Tuesday's Tip: Discuss Conflicting Info with Relatives

Paula Schwartz

This photo sent shivers up my spine and I had to share why.

Five years ago, I found my maternal grandfather's sister Paula Schwartz listed in the Yad Vashem central database of Holocaust victims, names submitted by relatives or neighbors so that victims would be remembered.

The "testimony" page, below, shows that Paula was the daughter of Herman and Hana (Simonowitz) Schwartz. The person who submitted the testimony in 1996 is Viola Schwartz W____r--Paula's daughter. (See my Schwartz ancestor landing page for more info.)

My newfound cousin from Philly questioned me about Viola W___. Why? Because on cards and photos sent to my grandpa, Paula Schwartz's daughter is named Ibolyka, which is often translated as Violet. I thought we were looking for a survivor named Violet W___, even though the testimony is signed by Viola ___.

My Philly Cuz urged me to rethink the Violet/Viola discrepancy. I went back to the testimony page to see whether any more info had been added since I last looked in 2008. The answer is yes.

Now there's a photo uploaded next to the testimony--the photo I show in this post. You can compare with the two ladies in hats at the center top of my blog's masthead. It's undoubtedly OUR family's Paula Schwartz!

This photo wasn't available online in 2008. And not long afterward, we found this survivor. Sadly, she confirmed that many Schwartz ancestors who remained in Ungvar did not survive the Holocaust. 

Monday Memories of Little Sister

This week, my sister Harriet (named after my paternal grandmother, Henrietta Mahler), would have been 58 years old. We miss her!

She once framed dozens of old family photos to create a wall of "dead people" as a living reminder of our family history. Her favorite perfume was Elizabeth Arden's Blue Grass, because that had been our mother's signature fragrance. Rest in peace, little sis.

Genealogy by the States: McClures, Steiners, and Rineharts in the Buckeye State

Benjamin McClure (1812-1896)

Hubby has many ancestors in the Buckeye State of Ohio! I've been researching his 2d great-grandpa, Benjamin McClure (1812-1896), who is also the subject of my Facebook genealogy experiment. Benjamin was born in Adams County, Ohio, and although he later moved to Indiana, some of his descendants returned to Ohio for farming, carpentry, and other pursuits.

Other key ancestors in Ohio are the Steiners (Jacob S. Steiner, one of hubby's 2d great-granddads, was a long-time resident of Tod, Crawford county, Ohio) and the Rineharts (Joseph W. Rinehart was another of hubby's 2d great-grandpas, also a long-time resident of Tod). More about the Steiners and Rineharts can be found in the ancestor landing page on the tabs below my blog's title.

My next genealogical step on some of these ancestors is to check local courthouses for probate and deed records. This week I contacted the Wabash County Clerk's Office in Indiana to find out whether Benjamin McClure left a will. Guess what? There are 8 pages of estate info in the clerk's office! And for one buck a page, I can have photocopies sent by mail. By this time next week, I hope to know what Benji left and who his heirs were.

* Genealogy by the States is a weekly prompt started by Jim Sanders. Thanks, Jim!

Wisdom Wednesday: Listen to the "Backstory"

One of my favorite podcasts is a series called "Backstory with the American History Guys."

It stars three historians, each an expert on a particular century (18th, 19th, and 20th of course).

Every episode gives me some new insight into how things were in my ancestors' time. The topics range from women's rights and the history of taxation to immigration and concepts of time. The "guys" interview experts about how key cultural, political, technological, and social changes affected America and Americans, both new and old.

That's how I learned that my hubby's ancestors in Wabash no doubt were gathered around the courthouse on the day when its electric lights were first switched on, making the town the first in the nation (possibly the world) to take this step. And it all came about, according to the History Guys, because two fellas from the Wabash Plain Dealer thought this would put the town on the map. And so it has, as you can see from the official seal of Wabash.

I encourage you to check out Backstory's podcasts (on its site or on iTunes) and enjoy!

Genealogy by the States: Maggie Steiner Moves to Tennessee

This is Week 16 of the Genealogy by the States series started by Jim Sanders, and the topic is Tennessee. (Congrats to Jim for being named one of Family Tree's Top 40 blogs!)

The only family connection to Tennessee is through Margaret Mary Steiner (1861-1913), hubby's great-aunt. Born in Nevada, Ohio, to Edward George Steiner and Elizabeth Jane Rinehart, Maggie married Elroy Dayton Post (1858-1929) in September, 1883.

The couple moved several times for Elroy's work, with Union Pacific RR among other employers. Then they settled in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he worked as a sign painter. Maggie died in Knoxville in 1913 and was buried in Upper Sandusky, Ohio, where many in the Steiner family were buried.

Elroy remarried and his second wife, Merida, gave birth to their only child, Margaret, in 1918. Was this daughter named after Elroy's first wife, Maggie Steiner?

NOTE: If you're looking for Climbing My Family Tree by Jennifer--another of Family Tree's top 40 blogs--please click here. Congrats to Jen!

Workday Wednesday: The Family Pitches in for the War Effort

During 1943, my family was doing a lot to fight WWII. Not quite single-handedly, of course, but they were in the service AND in defense industries. For example, my Auntie Dorothy Schwartz, shown above, was a WAC and during 1943, her service training took her to Daytona Beach, FL, Ft. Oglethorpe, GA, Camp Polk, LA, and Ft. Devens, MA. She ended the year in Scotland.

Dorothy's first cousins were in the Army Air Corps, in the Army, and stationed around the country and around the world. Family members visited sons, daughters, and siblings whenever they could. The family regularly bought War Bonds (and those who had stores, including my grandparents Teddy Schwartz and Minnie Farkas, also sold War Bonds to customers). One of my great-aunts was also a "Rosie the Riveter," working at an aircraft factory during the war.

To lighten the mood, the family's newsletter of 1943 doings says that the military members of the family "still have time to gain one of these titles: Corporal Punishment, Major Calamity or General Nuisance."

In 1944, according to family tree newsletters, Sgt. Dorothy Schwartz was temporarily assigned to Oxford, England for a week's training at Oxford U. By 1945, Sgt. Schwartz was in Belgium and she wrote about celebrating V-E Day.

Meanwhile, my father Harold Burk (left) and his brother, Sidney Burk (the taller brother), were in Europe with the U.S. Army. Harold was with the Signal Corps, in a support role behind the lines in the European theater.

Harold and Sidney were in Europe on assignment when their father, Isaac Burk, died suddenly of a heart attack in 1943. They weren't able to return for the funeral, which must have made things even sadder for their mother, Henrietta Mahler Burk.

Timelines, Family Trees, and James & Mary's Wedding Day

My local genealogy club was lucky enough to recently host a talk by genealogy/history expert Laura Prescott. She spoke about "Timelines: Placing Your Heritage in Historical Perspective."

Among the many things I took away from that presentation was the idea of creating timelines to show my ancestors in the context of their family's events and local/national/international events. Laura mentioned free sites like xtimeline.com. (A wonderful find!)

She also mentioned that we have the ability to publish timelines, among other things, using Ancestry and the family tree data we've already posted. I'd never looked at that "Publish" button along the top row of the Ancestry home page. Pushing "publish" started me on the easy process of printing an 18 x 24 inch poster for my hubby's siblings, showing the four main families that correspond to each of their grandparents. (If you don't want to buy the tree poster, you can still print it free on your home printer--I did that too.)

Along the way, I enlisted hubby's help proofreading the family tree before we published the poster. He noticed I was missing an exact month and date for his grandpa's marriage.

In another browser window, I opened Family Search and quickly found an updated database of Ohio marriages. Info that wasn't indexed or digitized a year ago has been put online! (My lesson: Keep searching for those elusive ancestors or events--eventually new clues will present themselves.)

With just a couple of clicks, we now have the marriage document of James E. Wood of Toledo and his bride, Mary Slatter, who were married on 21 September 1898. All because we wanted to put together a family tree poster (see below).

The poster points up a glaring hole in the tree: We still don't know the parents of Mary Amanda Demarest. Cousin Larry has been on her trail for decades.