Finding Distant Woods

My husband's cousin Larry has done a remarkable job researching the Wood family. One of the distant relatives he researched is Fernando Wood, a former mayor of NYC who was apparently corrupt and whose brother Benjamin owned the NY Daily News for a time. 

Fernando and Benjamin were outspoken opponents of the Civil War (Fernando suggested that NYC secede). 

Benjamin Wood's widow Ida had quite the story of her own--The Recluse of Herald Square, a woman of modest origins who reinvented herself to join high society and finally died with millions stuffed under the mattress. You never know who you'll find as you climb your family tree. To be continued.

Insider's Look at Genealogy

Maps online from the New York Public Library clipped from ancestryinsider.blogspot.com Notice: The Ancestry Insider is independent of Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org. The opinions expressed herein are his own. Trademarks used herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The Ancestry Insider is solely responsible for any silly, comical, or satirical trademark parodies presented as such herein. The name Ancestry Insider designates the author's status as an insider among those searching their ancestry and does not refer to Ancestry.com. All content is copyrighted unless designated otherwise.

Independent but expert, this featured blog takes us inside the latest developments at Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org (and other genealogy sites). Valuable tips and loads of links--as you can see from these recent post titles. It's now on my (lengthy) bookmark list of must-visit genealogy sites and blogs. Because my Eastern European relatives lived in towns that belonged to different nations at different times, links on this blog to historical maps are helpful in figuring out where to continue searching. My maternal grandfather came from a town that was once in Hungary, later considered part of Czechoslovakia, and today is in Ukraine. Can't wait to find out about the towns in Latvia etc. where my paternal ancestors originally lived.

Update: The Ancestry Insider ceased posting as of 2017. 

Connecting through CousinConnect - No longer functioning

clipped from www.cousinconnect.com

This site is no longer functioning as of 2022. 

I connected with my husband's second cousin by answering a genealogical query on a site like this. I also connected with a cousin of the daughter-in-law of a great aunt, which led me to uncover more roots and three second cousins I hadn't known about. These experiences have made me such a believer in queries that I've posted some on every forum connected to a surname in my family tree and my husband's family tree. My first query wasn't specific enough, as a kindly (and anonymous) correspondent pointed out. She suggested I mention dates and places and names of several family members, which I now do. Thank you!

When did great-grandpa die?

One of the biggest mysteries of my family's genealogy has been finding out exactly when and where (and why) my father's grandfather died. Come to think of it, I wasn't sure exactly when and where he was born. When nearly every other Mahler ancestor died, he or she had a brief obit in the New York Times. Not Great-Grandpa Mahler. 

But yesterday I reexamined the 1910 Census very carefully and sure enough, Great-Grandma Mahler was a widow in April, 1910. I checked NYC death records and found an entry for Great-Grandpa in January, 1910. Quick as you can say "ten bucks" I sent to NYC for the record. 

Thanks to Ancestry, I already knew that Great-Grandpa had become naturalized in 1900. Out came my checkbook again and I sent for that record, as well. It will take weeks, but I'll know a lot more about my Mahler roots (in Latvia) when these two documents show up in the mailbox.

Since this was posted, I learned a lot more. See my summary "ancestor landing page" for Mahler, here.