Honor Roll Project: WWI Service in Pleasantville, NY

As part of Heather Wilkinson Rojo's Honor Roll Project, I photographed and transcribed the World War I memorial plaque in Pleasantville, New York.

Heather will be updating her project in time for Veteran's Day.

Getting ready in advance, I'm posting this to honor the service and sacrifice of 1917-1919 veterans from Pleasantville, a town in Westchester county, New York, not too far from New York City.

Transcribed below is the text on this plaque, which is adjacent to the Metro North train station in Memorial Plaza.
--

In honor of those who served in the World War from the village of Pleasantville and vicinity, 1917-1919

“Made the supreme sacrifice”

Angelicchio, John
Goldstein, Nathan
Nicoll, Fancher
O’Reilly, William
Rose, Frank J.
Teller, Edward W.

[Others in service during World War I:]

Adair, Donald P.
Adrian, Francis M.
Adrian, Lawrence J.
Alexandre, Jerome
Anderson, Frank G.
Annand, William D.
Arzberger, Philip W.
Arzberger, Theodore A.
Baker, Graydon R.
Baker, Raymond F.
Banks, Sanford R.
Bard, Charles J.
Bard, Donald G.
Bard, James M.
Bard, M. Taylor
Barratt, Thomas P.
Bartsch, Leo A.
Bell, Arthur
Bell, Charles
Bell, Elwell
Bell, Wilmot E.
Bergmark, Axel B.
Bergmark, Gustave H.
Bergmark, Wilmer
Berte, Francesco
Berte, Nicola
Berte, Sarafino
Blouin, Earl
Borthwick, George H.
Boyce, Charles A.
Brundage, C. Ernest
Brundage, Franklin D.
Brunner, Chris H., Jr.
Burke, Edward F.
Burke, Thomas A.
Butler, G. Kenneth
Calderon, George
Camberari, Nicola
Campbell, C. Bartlett
Campbell, Harry E.
Carmer, Henry S.
Carruth, Gorton V.
Carruth, Oliver E.
Carruth, Paul H.
Chamberlain, Ernest F.
Chamberlain, Milton H.
Cimaglia, Frank P.
Clarke, Robert L.
Conschafter, William A.
Cornthwaite, Alfred A.
Cottrell, Henry H.
Cottrell, Robert
Crolly, H. Spencer
Cullen, Joseph
Davidson, John S.
De Bella, Antonio
De Leon, Genseric C.
Dixon, Clark E.
Durney, Lawrence J.
Durocher, James L.
Durocher, Joseph
Eberhardt, Edward
Erickson, Otto
Flink, C. Russell
Forth, Clarence R.
Foster, William H., Jr.
Fowler, H. Eugene
Franco, Giavonni
Gibbs, Harry W.
Gill, Horace E.
Gill, William D.
Goldstein, Samuel
Guarino, Lorenzo
Guion, Archer
Gundberg, Eric
Halliday, Edwin
Halliday, Herbert R.
Hays, Edwin D.
Heermans, Charles T.
Hogle, Herbert G.
Hogle, Horace, Jr.
Holske, Louis H.
Howell, Asher A.
Hufcut, Arthur J.
Hyler, Robert
Jacobson, Arvid W.
Johnson, Charles, Jr.
Johnson, Harry
Jones, H. Allen
Jones, Russell K.
Kemmerer, Joseph T.
Kinney, Albert S.
Laire, H. Townsend
Lane, C. Mortimer
Lava, Rocco
Le Grys, Thomas F.
Lilley, Ernest R.
Love, Samuel
Mac Curdy, John t.
Mack, George A., Jr.
Mangen, Michael
Marshall, Harrison W.
Mastick, Seabury C.
Mc Carthy, John M.
McClure, Robert H.
McClure, T. Harvey
McClure, James J.
Meyn, Frederick
Mikkelsen, Otto
Miller, Robert R.
Moore, Norris E.
Moroney, James J.
Mount, William
Murphy, Geo. R.
Murphy, James A.
Norton, Harold M.
Odell, Ambrose
Oettinger, John R.
Oliveri, Guiseppi
Olmsted, Harry C.
Olmsted, Leslie D.
Olson, J. Arthur
O’Reilly, Alphonse M.
O’Reilly, John R.
O’Reilly, Thomas F.
O’Reilly, Vincent P.
Orteig, Everiste
Orteig, Raymond, Jr.
Palmer, Stephen H.
Partelow, William
Particcinni, Vito
Pattison, Earle C.
Pagano, Santo
Purdy, Willard E.
Reale, Carmello
Reed, J. Howard
Regan, Patrick
Renson, Manny A.
Reynolds, Earle L.
Reymolds, G. Allen
Rizzo, Francesco
Robinson, Horace E.
Robinson, Wesley V.
Romaine, Edward E.
Romaine, Kenneth I.
Romaine, Leslie
Rood, Kingsland T.
Russo, Savatore
Ryan, James J.
Ryan, John J.
Saunders, James A.
Schlich, Theodore
Schmelke, Ferdinand W.
Schmidt, William M.
Scholerman, Carl H.
Scudderi, Rosario
See, Alexander
Slagle, Harry
Stafford, Benjamin
Storiale, Vincenzo
Strovopulos, Alex.
Sutton, Effingham E.
Swanson, Claus V.
Swesbin, Joseph
Teats, Elmer L.
Teats, Harold L.
Tucker, Walter H.
Tucker, William H.
Tynan, Michael J.
Vatet, Oscar V.
Wallace, Donald S.
Walsh, J. Le Roy
Walsh, Thomas F.
Weinschenk, Mills K.
Wilcox, Ernest N.
Wille, G.A., Jr.
Williams, Sylvester W.
Williams, V. Loyd
Wiltse, Ralph A.

"The record of their honorable service will be preserved in the hearts of our citizens"
--
Let me add my voice to those praising the service of those who served. Thank you!

Real Clues on Other People's Trees

Example tree -- I'm not related to Martha or George!

Lately I've been browsing other people's trees in search of real clues to help research elusive ancestors and maybe even break down brick walls.

Of course I'm NOT going to copy anything without confirming for myself, but I do want to see whether other trees have something I don't have.

For example, when I buy a birth cert or a marriage license or some other record, I scan it and post on my Ancestry tree. Sure, I paid for it, but why keep it to myself? After all, I'm sharing with folks who are researching my family. Stands to reason that others might post their purchased documents, too (and I've been lucky enough to find some, thank you).

The same goes for scanning and posting family photos, sometimes with visible dates or other original captions. I add these to my trees and I really appreciate when others are generous enough to share with the rest of us.

So the first thing I do is check the sources on any tree I'm browsing. If the source is only another family tree (X marks the spot on the sample at top), I ignore. I'm looking for a substantive source.

If I see something like the SAR application in the source list above, I gladly click to see what I can learn. I want to actually view the document for myself, because indexing and transcriptions aren't always accurate, let alone complete.

Also I check the "facts" to see whether there is a scan of a document added as media for, say, a marriage, as in the example at top. Maybe I've never seen that media before and it's worth examining...

If so, I download the scan, blow it up to read if necessary, and scrutinize. Credible sources I follow up on and add to my tree once I've verified that the ancestor mentioned belongs to my family.

#Genealogy
#familyhistory

Sgt. Schwartz, Teacher and WAC

Back-to-school time makes me think of my auntie, Dorothy H. Schwartz (1919-2001), a long-time teacher of steno, typing, and related business subjects at Christopher Columbus High School in the Bronx, New York. Not only was her steno speedy and accurate, she was a superb touch-typist and she authored one or two user's manuals for dictating machines.

As a teacher, Dorothy was nicknamed Sgt. Schwartz. Yes, she was demanding. Yes, she expected a lot of her students (and her family). Luckily for me, I didn't have her as my typing teacher, although Sis did.

Dorothy had been a real-life sergeant in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (later shortened to WACs). Enlisting during World War II, she trained for Army administrative duties and was soon sent to England and France. Dorothy and her colleagues would listen in as military leaders outlined plans for bombing raids, then they would quickly type out the orders for distribution to those who carried out the missions.

I know, from reading her letters home, that she felt intense pressure on the job and had a strong sense of personal responsibility as well as a very patriotic spirit. Lives literally depended on the typed orders being correct, complete, and on time. Dorothy really did earn her Bronze Star for "meritorious service" in wartime Europe. Bear in mind that she enlisted at the age of 22 and left the service as a seasoned veteran at the age of 24.

To her high school students, she was "Sgt. Schwartz," but I knew her as "Auntie Dorothy."

Thanks to Amy Johnson Crow for this #52Ancestors prompt.

The Kossuth Society, 1909: Part 4, Supporting Suffragettes

This is my 4th in a series of posts about my Farkas and Schwartz ancestors helping to found and lead the Kossuth Ferencz Hungarian Literary Sick and Benevolent Society in New York City early in the 20th century.

Here, my great aunt "Miss M. Schwartz" (Mary Schwartz, 1891-1959) is included in the list of Officers as a "Guide." One of Mary's older brothers, Tivador Schwartz, became my maternal grandfather.

Listed as "Inside Guardian" is "S. Farkas," better known to the family as Sandor (Alex) Farkas (1885-1948). Alex was the older brother of my maternal grandmother, Hermina Farkas.

I'm particularly interested in the welcome statement from Herman Feldman, shown on the left of this page. Bear in mind that this booklet was distributed on December 4, 1909.

The welcome letter addresses "Guests" and goes on to exhort attendees to enjoy the revelry, patronize the program advertisers (see part 2), and continue to support the society's mission of helping the sick.

One of the most interesting parts of the letter comes in the third paragraph. Thanks to a Hungarian genealogy group on Facebook, I found out that the letter talks about "the current suffragette movement" . . . saying that women have the right to come in male dress to the ball and, equally, it would interesting to have men come in women's dress. In a light-hearted way, the Kossuth Society was supporting suffragettes 10 years before the US Congress voted to give women the right to vote!

Happy Blogiversary #10

Hard to believe that this is my 10th blogiversary. Above, the very first post I wrote in 2008, searching for when and where paternal Great-Grandpa Meyer Elias Mahler died. And, as sometimes happens, I had to retrace my steps and look at clues I'd already seen, checking with fresh eyes.

Making progress on family history projects begun since my last blogiversary:

• Farkas Family Tree index. Thanks to a 2d cousin getting in touch, I have more family-tree association minutes to scan, index, and add to the thick book of minutes and historians' reports dating from 1933-1963. This will be finished before my next blogiversary. Here's a link to my popular post on how to index.
• Farkas Family Tree letters. My wonderful cousin B has been helping me by proofreading my transcriptions of the WWII letters written by members of the Farkas Family Tree who served in the military. Almost done with that project.
• Slatter and Shehen families. With the help of the Charles Booth poverty maps, I've been deepening my understanding of hubby's Slatter and Shehen family background in London. Turns out they were even poorer than I had imagined.
• Wood family. Slowly continuing to scan and crop photos from the Wood family's 1972 trip to Venice for a planned photo book. The adults on that trip (and one or two kids) have shared memories to fill out the narrative. I need to begin arranging the photos and typing the captions, so the photo book will be ready by end of this year.

It was a year of learning and making connections! For the first time, I attended the amazing RootsTech conference and used the giant Family History Center in Salt Lake City. Next month, I will be at the New York State Family History Conference. In between, I've gone to numerous genealogy club meetings and gained new ideas from many expert speakers.

Speaking of speaking, my latest genealogy presentations include Do the "Write" Thing, Using Twitter and Facebook for Genealogy, and Genealogy 101. For next year, I'm prepping another new talk, Find Real Clues in Other People's Family Trees. And I was thrilled that my book, Planning a Future for Your Family's Past, became a #1 Amazon Kindle best-seller this year.

As my 11th year of genealogy blogging begins, I want to say thank you. Thank you, dear cousins, for finding me and getting in touch. Thank you, dear readers, for being along on the journey.

The Case of the Missing Mortality Schedule

Interrupting my ongoing series on the Kossuth Society (starring my side of the family), today's #52Ancestors post is about hubby's great-grandpa, Edward George Steiner (1830-1880).

A carpenter born in Ohio, Steiner died in March, 1880, a few months before his 50th birthday and shortly before the US Census was taken in Nevada township, Wyandot county, OH. His widow, Elizabeth Rinehart Steiner (1834-1905), was listed as a widow in the Census, enumerated in June of 1880, as shown above. Living with her were her five youngest daughters, including hubby's future grandma, "Mabel" (Floyda Mabel Steiner McClure, 1878-1948).

Theoretically, Edward George Steiner should have been in the mortality schedule for 1880. If I could find him, I'd have lots of info, including his birth place, parents' birthplaces, cause of death, and so on (see an actual excerpt from a mortality schedule in Ohio, below).

I began by looking for Steiner using the indexed mortality schedule records on FamilySearch and Ancestry. No luck. Next, I decided to browse the 1880 mortality schedules for Wyandot county, Ohio, where his widow was living. I tried both Ancestry and HeritageQuest (which now uses Ancestry's images and search engine for censuses). Alas, no luck.

By choosing "Browse this collection" of mortality schedules for Ohio in 1880, I learned that no images are available in the alphabetical listing of counties beyond Geauga (as shown at right). I double-checked, and FamilySearch says these records don't exist. No Wyandot county mortality schedule to browse, in other words.

But since the family had also lived in Crawford county, Ohio, not long before, I selected Crawford and began to browse the 20 pages. Doesn't take too long to read the names on 20 pages. No Edward George Steiner or any name resembling his. Dead end.

Next, I searched all mortality schedules (1850-1885) for any Steiner (or Stiner, creative spelling). Out of the three dozen results, none was even a possible match. Dead end. Multiple requests to various Ohio repositories has turned up no death certificate on record.

Luckily, I have the above handwritten note from grandma Floyda, giving me the birth/death dates of her parents and some siblings. Her dates have proven to be correct nearly 100% of the time, and Edward George Steiner's headstone agrees. There are no Bible pages to check, no church records to search. No obit found (on various newspaper sites, including Chronicling America and Elephind, and in FamilySearch database; the one newspaper that might have published an obit in 1880 isn't held by any library collection).

Therefore, I'm going to accept the death date of March 13, 1880 and close the case of the missing mortality schedule.

The Kossuth Society, 1909: Part 3--Event Committee

My mother's Farkas and Schwartz families were involved in the Kossuth Ferencz Hungarian Literary Sick and Benevolent Society, as I wrote in parts 1 & 2 of this series.

Above, the event leadership for the Mask and Civic Ball held on December 4, 1909, to mark the Kossuth Society's 5th anniversary. Attendees (including my ancestors) danced the night away!

My mother's maternal uncle, Sandor "Alexander" Farkas (1885-1948), was the Treasurer for the arrangement committee of this special event. Sandor was the older brother of my mother's mother, Hermina "Minnie" Farkas Schwartz (1886-1964), who was a member of the Society.

At the time of the 1909 ball, Minnie was not yet married to her future husband, my grandpa Theodore "Ted" Schwartz (1887-1965). But Minnie and Ted knew each other, from the neighborhood and, clearly, from being active in the Kossuth Society.

Minnie's future brother-in-law, Sam Schwartz (1883-1954), was also part of the program, serving on the reception committee. (Minnie's future sister-in-law, Mary Schwartz, was a member of the Kossuth Society, as well.)

Attendees had 24 dances to enjoy at this special event, as shown on the "Order of Dances" printed above, followed by "Home Sweet Home" at the end.

More Kossuth Society posts to come!

The Kossuth Society, 1909: Part 2--Advertisers

In Part 1, I told how my Farkas family (including maternal great uncle Sandor Farkas) was instrumental in helping to found the Kossuth Ferencz Hungarian Literary Sick and Benevolent Society in 1904. Family members were present at the society's fifth anniversary celebration in 1909, during which a 22-page souvenir program was distributed to guests.

The society helped members in their time of need, with medical assistance in particular. Raising money was a constant focus, I would imagine. The program doesn't mention any price for the "Mask and Civic Ball" celebration on December 4, 1909, but it does include many pages of paid ads, which I'm going to show here, in page order.

These advertisers were most likely members, neighbors, and friends of the Kossuth Society. Most of the advertisers were located on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, where many Hungarian immigrants lived and worked.

See the holes and string at left on the page below? I don't know whether that was the original way the program was bound together or added later. Either way, I'm preserving the program as is.

Most of the ads are in English, with some Hungarian included. Businesses included jewelry, laundry, restaurants, cigars, clothiers, dancing, and much more. At bottom right of the page below is someone selling "fine sample shoes"--the original "off-price" style of retailing that has been made so popular today by TJ Maxx and Marshalls!

Although I recognize some of the surnames in a few ads, I don't know how many were actually Farkas relatives or friends.

In the ad below, Gustav Beldegreen's photo studio is featured. He was the "official" photographer for the Kossuth Society.

I especially like the ads with a photo of the business owner, like B. Weiss, below.

The page below includes an ad for a Hungarian gypsy band (at lower right), among other diverse businesses.

The page below shows an ad for an attorney, dance instructors, a phonograph company that also sells fountain pens, tailors, a shoe store, makers of mineral waters, and a "compliments of" small ad placed by a doctor.

Finally, the back page of ads has only 3 advertisers: an undertaker, a restaurant, and the printer that produced this souvenir program.

Farkas Family in Kossuth Society, 1909: Part 1

Five years ago, I scanned, saved, and posted a few pages from a 1909 booklet marking the fifth anniversary of the Kossuth Ferencz Hungarian Literary Sick and Benevolent Society. My Farkas ancestors (my mother's side of the family) helped to found this society in New York City in 1904.



Thanks to wonderful cousin B, I now have the entire booklet to scan and safeguard. Holding a 109-year-old souvenir so important to family history is quite special, let me say!




Today's post is the first of several featuring scans from the Kossuth booklet, which was issued to attendees (and possibly sponsors and supporters) of the society.

At right, the title page showing that this was a "mask and civic ball" held on December 4th, 1909.

At top of the page, the officers featured in the 1909 booklet. My Hungarian-born great uncle Sandor "Alex" Farkas (1885-1948) is shown at far right of the middle row. The oldest of the children born to my Hungarian great-grandparents, Moritz Farkas and Leni Kunstler, Alex was the "inside guardian" of the society.

Here are the names of the society's officers, in alphabetical order:

D. Berman, Recording Secretary
S. Blau, Trustee
F. Braun, Guide
D. Deutsch, President
S. Farkas, Inside Guardian
H. Feldman, Chairman of Arrang. Com.
M. Gellert, Treasurer
Miss B. Greenberger, Vice-President
J. Grossman, Secretary of Entrance Committee
Dr. B. Hohenberg, Physician
J. Klein, Sgt-at-arms
H. Markowitz, Financial Secretary
N. Schwartz, Ex-President

Note that a physician is listed as an officer, key to the health part of the society's mission. I wonder whether the sole female officer, Miss Greenberger, was heading up the "literary" part of the society's mission? Anyway, more posts will have more interesting pages from this souvenir booklet.

Questions About the Family Story of Robert Larimer

Brice Larimer McClure (1878-1970), my husband's maternal grandfather, left a number of handwritten notes about his ancestry. Above, the note he wrote about being descended from a long line of Larimer ancestors.

My husband's 5th great-grandfather was Robert Larimer.  As shown above, he was supposedly "born in the North of Ireland" in 1719, and "came to U.S. in 1740." [I know there was no U.S. at that time, and so did Brice, who was just jotting notes onto a scrap of paper to record family history as he remembered it.]

Here's more of the family story, as further memorialized in "Our Larimer Family" by cousin John Clarence Work. Robert Larimer's father gave him some Irish linen and money, and sent him from the North of Ireland to seek his fortune in the colonies in 1740. Unfortunately, the ship was wrecked and he had to be rescued by a passing ship. Robert was brought to the colonies, then sold into indentured servitude to pay for his rescue.

The master overworked Robert for years until finally, Robert ran away to the Kishacoquillas Valley in Pennsylvania, where he married Mary Gallagher (or O'Gallagher), originally from the North of Ireland. They had four children that I know of: Phoebe, Isaac (hubby's 4th great-grandpa), Ebenezer, and Guzilla/Grizell. According to the Larimer book, Robert Larimer moved from Pennsylvania to Ohio with his son Isaac, circa 1801-2.

I have 5 specific questions about the family story. 

(1) Is Robert's birth date of 1719 correct? No clues at all. It would help to know where he was born.

(2) Was he born in Northern Ireland (and if so, where exactly)? No clues at all.

(3) Who were his parents? I know it's not easy to obtain info about ordinary (non-nobility, non-wealthy) folks born early in the 18th century, but it sure would be nice to know. Not a clue at this point.

(4) When did Robert die? Note above says 1805, Find A Grave says 1803, and Larimer book says he died "soon" after moving to Ohio, which means after 1802. Mind you, Robert would have been about 80 when he moved to Ohio. That's positively ancient for a man at that time, and for an elderly pioneer, it would not be an easy life.

Meanwhile, the Larimer book also says (and I confirmed) that a taxpayers' list dated 1806 and transcribed in Scott, A Complete History of Fairfield County, Ohio, includes Robert, Isaac, and Ebenezer "Laremore."

Hmmm. Maybe Robert's estate was paying the tax? Seems odd for an estate to not be settled and property not retitled with a new owner by that time. And although Isaac had a son named Robert, presumably to honor Isaac's father, that child was born in 1792 and surely wouldn't have been listed as a taxpayer in 1806. But surely the elder Robert was buried by 1806, given his advanced age.

(5) What was his wife's actual surname, and was she dropped from Mars or hatched from an egg?

There is one source I haven't yet consulted to answer my questions about this family story. It's the Kishocoquillas Valley Historical Society. Maybe they can help?! I'll find out soon.

As always, my thanks to Amy Johnson Crow for the weekly #52Ancestors prompt.

PS I haven't even listed my questions about Mary's birth/marriage dates. Would Mary really have been giving birth (twice!) in her 50s? Not likely...

I Heart My Genealogy Groups

Do you 💜 your genealogy groups? And I don't just mean clicking "like" on Facebook or paying for membership.

Genealogy groups of all sizes, shapes, and flavors need active members. We are the lifeblood of these groups. No members, no groups. No groups? No way!

How can we show we 💜 our genealogy groups?

• Show up. You don't have to be an officer or speaker, although that kind of help is always appreciated. Simply attending meetings (when you can) is an easy and important way to show support for groups we 💜. Check on the group's Facebook page once in a while. If nobody shows up, in person or online, how long can that group continue?
• Engage. Chat up other members, ask questions, answer surveys, clap for the speaker. If you're at a webinar, ask a question or say "thank you." If you're participating in a Twitter chat, also say "thank you" or post a comment if you like. Engaging adds to the conversation and enables us to get the most from groups we 💜.
• Network. Go ahead, ask about the surnames and countries others are researching--and mention the names and nations you're interested in. I've gotten some great ideas by networking with the members of genealogy groups I 💜. You never know when a connection might lead to smashing a brick wall or adding a name/date to your family tree. 
• Talk up the group. Let other people know about the genealogy clubs and associations you 💜. Bring a neighbor or friend to the next meeting; post on social media about an upcoming event or recap a recent event. 

Sometimes I bring my camera and, with permission, photograph the speaker at the meeting. At top, Janeen Bjork presenting "Find Your Family in Online Newspapers," a talk she's given to the Jewish Genealogical Society of Connecticut and other groups to which I belong. Janeen was happy to have this photo to post on social media. I also posted it, along with a couple of key takeaways. In recent weeks, I've posted about watching some webinars hosted by the fast-growing VGA, which I joined as soon as it was organized.

Can't keep it to myself . . . I really 💜 my genealogy groups!

Looking for Youngest Brides and Grooms Reveals Gaps

Thanks to the #52Ancestors prompts from Amy Johnson Crow, I'm learning more about the features available in my genealogy software of choice, RootsMagic7. Only with the help of the various reports and lists in this software can I identify the "youngest" of anything, which is this week's prompt.

At top, the "statistics" list I generated for my father's Burk - Mahler family tree. Here, I learned that the youngest age at marriage of anyone in that tree was 18 for a female and 19 for a male. This is only for marriages where I know the birth dates/marriage ages of bride and groom, so the software can calculate statistics. As shown at top, there are 184 people with marriage ages included in this tree.

Directly above, the statistics list I generated for my mother's Schwartz - Farkas family tree, showing 117 people with marriage age noted in the tree. The youngest age for a woman at marriage was 15 1/2, compared with 17 for a man. Since some of these marriages took place in Eastern Europe in the mid-1800s, it's not too surprising that a bride would be this young.

Learning to use the reports is going to help me find anomalies and correct mistakes. For instance, a statistics list I generated for my husband's Wood family indicated that the minimum age for a male at marriage was 17.41. That's such a specific number. It could be correct, but I want to double-check. And I need to look more closely at missing marriage ages to see whether I can fill some of the gaps in my records. More research is in my future.

Oldest Ancestors with Names and Dates

My husband's family has several good candidates for the "oldest" ancestor with names and dates, because of his four Mayflower ancestors.

The family trees of passengers Isaac Allerton, Mary Norris Allerton, Mary Allerton, and Degory Priest are fairly well documented, and I've added their  parents' names/dates to hubby's family tree using RootsMagic 7 genealogy software. 

Next, I scrolled down the timeline looking for Mayflower ancestors and their parents to see who's earliest. Isaac Allerton's daughter, Mayflower passenger Mary Allerton, later married Thomas Cushman of the Fortune. So the earliest ancestor from that line is actually Thomas Couchman, b. 1538.

Now to my family tree. The oldest ancestor I can name and date on my mother's side is my great-great-great grandfather, Yosef Moshe Kunstler, who died in NagyBereg, Hungary (now known as Berehi, Ukraine) on June 13, 1854. My wonderful cousin B visited the cemetery and photographed the headstone 20 years ago. According to the headstone, Yosef's father's name was Hillel. That's where the trail ends.

On my father's side, the oldest ancestor I can name and date is my great-great grandma Rachel Shuham Jacobs, born about 1845 in Plunge, Lithuania. She married young, was widowed, and came to New York City with her grown daughter and son in the late 1880s. Rachel died in New York City on December 8, 1915. Her death cert shows her parents as Moses Shuham and Sarah Levin, but unfortunately, I have no other info on them.

Thank you to Amy Johnson Crow for this week's #52Ancestors prompt, which is "Oldest."

Mapping the Shehen Family in London (Mary in Two Places at Once)

Today I'm using Charles Booth's London maps and notebooks for context about my husband's 2d great-grandparents. I know very little about John & Mary Shehen (or Shehan or Sheen). But Booth's info indicates that they were truly poor. 

The 1841-1871 UK Census entries for the Shehens consistently say they were born in Ireland around 1801. He is a "labourer," she is usually a "laundress" or "charing." They never left a quadrangle known as Gray's Buildings, shown above on Booth's maps in the Marylebone section of London. Census entries on the same page with the Shehens in 1871 indicate that a good number of the residents were also Irish-born. Given the devastating Irish Famine, it's not surprising to find so many Irish people in London in that period.

Above, a snippet from Booth's notebook entry about Gray's Buildings, in which he writes there are "a great many Irish" and also notes: "most of the doors open but few broken windows." Based on the poverty he observes, Booth considers the area of Gray's Buildings to be "very poor . . . chronic want."

Poor isn't the end of it. Alas, hubby's great-great-grandma Mary Shehen (whose maiden name I don't yet know), was admitted to the medical wing of the crowded Northumberland Street Workhouse on March 15, 1871, due to"chronic rheumatism." One month later, she was discharged (or, as the record shows, "reliesed").

Two places at once? Mary Shehen was enumerated both in Gray's Buildings and in the Northumberland workhouse for the 1871 Census. Interestingly, that Census was supposed to be as of April 2. But even though Mary Shehen is listed as being in the household with her husband John, the workhouse admission record AND the 1871 Census, below, are evidence that she was actually ailing in the workhouse. Probably it was her husband John or someone else who reported her at her usual residence, unsure of how to tell the Census about her temporary stay in the workhouse.

When I started looking for the Shehen family in Booth's records, I hoped they would not be in as dire economic shape as their daughter Mary's family. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case, as the maps and then the workhouse documents indicate. (Sadly, their daughter Mary Shehen, who married John Slatter in 1859, was in and out of workhouses and then two asylums for years.)

How Maps Helped Me Understand the Slatter Family

After watching Helen Smith's excellent "Mapping Your Ancestors" VGA webinar, I decided to learn more about my husband's Slatter ancestors by checking their London-area addresses against the Charles Booth maps.

Who was Charles Booth?

His notebooks and maps make up Life and Labour of the People in London, a detailed study of urban poverty at the end of the 19th century. Helen demonstrated this free and informative resource for understanding the social and economic context of London in that period.

I looked at the maps for three London addresses where hubby's great-grandparents lived. John Slatter (1838-1901) and Mary Shehen Slatter (1837-1889) always lived in and adjacent to Whitechapel, the city's infamous poor district. Even allowing for some turnover in population and changes in local conditions year to year, knowing what Charles Booth observed in the area gave me a better sense of the daily lives of these ancestors.

1859. At top is an excerpt from the Booth map of London's Christ Church section, directly adjacent to Whitechapel. The green arrow shows 2 Heneage Street, where Mary and John were living at the time of their marriage in 1859. Booth says this part of Heneage Street was "very poor," almost as poor as it gets. Not the very bottom of the economic barrel, but close.

1861. Here, above, is an excerpt from the map for 55 Leman Street in the St. Mark area (also adjacent to Whitechapel), a short walk from where the Slatters lived when they married two years earlier. When the UK census was taken in 1861, Mary & John had a young son, Thomas, and they lived in an area that was considered "mixed"--some poor, some comfortably off. She was a cook, he was a porter, so their combined income may have helped them improve economically from their 1859 situation.

1871.  Above, an excerpt from the Charles Booth map for 3 Half Moon Passage in the St. Mary section of Whitechapel, where the Slatter family lived at the time of the UK census. No color coding by Booth, so I suspect the Slatter family was living in "mixed" surroundings, meaning some poor and some comfortable. Since John is now listed as a "labourer," and there are 5 children in the household, money must have been much tighter.

Poverty takes a toll. According to workhouse and poorhouse records (accessed via Ancestry and in person by my cousin, at the London Metropolitan Archives), Mary Shehen Slatter and 5 of her 6 children were in and out of institutions from 1873 on. Above, the discharge for 5 Slatter* children from Newington Workhouse in London to Hanwell School, both notorious places.

Mary was apparently abandoned by John at that time, and she struggled to keep body and soul together. According to UK records, she developed "melancholia" and was committed to two different (and awful) asylums starting in 1874. Her children were then in and out of workhouses**, poorhouses, and slum residential schools like Forest Gate. Mary died in the asylum in 1889. But her children all grew up to have productive lives!

When I tell the story of the Slatter family to their descendants, I marvel at the resiliency of the Slatter children and express admiration for their accomplishments. Three of the boys went from Forest Gate School to the Exmouth and Goliath Training Ships, then grew up to be celebrated military bandmasters and strong family men. The two girls seem to have been fairly close all their lives, even after they married and raised families. The ultimate trajectory of the Slatter children's lives is quite amazing.

*The eldest Slatter son, Thomas, actually lived with his paternal grandmother and step-grandfather (according to census data from 1871 on). As a result, he never seems to have been in a workhouse or a poorhouse.

**NOTE: The Ancestry database I used is called: "London, England, Workhouse Admission and Discharge Records, 1764-1930."