Where the Bodies Are Buried, Part 1

Do descendants know where their ancestors are buried? 

When I began my genealogy journey in 1998, I wanted to know where and when my paternal grandfather had died and where he was buried. He died long before I was born, and there was no one to ask (and no paperwork) by the time I was interested. 

Along with researching and sharing information about ancestors, I've now realized I need to share specific information about burial places. Maybe descendants will want to visit in the future. At the very least, they should be aware of the cemeteries (and if possible, the plots) where our ancestors are buried. I really don't want this information to be lost to the next generation and beyond.

This is Part 1 of a series of my blog posts about "Where the bodies are buried."

Find a Grave's virtual cemetery 

Because I've been adding or enhancing memorials for ancestors on the free Find a Grave website for years, it's surprisingly easy to assign individuals to a virtual cemetery of my own making. On Find a Grave, a virtual cemetery is just what it sounds like: an online-only gathering of burial memorials put together by one registered user.

My idea is to have one virtual cemetery for each side of my family tree. Each memorial has detailed info about where the ancestor is buried, sometimes including plots and even grave numbers. In many cases, I've added photos and/or documents. As a result, all I have to do is assign each memorial to a virtual cemetery. This will become a one-stop online place for alerting descendants about "where the bodies are buried."

Easy instructions

You must be registered on Find a Grave to create a virtual cemetery. Registration is free, and once you're signed in, it takes just a few clicks to create a virtual cemetery. Click here for Find a Grave's directions. 

I've also created a virtual cemetery without even leaving an ancestor's Find a Grave memorial. See the screen shot at top, of the memorial I created for my grandmother's baby brother who died young. When I clicked the button "+save to" (see red circle), up popped a box asking me to either add this memorial to an existing virtual cemetery or create a new virtual cemetery. 

Describe the virtual cemetery (and make public or private)

As shown above, I named my paternal virtual cemetery "Burk and Mahler Family Memorials" and listed the matriarchs and patriarchs. Below the description are all the memorials currently included in this particular virtual cemetery. You can't see Wolf Mahler, but he's on the list. I chose to make this public, but have the option to make it a private virtual cemetery. I can send the link to my relatives when I've added more names. You can take a peek at this virtual cemetery in progress here.

To find my virtual cemetery at any time, all I do is sign into Find a Grave and then look at my profile page. On the right are my virtual cemeteries (one for mom's side, one for dad's side). One by one, little by little, I'm adding memorials to these virtual cemeteries and then in the future, I'll be ready to email my relatives with the links. The next generation and beyond will know what I had to discover on my own--where our ancestors are buried.

PS Especially where ancestors had no direct descendants (bachelor uncles, for instance), I hope to keep their memory alive by including them in my virtual cemeteries.

PPS After reading Dara's comment below, I am adding a link to the Burk/Mahler virtual cemetery on my Burk and Mahler ancestor landing pages here on the blog. Same for my Farkas ancestors. TY to Dara for the idea!

Remembering Their First Date on Valentine's Day

 

My husband's parents, Marian McClure Wood (1909-1983) and Edgar James Wood (1903-1986), had their very first date in Cleveland on Valentine's Day of 1934. Ed noted their "first date anniversary" on his daily diary every year and they always went to dinner to celebrate. 

Ed remembers his first date with Marian

How did they get together? As Ed told his son in an interview many years later, he was invited for a musical evening at the home of a friend on Valentine's Day. He remembered that a "gal in the office" named Marian played piano and expressed interest in hearing him play. Maybe he even told her that he had played piano to pay for college and still played on weekends while working as an insurance adjustor for the same company where she worked.

So it was on Valentine's Day of 1934 when Ed took Marian on their first date. He picked her up "not having any idea what I was getting into" (he told his son). They went out for a snack before going to his friend's house. The men, all friends, formed an impromptu orchestra and enjoyed playing for the ladies. Ed remembered that Marian fit right in from the very beginning and told him she'd had a good time.

Encouraged, he called for a second date the next week, and pretty soon they were going together. They married in 1935 and raised three children, including my wonderful hubby.

Pencil sketch for ancestor coloring book

On this 87th anniversary of Ed and Marian's first Valentine's Day date, I want to show how I turned their color portrait from the 1960s into a page for the ancestor coloring book I gave to the youngest generation.

First, I cropped the portrait to focus on their head/shoulders. Next, I used photo software to make the image into a black-and-white "pencil sketch" picture that can be colored. Finally, I positioned the portrait on a blank page, typed their names, and included their relationship to the recipients. I printed a copy for each of Ed and Marian's great-grandchildren, sending a digital version to the adults for reprinting in the future. 

"Ancestor coloring book" is just one of the bite-sized projects I'll be demonstrating during my talk for the all-virtual NERGC Conference in April. For more information, see the NERGC page here.

"Valentine" is this week's #52Ancestors prompt from Amy Johnson Crow!

Dad and His Dechelette with a Snowball Fight

 

With snow on the ground here in New England, it's a good time to write about a piece of art featuring what seems to be a snowball fight.

My father, Harold D. Burk (1909-1978), was stationed close to Paris in the spring of 1945, a part of the U.S. Army Signal Corps helping the Allies secure the area as World War II was coming to a close.

When discharged in 1945, Dad brought home a few pieces of art that he had acquired in France.

This painting, which looks to my eyes like a spontaneous snowball fight, was painted by the "naive" French painter Louis Auguste Dechelette (1894-1964). Although I don't remember it hanging in my childhood home, I inherited it when Dad died.  

I packed the oil painting securely this week and sent it to a new home (as I've been doing with many artifacts from family history). I included a brief bio of Dad and his military career, which lasted from March of 1942 to October of 1945. It was autumn when Dad finally arrived home, but the snowball fight will go on forever in this Dechelette painting acquired while serving his country in France. 

Have You Searched State and Local Genealogy and History Sites?

As handy as the big one-stop genealogy sites are for researching family trees, there are lots of other details available on U.S. state and local history/genealogy sites--sometimes free, sometimes at a very affordable price. Finding these state and local sites is easy--just try an online search for: 

historical society and [state or county] 

or 

genealogical society and [state or county]

That's how I found Ohiohistory.org, and ordered my late father-in-law's death certificate after using the site's death record index search. The cost was low (less than "official" records from the state). Plus I learned some new details from the certificate. This society also has free Ohio newspapers and many other wonderful resources for genealogy research.

While digging into the background of my husband's ancestors from Crawford County, Ohio, I searched and found that county's historical society website. It includes an alphabetical listing of "pioneers of Crawford County" -- showing the surname of my hubby's Rinehart ancestor. This confirms the family name was present in Crawford County prior to the end of 1850 and has led me to other info in the area.

So go ahead and try an online search for a historical or genealogical society in the state or county of your focus ancestor. Best of luck!

-- This is one of the tips from my "Free and Almost Free Genealogy" webinar. For more, also take a look at my summary of blog posts here. 

"Stinking Cheese" and Other Family Tree Traditions

Among the artifacts handed down in my mother's family were bound books of typed notes from 30 years of Farkas Family Tree monthly meetings. Founded in 1933 to keep the bonds strong among Farkas siblings, in-laws, and cousins, the Tree association celebrated every occasion (birthdays, anniversaries, Thanksgiving, start of summer, end of summer, etc.) with food. Hosting duties rotated around the tree, and hosts outdid themselves in feeding the many relatives who attended each meeting. 

Children and adults alike filled their plates during the main meal, then adults stayed at the table for the "business meeting" which consisted of a treasurer's report (yearly dues: $5 per adult), secretary's report (reading minutes from previous meeting), entertainment committee report (organizing card parties, fishing trips, picnics), and constitution committee (as children of immigrants, they believed in clearly delineating how the Tree association would function). 

What the hosts served changed with the seasons. Even the two "Bachelor Brothers" (my great uncles, Julius Farkas and Peter Farkas) enjoyed hosting and putting out a mouth-watering spread. As shown above in an excerpt from the minutes, when they hosted in April of 1937, the brothers and their sister-in-law Sadie served: hot dogs, sauerkraut, pickled tongue, pastrami, breads, mustard, and "stinking cheese." The brothers operated a dairy shop specializing in cheese, and the "stinking cheese" they brought to most meetings was a running joke and treasured tradition for 30 years. 

In all weather, in all economic circumstances, the minutes make clear that the family embraced its tradition of eating together, playing together, and staying together. When the older generation began to pass away, the family mourned together. My maternal grandfather Teddy led a moment of silence every March, honoring the memory of Tree members who were gone--but never forgotten.

This is my "In the kitchen" post for week 5 of #52Ancestors. 

Donating Artifacts with Inventory and Ancestor Bio

Three university libraries are receiving my late father-in-law's theater programs. One has a collection focused on Cleveland-area theatre programs, one has a collection focused on Broadway programs, and one has a collection focused on Boston-area programs. 

Inventory of programs

So the libraries and the family know what is being donated where, I created an inventory for each library of what it will receive. I listed the date of the program, the theater, the performance, and any notes (such as well-known stars or composers). 

As shown in the excerpt below, my document can be sorted by column. Here, I've sorted by date to show the oldest Broadway program from 1923. (That's not the first pro show my f-i-l saw--he was in the audience for the October 1922 performance of "Shuffle Along" with Eubie Blake in Boston.) But the inventory can also be sorted according to theater, if desired, or what is being performed.

Preparing the inventory documents allowed me to take time to look over each program and enjoy the cover art, the celebrities who performed, and the period ads for clothing, cars, and more. I'm keeping scans of selected programs before I ship the donations to their new homes.

Provenance of programs

Institutions prefer to know the provenance of the artifacts in their collections. 

This is my opportunity to provide a brief bio of f-i-l Edgar James Wood (1903-1986) and have his name/life story "on the record" at each institution. 

Beyond bare facts like birth-marriage-death, his one-page bio explains his lifelong involvement with playing piano and how he used every opportunity to see live shows while attending college at Tufts and, later, working in New York City and in Cleveland. 

The bio I wrote also mentions his prize-winning musical composition in a competition judged by famed composer George Gershwin in 1934. That achievement and Ed's life story add context for researchers who will study the programs in the years to come.

As a family historian, I feel a deep sense of satisfaction knowing that an ancestor's story will be kept alive for future generations by being represented in an institution's collection! 

Family History Includes New Homes for Old Artifacts

In my role as family historian, I do more than research and document names, dates, and photos for the family tree. 

I also find new homes for old artifacts that have no direct personal connection to the family tree. Not everything has to be in my collection! If relatives aren't interested, I research institutions that collect such items.

By keeping these things out of the trash or garage sales, and donating them to good new homes, I ensure that the items survive into the future. 

And I believe I am showing respect to the ancestors who saw value in these artifacts during their lifetimes. 

Theater buff = lots of programs

My late father-in-law (Edgar J. Wood, 1903-1986) played jazz piano to pay his way through what was then Tufts College. He was quite a theater and music buff. Over the decades, he attended performances in his home town of Cleveland, his college town of Boston, and on New York City's Great White Way. 

Happily, Ed saved nearly every program from plays or concerts he attended, beginning about 1923. And even better, the programs are in decent shape because they've been carefully stored. Now it is my honor and pleasure to find these programs safe new homes in repositories that collect and study such artifacts. 

Ask permission, take inventory, sign forms, send away

As always, it's important to match the artifact to a potential new home. In the case of these Cleveland-area theater programs from the 1950s, I researched historical societies and universities that collect and study items related to Cleveland. 

Narrowing it down, I had an email conversation with a librarian at Cleveland State University. I described how many programs I have and what condition they are in, and provided a photo similar to that above. I highlighted some specific items, such as programs featuring guest stars like Leo G. Carroll (Topper on TV) and Carol Channing (so well-known for Hello Dolly). 

The librarian agreed that these theater programs will fit into his collection, and he will accept our family's donation. If the library doesn't already have a copy, we will include Ed Wood's 1922 yearbook from Cleveland Heights High School, in great condition. 

As part of the process, we must submit an inventory of every program donated. We'll have to sign a deed of gift agreement, which gives full ownership of the artifacts to the repository. Finally, we'll pay to ship to the institution, a small investment to keep these programs in safe hands for academic study in the coming years.

Lots of possible homes for Broadway programs

Ed lived in New York City during the mid-1920s, trying to build a career as a jazz pianist. He went to the theater quite frequently, judging by the dozens of programs he amassed from that period (see photo above). Apart from holes that Ed punched to put these into binders, the programs are in surprisingly good condition for their age.

Finding a new home for these particular programs won't be too difficult. If you do an online search for "university collection of Broadway Playbills" you'll see how many institutions collect such items.

Sifting through the list, I've contacted a Midwest university with a sizable collection of Playbills from the 1960s and later. However, its library appears to have few programs from the 1920s and 1930s. I emailed the librarian, describing what the family would like to donate, and included a photo like this as a sample.

If this university isn't interested, there are many more I can approach. Meanwhile, I'm working on a complete inventory so I can provide lots of detail to any institution that winds up with these items.

My family and I agree that finding new homes for artifacts is an important priority, to honor the legacy of those who came before. My father-in-law Ed would certainly be delighted to know his collection of programs is in safe hands!

Grandma Minnie Goes to the Ball (Spoiler Alert)

This photo puzzled me for a long, long time.

I recognized my maternal grandmother, Hermina "Minnie" Farkas (1886-1964), who was born in Hungary and came to New York as a teenager, just after the turn of the 20th century.

I couldn't imagine what she was doing in this strange get-up, photographed in a  studio on the Lower East Side of Manhattan where she and so many other immigrants lived. 

The outfit and pose was uncharacteristic of the somber older woman I remember, to say the least. What was the back story? The spoiler alert is in the title, but please keep reading for the steps I took to come to this conclusion.

Comparing Faces in Photos

To date the photo and get more context, I compared the faces, hair styles, and fashions of all my old photos of Grandma Minnie. 

One stood out as very much like the head and shoulders of Minnie as pictured in the costume photo. It was a miniature headshot among a constellation of headshots taken to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the Kossuth Ferenc Hungarian Literary Sick and Benevolent Society. 

Minnie's brother Alex Farkas (my great uncle) cofounded this group, which helped immigrants pay for medical and burial services. Minnie was a member, as were other Farkas ancestors, paying dues and volunteering their time. I had inherited a few loose pages from this booklet, with names and faces of Farkas ancestors highlighted (by an ancestor in decades past).

Pages Lost, Pages Found, Mystery Solved

The pages I inherited were almost entirely in Hungarian, so all I could make out was that the booklet was produced for the group's anniversary.

Then a cousin sorting through her family history files found the entire glossy booklet and gave it to me. It was printed in Hungarian with a few key pages in English. 

The mystery was solved!

Shown here is the English-language title page of the booklet for this fundraising event. Grandma was almost certainly in costume to attend the Kossuth Assn's "Mask and Civic Ball" held on December 4, 1909 in New York City. The studio where Grandma Minnie was photographed in costume also produced all photos for this fundraiser, and was credited with an ad in the program as well. 

No wonder Minnie's miniature headshot nearly matched her face/hair in the costume photo--my best guess is she was photographed twice on the same day in the same studio. One photo was a sedate headshot, showing her in a fashionable dress with a long locket around her neck. The other photo showed her in her eye-catching ball costume. Minnie was in her early 20s and a lovely young lady! 

Sharing with Other Researchers

A number of archives collect booklets such as this, documenting immigrant life and the role of benevolent societies in New York City. My plan is to keep this booklet safe for the future by donating it to an archive that will preserve it and digitize it for other researchers to investigate in the years to come. 

Grandma Minnie would approve, I am sure, knowing that this donation will also keep our Farkas family alive in the archives while sharing the story of the Kossuth Assn with the wider world.

--

This is my #52Ancestors post for week 4, "favorite photo." 

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.

--

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.

--

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!

--

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.