Wordless Wedding Wednesday: What Are Mom and Dad Reading at Their Wedding?

Well, telegrams, of course! Any friend or relative who couldn't be there would spend a quarter or so to send a telegram congratulating the happy couple. And so after the noontime wedding ceremony, Mom (Daisy Schwartz) and Dad (Harold Burk) took a moment during the reception to read telegrams from loved ones around the country.

This is a Wordless Wednesday because none of those Wedding telegrams survived...

FGS Conference Quest: In Search of Steiners and Rineharts

This is my quest, to follow that star as far as Fort Wayne, Indiana and beyond!

Hubby's ancestors, the Steiner family and the Rinehart family, lived in Ohio and Indiana, so by attending the FGS Conference in Fort Wayne, Indiana, we're following that star into the 18th century. Our quest: To break down Steiner and Rinehart brick walls by determining where in the Old World they were originally from and locate their arrival time/place in the New World.

Our research plan includes:

• A visit to Crawford County, OH to locate birth/death/land/probate records for Elizabeth Steiner (maiden name UNK), who died in November, 1864; Jacob S. Steiner, who died before 1860 (he was in the 1850 Census); and Margaret Rinehart, who died in June, 1873. Maybe we'll get lucky and find parents' names? Fingers crossed...
• A visit to Wyandot County, OH to see the homes where the Steiner sisters (Etta, Minnie, Carrie, and Floyda) and their spouses lived and where hubby visited them during school vacations. Of course we'll look for land/probate records and pay our respects at Old Mission Cemetery in Upper Sandusky, where some Steiners are buried.
• A visit to Wabash, IN to do research into the McClure and Larimer families who were early settlers in this area. Cemetery visits are a must, in addition to hunting for vital records and newspaper reports.
• Attendance at FGS sessions that pertain to our quest, including "Beginning Swiss Research" (in case the Steiners or Rineharts are actually Swiss, as family legend suggests); "Buckeye Beginnings" (for those Crawford Cty folks); and "First Steps in Indiana Research" (to get a good overview of resources and repositories).
• Rooting around at the Allen County Public Library for family roots (still coming up with a plan for tackling this almost overwhelming place!). This is our first visit, but hopefully not our last.

And I'm looking forward to meeting genealogy folks from all over the country at the meeting. See you there!

2022 Update: The Genealogy Center at Allen County had a key book about the McClure family that enabled us to fill out the branches of that line (I bought a personal copy for reference). Also we received many newspaper clippings from the Wabash archivist. A special part of this trip was visiting the Old Mission Cemetery in Wyandot County, where we wandered among family headstones while photographing for Find a Grave and family trees. 

Genealogy by the States: The Hoosiers in Our Family Tree, Including a Man Named Train

This week's Genealogy by the States topic is Indiana, the Hoosier state (aka the Crossroads of America).

At the top of the list of Hoosiers in hubby's family tree: 2nd great-grandparents Benjamin McClure and his wife Sarah Deming (or Denning) McClure, an early settler in the Wabash county area.

Wabash had a number of McClure families, and of course Benjamin is NOT the most celebrated or documented, although he did pitch in to build the community in several ways. (The most famous McClure in Wabash is Samuel McClure, considered the first permanent white settler in the county.)

Benjamin and Sarah's first children were born in Ohio, where the couple was married; their children born in Indiana include:

• Martha Jane McClure, who married William Buck Cloud
• Train C. McClure, who married Gulia Swain (and, after Gulia's death, remarried to Rebecca E. Abbott) - Isn't "Train" an interesting first name? His occupation was "oil mill operator" according to the 1880 census. He served in the Civil War, too.
• Elizabeth D. McClure (who married John W. Austin)
• Addison D. McClure (who died of an accidental gunshot wound at age 18)
• William Madison McClure (hubby's great-grandpa, who married Margaret Jane Larimer)
• John N. McClure
• Amanda "Callie" Caroline McClure (I don't know much about her--yet)

Another of hubby's ancestors lived in Indiana: His uncle John Andrew Wood, who married Rita Goodin on April 7, 1951 in Crown Point, Indiana and was an area supervisor for du Pont in East Chicago, Indiana for many years. Although family legend has it that John was mostly estranged from his three brothers (Wally, Ed, and Ted Wood), I know from Ed's diary that John and his wife Rita were in touch with Ed from time to time and they even visited each other once in a great while. How the "estrangement" story got started, I don't know...

As usual, thanks to Jim Sanders for this week's genealogy blogging prompt.

A special thank you to Harold of Midwestern Microhistory blog, who just posted news of thousands more Indiana marriage records being available at Family Search (click here). If you're researching Indiana ancestors, check out Harold's blog.

Amanuensis Monday: "I am your Pop (Ma is included in this)"

In 1943, when my Uncle Fred enlisted in WWII, the entire family geared up for a lively stream of correspondence to keep him company wherever he was posted. (The same steady stream of correspondence flowed to Fred's sister Dorothy Schwartz the WAC, and to Fred and Dorothy's first cousins in the service.)

Here's the second page of a letter to Fred from his "Pop" (my grandpa), Theodore Schwartz, written on November 9, 1944. Grandpa learned English after arriving in New York from Hungary as a teenager, and his spelling/punctuation weren't always perfect. He and my grandma ran a busy grocery store, which in wartime had the added burden of having to collect and sort ration coupons for many foods.

Instead of ending his letter to Fred by signing off with "love" as so many parents do today, he says something much more old fashioned: "With best wishes to you, I am your Pop" and adds: "Ma is included in this."

This letter reads:

Dear Fred,

Your 3 letters in a row at hand and been glad to hear that you, at last got what you wanted and also received the klippings [sic] describing in detail the work. It must be interesting, at least from the beginning. You will only have day work and nobody to rush you. There is not much news here. We are all well--just got a letter from Bobby F___ he is on the other side [meaning he's fighting in Europe]. Received a few letters from Dorothy, she is well, of course she does not get any steaks for every dinner but she is getting ours.

We had a nice [family] meeting at Ella's [Fred's uncle] Sunday. [Uncle] Albert's father-in-law, if you can remember him, celebrated his 50th wedding anniversary. I am slated for the next presidency in the family tree.*

With best wishes to you, I am your Pop
   Ma is included in this.


*The Farkas Family Tree was created during the 1930s, with members being the descendants of Moritz Farkas and Lena Kunstler Farkas, along with their spouses and kids. Grandma Hermina Farkas Schwartz was the oldest daughter of Moritz and Lena, and Grandpa Theodore's marriage to her made him eligible to serve as president of the tree, as he boasts in the final sentence of his letter to Fred. One of the fun rituals at each tree meeting was singing a family song written by one of Fred's aunts. More on this tree in future posts!

Happy Mother's Day! Three Generations in the Bronx

My mother, Daisy Schwartz, grew up in the Bronx, taking trolley cars and subways to get wherever she had to go, because the family had no car. My sisters and I were brought up in the Bronx, also experts in getting around by subway because our parents had no car.

The next generation started their families in the northeast Bronx (one sister) and in Brooklyn (the other sister) before moving away. These days, we all drive but also use our subway savvy when we go back to New York City for a visit.

Sibling Saturday: Lola, Brice, Lucille, and Hugh Benjamin McClure

Lucille McClure De Velde, John De Velde, Margaret Larimer McClure

Margaret Jane Larimer (1859-1913) and William Madison McClure (1849-1887) had four children, two of whom were entrepreneurial types.

• Lola A. McClure (1877-1948), born in Elkhart, Indiana. She married Edward A. Lower and had three children (Margaret, Edward Sherman, and Ross).
• Brice Larimer McClure (1878-1970), born in Little Traverse, Michigan. He married Floyda Mabel Steiner and they had one daughter, Marian (hubby's Mom).
• Lucille Ethel McClure (1880-1926), also born in Elkhart, who married John E. De Velde (no children). The tintype above shows Lucy, John, and Lucy's mom Margaret McClure, sometime before 1913.
• Hugh Benjamin McClure (1882-1960), born in Wabash, Indiana. His first wife was Olivet Van Roe (and they had a daughter together, Georgianna). His second wife was Rebekah Venice Wilt and their children were: Margaret Susan, Jean A., Marietta, and Virginia Rebekah.

Brice McClure ran his own shade shop in Cleveland, to supplement his income during the Depression. He was a crackerjack machinist for various companies, striking out on his own between jobs because his specialty was in high demand. Brice was nicknamed "The Old Gentleman" by his daughter and son-in-law, who cared for him when he was older. He wasn't the first Brice in the family, by the way. That honor belongs to Brice Smith (1756-1828), Brice McClure's g-g-g-grandpa, who married Eleanor Kenny (1762-1841).

Hugh Benjamin McClure founded the H.B. McClure Manufacturing Co. in Peoria, Ill, which produced office equipment. Hubby's parents visited Peoria to see the family and tour the factory during the 1960s and they kept in touch for some time.

PS This is my 400th genealogy blog post! Woo-hoo!

PPS: 2022 update: I found Hugh in the 1950 US Census, still listed as the manager of an office supply factory (Peoria, IL, ED 109-106, sheet 10, lines 17-18).

Those Places Thursday: Sis Sees the Supremes at the Copacabana

J and Sis, recreating their memorable Prom Night

It was the Age of Aquarius. Sis was graduating from Christopher Columbus HS in the Bronx and going to the prom with future husband J. 

After the prom, some of her classmates cruised on the Circle Line boat around Manhattan, while others went to home parties. Not Sis and her friends. She booked a table at the Copacabana night club in New York City to see the Supremes!

This is a guest post by Sis about a very special place and time in her life.

For prom night, I saved up from my part-time jobs to buy a beautiful floor-length, sleeveless scoop-neck white lace sheath with matching coat. My outfit included pointy, white peau de soie high heels and a pearly purse just large enough for my house key, lipstick, eyelash glue, and a few dollar bills. J rented a white dinner jacket to match.

On the day of the prom, I had my hair done in a gorgeous, picture-perfect bouffant flip, sprayed stiff to stay put (as was the style back then). Then I put on my makeup: Cleopatra eyeliner, false eyelashes, blush, and pale icy pink lipstick. When J came to pick me up, he brought me a gardenia wrist corsage and I put a carnation in his lapel.

No one took a limo to the prom in those days. We double-dated with our friend Glenn, who borrowed his father's station wagon for the evening. At the prom, we danced the Swim, the Pony, the Twist, the Frug, the Mashed Potato, and everything else as a live band played every hit song we requested--Gloria, Mustang Sally, I Feel Good...of course, slipping in a slow dance like Sixteen Candles after every four or five songs.

When the prom was winding down, Glenn drove us downtown to the Copa (at 60th Street, just off Fifth Avenue) for the 11 pm show. There were six of us at a tiny bistro table in the second row from the stage, plus lots of other high school prom-goers packed in like sardines around the room. We didn't complain--we were there to see the world-famous Supremes.

I couldn't take my eyes off the Supremes, they were so incredibly glamorous as they sang You Can't Hurry Love and other hits during a one-hour set that included a costume change. (We didn't think to bring a camera; no one knew it was going to be historic!)

After one set and an expensive order of mediocre food from the overpriced menu, the Copa shuffled us out so they could get the next audience seated. A Copa napkin was my only souvenir. By 1 am, we were on our way back to the Bronx in Glenn's station wagon, watching the skyline glitter as he drove.

After graduation, Sis went on to Lehman College, where she and her friends started a new sorority--THE Sorority.

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.

Holocaust Remembrance Day: The Schwartz Family of Ungvar

Sad to say, the Holocaust wiped out most of the family that my grandpa Teddy Schwartz left behind in Ungvar, Hungary (briefly part of Czechoslovakia, then Russia, and now Uzhorod, Ukraine). This post is in remembrance of my family and others who were Holocaust victims.


Teddy lost his mother, Hani Simonowitz Schwartz (at left) in the Holocaust (UPDATE: She died a few years earlier). His father, Herman Schwartz, had died many years earlier.

Also, two sisters, Paula and Etel Schwartz were killed in the Holocaust. At right, Paula and her daughter Violet (who survived and later submitted Paula's name to the list of Holocaust victims). Possibly some nieces or nephews also perished.


In 1977, my mother (Daisy Schwartz Burk) wrote down what she knew about her father Teddy's family, more than a decade after he had died. Here's what she wrote:

"He came from peasant people in Czechoslovakia and never spoke about his home life. He came here at 13*. He was always silent about who staked him and how he got here, except that steerage was the most common method; neither he nor Mom (Hermina Farkas Schwartz) ever elaborated on the ocean voyage but it must've been sufficiently unpleasant for them to never to have unlocked their lips over it.

"Anyway, he lived as a boarder with a Hungarian family on the Lower East Side [of New York City] as many others did, and worked as a runner for the steamship lines and then he tried to be an insurance salesman and finally started a small grocery business--the first couple failed.

"The letters from Europe [from Ungvar] I remember asked for money constantly.  They all thought we lived in the lap of luxury here; and he always sent money home. Just before WWII he stopped hearing and never head again; later he learned his family was wiped out. His brother and sister had come here also**, but the exact timing I don't know."

*Actually, Teddy was 14 (nearly 15) when he arrived on the S.S. Moltke from Hamburg on March 20, 1902. He was shown on the manifest as Tivador Schwartz from Ungvar, along with this note: "Passage paid for by father, 14 years old, student." Below, a photo of the S.S. Moltke showing steerage passengers readying for the landing in New York City.

**Mom didn't realize that Teddy had helped both his older brother Sam and his baby sister Mary come to New York. Nor did she remember that both had kids and grandkids--and those grandkids are my 2d cousins, who I've come to know thanks to genealogy research.