Discovering Matchmaker Great-Aunt Mary's True Birthday

During the post-WWII period, my parents were set up on a blind date by his aunt Mary and her aunt Rose. Today I want to write about a discovery I made while looking into original documents for my great aunt Mary.

Mary Mahler (1896-1979) was the fifth and youngest girl of ten children born to my paternal great-grandparents, immigrants Meyer Mahler and Tillie Jacobs Mahler. Mary married Joseph A. Markell (1895-1975) and they raised a family in New Rochelle, New York.

All these years, I've believed the Social Security app info about Mary's birth date, knowing that Mary herself would have self-reported the info when she registered for Social Security back in July of 1963 (see transcribed record above). In fact I planned to write about Mary's 128th birthday for today's blog post.

Then I decided to look for Mary's original birth record, using the FREE New York City Municipal Archives Historical Vital Records site. I had the birth cert number from Ancestry, plugged it in with the year and the borough, and you can see what I saw right here. Or look at the cert below. 

Without a doubt this is great aunt Mary's birth cert. Her surname spelled creatively (Maller, not Mahler) but her father was indeed Meyer (here, Mayer) although the mother's name is mangled (maiden name was Jacobs not Jacobson, first name was Tillie, not Mary). The home address is absolutely correct, the number of children born to the mother tallies. 

Now I know I should have celebrated Mary's 128th birthday on July 11th, not July 23d. The lesson is to check the original document created as close to the actual event as possible. Interestingly, the Social Security Death Index shows Mary's birth date as July 11, 1896, in conflict with what Mary self-reported on her Social Security application. In the end, the original birth cert (not a transcription, not an extract) is the most solid and reliable evidence of a birth date.

Wed in Saint Louis En Route to California in 1848

On this day 176 years ago, my hubby's 2d great-grand uncle, Elisha Morgan Bentley (1823?-1884) married his wife Charlotte Raymond (1821-1890) in St. Louis, Missouri. At top, the handwritten registration of this marriage performed on July 21, 1848 by a Justice of the Peace and filed, a bit belatedly, on December 22, 1848. 

The registration notes that Elisha was of Elkhart County, Indiana, and Charlotte was of St. Joseph County, Indiana. Elisha was born in Oswego, New York, and Charlotte was born somewhere in New York State. By the time of their marriage, they had already gone far from their roots. I wondered whether they had met and decided to marry while on the "National Road" which stretched from Maryland to Illinois and then to St. Louis or when traveling further west via the "California Trail" that stretched from Missouri to California.

Either way, the time needed to go from Indiana to California in 1848 was a matter of many months. Perhaps Elisha and Charlotte were acquainted before they embarked on this journey, since the two counties adjoin each other, about 30 miles apart. Or they may have met along the way and tied the knot at a convenient place.

I know Elisha and Charlotte settled in Visalia, Tulare County, California, where he raised cattle. They had two sons. Older son James died at age 20 as a result of an accident. Younger son Charles may have served a stretch in San Quentin and then in Folsom Prison for robbery and assault. If this is the correct Charles E. Bentley, he was recommended for pardon by leading citizens of Visalia, and Tulare County but the Supreme Court of California refused to recommend that the governor pardon him. 

More research is in my future to dig even deeper into this situation. Meanwhile, I'm thinking of Elisha and Charlotte, who were married for 36 years, beginning on July 21, 1848, until Elisha's death in November, 1884.

Context and More From MyHeritage AI Biographer

I've been looking at how to enrich our understanding of an ancestor's life and write bite-sized bios using input from features on popular genealogy websites. Today I tried MyHeritage's AI Biographer. As shown above, this feature is available from an ancestor's profile. I asked for a detailed bio with historical/social context, not just my great uncle's timeline and key life events.

MyHeritage responded with a neat multi-page pdf sent via email and also on the profile of my ancestor, downloadable and printable. This bio showed his family (with photos if any) including names and dates, plus a brief narrative of his life from birth to marriage to children to death. All was based on my family tree info and the sources attached to my tree, which I can enhance with additional personal details provided by relatives.

The extra historical context and possible last name origins, shown above, were drawn from MyHeritage and OpenAI. Interesting food for thought, and especially appropriate background explanation given my great uncle's decision to leave Lithuania as Jewish people were increasingly persecuted there. Lots of info I can weave into a bite-sized bio!

My first post in this series looked at FamilySearch's Brief Life History feature. The second post looked at Ancestry's AI Insights. This post is about MyHeritage's AI Biographer. All of these features can help us write or enhance bite-sized ancestor bios. 

Getting Context from Ancestry's LifeStory with AI Insights

Still in beta testing, AncestryAI is an option to provide historical and social context for some elements of the LifeStory feature on an ancestor's profile page.

Above, the early section of the LifeStory for my great uncle Abraham Berk (1877-1962). This takes the form of a timeline including family events such as his birth and the birth of his siblings, followed by his residential locations in chronological order, marriage, immigration, birth of children, occupation, and actually all events on his profile page.

Next to some of these LifeStory items is an option to Ask AncestryAI about a time and place in the ancestor's life. The AI summary helps add context to the ancestor's background. As shown above, here the AI is explaining what Lithuania was like in 1877, the year of Abraham Berk's birth. 

Other options to learn more about a time and place include what would someone wear to a wedding then, what mourning customs existed then, what was entertainment like then, what local dishes were popular then (see below, about Lancashire's fave foods in 1901).

While much of the AI-generated info is general, it still is a helpful starting point for understanding an ancestor's life and can give clues to fleshing out a bite-sized bio with context. Worth checking out if you have this feature in beta at Ancestry.

Note: Yesterday's blog post looked at FamilySearch's Brief Life History feature. Tomorrow's blog post will look at MyHeritage's AI Biographer feature.

Bite-Sized Bio Head Start on FamilySearch

My husband's great uncle Charles Augustus Wood (1862-1895) died on July 18th, 1895, which is 129 years ago this week. 

Looking at his ancestor page on Family Search, I read the "Brief Life History" which is a good head start on a bite-sized bio, based on information and sources attached to this man's Details tab on Family Search.

Basics are included

I like that the brief history includes his full name, birth date and place, full names of parents and their ages when this son was born. 

Also the life history lists full maiden name of his wife, where/when married, and mentions their children. Then it ends with his death date and place, age at death, and burial place. This is an excellent head start or outline for a bite-sized bio. 

Although sources are attached to Charles August Wood that verify the info in his "brief life history," this type of bio is only as good as the sources attached to the ancestor's profile and your interpretation of the sources within context. 

Ideas to flesh it out

Here's what I'd add to flesh out this man's bio without making it too long:

• Charles's place in family birth order (he was 10th of 17 children born to Thomas and Mary). 
• Charles's occupation (he was a carpenter, like most of his brothers).
• Names of children and how many survived childhood.
• Cause of death, if known (his obit said "la grippe" but death cert said tuberculosis).
• Maybe add whether his widow remarried.

Brief Life History is only a starting point

Above is the Brief Life History of Mary Slatter Wood (1869-1925), a sister-in-law of Charles Augustus Wood. I would improve in three key ways:

• Her brief bio says she was married "about 1898" although the source attached provides a specific date and place. Easy to improve.
•  In 1871, she did not live in a church (Saint Mary Matfelon); that was the civil parish where she was enumerated with her parents and siblings in Whitechapel in London, England. This is easy to clarify.
• Although the Find a Grave memorial for Mary is attached as a source, the brief bio doesn't mention her burial place. Again, easy to flesh out.

Still a good starting point

Take a look at the Brief Life History for your ancestors on Family Search. Maybe these will be a good starting point for a bite-sized bio for each ancestor that you can flesh out and share on other genealogy sites and with your family. As Diane commented below, these brief histories aren't a brand-new feature but if you haven't focused on them, see whether they jumpstart your writing projects!

For more about bite-sized bios, please see my book, Planning a Future for Your Family's Past.

Kohlrabi and Radishes in a Bronx Public School Garden

Growing up in the Bronx, Sis and I had never heard of kohlrabi but we liked crunchy radishes. Then we enrolled in the summer gardening program at our local elementary public school and learned how to grow both kohlrabi and radishes, along with beans and carrots and corn and Swiss chard. It was so much fun and kept us busy three days a week from late June until the end of August. 

Big city school garden projects

Bear in mind, we were born long after Victory gardens flourished in public and private places during the WWII period. Through the late 1970s, school gardens were part of a community gardening movement to bring "agriculture" to urban settings. Even earlier in New York City, school and park gardens were set up for children to learn more about nature and get involved in growing food. 

My husband remembers participating in a school garden program in Cleveland, where he grew up. That program had its roots in the early 1900s, and continued until big budget cuts forced closure before 1980.

Beans, bugs, and bug juice

Sis and I were city kids, living in an apartment building one block from a huge park with two playgrounds. Until the garden program, the closest we got to radishes in the raw was seeing them in the local grocery store. 

Our school garden was a fenced-in plot adjacent to the concrete yard where we students played during recess when school was in session. The fence was tall, more than eight feet high, not just to keep out critters but I suspect to discourage anyone from plucking some of our garden bounty.

On summer Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, about a dozen students gathered around the kindly gardening teacher, Mr. Wilson, as he patiently explained the business end of a hoe, calmed us when a bee buzzed by, and offered a cool drink of "bug juice" (maybe Kool-Aid or similar). We raked, created straight rows, put seeds in the ground, pulled weeds, learned about insects, and after weeks of weeding and waiting, we harvested fresh veggies with pride. 

Our family enjoyed the radishes and beans and other familiar veggies . . . but how Mom figured out what to do with the kohlrabi, I'll never know. Um, I wouldn't put it on my plate, let alone in my mouth. But my memories of summers at the local school garden are as fresh as those snappy red radishes we grew.

Did your school have a garden? Wish I had a photo of ours...nobody thought to snap a shot of something we took for granted.

Lived in Ohio, Married in New York Because...?

Matilda C. Kohne (1892-1948) and her fiance, widower August Jacob Carsten (1884-1975) lived in Toledo, Ohio, yet they took the train to New York City in August of 1917 to get married. Why wed there and not closer to home?

Mary Amanda Wood Carsten's death

August had been widowed in January of 1917 when his first wife, Mary Amanda Wood Carsten, died from hemorrhaging in the hospital during an emergency procedure for what the death cert called "an extrauterine gestation, tubal" (translation: ectopic pregnancy). Sadly, Mary was only 32 when she passed away. She was my husband's 1c1r.

Mary left behind four young children ranging in age from 3 to 12 years old. Her husband August had a busy construction company, building homes all around Toledo, Ohio. How he met and proposed to Mathilde Kohne isn't known, but the engaged couple boarded a train for Manhattan in mid-August of 1917 and returned home as a married couple--NY marriage cert shown at top.

Officiant: Pastor Schumm

Looking closely at the marriage cert, I saw that August and Matilda were wed at the New York rectory residence of Pastor Ferdinand C G Schumm, a well-respected clergyman who headed the congregation at the Lutheran Church. The pastor's second wife (Minnie Brookmeyer Schumm) was the only witness. It seems no other family members accompanied August and Matilda to their wedding, or I think there would be other witnesses listed on this cert. 

"Schumm" rang a bell because I've seen that surname on Karen's Chatt, a blog written by certified genealogist Karen Miller Bennett. I got in touch with Karen and asked about Pastor Schumm, and she confirmed he was part of her extensive Schumm family tree. 

I told Karen that August's first marriage had been handled by a judge, but his second wife Matilda and her family had a strong, lifelong connection to the Lutheran Church in Toledo, Ohio. My hypothesis was that the couple wanted to be married specifically by Pastor Schumm or in the pastor's current church, even if that necessitated a train trip to New York. Karen agreed this was a good possibility. 

Why that pastor, why that church, why NYC?

She and I have so many questions. Why choose to be married by Pastor Schumm in the rectory of that particular church, when NYC has other Lutheran churches? Why go all the way to New York rather than marrying in a Lutheran church in Toledo? And isn't it interesting that Pastor Schumm's son became the pastor of a Lutheran church in Toledo years later, another Schumm connection with Ohio?

Although we can never know for certain, we speculate there must have been a friendship or other personal connection between the bride or groom and Pastor Schumm or his family. Also, the New York trip was probably intended as a nice honeymoon destination before the newlyweds returned to Toledo and the four children awaiting their new stepmother. Thank you to Karen for helping me think this through!

Finally, I note that Pastor Schumm, who served New York's Lutheran community for more than 20 years, was laid to rest in New York's beautiful Woodlawn Cemetery.

Takeaways

First, read and analyze absolutely everything on the document. Two Ohio folks going all the way to NYC to get married was not typical for that family or that time period. The officiant turned out to be of special interest too! And only one witness, the pastor's wife, no family as witness.

Second, read genealogy blogs...often the reasoning behind what a blogger did to research or document an ancestor can give me an idea for my own family history. Or a blogger might write about trying a new database or new tool, something good for me to learn about.

Third, don't hesitate to reach out to a blogger who might know the same surname or be familiar with a specific place or both. Two heads are better than one!

"Trains" is this week's #52Weeks genealogy prompt by Amy Johnson Crow.