by a family in England to my family in the Bronx, New York, during World War II. (Part 1 is here.)

Last year, I decided the correspondence should either go to descendants of the letter-writers in England or be offered to a museum. Part 1 tells the story up to the point that the English family's descendants had been found by the Imperial War Museum in England, which was considering whether to accept the letters for study and archiving.

All descendants agree, now what?

My family and the letter-writers' descendants agreed whole-heartedly that the letters should go to the museum. We were excited at the prospect of the handwritten notes being professionally preserved and made available to researchers and possibly museum visitors.

Before the museum's management could make a decision about accepting the letters for their collection, they had one more question: What value would I put on the correspondence?

Valuing personal correspondence

Because the museum would be importing the letters from the United States to the United Kingdom, the value of the items must be declared.

I've had no experience with valuing items, so I looked at similar correspondence on eBay. Single letters from that period ranged in price from $10 to $50 or more--for a multi-page handwritten letter, sometimes with, sometimes without an envelope.

But as the museum pointed out to me, we know the background of both the letter-writers and the recipients, which adds to the value of the correspondence. Plus the letters themselves are in very, very good condition! 

Therefore, I suggested to the museum that we value the set of letters at $400.

Did the museum accept the letters?

Yes! The curator is happy, the families are happy. Just think: My ancestors and their ancestors will be in the collection and database of the American Air Museum at the Imperial War Museum at Duxford. We all couldn't be prouder.

Now the museum is making arrangements for express shipping these letters from New England to England. By the time you read this, I will have signed all the documentation and arranged for getting the letters to their new home across the pond.

What about your ancestors?

What I did with these letters is the equivalent of contacting the prestigious Smithsonian here in the United States--a really big stretch. Fifteen years ago when I began looking for new homes for family-history artifacts, I actually did email the Smithsonian about two items. I got no reply, for good reason: those artifacts were not truly rare enough to belong in the Smithsonian. I never made that rookie mistake again.

Back then, I didn't yet know how to analyze the artifact, research possible repositories, and match the artifact to the most appropriate one. I quickly learned how repositories manage their acquisition of donated materials and was able to adapt and format my offers accordingly. I have now placed literally hundreds of artifacts in the collections of dozens of repositories across the United States (most physically, some digitally). 

No dumpster, no recycling bin, no flea market, but safe places for items ranging from theater programs and old photographs to a leather war bond wallet and various historic newspapers.

In this particular case, the Imperial War Museum was actually the most appropriate match for the wartime correspondence from England. I aimed high and made a strong case, resulting in the letters being accepted by the museum. A happy ending indeed. 

PS: When I began curating my collection, it took a few non-responses and refusals to teach me how to successfully donate a family-history artifact to a repository. Be patient if you decide to donate something, and if you get a "no," ask where else you might try to donate. For more, see my book, Planning a Future for Your Family's Past.

Wartime Letters Going to a New Home, Part 1

Early this year, I wrote about wanting to donate a series of letters written to my grandparents and my mother by a family in England. 

The correspondence began when a widow walking her dog met my aunt Dorothy, a WAC serving in England during World War II. They struck up a conversation and this lovely widow began writing to Dorothy's parents (my grandparents) and to Dorothy's twin sister (my Mom). 

Keep or find a new home outside the family?

Because the letters have no particular ancestral significance, I saw an opportunity to curate my holdings by finding the letters a safe new home outside the family. Sis agreed with my plan to let the letters go. Always check with your family first!

Here's the process I followed (and you might follow) for finding a good new home for items that aren't absolutely vital to the family's history. Part 1 of 2.

Process for finding artifacts a new home

With my sister's agreement, I attempted to find any living descendants of the letter writers by looking at online family trees. My goal was to tell them the story of the correspondence, express my family's appreciation for their ancestors' kindness, and offer them the letters. (Note: there's more to this story in Part 2, no help needed now!)

I had no response from the owners of two online family trees with that family. Next, I found a more distant cousin with an online tree and contacted him. After months of trying to reach out to closer cousins, he got no response either.

We agreed it was best if these wartime letters go to an institution, to be preserved for the future. And we both had the same thought about an appropriate repository.

Match the artifact to the repository

To find the right repository, I first classified the letters: 

• World War II period descriptions of the home front in England
• Original letters and cards, including envelopes with stamps and postmarks
• Written in England on thin wartime stationery
• Mailed to individuals in America
• Evidence of examination by wartime censors (see image above)
• Written after meeting my aunt, a WAC serving in England
• Ongoing contact from 1943-1945

The perfect place for these letters, we believed, was the Imperial War Museum in England. It is dedicated to documenting the "human experience of war and conflict and the impact it has had on people’s lives." The letters from England were a contemporary window into the everyday life of a family close to military bases where UK and US servicepeople were training or stationed in World War II. 

The correspondence revealed how this family coped with wartime shortages, detailed who was joining the military, who was at school, and how they felt about the war. These folks opened their home to my aunt the WAC and their hearts to my aunt's family.

What will the repository accept?

I checked the Imperial War Museum's guidelines about offering to donate an item. After noting their collecting priorities, I wrote an email to explain the letters and their significance in light of the museum's mission. I provided a bit of background about the letters being provoked by a meeting with my aunt the WAC, serving alongside the 9th Air Force in England (and later France and Belgium). All institutions want to know provenance, so this was part of my explanation.

I had already scanned all the letters and envelopes, and had ready a summary of the dates and who's who of the writers and the recipients. To support my request to donate artifacts, I attached a scan of one of the letters--including a tiny head shot of the letter writer! I hoped to attract the attention of the curator with this sample of handwritten letters from the heart. 

Helping shape a proposal

After nearly a month, I was delighted to hear from the curator of the American Air Museum, a part of the Imperial War Museum. She was interested in the family letters and especially intrigued that my aunt was the historian of her WAC detachment connected with US Air Force (the focus of this division of the Imperial War Museum). 

She quickly created an entry for my aunt on their museum website, drawing on a bite-sized bio I wrote for my aunt on Find a Grave. And after checking my aunt's history of the WAC unit, she began adding other WACs to the museum's database.

Next, the curator asked me for additional background to help her write a proposal that the museum's directors would read as they considered whether to accept the letters. I submitted a contextual summary of the letter writers' family situation, the recipients' family situation, my aunt's WAC career. Also I said I had no more letters beyond 1945, so it appeared unlikely that the connection continued after my aunt finally returned from Europe to her parents' Bronx apartment.

One more bit of due diligence

The museum's directors met and determined that before they made a decision about the letters, they wanted one more bit of due diligence: to check for any other descendants in England. They were able to locate two living descendants that I was not aware of--and those descendants quickly agreed that the letters written by their ancestors should most definitely have a new home in the museum.

Thanks to the museum, the descendants and I are now in touch with each other. We've shared more about the later lives of the correspondents. We are all excited that after 80-plus years, our families are connected again through the letters written during World War II.

To be continued: Did the museum say "yes" to accepting the letters for their collection? What happens next?

More in Part 2, here!

PS: I learned how to donate artifacts by trial and error. If I can do it, so can you! 

Future Heirloom: My Hubby's Military Memorabilia

The framer did an incredible job with this custom, archival shadow box displaying my wonderful husband's wonderful US Army memorabilia. It was a worthwhile investment in preserving these items for the future, including an archival envelope on the back. His discharge papers and his many stories about peacetime Army life will be put into that envelope for posterity.

In the center is a b/w photo of hubby as he looked on his way to lunch in camp one day. The framer took my high-resolution scan of the original photo and had it printed on cotton to preserve the smallest details and prevent yellowing over the years.

The chronology of his military service as a personnel clerk begins to the left of the photo, with a stint in the First Cavalry (notice the horse on the patch) and below that patch, the combat engineer unit badge, combat engineer brass, and his US Army brass. 

Going clockwise, above the photo is my husband's 32d Infantry badge, 7th Division patch, and infantry brass. This last item was purchased from eBay because the original was cruddy-looking.

To the right of the photo is his US Army Japan patch, 8th Army patch, Sgt's stripes, and good conduct medal.

Below the photo, hubby's dog tag showing name, serial number, blood type, and religion (obscured for privacy here).

We put a brass name plaque on the bottom edge of the frame (blocked for privacy here) to permanently identify who this is. Descendants are actually excited about this future heirloom! And it is neat and attractive, putting these important items on display rather than leaving them in a box or drawer.

Updating and Sharing the Farkas Family Tree Book

For the past few months, I've been reassembling the digital scans of 31 years of meeting minutes from my maternal family's Farkas Family Tree. This family tree association was formed by the children of Moritz Farkas and Lena Kunstler Farkas in 1933, and it met regularly until the end of 1964 (or possibly very early 1965).

Lessons learned at the end...

Updating the original

The original book, shown above in all its 600 page glory, was created from printouts of my scans in 2014. My mother's first cousin Ron kindly lent me bound volumes of the family tree written minutes and historians' reports (really) to scan. I also assembled the family tree song lyrics, the written constitution (really), and other info about the tree. 

Missing from the originals were the minutes from many of the World War II years, but I scanned everything that was available at the time. I spent weeks indexing the name of everyone named in these documents. Then I mocked up a cover with a 1958 family photo and a cousin's handwritten names of each person, and through a local copy shop, printed one for myself.

Quickly I realized it was better to split the volume into two spiral-bound books for ease of browsing. I have the original gigantic volume, which I prefer because I like everything in one place, but everybody else has two volumes.

More recently, the meeting minutes from the war years were found and so I scanned those and distributed them separately, after adding the names to the index.

Reassembling and then splitting the updated file

Now I want to digitally share the fully-assembled book with as many of my second cousins as possible. It took a long time to get every pdf scan into a single document. Then I discovered that this one document, in pdf format, was a hefty 698 MB. 😟 Even when I tried to reduce the size by compacting, it was way, way too large to be emailed.

Way too large to be worked on, in fact. The software app Adobe Acrobat would not allow me to do anything with it, advising that the gigantic file be split into smaller files.

In my next iteration, Part 1 had 219 pages (ending at the end of a month's minutes) and Part 2 had 219 pages (beginning at the start of the next month's minutes). Part 3 had the final 160 or so pages. I compacted each part and the files became a more reasonable size, the largest "only" 150 MB. Still too large for email.

Free digital transfer - LOCKSS

One of my 2d cousins agreed to be my guinea pig for a digital transfer using the free site WeTransfer.com. I signed in, then uploaded Parts 1, 2, and 3 to WeTransfer, added my cousin's email, plus a cover note, and included a reminder that the transfer would expire in 3 days. 

The same day, my cousin accessed and downloaded the digital files. He wrote a quick note to confirm that the parts arrived safely, telling me how many pages in total he had received (so I could compare with what I sent). Hours later, he told me he couldn't stop reading. Now he plans to digitally share the files with his kids. He agrees this is important for LOCKSS - lots of copies keep stuff safe. 

The next day, I emailed several more 2d cousins to ask whether they would like to have the digital files. YES! I've already transferred files to three and will be sending more soon. The more cousins who have the digital files, the longer these family documents will be alive for the future. 

Update: a cousin requested that I share the files via DropBox, which is also free, and I'm happy to say he was able to easily download the three big files from there. 

Next step: reprinting

My next step is to reprint this updated version. More in my next post.

Lessons learned

• Don't be afraid to update if and when new details and/or documents become available. We want to leave future generations complete and accurate info, if possible.
• Find out about technical limitations when digitizing. I didn't realize that a pdf could be too big! Luckily, there are always options. In this case, I subscribed to Adobe Acrobat for a month to have the capability to work with pdfs.
• Make it easy for relatives to receive what you want to share. I wrote emails first and explained (touted) what I wanted to share and why I couldn't just attach the pdf--then said how easy it would be to use WeTransfer. One cousin just said he'd visit me with a USB in hand so I can load it and send it home!

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Planning a future for your family's past? Please take a look at my book for practical ideas about keeping family history safe for the next generation and beyond.

Less Paper But Not Paperless Family History

I'm nearly done shredding the unneeded printouts in my genealogy files. You know, from the days when we cranked microfilm by hand and then printed or photographed something useful for family history? Or made notes while researching at a library? Or filed copies for some unknown reason?

Today just about everything is attached to my online family trees (Census records, birth/marriage/death certificates, links to burial places, other sources, and so on). I have family trees posted on multiple genealogy websites, because LOCKSS (lots of copies keep stuff safe).

Not paperless but less paper

My physical files are much skinnier but I am not going paperless. Here's a quick and incomplete list of what I'm saving, filed by surname or intermarried family groups:

• Original vital records (certificates have been scanned and uploaded to family trees but originals were paid for and I'm leaving them in my files)
• Letters and notes from relatives about family history (sadly I didn't date all, but these have good first-hand memories of ancestors and guesstimates of dates/places, including some hand-drawn family trees)
• Printouts or originals of hard-to-obtain documents (non-US documents for instance)
• Printouts of family trees and genealogies from relatives who have documented other parts of my ancestral background (not good enough to scan maybe, but good enough to consult now and then)
• Pending (I'm waiting waiting waiting for answers to my appeals of FOIA info from the US Veterans Administration, for example)
• Deeds of gift (for items donated to repositories, as when my Sis and I donated our aunt Dorothy's WAC memorabilia)
• PHOTOS (originals and, yes, copies, if any have notes or are marked up in some way)

Why retain paper? 

When I began my genealogy journey in 1998, the main resources were documents and photos passed down to me. They survived decades in print and with care (archival boxes, for instance) they will survive to be passed down for decades in the future. 

I do not want to entrust my entire family history to a paperless existence. I've created printed booklets, professional photo books, and other types of projects to supplement all my online genealogy info. My designated heirs will get files and boxes, stripped down to the essentials so they can keep these artifacts from our family's history alive for the sake of descendants in the future. 

My heirs will also get my passwords to access my genealogy sites, plus a bit of money to continue subscriptions for a year or two in case they want to look at or add to the trees or noodle around on these sites without having to worry about the cost. Thank you to those in the future who will carry on where I leave off!

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.

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! During October, I sold 115 copies, some digital and some in print. Wishing you all the best of luck as you prepare to save your family's history for the sake of future generations.

Enjoy Family History Month.

Bequeath the Story With Your Photos and Heirlooms

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Photos to Sketches for Ancestor Coloring Book

 

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

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

At top, a scan of a 1903 photo of my hubby's grandmother, Floyda Steiner.

At left, a terrific pencil sketch created by the free Canva Sketchify tool. It looks very much like Floyda and is clear and simple.

I especially appreciate the white space, inviting young ones to color and add special touches to the background.

In addition, I created sketches of a 1903 photo of Floyda's husband, Brice Larimer McClure, using two other free sites.

LunaPic's pencil sketch function offers a variety of options for sketch rendering. This is a great way to experiment with white space and sketch lines. I chose drawing for my sketch, but I also liked pen and ink. Again, an excellent likeness of this ancestor.

Then I tried InsMind.com's photo to sketch function, which includes numerous sketch options. The original photo is shown below with the various possible sketch looks (this is the "before" look, showing some of the many generic possibilities). An anime sketch of Brice might be fun for the preteens in my family!

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

For more about ancestor coloring books and other creative ways to share family history, please see my book, Planning a Future for Your Family's Past.

How I Write a Blog Post

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

Where I get ideas for blog posts

Like Nancy, I often write a post after finding something new in genealogy research, maybe a new database or a new discovery or a new (to me) methodology. For example, I recently had to learn how to appeal a VA denial of my FOIA request for my Dad's military/medical file. I won't know the outcome for months, but I will definitely blog about what happens. 

Other inspirations:

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

Writing and illustrating a blog post

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

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

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

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

More posts are ahead!

Framing the Childhood Jewelry of Mom and Her Twin

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

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

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

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

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

Free Images for Bite-sized Family History Projects

Sometimes when I prepare a bite-sized family history project, I need illustrations beyond ancestor photos and documents. My goal is to catch the eye of readers and enhance the content with appropriate visuals that engage the audience. 

This year, I've been expanding a booklet I wrote about my hubby's military ancestors, and I wanted additional images to avoid page after page of solid text. (Obviously I married my husband for his interesting ancestors, including men on both sides of the US Civil War, just for starters.)

My regular go-to site for free images is Pixabay.com, where I've found dramatic photos and illustrations to add to my projects. Directly above is a free photo I downloaded from Pixabay, showing a canon and a view of Gettysburg, the famous US Civil War battlefield in Pennsylvania where a distant Wood ancestor helped wounded Confederate soldiers. Pixabay features more than illustrations and photos: it also offers downloadable video clips, music, and sound effects.

Recently, I've been introduced to Pexels.com, which also provides free photos that can be downloaded. At top of the page, a colorful photo I downloaded after reviewing dozens of images from my search for "US Civil War." Pexels has video content available for download, as well.

Both Pexels and Pixabay allow (even encourage) you to go ahead and use any of the free images in any way you like. You can modify and adapt them if you choose. Attribution is not required. 

Note: Nancy Gilbride Casey likes RawPixel.com, which has color and b/w maps, illustrations, and more. I plan to explore that site in greater detail!

In fact, I've modified downloaded images by changing the colors (to brighten or soften), tilting the images (for a dynamic look), or flipping the images (to better fit into my content). 

Bite-sized family history projects are a practical way to focus on specific aspects of the family tree. I want my relatives to be intrigued enough to start reading, which is where fascinating images come in. Try Pixabay and Pexels if you need an image for your own family history project. Of course photos/images on Wikimedia Commons are free and downloadable, as well, as long as you follow the guidelines for reusing content.

For more about preserving and perpetuating family history, please see my genealogy book, Planning a Future for Your Family's Past.

What Will Happen to Once-Treasured Silverware and China?

Do you have old silverware or china packed away in a cabinet or attic? Browsing recently in a "vintage" store, I noticed a wooden chest loaded with silverware. I counted a full service of silver for twelve, priced at $60. On another shelf, I spotted a graceful gravy boat and large serving platter from a set of fine china. Sigh.

Decisions, decisions

I know many families trying to decide what to do with matched sets of champagne flutes, or good silverware, or fine china, or other items from decades in the past. These days, younger folks often have no room for a service for twelve of anything. Plus, more are choosing to entertain casually rather than throwing a formal dinner party with silver, crystal, and the works.

Important!  Photograph a place setting or one specific piece of your set so it will live on in your family history records, no matter what you decide to do. Write down a description and let future generations know the manufacturer and approximate date of purchase or however these items entered your family's hands. Maybe you'll want to write a paragraph about some memorable times this china or silverware or goblet set was used for a family holiday or special dinner. Add a photo of a family meal with this set in use, if you can.

Possible next steps

As noted in my book, Planning a Future for Your Family's Past, I think it's a good idea to consider your options sooner rather than later. My recommendations:

• Talk with your family about whether they would like to have any or all of your treasured china or silverware or goblets (or other items).
• Mention a specific story (or two) of those items being carefully picked out or proudly displayed by an ancestor, to highlight the emotional connection.
• If no one wants the set, offer to have each person take a single teaspoon or just one piece from any of these sets. Better to save a few items than to have the entire set fall out of the family's hands forever. Everyone has room for one item!
• In addition to offering an item to your siblings, children, grandchildren, also consider asking nieces, nephews, cousins to accept one item. This saves more items and it spreads the stories around to more relatives at the same time.

If you have no takers or can only place a few items, you might want to learn more about the value of your china or silverware or goblets. Consider that should these items have some monetary value, the Brooklyn Teacup has excellent advice about various options for selling. 

Another possibility: Depending on the age of your set, a local museum, library, or history society may be interested in using it (or selected pieces) for historical displays. It's worth exploring.

When to start?

It's never too early to start the ball rolling on finding new homes for your crystal or silver or china, if you choose. In my family, a niece with a sentimental streak has raised her hand for Grandma's silverware and china. Another niece now sets her holiday table with her Mom's wedding china mixed with a few pieces from my wedding china and a couple of crystal goblets from her Dad's family. They appreciate the old-fashioned style and the rich heritage that comes with these items.

I wish you the same luck placing your family's special items!

Planning a Shadow Box for Dad's WWII Memorabilia

Above, a snapshot of Dad, Harold D. Burk (1909-1978) during a brief leave to visit family before shipping overseas to serve in World War II.

I'm having his military memorabilia placed into a professionally-crafted, high-quality shadow box frame to keep everything safe and together. The frame store will incorporate special "museum glass" and special archival materials to prevent fading and deterioration. 

Not only is the framer arranging Dad's dog tags, unit insignia, shoulder patch, and Army lapel pins inside the box, she is including the black-and-white photo of Dad in his uniform, shown at top. 

A pro photographer recommended I have a high-resolution scan of the snapshot printed on special paper designed to last for decades. I used Mpix, which offers archival-quality prints. Other companies also offer similar services, so shop around if you want to do this, and also consider photo restoration if needed. 

The goal in creating a custom shadow box is to protect these 80-year-old items and enclose them within a frame and with a story, so they are preserved and passed down to future generations as part of our precious family history. For me, the investment in quality framing craftsmanship will give these items a much longer life and make them look more important than just leaving them in an archival box.

There are so many ways to store and share family artifacts (see my book, Planning a Future for Your Family's Past) but this project is designed especially to showcase artifacts from my Dad's service in WWII, before he met and married my Mom.

I'll share more about this project once I get it back from the framer. And yes, after I join my ancestors sometime in the far future, I have multiple heirs for this new heirloom. 

Please Back Up and Remember, LOCKSS

With so many extreme weather events and other terrible disasters, we really need to think carefully about how to preserve and perpetuate family history for the sake of future generations. Please make a plan now, starting with regular backups.

Invest in more than one backup method

Diane May Levenick wrote an excellent article for Family Tree Magazine (updated a few months ago) detailing a five-step plan for backing up genealogy files. She recommends NOT relying on free sites (like social media) as a backup. Instead, she suggests a combination of methods, including remote cloud storage, to keep family history safe.

As Diane recommends, I keep my digitized materials safe by backing up on iCloud, setting my Mac to do a TimeMachine backup every hour (using an external hard drive I can take with me if needed), and putting important files on a separate high-capacity USB drive. Or two USBs! They're inexpensive and portable.

Share now in many ways

My family history photo books are one way I'm sharing family history NOW so what I've learned about our ancestors won't be lost. Printed copies are in multiple hands because LOCKSS (lots of copies keep stuff safe). The more people who have copies, the better the chance that info will survive in our family for future generations. 

All the photos in those books and all old family photos from the early 20th century are digitized. I've shared them via USB and email over the years. I have a 1917 photo album from my late father-in-law that has been scanned but I plan to turn it into a photo book this year to provide full captions and context for future generations. The album itself is in an archival box but the album pages are fragile so making a photo book will make the story accessible to all for the long term.

I continue to post bite-sized ancestor bios on multiple sites. These don't preserve original photos or documents, but they do keep alive the names/dates/lives of ancestors in the family tree. And serve as cousin bait!

For more ideas about preparing to keep family history safe, please see my book, Planning a Future for Your Family's Past, available as a paperback or e-book.

Holiday Gifts with Family History in Mind

There are so many ways to add a family history touch to holiday gift-giving.

At left, a personalized holiday ornament showing a beloved ancestor with name, dates, and the inscription "in memory of" with a dove. 

Below, a woolen scarf from the area of Scotland where my husband's McClure ancestors originated. A few years ago, we gifted these to his siblings for winter wear.

Below, a tall mug personalized with the century-old photo of a cute young lady from the family tree. Our relatives treasure mugs and tumblers with reunion photos and other meaningful family photos from today and yesterday.

Above, an example of adding family photos old and new to personalize a calendar. Calendars like these have been part of my family's tradition for 16 years. A niece actually asked to take over the creative side because she enjoyed the calendars so much! This is her 4th year making the calendar.

Below, an ancestor woodcut (scanned and enlarged from a 135-year-old newspaper) transferred to a T-shirt. My husband wears this one all summer long and we gave shirts to the younger generation, too.

Finally, are you looking for a gift for yourself or a friend/relative who loves genealogy? Please consider my book, Planning A Future for Your Family's Past, a concise guide to organizing, storing, preserving, and sharing family history for today and tomorrow. Thank you!

Label and Organize Genealogy For Today and Tomorrow

 

It's Family History Month, and I want to show one of my indispensable tools for genealogy. 

Above, my trusty label maker sitting on top of genealogy file folders for intermarried families Roth/Mandel, and Lebowitz/Markell, and Waldman. Rather than alphabetize, I prefer to group files according to connected families. 

I have separate file folders labeled for documents about donated artifacts (with my counter-signed copies of the deeds of gift), Civil War ancestors in the Wood family tree, and other non-surname records. 

Over time, I've culled these files to get rid of printed Census records and other redundant paperwork now digitized and attached to my online family trees. Still in my file folders are letters and notes from discussions with cousins, plus recent vital records, requests for genealogy info, and research plans. 

I also have digital files with scanned genealogy items, organized by surname or surname groupings or topic, backed up in the cloud and on an external hard drive for extra safety.

Plus I have archival boxes clearly labeled by family and contents ("Edgar Wood negatives" is specific enough to identify what's inside). 

Printed labels make my files and boxes look neat, legible, and accessible for today and tomorrow. I want my heirs to know what's what and what's where. 

For more ideas about keeping family history safe for the sake of future generations please see my genealogy book, Planning a Future for Your Family's Past. 

At a Glance, Is This Your Louis Hartfield?

 

Quick! Which ancestor profile on Ancestry seems more credible and worth checking out, the top one or the bottom one? Same man (a very distant relative, you know I really like putting these folks on my tree), one with and one without a profile image.

By adding the man's marriage cert as his profile image, I wanted to turn a generic profile into one that might seem more appealing to other researchers interested in the Hartfield family from Galicia, Austria. 

Why? Because any researcher can now easily read the marriage cert and verify the name of bride, groom, and their parents, plus the date and place (and of course the two witnesses and the officiant). 

With a glance at the profile image, it's faster to figure out whether this might be their Louis Hartfield and they will then dive deeper into my family tree's sources for a closer look at his life.

Adding a document or personal photo as the profile image is my not-so-subtle way of suggesting that I can back up the facts for this ancestor with actual documentation. The more folks who have real facts for their ancestors, the better.

Please, go ahead and add my Louis Hartfield to your tree if he belongs there--along with the sources and the profile image. I don't want Louis or his wife Bessie or anyone on my tree to be forgotten, that's why their profiles are public. 

This how LOCKSS works: Lots of copies keep stuff safe. The more trees Louis and Bessie are attached to, the better the possibility that they will be remembered into the future. For more ideas about safeguarding and perpetuating family history, please see my genealogy book, Planning a Future for Your Family's Past.

Four Larimer Brothers Fought for the Union

I'm in the home stretch of completing a booklet about my husband's ancestors and their in-laws who fought in all major wars involving the United States, from the American Revolution, the War of 1812, and the US Civil War through the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, and the Korean War. I want to describe not only their military service but also their family lives. Most are not in my hubby's direct line, but my goal is to honor and memorialize those in the tree who served their country during wartime.

Four Larimer brothers, my husband's first cousins four times removed, fought for the Union during the US Civil War: Isaac Newton Larimer, Jacob Wright Larimer, John C. Larimer, and Harvey H. Larimer. I used clues from a printed Larimer genealogy book plus the usual research sources (obit, vital records, military records, news reports) to write a brief narrative of each man, with emphasis on military service but also including spouse(s), children, occupation, and other details of interest.

Focus on Isaac and Marilda

At top, an excerpt from my bite-sized bio page about Isaac Newton Larimer (1828-1910), a farmer who enlisted early in the war, despite being married and the father of a growing family. To illustrate, I included a table showing his war service, drawn from the Illinois State Archives. I highlighted two events in bright blue. 

• During his first major battle, Isaac was captured (one of 55 held) and escaped after 23 days, rejoining his unit.
• At the Battle of Missionary Ridge, won by the Union, Isaac was shot in the face and nearly died. But he did recover and, with only one good eye, continued serving with his unit until the end of his enlistment period.
  

Three years and three months after joining the 35th Illinois Infantry, Isaac was mustered out and went home to his family farm. He and his wife Marilda McCreary Larimer (1835-1905) had 11 children, including a youngster who passed away in infancy. I hope Isaac and Marilda told their descendants stories about the early days, including the other three Larimer brothers who served their country. 

Sharing family history more widely

Creating a booklet such as this is one way to let future generations of my husband's family know about the lives of those who came before. Want more ideas about preserving and perpetuating family history? Please see my genealogy book, Planning a Future for Your Family's Past.

As a byproduct of this booklet, I'm repurposing the bite-sized bios of these men and women and posting online. For instance, I've submitted Isaac's service details to his Find a Grave memorial and also adopted his orphaned WikiTree profile, adding his bio and details. This has led to enriching other WikiTree profiles connected to Isaac, such as his wife's profile. There will be more profiles enriched as I continue to share family history in many places so these military ancestors will not be forgotten. 

It's My 16th Blogiversary!

My very first genealogy blog post appeared on August 25, 2008, concerning the search for my great-grandfather Meyer Mahler's death date and place. Since then, I've written nearly 1,850 posts about my family tree, my husband's family tree, genealogy research, family history preservation, methodology, issues, technology, book reviews, vintage postcards, old photos, and more. 

Now I'm entering my 17th year of genealogy blogging, still with many topics to explore. I'm working on a few posts about curating your family history collection (as in my book, Planning a Future for Your Family's Past). Also in the works: posts about revisiting ancestors and research from years ago, getting insight into ancestors' lives through old newspaper items, and lots more!

Thank you, from my heart, to my regular readers . . . and a special thank you to the many cousins and FAN club members (friends, associates, neighbors of my ancestors) who have been in touch through this blog. The genealogy journey continues!