Looking Back at 2024 Family History Progress

This has been another busy year of genealogy, with many projects and ongoing plans for sharing family history with future generations.

• Bite-sized ancestor bios continue as a major priority, and I'm making great progress. Some bios are quite detailed, some are quite brief (2-4 sentences) but all are intended to keep ancestors' memories alive for the future. The chart at right shows the main surnames I've profiled so far on WikiTree during 2024. No one has posted more bio profiles of Larimer surnames than me! Larimer was the name of my husband's immigrant ancestor back in the 1700s. 
• I've been redoing genealogy research on key ancestors, because new documents, stories, and photos become available all the time. Lots of progress here too, searching not only vital records databases but also newspaper databases for mentions of ancestors. Plus I've begun the process of learning more about my Dad's WWII military service and postwar health, following the steps recommended by Alec Ferretti in his webinar about US military pension records. I'm awaiting a response from the VA about Dad's file, which should have lots of info. 
• Getting rid of unneeded paper in my genealogy files...an ongoing process that has resulted in many trips to the recycle bin. Bonus: I'm following up on details that now have more significance than they did when I first saw a document or photo a decade or more in the past--meaning I'm putting the pieces together and learning more even as I downsize my paper files.
• I'm still telling family history stories, in books as well as orally. This year I created a small (6" x 6") book about my husband's Mayflower ancestors so that descendants will have this important background in writing! One grandchild actually asked a question about it 👍
• Little progress on a project I began two years ago: moving old photos from archival boxes to archival photo albums for the convenience of the younger generation. I want them to be able to browse albums and read captions instead of pawing through archival boxes. Maybe in 2025.
• Cousin connections continue! I've heard from a number of cousins interested in our family tree and with additional info to share. I'm thankful for their assistance.

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!

Redo Your Research on Different Sites to Make New Discoveries!

This month I've been plugging in ancestor names to MyHeritage's OldNews.com newspaper site, looking for articles I haven't yet seen. In the past I've searched Newspapers.com and GenealogyBank, now I'm working through the family tree names on OldNews, which has different holdings.

For female ancestors, use multiple search strategies

For female ancestors, I search their maiden names and their married names, with their given name and with their husband's given name. I never know whether a woman (such as my late mom-in-law) will be referred to as Mrs. Marian Wood, Mrs. Marian M. Wood, Mrs. Edgar Wood, Mrs. Edgar J. Wood, etc. I try them all!

Above, the search query and result from my search for my late mother-in-law, Mrs. Edgar Wood (Marian Jane McClure Wood, 1909-1983). She and her husband, Edgar J. Wood (1903-1986) were active in St. Paul's Episcopal Church in East Cleveland, Ohio. But this item in the news from December of 1961 revealed something fascinating that hubby didn't know or remember.

Wait, what?

We knew that my husband's mother, an accomplished ceramic artist who trained under renowned sculpturist Edris Eckhardt, had made a set of creche figures displayed at St. Paul's Church each December. We weren't aware that she had made a set of creche figures that she gave to Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C,. according to this news item.

What?! Rather exciting to think that hubby's mom made creche figures that are in the collection of this famous cathedral!

But just to be sure, I emailed the archivist at the cathedral to ask for confirmation. I wrote that I would offer a bit of biographical background on Mrs. Edgar Wood for their files, if indeed the creche figures are really in the cathedral's collection. Watch this space for news once I get an answer. And redo your research on different sites, because hidden gems like this sometimes turn up unexpectedly!

The Markell Brothers Make News

The Markell brothers were Barney, Philip, Julius, and Samuel, born in Vilnius, Lithuania. Barney (1874-1944) was the oldest and the first to come to America, in 1891. He was the original focus of my research because his son Joseph A. Markell married Mary Mahler - one of two matchmaker aunts who put my parents together on a blind date. I did a bit of research and found interesting news items about the Markell brothers, using GenealogyBank, Newspapers.com, Internet Archive, and OldNews.com.

Barney in the news

At top, an 1897 newspaper item from the court column of the Pittsburgh Press (Pennsylvania). A man named H. Cline testified he was insulted when Barney Markell "called me a Hungarian." The judge asked, "Was that all?" The witness answered, "Yes; isn't that plenty?" Judge: "Markell, you are discharged." Years later, Barney was in the news with his brother as well...

Philip in the news

Philip Markell (1880-1955) was in the Boston news in 1921 when he and brother Barney and another partner, Maurice Wolf, put together $15,000 to incorporate and finance their purchase of the Atlas Theater in Adams, Massachusetts. They showed motion pictures and hosted shows until divesting in 1935. Philip was also mentioned in the Motion Picture News, when he and partner(s) bought, improved, and sold theaters in Massachusetts during the 1920s. 

Julius in the news

Julius Markell (1882-1966) appeared in legal notices from 1915-1917 as he and his wife Ella Lebowitz Markell worked through a difficult divorce that she initiated. Yet Julius named his wife Ella on his 1918 WWI draft registration as his nearest relative, saying they both lived at same Brooklyn residence. Doubtful. She was almost certainly living in Pittsburgh where the rest of her family lived, having separated from Julius years earlier. Interestingly, when Ella applied for US citizenship in 1939, she said she was divorced from Julius in 1914. Nope, the divorce was definitely not yet final at that time.

Samuel in the news

The youngest brother, Samuel Markell (1885-1971), made the news in 1910 and 1911 when he became engaged and then married his fiancee, Marion Goldstein. I found that the name "Samuel Markell" appears in the Boston papers hundreds of times in early and mid 1900s, but that was a prominent attorney appearing in court or making philanthropic news. Not my Samuel Markell! 

Trying OldNews.com, New from MyHeritage

I've been trying OldNews.com, the new historical newspaper site that was announced at RootsTech by MyHeritage. 

Playing around with a search

The search interface is clean and uncluttered. On first glance, though, it's not clear that users can filter the name, the date(s), the place, even publication name.

But as shown above, after I entered the given name and surname of hubby's great uncle, the renowned Canadian bandmaster Capt. John D. Slatter, I was able to filter by tapping my cursor in the name box. A drop-down menu let me click or unclick to match the exact phrase. I didn't want search results to have "John" or "Slatter" or separated by other words, so I clicked to match the phrase exactly. You may want to try your search both ways, just in case.

Filtering is also possible for publication place, again by tapping the cursor in the publication place box, as shown above. I chose to match the place, because this was Capt. Slatter's hometown. I know he was in news reports all over North America, but for this search, I only wanted news of him in Toronto in a specific time period.

My full search eventually looked like this: exact name, publication year + or _ 20 years, exact place, no publication name (because I wanted to see multiple Toronto newspapers if available).  BTW, I did try "Captain Slatter" but results weren't at all close, at least in this time period. And I didn't try a later time period, which I will do at another point.

Results!

Among other results, up popped a truly wonderful result from the Daily Mail and Empire, Toronto, which I have never seen. 

It's the origin story of how Capt. Slatter came to be hired as bandmaster of the 48th Highlanders of Toronto. Best of all, it confirms that this illustrious ancestor of my husband did, indeed, live in Detroit (briefly), played with the Grand Opera orchestra there, and was indeed a member of John Philip Sousa's famous band. Wow! I'm thrilled.

IMHO

I wish there was easy, obvious access to a listing of publications that I could check before performing a search. 

I wish I could see at a glance what countries and cities are represented in this newspaper database.

I wish I could specify a certain time period to search, such as 1881-1904, instead of clicking for plus or minus a set number of years.

These enhancements may be on the way, but for now, I'm trying different searches to see what new info I can find.

New Info Thanks to Keyword Added to Newspaper Search

I'm preparing a photo book about hubby's paternal grandparents, Mary Slatter (1869-1925) and James Edgar Wood (1871-1939). In the process, I'm redoing my research to try to get more info about the work, interests, and family life of their siblings.

George Black (1850-1934) married hubby's great aunt, Jane Wood (1846-1936) about 1898 in Toledo, Ohio. It was her first marriage, his second, according to Census data. Another detail from the Census: George Black was blind. 

Looking for newspaper mentions, I searched on GenealogyBank.com using his name, date range, and home town of Toledo, Ohio. Too many results for a common name. Adding his wife's name was not much help.

Then I tried something a little different, as shown at left: I used "blind" as a keyword in my search. (Great tip: Lisa Gorrell recommends trying an address--maybe a street name--as a keyword.)

Immediately I got a much smaller number of hits, including several news items that actually told me something fascinating about this man's life.

I learned that George helped organize blind people in his city and county, to advocate for legislative action and other actions to help the blind. In fact, he was elected as a trustee of the new organization in December, 1907. Happy to see that George was so active in his community!

Now I'm going to see if I can think up an appropriate keyword for each of the ancestors I'm researching, if their names are fairly common. Maybe a word like their occupation or another characteristic. This will hopefully narrow my search just enough to make the results more meaningful and manageable. 

Looking Ahead to 2024 Genealogy Priorities

Well, 2024 is nearly here! It will be my 26th year of genealogy obsession, I'm happy to say. Also, 2024 will be my 16th year of genealogy blogging.

In the coming year, my priorities will be:

• Create a family history photo book about my husband's paternal grandparents. This is likely to be the longest and most detailed of my photo books, because I have a lot to share (research, photos, stories) about James Edgar Wood and Mary Slatter Wood, and their siblings. I'll blog as I work on it.
• Continue writing and posting bite-sized bios of ancestors. Some bios I've already written form the basis of content in my photo books...and vice versa. Over time, I'm posting brief ancestor bios on WikiTree, Find a Grave, Fold3, FamilySearch, MyHeritage, and more.
• Switch old photos from archival sleeves to safe, convenient photo albums, a project that fell to the back burner in 2023. I love working on old photos when there's a big snow storm outside. So if January in New England turns out to be snowy, my photo project (including captioning) will gain momentum.
• Continue redoing research on focus ancestors, as new info becomes available and as I try different sites. In 2023, I learned how my husband's maternal grandparents met, by researching the social columns in newspapers that only recently were digitized. More of that in 2024. Also, I love learning more about in-law ancestors. Sometimes researching them gives me a clue about a direct ancestor OR gives me context for understanding family dynamics of the past.
• Slim down and reorganize surname file folders. I'm slowly pawing through my surname file folders, consolidating/digitizing research notes, tossing unneeded paper (like printed-out census pages). This is another wonderful snowy-day activity that usually sends me down a rabbit hole as I follow up on something I forgot about or didn't understand the first time I saw it.
• Genealogy programs, education, connections. I'm still making presentations, still taking webinars, and will be attending some local genealogy meetings in 2024. Most important to me, I'm keeping alive the cousin connections I've made in my years of researching family history. 
• Saving family history in institutions. I still have a few items from family history that I'll be donating to institutions in 2024. More about that in upcoming posts. 

Dear readers, I wish you a new year of peace and a tree full of genealogy fun!

My Interview with Marie Cappart - RootsTech 2022 Speaker

Professional historian and genealogist Marie Cappart is a well-known speaker and the author of the best-selling Guide to Genealogy in Belgium. 

Based in Brussels, she serves as country manager for MyHeritage in Belgium and has expertise in a wide range of genealogical and historical topics, including World War I and World War II. 

Marie is also a media consultant for genealogy and history, a columnist for the Revue Française de Généalogie (France's number 1 genealogy magazine), and a proud RootsTech ambassador for years. 

Here's my interview with Marie, who returns to RootsTech Connect in 2022 with three engaging talks for family historians.* 

Question 1: How does your background in history help you when researching and writing about ancestors who lived and died many generations in the past?

Marie: I see it as a symbiosis: The two disciplines are so interconnected. I so much regret that European academics don't see the connection as much as Anglo-Saxons do because both parties would learn so much from each other.

I start with a good perspective of events, timelines and possible events that could have happened to our ancestors or could have triggered a change in their lives. I also have a good overview of the different relevant sources and can work my way through national archives in a quite natural way. This "zoom in-zoom out" approach is also surely helpful to think of all the relevant historical sources that can be used for a genealogical research so I'm very lucky to have those two backgrounds to rely on.

Question 2: Please share your top tips for combining DNA and traditional genealogy research to correct and expand a family tree.

Marie: One of my top tips is consider DNA as a (biological) source, and cross it with archives, documentation, and oral histories. Think outside the box: If you hit a brick wall, maybe one of the key elements to the solution (names/dates/places) is not right, or not entirely right, or has been distorted over time or when transmitted orally. 

When combining DNA and genealogy research, don’t be afraid to dive into other family trees, regardless of the possible lack of connection at first. Often, at least in Europe, people are wary of researching someone they don't know, let alone someone who's still alive. The privacy regulations also make it more difficult, but not impossible, to access direct birth, marriage, and death information. People shouldn't be afraid to work those trees out to see if it makes sense to them along the way. 

Of course, there's a need for privacy regulations but some sources can be useful to overcome those difficulties and reconstruct trees with people who at first seem to be "strangers" but turn out to be genetic relatives. Both approaches are very important and equally valuable. Amongst other things, DNA needs family history to construct the trees of DNA matches and family history needs genetics to prove/disprove connections. Genealogy alone is like an old school puzzle and now with DNA, it's tridimensional and even more fun even if it is challenging.

Question 3. Have you confirmed or disproved a family story you heard about your ancestors? 

Marie: Yes, I have disproved a family legend that was running around the family. My grandmother always told me we were descended from a rich noble Italian family. It turned out that my 3x grandfather born in 1816 was in fact an abandoned child. The period makes me think that the "father" could be a fleeing soldier but of course nothing is proven at this point. 

The civil registration office custom at the time was to use antique Italian or Greek related surnames to name foundlings. My ancestor was given an Italian-sounding surname. The child before him was a Nero and the one after Cupido so I guess we were lucky he was named Tigilin (“an aide to Nero”). Those children rarely made it out of infancy. Now, more than a century later, the story has evolved over the time to give it a more dignified touch but my research set the record straight. I suspect my percentage of Italian DNA is related to that line.

Question 4. What will you be speaking about at RootsTech?

Marie: This year, I'm giving three lectures, one on Belgian immigrants to the United States, one on family food heritage, and one in French about how to do research on Belgian-language and French-language online newspapers websites. I'm also giving a talk as a Country Manager for MyHeritage.

One subject that I've been wanting to cover for a long time was cooking heritage and how family recipes are passed from one generation to another. I'm not really a foodie--I'd rather spend time on genealogy than cooking in the kitchen and have my nose in books rather than putting on an apron--but I really like old personal cookbooks as sources of how people lived, what they were eating on a daily basis or for any special events. 

Food is a key part of any culture and it's fascinating to see how it's been passed on, from old notebooks--my favorites--to the social media content of today. The pandemic has given a lot of people more time to spend in the kitchen, and of course the natural go-to recipes are the ones that were in the family for generations. These were often passed down from mothers to daughters or daughters-in-law with some additions or changes to the recipes. Sometimes these recipes were considered secrets to be carefully guarded.

Question 5. How do you plan to get the most out of the virtual RootsTech experience in 2022?

Marie: By not sleeping much? Joke aside, as much as I miss the on-site event, I found out that I could enjoy some lectures much more for my personal learning which is a bit more complicated to do on-site. I also really appreciate that the content is made available for months after the conference so we can catch up or replay if we choose. But nothing will ever beat the Salt Palace atmosphere and face-to-face conversations with genealogists. RootsTech is always the moment where the big players announce brand new features so I'm really excited to witness that. 

One tip that I always give, regardless of the show being online or on-site, is to know that you won't be able to take it all so it's very important to make your own list of what you want to see first, or of what is more relevant to your interests. 

Another tip: Pick a lecture that you wouldn't typically pick. It's a great way to learn new things and learn about other cultures, or archives, or stories—choose something out of the usual categories you go to and out of your comfort zone.

Question 6: How you are using cooking to share your heritage with your family?

Marie: What I like to do when cooking a family recipe (whether one from my mum or her mum) is to give a bit of historical context to it. My mum was born in England during World War II and my grandmother would pick up local recipes and sometimes adjust them with local ingredients if something wasn’t available.

I'm still making her recipes from England as well as cooking foods traditional to my husband's family, descended in part from Dutch ancestors. Whenever I cook those recipes, it's always a great opportunity to tell a story about our ancestors or keep the family updated with the latest research/discovery without them even noticing or being bored the way they could be if food wasn't involved ;) Remember how our mothers would hide greens in something we liked so that we would eat it without knowing? Well, recipes are a bit like that for family history!

I also love to celebrate our heritage through food on special occasions. Food is a great medium to do that, especially baking. For my wedding, the cake was created to honor our English, French, Belgian and Dutch roots all in one cake. It really had a special meaning to me. In addition, Christmas is a time when family cooking traditions play an important role, and my household is no exception. 

The best part of being a "passer" of this culinary heritage is not only to keep our ancestors alive through our plates but also to create new family culinary traditions. During lockdown, a lot of people discovered their kitchen with brand new eyes and it was the perfect occasion to study, and try, family recipes, away from the day-to-day rush. Of course, famous chefs, who are often so quick to stage their own family recipes, also had to reinvent themselves. But other public figures, not necessarily in the cooking world, did so as well. 

One example I really like is the one of Danny Wood (NKOTB) who saw an opportunity during the pandemic to set up a show he's been thinking about doing for quite a while. Although not a chef, he likes to cook for his family. Often he makes recipes from his mother or shows what he’s baking for his grandchildren, capturing the cooking experience on a YouTube channel aptly named "The Wood Works."

I find this example striking because he’s not a renowned and super skilled chef in the most professional kitchen with the latest sponsored utensils. He’s a public figure simply sharing his enjoyment of passing on family kitchen traditions, or inventing/trying new family recipes and entertaining his audience at the same time. Danny Wood takes great pleasure into demonstrating his cooking skills and it shows. Even more importantly, he likes to share the family history behind the recipe and invites his guests to do the same. 

These days, all kinds of people use social media to pass on family recipes by creating posts, stories, videos, Instagram Reels and TikTok videos, and more. Every time a long-ago ancestor is mentioned in a family recipe story or post, it's genealogy in the making. It's a real challenge to think of a way to preserve these newer methods of communicating family recipes for the sake of generations to come. The field is open for the future to determine how to preserve and pass on those newer transmissions ;) 

*To connect with Marie Cappart: 

Twitter: @histfamilles

Facebook:  Marie Cappart https://www.facebook.com/marie.cappart or page Histoires de Familles www.facebook.com/histoiresdefamilles.familiesstories/

Instagram: Marie Cappart

email : belgianroots@gmail.com or mariecappart@gmail.com

Looking Back at the 1950 Census in the News

Prepping for the public release of the 1950 U.S. Census in April, 2022, I'm searching newspapers that cover the areas where my ancestors lived during the spring of 1950. 

Not only am I researching my ancestors, I'm putting the Census into context and learning more about how people thought about the Census back then.

Names and Faces in the News

First, I do a name search (creative spelling of surname, nicknames, maiden names, and so on). Maybe one of my ancestors or a FAN club person was mentioned as a Census taker? 

Here's another angle to consider: Was an ancestor quoted in a story about the Census, perhaps talking about being enumerated or expressing an opinion about the process? 

On March 26, 1950, The Brooklyn Eagle (New York City) interviewed eight local residents who were outraged at the personal questions about income. The article included photos, names, and addresses of those interviewed! 

Other news items (including a January, 1950 story from the Los Angeles Times) also quoted people who were unhappy about the income question. None were my ancestors, but you might be luckier.

Fido in the News (in the Census?)

According to multiple newspaper articles (Brooklyn Eagle, L.A. Times, and others), enumerators were requested by some households to list dogs as family members. 

In fact, household heads could be rather insistent on the matter! "Rather than argue, the census taker wrote down the dog's name, age and residence," one news item reported.

I don't know whether those names were left as is or deleted during later steps of review and coding. But be aware, as you browse the 1950 U.S. Census after its public release next April, you may just see Fido, Spot, Mittens, or other dogs listed as a member of a household.

Great Uncle Orville's Bootlegging Charge

Was my husband's great uncle Orville J. Steiner (1856-1936) guilty of bootlegging? Orville was the only brother of hubby's grandma Floyda Mabel Steiner McClure (1878-1948). 

Every year, I rotate newspaper subscriptions and plug in ancestors' names, looking for news stories. Most of the time, I find social items. This time, when I researched Orville, I found a surprising legal charge and a surprising outcome to the case.

Charged with bootlegging, fined $50

The Marion (Ohio) Daily Star newspaper of December 31, 1908 reported that Orville Steiner and two other men were being charged with bootlegging, selling alcohol in violation of temperance laws in the "dry" area. 

The men were arrested after a "prosecuting witness" named Drell Blue filed affidavits about the liquor purchases. Blue appeared in court with a detective from the Law & Order League, a group advocating for decency and enforcement of laws related to liquor, vice, and other activities (see this brief summary from Chicago). The reporter said this was a long, tedious, and "uninteresting" trial.

In January 9, 1909, the paper reported that the mayor had found Orville guilty of "selling intoxicating liquors" and fined him $50 plus court costs. 

What happened to the whisky? 

In the Marion (Ohio) Daily Star issue of January 29, 1909, a longer story explained the background of the case. "Prosecuting witness" Drell Blue said he bought two half-pints of whisky from Orville. However, Blue would not tell what he did with the whisky, fearful of incriminating himself. 

The witness's refusal to say what happened to the whisky put the entire legal proceeding into doubt. As a result, the judge reversed the mayor's guilty finding and threw out the $50 fine levied on Orville.

That was the last newspaper mention of bootlegging for this ancestor. In the eyes of the court, great uncle Orville Steiner was not a bootlegger--at least not in 1908-9.

--

Crime and punishment is the #52Ancestors blogging prompt for this week.

Mary Witnessed Family History -- It's in the Newspaper!

In my view, paying for a newspaper database subscription can a worthwhile investment, especially when I rotate from year to year. One year I might pay for GenealogyBank, next year I might pay for Newspapers.com, etc. By rotating, I have time to search out and clip what I need for a full year, then redo my searches the following year in a different database. I always--yes, always!--find new discoveries.

This week, my discovery had to do with a witness to family history. The year was 1909, when my Hungarian-born great uncle Samuel Schwartz (1883-1954) married Anna Gelbman (1886-1940) on October 24th in Bridgeport, CT. I originally thought they married in the local synagogue, since the marriage license is signed by the rabbi [another Schwartz, though not a relative], showing the synagogue's address. 

"Very pretty home wedding" for Sam and Anna

But since I started a new database subscription, I found, with a quick search, a brief item in the Bridgeport Times and Evening Farmer of October 27, 1909 that set me straight about Anna and Sam's wedding day. 

They were married at the home of Anna's parents in Bridgeport, CT, and "Miss Mary Shwartz [sic], a sister of the groom, was maid of honor." New news!

Mary Schwartz (1891-1959) was one of the younger sisters of Sam and Theodore Schwartz (1887-1965 -- hi grandpa!). My grandpa and his older brother left their birthplace in Ungvar, Hungary for New York City early in the 1900s. They worked and saved money to bring Mary to New York in 1906, when she was only 14. 

Mary was still a teenager when she was a maid of honor, not an official witness but an important part of her brother Sam's marriage to Anna. Whether my grandpa Theodore was there, I'll never know. My guess is yes, that Sam would be thrilled to have two siblings there, the only family members ever to come to America. 

By the way, Anna Gelbman was born in the United States. Had she married her foreign-born husband Sam before October 19, 1909, she would have lost her U.S. citizenship. But he was naturalized on October 19th, which is the exact date the couple applied for their marriage license. Not a coincidence!

Anna and Mary remained close

I know from descendants that Mary remained quite close to her sister-in-law Anna for all their lives. They were, after all, only 5 years apart in age. Unfortunately, Anna died of cancer when she was just 54, not long before what would have been her 31st wedding anniversary. 

This is my #52Ancestors post for week 50. Only two more weeks to go in Amy Johnson Crow's 2020 #Genealogy challenge! 

Adding Context for 3D View of Ancestors, Part 3

In addition to examining family situation (part 1 of this series) and community (part 2), another way to flesh out ancestors' lives is to look at influences on society at that time. 

So many elements influenced the society in which ancestors lived and the daily lives they led--including religion, economics, legal and political considerations, industry and technology, urban/suburban/rural life styles, plus local and global health developments. Not everything had a profound impact on every ancestor, but I try to consider key developments that shaped the course of their lives.  

I read the news today, oh boy! 

My top pick for analyzing societal influences is the newspaper. Not just local newspapers where that ancestor lived, but statewide and/or national news sources. For ancestors who lived in the 19th and 20th centuries, papers are a particularly valuable research resource--I browse the news as well as the advertisements, which reflect norms and beliefs of the time.

My immigrant ancestors settled in New York City, so city papers are good starting points for me. Actually, most papers (even small-town papers) had some national and international coverage, I noticed while researching my husband's ancestors in rural Ohio and Indiana.

Newspapers provide accounts of local/national politics, infrastructure improvements, crime, food and fashion, and so much more. Ads and reporting reflected new types of jobs, new transportation, new products and services, all part of societal influences on ancestors. Letters to the editor reveal unvarnished opinions expressed at the time and are fascinating to read.

Constant change

All these changes kept coming, affecting my ancestors day to day and over the long period. After the Roaring Twenties, when many ancestors got on their feet economically, the Great Depression was real challenge, followed by World War II. News reports allow me to follow along and understand these influences. Commercial radio, motion pictures, commercial television, jet planes, computers--these innovations were in the lives of my parents and some in the lives of my grandparents, and all were covered in the newspaper. 

Political and legal events made a huge difference in ancestors' lives. My mother was born late in 1919, a few months after Congress passed legislation granting women the right to vote (the 19th Amendment wasn't ratified until 1920). I read all about it in the newspaper! No wonder Mom brought her children to the polling place each year so we could watch her exercise her right to vote.

The drafts instituted in WWI and WWII affected the men in my family tree--of course, all well documented in newspapers of the time. Food rationing was a daily concern for ancestors living through WWII, especially for my maternal grandparents, who ran a grocery store and needed customers to bring ration books along when they made a purchase. 

Many genealogy websites have information and videos about paid and free access to old newspapers, just go ahead and search...and think creatively about the personal and professional lives of your ancestors. It was fun to run across ads for a Hungarian-style restaurant run by an ancestor in New York City when I searched via Fulton History, for instance. When this type of restaurant went out of fashion, he went out of business, context I kept in mind while looking at the arc of his life.

Don't forget: New newspapers are added to free and paid sites every month, so redo your searches now and then to pick up new clues to the context of your family history.

Union Army Pensions and Reunions Were Both Newsworthy

Train Caldwell McClure (second from left in top row) at Union Army reunion on Aug. 18, 1922

In researching Union Army veterans in my husband's family tree, I was interested to see newspapers reporting on military pensions. Not surprisingly, Civil War reunions were also newsworthy, especially decades after the war's end.

Train Caldwell McClure's Union Army Pension

Hubby's great-great-uncle Train Caldwell McClure (1843-1934) enlisted in Company A of the 89th Indiana Infantry Regiment at the end of July, 1863, in his hometown of Wabash, Indiana. He was mustered out in Mobile, Alabama, on July 19, 1865, having fought in key battles such as capturing Mobile and defending it from the Confederate Army.

On November 22, 1892, the Indianapolis Journal reported that Train was one of dozens of Indiana veterans to be granted military pensions for their Civil War service.

On July 15, 1898, the Indiana State Journal reported on new pension amounts. Train's pension went up from $6 monthly to $8 monthly (see excerpt at left).  In today's dollars, $8 = $247. Not such a tiny pension after all.

Train Caldwell McClure's Civil War Reunions

Train went home to Wabash, Indiana after the war. He married Gulia E. Swain (1847-1920) in 1867. As their family expanded to four children, he operated an oil mill (extracting oil from crops) and later worked as a janitor.

According to news accounts, Train participated in more than one Civil War reunion of Union Army veterans. At top, a clip from the News-Sentinel of Fort Wayne, Indiana, dated September 23, 1922, shows Train with a dozen other vets at a luncheon reunion on August 18, 1922. The caption notes that their ages totaled 1,040 years. This was nearly 60 years after the Civil War ended, and veterans were all in their 70s and 80s by then.

Train also went from Wabash, Indiana to Washington, D.C., to attend the First Reunion of the Survivors of the Army of the Tennessee on September 21-23, 1892. I located his name among the attendees from the 89th Regiment (above) in a book about the reunion (via Google Books, see cover at left).

Wabash to Washington is a trip of 600 miles. Since Wabash was a major railroad hub, Train could change trains [no pun intended] and arrive in Washington without too much hassle.

BTW, Train is not as uncommon a name as I originally thought. I wrote five years ago about how he came to have that name.
--
"Newsworthy" is this week's prompt for #52Ancestors.

Simon Bentley's "Death in the Surf"

Headline on news story about Simon Bentley's accidental drowning death.

Poor Simon Bentley. He was my husband's 3d great uncle, one of seven children born to William Tyler Bentley and Olivia Morgan Bentley. The family was from upstate New York, around Oswego County. They had a pioneering spirit, with many family members moving west over the years.

New York to Indiana

In the mid-1830s, William and Olivia moved their entire family from rural New York to the forested wilderness of Elkhart county, Indiana. Olivia died in 1838, leaving William with sons and daughters ranging in age from 6 to 16.

My research hasn't turned up any clues to whether William remarried. How he managed to work his land and raise his family, I will never know.

Indiana to California

By 1848, William had left Indiana, bound for California. He wasn't looking for gold--he was looking for good farm land.

Most of William's children also went to California, but not all. Two of his daughters married before William moved west, and they never left Indiana.

Lucy Emeline Bentley, my husband's 3d great-grandma, stayed in Indiana with her husband and children. The same goes for her sister, Lucinda Helen Bentley, who also remained in Indiana with a husband and children.

All the others went to California, where I found them in Census records, voting records, local newspaper accounts, and local historical books, among other sources.

Simon Bentley in California

Simon Bentley, the younger son of William and Olivia, moved to California in his 20s. In his 30s, he married Eliza Jane Jordan, and worked as a farm laborer in the Santa Cruz area. After Eliza died, Simon continued to work on farms and board with other families.

The California voter registration records for 1892 describe Simon at age 64 as 5 feet 10 inches tall, light complexion, blue eyes, gray hair. He was living on Grant Street in Santa Cruz. This and other records confirm his occupation as "farmer" and "New York" as his birthplace.

Simon's Sad End

If you noticed the clipping at the top, you know what happened to poor Simon. I only found out his fate through a newspaper search. At age 66, he was an "old man" whose tragic drowning inspired not one but two California newspaper stories.

One of the articles says he lived with his faithful dog in a "tumble-down shanty" in East Santa Cruz. The article also stated that Simon had previously spent some time in "Agnew's asylum." It's hard to tell whether Simon was truly mentally ill, had a chronic medical ailment, or was homeless and destitute.

On the fateful day of September 9, 1894, Simon was fishing off a point of rocks, as he often did, when a sudden breaker swept him into the surf.

A young man jumped into the water to help, but there was a ferocious undertow. Simon quickly vanished beneath the waves before he could be saved.

Eventually, the police pulled Simon's body out of the water not far from where he went in. Poor Simon was buried in Santa Cruz alongside his sister Abbie Eliza Bentley Curtis, who had died the year before.

This is my "poor" entry in the #52Ancestors genealogy prompt series by Amy Johnson Crow.

David Mahler and the Essex Market Police Court

Essex Market Police Court (from NY Historical Society Digital Collection)

Old newspapers hold a treasure trove of family-history possibilities.

Here's a fascinating story I found while systematically searching for each of my Mahler ancestors in newspaper databases.

David Mahler, Charged with "Malicious Mischief"

In November, 1897, it appears that my great uncle David Mahler (1882-1964) was hauled into the Essex Market Police Court, located at the corner of Essex Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, NY. (I wasn't aware of this court until reading about David's predicament.)

According to a report in the Sun and New York Press dated November 22, 1897, "David Mahler, 13 years old, of 58 Chrystie Street, answered to a charge of malicious mischief." He was accused of throwing a brick through a plate-glass window of the store at 69 Chrystie Street.

The news reporter quoted David Mahler as saying: "Dat's all right, me father is going to pay for the window." The storekeeper objected, saying that the court should hold David in jail until the father actually paid the money.

The judge was outraged at the storekeeper--and sets David's pre-trial bail at $500. In today's dollars, that would be nearly $3,000. Where would David's parents, my great-grandpa Meyer Mahler and his wife Tillie Jacobs Mahler, get that kind of cash?

Although I thoroughly searched two newspaper databases and did a general online search, I've found no follow-up. My guess is that the Mahler family settled out of court with the storekeeper and that was that.

Is This My Great Uncle? 

The 1897 news account of teenage mischief is almost certainly about MY great uncle, who in 1900 was living with his family at 88 Chrystie Street in the Lower East Side. Allowing for typos and mistakes, the newspaper said he lived at 58 Chrystie Street. Today, 69 Chrystie Street is a small storefront set into a tenement building. And the age is about right for my David Mahler.

Born in Latvia, David was the second child of my great-grandparents and the oldest son. He came to New York with the family when he was about 4 years old. As an adult, David had a checkered history, and I'm told by a cousin who heard the stories that he was a bit of a black sheep.

During WWI, David worked as a rigger in Camden, NJ (according to his draft registration card). After that, he bounced around and finally was given a job as a utility man at Columbia Studios in Hollywood by an influential executive who was a Mahler in-law. He was working there at the time of the 1940 Census and well into in the 1950s, I can see from California voter registration cards (he was a Democrat).

During the last years of his life, David battled metastatic bladder cancer. He was operated on during January of 1964 and died in the Motion Picture Country Hospital, less than five months later. His sister, Sarah Mahler Smith, was the informant on David's death cert.

With My Library Card, Finding Out "Who's in the Paper"

Most of my mother's Farkas family lived in and around New York City from the early 1900s to the 1980s (and for some, beyond). For them, the New York Times was the "paper of record" for key family events announced via paid notices. In particular, it was a way to let relatives and friends know when and where a funeral would be held, via a paid death notice.

This week's #52Ancestors prompt by Amy Johnson Crow motivated me to finish searching for the death notices of my Farkas great aunts and great uncles. As it happened, none of the family deaths occurred during the big multi-paper New York City strike, December 1962-March 1963, or the later Times strike of 1965.

My parents were accustomed to buying at least two papers a day (morning and evening) and a third on Sunday for the color comics (remember Dondi?), so they really felt the loss of printed news and paid notices.

Searching for Free with My Library Card

Happily for me, I can search the New York Times for free, from home, with my local library card, to gather those paid notices. How? Here in Connecticut, a local library card allows me to access databases, like ProQuest newspapers and HeritageQuest, through the Connecticut State Library. And no more microfilm!

As shown above, I entered the name of my ancestor in the search box and narrowed the period to be searched to the 1940s. Even though I know his exact death date, death notices might be printed on that day or a day or two later. I didn't want to restrict my search too much.

Then I selected the sort for "most recent" articles to be presented first, since he died in the late 1940s.

After only a few clicks, I had his paid death notice. Repeating the process, I quickly found the paid death notices of a handful of his other siblings. I used these to verify the date of burial, as well.

Reading for More than Family Names

As shown at right, in some cases the paid death notices included a tribute from an employer or a trade association.

Here, my great uncle Albert was being remembered by the American Cloak and Suit Manufacturers Assn, which he had served as President and as an executive board member.

Although I was aware of Albert's occupation, from family stories and from documents like Census records and draft cards, I would never have known about his work for the industry without this extra notice in the newspaper.

Tuesday's Tip: Genealogy Free or Fee, Extra! Extra! Free Newspaper Sites

When you need a genealogical clue (name or date or relationship), maybe you don't need to actually pay for a record. Consider searching for your ancestor in one of the free newspaper sites. You might get lucky, as I have (more than once) during my Genealogy Go-Over.

For example, here is the headline from a newspaper story about my father's Markell cousin and his bride. Danny and May were at my parents' wedding in 1946 and my parents probably attended the Markell wedding the following year. This marriage announcement, found via the free news site Fulton History, included details about the bride's and groom's families.

Go ahead and try searching for your ancestors in one of these free newspaper sites. You might find a birth announcement, marriage announcement, obituary, social news, or other item that the editors thought was newsworthy. If the state or locality you seek isn't covered by one of these sites, try doing an online search for "state AND newspaper archive" or "city AND newspaper archive" or a similar phrase to locate other possibilities.

• Fulton History is a free site with many thousands of newspapers scanned in from New York and beyond. The image here shows page one of 11 pages filled with newspaper names/dates, if you want to browse by location and time period. Or use the search function to find surnames by place (my search for "Markell and New Rochelle" is an example). More papers are being added week by week to this excellent and entirely free site.
• Chronicling America is a free site from the Library of Congress, a database of nearly 12 million newspaper pages available from across the country (see image at top for an excerpt). The collection is not comprehensive, but with more than 2000 papers represented, you may find one that will help you learn more about your ancestors.
• Be sure to check Ancestor Hunt's ever-expanding list of state-by-state free newspaper sites. This is an excellent source of links to free newspapers, mainly in the U.S. but also some in Canada!
• University of Illinois Library listing of historical newspapers available online shows which are free and which are not. Check out this long list of links, which includes international as well as U.S. newspaper archives.
• Wikipedia has a list of online newspaper archives, both U.S. and international, both free and free. I've clicked on some of these and not all the links work, but it might point you in the direction of a collection that will be useful.
• Check your local library or state library, which very likely has access to one or more newspaper archives and databases. The Connecticut State Library, for example, has a finding aid that shows what it owns and where the files are. This library is digitizing newspapers from around the state and adding them to the Chronicling America database. Maybe your state library is doing something similar and making the files available free with your local library card (or with a state library card)?
• West Georgia Historic Newspapers (a library link shared by Michelle G. Taggart of A Southern Sleuth) has a number of papers from 1843-1942. She's had good luck with these papers. If you have Georgia ancestors, this might be a good resource for you.
• Looking for Texas newspapers? Try the Texas Digital Newspaper Program, a tip from Harold Henderson.

For more "Genealogy, Free or Fee" ideas, see my summary page.

Meet NERGC Speaker Janeen Bjork, Expert on Newspaper Research

Extra! Extra! Janeen Bjork has combined her 30 years of experience as a television researcher and presenter with her love of family history. Her methodology for locating hard-to-find newspaper items was developed as she uncovered 130 widely-varying accounts of the 1894 murder-suicide that left one of her great-great-grandfathers dead in Syracuse, New York. Her popular "Newspapers for Genealogy" classes, workshops, and presentations in CT, NY and MA, have helped many others research their families over the years.

Janeen will share her tips and tricks at NERGC on Saturday, April 29th, from 3:15 – 4:15 pm, during her presentation “Using Newspapers to Track Your Family, Character by Character.” She’ll discuss the technology that allows newspapers to be scanned and indexed, offer her Top 10 Tips for searching digitized newspapers, and share her favorite online newspaper resources. Look for her upcoming classes and presentations at JaneensList.com/Events, https://twitter.com/JaneensList, and https://www.facebook.com/janeen.bjork.3. You can get to know her notorious great-great-grandfather on the social media accounts she manages in his name (https://twitter.com/WilliamStrutz and https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009395213740).

1.      What first attracted you to genealogy, and what keeps it fresh and fascinating every day?

My sister-in-law sat me down in front of her computer on Thanksgiving Day, 2011 and said, “This is Ancestry.com. You’re doing this for your niece and nephew.” She added that she had been working on her family tree for over four years, and her two children, who share my surname, wanted to know where the Bjorks were. I had a professional background in research (you could say research is in my DNA) and in a matter of days, I found second cousins who had been doing genealogy for two or three decades, and who were looking for me. I’d like to say we’ve been doing “Genealogy on steroids” ever since. And there were many octogenarians and nonagenarians in both my ancestral lines who were happy to let me pick their brains, scan their photos and documents, and swab their cheeks for DNA.

As for fresh and fascinating every day, I am energized by opportunities to pass on what I have learned. It’s gratifying to be told that someone who heard me speak about my online newspaper methodology broke through a brick wall. And it’s a kick when new family items come my way. In late 2016 my sister and my father were both cleaning out old boxes and came up with photos of my maternal grandmother’s parents, WWII ration books and a postcard written during the war. Taking my own advice during the holidays, I looked for family members in newspapers beyond the areas where they lived and  found a photo of my mother's brother Al Quadrini and two other Navy SeaBees on the front page (above the fold!) of the Oxnard Press Courier in 1954 when they dug ditches for a California Boys Club. Stories about my brother Bob Bjork appeared in several distant New York newspapers when his 1978 high school basketball team went to the state championship finals.

2.      Who is your most exotic, challenging, exciting, admirable, despicable, or enigmatic ancestor?
 
That’s easy: My great-great-grandfather William Strutz. He was arrested in June 1893 on a charge of assault in the third degree on his wife. He was the first murder victim in Syracuse in almost a year when his former best friend, Henry Vogler, who believed William had been seeing Henry’s wife, shot William and then killed himself in July 1894. Both the Associated Press and United Press picked up the story, and to date I’ve found 130 accounts of the tragedy. Two German language papers had the story as well, one in Syracuse, where a major German celebration was happening and where there was time for local gossip to embellish the story before the weekly published, and one in Baltimore where an editor changed their names to Wilhelm and Heinrich.

There is a relative who is a close second to William that I could call exciting. It was my father’s Aunt Dorothea, a thrice-married flapper. Her picture appeared in the paper multiple times, for her achievements as a captain and pitcher for a "Girls" softball team sponsored by the Syracuse Journal in the 1930s, as well as for a suicide attempt at 17 and a near drowning in a swim meet at 18. She died at age 86 in San Diego, California.

3.      What are your favorite tools for researching family history?

I am a big booster of newspapers for genealogy. My first eight-week Intermediate Genealogy class spent six weeks looking at online newspaper sites. Obituaries are the most obvious places to start when researching ancestors. But there are often stories leading up to or following the death that are full of details. Obituaries and death certificates will tell you that someone died in a vehicular accident, but a newspaper story may tell you who they were with, where they were going, and what they were doing at the time.

My second favorite tool is DNA testing. I’ve gotten 10 family members to agree to test (only one is a generation behind me, most are my parents’ generation) and to appear in various databases. While we have yet to break through a brick wall, we have found some distant cousins we wouldn’t have met any other way.

4.      What’s the number one thing you want attendees to remember from your NERGC presentation about using newspapers to research family history?

The importance of keyword searches. Names can be misspelled, or altered by a hyphen or by optical character recognition. Fuzzy search and Boolean queries have helped me unearth many hidden items. So go ahead and try different spellings and strategies.

5.      What is your game plan for getting the most out of NERGC?
 
While I always create a game plan for Genealogy conferences, and intend to take advantage of the many sessions and workshops, I also like to improvise. Conferences are fabulous networking opportunities. I made a connection with James M. Beidler at the 2016 New York State Family History Conference. Jim specializes in newspaper research (as well as German and Pennsylvania research) and he has asked me to contribute the William Strutz story to his upcoming book, The Family Tree Historical Newspapers Guide.

6.      What is your greatest genealogical regret?

My maternal grandmother and I spent three weeks in the ancestral hometown in 1983 and I was introduced to about 55 close Italian relatives. Since then I have been the family ambassador, accompanying other American family members and writing the letters and emails to my many Italian cousins.

In 2014, in preparation for a family reunion, I decided it was time to visit the records office in Arpino, Italy. It was my personal "Under The Tuscan Sun," as I heard "no" (it's the same word in Italian) more times that morning than I had in any morning in my life. With the help of a cousin and someone from My Italian Family (run by Bianca Ottone from New Hope, PA), I spent the afternoon in the two churches of the town and found my family first appeared in the records in the 1500s, with a slightly different name. A church custodian told me there was a man in town who had researched my family and other Arpino families. I left without asking for that man's contact information. Big mistake. I learned last year that he had died and his nephews hadn't valued the work. He had used the church records to track all the early families, recording his trees on the backs of calendar pages. Another genealogy lesson learned the hard way.