More on Philadelphia Marriage Records

I’ve long admired DearMYRTLE and Ask Olive Tree Genealogy for answering so many questions from their readers.  But I’ve been a little jealous too, because I wished that *I* had some questions to answer.  Today I received a question via a comment to an earlier post, so I’ve decided to play the “Dear Abby” role [...]

Read Full Post »

I’ve Got My Shades On

Well, I’m back from my trip to San Diego!  But it seems I’m on my way again, at least virtually…  Join me at Shades of the Departed for my  Weekend with Shades monthly column, The Humor of It.  This month’s post is entitled There’s Always One: When it comes to taking a group photo, there [...]

Read Full Post »

Do you have a photo of my great-grandmother?

Yesterday I celebrated the 100th anniversary of my great-grandmother’s arrival to the U.S.  Unfortunately, I did not include a photo of her, Elizabeth Miller Pater, with the post.  Even though she is the only great-grandparent who was alive during my lifetime, I have only one photo of her.  As you can see below, it is [...]

Read Full Post »

April 16, 1909 – Welcome to America!

Today marks the 100th anniversary of the arrival of my great-grandmother, Elżbieta Müller, to the United States.  She soon Americanized her name to Elizabeth Miller, and the following year became Elizabeth Pater after marriage. Elizabeth sailed on the SS President Grant, a ship of the Hamburg-American line.  The ship left Hamburg, Germany, on April 3, [...]

Read Full Post »

Happy Dyngus Day!

The readers who are smiling at my subject line are of Polish descent – or they live in a city that has a big Polish population.  To my confused readers, let me explain – Dyngus Day (called Śmigus-dyngus in Polish) is a unique Polish tradition celebrated on Easter Monday.  On this day, boys get up [...]

Read Full Post »

Uncle, Uncle!

Both of my parents had several uncles.  My father had four – his father had one brother and his mother had three.  Uncle Joe Perk, his father’s brother, was the only uncle who was not born in the U.S.  Born Jozef Piontkowski in Warsaw, Poland, he opted for the shorter surname “Perk.”  The three Bergmeister [...]

Read Full Post »