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! 

Enjoy Family History Month, a great time to plan to protect your own family's history for today and tomorrow.

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!

Contribute "Oral History" With or Without Artifacts

Earlier this year, my husband's Wood family sought to donate a 1950s book about the Hermit Club, an iconic club in Cleveland, Ohio, to an institution in that city or state. We had approached three institutions, but only Ohio History Connection wanted this book--the others already had copies in their collections. 

Curate and donate unneeded family history items

Donating books like this slims down our genealogy collection to focus specifically on materials directly related to our family tree. Just as important, these non-family items will now be available to researchers and other folks for today and tomorrow.

Cleveland State University (CSU) didn't want the book but was particularly interested in any oral history about the Wood family's involvement with the Hermit Club. CSU is actively recording and transcribing oral histories about the Cleveland area. I couldn't offer any actual recording but I could offer excerpts from a longer oral history. They said yes, please submit.

Transcribed and annotated oral history 

Back in 1984, my husband had interviewed his father, Edgar James Wood (1903-1986) about his life, including his personal and professional association with the Hermit Club. The taped interview was long and mostly about immediate family, but there were key sections where Ed talked of the Hermit Club in detail.

With my husband, I wrote an annotated oral history based on the interview, explaining background so non-family members would be able to follow along. We inserted quotes from the transcribed oral history in indented paragraphs to show that they were drawn directly from my father-in-law's words. 

So, for example, on the first page we explained how Ed became interested in the piano, admired the Hermit Club, and ultimately was invited to join--unlike other musicians, who had to apply and cross their fingers that they would be chosen. Then we let direct quotes from the taped oral history tell that story in his own words.

Later on the same page, we introduced Ed's story of taking his future wife, Marian, on a first date to a musical evening hosted by a Hermit Club friend. Ed's quote reflects how vividly he recalled that pivotal evening, even more than 50 years later.

To go with the annotated oral history, I submitted a photo of Ed and his wife Marian, plus a close-up photo of the personal book inscription from the Hermit Club historian to Ed. Now these digital items, and Ed's story in his own words, are in CSU's collection, keeping Wood family history alive in an institution in his home town.

Who wants your family's oral history?

Many institutions collect oral histories and written memories, so I encourage you to do an online search for the city or state where ancestors lived plus the phrase "oral history." 

Whether you are the interviewee yourself or someone in your family tree tells of people and places from the past, these stories add to the historical and genealogical record. Save them now for the sake of future generations.

Please, share your family's history--now!

"An Excellent Steward" for Family History Collections

Donate old family papers to an institution?

As a quilter, I've enjoyed Jennifer Chiaverini's Elm Creek Quilts series for years. In her latest novel, The Museum of Lost Quilts, characters are tracking down long-lost quilts and documentation to help tell the story of a historic building and the town's past, from before the Civil War to after WWII.

The protagonist, Summer Sullivan, is finishing her master's degree in history and spending part of the summer curating a small but growing collection of antique quilts, also writing museum labels for photos of quilts that are missing but historically significant. Summer reads through old memoirs, letters, newspapers, and other documents in the college library's rare books room, in search of clues to identify and confirm details about these quilts, the quilters who made them, and the people who owned them over the years.

Private letters and more

Summer is fortunate when some local residents come forward with private letters and other materials they've saved from family history. She enthusiastically tells one woman: "If you're looking for an excellent steward for [ancestor's] letters, as well as the rest of the ... family papers, I highly recommend the rare books and special collections department" at the local college library.

The woman is receptive, responding: "For quite a long while, I've wanted these papers to be available for students and local historians. This might be the perfect way to do so. I'll need to think it over and discuss it with my cousins. While I own most of the collection, several boxes belong to other members of the family, and I'd like to have some consensus."

The woman returns several weeks later and tells Summer: "We've decided to gather all of the papers together in a single archive and donate it to a library or museum." She then asks for an introduction to the head archivist at the local college library.

Curate and donate your family history collection

As best-selling author Jennifer Chiaverini emphasizes, local historical societies, college and public libraries, county archives, and many other institutions can be excellent stewards for family history collections. As you plan ahead for the future of your genealogy materials, please talk with your family and consider donating some or all of your collection to an appropriate institution, to keep the family's past alive for future generations. Those old photos and letters may contain clues that help historians in the years to come, just as Summer Sullivan solved some local history mysteries by reading private correspondence in family histories.

Bite-Sized Bio Head Start on FamilySearch

My husband's great uncle Charles Augustus Wood (1862-1895) died on July 18th, 1895, which is 129 years ago this week. 

Looking at his ancestor page on Family Search, I read the "Brief Life History" which is a good head start on a bite-sized bio, based on information and sources attached to this man's Details tab on Family Search.

Basics are included

I like that the brief history includes his full name, birth date and place, full names of parents and their ages when this son was born. 

Also the life history lists full maiden name of his wife, where/when married, and mentions their children. Then it ends with his death date and place, age at death, and burial place. This is an excellent head start or outline for a bite-sized bio. 

Although sources are attached to Charles August Wood that verify the info in his "brief life history," this type of bio is only as good as the sources attached to the ancestor's profile and your interpretation of the sources within context. 

Ideas to flesh it out

Here's what I'd add to flesh out this man's bio without making it too long:

• Charles's place in family birth order (he was 10th of 17 children born to Thomas and Mary). 
• Charles's occupation (he was a carpenter, like most of his brothers).
• Names of children and how many survived childhood.
• Cause of death, if known (his obit said "la grippe" but death cert said tuberculosis).
• Maybe add whether his widow remarried.

Brief Life History is only a starting point

Above is the Brief Life History of Mary Slatter Wood (1869-1925), a sister-in-law of Charles Augustus Wood. I would improve in three key ways:

• Her brief bio says she was married "about 1898" although the source attached provides a specific date and place. Easy to improve.
•  In 1871, she did not live in a church (Saint Mary Matfelon); that was the civil parish where she was enumerated with her parents and siblings in Whitechapel in London, England. This is easy to clarify.
• Although the Find a Grave memorial for Mary is attached as a source, the brief bio doesn't mention her burial place. Again, easy to flesh out.

Still a good starting point

Take a look at the Brief Life History for your ancestors on Family Search. Maybe these will be a good starting point for a bite-sized bio for each ancestor that you can flesh out and share on other genealogy sites and with your family. As Diane commented below, these brief histories aren't a brand-new feature but if you haven't focused on them, see whether they jumpstart your writing projects!

For more about bite-sized bios, please see my book, Planning a Future for Your Family's Past.

What Did His Paternal Great-Greats Die Of?

My latest family history photo book, just completed, covers the lives and social/historical context of my hubby's paternal grandparents, great-grandparents, and their siblings, spouses, and ancestors. This is a full-color photo book with bite-sized bios of the men, women, and children in this part of the family tree, part of my plan to keep family history alive for future generations.

In the process, I'm documenting what folks died of, if cause of death is documented in the records. The very youngest in the Wood family tree tended to die from diseases that are treatable today, such as diphtheria and diarrhea. Ancestors who lived to adulthood usually died from a variety of other causes, including typhoid, tuberculosis, pneumonia, stroke, and heart disease, only very occasionally dying of cancer on this branch of the family tree.

Mary: Age and cardiac asthma

My husband's paternal great-grandma, Mary Amanda Demarest Wood (1831-1897) died of "age, cardiac asthma," which ultimately is caused by congestive heart failure. At top, an excerpt from the death records in a ledger in Lucas County, Ohio, showing her cause of death. 

Now consider that Mary was only 65 when she died, not nearly as ancient as her husband. On the other hand, she had 17 children, the first born when Mary was 15 years old (you read that correctly) and the last born when she was 44. This must have taken a toll on her health. Also, she saw the death of 10 children during her life, a handful from childhood diseases like diphtheria but also one drowned, others had health problems as adults. RIP, great-grandma Mary. 

Thomas: General debility from age

My husband's paternal great-grandpa, Thomas Haskell Wood (1809-1890), died of "general debility from age," as described in the ledger in Lucas County, Ohio. He was 80, and would have been 81 if he had lived just a few more weeks. 

Thomas was born into a family where many of the men were whalers, either owning ships or captaining ships or working on ships out of New Bedford, Mass. He became a carpenter, supporting his family by working on the railroad most of his life. In later years, he built coaches for the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway out of Toledo, Ohio. 

Lots of years of physical labor could have both strengthened Thomas's body and slowly worn it down over the decades. When Thomas died in early 1890, his oldest son went to work as a laborer at age 17 to help support the household. A few unmarried adult children remained at home with the widowed Mary, who sometimes worked part-time as a nurse when her health allowed. RIP, g-g Thomas.

"Health" is Amy Johnson Crow's #52Ancestors prompt for week 23 of her genealogy challenge.

Back Up and Keep Back Ups Current

 

It's the first of the month, time to back up all your digitized family history files and genealogy data. Think about protecting everything you've digitized or downloaded and filed digitally, in case of computer problems.

This year, I replaced my older external hard drives with a new, tiny but mighty external hard drive that has a lot of storage capacity. I kept the old drives, because they have all my personal and genealogical photos. But external hard drives eventually need to be replaced. It was time to replace BEFORE I needed to access the data due to some glitch or crash.

I use the tiny hard drive in the picture for my Mac "Time Machine" hourly backups. This small external drive is faster and more convenient than the 2020-era drives I used to use. I like that it takes up less space and it completes backups in a shorter time.

For extra protection, I also back up every day in the cloud and regularly duplicate special/important files to a USB, ready to transfer if needed. 

Download online trees and back up, too

In addition, I have family trees on multiple genealogy sites and occasionally download the gedcoms for these so they are on available on my desktop Mac and backed up in the cloud. 

On Ancestry for instance, go to "tree settings" when you're in your family tree, then select "Manage Your Tree...Export Tree" (see image at right) and be prepared to wait if the tree has thousands of individuals. But it's worthwhile as a backup!

On MyHeritage, the process is explained in this screen shot below...and you can query the site's Knowledge Base for more details. 

Backups provide peace of mind that our family trees and genealogy data are safe, current, and available. I wrote about the value of backups in my genealogy book, Planning a Future for Your Family's Past.