Tau Heta Epsilon: Sis Starts a Sorority

Sis's college grad photo

It was the Age of Aquarius, and Sis and her friends decided to start a sorority at Lehman College in the Bronx.

As the first president, she wrote an article for the Parthenon, the "Greek" newspaper at Lehman, to explain how the sorority got its name. Here's an excerpt:

"We took many Greek letters and juggled in an attempt to create a name that was both feminine and Greek. Sigma Omega Sigma (SOS) was a top choice, along with Alpha Nu Delta (AND) and Tau Eta Epsilon (THE).

"The World Book Encyclopedia informs that eta's capital representation is H, so it is sort of legal for us to represent ourselves as THE. At any rate, it invites inquiry, so THE won, although by a small margin.

"It is rather hard to explain our name to people who know the Greek alphabet and object to the "H." We feel that it makes our name unique; we like it. THE is short, catchy, and self-explanatory. It creates a visual image not foreign to non-Greeks.

"We hope that THE becomes a familiar and well-known name at Lehman College: We have paved the way for other organizations to come."

Only six months after THE was organized, it captured first place in the first annual Greek Sing contest. (Think Glee competition with musical skits.) THE's skit was about a "fanciful, satirical" trip around the college campus, with stops at the cafeteria, front lawn, and library. Way to go, Sis!

Sentimental Sunday: Dusty box? Genealogy gold!

In Sis's basement to look for Christmas stuff, we noticed a nondescript, dusty box sitting on the shelf. Curious, we lifted the lid. Family history gold!

Inside were Sis's elementary school report cards, diplomas from grade school/junior high/high school, her P.S. 103 autograph book (like mine but with her graduation corsage pressed inside!), complete programs from our graduations, and many other childhood artifacts. Also some ephemera like a ticket to her high school graduation, held at the then-elegant Paradise Theater in the Bronx, and a stack of college newspapers featuring the sorority she started at Lehman College (more in a later post).

The box held other treasures, including a certificate issued by Lebanon Hospital (now Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center), where Sis and I were born just before 6 pm, on a cold Wednesday afternoon in February [no dates, please].

The map at right shows that Lebanon Hospital is located on the Grand Concourse, once a ritzy area of the Bronx and a 30-minute cab ride away from where Daisy Schwartz Burk and her husband Harold Burk were living in the Northeast Bronx.

For years, Sis and I would gather around Mom as she worked in the kitchen and ask her to tell "The Hospital Story." She told it something like this: "We had no idea that twins were on the way. After Dad took me to the hospital, he sat in the waiting room, holding a roll of dimes for phone calls to tell the family whether the baby was a boy or a girl. After the first baby [that's me!] was born, the staff was about to give Dad the news when the doctor began delivering the surprise second baby [Sis!], just two minutes later. As soon as Dad found out, he pumped dime after dime into the pay phone calling relatives to tell them about the twins! You girls had to stay in heated cribs at the hospital for a few days until you weighed 5 lbs each; only then you were allowed to go home with us."

Tombstone Tuesday: Fernando Wood, a pivotal player in Lincoln movie

Cousin Larry, the genealogist of our Wood family, spotted a distant ancestor in the new Spielberg movie Lincoln: Fernando Wood. (He's played by Lee Pace, and has a surprisingly juicy part.)

Fernando (left) was mayor of New York in the 1850s/60s and, earlier, served as one of the state's representatives in the US Congress during the 1840s.

Among his bizarre ideas was that New York City should secede from the union (1861), becoming the Free City of Tri-Insula. (Thanks to Keith Muchowski of the Strawfoot Civil War/NYC blog for mentioning the proposed name of the city after secession!)

After initially supporting President Lincoln, he became an ardent supporter of the Confederate side and appears in Lincoln in that role. Fernando died in 1881 and is buried in New York City's Trinity Church Cemetery (tombstone above).

As Cousin Larry points out, you can choose your friends but not your family.

A Day to Remember Our Veterans

PFC Wood in Korea

Sgt. Dorothy H. Schwartz

Captain John Daniel Slatter

Bandmaster Henry Arthur Slatter

Privates Harold and Sidney Burk

My family tree and my husband's family tree include a number of vets from WWI and WWII, as well as peacetime service. A few are pictured above. Thank you to our veterans! Never forget.

Sorting Saturday: Ready for the Call from Vital Records?

I've become so accustomed to waiting....waiting....waiting for vital records after I snail-mail a request that I was a bit startled when the good folks in the health department of Elkhart County, Indiana, called me two days after I dropped my request for records into the mailbox.

To back up, I was working my way through the Larimer family history Our Larimer Family, written by John Clarence Work of Lancaster, Ohio in the 1950s, when I saw that hubby's mother had written corrections on the death dates of Brice S. Larimer (1819-1906?) and Lucy E. Bentley Larimer (1826-1900?), her great-grandparents. Ancestry family trees didn't agree on the dates, either.

Brice S. Larimer & Lucy E. Bentley 1847 marriage certificate

The Larimers zoomed to the top of my genealogy to-do list when an Ancestry message about a different part of the family tree led me to new info about the Larimers and their burial place in Elkhart County. I called the county and was told to download a form from the website and mail my request, along with a money order.

The genial clerk from Elkhart called me just two days later to clarify a couple of details and tell me that yes, she had both Brice and Lucy's records. And by the way, Lucy's mother's name wasn't the same as I had listed on my request, but the clerk believed that all the other details matched. Oh boy, a new genealogy mystery!

But there's more. I had sent more money than necessary, she said, so would I like any other records from Elkhart, as long as they were filed in 1888 or later?

Ooooops, I hadn't anticipated such responsive service, and I asked to call her back after I shuffled through my files. I quickly compiled a "wish list" of relatives, called, and rattled them off to her. Again she returned my call to finalize the record order. By Tuesday, I should have the copies in hand.

Thank you, Elkhart County, and you can be sure I'll have my family files in order the next time I send you a request!

Wordless Wednesday: Twins in Two Generations

Above is a photo of my mother Daisy Schwartz and her twin sister Dorothy Schwartz, taken when they were almost 3 years old. No notation of who's who...or where it was taken.

And below is a photo of me and my twin sister, taken when we were a year old. Again, no notation of who's who, but by family tradition, it's assumed that the twin with her mouth open must be me :)

Revisiting the Farkas Cousins' Visit to Ellis Island, 1996

My sister, my hubby, and I joined several cousins for a visit to Ellis Island in October 1996. It was a day to remember!

(You can see the Twin Towers behind us here and at far left in the photo below.)

Moritz Farkas, my great-grandpa, arrived at Ellis Island in May 1899. His wife Leni Kunstler Farkas arrived at Ellis Island in November 1900. An earlier generation put their names on the Wall of Honor.

Moritz and Leni's children, born in Hungary where the family originated, arrived in two waves: The first (including my grandma Hermina Farkas) landed at Ellis Island in November 1901; the second landed in April 1903.

After touring the main building of Ellis Island, we cousins walked the grounds and found the names of our Farkas ancestors on the immigrants' wall.

Thanks to Cousin Betty, who spent 25+ years researching the Farkas family, we know a lot about this branch of the family tree.

2022 update: My twin and I have paid to put the names of four immigrant grandparents on the Ellis Island Wall of Honor: Theodore Schwartz and his wife, Hermina Farkas Schwartz, plus Isaac Burk and his wife, Henrietta Mahler Burk.

Sunday's Obituary: Elizabeth Jane Rinehart Steiner

Hubby's maternal great-grandma was Elizabeth Jane Rinehart Steiner, b. 8 February 1834 and d. 4 November 1905 in Wyandot county, Ohio. I know from Find-A-Grave that she's buried in the Old Mission Cemetery in Upper Sandusky, Ohio, where her husband Edward G. Steiner (1830-1880) and at least two of her children are buried.

Thanks to handwritten notes left by her daughter and granddaughter, I know Elizabeth's death date. Today I had the (rather late) brainstorm to look for her obit on the Ohio Obituary Index and voila! I'll be spending $2.50 to get her obit from the Wyandot Chief newspaper.

The 1900 Census, conducted on 7 June, shows Elizabeth living with her daughter Minnie Halbedel (spelled incorrectly in the Census of course) and son-in-law Edward Halbedel in Crane Township, Wyandot County, OH. This Census says she was born in Ohio in Feb 1834; her pa was from Pennsylvania and her ma from Delaware, still to be confirmed.

On the 107th anniversary of Elizabeth's passing, I'm thinking of her and looking for her ancestors!

October: Sandy, Snowtober, and Cousin Time

October 2011 - Days before Halloween

Note to self: Do NOT plan any travel for the last weekend in October.

In 2011, hubby and I were about to leave for a long weekend with family when the weather report gave us second thoughts about going north.

We stayed home instead, which meant we experienced the joy of 8 inches of heavy, wet snow that brought down a tree limb on our deck (left) and a limb across our driveway.

Luckily, we got the driveway cleared before the electricity went out and stayed out for 3 days. Sigh.

October 2012 - Cousin time

This year, we planned a museum weekend with my sis and the family of my wonderful second cousin Lois, who found me through this blog exactly two years ago this month.

Here we are, enjoying a bit of cousin fun --->  --->  --->



BUT with Hurricane Sandy headed our way, we had to cut the trip short. Luckily, my sis (who lives in a different state) was able to drive us to a train station where we took the l-o-n-g way back to our car. We immediately stocked up on food and batteries.

October 2012 - After Sandy

Hunkered down at home as Sandy lashed the area, we feared the worst but were pleasantly surprised not to lose power. More than 95% of my town is in the dark, but my street has electricity. Of course, as you can see above, a couple of trees crashed down in my yard, but nobody was hurt and nothing was damaged. A treat instead of a trick!**

** As of November 3, 28% of my town remains without power and all homes and businesses should have lights by Monday, thank goodness. Arborists working on a neighbor's downed trees came over and mulched our downed trees and removed the limb that was weighing down my electric lines. Supermarkets have restocked and the diner is doing a land-office business! Welcome to the new normal.

Surname Saturday: Facebooking Benjamin McClure and fam

This is the week I finally tried using Facebook for genealogy. After establishing a Benjamin McClure account and logging in as him, I proceeded to the bottom of the Facebook timeline page, where I clicked "Create a page" and created a public page that I called "McClure Family Tree - from John McClure to Brice Larimer McClure."

Why? Because in my searches of Facebook, I found about a dozen other McClure family pages, some for reunions and some for family communications...but none, so far as I can tell, connected with the McClure branch I'm researching. So I want anybody who lands on my McClure page to instantly see which line of the family this page is for.

In PowerPoint, I created a sketchy pedigree chart showing Benjamin* (his box is at top right, outlined in red) and his wife and their son, who married Margaret Jane Larimer and, finally, their son, Brice Larimer McClure. That's hubby's grandpa. I exported this pedigree as a .jpg and then posted it as the cover photo for the McClure Family Tree public page. (Trust me, it looks better on FB than it does in this screen shot I took.)

Every couple of days, I'll be posting on both pages, excerpting from Benjamin's obit and listing facts and relatives in the hope that someone else researching this family will connect with me.
 

2022 update: I've had contacts with a few McClure distant cousins via this FB page! Great cousin bait.

*I could have included Benjamin's dad, John McClure and his mom, Ann McFall McClure, but space is a bit tight, as you can see.

Tech Tuesday: Experimenting with Facebook for Genealogy

Can Facebook help me research the Benjamin McClure family?

I've been tracing the McClure family tree, and I know that Benjamin is hubby's g-g-grandpa on his father's side. Earlier this year, I finally located this ancestor's obituary (complete with woodcut portrait, above).

Erin, the program chair and a recent speaker at my local genealogy club, suggested creating a "public figure" page on Facebook to try to attract other researchers and distant relatives who are interested in a certain family or ancestor.

I'm trying a variation of that idea. I created a FB account as Benji, uploaded this woodcut as his profile photo, and have been posting a little about his life to fill out his Facebook page. I've also friended him from my real FB account and explained to my fam and friends that Benji's account is an experiment.

His account is Benjamin.McClure.35 (so if you search for him, you'll probably have to use this "name" because there are too many guys of this name on FB).*

Since Benji's birthday is April 30, 1812, I couldn't enter that info into FB. Instead, I gave him a bday that's exactly one century later. I showed his "location" as Wabash, Indiana, where he lived for most of his life. His profession is "genealogy researcher." LOL! (In reality, he was a farmer.) ** 2022 update: Benji's description now explains that he's the ancestor-in-law of, well, me! Just wanted to clarifyl

* For earlier followup, please see my post here. 

Two Servings of Heritage Pie (with Surnames!)

Thanks to Randy Seaver, Sheri Fenley, and Diane Haddad), I've been thinking about creating genealogical heritage pie charts for hubby and me. Alas, I don't have enough info to go back to all of our great-great-grandparents, so I had to adapt the idea...for now.

At left is Wally's heritage pie for his great-grandparents. He's 25% UK (2022 update: the Slatter line is England but now I know the Shehen was originally from Ireland).

The rest of his great-grands (Wood, Larimer, Demarest, Steiner, McClure, Rinehart) were from the US. The one Ohio great-grand might actually be from Pennsylvania, but we're not sure yet.

The second heritage pie, below, is for Sis and me, showing our grandparents' origins.

We're 50% Hungarian (both maternal grandparents were from Hungary), 25% Lithuanian, and 25% Latvian.

I do know the names of my great-grands on the Farkas and Schwartz trees, and can be sure (as of 2022) that they were from Hungary, as well.

The Latvian great-grands (Birk) are mostly a mystery, and I know nothing at all about the Lithuanian (Mahler) great-grands (if that's where they were from). At least I now, in 2022, have names to research.

Sunday's Obituary: Alex Farkas and the Farkas Family Tree

Thanks to my wonderful cuz Betty, who's spent about 25+ years researching our Farkas ancestry, the family tree is full of leaves. And it's full of stories that Betty has collected from family members over the years and written down for the benefit of future generations.

There are just a few missing dates, including the exact day when my great-uncle Alex died. Alex (real name: Sandor) was the oldest of 11 offspring of Moritz Farkas and Leni Kuntsler. My grandma Hermina Farkas Schwartz was the second-oldest in the family (the oldest girl).

Today I was noodling around on Ancestry and decided to look for his obit. Sure enough, I found it in a newspaper in mid-January, 1948. And because the Farkas Family Tree placed the notice, I can be 100% sure that this is the correct Alex Farkas.

Wordless Wednesday: Three Wood Brothers

Three of the four Wood brothers are in this photo: Edgar James (the oldest), Wallis W. (next-oldest), and John A. (third of four).

My guesstimate of the year is between 1911 and 1913.

Sentimental Sunday: Remember the Hardy Boys?

Hubby's preteen room in Cleveland Heights, OH

When hubby was in grade school, he was a big fan of the Hardy Boys mysteries.

You can see his collection of books from the series on the top shelf of his bookcase (and guess the era by looking at the radiator at right).

Those Hardy Boys books have been out of his collection for a long, long time...but this b/w photo of his bedroom is a fun reminder.

Sentimental Sunday: Got a Token for the IRT?

Top row: 1953, 1970, 1980 tokens; bottom row: 1979, 1986, 1995 tokens

Growing up in the Bronx, the IRT subway was the fastest way to get from the northern end of the city to anywhere else in the Big Apple. (IRT is short for Interborough Rapid Transit.) My sisters and I rode the subway to high school. And of course we dropped a subway token into the turnstile to get to "the city"--Manhattan--for any reason. We thought nothing of being a straphanger for an hour to get to a museum or work or Radio City Music Hall. My penny loafers had tokens instead of pennies, just in case I was ever stranded somewhere and needed carfare.

Today's New York Times discusses and pictures 15 additional objects that readers chose to represent New York City, supplementing a list of 50 objects printed by the Times a few weeks ago. Alas, the iconic subway token pictured in the article (with the cutout Y) has now been consigned to the scrapheap of history by undistinguished MetroCards (introduced in 2003).

But as shown above, I have a sentimental collection of tokens, and I identified the intro year of each with the help of a NYC Subway website (unaffiliated with the actual subway).

One treasured keepsake in my collection is a token issued at only one place, the bus terminal at Orchard Beach in the Bronx, to get on a bus and connect with a subway or another bus elsewhere in the borough. The bus terminal was operated by the Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority (MABSTOA)--shortened to M.A.B. in the center of the token, shown below.

Orchard Beach token issued by Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority

On a summer's day, Sis and I would take a bus up Pelham Parkway to connect with a second bus going to the Riviera of the Bronx. On the return trip, we'd line up at the beach bus terminal, buy a token, drop it into the turnstile slot, and board the bus that would take us back to Pelham Parkway for the connection with our bus home. Total travel time was about 40 minutes, if memory serves, and the return trip was sandier, of course.

Sentimental Sunday: Mayflower Day

Thanks to Heather Wilkinson Rojo for pointing out that today is Mayflower Day, the day in 1620 when the Mayflower sailed away from Plymouth, England to the New World.

Hubby had five ancestors on the Mayflower:

• Degory Priest (whose line led through the Coombs family to Sarah Hatch, who married James Cushman; their granddaughter Lydia was the mother of Harriet Taber, who married Isaiah Wood Sr. in Massachusetts in 1806. Harriet and Isaiah were hubby's g-g-grandparents).
• Isaac Allerton, Mary Norris, and Mary Allerton (Mary Allerton Cushman's son Eleazer Cushman married Elizabeth Royal Coombs, g-grandaughter of Degory Priest, linking these ancestors to the family tree of Degory Priest).
• Francis Cooke 

Wedding Wednesday: Great-Grand-Uncle Joe Marries Eva

Joe Jacobs and Eva Michalovsky marriage certificate, 1890

My great-grandma Tillie Jacobs Mahler had a brother, Joe Jacobs, and thanks to my great-aunt Ida's handwritten records of "Who's Who to Me," I found out that Joe's wife was Eva (Michalovsky). They married on March 2, 1890 in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

Faster than you can say "New York minute," I checked the Italian Genealogical Group's vital records index and sent to the NYC authorities for Joe and Eva's marriage certificate.

Now I'm able to confirm that Joe and Tillie's mother was Rachel Jacobs--and Tillie's maiden name was Shuham. Joe and Tillie's father was Jona Jacob, according to the cert, but other documents show the father's given names as "Julius Yainu." Whether the name was actually Jacob or Jacobs depends on which records I look at...Still, progress!

REAL progress because one of the two witnesses listed on Joe and Eva's marriage cert is "M. Mahler." That's Meyer Mahler, Tillie's husband (my great-grandpa). Woo hoo!

Now a surprise. The bride, groom, and one witness signed with X.

Presumably that means Joe, Eva, and Meyer couldn't write in English. Hmm. And who was "H. Kassel," the second witness?

By the way, Joe and Eva had five children: Flora Jacobs (b. 1890), Louis Jacobs (b. 1891), Morris Jacobs (1895), Frank Jacobs (1897), and Hilda Jacobs* (1899). Any Jacobs cousins out there? Please get in touch!

*Cuz Lois remembered that Hilda married a man with the last name of Wilner. That one name helped me trace some of her family! Thank you, cuz :)

Remembering September 11, 2001, 11 Years Later

(I wrote the following post on September 11, 2009, and I'm repeating with a few small changes because the images and feelings are still as vivid as they were 11 years ago...)

Newspapers in Rome on September 12, 2001

On a 2-week tour of Italy, I was sitting in the public room of a small hotel in Rome during afternoon siesta hours on September 11th. The TV was on in the corner, showing an Italian soap opera, and I was stitching a needlepoint stocking for my niece's baby son, who had been born just a month earlier.

Suddenly the TV picture switched to a jet slamming into one of the Twin Towers, and the station replayed that clip several times as Italian newscasters discussed what was happening. The crawl at bottom of the screen credited CNN for the footage, and I quickly realized that any English-language commentary was being replaced by Italian commentary. But I did notice the word "live" and it became clear that the picture of the damaged Twin Towers was being broadcast in real time.

I found my husband and we found one of the tour guides, who joined the group gathered by the small TV. As we watched in shock, the second jet rammed the Twin Towers and our guide translated what the news anchors were saying. We sat numb and horrified as the first Tower collapsed.

By now many tour members were already on the phone trying to call friends and relatives in NYC, even though we'd already heard that the lines were jammed and calls weren't getting through. Instead many of us went to the nearest Internet point to check online news sites and send e-mails to our NY connections.

The rest of that day is a blur, although I know the guides suggested a quiet walking tour of one of the seven hills. For the next few days, whenever our group was in public, Italians would come up to us, ask if we were American, and express their shock over the attacks and their support for us in our sorrow.

We were visiting the Vatican that Friday during the time when the worldwide period of silence was observed. Everyone in the Vatican stopped what they were doing and stood up, respectfully standing in place for three minutes with heads bowed, in silent prayer or contemplation or sorrow. Standing quietly in Rome with the world taking a break from everyday life to mourn with our country, I felt a comforting sense of peace and solidarity.

Today, the anniversary of that tragic day still brings sadness but it also brings remembrance about the lives saved and the shared feeling of joining with mourners in Italy during that moment of silence.

Sentimental Sunday: Sunday in Central Park

Digitizing photos has brought me face to face with family faces as I've never seen them. An example: a photo of my hubby, without a beard. And interestingly, my late father-in-law Edgar James Wood's diary for Tuesday, September 22, when this photo was taken, says: "W & I took the children to the Children's Zoo in Central Park for the afternoon." ("W" is Edgar's abbreviation for his son.)

Surname Saturday: The Slatter family

Today I'm back on the genealogy trail of the Slatters of England, Canada, and Ohio, including John Slatter (b. 1838 in Oxfordshire, England, d. 1901 in Cleveland, OH) and Mary Shehen (b. 1801? in Marylebone, England, d. ?). These are hubby's great-grandfather and great-grandmother

Captain John Slatter, 48th Highlanders

John and Mary had 4 sons and 2 daughters. I've found no trace of the adult life of Thomas John Slatter, the oldest child--but I do know where the other 5 children settled down and lived their lives.

Albert William Slatter (1862-1935) moved to London, Ontario, Canada and became bandmaster of the 7th London Fusiliers. He and his wife Eleanor N. Slatter (1866-?) had 6 children: Maud, Ada, Albert, Earnest [sic], Glynn, and John. 

John Daniel Slatter* (1864-1954) moved to Toronto, Canada and became the celebrated bandmaster of the 48th Highlanders (see photo). John married Sophie Mary Elizabeth LeGallais and they had 6 children who survived infancy: Albert Matthew, Frederick William, Edith Sophie (who, sadly, died in her 20s), Bessie Louise, Walter John, and Mabel Alice. When Captain Jack died in 1954, his obit listed as survivors: Mabel Davidson, Bert Slatter, Walter Slatter, and Fred Slatter. 

Henry Arthur Slatter (1866-1942), John's younger brother, was in military bands in London, England, and later moved to Vancouver, where he was bandmaster of the 72nd Seaforth Highlanders. Henry and wife Alice Good had 3 children who survived infancy: Arthur Albert, John Henry, and Dorothy Florence. 

Dorothy Baker Nicholas (?) and Edith Baker Wise (?) with Edgar James Wood

Adelaide Mary Ann Slatter (1868-1947) moved to Ohio and married James Sills Baker. They had 2 children, Dorothy Louise and Edith Eleanor. The photo above shows cousins Dorothy and Edith, with my late father-in-law Edgar James Wood. We haven't yet reconnected with Dorothy's children (Madelyn Nicholas, Joan Nicholas, and Alfred Nicholas).

The baby sister of the Slatter family was Mary Slatter (1869-1925), hubby's grandma, who married grandpa James Edgar Wood on September 21, 1898 in Toledo, Ohio. 2022 update: I now know a lot about the Slatters, summarized on my ancestor landing page here!

*Jack Shea recently left a comment on one of my posts about Capt. Jack, saying: "The Dileas, the Regimental history, says that he was as ramrod-straight the day he retired as the day he joined the Regiment." Also he mentioned that Capt. Jack received the Member of the Order of the British Empire, a meritorious service medal, and a King George V Silver Jubilee Medal, all of which are in the Regimental Museum, I believe.

Tuesday's Tip: Scan BIG, Then Fiddle Around

My niece had never seen her paternal grandfather (he died before she was born) so when I had an opportunity to borrow a photo of him for scanning, I jumped at the chance. Here's the way the snapshot looked when scanned at 1200 dots per inch on my home scanner (a Canon, with accessories for scanning slides as well as photos/documents):

This file is 2MB, big enough to allow some detail once I crop. Using the free photo management program Picasa, I cropped to show just Grandpa's head and the baby he's holding.

Picasa has a button marked "I'm feeling lucky" that automatically adjusts color and contrast. Click on it, and the result is Grandpa and baby as shown here. I made one small additional adjustment: I sharpened the image. And that's it.

I was actually lucky: This photo had no thumb-tack holes, dust fluffs, or smudges to be retouched out. Now future generations will know what Grandpa looked like while holding his first grandchild, only 4 months old! And the whole process took just a couple of minutes, with freebie software.

Motivation Monday: Doin' the Digital!

I'm doin' the digital--scanning some slides and photos for two projects: (1) to create a photo book of the trips that hubby and I have taken over the years and (2) to add to the photos illustrating the annual family calendar for 2013.

Trouble is, I keep rediscovering photos that bring back great memories and motivate me to scan more and more. At this rate, the "travel" book will have 300 pages and the family calendar will be 29 months long :) Here are some of the gems I unearthed while doin' the digital.

Wood cousins reunion, 1998

Above, a 1998 photo of a very special reunion of hubby's Wood first cousins, the first time he can remember that all the cousins were together at one time in one place. This event will be a two-page spread in the photo book.

Glamorous sis :)

The b/w photo is a forgotten gem: My sister in her gorgeous movie-star haircut, which lasted only a week or two because it was just too high maintenance. Sis, isn't it lucky this glam photo survives (and is now digital)?

Happy birthday, Aunt Lindy!

Finally, I scanned a 1988 photo of hubby with his favorite Aunt Lindy, standing in front of her ecofriendly home in Michigan. She's celebrating a special birthday this month. Great relatives, great memories!

Those Places Thursday: Plaquemine, Where Thomas Married Mary

Hurricane Isaac is pounding Plaquemine Parish, LA today...and my heart goes out to the folks who are evacuating or flooded out.

The Wood family has a strong genealogical connection to Plaquemine: It's the place  where Thomas Haskell Wood (b. 1809) married Mary Amanda Demarest (b. 1831 in NYC) on 14 May 1845. Thomas (hubby's g-grandpa) was a carpenter (according to the 1850 Census), one of many in the Wood family tree.

The first of their 17 children, Jane Ann Wood, arrived in 1846 (and was baptized in 1847 at St. Gabriel Church, shown above). After Jane came Thomas Jefferson Isaiah Haskell Wood, born in Plaquemine in 1848, and John Marshall Taber Wood, born in Plaquemine in 1850.

By 1851, Thomas and Mary and their three children had left Plaquemine...but a family mystery remains: How did Mary, a 14-year-old from Manhattan, meet Thomas, who was from New England, and manage to travel to Plaquemine to be married in 1845??

Sentimental Sunday: Sweet Souvenirs

Although hubby and I are NOT collectors of sugar packets, occasionally we'll pocket one that reminds us of a sweet experience.

Clockwise from top:

12 o'clock position: We were in Salzburg for our honeymoon and picked up the Restaurant Cafe Winkler's sugar packet.

3 o'clock position: We were in Oregon for a niece's bat mitzvah and went to Mt Hood's Timberline Lodge. (That year, the snow was so high that it covered most of the windows of rooms on the 2d floor of the lodge!)

6 and 9 o'clock: Hubby was in Italy and picked up these packets at small cafes where he ate, just for fun. (Great memories!)

The tradition in hubby's family is to save ticket stubs and other ephemera from trips, so these are part of the haul we brought home once in a while.

Blogoversary #4 - Thank you, readers and cousins

Today is the 4th anniversary of starting Climbing My Family Tree. I'd been tracing my roots since 1998 or so, but it took 10 years for me to decide to blog about genealogy. Now, 327 posts later, I've learned a lot from the many bloggers who've been kind enough to comment on my blog entries, and even more by reading blogs written by fellow Geneabloggers. What a journey--and it's only just begun.

My very first post was about a family mystery: "When did great-grandpa die?" I found his death date by using the excellent NYC vital records indexes on the Italian Genealogy Group's site, sent for his death cert, and immediately had more leads to follow.

I've had many wonderful breakthroughs since then, but what I treasure the most is connecting with cousins, on both sides of my family tree and my husband's trees, sometimes with the help of you, my dear readers. Among the genealogical high points chronicled in this blog are:

Cousin Larry and his wife, Maureen, with my hubby

• Cousin Larry's visit in 2008, when we saw the family bible for the first time. He and I connected through Ancestry surname message board queries about Thomas Haskell Wood, hubby's g-grandfather.
• Using tips in Dan Lynch's Google Your Family Tree book to locate my 1st cousin Ira, who I hadn't seen for many years before our reunion in 2009. Together we've reminisced about our Mahler ancestors and tried to identify old photos. Hi Ira, see you tomorrow (really!).
• Researching "sideways" to get new insights led me, in 2009, to two 2d cousins I never knew I had. Plus I gained an "honorary" cousin and together we're researching the Gelbman and Schwartz families.
• Staying in touch with 1st cousins, once removed, from my mother's side of the family, with genealogical discussions every few months. Cuz Betty has traced the Farkas Family Tree, and Cuz Harriet helped me with recollections of the Schwartz side (quite intensively in 2010).



Great-aunt Ida, Dad, and Mom







• Having a 2d cousin from the Mahler side find ME through this blog in 2010 was very exciting! Cuz Lois and her family are delightful and we see each other a couple of times a year now. Above, a photo of her mom, Ida, with my parents just before they were married.
• Thanks to my blog readers, I found out in 2011 that the tall man in the military uniform was hubby's great-uncle, Captain John D. Slatter, of the 48th Highlanders in Toronto (who we in the family now call "Capt. Jack"). See photo below right!
• In 2012, I was able to determine, conclusively, that my husband's Larimer and McClure family connections lead back to Ireland, a discovery I wrote about in my blog post "I married him for his ancestors, St. Paddy's Day edition."

Great-uncle Capt. Jack Slatter

I'm gonna keep on bloggin'. It's fun and has brought me many smiles.

Happy blogoversary to me and my family trees!

2022 update: Still blogging after all these years!

Workday Wednesday: Ancestors Who Worked in Wood

James Edgar Wood and crew building in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, February 1915

With a surname like Wood, it's not surprising how many of hubby's ancestors worked in wood. His grandfather, James Edgar Wood, built homes in Cleveland Heights, Ohio for many years. Above is only one of several we have photos of!

James Edgar's father, Thomas Haskell Wood, was a railroad carpenter when he lived in Toledo, Ohio (1870 Census says so). James Edgar's older brothers, Francis Ellery Wood and Marion Elton Wood, were both carpenters (1900 Census).

My grandfather, Isaac Burk (or Birk), was a cabinetmaker and carpenter, according to his immigration and Census records. Birk is related to birch, so his family probably had other craftsmen who worked in wood.

52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy: Ancestor Legends--"Our Larimer Family"

My husband is descended from Robert Larimer, whose arrival in the New World is the stuff of legends.

According to John Clarence Work of Lancaster, Ohio, who compiled "Our Larimer Family" as part of Colonial & Revolutionary Families of Pennsylvania, Vol 3, pg 1508, the legend goes like this:

Rober Larimer came from the North of Ireland in the year 1740. His father fitted him out with a stock of Irish linen, and with some money he left the 'old country' to seek his fortune in the new.

That was before the days of steam navigation, the passage by sailing vessels was slow and often fraught with great danger. The vessel on which he embarked was wrecked and most of the crew and passengers were lost. Our great-grandfather [sic] lost everything but his life, he and a few others (tradition records only one other man) were cast upon an island, and were picked up by a French or Spanish vessel and brought to our American shore.

The Captain of the vessel sold great-great-grandfather's time for his fare; this was contrary to the law and custom. He was sold to a farmer who lived up the river not far from Philadelphia. He was a heartless fellow and treated our g-g-grandfather like a slave. He served this man for some time, history does not record how long.

One frosty morning he was sent by the river route to the mill, started in a skiff or canoe without hat, coat or shoes. On the way he stopped at the home of a brother of his "master" to warm. The brother had a different thought. He gave the young man a coat, hat and shoes and remarked, he thought his brother was a hog for sending a man out dressed like that on such a cold morning.

Our ancestor thought he had served long enough time and decided from that time to be on his own. He never returned, made his way to the interior of Pennsylvania "Kishocoquillas Valley" and later married Marry Gallagher or O'Gallagher, born in the North of Ireland, 1721. She died in Pa. in 1800, before any of the Larimer family moved to Ohio.

They were the parents of four children, all born in Pennsylvania: Isaac, Ebenezer, Phoebe, and Grizell. 

Hubby is descended from Isaac Larimer Sr, 1771-1823, the son of Robert Larimer and Mary Gallagher or O'Gallagher. His line runs: Isaac Larimer Sr. & Rachel Smith...John Larimer & Elizabeth Woods...Brice Larimer & Lucy Bentley...Margaret Jane Larimer & William Madison McClure...Brice Larimer McClure & Floyda Mabel Steiner. And so on!

  

Sunday's Obituary: Two Steiner Sisters

Some of the obituaries I've collected have been extremely helpful in tracing family histories. Others, not so much.

Above, the informative obituary for Floyda Mabel Steiner McClure, husband of Brice Larimer McClure. Floyda's parents' names are included--and her mother's maiden name. That seems progressive for 1948 in the small town of Upper Sandusky, Ohio. (The obit doesn't spell her husband's name correctly, but I knew who he was!)

At right, the skimpy obit for Margaret Mary Steiner Post, wife of Elroy D. Post. She died in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1913. Her first name isn't mentioned, and her husband's name has been modernized from Elroy to Edward. The writer didn't even get the name of her burial town correct--it's Upper Sandusky, Ohio. I know little about Maggie's life, except that she lived with husband Elroy in Knoxville for years, where he owned and operated a sign painting company. No children. On Findagrave.com, she's listed as Margaret Elizabeth Post, and her maiden name of Steiner is listed too.

Now here's a bit of a mystery: Elroy Post remarried after his first wife Margaret died, and he had one child with his second wife, a daughter named Margaret. When Elroy died in 1929, he was living in Knoxville and still married to his second wife, Merida. However, he was buried in Old Mission Cemetery in Upper Sandusky, Ohio, right next to his first wife, Margaret Mary Steiner Post. Hmmmm?!

Military Monday: Sgt. Dorothy Schwartz's WWII Adventures

From April 1943 to August 1945, my aunt Dorothy H. Schwartz was a member of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps serving overseas. She enlisted in Sept 1942 and was a top stenographer, training first with the 16th company, 3d regiment, Fort Des Moines U.S. Army post branch in Ft Des Moines, Iowa. She complained in a letter back home that during the fall of 1942, WAACs had not yet gotten winter uniforms. Des Moines was cold and snowy and yet "we're still in seersuckers."

Within months, she was serving overseas in support of a bombardment unit "somewhere in England," as this April 18, 1944 clipping from the Home News (Bronx, NY) indicates. It describes Sgt. Dorothy Schwartz as "daughter of Mr. & Mrs. Theodore Schwartz, 600 E. 178 St" and mentions that an old-fashioned coal stove furnishes heat for her hut, which looks like corrugated metal to me.

In 1945, Sgt. Schwartz received the Bronze Star Medal for "meritorious service in direct support of operations against the enemy."

During 17 months of bombardment leading up to V-E Day, she took shorthand listening in on the phone as commanders discussed when and where to bomb the enemy.

Her function was vitally important for ensuring that bombers received the correct orders and for coordinating military actions so our Allied troops stayed out of the way of our bombs.