Genealogy in Greeting Cards: Researching the FAN Club

If you have old family birthday cards, baby congratulations, and the like, you may have genealogical treasure, not genealogical trash! Cards (and envelopes) can provide valuable clues about your FAN club -- friends, associates, and neighbors. Ephemeral items like these don't always survive, so study them and scan or copy them before giving away or, um, tossing away. 

The congratulatory cards shown above were for a baby born in my family six decades ago. A relative found them in her attic and recognized they might have important clues for me, the family historian. I'm thankful she shipped me the box, rather than putting it in the recycle bin! They will be shared with the next generation after I organize them and preserve them in an archival box.

Envelopes - Dates, Names, Addresses

One of the luckiest finds was a stamped and addressed envelope containing the original baby announcement (baby's given and middle name, birth date, and time birth weight). This envelope had been mailed to England but returned because of insufficient postage. I immediately recognized the surname and city, not the street address. Cousins who lived across the pond! 

In the same batch was an envelope written to the baby's parents, postmarked from England. Inside was a congratulatory note from those cousins across the pond. The card was signed with not just the adult names but also several children's names, enabling me to add more names to the family tree.

Name That Well-Wisher

I recognized most but not all of the signatures on these cards. "Uncle Moe" signed, along with the name of his wife, an in-law I knew little about. Once I added her to my tree, I was able to dig deeper into her background.

My working theory is people who signed with first and last names were likely not related directly to the parents or baby. Asking cousins for help, I discovered that one of the cards signed with first/last name was from the family doctor, and another was from the family dentist. These were FAN club associates.

Researching the FAN Club

In my quest to identify and classify people as part of the FAN club, I referred to The Historical Biographer's Guide to Cluster Research (the FAN Principle) by Elizabeth Shown Mills. 

I received a free review copy of this laminated booklet from the Genealogical Publishing Company, but the opinions here are entirely my own.

Packed with lots of useful information for evaluating possible solutions to problems and locating potential resources for FAN research, I highly recommend this booklet. The illustration on page 4, a visual guide to targeted research using the FAN principle, gave me practical ideas for structuring my study of the collection of baby cards.

The illustration is a bull's eye, with the center being the (1) target person (in this case, the new baby). Moving out from the center in concentric rings are: (2) known relatives and in-laws; (3) others who have the same surname; (4) associates and neighbors of the target person; and (5) associates of associates. 

Following this guide, I tentatively assigned all senders of the baby cards to one of the FAN categories and will be following up little by little, applying the Mills process.

Memorializing Ancestors for Today and Tomorrow

Continuing to share family history now, I'm writing brief bios of my ancestors and my husband's ancestors, then posting them on multiple sites. I've gathered a lot of research and know a lot about these people, but it's not enough to have that in my genealogy software and in my file cabinet. To be sure the stories and faces of these ancestors are known to future generations, I have to post them where they can be seen today and tomorrow.

Sharing Mary Slatter Wood's Story

Shown above is the Family Search profile page for my hubby's paternal grandmother, Mary Slatter Wood (1869-1925). 

I've posted two "memories"--a photo (with identification on the image, as well as properly tagged) and a written story about Mary's life. My story follows her from her birth in the notoriously poor Whitechapel section of London, England, to her education at a school for paupers, then across the pond where she marries a home builder in Ohio and becomes a loving mother of four sons.

I posted the same story and photo on Find a Grave, where I am now the manager of Mary Slatter Wood's memorial page. On both, I included a title for the bio--not just this ancestor's name and date but a brief description, "loving mother," based on what her descendants told me. 

Also I posted the same story and photo on MyHeritage, plus a link to the summary page on my blog where I recap the Slatter family history. This ensures that Mary Slatter Wood's life can be discovered on multiple genealogy sites (and perhaps serve as cousin bait for others researching this ancestor).

Sharing James Edgar Wood's Story

Similarly, I wrote a brief bio for Mary's husband, James Edgar Wood and posted it, along with a photo, on both Family Search and Find a Grave (where I am the manager of his memorial), as well as My Heritage. The title of his bio is "James Edgar Wood (1871-1939) - Home Builder." I also included, on My Heritage, a link to my summary blog page about the Wood family of Ohio.

Although I plan to post these stories and photos on more sites, I've made a good start on my goal of sharing family history right now, so the stories and images are immediately available to others. I want to keep the memory of these ancestors alive for a long time, starting today.

Five Men Named Brice in 265 Years

The given name Brice is distinctive in my husband's family tree, appearing only five times in the 265 years his family has been in America.

At left, a search I conducted on my Ancestry tree to identify the five men named Brice.

Adding them to my online trees and posting more detailed bios on Family Search, Find a Grave, and other websites keeps their memories alive. 

This is all part of my plan to disseminate family history now, before I join my ancestors and my research and artifacts are bequeathed to the next generation.

Brice Smith - Brice #1 in America

Brice #1 is shown at bottom of the search results. That's Brice Smith (1756-1828), my husband's 4th great-grandfather. 

This first Brice in America was born in Cumberland County, PA, a son of Irish immigrants. As an adult, Brice caught "Ohio Fever" and moved west to Fairfield County, Ohio with his wife, Eleanor Kenny (1762-1841). Their daughter Rachel Smith (1799-1838) grew up and married John Larimer (1794-1843) - and this couple named their oldest son Brice S. Larimer, in memory of the first Brice. 

Brice S. Larimer (1819-1906) - Railroad Agent

Born in Rush Creek, Fairfield County, OH, Brice was brought to Elkhart County, Indiana in 1835 by his pioneering parents. There, he met and married New York-born Lucy E. Bentley (1826-1900). Brice and Lucy raised a family of four children while Brice was first a farmer, then a postmaster. Later, he served as the area's first railroad agent during the heyday of rail travel through Elkhart. This Brice was a grandson of Brice #1.

Margaret Jane Larimer (1859-1913) was the youngest daughter of Brice and Lucy. At the age of 17, with her parents' consent, she married William Madison McClure (1849-1887) who--like his father--worked for the railway in Indiana. 

Their oldest son was Brice Larimer McClure. Months before his birth, however, another Brice was born into the family. Brice #3 and Brice #4 were both great-great-grandsons of the original Brice in America, both grandsons of the second Brice in America.

Milton Brice Larimer (1878-1968) - Electrical Entrepreneur

Milton Brice Larimer's parents were William Tyler Bentley Larimer (1850-1921, a son of Brice S. Larimer) and Elizabeth Stauffer (1852-1936). Born in Elkhart County, Indiana, on January 16, 1878, Milton Brice was the third Brice in the family.  

He began his career as an electrician. At the age of 27, he married Elizabeth Luzetta Wright (1877-1968) in 1905. Within a few years, they moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana, where Milton Brice was president of Protective Electrical Supply. They had no children and died within months of each other in 1968, both aged 90.

Brice Larimer McClure (1878-1970) - Master Machinist

The fourth Brice was born on December 29, 1878 in Little Traverse, Michigan, during the very brief period when his parents--William Madison McClure and Margaret Jane Larimer McClure--lived there, close to other McClure relatives. The Michigan foray lasted only a couple of years, until the family returned to Elkhart, Indiana, where Margaret had been born. Brice's father worked for the railroad, but died of typhoid fever when Brice was just 9 years old.

Following in his father's footsteps, Brice became a machinist for the railroad. In his 20s, he was already a master machinist, working for the "Big Four" railroads. Brice met Floyda Steiner (1878-1948) and they married in 1903 at the home of one of her sisters in Upper Sandusky, Ohio. 

They immediately settled in Cleveland, close to Brice's work in the railyards. Their beloved only child, Marian Jane McClure (1909-1983), grew up in Cleveland and remained there most of her life. Brice continued working as a machinist, foreman, and supervisor until the end of World War II. He died in 1970, two weeks before his 92d birthday.

Brice in Current Generation 

While Marian Jane McClure was working at an insurance firm in Cleveland, she met and married Edgar James Wood (1903-1986). They gave their younger son the middle name of Brice in honor of his grandfather, the master machinist. This youngest Brice is a 4th great-grandson of the original Brice in the family, the first in America. 

Currently, there are only five men named Brice in the family. But perhaps that will change with future generations, and now they will know the story of their namesake.

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Namesake is the #52Ancestors challenge for this week.

No Heirs for Your Family History? Recap

Ken Thomas, the longtime genealogy columnist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, suggested I write about what to do if you have no obvious heirs for your family history. 

Based on his suggestion, I wrote a four-part series earlier this month. Here is a quick recap of ideas for how to donate or preserve your family's history for the sake of future generations. 

Background before making decisions

Before you make any final decisions, please read this page from the Society of American Archivists about donating your collection as a whole. Also look at this informative Family Search wiki page about what to do with a genealogy collection. If needed, I urge you to seek professional advice about particularly valuable, quite historic, uniquely specialized, older/archeological, or extremely fragile items in your collection.

Ideas for what to do

In Part 1, I wrote about trying to coordinate your preservation efforts with cousins and other relatives. Someone may be willing to accept all or part of your genealogy collection and keep it safe. In particular, consider how to safeguard some photos and memorabilia of family members without direct descendants--"no cousin left behind." And if you have fine china or silver, offer a place setting or a teaspoon or a teacup to each of your relatives.

In Part 2, I explained the process for identifying potential institutions that might be interested in accepting artifacts and/or possibly some of your genealogy materials. Each institution has its own collection priorities and procedures, so it's important to understand what each museum, library, archive, society, or university is interested in collecting and studying. For more about the actual donation process, see my post here.

In Part 3, I wrote about looking at your collection from the perspective of non-family eyes on your family's history. Neatness counts! Organization is the key, including a written family tree and other documents to help researchers navigate your collection and understand what it contains.

In Part 4, I discussed how to summarize the scope and significance of your family-history collection. Focus on how your ancestors' lives might be of interest to an institution and other researchers. Whether or not you donate any of your materials, do consider offering your family-tree information to an institution. 

Thanks so much to Ken Thomas for suggesting that I cover this very important and very timely topic.

For more about how to plan to keep your genealogy collection safe for the future, please check out my best-selling book, Planning a Future for Your Family's Past. Updated in Sept 2021!

Repurposing Ancestor Stories to Share More Widely

Now that I've written a family history booklet about my mother (Daisy Schwartz Burk, 1919-1981) and her twin sister (Dorothy Helen Schwartz, 1919-2001), I'm repurposing the content to share more widely. The bite-sized stories are already written--why not condense, adapt, and post on multiple websites, sharing family history with a larger audience without spending a penny or a pound.

Another approach is to begin with a brief bio you post on a website like FamilySearch or Fold3 or Find a Grave or WikiTree, and use that as the basis for a written booklet or a photobook or some other family-history document for your family to enjoy.

Case Study: Choose Photos, Write Headline

Above, a snippet from the Fold3 memorial page for my aunt, WAC Sgt. Dorothy H. Schwartz, who served during World War II. She's not the first ancestor I've memorialized for free on Fold3, but she's the most recent--a good case study for how to repurpose content.

First, I selected and uploaded several images of my aunt that I had inserted into my booklet. Previously, I had cropped the images to remove extraneous background. For the main profile photo at top left of her Fold3 page, I uploaded a portrait she sent home to her family, prominently featuring the sergeant's stripes on her uniform.

Next, I wrote a headline for my story. My goal was to highlight not just my aunt's military background but also what she did in her life. Therefore, I included her military rank, her full name and dates, and the fact that she was a "decorated WAC" (she earned the Bronze Star in World War II) and, later, a high school teacher.

Case Study: Content for Story

Now I was ready to write the actual story. I consulted the booklet I wrote about my aunt for the main points to include. As context for my aunt's life, I wanted to say something about her family, her education, her specific role in the WACs, and what she did after her honorable discharge. This was covered in my booklet, so all I had to do was copy out sentences, condense where needed, and write smooth transitions.

In the five succinct paragraphs I wrote for the Fold3 memorial, I managed to say:

• Dorothy was a twin (I included her twin's name and their birthdate).
• She lived and went to school in the Bronx, NY, then went to Hunter College.
• She enlisted as a WAC and had a tense voyage across the Atlantic with 650 other WACs headed for Europe. 
• Exactly what her role was as a WAC, listening in as officers made decisions about bombing and transcribing her notes into written orders.
• Dorothy received the Bronze Star and wrote the history of her WAC unit.
• Dorothy returned to school for education courses, then taught at two Bronx high schools until retiring.
• She later became an advocate for renters' rights and consulted on retirement issues.
• When Dorothy died and what cemetery she's buried in (next to her twin).

Now the "family legend" of my aunt's meritorious service during World War II is memorialized for the world to see on Fold3. And I posted it on Find a Grave, too!

TY to Amy Johnson Crow for the #52Ancestors prompt of "Family Legend" for week #2 in the 2021 challenge.

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My presentation, "Bring Family History Alive in Bite-Sized Projects," is part of the all-virtual New England Regional Genealogical Conference in April. I'll be sharing more tips for repurposing ancestor stories. Registration is now open!

Wish List: Cousin Connections

 

If I could go back in time, I would ask my mother and my father to list the names and addresses of their first and second cousins. Only years after my parents passed away did I discover how extensive their cousin connections really were.  

Cousins? What cousins?

My father never mentioned his Burk cousins, relatives who were actually at his wedding! It took me a decade of research to identify them and find their children, my second cousins. Dad certainly would have been able to rattle off their names, but I never thought to ask until it was too late.

My mother never mentioned her first cousins on the Schwartz side, even though she knew some of them. Using photos and documents, I eventually traced several. I was able to meet one and, happily, get to know a few of my cousins in the next generation.  

For a number of years, I've been doing what I wish my parents had done: Maintaining a list of my cousin connections. One of my goals is to continue this practice, keeping the names and contacts updated and sharing with my relatives.

Write down your cousin connections

Creating a list of cousin contacts will help you and your family (and your heirs) know who's who and how each person is related in the family tree. It's not enough to have a name, address, phone number, and email address in your smartphone contacts. It's really important to explain the relationships. Otherwise, all you have is a list of contacts with no genealogical context.

At top is a sample of my "cousin connections" form. This week, I updated the list for my side of the family tree, and created a new cousin contact list for my husband's side. I'm sharing with immediate family so everyone is on the same page, literally.

Please do your family and future generations a big favor and write down your cousin connections!

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This is one of the tips in my book, Planning a Future for Your Family's Past, a practical (and affordable) guide to passing your genealogy collection and knowledge to the next generation. Please check it out!

Participating in The Genealogy Blog Party, 2021 Goals!

No Heirs for Your Family History? Ideas, Part 4

Captain John Daniel Slatter (1864-1954) 

If you have no family heirs to assume ownership of your genealogy collection in the future, I hope this series will give you some ideas for keeping documents, artifacts, and photos out of the trash or flea markets. This post is about one question: What institution would be interested in your genealogy collection?

Idea: Think about the scope and significance of your collection

Think about your family history collection as a whole and its significance. What does it exemplify, in terms of genealogy and history? What story does it tell about a particular place, a certain period, a group of people, a specific situation or experience? Did your ancestors keep scrapbooks, photo albums, or other items that help tell the story?

What might researchers learn by looking at some or all of your collection? Does your collection include unusual personal items or hard-to-find records that you've managed to collect? Did your ancestors have a brush with history, fame, or notoriety? Were they representative of a larger movement such as immigration or the Gold Rush? 

Try to summarize your collection in a relatively brief "elevator pitch" that captures the essence of your collection. Jot a list of the main surnames, places, years covered, types of materials in your collection, and anything important that a repository should know when considering your collection.

Idea: Take your time and do your homework

Do an online search, based on the scope and significance of your collection, for appropriate institutions. Look at libraries, museums, archives, genealogical societies, historical societies, or other repositories that are in the area where your ancestors lived/worked. Out-of-area institutions may have a research interest in the place or time, so cast a wide net at first. 

Think about what in your ancestor's life might be of interest to a museum. Gold Rush? Irish immigrant? Military service? Pioneer? Civic leader? Scallywag? Some institution, somewhere, may be interested!

Next, click around the website of each repository to find out about its donation policies and preferences. On the NEHGS website, an entire page is devoted to explaining what the institution is interested in collecting and how to take the next step by making contact.

Always, always contact the repository before making any plans. This is where your elevator pitch comes in. And remember that you, not the repository, will be responsible for getting your collection to its destination.

Idea: Contribute your genealogy knowledge

Whether or not you wind up donating your entire collection, do consider contributing your knowledge of your family tree to an institution. Many institutions (local, regional, national, and specialized) are interested in collecting genealogies, even if they won't accept your collection of materials. 

For instance, I contributed the genealogy of the Slatter family to two military archives that collect artifacts about these ancestors of my husband. Neither institution had the background I had collected about Captain John Daniel Slatter (1864-1954, shown in portrait at top of post) and his brother, Bandmaster Henry Arthur Slatter (1866-1942). The archives were both pleased to add to their knowledge of these eminent military bandmasters, and I was happy to share my research.

Earlier posts in my series looked at preparing for non-family eyes on your family history collection, planning to donate a family history artifact, and coordinating with extended family to plan for the future of your collection.