City Directories: Who's There? Who's Missing?

City directories were published frequently, making them an important source of info during years that fall between the Census. There's some element of luck--are directories available for the town or city where an ancestor lived? Are the directories available for the years being researched? But when the answer to both questions is yes, directories are fabulous for showing who was there, at that time and place. Equally important, a directory can indicate who is NOT there.

I just used directories to help solve a long-standing family history mystery. It all started with the complicated marital affairs of my husband's grandfather, James Edgar Wood. As I wrote yesterday, he married Mary Slatter in 1898, and when she died in 1925, he married Alice Hopperton Unger. In the spring of 1928, James divorced Alice. Later that year, James married Carolina "Carrie" Foltz Cragg (an in-law of his nephew).

Looking for Carrie Wood's Listing  

What became of Carrie? She wasn't with James when he died. In fact, his death cert says he was widowed, and lists his deceased wife as Mary (the first wife). The informant was James's oldest son, who presumably was aware of at least one of the two marriages after Mary Slatter Wood's death. Like I said, it was complicated. Anyway...

My next stop was the Census, where Carrie was shown with James in 1930 in Jackson, Michigan, the same city where they were married in 1928.

Next, I looked at the city directories for Jackson, Michigan. Carrie was listed with James up to the year 1933. See the entry, at top, for that year.

But Carrie was missing from James's listing in 1935 in Jackson. Where did she go?

The wonderful cousin who's our long-time Wood genealogist suggested I look in Toledo (where James was born and where one of Carrie's grown children lived) or Cleveland (that's where James died). I found no Carrie Wood in the Toledo city directory, not even in the household of her daughter and son-in-law, who were listed in the directories. Then I tried something different.

Breakthrough Via Carrie's Grown Children

I looked at Carrie's other two children in the 1930s. One was married in 1935 in Jackson, MI. His actual marriage license was available and when I looked closely, I noticed one of the witnesses was . . . Carrie, his mom! There was her address--in Toledo, living with a daughter. Carrie was missing from the Toledo city directory, but she was noted on her son's marriage license in Jackson, where she must have gone for the wedding.

Now I returned to Family Search and looked for the death of Carolina Wood in Toledo, Ohio, between 1935 and 1939. I chose 1939 as the end date because that was when James died.

Immediately, up popped the death certificate for Caroline Wood. She had been diagnosed with cancer in 1933 and died in October, 1935, in Toledo.

This is definitely the correct Carrie because her daughter is the informant and lists Carrie's father's name, country of birth, and so on. The details are a good match, except for the name being "Caroline" instead of "Carolina." Carrie's address at the time of her death was the same as that of her daughter, the informant. So when Carrie became ill, it seems she went to live with her daughter, who took care of her until her death.

And to think it was Carrie's absence from the Jackson city directories after 1933 that provided a crucial clue in the trail of research that led to finding her final resting place in Woodlawn Cemetery, Toledo.

"He Said, She Said" in Grandpa's Divorce

This is a photo of my husband's grandpa, James Edgar Wood (1871-1939). At the time of this photo, he was married to grandma Mary Slatter Wood (1869-1925), and they made their home in Cleveland, Ohio. After Mary died, James married his nephew's mother-in-law: Carolina "Carrie" Foltz Cragg (1871-?). The marriage was arranged to put a widow and a widower together, so neither would be alone, I was told by my husband's genealogist cousin.

Surprise! Wife #2 Before Wife #3

Several years ago, I unexpectedly discovered that James was married to wife #2 before he married Carrie. Wife #2 was Alice Hopperton Unger (1884-1930), who married James in Cleveland in September, 1926.

My late father-in-law (James's oldest son) said--in a 1980s interview--he believed his father married his housekeeper and there was some "hanky-panky" involved. With hindsight, it sounds like he was thinking of Alice, not Carrie, but he never named the woman and didn't have much to say about the whole thing.

Not so long ago, I found Alice's death cert and learned that she died in 1930 of heart problems. James married wife #3 in October, 1928. Obviously, James's marriage #2 was somehow dissolved before Alice's death and his marriage to wife #3. I narrowed the time frame to 1927-8 and began searching for divorce papers. I really wanted to know more to help round out our understanding of James as a person, and his relationships to people around him.

Surprise! James vs Alice AND Alice vs James 

Don't hesitate to look for divorce records. I called the clerk of the court at Cuyahoga County's to ask about divorce records from 1927-8. I was told to send an email with specific details. A few weeks later, the county clerk called me to say they had located the divorce records! They popped a photocopy in the mail to me for free. Twenty-five pages of divorce records! Surprisingly, not only did James try to divorce Alice, Alice filed her own petition for divorce soon afterward.

According to the paperwork, James filed for divorce on March 12, 1927. He complained that he and Alice had been separated since February, 1927. He charged she was "guilty of gross neglect of duty and extreme cruelty" toward him, saying she "refused to provide this plaintiff with his meals, laundry and care and neglected her household duties." He further complained that Alice "refused to bear children for him."

Bear in mind that James was 57 years old at the time he filed for divorce, and Alice was 43. James's youngest child was already 17. Hard for me to believe that James really wanted children with Alice,  or that Alice was eager to have children, but this is only speculation. I believe James's complaint relates to the "hanky-panky" my father-in-law remembered (his words, not mine).

For her part, Alice sued James for divorce in April, 1927. She said James hit her, causing her to leave their home the very next day; he was "quarrelsome" and was "penurious," not wanting to spend "for the necessities of life." Leading up to the separation, Alice had been ill and unable to perform household duties, yet James "refused and neglected to provide any help or assistance in the care of his household and was abusive in his talk."

Unfortunately, in this "he said, she said" situation, we can't really know the truth of what happened between James and Alice. All we have is the dueling divorce petitions.

James Wins Divorce, Alice Wins Alimony

By spring of 1928, the two divorce petitions were consolidated into one. James prevailed, winning his divorce and holding onto all the property he had brought into their brief marriage. Alice won a lump-sum alimony payment of $300 (the equivalent of $4,100 today). The payment was reduced to $250 if James paid within 30 days. Alice was most likely even sicker by this point and needed the money right away. .

Six months after the divorce from wife #2, James married wife #3, Carrie Cragg, and they moved to Jackson, MI. What happened to Carrie? I'm still searching for her death, because Carrie did not apparently accompany James when he returned to Cleveland and died in the home of his older son in 1939.

What About Carrie?

Were James and Carrie divorced? Not that I can find. Was he too ill for Carrie to care for? Or did Carrie not want to go to Cleveland with James at the end of his life? Where and when did Carrie die?

Turns out, she went back to Toledo, where she died (informant for death cert was one of her children). Why she and James split up, I don't know.

Thanks, as always, to Amy Johnson Crow for this week's #52Ancestors challenge.

Looking for Teddy's Dairy in 1940

Click here to look for NYC building photos in the tax records

Wouldn't it be fun to go back in time and see what the residences and businesses of our ancestors looked like in, say, 1940? My ancestors on both sides were in New York City at the time, mainly in the Bronx, and I'm lucky that at least some photos are available in books (like Lloyd Ultan's The Beautiful Bronx, 1920-1950).

But not every building on every block is in those books. Even the New York Public Library's excellent digital photographic collection doesn't have every building on every street.

It turns out there is a super source of photographs of NYC buildings from 1940. It's free and it's online.

Photos in the NYC Municipal Archives

The NYC Municipal Archives holds these building photos, part of a database of 1940s tax records for all five boroughs. The photos were originally used to support property value assessments for every building in the city.

Now the digitized collection is a wonderful resource for genealogists whose ancestors lived in (or had a business in) New York City at that time. It's like Street View on Google Maps but set in the past of 1940, and only in black-and-white.

Searching For a Building Photo

The main portal to the photos allows visitors to choose a specific borough as the first step. At top, my choice of the Bronx. The next step is to browse or search for a building photo.

To search, you need the specific block and lot number of the property. That's not the same as the address. To find block and lot, click on the link on "NYCityMap" link and enter the street address and borough. Above is the result I got when I searched for 679 Fox Street, the Bronx address of the small grocery store called Teddy's Dairy, operated by Grandpa Teddy Schwartz and Grandma Minnie Farkas Schwartz in 1940.

Finding Teddy's Dairy

To see the actual photo, I plugged the block and lot number into the search box of the tax-photo page for the Bronx. Up came a black-and-white image of an apartment building with ground-floor retail space (see below). People are walking along, oblivious to the camera, and cars are parked along the curbs. It's an ordinary day in 1940.

Which storefront is Teddy's Dairy? The signs in the 1940 photo aren't crystal-clear. So I used Street View on Google Maps to confirm that the address is the corner store, with the entrance slightly up the street on the left. Today, that space is occupied by a food store, as it was in 1940, when my grandparents ran the corner store.

High-quality photos are for sale, but anyone can look at any building photo with a few clicks. More photographic time-travel is in my future as I click merrily through the Archives to see the buildings where these and other NYC ancestors lived and worked in 1940.

Thanks to Amy Johnson Crow for this week's #52Ancestors prompt of "At the Library."

Finding a Home for My WAC Aunt's Materials

My mother's twin sister, Dorothy H. Schwartz (1919-2001), enlisted as a WAC during WWII, just months after graduating from Hunter College in New York City. She had a distinguished military career and was transformed by her wartime experiences.

My family has long held a small collection of Auntie Dorothy's WAC documents and photos, plus a copy of the book she wrote as historian of her WAC unit.

My Sis and I wanted this collection to be in safe hands for the future, in a repository that can archive the documents and put her military service in context for future generations. The search was on.

Finding an Appropriate Repository

An online search of key terms "WAC museum" brought me to the website of the U.S. Army Women's Museum, located south of Richmond in Fort Lee, VA. As shown above, I located the "contact" page and there was specific information about how to proceed with a request to donate materials.

I sent a detailed email describing what my family has to donate, with background about my aunt's military experience. Of course I mentioned her Bronze Star Medal!

Preparing to Donate to the Museum

It didn't take long for the museum to respond. It is not accepting uniforms or medals (we have neither) but it would be delighted to accept documents and photographs in good condition.

The museum sent a four-page document formatted to help Sis and me provide biographical details and military details about my aunt. We filled in her rank, places she was stationed, campaigns supported by her WAC unit, and excerpts from a letter she wrote about having the opportunity to serve her country as the "woman behind the man behind the gun."

Also, we wrote a solid page summarizing Dorothy's life, from her birth date and parents' names to the schools she attended, her doctorate in education, and her post-war career as a New York City school teacher. We also mentioned her emphasis on social justice in her interests and activities after she retired.

Finally, we listed the contents of the collection so the museum can see exactly what is being donated (see above). Of course everything was scanned at high resolution before the donation was made.

Long after Sis and I join our ancestors, Dorothy Schwartz's bio and WAC materials will be available to researchers because they're safely in the museum's archives!

Keeping Dorothy Schwartz's Memory Alive in the Museum

As is usual, the museum requested that we send the collection and a printout of the bio pages via a shipping company that can track every movement of the package. We packed it securely in a padded envelope, including a cover note detailing the contents, and sent it on Monday.

The museum told me it will confirm receipt as soon as the package arrives (just heard the shipment arrived safely). Soon afterward, Sis and I will receive a formal acknowledgement of our donation.

Best of all, we have the satisfaction of knowing we're keeping Dorothy Schwartz's memory alive among the WAC artifacts held by the US Army Women's Museum.
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For more about finding a suitable home for ancestors' materials, please see my best-selling #Genealogy book, Planning a Future for Your Family's Past.

Genealogy Clues Add Context for Family Photos

Daisy Schwartz (#1) and some of her Farkas first cousins, 1935

Continuing my scanfest in 2019, I recently teamed up with Cousin A, a Farkas 2d cousin, for a wonderful few hours of identifying genealogy photos and sharing stories. (FYI, Farkas was my mother's mother's maiden name. We had a family tree association from 1933-1964, with monthly minutes in print!)

Cousin A and I showed each other our mystery photos, and we made a bit of headway. I was impressed that he so carefully preserved the photos he inherited by moving them from those old black crumbling albums to new archival albums. He also wrote captions on the album pages, based on what was on the back of each photo or what he had learned from other family members. What a treasure trove!

Farkas Family Tree Photo, 1935

Among the photos he allowed me to scan was the one at top, marked "Summer, 1935." It was a Farkas Family Tree summer outing, one of two mentioned in the meeting minutes from 1935. Cousin A's aunt had already identified everyone in the photo, so I simply numbered the people, created a name key, and put it all into a .pdf file to distribute to more cousins.

My mother (Daisy Schwartz, 1919-1981) is #1 in the photo, which was taken the summer before her high school graduation. The rest of the folks in this photo are her Farkas first cousins. All except #9, who is not a Farkas cousin but a girl named Carol, a cousin of a cousin.

After five minutes on Ancestry, I was able to add her to the tree with the correct parents. There she was in the 1930 Census, age shown as 1/12 months. That corresponds to her actual birth date in March, 1930. I confirmed with a family member that this is indeed his cousin Carol. (The exact location of the outing remains a small mystery.)

Pelham Parkway Photos

What's interesting is that my few minutes of research into Carol's past solved another small photo mystery. Cousin A has a couple of 1930s/1940s photos marked "Pelham Parkway," which is a lovely area of the Bronx, New York. Nobody from my Farkas family lived there at the time, I know from Census and personal records. The photo shows a very rural area, as it was so many decades ago, not built up as it was when I lived in the area as a teenager.

When I looked up little Carol from the "Summer 1935" photo, I learned that her address in the Census of 1930 and the Census 1940 was--you guessed it!--on Pelham Parkway. Seems her cousins most likely visited her family and the photos memorialized that visit.

Context Adds to Family History

For me, the lesson is that the more we find out about every photo, the more clues we have to a well-rounded family history. "Who?" is not the only question. "Where? When? Why?" are also questions I try to answer. Answering more than one question adds valuable overall context for the photos and the family tree.

Decades ago, when these family photos were taken, a caption like "Pelham Parkway" instantly identified the significance of the place to the folks in the picture. But from our vantage point in the 21st century, the significance isn't apparent without a bit of added research.

Now you also know why my scanfest won't be complete when I've digitized my childhood photos. I also need to add the context that will make each photo understandable to future generations.

A tall order, to be sure, but if I start now, I can finish well before the release of the 1950 Census puts me into a new frenzy of genealogy research! (Hopefully before then.)

International Holocaust Remembrance Day

Paula & Etel Schwartz in Ungvar, Hungary

On this day of remembrance, I want to show photos of some ancestors of blessed memory who died in the Holocaust.

Schwartz Ancestors Died

Above, Etel and Paula Schwartz, two sisters of my maternal Grandpa Tivador (Teddy) Schwartz (1887-1965). Grandpa came to America from Ungvar, Hungary as a teenager and soon brought over one older brother (Sam/Simon Schwartz). Together, the brothers brought over a younger sister (Mary Schwartz).

Alas, their siblings all remained in Hungary, including Etel and Paula, and were killed in the Holocaust. This confirmation comes from Paula's daughter, who lived through the Holocaust and recorded testimony of their early life and harrowing, horrifying wartime experiences.

A Burk ancestor
who lived in Gargzdai, Lithuania

Looking for Birk Ancestors 

Above is a photo of a young man I believe to be the youngest brother of my paternal Grandpa Isaac Burk (1882?-1943). Around 1900, Isaac and his older brother Abraham left for Manchester, England, to stay with relatives and then continue to North America. Their sisters Nellie Block and Jennie Birk, along with brother Motel (Max) Birk, also came to the United States.

It seems this younger brother stayed behind at home in Gargzdai, Lithuania, and most likely he and/or his descendants were killed in the Holocaust. So far, I've found no proof, or even a hint of his whereabouts after his siblings left, but I'll keep looking.

It is my honor to keep their memories alive for future generations. Never forget.

Genealogy Blog as Cousin Bait

Hubby's ancestor Benjamin McClure was a 19th-century civic leader in Wabash, Indiana

Last Sunday, I watched a very interesting live webinar by Tammy Hepps, "Technology for Cousin Bait That Works." Tammy's main point: Cousins and genealogy researchers can't find us if our content (written and/or illustration) doesn't appear in the first page or two of search results.

And lucky for me, Elizabeth O'Neal's Genealogy Blog Party this month is all about tuning up our blogs. She has links to lots of ways to test blogs, analyze search rankings, and improve the look and content of our blogs.

Here's what I did to I tune up my blog as cousin bait.

Search Like a Cousin

What, exactly, will attract a cousin? One 2d cousin found my blog because I had written about a synagogue where our ancestors were married. When she did an online search to learn more about that synagogue, my blog post ranked high in the results. She clicked to read more...and, happily for me and my family, she contacted me! One of my friends occasionally receives inquiries from people who find her blog because she posted about an orphanage where her ancestors were placed.

To search like a cousin, think like a cousin. Try searches using key words that might attract our cousins, including surnames and related key words. So far, I have been pleased with the results rankings.

Blogger already allows me to assign "labels" (key words) for each blog entry (such as a surname or a topic). I also list key words in my blog's description, and have changed these over time. Since I can't always predict what a cousin will look for, I go beyond surnames to include religious institutions, places, and so forth.

Surnames and Easy Contact

You can see the main surnames I'm researching along the right side of my blog.  Plus along the top of my blog, I have a series of "landing pages" for main surnames and the stories of those ancestors or families. I want these to be visible and I want cousins to know I welcome contact, as Tammy suggested.

In the past couple of years, I added a contact gadget just above the surname listing. Currently, I receive 1-2 inquiries every month. Not everyone who uses the contact gadget turns out to be a cousin, but I still appreciate that they make the effort to get in touch.

Blog Tune Up: Subheads and Captions

Yet another place to insert key words, Tammy noted, is in subheads of blog posts. Who knew? So now I'm tuning up my blog to add subheads, an easy tweak that might boost a post's rankings in search results when cousins go looking for their FAN club. Also, I'm going back to writing captions that include surnames and other key words, such as shown at top.

Finally, blog content must look good on mobile devices, an important criterion used by search engines. Mine looks fine on a small screen, according to the preview in my Blogger dashboard.

If you're reading this on your phone or pad, doesn't Benjamin McClure (1812-1896) look like a determined pioneer farmer and respectable civic leader?!