WikiTree Day Celebrations, Nov 3-5

WikiTree, the free site where participants add ancestors to build one family tree, is celebrating its 15th anniversary in early November. 

Everyone is invited to enjoy two days of free virtual genealogy presentations plus trivia quizzes, prizes, and more. 

I'm one of two dozen speakers speaking on Friday, November 3 and Saturday, November 4. Symposium speakers and topics are listed here. The virtual celebration continues on Sunday, November 5, with panel discussions, exploration of AI and genealogy, and of course a party is on the schedule, as shown here.

My 15-minute talk, scheduled for 5 pm Eastern time on November 3, is: 

Keep Your Family's History Safe for the Future! At times, the safest place for some family history items may be in the collection of a museum, library, archive, genealogical society, or another institution. Learn about the process for donating an ancestral artifact, from investigating potential repositories and understanding their collection priorities to documenting your item's provenance, approaching curators, receiving approval to donate, and signing a deed of gift transferring ownership to the institution. 

Here's where to register for WikiTree Day (did I mention this virtual content is entirely free?!). Mark your calendar to attend any or all events in November. See you then! 

Work, Larimer, and Short Family Reunions, 1900-1920

On and off for two decades, my husband's Larimer ancestors gathered with their Work and Short cousins/in-laws/friends for reunions in and around Elkhart, Indiana. Cynthia H. Larimer (1814-1882) married Abel Everett Work (1815-1898) in Fairfield County, Ohio, in 1836, and her niece Margaret Larimer (1825-1877) married Thomas Short (1820-1885) in Elkhart County, Indiana in 1842. Each of the news items reporting on these reunions added a few clues to help me identify children, grandchildren, and in-laws as I researched relationships, full names, and dates for this part of the family tree.

The three families of Work, Larimer, and Short "are bound by ties of blood and early friendships," as reported in the reunion coverage by the Elkhart Daily Review of June 26, 1901. This news item listed some of the 110 reunion attendees, including the "dean of the party," my hubby's 2d great-grandpa, Brice Larimer (1819-1906), the oldest participant. At this time, the three families had an actual organization, with elected officers who planned the reunions in advance.

Some creative math is used to count the number of annual reunions held. The 1901 news item said the Work, Larimer, and Short families were holding their second annual reunion. When the same newspaper covered the three-family reunion in 1903, it was called the fifth annual reunion. 😉

A scaled-down reunion was held in 1904, according to this same newspaper, with only Work relatives in attendance instead of all three families being represented. In 1906, the Elkhart Weekly Review reported that up to 50 attendees were expected at a three-family reunion in August. 

Finally, the Elkhart Truth of May 20, 1920 described a Work-Larimer reunion held by "descendants of Abel Everett Work and Isaac Larimer." The Work, Larimer, and Short branches of the family tree were all represented. Maybe that was the last reunion, because I haven't found further news coverage. I'm grateful for any news coverage at all, adding to the clues as I check every name, age, family connection, and location.

To commemorate these intertwined families, including surnames of earlier and later generations, I created the colorful word cloud at top. Here's the free site I used.

"Reunion" is this week's genealogy prompt for #52Ancestors, from Amy Johnson Crow. 

How My Immigrant Grandparents Helped Other Immigrants in NYC

My maternal grandparents were immigrants from Hungary who came through Ellis Island as teenagers, years before they met each other. 

Theodore "Teddy" Schwartz arrived alone in March of 1901, at age 14, and parlayed his flair for languages into a job as runner for the steamship lines. Hermina "Minnie" Farkas arrived with three siblings in November of 1901, age 15, joining her parents who had earlier come to New York City. She sewed silk ties to earn money for the household while learning English at night classes.

Leaders in the Kossuth Ferencz Association

Minnie, Teddy, and some of their siblings were active in the Kossuth Ferencz Literary, Sick & Benevolent Association, from its founding in 1904 in New York City. My grandparents were still teenagers and had only lived in the Big Apple for a few years at that time, and they barely had two nickels to rub together, yet they jumped right into a new group to help other Hungarian immigrants get a fresh start. 

Happily, I have a 1909 souvenir booklet for the Kossuth Association's fifth anniversary, in Hungarian, that describes the group and its accomplishments. I typed a few words into Google Translate for quick translations, but I really wanted more specifics about what the Kossuth Association did for immigrants.

Google Lens helps with translation

Yesterday I tried Google Lens on my iPad, which involves photographing the page or a few sentences and then having the app translate what it "reads." I'm not a tech wizard, so for more about the mechanics, please do an online search for articles or videos like this one. Google Lens is compatible with both Apple and Android devices.

At top, a side-by-side comparison of the 1909 financial report in Hungarian (original) and English (via Google Lens). This quick-and-dirty translation is far from perfect, I'm well aware, but it does suggest how the Kossuth Association actually served immigrants. 

Services for immigrants

The association had a good deal of money in the bank ($436 in 1909 is worth $14,600 today). It spent the money on renting a ballroom for its big yearend fundraiser, buying a library cabinet and books, badges for its members, and 11 medals to award to officers ("medals" not properly translated by Google Lens, but I checked with Google Translate). 

The accounting also shows a small advance payment to a cemetery--part of the association's affordable burial services for members. Later, the group purchased a large plot at Mt. Hebron Cemetery in Queens, New York, where nearly 600 members and their families are buried (including my immigrant grandparents). 

What this financial accounting doesn't show is that the association had a long-time physician, Dr. B. Hohenberg, to help members. So as the full association name indicates, it provided literary services (books), medical aid (a physician's care), burial services plus even more by partnering with other agencies and service groups in the area.

Over the years, my Grandpa Teddy served multiple terms as Kossuth's treasurer. My Grandma Minnie's brothers Alex and Albert served multiple terms as president and in other official positions. Both Alex and Albert met their wives through Kossuth activities. Alex and his wife Jennie were movers and shakers on the cemetery committee. Of course I've described their dedication to volunteerism in my most recent family history photo book, about my Farkas and Schwartz ancestors. This is one way I'm keeping family history alive for future generations. 

Backup Day: LOCKSS and Paperless Genealogy

LOCKSS = Lots of copies keeps stuff safe! Academics came up with this phrase to describe a systematic process of digitizing and securing multiple copies of key data, at a decentralized level.

For genealogists, this translates into:

• Back up often (ideally, every day if you make significant changes to files on your computer - preferably, once a week or at a bare minimum, once a month).
• Use multiple methods of backing up (as shown above, this can include external hard drives, USB drives, plus cloud backups and other methods--not just in your home but also externally just in case).
• Share data with your family (digitally, with paper, or both - decentralizing).
• Share data, with privacy in mind, on selected genealogy sites (I use WikiTree, Ancestry, MyHeritage, FindMyPast, Find a Grave, and more).
• If you've digitized old family photos, be sure those files are secure in more than one place (decentralizing).

And please, don't go entirely paperless. Original documents and photos, in particular, are very important for today and tomorrow, but printouts of stuff downloaded from online sources can be recycled or shredded IMHO. Here's one approach.

Finally, remember to test and replace your backup hardware every so often. Hard drives don't last forever...I've upgraded one of my hard drives since taking the photo at top. As I say in my book, Planning a Future for Your Family's Past, it's money well spent when we preserve digitized files and images from our family's past so they won't be lost and can be shared with future generations in the coming years.

When Grandpa Teddy Made News in 1937

A few years after I began my genealogy journey, I used my local library's access to the New York Times historical database to research my parents and grandparents. Since many ancestors lived and worked in the New York City area, I expected to find mainly birth/marriage/death notices and an occasional mention of a business or a graduation.

What a jolt to find a news item about an armed robbery spree on the night of December 16, 1937. The first store robbed was owned by my grandpa, Theodore Schwartz (1887-1965). Here's what the reporter wrote:

Band Robs 3 Stores; three armed men get $300 in series of Bronx raids

Three armed men within an hour and a half held up three storekeepers in the Bronx last night and escaped with $300. About 9:30 o'clock they entered the grocery store of Theodore Schwartz at 679 Fox Street, hit him on the head with a pistol butt when he resisted, and took $50. Half an hour later, they went into the grocery store of Louise Lepperman at 422 Jackson Avenue and hit him with a pistol, but left quickly when his wife screamed from a back room. In another half an hour, they forced Leonard Gaglio and his brother, Milton, liquor dealers at 1012 Morris Park Avenue, into a back room and took $250.

Yikes, this was during the Depression when money as scarce and store owners sweated over every penny. The $50 stolen from Grandpa Teddy 86 years ago would be worth about $1,000 in 2023. Poor Grandpa had to go home and give Grandma the terrible news--it must have been an awful scene. Let me add that in 1937, the Bronx was not a high-crime area, but shopkeepers who stayed open late were a tempting target for sure. 

Grandpa Teddy and Grandma Minnie (Hermina Farkas Schwartz, 1888-1964) owned and operated a small dairy store for about 40 years, changing locations a couple of times and finally selling and retiring in 1955. No news coverage of all the years of routine drudgery, opening the store early and closing it late six or seven days a week, standing on their feet for hours, trying to cover all the bills.

Using the wonderful photo enhancement tools at MyHeritage, I brought Grandpa and his store to life in a way that recalls his usual good humor, not the terror of being robbed at gunpoint. Of course I'm telling Grandpa's story of being "in the news" in my latest Farkas/Schwartz family history photo book.

"In the news" is this week's 52 Ancestors genealogy challenge from Amy Johnson Crow.

Book Review: "History for Genealogists"

As a fan of timelines for family history, I have a great appreciation for the many condensed historical timelines and background explanations included in Judy Jacobson's History for Genealogists, published by Genealogical.com and updated in 2016. 

The subtitle of this book really says it all: 

Using chronological time lines to find and understand your ancestors.

In ten chapters plus bibliography, index, and addendum covering the 20th century's two big wars and Great Depression, as well as a 20th century fashion and leisure timeline, Jacobson provides the building blocks needed to put our ancestors into historical and social context. And, as she ably points out, understanding chronology can help us locate elusive ancestors by suggesting where people might be at a certain point in history.

The index is excellent, more than 30 pages long. I found it particularly helpful for pinpointing pages with info and timelines on ethnic groups, immigration patterns, military conflicts, state-by-state settlement, Westward expansion, and many other specific topics. Interestingly, "Mayflower" was not an index entry but "Plymouth" and "Plymouth Colony" were both in the index. So do consider a variety of ways to describe your ancestor's past and investigate all of this terminology in the index.

Here is the jam-packed table of contents:

1. Seeing Ancestors in Historical Context
2. Creating a Time Line: Why? How? Case Studies
3. Why Did They Leave? Military, foreign skirmishes, racism/injustice/unrest, politics, religion, disease, economics, disasters
4. How Did They Go? By road, rail, water, air
5. Coming to America (including historic migration patterns, traditional trails and roads)
6. Myths, Confusions, Secrets, and Lies
7. Even Harder to Find Missing Persons (including name changes, slaves, orphan trains, place-name changes, changing boundaries, more)
8. Social History and Community Genealogy (immigration, industrial revolution, associations/unions, genealogy in books, oral histories)
9. State by State Timelines (including Colonial times)
10. Region by Region Timelines (North America and well beyond)

For folks like me who are researching immigrant ancestors in my tree and hubby's tree, the chapter on coming to America (Chapter 5) includes a 4-page detailed timeline of who tended to leave their European homelands and settle in North America. My hubby's tree includes Scots-Irish who were part of the movement shown in the timeline on p. 66 and discussed on 11 other pages in the book. My own immigrant grandparents are put in historical context by the timeline on Russia (and nearby places, including Lithuania) beginning on page 238. And as a native of the Bronx, the New York state timeline is of great interest.

I highly recommend this book as a reference tool for understanding the sweep of family history and putting individual decisions into the context of local, regional, national, and international history.

Please note: I was given a free copy of this book for review purposes, but my opinions are entirely my own.

Chronicling My Farkas Ancestors

My latest family history photo book is about my Farkas ancestors, starting with the journey-takers who came to America at the turn of the 20th century. 

Great-grandfather Moritz Farkas (1857-1946), born in Hungary, was financially ruined when a hail storm destroyed his crops, leading him to sail to New York in search of a new life in 1899. A year later, his wife, great-grandma Leni Kunstler Farkas (1865-1938) followed him to New York. Their eight children arrived at Ellis Island in two groups during the next couple of years...and then they got to meet the three youngest children who were born in Manhattan.

My grandma Hermina Farkas was in the first group of children to be reunited with their parents in a tenement in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Refusing an arranged marriage, she married grandpa Theodore Schwartz in 1911. 

The photo book under construction includes a colorful word cloud featuring the many surnames and given names of the Farkas and Kunstler and Schwartz ancestors in my family tree. I use this free word cloud generator.

Just this week, I wrote a brief bio of my great uncle Fred Farkas (1903-1980) for the photo book. Fred, named for his late grandfather in Hungary, became an accountant and worked for Stinson Aircraft during WWII. Later, he became vice president and controller for Jacobson's Department Stores in Jackson, Michigan. 

Happy birthday to Fred, born on July 15th, 120 years ago this week. He and his parents and siblings are among the Farkas ancestors I'm chronicling in this latest photo book.

"Birthday" is the week 29 genealogy prompt for Amy Johnson Crow's #52Ancestors series. 

Looking for Little Marks on Census Pages

In recent months, my local library (bless them!) has acquired a dozen genealogy books from Pen & Sword, focusing on family history research across the pond. One by one, I'm borrowing these books and trying new approaches for tracing UK ancestors in my family tree and my husband's tree.

Learning about the UK Census

This week I read Emma Jolly's excellent, detailed Guide to Tracing Your Family History Using the Census. The 2020 edition is updated from her earlier book, and explores the specifics and context of Census documents from England, Wales, Ireland, and Scotland. This guide gave me a better appreciation of who and what I might actually find in the Census records. 

Emma's book goes beyond the actual Census questions to explain why various questions were added or changed every ten years, and what to be aware of when interpreting answers. Because I'm a Bronx native, her summary of historical context was especially helpful for understanding the background and evolution of UK Census documentation from early days to the 20th century. 

Just as important, Emma decoded the marks delineating separate households and separate dwellings, which I had not paid close attention to when I originally looked at these Census documents. I know the little clues to check on US Census documents (such as the X in a circle in the 1940 US Census, showing which household member spoke with the enumerator) but I'm far less familiar with Census documents from elsewhere.

Check those little marks

With Emma's guide in mind, I revisited the 1871 Census of England page for Sarah Harris Slatter Shuttleworth (1814-1872), hubby's great-great grandmother, and her second husband, John Shuttleworth (1812-1878). The transcribed record shows three names of grandchildren in the household, but I *always* try to look at the actual image if available.

As shown directly above, John and Sarah were enumerated at the bottom of a Census page, with only two grandkids listed. I've circled in red the double diagonal lines that indicate the end of a dwelling, just above John's name. Notice there's no mark after the second grandchild, who's the last name on the page.

At the top of the next page is the third grandkid, and near her name, a single diagonal line--end of a household, not end of a dwelling. Three more names are listed in a separate household at same dwelling, then a double diagonal line--end of that dwelling.

Small marks but meaningful, because not seeing the end of a household was a reminder to check the next Census page for the remaining grandchild who was actually listed on the transcribed record. Folks who regularly search these UK Census documents are, I'm sure, very aware of these small marks, but I'm still getting comfortable with the context and nuances of genealogy documents from across the pond.

Note: Shuttleworth became a middle name for a few boys born in later generations. Seems to me that the grandchildren wanted to honor their step-grandfather by perpetuating his surname. He must have been a positive influence!

Mid-Year Progress on 2023 Genealogy Priorities

 

Here we are, halfway through 2023! Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun prompt is to write an update on the status of our goals and priorities for the year.

At the start of my 25th year as family historian, I said my priorities would be: 

• Continue writing bite-sized ancestor bios - I'm slowly but steadily writing and posting more bios, mainly short ones, on multiple genealogy platforms. When I come across an ancestor or ancestor-in-law without a FindaGrave memorial, I jot a memo to create one, as I did for my husband's 1c1r Edward Sherman Lower and his wife, Jeanette Jenkins Lower. NOTE: I don't mention living people in bios, for privacy reasons.
• Research ancestors and FAN club members of particular interest - Yes, moving ahead with this especially in-laws. Just this week I went down the rabbit hole researching the cousins of my hubby's 2c3r Elfie Asenath Mosse. Fascinating family background--collecting colorful stories that I know will engage the next generation.
• Genealogy presentations - It was a busy first half for presentations, including my new Fold3 program, which I presented six times. The most-requested talk remains Planning A Future for Your Family's Past, which I'll be giving again in September for the folks at WHAGS (West Houston Area Genealogy Society).
• Genealogy education - I've watched a ton of informative webinars so far in 2023, including live talks hosted by various genealogy clubs. TY to the many thoughtful presenters who provide detailed handouts, which guide me in applying what I've learned even weeks after the talk. 
• Resume moving photos into archival photo albums - um, no progress yet but my Sis will be helping me in coming months. For now, old family photos are stored safely in archival boxes.

A top priority I didn't even have at the start of 2023 is to create professional photo books of specific ancestors, families, and/or events. Early this year, a young relative asked about our family's participation during World War II. Oh yes, I know a lot about that topic and created a small (6 inch x 6 inch) photo book filled with photos and stories. Currently, I'm creating my fourth photo book of the year, the longest book because I knew these ancestors personally and have lots of photos and anecdotes. 

More family history photo books to come and more genealogical adventures to come, including my second WikiTree Connect-A-Thon of 2023, beginning on July 14th. 

Book Review: "Yours Truly"

 

Journalist and professional obit writer James R. Hagerty has read and written a lot of obits. In Yours Truly, he explains why and how each of us should write our own story, sooner rather than later. As Hagerty says in his intro:

"Someday the story of your life will be written. The only question is how well or how badly it will be written--what sort of picture it will leave behind for friends and family members, including those not yet born."

Every family historian who's ever researched an ancestor will appreciate the significance (even the thrill!) of discovering an obit in a newspaper or, these days, on a website. The best obits, in Hagerty's view, reveal more than just bare facts, giving a glimpse of the person's personality, attitudes, ambitions, struggles, dreams, accomplishments, and disappointments.

Yours Truly is a concise and engaging how-to book, an encouraging road map for writing a life story (whether in print or recorded). Chapter 6 includes specific questions to answer, including earliest memories, the best and worst periods of our lives, and more. "In life stories, generic will never do," Hagerty advises, because it's the details and quirks that give a real sense of the person. 

Chapter 17 covers sensitive issues about honesty, with the caveat: "When you write a life story you don't have to give away all your secrets or resurrect all your family feuds." Still, the author suggests acknowledging some of our shortcomings or at least admitting when our plans didn't work out as we'd hoped.

Be sure to include historical context, such as what was happening on the day of your birth, and verify oral history, says Hagerty. His own research showed that the day he was born was cool and rainy, even though his mother remembered it as a hot summer day.

In the end, there are a variety of reasons to take the time to tell our life story, Hagerty says: "It's a way to acknowledge your failures, explain a few things your friends and family could never understand, celebrate whatever good fortune you've had, and thank those who gave you a hand or a smile when you needed it."

Yours Truly is punctuated with dozens of readable, fascinating life stories that are anything but dry and generic, whether about someone famous or an ordinary person. Readers learn how to bring life to a life story, showing a bit about what makes each person tick, with touches of vivid imagery or an unexpected last-minute twist we never see coming. 

I enthusiastically recommend James R. Hagerty's book for ideas and motivation as we document the lives of our ancestors and tell the stories of our own lives.

Want to see the author interviewed about Yours Truly? Enjoy this YouTube interview conducted by Malaprop's Book store.

Ancestors Born on the 4th of July

My husband and I both have ancestors who were born on July 4th, Independence Day. I'm celebrating them with this penny postal greeting card sent to the Wood family 116 years ago.

In hubby's family tree, Thomas Jefferson Isaiah Haskell Wood was born on July 4, 1848 in Plaquemine, Iberville, Louisiana. He was the second of 17 children born to my husband's great-grandparents, Thomas Haskell Wood and Mary Amanda Demarest. Unfortunately, according to the Wood family bible, this young man drowned in 1861, at the age of 12, while the family was living in what is now Huntington, West Virginia. 

In my family tree, great uncle Samuel Schwartz was born on July 4, 1883, in Ungvar, Hungary, which is now Uzhhorod, Ukraine. His younger brother, my grandpa Theodore, was the first to leave for America. Sam followed in his footsteps three years later, in 1904. While researching his life, I was surprised that Sam returned home to Hungary 25 years after he left, to attend the wedding of his niece, Leni Winkler, who married Jeno "Eugene" Preisz (Price). Happy to know that Sam saw their family in person, since grandpa was never able to return to Hungary.

Happy Independence Day 2023!

Happy Canada Day! 1931 Census Shows Cousin Rose's Maiden Name Too

Happy Canada Day! Now that Ancestry has done an incredible job of quickly indexing the 1931 Canadian Census, I'm having fun finding records for the ancestors who lived there. As always, I compare Census info with what I already know, as a double-check on accuracy.

My 1c1r, Rose Berk (1904-1994), was the oldest child of my great-uncle Abraham Berk (1877-1962) and his wife, Anna Horwich Berk (1880?-1948).

Rose married Abraham Marks (originally Marcovitz) in Montreal on December 20, 1925, as shown at top in this excerpt from the Drouin Collection. The groom was born in Romania, bride born in England, and those birthplaces match other records I've found for them both.

When I researched Rose and Abraham in Montreal in the 1931 Canadian Census, I was surprised to see Rose's maiden name shown as her middle name! Not spelled as it was in her family (Berk was the usual spelling prior to marriage) but clearly recognizable.

However, as circled in red above, I also discovered an inaccuracy. According to this Census, Rose's father was born in England. Nope. Her father, Abraham Berk, was most definitely born in Gargzdai, Lithuania, along with all of his siblings (including my paternal grandfather, Isaac Burk--yes, he spelled his surname differently from his siblings). Yet Rose and her mother were, in fact, born in England, as noted by the enumerator.

Reading Ken McKinlay's decoding of the abbreviations shown next to parents' birthplaces, I see Rose's parents are coded as BB = father and mother born as British subjects. Nope. If Rose's father had been correctly listed as born in Lithuania or Russia, the coding should have been FB = father born in foreign country, mother born as a British subject. But as shown, the coding corresponds to what the enumerator was apparently told--both parents born in England, even though not true.

An interesting twist: Because Rose's maiden name is shown in this Census, I believe she was most likely the one to answer questions on behalf of the family. Either she didn't understand the question about father's birthplace or she misinterpreted the question to be about citizenship. This inaccuracy is why I like to compare Census answers to what I've already confirmed from other documentation.

Checking Page Two--Twice--for Great Uncle Albert

My great uncle Albert Farkas (1888-1956) died on this date, 67 years ago. I'm focusing on my Farkas ancestors as part of my series of family history photo books.

Albert and his wife, Sari Klein Farkas (1901-1982) often entertained dozens of Farkas relatives for big holidays, according to meeting minutes from the Farkas family tree association, 1933-on. Albert didn't marry Sari until he was in his early 30s, and I know from descendants that they were warm-hearted, generous people who put family first. 

Before Albert met Sari, he served in the U.S. Army during World War I. Two of Albert's military documents had significant info on the first and the second pages. Of course, not all info on every document is indexed, another reason to check page two (and beyond if a document has a page 3 or even more pages). One click beyond page 1 and I had even more of his story!

WWI Draft Registration - 2 pages

At top, page 1 of my great uncle's WWI draft registration paperwork. Relatives told me Albert was trying to establish a business in Canada in the 1910s. On this page, Albert says he's a manufacturer, living at the Rainier Grand Hotel in Seattle, Washington. 

Also he says he was naturalized on his father's naturalization. Interestingly, the town of birth is not listed, only Hungary as country of birth. 

On page 2 is the reason why Albert did not register when he was required to do so: "Was in Canada on June 5th, 1917 and arrived in Seattle this date" [meaning Jan 19, 1918, date of his registration]. I'm pretty sure he was aware of the legal requirement to register, just dragged his feet. And of course once registered...

WWI Abstract of Service - 2 pages 

Albert was inducted into the U.S. Army on Aug 26, 1918, as shown on page 1 of his Abstract of Service (U.S. Adjutant General's Office). Also shown on page 1 was his correct birth town (NagyBereg, Hungary).

This first page shows how Albert was moved from a Depot Brigade to Camp Gordon, GA, then to Company A, 329th Infantry on Dec 5, 1918. But since this page shows he was overseas from Oct 1918-May 1919, there must be more to the story. 

And there is more, on page 2, where I see he was placed in Company G of the 310th Infantry until his discharge.

Thinking of you, great uncle Albert, gone but definitely not forgotten. 

What Did Mom Know About Family History?

When Roots became a national phenomenon in 1977, I was riveted to the TV set and asked my mother to write me a letter about her parents' ancestry. She typed a few paragraphs of what little she knew about Hermina "Minnie" Farkas (1886-1964) and Theodore "Teddy" Schwartz (1887-1965), my maternal grandparents.

I read the letter, and then . . . I filed it away, for more than 20 years. Somehow I knew I would want it in the years ahead, when I could no longer ask Mom about her family's past. Fast-forward to 1998, when I began my genealogy journey, and returned to this letter for clues as starting points for additional research.

What Mom knew--and what she didn't know

Over the years, I learned that some of what my mother wrote in her letter was correct, some was slightly off, and much was incomplete. A few examples:

• Grandpa Teddy came from peasant people in Czechoslovakia, arriving in America at 13 years old. Correct: Teddy was 13 when he arrived, turning 14 just a few weeks later. Incorrect: not of peasant people--they were actually middle class, according to first-hand info from Teddy's niece. Correct: his hometown of Ungvar was part of Czechoslovakia but only briefly, today being in Ukraine. Mom didn't know the name of her father's hometown, but happily, it did appear on Teddy's Social Security application, among other documents.
• Teddy's brother and sister came to America also, but the rest of his family was killed in the Holocaust. Correct: His brother and sister came to America. Not entirely correct: Although most members of Teddy's family were, sadly, killed in the Holocaust, his niece and one or two other folks escaped, thankfully. Apparently, Mom had no idea that after WWII, her father was in touch with his niece, a  survivor of Auschwitz.
• Grandma Minnie's parents/grandparents were prosperous farmers, renting farmland from an admiral. They didn't insure the crop one year and it failed, leaving her father financially ruined--the reason he left Hungary to come to New York City. Correct: I confirmed that the men in the family were managers of a big-shot's acreage in Hungary. Unconfirmed: the crop failure, but that story was passed down in multiple lines of the family tree, and it makes sense as the catalyst for leaving an otherwise comfortable home life, so I accept there has to be some truth to the story. 
• A teenaged Minnie came to America after her parents, with 2-3 younger siblings "under her wing" for the voyage. Correct. Two years after her father left Hungary, one year after her mother left Hungary, Minnie and three siblings arrived at Ellis Island to be reunited with their parents. Minnie celebrated her 15th birthday on board the S. S. Amsterdam enroute to America.

Preserving my grandparents' lives in a photo book

Mom's letter offered many clues to jump-start my research into her parents and grandparents. Now, 25 years into my genealogy adventures, I'm preserving this family history in my latest professional photo book. In addition to photos of Grandpa Teddy and Grandma Minnie, I'm including photos of their siblings, their parents, the ships that brought them to America, their signatures, and much more.

For me, a creating a professional photo book is a worthwhile investment in safeguarding family history for the sake of those who come after. I want future generations to know more about the background of our ancestors than my Mom did!

Putting Names to Faces in Family History Photos

 

As I continue creating family history photo books and printed materials, I'm using different ways of identifying ancestors in old photos:

• Digitally superimpose names on the photo.
• Number the faces, caption using numbers with names.
• Near photo, list names separately with explanation such as "left to right."
• Number or name people on an outline of the photo.

Names on photo

At right, my favorite method is to digitally caption with names directly on the people in each photo.

I use bright colors for the names, which stand out against the black and white or sepia of the scanned photos. The advantage is readers can quickly and easily tell who's who, without looking elsewhere on the page or on another page for names. But in some cases, photos are too crowded to use this method of identification.

On a Mac, I use the preview application to add text to these photos, but I think nearly all photo programs have the capability to do this.

Numbers on photo, names listed separately

Another method is to number the people in the photo, then add a caption listing who's who according to number. I use this method when identifying a large number of people in one photo, because there's simply no room for names.

At left, an excerpt from a family celebration photo where Sis and I are shown (40 and 41) with our mother (33) and our grandparents (23 and 24). 

This photo will appear on the left page, and the identifying names will appear on the right, something like this: 

23) Hermina Farkas Schwartz

24) Theodore Schwartz      . . . and so on.

"Left to right" listing in separate caption

When I originally captioned the photo from my parents' wedding shown at right, I used the traditional method of listing people like this, in a caption below the photo:

At the 1946 wedding of Daisy and Harold, seated in front row, left to right: Abraham Berk, Harold Burk, Daisy Schwartz Burk, Lily Berk Goldberg.

These days, I include birth/death dates and relationships to encapsulate more info in less space. So a revised version of this caption would be:

At the 1946 wedding of Daisy and Harold, seated in front row, left to right: Abraham Berk (1877-1962, groom's uncle), Harold Burk (1909-1978, groom), Daisy Schwartz Burk (1919-1981, bride), Lily Berk Goldberg (1906-1957, groom's first cousin).

This kind of caption can be shown next to, above, or below the photo, maybe even on a facing page. 

Number or name on outline of photo

One more fun idea, suggested during today's #AncestryHour chat on Twitter: turn a copy of the photo into an outline or a pencil sketch, then digitally superimpose numbers or names without obscuring the original. 

Above, my sis and me, in a pencil sketch version of the family celebration photo. Here, I put a number on each person...but if there was room, I could have squeezed in at least a first name, if not a full name. In other words, show the full original photo on one page and then on facing page or directly below, this outline version with numbers or names. Full caption could be below the outline version or opposite, depending on space. 

No matter how I caption, I want the audience to recognize which name goes to which face, and not have to turn the page to puzzle things out!