Tombstone Tuesday: Elroy Post, Painter

Quick, what occupation do you think hubby's great-uncle Elroy pursued?

Well, you're partly right.

Hubby's great-aunt Margaret Mary Steiner (1861-1913) married Elroy D. Post (1858-1929) in 1883.

They soon moved to Knoxville, Tennessee, where he was a sign painter in his own business for more than 30 years.

Although Maggie died in Knoxville, she was buried in her home town of Upper Sandusky, Ohio, in the Old Mission Cemetery. Above, the family plot marker. At right, Maggie's gravestone.

Elroy remarried a few years later, to Merida, and the couple named their only child after Elroy's first wife. When Elroy died, he, too, was buried in Old Mission Cemetery, right next to his first wife, Maggie. They're the only two in the Post plot. Hmmm.

Friday's Faces from the Past Go Home with a Granddaughter

Edward and Mary (left) with friend at Coney Island

My grandfather Teddy Schwartz and his older brother Samuel Schwartz scraped up money to bring their younger sister Mary Schwartz to New York City from their hometown of Ungvar, Hungary in November, 1906.

In 1913, Mary married Edward Wirtschafter, who founded a furrier business in the Big Apple.

More than 80 years after the photo below was taken, my cousin Harriet still remembered sitting beside her brother Burton in the studio and wearing a lovely pink chiffon dress made by her mother. They're Ed and Mary's children.







Now all these wonderful faces from the past are going home with Mary and Ed's granddaughter.

Wishful Wednesday: Dunvegan Castle, Home of Clan MacLeod (and the McClures)

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Thanks the carefully-researched genealogical publication Following the McClures--Donegal to Botetourt, we know that hubby is descended from Halbert McClure (1864-1754).

Although Halbert and his father James Andrew McClure were born in County Donegal, Ireland, the family was originally from Isle of Skye in Scotland. The McClures were a sept of MacLeod of Harris, which connects the family to Dunvegan Castle, ancestral home of Clan MacLeod. 

Wishing for a visit to the majestic Dunvegan Castle on beautiful Isle of Skye, and a chance to see the countryside where McClure ancestors lived for most of the past millennium.

Surname Saturday and Getting Down to the DNA

The newly enhanced Ancestry DNA results are a much closer match for hubby's family tree origins than the old version. Above, the new map of his origins. Below, the summary of his origins, which make sense in the context of the updated Heritage Pie I created for him earlier this year.

Great Britain (England, No. Ireland, Scotland) and Ireland were the original homes of these families from hubby's tree:

• Bentley 
• Denning 
• Larimer
• McClure
• Shehen 
• Slatter 
• Taber 
• Wood

At left, 2022 snapshot of DNA at LivingDNA.

Western Europe was the original home of these families from hubby's tree:

• Demarest
• Nitchie
• Shank
• Steiner
• Rinehart

Travel Tuesday: City Grandpa Visits the Country

After Grandpa Theodore (Tivador) Schwartz (1887-1965) left his home in Ungvar, Hungary (now Uzhorod, Ukraine), he settled in New York City.

Except for a handful of vacations to the bungalow belt of New York State and one honeymoon trip to Florida decades after his 1911 wedding to Hermina Farkas (1886-1964), Teddy stuck to city life.

He never had a car and never learned to drive--why would he, with trolleys, buses, and subways steps away from his business and apartment in the Bronx?

Here are two photos from the late 1920s and 1930s, contrasting Teddy's usual daily life (below, in his Bronx grocery store, Teddy's Dairy) with two of his rare visits to the country (above).

In the country we see Grandpa Teddy with John, his assistant at the grocery. Where were they? At that time, the Bronx still had some very rural areas, so it could have been within a trolley or subway ride--or possibly in Westchester? John obviously had a car, so they may have taken a day trip even further.

The photos are undated, but judging by the amount of hair that Teddy has and his face, the one at top left looks like it was taken around the same time as the photo at bottom, where Teddy is standing with John in front of the grocery store in 1934. The photo with Teddy and John and John's car is clearly earlier, judging by the age of the car.

Genealogy Tip Jar: Gen Societies and Historical Societies on Facebook

Today's Geneabloggers Genealogy Tip Jar topic is: Genealogical and Historical Societies (#gentipjar). So here's a 21st century twist: Finding those resources on Facebook. Often it's as easy as searching in Facebook using the location and adding the word "genealogy" or "historical society." But there's an easier way, as I'll mention below.

My Facebook genealogy alter ego, Benjamin McClure, uses the family tree shown above as his cover photo. Benji has "liked" or joined the pages of a number of local genealogical societies on FB, including:

• Adams County, Ohio Genealogy Researchers
• Crawford County Ohio History & Genealogy 
• British Isles Genealogy
• Ohio Historical Society
• Genealogical Society of Ireland
• Indiana Genealogical Society
• Elkhart Genealogical Society
• Genealogy Club of Newtown, CT

Why Facebook? Because the people who post on these pages are very knowledgeable about their areas and willing to help each other with ideas, local info, even photos. In some cases, you have to request an invite; in others, you simply "like."

On the Adams County FB page, I requested an invite, and once approved, I posted a query about Benji's in-laws. Another participant on that site soon sent me a file listing early marriages in that county--including several members of the McClure family and the Denning family. What a find!

Friday's Faces from the Past: Grandma as a Young Lady

Grandma Hermina Farkas Schwartz (1886-1964) arrived in New York City from Hungary two days after her 15th birthday. She was accompanied by her older brother Alex and two younger sisters, Ella and Freda.

The photo at left was taken about 1910, by Gustav Beldegreen, the photographer who served as official photographer for the Kossuth Ferenc Hungarian Literary Sick and Benevolent Society--a group that my Farkas relatives helped to found in NYC.

This photo is now featured in a book about Hungarian photographers who came to America, including Beldegreen.

At right, another Beldegreen photo of my grandma, possibly the same day but certainly around the same time as the photo above.

Given that Grandma was an expert seamstress and made her living sewing silk ties, she might even have stitched the stylish dress she's wearing.

She makes quite the fashion statement with her scarf, hat, umbrella, gloves, and shoes!

These photos were probably taken the year before grandma married Theodore (Tivador) Schwartz (1887-1965), who was from Ungvar, Hungary and who encouraged both his brother Simon (renamed Samuel) and his sister Mary (Marushka) to come to America.