Thanksgivings Past...lots to be thankful for

Way back in 1956, the Farkas Family Tree met for a combination masquerade party and Thanksgiving dinner at the Gramercy Park Hotel in Manhattan. My maternal grandparents, Hermina Farkas Schwartz and Theodore Schwartz, were there, along with their three children (Daisy Schwartz Burk--that's my Mom--plus her twin Dorothy and their older brother Fred). And of course the rest of the Farkas siblings, in-laws, and grandchildren. Lots of fun!

Nearly 20 years later, Sis and her husband hosted Thanksgiving with Mom at their apartment in Riverdale (the ritzy section of the Bronx). 

Happy Thanksgiving to my extended family, especially my cousins found through genealogy and the cousins I have yet to meet from distant parts of the family trees I'm researching!

Tau Heta Epsilon: Sis Starts a Sorority

Sis's college grad photo

It was the Age of Aquarius, and Sis and her friends decided to start a sorority at Lehman College in the Bronx.

As the first president, she wrote an article for the Parthenon, the "Greek" newspaper at Lehman, to explain how the sorority got its name. Here's an excerpt:

"We took many Greek letters and juggled in an attempt to create a name that was both feminine and Greek. Sigma Omega Sigma (SOS) was a top choice, along with Alpha Nu Delta (AND) and Tau Eta Epsilon (THE).

"The World Book Encyclopedia informs that eta's capital representation is H, so it is sort of legal for us to represent ourselves as THE. At any rate, it invites inquiry, so THE won, although by a small margin.

"It is rather hard to explain our name to people who know the Greek alphabet and object to the "H." We feel that it makes our name unique; we like it. THE is short, catchy, and self-explanatory. It creates a visual image not foreign to non-Greeks.

"We hope that THE becomes a familiar and well-known name at Lehman College: We have paved the way for other organizations to come."

Only six months after THE was organized, it captured first place in the first annual Greek Sing contest. (Think Glee competition with musical skits.) THE's skit was about a "fanciful, satirical" trip around the college campus, with stops at the cafeteria, front lawn, and library. Way to go, Sis!

Sentimental Sunday: Dusty box? Genealogy gold!

In Sis's basement to look for Christmas stuff, we noticed a nondescript, dusty box sitting on the shelf. Curious, we lifted the lid. Family history gold!

Inside were Sis's elementary school report cards, diplomas from grade school/junior high/high school, her P.S. 103 autograph book (like mine but with her graduation corsage pressed inside!), complete programs from our graduations, and many other childhood artifacts. Also some ephemera like a ticket to her high school graduation, held at the then-elegant Paradise Theater in the Bronx, and a stack of college newspapers featuring the sorority she started at Lehman College (more in a later post).

The box held other treasures, including a certificate issued by Lebanon Hospital (now Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center), where Sis and I were born just before 6 pm, on a cold Wednesday afternoon in February [no dates, please].

The map at right shows that Lebanon Hospital is located on the Grand Concourse, once a ritzy area of the Bronx and a 30-minute cab ride away from where Daisy Schwartz Burk and her husband Harold Burk were living in the Northeast Bronx.

For years, Sis and I would gather around Mom as she worked in the kitchen and ask her to tell "The Hospital Story." She told it something like this: "We had no idea that twins were on the way. After Dad took me to the hospital, he sat in the waiting room, holding a roll of dimes for phone calls to tell the family whether the baby was a boy or a girl. After the first baby [that's me!] was born, the staff was about to give Dad the news when the doctor began delivering the surprise second baby [Sis!], just two minutes later. As soon as Dad found out, he pumped dime after dime into the pay phone calling relatives to tell them about the twins! You girls had to stay in heated cribs at the hospital for a few days until you weighed 5 lbs each; only then you were allowed to go home with us."

Tombstone Tuesday: Fernando Wood, a pivotal player in Lincoln movie

Cousin Larry, the genealogist of our Wood family, spotted a distant ancestor in the new Spielberg movie Lincoln: Fernando Wood. (He's played by Lee Pace, and has a surprisingly juicy part.)

Fernando (left) was mayor of New York in the 1850s/60s and, earlier, served as one of the state's representatives in the US Congress during the 1840s.

Among his bizarre ideas was that New York City should secede from the union (1861), becoming the Free City of Tri-Insula. (Thanks to Keith Muchowski of the Strawfoot Civil War/NYC blog for mentioning the proposed name of the city after secession!)

After initially supporting President Lincoln, he became an ardent supporter of the Confederate side and appears in Lincoln in that role. Fernando died in 1881 and is buried in New York City's Trinity Church Cemetery (tombstone above).

As Cousin Larry points out, you can choose your friends but not your family.

A Day to Remember Our Veterans

PFC Wood in Korea

Sgt. Dorothy H. Schwartz

Captain John Daniel Slatter

Bandmaster Henry Arthur Slatter

Privates Harold and Sidney Burk

My family tree and my husband's family tree include a number of vets from WWI and WWII, as well as peacetime service. A few are pictured above. Thank you to our veterans! Never forget.

Sorting Saturday: Ready for the Call from Vital Records?

I've become so accustomed to waiting....waiting....waiting for vital records after I snail-mail a request that I was a bit startled when the good folks in the health department of Elkhart County, Indiana, called me two days after I dropped my request for records into the mailbox.

To back up, I was working my way through the Larimer family history Our Larimer Family, written by John Clarence Work of Lancaster, Ohio in the 1950s, when I saw that hubby's mother had written corrections on the death dates of Brice S. Larimer (1819-1906?) and Lucy E. Bentley Larimer (1826-1900?), her great-grandparents. Ancestry family trees didn't agree on the dates, either.

Brice S. Larimer & Lucy E. Bentley 1847 marriage certificate

The Larimers zoomed to the top of my genealogy to-do list when an Ancestry message about a different part of the family tree led me to new info about the Larimers and their burial place in Elkhart County. I called the county and was told to download a form from the website and mail my request, along with a money order.

The genial clerk from Elkhart called me just two days later to clarify a couple of details and tell me that yes, she had both Brice and Lucy's records. And by the way, Lucy's mother's name wasn't the same as I had listed on my request, but the clerk believed that all the other details matched. Oh boy, a new genealogy mystery!

But there's more. I had sent more money than necessary, she said, so would I like any other records from Elkhart, as long as they were filed in 1888 or later?

Ooooops, I hadn't anticipated such responsive service, and I asked to call her back after I shuffled through my files. I quickly compiled a "wish list" of relatives, called, and rattled them off to her. Again she returned my call to finalize the record order. By Tuesday, I should have the copies in hand.

Thank you, Elkhart County, and you can be sure I'll have my family files in order the next time I send you a request!

Wordless Wednesday: Twins in Two Generations

Above is a photo of my mother Daisy Schwartz and her twin sister Dorothy Schwartz, taken when they were almost 3 years old. No notation of who's who...or where it was taken.

And below is a photo of me and my twin sister, taken when we were a year old. Again, no notation of who's who, but by family tradition, it's assumed that the twin with her mouth open must be me :)

Revisiting the Farkas Cousins' Visit to Ellis Island, 1996

My sister, my hubby, and I joined several cousins for a visit to Ellis Island in October 1996. It was a day to remember!

(You can see the Twin Towers behind us here and at far left in the photo below.)

Moritz Farkas, my great-grandpa, arrived at Ellis Island in May 1899. His wife Leni Kunstler Farkas arrived at Ellis Island in November 1900. An earlier generation put their names on the Wall of Honor.

Moritz and Leni's children, born in Hungary where the family originated, arrived in two waves: The first (including my grandma Hermina Farkas) landed at Ellis Island in November 1901; the second landed in April 1903.

After touring the main building of Ellis Island, we cousins walked the grounds and found the names of our Farkas ancestors on the immigrants' wall.

Thanks to Cousin Betty, who spent 25+ years researching the Farkas family, we know a lot about this branch of the family tree.

2022 update: My twin and I have paid to put the names of four immigrant grandparents on the Ellis Island Wall of Honor: Theodore Schwartz and his wife, Hermina Farkas Schwartz, plus Isaac Burk and his wife, Henrietta Mahler Burk.

Sunday's Obituary: Elizabeth Jane Rinehart Steiner

Hubby's maternal great-grandma was Elizabeth Jane Rinehart Steiner, b. 8 February 1834 and d. 4 November 1905 in Wyandot county, Ohio. I know from Find-A-Grave that she's buried in the Old Mission Cemetery in Upper Sandusky, Ohio, where her husband Edward G. Steiner (1830-1880) and at least two of her children are buried.

Thanks to handwritten notes left by her daughter and granddaughter, I know Elizabeth's death date. Today I had the (rather late) brainstorm to look for her obit on the Ohio Obituary Index and voila! I'll be spending $2.50 to get her obit from the Wyandot Chief newspaper.

The 1900 Census, conducted on 7 June, shows Elizabeth living with her daughter Minnie Halbedel (spelled incorrectly in the Census of course) and son-in-law Edward Halbedel in Crane Township, Wyandot County, OH. This Census says she was born in Ohio in Feb 1834; her pa was from Pennsylvania and her ma from Delaware, still to be confirmed.

On the 107th anniversary of Elizabeth's passing, I'm thinking of her and looking for her ancestors!

October: Sandy, Snowtober, and Cousin Time

October 2011 - Days before Halloween

Note to self: Do NOT plan any travel for the last weekend in October.

In 2011, hubby and I were about to leave for a long weekend with family when the weather report gave us second thoughts about going north.

We stayed home instead, which meant we experienced the joy of 8 inches of heavy, wet snow that brought down a tree limb on our deck (left) and a limb across our driveway.

Luckily, we got the driveway cleared before the electricity went out and stayed out for 3 days. Sigh.

October 2012 - Cousin time

This year, we planned a museum weekend with my sis and the family of my wonderful second cousin Lois, who found me through this blog exactly two years ago this month.

Here we are, enjoying a bit of cousin fun --->  --->  --->



BUT with Hurricane Sandy headed our way, we had to cut the trip short. Luckily, my sis (who lives in a different state) was able to drive us to a train station where we took the l-o-n-g way back to our car. We immediately stocked up on food and batteries.

October 2012 - After Sandy

Hunkered down at home as Sandy lashed the area, we feared the worst but were pleasantly surprised not to lose power. More than 95% of my town is in the dark, but my street has electricity. Of course, as you can see above, a couple of trees crashed down in my yard, but nobody was hurt and nothing was damaged. A treat instead of a trick!**

** As of November 3, 28% of my town remains without power and all homes and businesses should have lights by Monday, thank goodness. Arborists working on a neighbor's downed trees came over and mulched our downed trees and removed the limb that was weighing down my electric lines. Supermarkets have restocked and the diner is doing a land-office business! Welcome to the new normal.

Surname Saturday: Facebooking Benjamin McClure and fam

This is the week I finally tried using Facebook for genealogy. After establishing a Benjamin McClure account and logging in as him, I proceeded to the bottom of the Facebook timeline page, where I clicked "Create a page" and created a public page that I called "McClure Family Tree - from John McClure to Brice Larimer McClure."

Why? Because in my searches of Facebook, I found about a dozen other McClure family pages, some for reunions and some for family communications...but none, so far as I can tell, connected with the McClure branch I'm researching. So I want anybody who lands on my McClure page to instantly see which line of the family this page is for.

In PowerPoint, I created a sketchy pedigree chart showing Benjamin* (his box is at top right, outlined in red) and his wife and their son, who married Margaret Jane Larimer and, finally, their son, Brice Larimer McClure. That's hubby's grandpa. I exported this pedigree as a .jpg and then posted it as the cover photo for the McClure Family Tree public page. (Trust me, it looks better on FB than it does in this screen shot I took.)

Every couple of days, I'll be posting on both pages, excerpting from Benjamin's obit and listing facts and relatives in the hope that someone else researching this family will connect with me.
 

2022 update: I've had contacts with a few McClure distant cousins via this FB page! Great cousin bait.

*I could have included Benjamin's dad, John McClure and his mom, Ann McFall McClure, but space is a bit tight, as you can see.

Tech Tuesday: Experimenting with Facebook for Genealogy

Can Facebook help me research the Benjamin McClure family?

I've been tracing the McClure family tree, and I know that Benjamin is hubby's g-g-grandpa on his father's side. Earlier this year, I finally located this ancestor's obituary (complete with woodcut portrait, above).

Erin, the program chair and a recent speaker at my local genealogy club, suggested creating a "public figure" page on Facebook to try to attract other researchers and distant relatives who are interested in a certain family or ancestor.

I'm trying a variation of that idea. I created a FB account as Benji, uploaded this woodcut as his profile photo, and have been posting a little about his life to fill out his Facebook page. I've also friended him from my real FB account and explained to my fam and friends that Benji's account is an experiment.

His account is Benjamin.McClure.35 (so if you search for him, you'll probably have to use this "name" because there are too many guys of this name on FB).*

Since Benji's birthday is April 30, 1812, I couldn't enter that info into FB. Instead, I gave him a bday that's exactly one century later. I showed his "location" as Wabash, Indiana, where he lived for most of his life. His profession is "genealogy researcher." LOL! (In reality, he was a farmer.) ** 2022 update: Benji's description now explains that he's the ancestor-in-law of, well, me! Just wanted to clarifyl

* For earlier followup, please see my post here. 

Two Servings of Heritage Pie (with Surnames!)

Thanks to Randy Seaver, Sheri Fenley, and Diane Haddad), I've been thinking about creating genealogical heritage pie charts for hubby and me. Alas, I don't have enough info to go back to all of our great-great-grandparents, so I had to adapt the idea...for now.

At left is Wally's heritage pie for his great-grandparents. He's 25% UK (2022 update: the Slatter line is England but now I know the Shehen was originally from Ireland).

The rest of his great-grands (Wood, Larimer, Demarest, Steiner, McClure, Rinehart) were from the US. The one Ohio great-grand might actually be from Pennsylvania, but we're not sure yet.

The second heritage pie, below, is for Sis and me, showing our grandparents' origins.

We're 50% Hungarian (both maternal grandparents were from Hungary), 25% Lithuanian, and 25% Latvian.

I do know the names of my great-grands on the Farkas and Schwartz trees, and can be sure (as of 2022) that they were from Hungary, as well.

The Latvian great-grands (Birk) are mostly a mystery, and I know nothing at all about the Lithuanian (Mahler) great-grands (if that's where they were from). At least I now, in 2022, have names to research.

Sunday's Obituary: Alex Farkas and the Farkas Family Tree

Thanks to my wonderful cuz Betty, who's spent about 25+ years researching our Farkas ancestry, the family tree is full of leaves. And it's full of stories that Betty has collected from family members over the years and written down for the benefit of future generations.

There are just a few missing dates, including the exact day when my great-uncle Alex died. Alex (real name: Sandor) was the oldest of 11 offspring of Moritz Farkas and Leni Kuntsler. My grandma Hermina Farkas Schwartz was the second-oldest in the family (the oldest girl).

Today I was noodling around on Ancestry and decided to look for his obit. Sure enough, I found it in a newspaper in mid-January, 1948. And because the Farkas Family Tree placed the notice, I can be 100% sure that this is the correct Alex Farkas.

Wordless Wednesday: Three Wood Brothers

Three of the four Wood brothers are in this photo: Edgar James (the oldest), Wallis W. (next-oldest), and John A. (third of four).

My guesstimate of the year is between 1911 and 1913.