In Rome on September 11th

On September 11, 2001, hubby and I were vacationing in Rome. After learning of the deadly attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, we rushed to an Internet cafe to check on the safety of New York City family and friends--all OK, but in shock and mourning.

During the next few days, as we walked through the streets of Rome, we were approached by locals and tourists alike, who asked if were American and then offered condolences and comfort. 

We were visiting the Vatican Museum on Friday, September 15, when a solemn, multinational three-minute silence was observed. Everything and everyone paused throughout the Vatican and all of Rome and beyond, heads bowed as we held in our hearts the many lives lost and the many lives changed forever. Still remembered in our hearts, two decades later.

1950 US Census: Which Ancestors Were Working?

One of the key questions I hope will be answered by the release of 1950 US Census in April of 2022 is which of my ancestors were working, and their occupations.

Overall trends in 1950 employment

Shown in the above table from a US Census special report issued in 1953 is a comparison of how many men and women in each age group (14 and older) were working in 1950, compared with 1940. These aggregate statistics provide context for understanding the situations of my ancestors who were enumerated in 1950.

Notice that in the lower bar chart, significantly more women were working in 1950 (solid black bar) compared with the number working in 1940. The big exception is women aged 20-30ish. 

Given the unprecedented Baby Boom that took place from 1946 on, I suspect these women were taking care of children and homes, not working outside the home in 1950. That was the general pattern in my family tree, although some women were in the work force in addition to being wives and mothers. In most cases, my female ancestors were working as teachers, I understand from family documents and stories.

Occupations and "not working"

I'll be interested to see not just who's working, but what occupations they were pursuing. For the teachers, enumerators were supposed to note the subject being taught--a bonus detail for me as the family historian.

The Census also noted when people over age 14 were not working, and why. Enumerators the reason why someone was not in the labor force, classified as (1) keeping house, (2) unable to work, (3) in an institution, or (4) "other" - meaning students, retired, seasonal workers, etc. 

I expect a number of my ancestors to be in the "other" category of reasons for not working, due to retirement or being full-time students. 

Can't wait to find out when the 1950 Census is released next year.

-- "Work" is Amy Johnson Crow's theme for this week in the #52Ancestors challenge.

Looking for Free, Downloadable Genealogy Forms?

I really appreciate free, blank genealogy forms I can download and use in analyzing research sources and recording my family tree. 

Forms help me stay organized and record data in a standardized format. 

They're also great for sharing information with relatives and researchers.

Here are just four of the many sites that offer downloadable genealogy forms for free:

• FamilySearch. A great source of downloads for everything from blank Census forms (Canada, UK, US) to blank forms for pedigree charts and research logs. Scroll down for links to lots of other excellent sources of free downloadable sources (via Cyndi's List, and more).
• Misbach. Not all forms are free on this site, but there are good selections that cost nothing. I especially like the free pedigree charts and free 6-generation fan chart.
• National Genealogical Society. A bit of color adds to the readability and appeal of these free, downloadable charts. Just type in your info and these are ready to share. 
• Kentucky Genealogical Society. Whether or not you have Kentucky ancestors, these free downloadable charts are pretty and add a touch of color to your family tree details.

Although it's easy to electronically share these forms after I've entered data, I also like to print and put into my files (and send to relatives), as backup! Check whether your local genealogical society has forms for free download, or use one of these sources. Write it down so you and later generations will have the information you need.

Try Indexing Your Family History Materials

Have you tried indexing diaries, letters, and other family history materials inherited from your ancestors? There are four great reasons to index:

1. You can trace the movements and activities of ancestors through a period of time and notice gaps or changes that may reveal turning points in their lives.
2. You can compare details in these family documents with official government records and other formal records, to identify discrepancies or confirm info.
3. You and your relatives (and future researchers) can use the index to look up specific ancestors and turn to the proper place in any set of documents, instead of paging through to search.
4. You may discover new clues as you index, or by comparing the index with what you already know about your ancestors. Thanks to indexing my father-in-law's diaries, I was able to identify his first cousins in an old family photo! 

In the new edition of my best-selling genealogy book, Planning a Future for Your Family's Past, I include the sample index form shown at top, along with instructions for how to create an index. 

If created digitally, the index can be sorted and searched electronically. Entering the year first in the "date" column allows me to sort by year, handy when I'm comparing and contrasting multiple documents or events in family history. Similarly, entering names with surnames first allows sorting in that manner.

Remember to note who created the index and when. Also note where the original materials are located, especially important if you are designating an heir for your genealogy.

Please feel free to adapt my sample form to your own indexing projects. Who knows what you'll find as you read through family history again!

--

Planning a Future for Your Family's Past, 2d edition is now available in paperback from Amazon.com (US, UK, Canada, and other nations). Or preorder the ebook edition for delivery to your digital device on September 15th. Thank you!

John Wood Had a First Wife? Turn on the GPS!

Genealogy is never finished! There's always someone or something to research on the family tree. 

But in the 23 years I've been looking for ancestors, nobody ever mentioned that hubby's uncle John A. Wood (1908-1980) was married twice. 

Until this week. 

An older relative in the Wood family remarked, in passing, that John was once married to "Louise" or a lady with a similar name. A new clue.

I already knew about his wife Rita, named in my father-in-law's diaries and letters, as well as in John's obit and as the informant on his death cert.

John and Rita married in 1951. Their marriage cert has no information about previous marriages. I turned on the GPS (Genealogical Proof Standard) as I dug deeper into John's life before Rita.

Which John Wood is which?

Finding the correct John Wood in a veritable forest of men with similar names would not be easy. 

Luckily, John's obit (and several Census records) showed his middle initial and other details not shown on other documents, including the fact that he worked for DuPont for many years.

Looking for "John A. Wood" and "Louise" together in a Census in Indiana (where he was when he remarried) led me to two records on Ancestry. Both showed John married to "Elsie," and working in the chemical industry. That could very well be DuPont, but I had no real proof as yet.

Next, I redid my search with "Elsie" as the wife and immediately found John's World War II draft registration card. This seemed to be the correct John A. Wood--it had the correct birth date and birth city, and it listed his middle name as "Arthur," the only place it ever appears. Arthur is a family name on John's mother's side. 

I really felt on firm ground when I read that John's employer was...DuPont! His wife, "Mrs. Elsie Wood," is listed as the person who will always know John's address. So John's first wife was clearly a lady named Elsie (not Louise). Numerous clues led me to this conclusion (GPS).

When and where did John and Elsie marry?

Next, I searched for John and Elsie's marriage on FamilySearch, and found a record of their marriage in Porter, Indiana, on November 19, 1928.

My timing was good, because (as the citation at left shows), this Indiana database is only available online as of April, 2021. 

Even without the image (which I'll see soon), this transcription indicates I have the correct John A. Wood. My evidence, a la GPS: he is most definitely the son of James E. Wood and Mary Slatter, exactly as shown on the transcription. I need to see the image with my own eyes to suit GPS standards, but all the details in the transcriptions are a perfect match with existing evidence.

Now, with Elsie's maiden name and birthplace/birth date, I've been researching her background, adding her parents and other relatives to my husband's family tree.

If not for (1) a relative's casual mention of John's previous marriage, (2) his consistent use of a middle initial, and (3) a record of his employer/industry, I might never have been able to track down this ancestor's first wife. TY to the GPS for guiding me in the right direction.

Coming Soon: Second Edition of Planning a Future for Your Family's Past

September 1 is publication day! 

I'm releasing a new, thoroughly updated edition of my popular genealogy book, Planning a Future for Your Family's Past.

The new table of contents is:

• Chapter 1: Organized storage for your genealogy collection
• Chapter 2: Organize your photos, images, and movies
• Chapter 3: Organizing digital files and emails
• Chapter 4: Inventory and index your genealogy collection
• Chapter 5: Record your family tree
• Chapter 6: Family artifacts: keep or give away?
• Chapter 7: Find outside homes for artifacts
• Chapter 8: Who wants your genealogy collection?
• Chapter 9: Write your genealogical "will"
• Chapter 10: No obvious heirs? Try these ideas
• Chapter 11: Keep family history alive for the future

The paperback version is now available through Amazon.com (US, UK, Canada). Later in September, the paperback will be available at  AmericanAncestors.org. 

As of September 1, Amazon is accepting preorders for the digital book, to be released on September 15.

Please watch for more details to come. Thank you!

How a FAN Club Member Identified an Ancestor for Me

I've been scanning old photos and negatives left by my father-in-law, Edgar James Wood (1903-1986). 

At left, a 1919 image I blogged about just recently, remarking on the fashions.

This came from a set of negatives that Ed had marked as "Baker family, 1919."

I know the names of these two sisters, who were Ed's first cousins, but not which is which in the photo.

At right, a photo that my hubby and I believe shows Ed with these same two cousins, 50 years later. No caption, but a family story gave us confidence that these were the Baker sisters. Which is which? We had no idea. Until now.

Hearing from a FAN club descendant

This week, I received a message from a gentleman (Pat) who noticed the Baker names on my public family tree.

Pat is not related to the Bakers or to my husband. 

Here's where it gets a little convoluted. Pat is the executor of the estate for a lady who was the executor for the estate of one of the Baker sisters. In other words, he's the descendant of a FAN club member.

Connecting through my public family tree

When Pat's mom died, he inherited her boxes of stuff, including boxes from her  dear friend, Edith, who died a few years earlier. Pat's Mom wanted her friend's photos and letters to survive, so she bequeathed them to her son. (She wisely planned ahead before she joined her ancestors.)

Now Pat is sorting the bequest and looking for descendants who would like to have some of the items he inherited.

Pat noticed Edith and her sister on my Ancestry public family tree and sent me a message. I confirmed how Edith was related to my father-in-law and thus to my husband. 

Then we exchanged photos. He shared a photo of Edith in her later years. We are so grateful he did.

Eureka! Thanks to the FAN club, I now know exactly which of the ladies in both of these photos is Edith and which is her sister. Edith is on the right in the later photo, on the left in the younger photo. And Pat can see how lovely Edith was in her youth.

A good reason to have a public tree...even without photos, it serves as cousin bait and FAN club bait, with ancestor names/dates/locations visible and the option to send a message. 

Celebrating My 13th Blogiversary

Today is the 13th anniversary of ClimbingMyFamilyTree.blogspot.com!

On August 25, 2008, I wrote my first genealogy blog post, about searching for my great-grandpa's death date and place. 

Now, 13 years later, I'm still discovering new things about the life and times of great-grandpa Mayer Elias Mahler (1855?-1910), with even more research in my future. Between my ancestors and those of my husband, plus new techniques and experiments, I never run out of genealogical activities to blog about.

There are still plenty of family history projects in my future as I work to keep ancestors' names, faces, and stories alive for the next generation. These days, many projects (such as 10-minute videos) are bite-sized, but I do have other ongoing projects, such as photo and slide digitization, preservation, and storage.

The ancestor landing pages across the top of my blog summarize what I know about the main surname groups...and serve as cousin bait for distant relatives who "land" on my blog after doing an online search for someone in their family tree. 

A heartfelt thank you to the many cousins worldwide who have been part of this ongoing journey and generously share what they know about our family tree.

Also, special thanks to my genealogy buddies all over the planet, who continue to inspire me. It has been fun to participate in #AncestryHour, #GenChat, #OurAncestors, and GeneaBloggers Tribe, plus be a member of (and sometimes a speaker at) virtual and in-person genealogy groups and conferences.

Emotion and Family History

The latest in a series of bite-sized family history videos are in progress. As I wrote recently, we're using old photos and headlines as visual cues in a slide show while my husband or another family member narrates the story for a brief video. 

The stories are family history for the younger generation, but we, the narrators, actually lived through these experiences. Then and now, the experiences evoked emotions that we want to share.

The first story my Sis and I are going to video is about going to dancing school and performing in recitals. The story was inspired by one of our favorite family photos--this adorable little dancing tomato girl.

Narrating the video combines facts and memories, sometimes with a bit of research to support (or disprove) parts of the story. I was able to research the location of the dancing school, among other facts. I also remembered how my parents complained about the extra cost for costumes, at a time when the household budget was increasingly stretched.

Adding emotion to family history

Emotion plays a role in our choice of topics for these videos, and in our enthusiasm for telling the stories we want future generations to hear. Enhanced by our positive or negative feelings, if the overall story can touch the heart in some way, it will be remembered. 

If we merely recited names, dates, places, and relationships as old photos appear on the screen, our audience members would probably not respond as strongly. Not every story will be "fun" but we hope that the next generation will remember at least one or two points from each video.

Family history foundation beyond emotion

There has to be a solid family history foundation to any story, beyond nostalgia or reminiscences. For instance, the "history" part of the dancing school story is that it was a tradition in my mother's family to send children for lessons, often music or dance (or both). 

Our first cousins all took lessons of some sort, I know from family tree letters and documents (and from personal memories of the past). The athletic cousins took up sports. Some cousins had piano teachers come to the house or went to photography camp, etc. 

Other "history" elements in the dancing school story: how our parents managed to pay for these lessons...and their pride in our performances and sharing our (fairly slow) progress with the wider family. 

We didn't grow up to be dancers or musicians, but our parents gave us an opportunity to widen our horizons. And we have photos that remind us of that history and of how we felt about it, photos that help tell a family history story for future generations.

Experiment: Bite-Sized Family History Video

 

This week, my hubby and I experimented with videoing a bite-sized family history story from his childhood. Every Sunday, his Dad would take the kids (pre-school age) to church while Mom stayed home and cooked a big dinner. 

After church, it was still too early to bring the kids home. Mom needed another 30 or 60 minutes to finish cooking and set the table. So Dad took the kids to a nearby railroad yard, where they all watched trains being made up. When they returned home, Sunday dinner was on the table. 

Here's the three-step process we followed to get from "story" to "bite-sized video."

Step 1: Find visuals

Visuals are, of course, a big part of any video. We had a couple of good photos of the kids at the rail yard and in the car.

To add more to the story, I found (via Pixabay.com) free, somewhat generic photos of a railroad yard and a church. These would be good enough to convey the sense of childhood Sundays.

Step 2: Create a slide show

Next, I created a slide show (I use PowerPoint) with a simple colored background, making the photos the center of attention. 

I added headlines at the top of each slide, partly to guide the narration and partly for viewers to read. I used present tense for these headlines, to make the story feel "in the moment" rather than "in the past." Example: "After church, Dad drives to..."

Not visible in this illustration are the names superimposed on one of the photos, to clearly caption who's who even though one of the children is narrating the story. Also, I included an approximate date on one of the slides.

Step 3: Record the videoconference

Once my husband was happy with the four slides and had thought about what he would say as a voice-over, we began a videoconference (in this case, Zoom). He shared his screen with the slide show, and then I began the recording. He narrated the four slides in about eight minutes. I stopped recording, waited for it to be converted to mp4 video, and then we played the video. 

Our first try was pretty good. We did a second take, and that one was better, with my husband adding a few specific details he had not mentioned the first time. 

More ideas to try

Because the video was short, we were able to email it to recipients. (A longer video, too large for email, would have to be sent a different way.) Although we're still waiting for reaction, hubby and I enjoyed the process so much that we're already thinking about our next bite-sized video of family history.

Next time, we'll figure out how to have the narrator (my husband) visible on screen as he tells the story and advances the slides. Or we might include a recent photo of him next to a photo of him at the time of the family-history story he's telling.

Another plan is to have a sibling reminisce with him, via videoconference, with slides on the screen. The headlines could be a starting point for discussion as the photos stimulate memories from the past.

Also, I need to add my husband's name and the date of recording to one of these slides, so future viewers know who is narrating and when.

Have you tried videoing a family history story? How did it work? What did your family think?

--Post is part of the August Genealogy Blog Party  https://www.thefamilyheart.com/

No Captions - A Loss for Future Generations

Now that I'm scanning, inverting, and enhancing negatives from the collection left by my late father-in-law, James Edgar Wood (1903-1986), I'm finding clues to family history--and so many mysteries.

A few (but not many) of the negatives had dates scratched into the edges, sometimes very specific dates. Most of the negatives were in small paper folders with titles such as "Summer, 1919" or "1917-1918-1919."

Help from genealogy folks on social media

With a bit of help from the wonderful genealogy folks on social media, I'm getting ideas about where some of these photos were taken, the groups, the clothing, etc. 

Genealogical folks identified the uniform worn by a young man in several 1919 photos as Royal Air Force. I know from previous research that one of my husband's ancestors from Canada served in the RAF during WWI. Very quickly, I found a US/Canadian border crossing card for him during the same month as that 1919 photo. As a result, I've been able to caption a series of photos with names and dates. Thank you, genie friends!

More research is in my future

The group parading in the image at top holds a banner indicating it's a lodge from London, Canada. Thanks to a Canadian genealogy social media group, I now have some leads to follow up.

Also, I'm interested in the group shown in this parade (date uncertain, sometime between 1917 and 1919). This is not necessarily from the same parade as the previous photo, not from the same batch.

Most of the men are holding what looks like a ceremonial staff, perhaps from a lodge? More research is in my future.

Not having captions for my father-in-law's photos would be a real loss--a family history tragedy for future generations. 

--"Tragedy" is the theme for week 33 of Amy Johnson Crow's #52Ancestors challenge.

Decoding Why Ancestors Died

Thanks to the Summer 2021 issue of American Ancestors from the New England Historic Genealogical Society, I have a new tool for analyzing death certificates  filed in the 20th century.

Genealogist Hallie Borstel wrote about the International Classification of Diseases code, either three or four numbers added to a death cert to categorize the cause of death.

Look at the Wood ancestor's death cert above. See the three digit code 131 in the red circle? That's the ICD.

I looked up 131 in the 1929 ICD listing for causes of death, and see the classification is chronic nephritis.

The doctor's written cause of death on this particular cert is: "cardio-vascular renal disease."

Not exactly the same as code 131, but very closely related. If the doctor's handwriting had been illegible, the ICD code would have given me insight into cause of death.

To use the ICD, look for the most recent version adopted before the ancestor's death. In this example, the ancestor died in 1936, so I used the 1929 version (excerpt shown above). If she had died in 1939, I would have used the 1938 version. 

Another tool in my genealogical tool kit!