Heirloom Wreath and Snowflake for Christmas Eve

This delightful wreath is made up of handprints from my grandkids, traced and cut from felt and then glued onto a cardboard ring. The names/dates were written on the cardboard backing.

Another favorite holiday decoration is this grandchild recreation of a snowflake. 

We hang these handcrafted heirlooms on our front door every holiday season. The colors have faded a bit, but the memories are bright and merry.

May you have a peaceful and joyous holiday!

Keeping Our Own Memories Alive for Today and Tomorrow

The final genealogy prompt in Amy Johnson Crow's #52Ancestors challenge for 2023 is "me, myself, and I."

Since 2007, I've created photo books featuring photos from my hubby's and my activities and adventures, big vacations, and family reunions. Above, a small sample of these books. Inside, the photos are arranged chronologically from January to December, and captions explain what's happening in each photo. Every so often, I pull a book off the shelf, leaf through, and relive those memories, happy that the photos are conveniently available.

At least once in each book, I caption a group photo with full names. Why? Although we all know who everyone is today, future generations may not recognize some people. How I wish I had inherited more photos with full names and dates! I'm learning from that experience by captioning as completely as I can.

Books or albums are a great way to get family photos off our phones and into print so others can see them too, IMHO. 

In the far future when my hubby and I join our ancestors, we hope these photo books will be enjoyed by those who come after us. Meanwhile, I'm currently working on the 2023 retrospective photo book of our "adventures."

Thank you to Amy Johnson Crow for the gift of #52Ancestor genealogy prompts throughout 2023, and now a new set of prompts for 2024.

Keep Those Cousin Connections Alive!

 

As 2023 winds down, I've been updating my cousin connections. I don't want to lose track of these relatives in the coming years! How I wish I had inherited something like this. My Mom's handwritten 1960ish address book was as close as I got to such a listing, except she didn't explain any relationships.

I maintain a digital document so I can sort alphabetically if I'm looking for a particular set of cousins or if I want to search the entire document for specific words/dates. My notes column lists the exact relationship and any other pertinent details. Don't forget maiden names, nicknames.

My Sis now has a copy of the updated version so she's aware of our cousin connections on both sides of the family tree. We've met many of these cousins in person, but others we've only "met" via email or phone. 

As a new year's resolution, please do yourself and your family a favor and create or update a listing of cousin connections. To make it easy, go ahead and borrow or adapt my format, which is also in my popular genealogy book, Planning a Future for Your Family's Past.

"Cousins" is Amy Johnson Crow's genealogy prompt for week 51 of her #52Ancestors challenge for 2023. 

Looking Ahead to 2024 Genealogy Priorities

Well, 2024 is nearly here! It will be my 26th year of genealogy obsession, I'm happy to say. Also, 2024 will be my 16th year of genealogy blogging.

In the coming year, my priorities will be:

• Create a family history photo book about my husband's paternal grandparents. This is likely to be the longest and most detailed of my photo books, because I have a lot to share (research, photos, stories) about James Edgar Wood and Mary Slatter Wood, and their siblings. I'll blog as I work on it.
• Continue writing and posting bite-sized bios of ancestors. Some bios I've already written form the basis of content in my photo books...and vice versa. Over time, I'm posting brief ancestor bios on WikiTree, Find a Grave, Fold3, FamilySearch, MyHeritage, and more.
• Switch old photos from archival sleeves to safe, convenient photo albums, a project that fell to the back burner in 2023. I love working on old photos when there's a big snow storm outside. So if January in New England turns out to be snowy, my photo project (including captioning) will gain momentum.
• Continue redoing research on focus ancestors, as new info becomes available and as I try different sites. In 2023, I learned how my husband's maternal grandparents met, by researching the social columns in newspapers that only recently were digitized. More of that in 2024. Also, I love learning more about in-law ancestors. Sometimes researching them gives me a clue about a direct ancestor OR gives me context for understanding family dynamics of the past.
• Slim down and reorganize surname file folders. I'm slowly pawing through my surname file folders, consolidating/digitizing research notes, tossing unneeded paper (like printed-out census pages). This is another wonderful snowy-day activity that usually sends me down a rabbit hole as I follow up on something I forgot about or didn't understand the first time I saw it.
• Genealogy programs, education, connections. I'm still making presentations, still taking webinars, and will be attending some local genealogy meetings in 2024. Most important to me, I'm keeping alive the cousin connections I've made in my years of researching family history. 
• Saving family history in institutions. I still have a few items from family history that I'll be donating to institutions in 2024. More about that in upcoming posts. 

Dear readers, I wish you a new year of peace and a tree full of genealogy fun!

Looking Back at 2023 Genealogy Results

As 2023 begins to fade into the history books, a look back at what I thought my priorities in genealogy would be this past year--and what they really turned out to be.

My planned genealogy priorities for 2023

One year ago, I set five priorities for my genealogy activities in 2023: (1) continue writing/posting bite-sized ancestor bios, (2) resume my photo album project, (3) redo research about ancestors of particular interest, (4) continue my genealogy presentations, and (5) further my genealogy education. Oh, and I wanted to clean out the unneeded scribbled notes in my surname files.

My actual genealogy priorities in 2023

Family-history photo books (a variation on bite-sized ancestor bios) turned out to be my absolutely top priority this past year, something that wasn't on my list at all. Why? Because in February, relatives asked questions about what our ancestors did during World War II. I wanted to provide answers that could be saved and reviewed again and again.

In response to the questions, I created my first-ever family-history photo book about ancestors in WWII. It was only 6 inches by 6 inches, with colorful front and back covers (see image above, from back cover) and 20 pages of info about my Dad (US Army), my uncles (US Army), my aunt (WAC), and my parents' cousins who served in the war (in the US Army, US Army Air Corps, US Marines, US Navy, and National Guard units). 

This tiny book was a big hit with the next generation! So I went "all in" on family-history photo books during the year, creating one about my maternal grandparents, one about my paternal grandparents, and one about my Mom and her twin sister. All were well received. Just last month, I completed a photo book about my husband's maternal grandparents, and last week I reordered copies for other relatives after previewing and editing one copy. In all, a very worthwhile priority that will continue into 2024.

In addition, I wrote many bite-sized bios of ancestors to post on WikiTree, Fold3, Find a Grave, and other sites, as I originally planned for 2023, and will continue into 2024. 

I began cleaning out handwritten notes from my surname files, saving the info as comments on my trees or otherwise consolidating for less paper clutter. This is something I usually do on the fly while looking for other info in those files. 

What slipped to 2024

When those photo books jumped onto the front burner, other priorities had to wait. Now on the back burner is my photo album project, which will show up on the "to do" list for 2024 (more on that in another blog post). 

Also slipping to 2024 was some (not all) of my in-depth research on particular focus ancestors, particularly those from Eastern Europe. I'm pursuing a couple of leads and may yet have an interesting breakthrough before the end of 2023. 

Genealogy presentations and education

I gave more than a dozen virtual presentations live in 2023, and already have dates lined up for 2024. Continuing my own genealogy education, I watched dozens of excellent webinars (both live and recorded) from a variety of sources: Legacy Family Tree Webinars, Virtual Genealogy Association, WikiTree Symposium, Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center, Center for Jewish History, Jewish Genealogy Society of CT, Kentucky Genealogical Society, and other genealogy groups around the country. I really appreciate the opportunity to learn from experts.

Tip: Always download the handouts when available! Maybe I can't use all of the info or instructions right away, but I might want to consult the handout in the future. I have one digital file where I store handouts and conference syllabi from the past decade. Thank you to the many speakers who put so much detail into their handouts! 

Previewing and Editing Family History Books

 

Last month, I ordered one family history photo book so I could preview it before ordering multiple copies for relatives on my husband's side of the family. The main subjects are Floyda Mabel Steiner (1878-1946) and Brice Larimer McClure (1878-1970).

I've spent much of 2023 creating such professional photo books so I can memorialize ancestors for the sake of descendants who want to read the "story" rather than just looking at a family tree or a couple of photos. The books include a tree and many old photos, but also quotes from the ancestors and memories from descendants.

Preview copy for my edits and recipients' comments

The preview allowed me to see what the cover and pages look like, in print, as a final check. Sure enough, I noticed little things to improve AND little things to add.

In addition, I showed recipients the preview book and they took time to look at each page, offering comments about what they like and don't like (feedback I appreciated). My audience has repeatedly told me that "black and white is boring" so every page has some color, such as a color title at top and a colorful border around each photo, and some pages have a small saying. Also, I colorized two old photos and noted that they were colorized to avoid misleading future generations.

Pencil edits on preview copy

At top, the title page. In real life, it's NOT this yellow looking. I made a pencil note to move the left-hand photo further left to balance out the page. Also, I made a tiny pencil note under the page number, so I could quickly spot which pages had changes. 

After reading and rereading the timeline in the book, I discovered I'd inadvertently omitted two key deaths in the lives of these ancestors. In pencil, I reminded myself to add one death in 1880 and one in 1887--both are described in the narrative, but not included in the timeline until my revision.

Reorder with changes

Now I've reordered multiple copies with these and other edits, ready to give as holiday gifts to relatives who are actually excited about learning more. This is not my final family history photo book--I have one more to go, about my husband's paternal grandparents, Wood and Slatter. I'm currently gathering old photos for that project, which I'll begin in January. 

Remembering the 1919 Birth of Twins

On this day in 1919, my mother, Daisy Schwartz Burk (d. 1981), and her twin sister, Dorothy Helen Schwartz (d. 2001), were born in New York City, to parents Hermina Farkas Schwartz and Theodore Schwartz. 

This snapshot was taken during their first year...and unlike most photos, the twins were carefully identified (much later, not at the time). Mom, who was 5 minutes younger than her twin, is at left. 

Checking the New York Times archives, I learned that December 4, 1919 was clear and cold, with temperatures below freezing all through the day. Truly a winter day!

Remembering Daisy and Dorothy with much love, on this 104th anniversary of their birth.