Farkas Family: Good Sports About Fishing

Go fish!

After World War II, the Farkas Family Tree (named in honor of my maternal great-grandparents, Moritz Farkas and Leni Kunstler Farkas) tried to charter a boat and fish as a family every year.

Some years the tree couldn't reserve a boat on their chosen weekend, but when they did, at least 30 men, women, and children boarded for a full day of fishing--or, more accurately, food and fun, with a little fishing too. 

A good number of my ancestors were land-lubbing apartment-dwellers in New York City. Still, they were good sports about being on the water once a year and baiting a hook or two. Some had fancy fishing rods, but many used a length of string with a basic hook, lowered into the water by hand.

Here's what the tree minutes say about two memorable all-day fishing trips (making me smile 70+ years later).

Excerpt about a fishing trip on Sunday, May 29, 1949:

"Many fish and many kinds of fish were caught and a most tremendous amount of eating and drinking. Fifty of the fish were fried at the host's home that night. Those who didn't realize how tired they were, played gin rummy until midnight. Albert caught the most fish; Ella caught the first fish; Leonard caught the largest fish; Irene caught the first flounder; Harry reported his stomach was in good condition and stayed on board." 

Excerpt about a fishing trip on Sunday, May 27, 1951: 

"Except for a few green faces and rough weather, our fishing trip was a huge success. Huddled under the canvas cover, we all had a great time eating, singing, and eating. Abe was the only anti-social one. He insisted on staying at the back of the boat looking out to sea, but he was bent in a peculiar position, with his head over the edge." 

-- Sports is the week 42 prompt in Amy Johnson Crow's #52Ancestors challenge.

Debuting New Talks at Two Genealogy Conferences

During the last two months of 2021, I'll be debuting new presentations at two virtual genealogy conferences.

Virtual Genealogical Association

In November, I'm honored to be speaking at the Virtual Genealogical Association's 2021 Conference. 

This much-anticipated event will have 6 live talks on November 13th and 15 prerecorded talks, a total of 21 presentations available for viewing for the next six months. Download the detailed syllabus and watch presentations whenever you wish, even in your bunny slippers. 

My topic is: Get ready for the 1950 US Census -- a treasure trove of family history! I'll show, step by step, exactly how to browse the unindexed Census pages to find your ancestors when the Census population schedule is released on April 1, 2022. Plus I'll explain the interesting questions and quirks of the Census questionnaire and enumerator instructions. You'll come away with specific ideas for how to get started and what to look for on the Census pages next April.

THE Genealogy Show

In December, I'm delighted to participate as a virtual speaker at THE Genealogy Show. This affordable event begins on December 3, and all talks will be recorded and available until January 4, 2022. 

My topic is: Genealogy clues and cousin bait on Find a Grave. I'll demonstrate tips and tricks for getting the most out of Find a Grave, including how to analyze every element on a memorial page and how to use the source of a memorial or a flower as possible cousin bait. Enjoy this practical, how-to presentation.

Hope to see you at one of these upcoming genealogy conferences.

Curate by Sharing "Double Prints" Snapshots

Remember the days of putting film in a camera and then bringing the finished roll to the store for developing? 

Local drugstores used to compete by offering "double prints" with every roll developed. 

Double prints, double fun

Back in the day, hubby and I took a lot of snapshots and wound up with a lot of dupes. Many times, we sent dupes to family right away. Still, we ended up with some fun dupes that I couldn't bear to toss, so I saved them. 

Now I'm downsizing my family photo collection, in preparation for assembling archival albums.

Not every dupe is worth saving or sharing at this point. I'm selecting the best and getting more ruthless about saying goodbye to the worst.

Curating and captioning dupes

After curating, I'm captioning the best dupes to pop into the mail for family and friends, as a surprise. 

Because developers often printed the date (or at least month/year) on the back of these prints, all I have to do is add a quick caption. It doesn't have to be elaborate. On photos where the recipient was a baby or toddler at the time the snapshot was taken, I'm adding names and the place/occasion.

On one of the dupes from September, 2014, I added the caption "Remember the ice bucket challenge?" because that's the focus of the photo. One day soon, that young woman will open my envelope and see the photo, showing her standing with the ice bucket.  The family was proud of her involvement in the fundraising challenge. When she gets the dupe, she will relive the memory, and my pile of dupes shrinks.

If you have "double prints" to share, don't wait to get started. Recipients will appreciate seeing the photos and you'll slim down your collection for the sake of future generations.

Try This Cousin Bait Trick on Find a Grave

FindaGrave.com has valuable features that can function as cousin bait. 

The site, owned by Ancestry, has 190 million+ memorial pages spanning the globe. 

To take advantage of the features, just register for free and sign in.

This is Family History Month, a good time to memorialize our ancestors' final resting places and improve their memorial pages...

One trick: Have you ever noticed the flowers or flags left at the bottom of a memorial page? 

Flowers as cousin bait

Above is a flower with a brief message that I left on one ancestor's memorial page,  identifying how I'm related to this man. Free cousin bait for anyone who looks at the bottom of that page! 

If you notice a flower or flag on a memorial page of your ancestor, read the message and click to see who left it. Maybe a relative left that flower. 

Any text shown in blue is clickable--such as the name of the user who is the source of the flower. Clicking to see the source of a flower or flag lets you learn more about that user. Did I mention this is all free for registered users?

Go to the source: user profile

If you click on M Wood as the source of the flower shown at top, you'll see my user profile page on Find a Grave. Similarly, if you click on W. Wood as the source of the flag posted at bottom of a memorial page for my husband's distant cousin, you'll be taken to my user profile page (since I left it in his name). 

On my user profile page, I list some of the surnames/locations that I'm researching. 

More than once, a possible cousin has clicked to see my profile, noticed a family-tree connection, and sent a message.

Similarly, if I find the memorial of an ancestor on Find a Grave, I look to see who's left a flower and click on the source. 

This trick has worked for me, putting me in touch with relatives and other people researching my ancestors. Maybe it will work for you? Try it during Family History Month!

This trick and others are explained in my new presentation, "Genealogical Clues and Cousin Bait on Find a Grave." 

-- My blog post for the October Genealogy Blog Party!

1950 US Census Release: Save the Page, Cite Your Source

Family historians are excited that the 1950 US Census population schedule will be released on April 1, 2022--that's only 169 days from today.

In my earlier posts about preparing for the 1950 Census, I suggested creating a list of ancestors, along with their 1950 addresses (from your research) and their 1950 Enumeration District (search using the terrific tech tool by Steve Morse and Joel Weintraub). 

My list doesn't have a column for what I learn about each ancestor's 1950 Census data--I'm going to enter that into my software and my online tree, jotting notes as I go.

As I was recording my talk, "Get Ready for the 1950 US Census" to air during the Virtual Genealogical Association's Annual Conference, incoming VGA President Jeanette Sheliga asked me a great question: Will I download the Census pages and attach to my tree?

Don't miss these important steps!

I will certainly download each page where an ancestor is listed, label with a descriptive file title, and save in a digital folder so I can return later to vacuum up more clues and absorb their significance.

And, importantly, I'm going to note the ED, page number, and other citation information so I can return to the page at any time.

But rather than take the time to download, label, annotate, upload, label, and save each ancestor's Census page to my multiple trees (WikiTree, Ancestry, MyHeritage, and more), my preference is to wait and move on to locating other ancestors in the browse-only 1950 Census.

Once the sites have indexed the 1950 Census, weeks or months after the release, I'll be able to connect pages to ancestors on my online trees with just a few clicks. And by then, any ancestors I haven't located by browsing may be much easier to locate with indexed search.

What's your plan for saving 1950 Census pages and citing your source? Don't forget these vital steps in your research plan!