Happy Father's Day to all the dads in the world, past and present

Family history pays a majority of its attention to patrilineal lines of genealogy but besides passing along to us our names, fathers have a great influence on their children and who their children become through both their presence and their absence, in that way influencing each successive generation. So today we remember all the fathers on our trees, as well as the mothers who act as both father and mother either through choice or loss, we remember the good and the bad about them, because everything they did or didn't do, whether it be your father, grandfather, or seventh great grandfather, has influenced the person you are today...isn't that cool?

A special shout out to my own father, Tim Gorry, who is the only member of my immediate family who thinks genealogy is as fun and interesting as I do...thank you for letting me share all my discoveries with you and not have your eyes glaze over, and thank you for all the research and fieldwork you do yourself to help grow and enrich our family tree! And another special shout out to my fiance Sam, who is celebrating his first Father's Day today - thank you for the gift of our beautiful baby girl, the next generation of our now combined family tree!

Sam and our 10 week old daughter Elena.

Old school - with my dad at the beach. Probably Jones Beach, probably 1980.

Indiana Jones and the genealogical pursuit

My 2-month old is down for a rare nap and not only was I inspired yesterday to write about this but Cousin April over at Digging Up the Dirt on My Dead People just wrote about this too so it look like it was meant to be!

First, the thoughts that were going through my mind - yesterday I was watching a documentary on Indiana Jones and real life archaeology and as with anytime I see or hear anything about history, it was making me itch to do some genealogy. And while I was thinking how cool it would have been to be out in the field, in search of mystery and adventure, like an archaeologist like Indiana Jones and lamenting the fact that the golden age of archaeology was long over, I was thinking about how genealogy is kinda like archaeology, because the fieldwork is so important to finding and solving those mysteries about our family trees.

So Cousin April was talking about the broadcast yesterday on Radio Boston about the impact of technology on genealogy - please visit the link above to read more about the interview and April's opinions on it. As I've stated before, I love that the Internet has exposed more people to genealogy and piqued their interest in it, that it's made more documents and databases available to us and helped us break down previously impassable brick walls, and that it has helped us connect with distant family members and share our collective knowledge about our trees. The Internet has also, unfortunately, helped spread a lot of bad information, because it's so easily accessible; it has made genealogy a copy-and-paste hobby for a lot of folks; and it has made some people forget (or maybe they never realized!) the importance of genealogical fieldwork. It's not just about finding your grandparent's address in a census on Ancestry.com - it's, if possible, visiting the address or neighborhood and seeing if the house is still there and how much the neighborhood has or hasn't changed. It's not just finding a death certificate or record on Familysearch - it's going to the cemetery to visit the headstone (or lack thereof - that alone will tell you whether or not your family was poor or well-off) and seeing if you can find out who else might be buried there and who the plot belongs to. And it's realizing that some of the most pertinent information you are seeking probably ISN'T online - it's in a tiny church's hand-written recordbooks, or in an old newspaper that's only available on microfilm at the library, or in the dusty archives of your local town hall, or maybe even in your own grandmother's photo album or diary.

So, technology, yay; but also, fieldwork, yay.

The other thing I was contemplating as I fell asleep last night was how multi-disciplinary genealogy is, which Cousin April also touches on. Genealogy doesn't happen in a vacuum. It happens in a geographical area, and it happens in a historical time period. It's not just about collecting names and dates, although that can be fun. It's about what happened in between the birth date and death date, about our ancestor's lives. I love a name and date when I've finally broken through a brick wall, but eventually, I want a place, too, and maybe an occupation. In my dreams, all my ancestors would be fleshed out individuals - I would be able to know their whole stories. That will never happen. But each of us has at least one ancestor we can round out - when and where did they live? Did they grow up on a farm or in the city? Did his mother die when he was young? Did he have any siblings? Did he follow in his father's occupational footsteps? Did he emigrate to another country? Why did he - were the reasons economic? Religious? Was he escaping a war? Was he a youngest son with no other prospects? Was he just an adventurous spirit? Are there any newspaper articles about him? Was he a productive member of society? Was he a social misfit or pariah? When he died was he able to afford a funeral? His own cemetery plot? A headstone? Are there any photos? Do I have his eyes or his mouth? His temperament? These are the things I want to know as a genealogist. These are the mysteries I want to solve. When it comes to genealogy, I want to be Indiana Jones - how about you? :)

TLC Brings NBC's 'Who Do You Think You Are?' Back From the Grave (Exclusive)

Thanks to Cousin April of Digging Up the Dirt on My Dead People for passing along this info to me. As anyone who reads this blog regularly knows, I love this show (even went to a panel discussion for it  featuring Lisa Kudrow, Blair Underwood, and Kim Cattrall at the Paley Center last year), so all I have to say is...woo hoo! :)

TLC Brings NBC's 'Who Do You Think You Are?' Back From the Grave (Exclusive)

New episodes premiere July 23. 

Read about the WDYTYA panel discussion I attended, which was awesome by the way, in my blog post  here.

Introducing the newest blossom on my family tree...

Happy birthday, Elena!

Elena at 5 days old, already deep in thought and contemplating the world around her...

On April 6, 2013, I welcomed my daughter, Marielena "Elena" Luz Hall, into the world, the newest blossom in my family tree, and the first of the next generation on my particular branch (my parents' first grandkid).

If you can't tell, she's named after me, Mary Ellen. Her father is Honduran, and so it was important for me to incorporate his ethnic and cultural heritage, and therefore my daughter's, into her name, especially since her last name, Hall, doesn't reflect her Latina heritage at all. Hence, Mary Ellen en espanol becomes Marielena - and because that's such a mouthful for such a little girl, it becomes Elena for short.

Mary Ellen in particular is an important family name for me, a tradition that goes back generations on my father's side of the family. But Mary and variations of Ellen individually are important recurring names, and so, Marielena is the latest in a long line of women I'm so proud to call family, and her name honors them all, including but not limited to my mother, Margaret Mary; my aunts, Mary Ellen and Ellen; my grandmothers Helen Stutzmann Gorry and Mary Cronin Raynor; my great-grandmothers, Mary Ellen Tormey Gorry, Helen Haase Stutzmann, Amelia Ellen Berg Raynor, Ellen Marie Casey Cronin; my great-great grandmothers, Mary Ellen Horgan Gorry, Ellen Prendergast Tormey, and Mary Enright Casey; my 3rd great grandmothers, Mary Corr Gorry, Ellen Prendergast, and Mary Story Poole, and I'm sure many, many more even further back than that.

On top of it all, Elena came very close to sharing a birthday with her great-grandmother, Mary Cronin Raynor...I went into the hospital April 5, which was my grandmother's 98th birthday. I was kinda hoping for them to share a birthday but I think my grandmother was happy her first great-granddaughter got her very own day (happy belated birthday, by the way, Grandma!)

Having a newborn and being a new parent is both extremely exciting and extremely overwhelming, so I probably will not be updating this blog for awhile, and at least not as frequently as I have in the past - to everyone who has followed me over the years, thank you so much, and I promise I'm not disappearing forever - please check in on me every once in awhile to see when I start back up again. In the meantime, continue all your good genealogy work, and the best of luck in finding all the family you're searching for!!

Social media breaking down family history barriers

Great story by Dana Rimington of the Standard-Examiner out in Utah. If you've seen this story or follow this blog (or any blog or tweets or Facebook posts etc etc), you already know how influential social media has become in helping us share our family history stories and research. A couple of good quotes from Thomas MacEntee over at Geneabloggers.com. The physical legwork of genealogy remains largely the same - for example, a cousin of mine trekked out to Lutheran Cemetery today to visit a gravesite and get info on that site from the cemetery office, but social media has changed the availability and dissemination of that info - for example, this is a cousin I've never met, and we've connected through the online genealogy community. His physical visit is helping grow my family story, and vice versa in other situations. All I can reiterate is - keep sharing!

Social media breaking down family history barriers

From Aintitcoolnews.com: ‘Jesus!!’ The Christopher Guest HBO Comedy Series FAMILY TREE Gets Its First Tease!!

From Ain't It Cool News:

"Christopher Guest, who co-wrote “This Is Spinal Tap” before he went on to co-write and direct the similarly improvised comedies “Waiting For Guffman,” “Best In Show,” “A Mighty Wind” and “For Your Consideration,” writes, directs and co-stars in “Family Tree,” the tale of a man researching his own genealogy.

Hitting HBO in May, it stars Chris O’Dowd (who played love interest to Jemima Kirk and Kristen Wiig in “Girls” and “Bridesmaids,” respectively), with support from Guest’s usual movie repertory company (Fred Willard, Michael McKean, Ed Begley Jr., Bob Balaban, Don Lake, and so on)."

If you've never seen any of Christopher Guest's movies, you're missing out on some wry, dry, ridiculous humor. And for the record, I would just like to say that I knew about and loved Chris O'Dowd way before anybody ever "discovered" him in "Bridesmaids."

So between Guest and O'Dowd and of course, the subject matter - genealogy, yay! - I definitely want to see this show. I think we all know that besides the frustration and joys that genealogy can bring, it can also bring the funny and ridiculous. Plus, anything that puts genealogy in the mainstream? More, please!

Women's History Month: The Casey women

Cousin April over at Digging up the Dirt on my Dead People posted a lovely old photo of some of the women in her family and their children, which made me remember I also have a favorite old photo of some of the women in my family, so I thought I'd post it for Women's History Month.
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And for once, it's a photo that's been labeled!!! (Thank you Grandma (Mary Cronin Raynor)!!! It is most definitely her handwriting...) Although, unfortunately, there is no date. We can guess though! My grandmother looks similar in age to her wedding photo, but she's labeled herself with her maiden name, so let's guess she's about 30 which would make this photo from about 1945.

The location is Coney Island - getting photos taken at Coney Island was a big thing for the Casey and Cronin families in my tree. This photo is of the Casey women. From left to right we have: Maggie Casey Booth Casey (yes, her maiden name and second married name are both Casey), Mary Cronin, Molly Casey Murray, Elizabeth Casey Costello, Jenny Casey Travers, Ellen Casey Cronin, and Swanhild Nelson Casey. Maggie, Molly, Elizabeth, Jenny, and Ellen are sisters, and Swanhild is their sister-in-law. Mary Cronin is the daughter of Ellen. Ellen Casey Cronin is my great-grandmother, and Mary Cronin (later Raynor) is my grandmother. It's nice seeing all these women together, seeing all these sisters still close to each other even as adults, still traveling to Coney Island like a bunch of young girls to take a souvenir photo together.

Women's History Month & International Women's Day: Celebrating the women in our family

March is Women's History Month, and today is International Women's Day. Instead of doing a whole long ode to all the fierce and fabulous women in my family tree (which I could do, easily, but it would take forever!), I thought I'd just share a quick thought about some of the wonderful women I call family...

Last weekend, many of the women nearest and dearest to me turned out for my surprise baby shower. Besides all the wonderful female friends and family who showed up and/or sent gifts, a great many of my female relatives (and my best friend, who I consider family! ;)) came together to throw the shower for me, just a great reminder of how lucky I am to have these women in my life (and in my tree!)

The shower really was a celebration of connected generations of women. My aunt gave me a christening blanket for my daughter made from the train of my mother's wedding dress. My (very nearly) 98-year-old grandmother, Mary Cronin Raynor, was able to come for awhile, which in and of itself would've been the best gift in and of itself, but the actual present she brought connected five generations of women on my mom's side of the family: a beautiful afghan knitted by my grandmother's mother, Ellen Casey Cronin. I can't wait to tell my daughter that her great-grandmother passed along to her a gift made by my daughter's great-great grandmother.

Afghan made by Ellen Casey Cronin (1892-1974)

So today and this whole month, don't just remember those famous women who inspire you and who you look up to; remember all those wonderful women in your own families who not only came before you, but who surround you even today!

AncestryDNA: Fiance edition

Well, it's certainly been awhile, hasn't it??

I meant to write this post a month ago and well, life just got in the way! As I had written before, I bought my fiance an AncestryDNA kit as a Christmas present for him. And for me. And for our daughter, ha ha. As he has a mainly Central American ancestry that is poorly documented, I thought this might be our best shot just to get a general picture of where his family came from, and to maybe, quite possibly, connect to some distant cousins through Ancestry.com.

So, before we took the test, we knew a few things - both of the fiance's parents were born in Honduras, and so much of his heritage is Native American, namely Mayan. His great-grandfather on his mother's side was a Sicilian sailor. On his father's side, he definitely has an Anglo ancestor, rumored to be from Scotland, rumored to have had a child with a Jamaican woman. So I think we were both expecting to see all that reflected in his genetic make-up.

I have to give AncestryDNA props again. It took two weeks from the time they received the test (which you can track online on their website) to when they posted his results. I don't know how demanding their DNA testing schedule is, and as they grow in popularity it may take longer to get results, but right now, they really don't make you wait all that long to find out, which I appreciate as a customer, considering how expensive the tests are! (Though they're still cheaper than DNA tests offered by other genetic genealogy sites.)

Anyway, the fiance told me only after we got the test results back that he hadn't been convinced that the test was all that accurate, given my surprising DNA results of Scandinavian & Eastern European, both of which were fairly unexpected (well, maybe not the Scandinavian, but definitely the percentage of Scandinavian), but after he got HIS results, I think he was convinced. According to his results, he is 24 percent British Isles, 18 percent Native South American, 17 percent Native North American, 16 percent Southern European, 16 percent West African, and 9 percent uncertain (I tease him that that uncertain part means he's part alien). But really, for the most part, I think this is what we both expected to see, which didn't make it any less exciting - British Isles backs up the family history that his paternal line comes from Scotland, Southern European backs up his Sicilian great-grandfather, and the West African backs up the claim of a female Jamaican ancestor. I think he was surprised by the AMOUNT of British Isle ancestry that came back, and he was definitely surprised by the Native South American ancestry that showed up. As far as he knows, his whole native ancestry is Central American (which is covered by the Native North American ancestry), although he has a great-grandmother on one of his lines who was adopted, and so his family doesn't really know her background. So I think that was the most unexpected result for him. He also said he thought some Middle Eastern or Arabic ancestry might show up, but I explained that just because it DOESN'T show up in the results doesn't mean it's not there. It just didn't show up. But it's interesting to see just how mixed the ancestry of Latin Americans are, with the intermingling of people and genes from the African slaves who were brought over, the Europeans who came over to settle or for business, and the native Americans who were already here. His 24 percent British Isles means he probably has at least another European on his lines that he doesn't know about. And while Southern European backs up his Sicilian ancestry, he probably has some Spanish conquistador ancestry as well covered by that Southern European.

He also found a couple of cousins on Ancestry, and we get notices every day that he has more joining. Most of them are very distant with low certainty, but I'm waiting for someone with more moderate to high certainty and also a little closer in range (4th-6th cousin). He had one that he sent an e-mail to but we're still waiting to hear back - I think he's a little disappointed that he hasn't heard yet, but I'm keeping my eyes open for that potentially helpful cousin who might come along.

So it was exciting getting those results. For him, I think it validated a lot of what he'd been told about his family but so far has no way to prove, and it provided some surprises, which is part of the fun of genealogy and family history. For me, it gives me something to put together for my daughter, something to tell her and pass along to her, my little melting pot daughter, my little mutt, my little child of the world! :)

Happy birthday, Grandma (+ 1 day)!

Yesterday would've been my grandmother's 81st birthday - my father's mother, Helen Meta Stutzmann Gorry.

Helen was born on Feb. 10, 1932 to Frederick Casper Stutzmann and Helen Meta Haase - she had an older sister, Faith, and was followed eventually by brother Frederick and little sister Dawn. She was 100 percent German and her family was fairly well off - her father was the son of Rudolph Stutzmann, founder and president of Ridgewood Savings Bank, founder of R. Stutzmann & Son Funeral Homes in the Brooklyn-Queens area. Unfortunately, of Rudolph's two sons, Helen's father Fred was not the responsible one. He was the one who was kicked out of Dartmouth, who gambled at the horse racing track, who sold his share of the business to his brother Rudolph. I actually don't know that much about my grandmother's childhood - she lived in Queens Village but her parents eventually divorced and I believe she was sent away to a nearby boarding school. She also dealt with some mental problems that from what my father told me, doesn't sound like they were ever properly addressed when she was young - from what I can gather, her childhood was pretty tumultuous and when I think about that, my heart goes out to her. My grandparents lived only a few blocks away from us in Freeport when I was growing up, but again, because of some of her mental health issues, there were long periods I didn't really get to see her, and so I still really don't feel like I ever got to know her all that well. When I think of my grandmother, I think of my grandfather of how he related to her, and of how much he obviously loved her. They knew each other as children and actually lived around the block from each other - my dad tells me a story of how Grandpa used to throw snowballs at her when they were kids. They were married in 1951 in Queens Village and eventually had five kids and moved to the suburbs. Grandpa was always lovingly teasing Grandma, I remember that, and she put up with all his silly jokes with a smile on her face. I ran away from home once when I was a kid, and I ran away to their house. My most vivid memory of my grandmother, who always seemed quiet and reserved, as Germans often are, compared to my loud, gregarious Irish grandfather, is actually a funny one - we were over their house and she was talking on the phone, probably with one of my aunts. She was sitting in the rocking chair in the living room and right in the middle of her conversation, the chair tipped over backward. Somehow Grandma was still seated in it, and she just kept on with her phone conversation, as if nothing was out of the ordinary at all. That memory still makes me laugh. I also believe my father told me that the artistic bent that runs on his side of the family comes from his mother. And she was very beautiful - I love looking at old photos of her.

My grandparents were married for 50 years and after Grandma died in 2002, my grandfather was never the same. I know part of him died that day as well.

But this is supposed to be a happy, not a sad post, so happy 81st birthday in heaven, Grandma - I know you are surrounded by loved ones there and remembered by many loved ones here!

So cute!

Grandma at 6 months and her older sister Faith, 1932.

Grandma and Grandpa on their wedding day, 1951.

Grandma at the beach.

Happy birthday, Grandpa!

Today would have been my grandfather Clifford Monroe "Dick" Raynor's 99th birthday - he was born on Feb. 1, 1914 in Freeport, on Long Island in New York. He grew up on South Main Street, where his family had lived for hundreds of years, the oldest boy out of 7 kids. His best friend growing up was Dan Cronin, who lived on the same street. He enlisted in the Navy during World War II and served in the Pacific theatre, and upon returning home, married Dan's sister, my grandmother, Mary Cronin. He joined the Freeport police department where he eventually made it to the captain's list, though he retired as a lieutenant. He and my grandmother moved down to Etowah, North Carolina, near the Blue Ridge Mountains, in the 1970s. According to my grandmother, he loved to go golfing there, and he would buy fresh fruit at the farmer's market for her to make jams for us and he helped put the buttons onto the pajamas my grandmother would make for us. That's where he died on Sept. 18, 1991. He is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Brooklyn, in my grandmother's family plot.

I don't remember a lot about my grandfather. I was 12 when he died, but I only saw him 2 or 3 times a year. I remember his house in North Carolina, which I used to love to visit - in fact, the smell of grass and trees and other greenery after a spring rain still makes me think of the woods behind their house. He wasn't Catholic, he and his family were Protestant, but my grandmother is Catholic and they raised their kids Catholic, and I remember Grandpa would go to church every Sunday with my grandmother. I remember that he used to make me laugh, that he could be really silly with us kids, and that he used to love to garden and work out in the yard. My mom always said he had a real green thumb. 

Happy birthday, Grandpa!

Grandpa at his wedding in 1946.

I have a photo of Grandpa when he's a kid, which I love, and a couple of him with me and my siblings when we were little, which is how I remember him - will post them next week if I can find them!

From NBCnews.com: Holocaust archive rescues lost identities, reunites long lost families

People of European descent are lucky in the amount of records available to them for genealogical purposes, for the most part - people of European Jewish descent often hit that brick wall as recently as World War II because of people and records lost in the Holocaust. So I found this article and this archive very interesting. And maybe it's the pregnancy hormones, but it brought a tear to my eye.

Holocaust archive rescues lost identities, reunites long lost families

Enjoy your weekend, everyone - keep warm! :) 

My blogiversary - celebrating 5 years of genealogy facts and fun

Wow.

Five years. Five years.

I knew the anniversary of the date I started this blog was approaching but it seems unreal that I've been an active participant in the genealogy blogosphere for 5 whole years. Time flies when you're having fun, huh?

And I really have been having fun - sharing all the amazing discoveries I've made about my own tree over those years, sharing all the research tips & records help that I've learned and gotten familiar with along the way that have hopefully helped others in their family history research! When I think about where I was five years ago, I have so much more solid information, I have so many more branches, both backwards and sideways, I have so many more stories that have made the members of my tree so much more well-rounded and interesting and REAL, so many fewer brick walls (well, not really - but the new ones are at least further back), and most importantly, so many more connections - with fellow genealogists, with my readers, and with all my amazing researching cousins, who have played such a huge role in so many of my genealogy breakthroughs - and it's this blog that has often times been the catalyst to connecting us!

And there's just so much more to learn and share - I truly hope I have another five years in me. I hope you've enjoyed reading as much as I've enjoyed writing this blog. 2013 looks to bring a lot of changes to my personal life, the biggest being the arrival of my daughter, who should be here in just 11 short weeks - so I may not get to write as often, but as I'm doing all this work for, among others, my daughter, you better believe that while I may not have as much time to research my family and write about it, I'll find the time somehow and somewhere. After all, I really think genealogy chooses us, and not the other way around - once a genealogist, always a genealogist!

:)

A genealogy break: The Liebster Award

Thanks to Heather at Leaves for Trees for nominating me for the Liebster Award! Heather is one of the people I interact with the most in the blogosphere - I always appreciate her comments and suggestions on my blog posts and I appreciate her encouragement to keep chugging along as a blogger by giving me this nomination!

 

 
Liebster is a German word that means friend, dearest, adored, beloved, chosen one. The Liebster Award is given to bloggers who have fewer than 200 followers, to encourage them to keep at it and to help spread the word about interesting blogs to a new audience.

The rules for the award vary, but I'm going to follow Heather's suggestions:

• Thank the one who nominated you by linking back.
• List 11 random facts about yourself/your blog (if you want - it was much harder than I thought it would be to come up with 11!)
• Nominate five blogs with fewer than 200 followers.
• Let the nominees know by leaving a comment on their sites.
• Add the award image to your site (optional). 

So, 11 random facts about me/my blog:
1. I am also the author of two other blogs: one about television and a sports blog for girls.
2. I am OCD, probably most evident in that I HAVE to eat Skittles in a particular order and the television volume has to be on an even number. I know. It's weird.
3. I am the oldest child of an oldest child (my dad) of an oldest child (my grandfather).
4.  I wish I had gone to school for history (a degree as useless as the one I actually have) but if I was independently wealthy, I would still consider going back to school for history. Besides finding it interesting in and of itself, the more familiar you are with history in general, the better you'll be at your own family history!
5. I wrote my college senior thesis on an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. That's right. AND I got an A :)
6. Besides my grandmother's influence, my interest in genealogy was piqued by the insert in a Freeport restaurant menu on the history of Freeport.
7. Out of the six people in my immediate family, I am the only one who does not have 17 letters in their name - boo :( LOL
8. Keeping this blog has made me learn so much about my family that I'm so proud of that I can't wait to pass on to my daughter. (Unlike my siblings, she'll be a captive audience for at least the first few years!)
9. I once went to the movies 60 times in one year.
10. I used to really identify with my Irish ancestry but the more I've learned about my German ancestry, the more I identify with that.
11. I once passed Will Ferrell in a stairwell - he was really tall!

So, these are five bloggers I like to follow - even though they're not all genealogy-related, they're all well written and interesting and I hope my nominating them for this award helps encourage them to keep chugging along, too!
1. Skipping Down Memory Lane
2. Brown-Eyed Blessings
3. A3Genealogy
4. Digging Up the Dirt on My Dead People
5. Running the Race

When you get a chance, definitely check out Heather's blog (linked back at the top of this post) as well as my five nominees! Whether you're a blog reader, writer, or both, we have to support and encourage each other!

A new year, a new project & a call for help! :)

Welcome to 2013, everyone!

So in keeping with the new year, I've started a new project - I'm adding siblings and sideways branches to my Ancestry.com family tree.

Yikes.


Purely to keep things streamlined and more orderly and under control, I've always avoided this, even though I know sometimes your best family connections are your sideways connections. Your grandmother might not have the info or records or family heirlooms you want or need, but a third cousin might be the key to unlocking more info on your family or even knocking down that brick wall - I speak from experience! I have those branches galore on my home computer programs, which is how I was always able to find and connect to these people, but I've decided the time has come to make those branches public. Because I need some cousin help.

I got a very helpful response on my last blog entry from CeCe over at Your Genetic Genealogist who noted that when AncestryDNA gives you that list of possible cousins to connect to, if the probability is high enough (and for me, its in the upper 90 percent), then these really ARE probably cousins. Exciting, right? Which means these are people I need to connect to! But when I look at their trees, I don't recognize any of the names, which is frustrating because it means I can't personally connect myself to them yet, but at the same time it's exciting because it means one or two of those people on their trees are as of yet unknown family members of mine, branches that are so far behind a brick wall, a brick wall I'm trying to break down.

So, that's my call for help - I might not be able to connect to their trees yet, but maybe, if I start filling those sideways branches in, one or more of my potential cousins might be able to connect to my tree - all it takes is one familiar name or a place, something somebody heard before or came across before, or even just a hunch. I'm a strong believer in hunches - sometimes our subconscious can make connections our conscious mind can't yet.

It's already overwhelming but very exciting - wish me luck! (And if you think we might be related or you have a helpful tip or strategy that worked for you, drop me a line in the comments section!)

Happy New Year, y'all - may it be a good one personally & genealogically for all of us! :)

AncestryDNA part deux

So for Christmas I bought an AncestryDNA kit for my fiance - I think I was more excited about it than he was, so really, it was a present for me too, but with a daughter on the way, I see finding out a little more about his ethnic background as a gift for our growing family.

Anyway, as I've mentioned before, Sam is Honduran, so I'm fully expecting to see some kind of Native American ancestry showing up, based on his known-Mayan heritage. But the rest of his family tree is such an eclectic mix - Jamaican, Scottish & Sicilian that we know of, who knows what else that we don't - I'm just so excited to see what shows up. Because, a la my results, there could be some real surprises. The more I think about it, the more my Scandinavian roots make sense (all the countries my family is from were plundered/settled by Vikings) but I am still flummoxed by my Eastern European roots. It must be somewhere in my German roots, that they had family that came from Eastern European countries, but I have yet to find it. A mystery for another day.

But another reason I'm excited about this DNA kit for my fiance is that his family comes from a part of the world where record keeping is spotty at best, as is the case in many of the Central/South American countries where whole populations were conquered and destroyed or records for certain populations were deemed not worth keeping. I'm lucky in that I have a lot of paper records available to me for my own family research, but what do you do when you don't have that? You can rely on whatever paper records ARE available, family records, oral tradition & now, DNA.

So, can't wait to get that done. But in the mean time, I'm still personally trying to wrap my head around some of the aspects of AncestryDNA, particularly the cousin connect feature. Maybe one of my readers can help me with this - when someone is listed as being connected to you, especially as a close connection (4th-6th cousin), how accurate is that? Is that person really related to you? Whenever I look at their trees, I don't recognize any of the names - there's no overlap. However, while I can list many of my 4th-6th cousins, thanks to my colonial family tree, there are quite a few I can't and may never find - thanks to my spotty Irish ancestry. So maybe these are cousins on those missing branches? Or is it just saying that because I have Scandinavian DNA & THEY have Scandinavian DNA, we MIGHT be related?

Rudolph Stutzmann's home: 109-50 Park Lane South, Richmond Hill/Kew Gardens, Queens, NY

Now that you've read through that long-ass post title, hopefully you'll keep reading the actual post! :)

Rudolph Stutzmann is my great-great grandfather on my dad's side (his mother's grandfather). He's your typical child-of-an-immigrant-inherits-an-entrepreneurial-spirit American story. Because he was fairly well off and a prominent member of local society, he's probably the ancestor I know the most about, at least public-life-wise, since his comings and goings are well-chronicled in local newspapers. He's the rare family member that history in general helps us recall - for the majority of us, the majority of our ancestors are only noteworthy to our own families (which is all the more reason to make sure somebody writes and keeps the records!)

Anyway, Rudolph lived and worked in Brooklyn and Queens, not more than half an hour from where I live and for years I've been dying to visit the home he lived in during his later years in life - 109-50 Park Lane South (just from the name you can tell its an upscale neighborhood). It's sometimes listed as being in Richmond Hill, Queens and sometimes as Kew Gardens, Queens - its right on the border and I'm not sure which is actually right. But my fiance works in Kew Gardens, so when I went to meet him there last week, I brought my camera and made a quick stop at the Stutzmann homestead. If you Google the property, you can find out the house itself, a two-story brick building, is about 2700 square feet and worth (today) $660,000. I think it's very cool that the house is still standing - It's a beautiful, neat building, nice sized but not the home of a wealthy person by today's standards - by far not the most beautiful nor the biggest house in the neighborhood (in my dreams, I'll have a house one day like the ones in that neighborhood!) But the location itself is beautiful - located right across from Forest Park, established in the 1890s, the third-largest park in Queens and partially designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. It's not many places in Queens or the city that the view outside your windows is one of trees and nature!

The Stutzmann house was built in 1925 and Rudolph and his wife Augusta Lindemann Stutzmann were living there by 1930. Not too shabby of a home to live in during the Great Depression of all times. That's what I can't get over. How many people were hanging on by a thread, if at all, during that decade, and Rudolph, a banker and business owner, was doing well enough to purchase (he owned the house) a nice home in a nice neighborhood (he was very active in giving back to the community and helping those in need during those years, by the way, at least according to the newspapers, which makes me feel better).

109-50 Park Lane South was still his address when he died June 26, 1946.

View of Forest Park from the sidewalk in front of the Rudolph Stutzmann home at 109-50 Park Lane South, Queens, NY. Photo taken Dec. 14, 2012 by Mary Ellen Gorry.

The home of Rudolph Stutzmann & Augusta Lindemann Stutzmann from 1930-1946. 109-50 Park Lane South, Queens, NY. Photo taken Dec. 14, 2012 by Mary Ellen Gorry.

Remembering Pearl Harbor Day, 'a day which will live in infamy': Dec. 7, 1941

My fiance and I were watching "From Here to Eternity" recently - I had never seen it before, and didn't realize it followed characters in the months and days leading up to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which happened 71 years ago today. I mentioned to him how, up until that fateful and terrible morning, it must have seemed like a dream assignment.

As I began writing this entry, I didn't realize that its been more than 70 years since the attack that ushered in U.S. involvement in World War II. No wonder when I had the opportunity to visit the Pearl Harbor Memorial four years ago did the teens I was chaperoning look at me as if I were a crazy person because I was in tears the entire time. 70 years is a lifetime ago, ancient history to not just teens but to a lot of people. But for someone like me, and I suspect most genealogists, people who actively try to keep history alive and in the present, being in that spot was an incredibly emotional and intense experience. And while it might seem forever ago, it has impacted our lives - most of us have parents or grandparents who fought in World War II, who might have been injured or killed in that war. Our mothers or grandmothers might have been the first in our trees to work outside the home or be the sole breadwinners for their families while their husbands were off fighting. And because it impacted their lives, it impacts our lives. That's the way life works - the ripple effect.

Anyway, not a genealogy blog per se, but its important to acknowledge the role that events or time periods play in shaping our family trees, and this one was a doozy. Every generation has something - 9/11, Kennedy being shot, Pearl Harbor, and especially now that we're in a year where it was someone's GREAT grandfather who fought in World War II, a relative far enough back that they've never met him and might not even care to know about him, it's important for those of us who do care to make sure these people and these moments are not forgotten.

Happy weekend, everyone! :)

Photos from visit to USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii July 2008

Why Don't Parents Name Their Daughters Mary Anymore? - The Atlantic

Thanks to Cousin April for forwarding me this article. Not genealogical in focus per se, but whether we realize it or not, names are at the forefront of all the genealogy research we do. Whenever we're looking for that next generation, what are we looking for? Names. Anyway, as someone very interested in naming traditions and someone who loves her own name (which just happens to be Mary!), this article was right up my alley. It is also timely, as I just recently wrote about how my fiance and I are in the process of deciding what to name our daughter and all the factors that come into play (at least for me) with that decision - family tradition, cultural and ethnic heritage, and individuality. 

Enjoy!

Why Don't Parents Name Their Daughters Mary Anymore? - The Atlantic

Little green leaves: Ancestry.com hints

I recently renewed my Ancestry.com subscription, yet again. Now that I lost my job, I really can't afford it for any more than a month at a time, but now that you can buy more than one DNA test, the discount given to Ancestry.com members is worth it. I hope. I really want to know my fiance's DNA results, especially now that we're expecting our daughter!

Anyway, every time I check in on my Ancestry.com tree, I have, as I'm sure you do, those little green leaves suggesting hints. In a way, I love seeing those leaves - Ancestry is always adding more records and I always have the hope that some new record will either shed new light on my family history or validate information I'm pretty sure about but don't necessarily have proof for. Every now and then, Ancestry comes through but more often than not, that green leaf is a frustrating dead end. Not that it doesn't pertain to the person it's attached to. For the most part, Ancestry does a good job of matching up appropriate records with the appropriate person (although not always). Unfortunately, a lot of those hints are not for primary records. Primary records are SOOO vital to genealogy - actual firsthand records or at least images of those firsthand records. I even slack a little and accept secondary sources when I just can't find a primary source - such as German OFBs, family history books that are transcriptions of primary sources. Sometimes that's all you have and while you can assume its fairly reliable, you still have to take it with a grain of salt.

But a lot of Ancestry hints are for other members' family trees. This is both frustrating and exciting. It's exciting because it provides you with potential family connections and so so SO many times those newly discovered distant relatives, people I never knew about and have never met, have provided me with the primary and/or secondary sources vital to verifying or adding to my family tree. But too many of these Ancestry trees are people who have copied their info from other trees they found on the Internet and are unsourced, unsourced, unsourced! Or they are sourced, and their source is another unsourced family tree. It makes me want to knock my head against the wall.

Anyway, this is not new info - I'm sure this is a source of frustration but also connection for all of us. It's just been on my mind. I'm using this time as an Ancestry member to save as much of my sources to my hard drive as possible, since I can't view them when I let my membership expire. It's tedious work, especially trying to record all the citations as well, but it has to be done and I might as well do it while I have the time.