Remembering Morris Mahler on Morris Avenue in 1924

My great uncle Morris Mahler (1888-1958) was born on this day 137 years ago, the second son of my paternal great-grands Meyer Elias Mahler and Tillie Jacobs Mahler.

Unfortunately, Meyer died of cancer in 1910, leaving Tillie widowed with children ranging in age from 14 to 29. The oldest child, my grandma Henrietta, was already married with two children of her own. The second-oldest child, David, was a black sheep with wanderlust, having left New York City a few years earlier.

Morris takes care of Tillie and Dora

Morris, at 21 years old, had to take care of his widowed mother and his younger siblings. All the girls worked in the garment district, I understand from stories passed down in the family, even when they were too young to "officially" work. If an inspector came through the factory, the older girls would hide the younger girls in baskets, covering them with lace, until the inspector went away.

Younger sister Sarah married in 1912, even younger sister Ida married in 1920, and the youngest sister Mary married in 1921. However, Morris's younger sister Dora had a chronic heart condition and never married. So Morris was the main support for Dora and their mother Tillie for many years.

Many Mahler voters in one building

In 1924, Morris Mahler was living at 2347 Morris Avenue, a large apartment building in the Bronx, New York. You can still see a photo of the building from the New York City Muni Archives tax photo collection. (He and his mother Tillie and sister Dora lived together in one apartment, I know from the 1925 New York Census.) 

Looking at the 1924 New York City voter list, Morris was registered to vote at this address (see red line under his name, top of this post). Tillie wasn't a registered voter, but Dora was, and she's shown at bottom of the voter list, supposedly living at 2348 Morris Ave, but in reality in 2347 because there was no residence at 2348.

 Also living in the same apartment building: Morris's younger sister Ida Mahler Volk and her husband Louis Volk, both registered to vote and on this list. 

Also living in the same apartment building: Morris's younger sister Mary Mahler Markell and her husband Joseph A. Markell, both registered to vote and on this list. 

I'm delighted to see so many of my ancestors registered to vote--and living so close to each other.

Despite family disapproval, Morris got married

Morris continued to support his mother and one sister for years. He finally got married and moved out in 1932, at the age of 44. The family strongly disapproved of his choice because they were from different religions: Morris was Jewish and his 47-year-old bride, Carrie Etschel (1885-1962), was not. But Morris and Carrie tied the knot anyway--in her Lutheran Church (see marriage cert below). Note that the clergyman listed his residence as 2431 Morris Avenue, not many steps away from Morris's 1924 residence in the Bronx.

Although I'm told the Mahlers didn't always include Morris and Carrie in family gatherings, the couple was invited to the wedding of my parents--I can see their faces in the photos. Morris and Carrie lived happily together until he died at the age of 70. 

Morris was buried in Riverside Cemetery in New Jersey, a Jewish cemetery where his parents were buried. When she died at the age of 76, Carrie was buried in All Faiths Cemetery in Queens, New York, where all her siblings as well as her parents were laid to rest.

I'm remembering great uncle Morris Mahler on the anniversary of his birth.

Happy Twin Birthday to Us

Today is another twin birthday! Above, one of the few early photos showing who's who. I'm captioned M on the left and my dear Sis is captioned I on the right. One of us is two minutes older than the other. Not telling who's the old lady!

We're balancing on the lap of our maternal grandma Hermina Farkas Schwartz, who was the mother of twins--Mom (Daisy Schwartz Burk) and Auntie (Dorothy Helen Schwartz).

Being squirmy, I doubt Sis and I stayed on Grandma's lap for more than a minute, just barely long enough for someone to snap this photo. 

Happy birthday to us!

Book Review: The Quest for Annie Moore of Ellis Island

Megan Smolenyak's latest book is both a fascinating genealogical detective story and a master class in how to dig deep into social history and bring meaningful context to ancestral lives. 

The real Annie Moore?

The author spent 22 years trying to determine the true story of Irish teenager Annie Moore, the first immigrant processed through Ellis Island on January 1, 1892. She brings us along on every step of her challenging genealogical journey, including constructing a paper trail and enlisting help to examine tantalizing clues on both sides of the pond. If you like learning about genealogical methodology as much as I do, you will be enthralled. 

Early in her search, Megan's research leads her to believe that history has been celebrating the "wrong Annie" for too many years. She sets out to uncover the "right Annie" and fill in the details of this Annie's life before and after arriving in New York Harbor at dinnertime on New Year's Eve of 1891. She has a lot of help along the way and sometimes just being in the right place at the right time works to her advantage. 

Beyond the paper trail

Megan breathes life into Annie Moore by painting a vivid picture of the time and place of her birth, upbringing, voyage to New York, and situation in America. Want to see how to apply social history to family history? Watch how the author skillfully weaves weather, housing, health, economy, occupation, names and more into the telling of Annie's true story. 

In the course of the book, we see photos emerge that put a real face on the true Annie Moore. In fact, the book has many interesting illustrations of genealogical documents, other photos, sketches, and more. I do wish the family tree on p. 135 could be shown a bit larger and in sharper detail, but that's a minor quibble. 

My three immigrant grandparents who came from Eastern Europe to America via 
Ellis Island might not have understood all the fuss over the first person to be processed through that institution, but I appreciate Megan Smolenyak setting the record straight on the real Annie Moore with this new book.

Sgt. Albert James Slatter, WWI POW

My husband's 1c1r, Albert James Slatter (1893-1974), was born on this day 132 years ago: February 16, 1893, in Cork, Ireland.

Albert's father Albert William Slatter was a military musician from London, married to Eleanor Marion Wilkinson. His father was stationed in Ireland, with family, when their first son was born. After moving around England for a time, the Slatter family resettled in Canada. 

Albert in the CEF, 3d Canadian Battalion

Albert worked as a clerk and was serving in a Canadian Militia unit when World War I began. At age 21, he enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force on September 22, 1914, joining the Queens Own Rifles Regiment, 3d Canadian Battalion.

Sent overseas, Albert fought in France and Belgium in the spring of 1915. He was captured by German forces at Ypres, the first major battle involving Canadian troops. Originally, he was reported as missing in action but later was spotted on a German list of prisoners of war imprisoned in Holland. Canadian POWs in Holland faced unusually harsh conditions and unfortunately Sgt. Slatter remained a prisoner for more than three long years.

Repatriated and looking ahead

Finally repatriated and returned to Canada in January of 1919, Albert worked as a draftsman. In the summer of 1920 he crossed the border to Buffalo, New York, where his sister lived. He met and married Dorothy Bayliss (1898-1981) and they began a family in Buffalo, where Albert was now a mechanical engineer. By 1929, he had become a naturalized US citizen.

Albert rose through the ranks of the tire company where he worked and ultimately became general manager of the Armstrong Tire & Rubber plant in Natchez, Mississippi. He died of respiratory failure and lung disease in 1974. 

Today I want to salute Albert's military service and his amazing fortitude in surviving his POW experience. 

Mom's First Valentine from Dad

Military veteran Harold Burk (1909-1978) met legal secretary Daisy Schwartz (1919-1981) on a blind date arranged by his aunt Mary and her aunt Rose. Their first two dates were in October of 1945 and on New Year's Eve, he popped the question. She said yes, and they set a wedding date for Thanksgiving weekend of 1946.

Harold and Daisy's first Valentine's Day as an engaged couple was Thursday, February 14, 1946. Since both were working, I doubt they celebrated until the weekend. But Harold sent Daisy this romantic card. I see he even wrote the year below his signature. Alas, no other Valentine's Day cards survive, but this one stayed safe in her box of memories.

Remembering Mom and Dad, with much love, on this Valentine's Day.

1912 Valentine Sent from Chicago to Cleveland

On Monday, February 12, 1912, "Nellie" Kirby (full name Rachel Ellen Wood Kirby) put this penny postal greeting card into the mailbox in Chicago, Illinois. She and her husband, Samuel Kirby, were sending fond Valentine's Day wishes to their nephew in Cleveland, Ohio. Did the card arrive by Wednesday, February 14? 

Since the weather wasn't snowy or rainy, I'm guessing the nephew opened his mail on Valentine's Day and found this colorful card.

I find it fun to check what the weather was like in the city where an ancestor was celebrating a birthday, a holiday, and so on. Cleveland weather history for the past 100+ years is available at this site. The first two weeks of February in 1912 were unusually chilly in Cleveland, with low temps in the single digits most days. Aunt Nellie's warm wishes must have been most welcome--this and lots of other greeting cards were kept by the family for many decades.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Change, Monitor, Hands Off?

James Tanner's excellent blog post earlier this week struck a chord with me. He wrote about the challenges of working with the FamilySearch collaborative family tree, starting with "revolving door ancestors" (one whose info is constantly changing) and "impossible pedigrees" (no sources on an ancestor means questionable parents and descendants).  

I am so, so grateful that FamilySearch has a vast array of robust (and free!) research materials available to help with my research. And its collaborative worldwide tree can give me a head start on ancestors, especially when I know very little about them or they are on a distant branch of my tree. I treat the tree as a great source of clues for me to follow up. 

And I should point out that I maintain a public family tree on Ancestry as well as putting ancestors on MyHeritage. Sources are attached and nobody can make changes (unless authorized by me).

Challenges indeed

Still, my experience with the collaborative tree echoes Tanner's experience. My immigrant maternal grandparents and their siblings had surnames (Farkas, Schwartz) that were common in Hungary, where both were born. Not surprisingly, people who don't know the family well  make mistakes when trying to add to these ancestors' FamilySearch profiles. It's a real challenge to distinguish between two Schwartz men with the same given name or two Farkas women with the same given name, born or died around the same time and in roughly the same place.

Above, part of the FamilySearch profile page for my great uncle Samuel Schwartz (1883-1954). I know a lot about Sam, partly from descendants and partly from careful research. So I know that Sam and his wife, Anna Gelbman Schwartz (1886-1940) had only two children, the ones I circled in purple in the image at top. Neither of these two sons was a twin. My Sam didn't die in 1926; he died in 1954. I have the paperwork to prove it and have visited his grave.

Yes, the photo on "Annie Gelbman Schwartz" is one I uploaded to FamilySearch some time ago. But all those extra children, not my work. Sam's incorrect death date, not my work. 

So many ancestors - so little time

In some cases, I have made changes to the FamilySearch family tree and attached sources and/or explanations. But this is time-consuming and still subject to change by others. Not where I want to spend much of my time.

My plan has been to monitor (click "follow" star ★ on line with ancestor's name) selected ancestors and read the weekly email of changes made to each, if any. Then I can decide whether to change or keep my hands off. For the most part, I'm keeping my hands off any changes, unless the ancestor is particularly dear to my heart and I can quickly and easily fix mistakes with an accessible source.

My plan is to keep adding ancestors to the collaborative WikiTree, where sources are also shown as well as biographical details. Here's the profile page of my great uncle Samuel Schwartz, whose original name was Simon, I know from the passenger manifest showing his arrival at Ellis Island. 

My WikiTree experience

So far, I haven't experienced any "revolving door" ancestor problems on WikiTree. I have encountered a few "impossible pedigree" ancestor profiles when trying to connect relatives to folks already in the WikiTree database but have successfully ironed those out with the people who originally created the profiles. The community on WikiTree is generally friendly and helpful.

In short, I consider adding ancestors to WikiTree to be a valuable use of my time, to honor ancestors and preserve their names and lives for the sake of future generations.

Did Joseph Markell Know His Birth Year?

I was a bit surprised to discover a discrepancy about the birth year of great uncle Joseph A. Markell (189?-1975) when I submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for his Veterans Administration file yesterday.

Thanks to Reclaim the Records, it is now quick and easy to see whether a US military veteran might be in the database of the Veterans Administration. Read the fine print and try the nonprofit group's super-efficient website here.

Joseph goes to sea

With the 1920 US Census in hand, I already knew Joseph served in the Navy. He was enumerated on the U.S.S. Niagara off Tampico, Mexico after World War I, as the Mexican Revolution was underway. 

The backstory: Joe's mother died when he was a young teen, which must have been traumatic. His father remarried in Brooklyn, New York, five years later. 

His descendants told me Joe didn't get along with his stepmom and began to hang around the Brooklyn Navy Yard, making money by shining the shoes of sailors going on shore leave. Within a short time, he enlisted to get away from home altogether.

Born in 1894 or 1895?

The surprise was that according to the BIRLS record for Joseph (at top), he was 22 years old when he enlisted in the Navy on Oct 31, 1916 and left the Navy at age 26. Accordingly, BIRLS shows Joseph's birth year as 1894. 

However, on other documents, including Joseph's World War II draft registration card, his birth year is shown as 1895, born in Boston, Massachusetts.

Which birth year was correct, the one he gave the US Navy in 1916 or the one he gave the draft board in 1942? He was born on August 14, but which year?

Now I'm browsing page by page through Boston birth ledgers and indexes for 1894 and 1895 to try to find Joseph's name and date. Browsing page by page takes time and I'm doing it little by little.

Did great uncle Joe know?

Maybe Joseph wasn't sure of his actual birth year? Maybe he didn't know when his parents were married? 

It took me some time to track down, but I finally found their marriage recorded in Providence, Rhode Island as having taken place on October 21, 1895. 

Looking ahead, when the Veterans Administration file for my great uncle arrives in a few months, maybe an official birth document will be included. 

Surprise is Amy Johnson Crow's #52 Ancestors genealogy prompt for this week.

Fixing Peter Pietroniro's Typo

This year, I've returned to researching in-laws in my husband's family tree, Anna Yurko Pietroniro (1910-1989) and her husband, Piacentino "Peter" Pietroniro (1901-1979).

Peter was born in Casacalenda, Italy, and sailed from Naples to New York City's Ellis Island on July 10, 1923, with his brother Paul. Both told authorities they were planning to go to Montreal, Canada, looking for work. It turns out Montreal was a destination of choice for Casacalenda immigrants.

Casacalenda to Cleveland

However, Peter actually settled in Cleveland, Ohio, joining a large community from Casacalenda already living in that city. During 1923, the year Peter arrived, Casacalenda immigrants in Cleveland formed the Kalena Club, an organization still going strong today (and active on Facebook). 

I don't know whether Peter joined the Kalena Club but he certainly would have known many members and felt at home in Cleveland with people from his native town nearby, just as his brother would have found many from Casacalenda friends and neighbors in Montreal.

Ooops! Fix that typo 

Peter started the process of becoming a US citizen in 1939. He filed a Petition for Naturalization in 1943, but there was a brief delay and a flurry of amendment paperwork on the day he was scheduled to become a US citizen.

As shown at top, the amendment was necessary because Peter's surname had a typo in item (1) of his original petition document. His signature was correct, all other references to his surname were correct, but Peter couldn't become a US citizen before the court officially corrected the name with an amendment to the original petition.

After signing that amendment correcting his petition's typo, Peter became a naturalized citizen on May 11, 1944. 

Today, on the 46th anniversary of Peter's death in Cleveland, Ohio, I'm remembering him by documenting his life.

Please Back Up and Remember, LOCKSS

With so many extreme weather events and other terrible disasters, we really need to think carefully about how to preserve and perpetuate family history for the sake of future generations. Please make a plan now, starting with regular backups.

Invest in more than one backup method

Diane May Levenick wrote an excellent article for Family Tree Magazine (updated a few months ago) detailing a five-step plan for backing up genealogy files. She recommends NOT relying on free sites (like social media) as a backup. Instead, she suggests a combination of methods, including remote cloud storage, to keep family history safe.

As Diane recommends, I keep my digitized materials safe by backing up on iCloud, setting my Mac to do a TimeMachine backup every hour (using an external hard drive I can take with me if needed), and putting important files on a separate high-capacity USB drive. Or two USBs! They're inexpensive and portable.

Share now in many ways

My family history photo books are one way I'm sharing family history NOW so what I've learned about our ancestors won't be lost. Printed copies are in multiple hands because LOCKSS (lots of copies keep stuff safe). The more people who have copies, the better the chance that info will survive in our family for future generations. 

All the photos in those books and all old family photos from the early 20th century are digitized. I've shared them via USB and email over the years. I have a 1917 photo album from my late father-in-law that has been scanned but I plan to turn it into a photo book this year to provide full captions and context for future generations. The album itself is in an archival box but the album pages are fragile so making a photo book will make the story accessible to all for the long term.

I continue to post bite-sized ancestor bios on multiple sites. These don't preserve original photos or documents, but they do keep alive the names/dates/lives of ancestors in the family tree. And serve as cousin bait!

For more ideas about preparing to keep family history safe, please see my book, Planning a Future for Your Family's Past, available as a paperback or e-book.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day

Eighty years ago, on January 27, 1945, Auschwitz was finally liberated. It was a place of unspeakable horror. This is a day to never forget the millions who were killed and be sure their lives are remembered.

Both of my maternal grandparents left their Hungarian homeland as teenagers in the early 1900s, settling in New York City, where they met and married in 1911. Both lost relatives and in-laws to the Holocaust. Both had relatives who survived the Holocaust. 

A photo from Yad Vashem Photo Archives shows Jewish people from Hungary rounded up and transported to Auschwitz in May of 1944. This crowd may include Paula Schwartz, my grandfather's younger sister, who was killed on May 21, 1944, according to the eyewitness testimony of her daughter--a survivor who later sat for an emotional video interview and provided a written statement about relatives murdered at Auschwitz. 

Never again, never forgotten. 

A WAC Bride and a Coastie Groom in the Family Tree

Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, San Diego, California

During the recent WikiTree Connect-A-Thon, I became acquainted with Walter "Jack" Cromwell Wood (1894-1982) and his wife, Helen Gertrude Westerlake (1908-1995). Jack was my husband's 3d cousin and Helen was his bride.

I was really interested to discover that Jack served in both World War I and World War II--in two different branches of the military. Then I learned about Helen being a WAC officer during World War II. Here are their stories!

Jack: Sailing, College, Military

Jack was a son of Walter Dean Wood and Elizabeth Sawyer Pierce Wood, born in New Bedford, Massachusetts where he early on learned to sail. In 1917, he was attending MIT when he interrupted his college career to enlist in the US Army Air Corps for World War I. He was sent to train as a pilot with other Americans at the University of Toronto, taught by Royal Canadian Air Force pilots. 

After the war, Jack returned to sailing and racing. During the 1930s, he became the first “Sailing Master” of MIT, a post he held through the late 1940s. During World War II, he joined the US Coast Guard to teach navigation in New London, Connecticut at the Coast Guard Academy, with the rank of Lt. Commander.

Helen: Cars, College, Military

Helen was a daughter of Mary Marsh Cleverdon Westerdale and Harry Eastman Westerdale, born in Chicago where a few years later her father became a rising star in the budding automotive industry. Within a few years, he had his own auto distribution firm and later was an executive with Chrysler in Detroit. 

Helen went to a special high school in Memphis known for college prep, then went to the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, where she graduated with a bachelor's degree. She later worked as a secretary, and when she saw the call for women to join the military, she applied and was accepted into the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps in July, 1942. After training, she was awarded the rank of Captain.

Captain and Lt. Commander, Bride and Groom

I don't know how Jack and Helen met, but they became engaged in August of 1944 and married that October. It seems to have been a long-distance marriage at first: Jack continued to teach at the Coast Guard Academy and Helen remained in the WACs, achieving the rank of Major before becoming a civilian again in the fall of 1945. Jack left the Coast Guard in the fall of 1946. 

Helen and Jack then settled in the greater Boston area, where he taught navigation and they raised two children. They retired to San Diego, California, where he died in 1982 just one day after his 88th birthday. She died in 1995 at the age of 86. Both are buried in Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery in San Diego (image at top from VA National Cemetery here).

Genealogy Bloggers on BlueSky

For the past few months on the BlueSky social media platform, I've been asking genealogy and family history bloggers to share their blog addresses. 

Here is the list of more than 90 bloggers who have provided their links as of end of Feb 2025. Note that some folks haven't blogged much lately but they are active on BlueSky:

* Hilary Gadsby's blog

* Celia Lewis's blog

* Brenda Leyndyke's blog

* Rahkia Nance's blog

* Mike DeBacker's blog

* Jean "Helen" Wheel's blog

* Rebecca Stanley's blog

* Allison Peacock's blog

* Simon Briercliffe's blog

* Molly Charboneau's blog

* Sheri Bush's blog

* J. L. Lee's blog

* Sophie Kay's blog

* J.R. Randall's blog

* Jenny Hawran's blog

* Claire Bradley's blog

* The Graveyard Snoop's blog

* Liz G's blog

* Ian Hadden's blog

* Jane Hough's blog

* Steve Little's blog

* Fred Dew's blog

* Family Wise's blog

* Christine McCloud's blog

* Sharon O. Brown's blog

* Lene Kottal's blog

* Chris Ferraiolo's blog

* Roberta Estes' blog

* Heather Wilkinson Rojo's blog

* Alison Spring's blog

* Carol K. Petranek's blog

* Michael Kirk's blog

* Kira D. Foltz's blog

* Carmel Galvin's blog

* Aryn Youngless's blog

* Martin Roe's blog

* Trish Stumpf Garcia's blog

* Daniel Loftus' blog

* Lina Goldberg's blog

* Chris Wright's blog

* Jen Eggleston's blog

* Sue Wyatt's blog

* Stacy Ashmore Cole's blog

* Carolynn ni Lochlainn's blog

* Sean Vanderfluit's blog

* Marlee Logan's blog

* Susan's blog

* Paul Chiddicks' blog

* Paul Chiddicks' Old Palace School Bombing blog

* Natalie Pithers' blog

* Miriam Robbins' blog

* Cathy Meder-Dempsey's blog

* Aine ni Donnghaile's blog

* Julie Muirhead's blog

* Mellisa F. Donahoe's blog

* Joanne Barnard's blog

* Bryna O'Sullivan's blog

* Emily Randall Paz's blog 

* D.L. MacLaughlan Dumes‬' blog

* Auriette's blog

* Gail Dever's blog

* Barb's blog

* Jane Chapman's blog

* Jill Ball's blog

* Kathleen Sperling's blog

* Ken McKinlay's blog

* Joan Bos's blog

* Karen P. Rhodes' blog

* Colleen Murray's blog

* Deborah Ray's blog

* Marcia C. Philbrick's blog

* Anne Young's blog

* Judy G. Russell's blog

* Kim Brengle's blog

* Carolyn Shannon's blog

* Stephanie Glotfelty's blog

* Laura L. Hedgecock's blog

* Patty Hankins' blog

* Earl A. Daniels' blog

* Phyllis Zumwalt's blog

* Margaret Riordan's blog

* pwME's blog

* David Annal's blog

* Liz Craig's blog

* Megan Smolenyak's blog

* Blaine Bettinger's archives

* Helen Parker-Drabble's blog 

* Linda Yip's blog

* Barbara Tien's site

* Marie Cooke Beckman's blog

* Pauleen Cass's blog

* Pauleen Cass's emigration blog

* Andrew Redfern's blog

Note: I'm on BlueSky as @climbingfamilytree.bsky.social‬

More blogs to be added as I receive more responses from the genealogy community on BlueSky. 

Be a Good Ancestor and Share Your Own Story

Photo books are one way of sharing your story now.

Are you taking the time to tell your own story? Be a good ancestor and share your own story so future generations will have a sense of what your life has been like.

My choice: photo books

I began to systematically document my life and family experiences in 2007, when I made the first of what became an annual series of photo books. My goal was to capture some of the most significant or fun things that happened during the year, so I could look back and rekindle those memories. But I also realized that photo books look polished and can be passed down for decades to come.

Every year since, I've created at least one photo book of what my husband and I and our family did during the previous 12 months. I call the book something like "Our life in photos" or "2023 in photos." I caption every photo. If there's a large group photo or two, I include full names once in the book. At top, a photo of many of the photo books I've made over the years, displayed on a book shelf for easy access.

When we have a big family gathering of relatives from far and near, I often make a photo book to remember the fun and the food and the activities. This is where my family and I get those photos off our phones and into print or albums to browse again and again.

My system: I set up a digital folder at the start of every year and put photos into it as the weeks go on. By December, I have dozens of photos to arrange into a colorful book of memories. Not everything makes the final cut, but I have a good range of photos to use. This works for me, but do whatever works for you.

Of course I wait for sales and coupons before I press the buy button. My vendors of choice are Shutterfly, MixBook, and Snapfish, thanks to their quality and customization possibilities.

Your life, your way

There are so many ways to document your life so you can enjoy the memories and share with those who come after. Here are just a few ideas to start.

Well-known genealogy blogger Randy Seaver regularly blogs about his weekly activities. He stresses that family historians should make a point of telling their own stories, not just the stories of ancestors from the past. 

If you or your family like to send an annual Christmas or holiday letter, that's a good way to talk about the ups/downs of the year and include a photo or three. 

My husband writes a monthly letter to younger relatives, with highlights of what he's been doing and stories of interest. He sends his letters the old-school way, because he likes to include a photo and because snail mail doesn't get lost in a sea of emails.

Some folks have a private Facebook page or website for sharing family photos and memories. Since I'm unhappy with FB at the moment, I'm not going down that path but I do know people who have multigenerational FB pages to share family news, old and new.

Just do it

Experiment to see what works best for you and your situation and your budget. Don't worry about capturing every moment and every memory. Be a good ancestor and make 2025 the year you share key photos and memories with family today and keep your life stories available for descendants of tomorrow.

Remembering the "Walter Winchells" of the Farkas Family Tree

My maternal Grandma Hermina Farkas Schwartz (1886-1964) was part of the first generation in the Farkas Family Tree, founded in 1933 to keep the Farkas siblings and their descendants in close contact. 

Fortunately, the founders had the foresight to keep written minutes (originally in cursive, but quickly switched to typed) of their 10 meetings per year. And that's how I learned which member was the designated "Walter Winchell" of each year.

Good & Welfare Chair = Walter Winchell

The idea was to have one person in charge of gathering family gossip (good, bad, funny) and reporting during the monthly meeting. Even when someone had the mumps or broke an arm, the info was shared with a bit of spin to make it lighter if possible. The official title of that part of the meeting was "Good and Welfare." 

The star of that portion of the meeting was that year's Walter Winchell, nicknamed for the well-known newspaper columnist and radio personality who specialized in gossip. 

During 1942, when several members were serving in World War II, the yearend summary of the minutes included this cheeky comment: "Brother George F____ distinguished himself as the Walter Winchell of the Farkas Family Tree, ferreting out the military secrets and relating them with gusto at the meetings."

Grandpa as Winchell

My maternal Grandpa Theodore Schwartz (1887-1965) served as the family tree's Winchell in 1946 and 1947. In May of 1946, he reported 11 "items" such as who was home from the U.S. Army, who had new jewelry, who had a new job, who was out of the hospital, and who was planning a summer vacation.

Throughout his tenure, Grandpa's good and welfare items mixed sad news (the death of an older family member, a car accident that put someone in the hospital) with happier news (someone accepted to Yale, someone having a baby). 

Thank you to our Walter Winchells 

Even as the original tree members aged, the minutes were also filled with increasingly hopeful Winchell reports of the youngest generation: school achievements, graduations, first cars, first jobs, engagements, and so on. Having these moments captured on the page, as they took place, was a wonderful gift for the future. 

Thank you to the many Walter Winchells who served in the family tree, 1933-1964. 

"Nickname" is this week's #52Ancestors prompt from Amy Johnson Crow.