‘Twas Just Days Before Christmas (Repeat)

This post was originally published on December 21, 2008, but I wanted to repeat it for new visitors who missed it last year. Uh-oh…we never did research the Big Guy’s ancestry – I hope we all still make the “nice” list this year!  Merry Christmas to all!

‘Twas just days before Christmas and all through the ‘net
Bloggers were quiet, even the Graveyard Rabbit.
Some were snowed in, all covered in ice
With some frightful weather that’s really not nice.

Others were busy with presents and wrap,
While some settled in for a long winter’s nap.
But then Genea-Santa made it home from the mall
And with urgency put out a very frantic call.

“Oh genea-bloggers, can you help me so?
Someone has asked for their ancestors to know.
I’m used to toys, books, and games on the list,
My elves tried Ancestry.com and can’t get the gist.”

“Can you please help?” good Santa did ask,
“So I can complete this impossible task?”
Before Old St. Nick barely finished his post
The bloggers started to answer, from coast to coast.

First Sheri, then Jasia, and Terry from Monroe County,
Then Randy, then Lisa, and Thomas upped the bounty.
Many sources did footnoteMaven then cite,
while Donna and Becky joined in the plight.

Steve and Miriam and DearMyrtle too
Used Census and newspapers to find every last clue.
The charts were all filled and ready for Santa’s sack,
Combined we had traced twelve generations back!

Santa was impressed, the pedigree had nary a hole
“Can you help me find my folks from the North Pole?”
We said we’d try, maybe next year.
Our promise left him jolly and full of good cheer.

So he subscribed to our blogs, to join in our fun
And said he’d return when his hard work was done
Santa signed off, having found what he sought
“Merry Christmas to all, may your searching not be for naught!”

-with many apologies to and great appreciation of Mr. Clement Clarke Moore…(and apologies to the many genea-bloggers I left out for space and rhyming constraints!)

I Haven’t Felt Creative Lately, But…

A few months ago, I somehow managed to go away on a 3-week vacation but wrote and scheduled at least ten blog posts to hit while I was out of the country.  But for the last two weeks I’ve been sidetracked by normal everyday life and just gave up on blogging.

Well, these things happen.  When they do, it’s really hard to pick up that pen/keyboard again and get back to it.  It helps that while I was gone, my readers still read my older posts.  And not one, but THREE FOUR different bloggers have awarded me the “Kreativ Blogger” award.  I try my best to be creative, but I’m not sure I can live up to the kreativ moniker!  Here’s the obligatory 7 random facts about me, which I’ve tried to relate to genealogy and blogging…

1. I’ve met only one geneablogger in person so far.  I’m convinced he moonlights as Santa Claus.  Take note: Santa and Randy have never been seen together.  Coicindence?  I think not…

2. My hero is Chris Dunham.

3. I know footnoteMaven‘s real name.  Don’t try to get it out of me…she knows where I live, AND she knows how to handle various weapons.

4. I really want to be the separated-at-birth triplet sister of Steve and Jasia.

5. Every time I see my nieces and nephews, I try to give them new nicknames.  This week we’re reindeer – Dancer, Vixen, Dasher and Cupid join Aunt Donner.

6. My 20-year genealogical mission: to explore strange old ancestors, to seek out new facts and photos, to boldly split infinitives and go where no geneablogger has gone before!

7. All I really want to do is direct.

So there you have it – more things about me you really have no need to know.  I would love to pass this on to seven other bloggers as required, but I’m late to the party and most of the usual suspects have already
received the very same award.  Do read those who have nominated me though:

• Mother Superior Sheri Fenley, the Educated Genealogist herself, on 11/17.  I don’t like to cook either, but if you come clean my toilets for me I’ll cook you dinner.  Just don’t vacuum, please!
• Katie from You Are Where You Came From (a very Past Prologue-like idea!) on 11/19.   Anyone who is a sucker for a good pun is a friend of mine!
• Tonia from Tonia’s Roots on 11/25.  Not only is Tonia from one of my favorite states, but she has some really interesting family history facts!
• UPDATE: Cheri from Those Old Memories on 11/30 right after I wrote this post!  I wish the days were longer, too, Cheri, and I would have caught your post before I posted this.

Thanks, ladies!  I appreciate the “love” and I hope it motivates me to get back to my regularly scheduled blogging!

Say It in Polish

As a Polish-American interested in genealogy, I quickly learned that pronunciation is the key to everything.   How can you properly research a family if you can’t say the language correctly? I realized that there are American English pronunciations of Polish surnames and place names, and then there is the real way it is pronounced in Polish.

Over the years I’ve learned a few things about the Polish language with its “different” letters and consonant combinations, and I can usually figure out how a word is pronounced.  But sometimes…I get stumped.  Just the other day I learned that my great-grandmother was born in a town near Warsaw called Przybyszew.  Przybyszew?  Where do I begin?  I’d like to buy a vowel, Pat!

Fortunately, I discovered an awesome website thanks to Zenon Znamirowski from PolishOrigins.com that allows you to hear Polish words pronounced by Polish speakers!  So, how do you say Przybyszew?  Click on this link to hear it!

The site, Expressivo, is a text to speech program.  To test it out, you can enter up to 200 characters of text here and listen to the results read by several voices: Eric (male US-English), Jennifer (female US-English), Carmen (female Romanian), Jacek (male Polish), or Ewa (female Polish).  To hear Polish names or place names, I highly recommend using the two Polish voices to hear a true Polish pronunciation.

Here are several of my ancestors’ names and the towns they lived in – click the link to hear it in Polish:

• Jan Piątkowski, Warszawa
• Ludwik Pater, Żyrardów
• Elżbieta Müller, Żyrardów
• Józef Zawodny, Dobrosołowo
• Wacława Ślesińska, Wilczyn
• Franciszka Wojciechowska, Mszczonów

Many Americans may have seen these town names in Poland and thought they knew how to pronounce them.  Try it, then click on the link and see if you were correct – you might be surprised!

Łódź – Gdańsk – Kraków – Wrocław – Częstochowa – Poznań

You can tell that I had a lot of fun “playing” with this site, but other than it being cool to hear your ancestor’s name and hometown properly pronounced, why is it important?  Because knowing the correct pronunciation in an immigrant’s native language can often help you find your ancestor in records that are not spelled correctly, but are written as English-speakers heard the foreign tongue pronounced.  Obviously, this does not only apply to the Polish language, but any language other than American English.

[Submitted for the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy: Tips, Tricks, and Websites]

Join the Navy, See the World

The word prompt for the 18th edition of the Smile for the Camera carnival is Travel: show us your family and how they traveled.  Well, that’s a hard one…other than my immigrant ancestors arriving in the U.S. by ship, I don’t know of any other travelers in the family – and I certainly don’t have any photos of them.  I seem to be the first bitten by the travel bug.  Until I remembered that my father did travel – courtesy of the United States Navy!  Here is a photo of him (on the right) and his buddy on their ship, the USS Cadmus.

Aboard the USS Cadmus, circa 1956-58

The expression the Navy used for recruiting for many years was “Join the Navy and See the World” – in my father’s case, this was true.  He was only in the Navy for two years, but he managed to travel quite a bit.  The USS Cadmus, AR-14, was a repair ship.  She made her first transatlantic crossing in 1957 to Scotland, France, and Spain.  The following year the ship had exercises in the Mediterranean.  My father has very fond memories of his time in the Navy, and he still remembers those ports of call.  It would be the only time my father ever traveled outside of the United States.  Here is a photo of the USS Cadmus:

USS Cadmus, AR-14

[Written for the 18th Edition of Smile for the Camera Carnival: Travel]

Related Post: Even and Ocean Can’t Separate a Son’s Love for Mom

It’s a Blog, It’s a Magazine, It’s…Brilliant!

Shades of the Departed - The Magazine Debuts

Stuffed in a photo booth with our shades on, 1986.

Once a month I invite you to read my Weekend with Shades column, The Humor of It, over at one of my favorite blogs, Shades of the Departed.  Well, this month is special because the lovely and talented footnoteMaven has done what few in the blogosphere do…she has created something new, creative, and different.  Rather than publish the columns every weekend on the blog, she has taken a month’s worth of great articles and created an online magazine!  Please visit Shades of the Departed – The Magazine for the link and viewing instructions.  It is original, creative, and simply stunning to view.  Yes, I am one of her columnists, but that is not why I am praising it – I feel lucky to be among the writers she features on her blog, and I hope what I give her is “good enough” for such a brilliant idea!

So, be warned, this new magazine is so brilliant, you might just have to put some shades on!  And if you’re interested, my article about The Photo Booth begins on page 54!

SNGF: My Family’s Increase

This week’s Saturday Night Genealogy Fun (SNGF) by Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings asks

1) Pick one of your four great-grandparents – if possible, the one with the most descendants.

2) Create a descendants list for those great-grandparents either by hand or in your software program.

3) Tell us how many descendants, living or dead, are in each generation from those great-grandparents.

4) How many are still living? Of those, how many have you met and exchanged family information with? Are there any that you should make contact with ASAP? Please don’t use last names of living people for this – respect their privacy.

I seem to always use my Bergmeister Family as an example for SNGF, but that is the family in which I have not only had success in tracing ancestors backward, but also success in tracing cousins forward.  So for my example of my family’s increase, I will use my great-grandparents Joseph Bergmeister (1873-1927) and Marie Echerer Bergmeister (1875-1919).  Their descendants are:

• 5 Children (all deceased) – I only remember meeting 2.
• 14 Grandchildren (8 living / 6 deceased)  – I only met 3 of the living and 1 deceased.
• 30 Great-grandchildren (28 living / 2 deceased) – I met 7 and “e-met” 6 more.
• 48 Second great-grandchildren (all living, not counting some adopted and step-children) – I’ve met 9.
• At least 2 Third great-grandchildren so far…

As best I can determine, Joseph and Marie Bergmeister have 99 descendants so far – not bad for a couple that didn’t live long enough to see their youngest child reach adulthood.  Marie was just shy of 44 years old when she died.  Joseph died at age 54, but he was able to see his first 3 grandchildren before he died.

Research on this branch has been satisfying because of all the second cousins I have come to know, mostly via email.  At least one descendant of each of the four other Bergmeister children are in contact with me, and we are beginning to discuss the possibility of a family reunion!  Stay tuned here for more details.  I still have work to do in getting to know some more of my cousins, but this is by far the branch of the family that is the most interested in our history.

An Honor Just to be Nominated

Family Tree Magazine (not a magazine I have written for in the past) wants to highlight the Top 40 Genealogy Blogs in their May 2010 issue.  In addition to many of the blogs I read daily written by many people who have become good friends, What’s Past is Prologue has been included among the nominees!  You can find it in the Personal/Family category.  Other categories include All-around, Local/Regional, Cemetery, Photos/Heirlooms, Heritage, News/Resources, How-to, Genealogy Companies, and Genetic Genealogy. Footnotemaven (also a nominee) has a list with links to each and every nominee in this post.  Thanks to those who nominated my blog, and thanks in advance for your votes!  The voting period is open until November 5th. 

Don’t forget to vote for your favorites!

Polish-American Heritage Month

October is Polish-American Heritage Month!  The Polish American Center describes this event as “a national celebration of Polish history, culture and pride.”  Even if you don’t have any Polish ancestry, it’s a great time to learn more about Polish history and culture.  Last year What’s Past is Prologue hosted a month-long Polish History and Culture Challenge – all contributions can be found in this post.  I’m not quite as organized this year, but I want to offer some tips on celebrating your Polish heritage with the Top Ways to Celebrate Polish-American Heritage Month:

If you have Polish Ancestry…

• Locate an immigrant ancestor’s place of origin ~ Ancestry magazine has a great guide to help here.
• Find a church record for one of your ancestors ~ here are some translation aids to help once you find it.
• Find and translate the Słownik Geograficzny entry for your ancestor’s hometown ~ here’s a guide to assist.
• Learn the origin and meaning of one of your Polish surnames ~ read my interview with author Fred Hoffman, and then run out to buy his books on Polish surnames!
• Join a Polish genealogical society ~ such as the Polish Genealogical Society of America.

And even if you’re not Polish…

• Read a book by a Polish author ~  Many are available in English translations.  Are you a science fiction fan? Try Stanisław Lem.  Enjoy non-fiction?  Try Ryszard Kapuściński.  In the mood for sweeping romantic historical epics?  Definitely try Henryk Sienkiewicz.
• Learn about an event in Polish history ~ Several important anniversaries occurred or will occur in 2009, such as the 230th anniversary of the death of General Casimir Pulaski (father of the American Cavalry) and the 70th anniversary of the invasion of Poland and the outbreak of World War II.
• Watch a Polish movie ~ Try Three Colours (Polish: Trzy kolory), the collective title of the trilogy directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski, Agnieszka Holland’s Europa, Europa, or Katyń, directed by Andrzej Wajda.
• Make a recipe for some Polish food ~ who wouldn’t want some pierogi?  Did you hear about the Polish nun who has become a best-selling cookbook author?
• Learn how to polka! ~ Sheri gave us a good intro to the polka for my Polish History and Culture Challenge!

Kiss Us, We’re Polish (and Proud…)!

As always, I encourage my readers to also check out some great blogs of my fellow Polish-American genea-bloggers:
Steve’s Genealogy Blog ~ read about Steve’s visit to Poland, or see samples of expert translation of vital records!
Creative Gene ~ Jasia writes about “genealogy and more” including her Polish heritage, Detroit Polonia, and Polish crafts!
Al’s Polish-American Genealogy Research ~ Al’s blog gives you exactly what’s in the title of his blog – solid genealogy research that serves as an example to us all!

If you have a blog about Polish genealogy, history, heritage, or culture, tell us about it in the comments!

(Polish Pride image from the Polish Heritage Gift Shop – buy your favorite Pole an expression of pride today!)

Weekend with Shades: If You Don’t Have a Photo, Choose One!

It’s time for my monthly “Weekend with Shades” column at Shades of the Departed, The Humor of It.  This month read all about my obsessive search for photos of my ancestors and my hopefully humorous musings on what to do if you don’t have any in “Will the Real Pointkowski Great-Grandparents Please Stand Up?”

I’d choose the nice Polish fellow sporting shades pictured here to be my ancestor, but if he was my ancestor he wouldn’t have been pope!

Previous “Weekend with Shades” columns:

• March – Off with Their Heads
• April – There’s Always One
• May – Rites and Wrongs of Passage
• June – Vacation Lampoonery
• July – Fotomat: What’s That?
• August – A Developing Genealogist

SSDI: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The Good

The Social Security Death Index, called the SSDI, is a wonderful took for genealogists.  The SSDI is available for free on various sites, including Ancestry.com and Genealogy Bank.  Steve Morse even has a one-step search tool for it.  The SSDI is useful because it provides the birth and death date for individuals that applied for a social security card.  More importantly, if you request a copy of the person’s actual application, called the SS-5, you may find out the parents’ names as well as where the person worked at that time.   If the person was an immigrant, they often state their full birthplace including the town (but many times just put the country of birth).

This great-aunt was so "great" about identifying her place of birth that it led me right to my great-grandmother's birthplace.

The Bad

Some beginning researchers give up too soon – if they don’t find the name in the index, they assume that that individual never applied for social security.  That is not always the case – the index was compiled around 1962, and many earlier deaths were not included.

I have several ancestors who actually applied for social security but were not listed in the SSDI.  Both died prior to the 1962 cutoff for indexing:

• Joseph Zawodny, 1880 – 1944, applied 04/01/1938
• Louis Pater, 1893 – 1957, unknown date of application

You won't find him in the SSDI.

The Ugly

Did you know that the name in the SSDI can be spelling incorrectly?  Both of my grandparents are listed as POINTKOWSKI in the SSDI.  I have a copy of my grandfather’s SS-5 from November, 1936 – one year after President Roosevelt began the Social Security program.  On the application, he quite clearly spells his name as POINTKOUSKI.  I guess he never bothered to correct them once they started sending him checks!  It’s a good thing they didn’t ask for much in 1936 in the form of documentation.  If he had to produce his birth certificate, he would have had a difficult time explaining why it lists his last name as KINCOSKI.  His parents’ actual surname was PIONTKOWSKI, but neither seems to have applied for social security prior to their deaths in 1937 and 1942.

Some researchers get frustrated when they can’t find their ancestors in the SSDI.  However, when it first came about it did not include several categories of workers including state or city employees or those that were self-employed.  This explains why two of my grandmother’s brothers are nowhere to be found – one was a fireman, and one ran his own business.  Also, if for some reason a person’s death was not reported to the Social Security Administration, it will not be listed in the SSDI.

Read more about the SSDI at Joe Beine’s Death Indexes site – The Social Security Death Index

Weekend with Shades: A Developing Genealogist

Are these my grandparents or someone else's who showed up in my packet of photos? (They're mine, and is perhaps the only photo of one of my grandparents with SHADES!)

It’s time for my monthly Weekend with Shades column at Shades of the Departed, The Humor of It.  This month read all about a developing genealogist…me!  I didn’t realize it back then, but working behind a photo developing counter in college taught me skills that later became useful as a genealogist. It wasn’t funny at the time, but hopefully it is now!  Do you remember when you used film in your camera and it had to be developed into prints?  Did you ever pick up your photos and they were not your photos?  Hey, don’t blame me, I just worked there.  Read all about it at A Developing Genealogist.

Sweet Sixteen: My Great-Great Grandparents

UPDATE: More info has been found…see my October 25th post, A Sweeter “Sweet Sixteen”

Whether we know their names or not, we all have sixteen great-great grandparents.  Randy Seaver’s latest edition of Saturday Night Genealogical Fun has challenged us to list them all with their birth and death dates and locations, as well as figure out our nationality percentages as a result.  While I did some rough math last night and commented back to Randy on Facebook, I decided to put this into a blog post today.  For one, it readily shows something I already knew – while certain “branches” on my family tree are quite full and sprout quite high – back ten generations from me at its highest point – the sad fact is that part of my family tree remains a bare twig.  As a genealogist, I hate that!  As you will see below, it’s the far left part of my tree – my patrilineal line.  Some might even argue that’s the most important, at least for the Y-DNA line of my brother and his sons.  Another fun part of this exercise was to see all of the surnames I have uncovered so far.  Here are my sixteen great-great grandparents:

1. Unknown PIONTKOWSKI, father of Jan Bołesław Piontkowski.  Birth and death unknown, presumably from Warsaw, Poland where Jan was born. Nationality: Polish

2. Unknown wife of #1, mother of Jan Bołesław Piontkowski.  Birth and death unknown, presumably from Warsaw, Poland where Jan was born. Nationality: Polish

3. Leopold KIESWETTER, father of Róza Kieswetter.  Birth and death unknown.  Presumed nationality: Polish

4. Unknown wife of #3, mother of Róza Kieswetter.  Birth and death unknown.  Presumed nationality: Polish

5. Josef BERGMEISTER, father of Josef Bergmeister.  Born 09 February 1843 in Puch, Bavaria, son of Jakob Bergmeister and Anna Maria Daniel.  Died before 1884, unknown place.  Nationality: German (Bavarian)

6. Ursula DALLMEIER, mother of Josef Bergmeister.  Born 17 March 1847 in Aichach, Bavaria, daughter of Joseph Dallmeier and Ursula Eulinger.   Died between 1897 and 1919, presumably in Regensburg, Bavaria, Germany. Nationality: German (Bavarian)

7. Karl ECHERER, father of Maria Echerer.  Born 31 May 1846 in Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm, Bavaria, son of Ignaz Echerer and Magdalena Nigg.  Died after 1882 in Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm, Bavaria. Nationality: German (Bavarian)

8. Margarethe FISCHER, mother of Maria Echerer.  Born 21 January 1845 in Langenbruck, Bavaria, daughter of Franz Xaver Fischer and Barbara Gürtner.  Died 04 October 1895 in Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm, Bavaria, Germany. Nationality: German (Bavarian)

9. Jozef PATER, father of Ludwig Pater.  Born on 21 September 1864 in Ruda Guzowska, Poland, son of Jan Pater and Teofilia Zakrzewska.  Died on 11 August 1945 in Philadelphia, PA, USA.  Nationality: Polish

10. Antonina Rozalia PLUTA, mother of Ludwig Pater. Born on 21 June 1863 in Mszczonów, Poland, daughter of Ludwik Pluta and Franciszka Anna Wojciechowska.  Died on 12 December 1938 in Philadelphia, PA, USA. Nationality: Polish

11. Jan MÜLLER, father of Elżbieta Müller.  Birth and death unknown.  Presumed nationality: Bohemian

12. Elizabeth SMETANA, mother of Elżbieta Müller.  Birth and death unknown.  Presumed nationality: Bohemian

13. Wawrzyniec ZAWODNY, father of Jozef Zawodny.  Born around 1853 in unknown location to Szymon Zawodny and Katarzyna Ratajewska.  Died 13 December 1917 in Dobrosołowo, Poland.  Nationality: Polish

14. Katarzyna MARIANSKA, mother of Jozef Zawodny.  Born around 1853, presumably in Komorowo, Poland, to Stanisław Marianski and Marianna Radomska.  Died 29 July 1923 in Dobrosołowo, Poland.  Nationality: Polish

15. Wincenty SLESINSKI, father of Wacława Slesinska.  Born around 1851, presumably in Wilczyn, Poland, to Jozef Slesinski and Elżbieta Michalowska.  Died 01 January 1919 in Dobrosołowo, Poland.  Nationality: Polish

16. Stanisława DROGOWSKA, mother of Wacława Slesinski.  Born around 1860, presumably in Wilczyn, Poland, to Jan Drogowski and Konstancja Kubicka.  Died 30 December 1918 in Dobrosołowo, Poland.  Nationality: Polish

Of 16 great-great grandparents, 13 can be named.  As for the facts, I have definite birth and death dates for only 3, definite birth and unknown death dates for 3, unknown birth and definite death dates for 4, and all dates unknown for 6.  Do you know what that means?  It means I have a lot of genealogical research to do!  In the early days of my research, I got so excited at the ability to go back and back and back on certain lines that I forgot about following up the more “recent” folks with all of the necessary and pertinent data.

Nationality-wise, this makes me:

• 62.5% Polish – 10 great-greats (6 definite, 4 assumed to be Polish)
• 25% German – 4 great-greats
• 12.5% Bohemian – 2 great-greats that are presumed Bohemian based on info I have so far

I have identified strongly with my Bavarian roots, yet it only comprises 25% of my genes.  Perhaps that identification comes from the fact that this side was so much easier to search so far!

Some random facts about my sweet sixteen –

• #9 and 10 are my only 2^nd great grandparents to immigrate to the United States, making my paternal grandfather the only grandparent to know his own grandparents.
• #15 and 16 died two days apart from each other
• I have photographs of none of my sixteen 2^nd great grandparents and I have photographs of only six of their children, my great-grandparents.
• My maternal grandmother’s grandparents all died between 1917 and 1923, long after their children came to the U.S.  They lived close to the border of German-occupied Poland and Russian-occupied Poland, but I do not yet know if their deaths were related to World War I.  My grandmother never met her grandparents, but had they also immigrated she would have known them since she was born in 1907.

Thanks for more genealogical fun, Randy!  It is embarrassing that my tree is a bit barren in spots, but I’m glad I can name as many and I can.  Many people today can not name their 8 great-grandparents…yet they don’t seem bothered by it at all.  Ask a genealogist to name their 16 great-greats, and now you’ve got some angry folks who realize they have to work harder!

What Are They Looking For?

Sometimes we need a little humor in our blogging – especially after reading the latest edition of the COG and learning that all of us were this close to having our ancestry wiped out before we could even be born.  I haven’t written a strictly humorous post in a while with the exception of my monthly guest appearances at Shades of the Departed.  But it’s easy to find humor in the sheer act of blogging.  We’ve seen a number of talented genea-bloggers take a break from their genealogical articles to write about the hysterical nature of those words we have to use for comment verification on each other’s blogs.  But today I’d like to share one thing about this blog that has made me laugh recently, and it involves my “statistics”.

I’ve used Google Analytics on other blogs, and I love the features that allow you to find out everything about your visitors.  I mean everything – where they are from, how long they visited, what they looked at, and if they washed their hands before they left.  Well, maybe not that last one, but I bet those folks at Google are working on it.  I was disappointed that I can’t use Analytics on What’s Past is Prologue – you see, I’m too cheap to host the blog myself, so I’m using the free version.  And with the free version, Google Analytics is verboten.  But WordPress does give us economical folks a version of it.  Sort of.  It would be like calling a gumdrop a version of an ice cream sundae.  They are both desserts of sorts, but, ah, different!

One thing my cheapy free version of statistics gives me is the “search terms” that visitors are searching for when they unexpectedly land here.  I’ve gotten many laughs in recent months over these terms, and I’ve also scratched my head in bewilderment.  Wait, someone is searching for that? And the search engine points them to my blog?  I’m not sure if I should be offended or grateful for the free traffic.  “Hey, I can’t help you with that, but if you want to stay a while maybe I can interest you in something else…”  Here are some of the best of the strange, odd, and downright scary search terms that have directed folks to What’s Past is Prologue – with my comments, of course.   Note: These terms are all actual search terms as reported to me by WordPress! Let’s call it the 1^st Edition of the Carnival of Strange Search Terms!

GENEALOGY RELATED…SORT OF

first communion photography tempest – The first 3 words I can understand – after all, I’ve shown many photos here including my father’s first communion.  And we all know what play the title of this blog comes from.  What I can’t fathom is what it means when you combine the terms together.  That must have been quite the stormy event!

what is an aunt – Seriously?  My 4-year-old niece already understands why I am called “Aunt Donna” and the lady across the street is not.

can’t find my marriage licenese – Note: It’s probably not here either.

piontkowski murder mystery – You’ve got my attention!  Just when I thought my great-grandfather was mysterious enough, now I have to wonder if there’s a murder mystery to solve, too.

rust genealogy – Father: Iron, Mother: Oxygen, Baby Rust born under the sign of Aquarius.

THE BARD

William Shakespeare’s marriage photos – I had no idea photography went back that far!

shakespear prologue car – Apparently automobiles are older than I thought as well.

squinny shakespeare – I have no idea what it means, but I’d love the answer to this one myself.

WEDDINGS

carnival themed wedding – Really?  Someone would actually do that?

wedding prosthesis – I don’t think I want to know.  Should this be in the “Kinky” category below?

stories of fraud marriage(2008-2009) – I sense a story here, and some slight hostility in the searcher.

INSULTS

plain girl pictures – Hey!  I think I’m insulted.

ugliest ballet tutu – I know what page this would have brought them to, but I want to know why you’re searching for it!

ugly women faces – HEY! They must be mistaken, for this search term surely wouldn’t lead to the page with my photo on it!

impossible to pronounce polish name – Really, “Pointkouski” isn’t THAT hard.

EXISTENTIAL QUESTIONS

what do houses of nj look like – Ours look like houses that the rest of the country lives in.  Really.

what’s in my soul – If you found the answer here, please let me know so I can market it.

why can’t humans live past 200 years old – We can live to 200?

what.section.of.phila.do.irish.live – we.let.them.live.anywhere.they.want.

what to do after a blizzard hits – Shovel.

six months two weeks one day and an hour – Equals the amount of time it would take me to figure out how this would lead here.

JUST PLAIN ODD

show me beautifull teady beer photos – How about if I show you a dictionary instead?

list of monks at west thornton in1880 – And this led you here because…?

hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy tattoos – Don’t panic, but the answer’s not here.

2009 meteor showers camping ground phila – You’ve obviously never been to Philadelphia if you believe you can see meteor showers here.  There’s so much light pollution, I don’t need any outside lights over here on the other side of the river – I can see just fine from the humid glow across the way.

KINKY

kitten and cockatiel co-habiting – LOL – That should be a sitcom.

three flexible sisters from the 1920s – I can’t even imagine what the searcher was looking for.  Well, I can imagine, but why would I want to?

2 ugly transvestites – That would be my description of my dad and his comedic buddy, but, excuse me, you’re not only looking for transvestites, but ugly ones?

naked paternal grandmother – Eeeeewwww!  Specifically wrong on so many levels.

schoolboys at crossdressing – I’ll second that eeeewwww and raise you a pedophile alert.

Bavarian naked women – The searcher was sorely disappointed in whatever page they were led to!

So there you have it!  The next edition of this search term carnival will include more bizarre, freakish, and unusual ways that bring me more traffic!  If you’re a geneablogger, do you encounter these strange and unusual researchers?  Tell me about your best search terms!  Until next time, I remain the Queen of Ugly Teady Beer Shakespearean Transvestite Marriage Photos.

Weekend with Shades – Remember When?

It’s that time again…time for my monthly Weekend with Shades column at Shades of the Departed, The Humor of It.  This month’s topic – the Fotomat!  If you don’t know what a Fotomat is, well, that means you’re younger than I am.  Take a peek at how I try to describe it to my nieces in Fotomat – What’s That?

That guy in the photo is certainly old enough to remember the Fotomats – that’s my big brother in 1960 and the father of my nieces who don’t quite know what to make of the whole concept.  [In retrospect, I should have used this photo for my Weekend with Shades debut, Off With Their Heads!]

What Would You Do If You Couldn’t?

It’s safe to say that most of my readers are genealogists.  I came upon a question today that may be of great interest to genealogists – what would you do if you couldn’t do genealogy?  I don’t mean you can’t find someone or have a “brick wall” that is hindering your research. I mean what if you had all of the desire, curiosity, and sheer determination that we genealogists have to dig up our roots, but you could not research your family history because you didn’t know who your parents were?  And the government won’t show you your own birth certificate?

I learned today that this is the fate of most adoptees in the United States.  Birth records in 44 states are completely closed to adoptees, so they are unable to learn the bare facts about their family history.  Privacy laws have been on the books for a few generations that deny access to adult adoptees to protect the privacy of the parents who chose to give their child up for adoption.  In theory, it’s understandable.  But in reality, is it practical?  Advocates of open access insist the issue is unrelated to the decision to find or know their birth parents, but is more about a right that nearly all of us have to simply have a copy of the birth record that all other Americans are allowed to have.  Those for open access argue that the family history, regardless of the reasons for the adoption, is important for health or genealogical reasons.  Opponents insist that the parents have the right to remain unknown.

I think adoption is a wonderful thing and a selfless act on the part of both parties – the birth mother/parents as well as the adoptive parent/s.  But does giving up a child to another out of love allow someone to remain anonymous?  Does knowing your parents’ names guarantee a relationship with them?

It’s a tough issue, and I’m no expert since I am not adopted nor have I given up a child for adoption.  But, as a genealogist, I honestly can’t imagine not knowing my ancestry.  I know many people who have no interest in their genealogy whatsoever.  But, what if you are like me and you do have that interest – yet you can’t even get a copy of your own birth certificate to surmise what nationality your ancestors were?

I learned about this issue because advocates of adoptee rights protested yesterday here at the Philadelphia Convention Center during the National Conference of State Legislatures.  Read more about their cause here. I wish them luck.  I don’t know what I’d do if I enjoyed genealogical research as much as I do but could not research my own genealogy.  What would you do?

This and That

I’ve title this post “This and That” because it isn’t strictly a “Donna’s Picks” that highlights various other posts, but more of a little of “go see this” and my “comments on that”. Technically this should have been my second “Friday Five” post, in which I highlight five short things that aren’t extensive enough for a post of their own, but I am running a bit behind this week.

Rest in peace? First, many genea-bloggers have commented on a serious issue in Alabama first highlighted by Deep Fried Kudzu this past Friday.  In Oxford, Alabama, developers are well on their way to destroying a 1,500 year old Native American mound to make way for a new Sam’s Club (like we all need another).  We don’t know if this mound was a burial site or used for some other purposes, but the fact is that it is historical.  I found it odd that even if they find remains buried there, it may not be enough to stop its destruction! Equally disturbing was news from Chicago of individuals uprooting graves to re-sell them!  Aside from being completely disrespectful, I find practices like this to be immoral.  To me, we all have a moral obligation to respect the dignity of human life in all forms – including the final resting places of those that have gone before us on earth.  Besides, even if you lack respect for the dead, haven’t these people seen the Poltergeist films?  Scared my silly as a teenager and affirmed the value of respecting the dead!  What can we do?  Get the word out about the building project in Alabama, and work hard to protect our local cemeteries.

Then and Now! For a while I’ve been thinking about shooting some “now” photos of either places in old photographs or of people in the same poses and places.  I was planning on a photographic “then and now” series, but The Genealogue highlighted a site this week that did this to perfection in film!  Visit Elliott’s home movie reconstructions to see his handywork.  I especially love his “Dad Reconstruction” and “Mom Reconstruction” in which he filmed his parents doing things they did in the original home movies.  Brilliant!

Irène Némirovsky – If you don’t know who this woman is, I encourage you to check out this piece on the “Woman of Letters” Exhibit at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City.  I first learned of Irene’s story through the publication of Suite Française.  If she could write such a beautiful work in such circumstances, then I can only imagine the great works that were lost as a result of her death in a Nazi concentration camp.  The survival of the manuscript itself is a fascinating story as well.  The exhibit runs through 30 August, so if you are in New York City this summer be sure to take a look.  The museum set up this site about Irene, her life and death, and her amazing works.

Genealogy Wise – I followed the crowd and joined GenealogyWise, the new “social network” for genealogists.  My profile is here.  While I like the concept, I still don’t quite see the point. While there are many more groups to join than on Facebook, it appears that most users are not starting new discussions in these groups, but leaving comments that amount to vague information about their surnames.  Don’t we already have a multitude of surname boards that serve the same purpose?  I’ll give it time – the site has not even officially debuted yet!  But, take note of one thing I have discovered so far.  On Facebook, I entered all of my surnames within my profile, so if you search for one of those names you’ll get me as well as people with that surname.  On GenealogyWise, a basic search for a name only gives you users that bear that name – to search all of the surnames that people entered in their profile, you have to do an “Advanced Search”.

Laugh of the Week – when I sent a cousin some research on her branch of the family, her response was, “So, are you finished your genealogy now?”  [insert long pause for raucous laughter from all of my fellow genealogists]

Stay Tuned – Coming Soon at What’s Past is Prologue – Some things I am working on include an entry for the 76th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy on summer vacation memories and another postcard for the 3rd Festival of Postcards on signs.  My vacation story is a doozy, and I am still debating which of two postcards to illustrate signs – the more personal story, or a photo of a much bigger sign?  Also, for the last few months I have been working on a post about my Miller ancestors and relatives.  Every time I am about to post the series, I seem to find more information.  Not that it’s a bad thing, but it keeps delaying it.  I am actually quite tired of the Miller family by this point, so I hope to post “The Millers’ Tale” in the next two weeks!  Thanks for reading…

Friday Five

Posts have been irregular of late, so welcome to my “Friday Five” – five short thoughts, tips, links, or comments that either aren’t lengthy enough to form a whole post or they actually have nothing to do with genealogy!

1 – The case of John Barnes and Stephen Damman

I was surprised that this piece of news wasn’t picked up by more genea-blogs.  John Barnes is convinced that he is not really a member of his family.  After too many unanswered questions about his birth, he began to research missing children.  After learning of the case of Stephen Damman,  a toddler kidnapped outside of a New York bakery in 1955, he wondered if he was the missing boy.  Remarkably, the adult Barnes resembled the photo of the toddler – most notably his eyes and a similar facial scar.  Damman’s sister, who was a baby at the time of the kidnapping, met with Barnes and noted a resemblance to her father.  A “do it yourself” DNA test indicated the possibility that they were related.  The FBI got involved to perform a more detailed DNA test to determine if Barnes was indeed the boy who had been missing for over 50 years.  Sadly, at least for Barnes and the Damman family, the DNA test showed that he is not.  Barnes’ own father is still alive and incredulous that his son thinks he was either adopted, switched at birth, or kidnapped.   What struck me about this story is the fact that at one time or another, most of us have wondered if we’re related to our own parents and siblings.  “Surely I was adopted!  I am nothing like him/her/them!”  But just about all of us that were not adopted have to admit that, whether because of shared physical traits or personality traits, we are our parents’ child.  How sad it must be for Mr. Barnes to feel so disconnected from the family he grew up with that he believes he does not really share their blood.  Perhaps he does not – I have not read any mention of a DNA test to prove his relation to his own father.  But it is also sad for the elderly Mr. Damman, who had a glimmer of hope after years of missing his son, and also for his daughter who hoped to to know her brother.  She and Barnes both said they felt a “connection”, which made the finding even sadder.  This was an interesting genealogical mystery involving DNA testing, but it did not have the happy ending that everyone wanted.

2 – The Empire that was Russia

On Facebook, Thomas MacEntee posted a link to the amazing photographs of Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii, the photographer to the czar in 1905.  He developed (no pun intended) a way to take color photographs using three colored filters.  When the images are combined, it results in a color photograph.  I knew our ancestors didn’t live in a black and white world like most photographs show us, but seeing these vibrant photographs of old scenes is amazing.  See the photos at the Library of Congress Exhibit.  Although I cherish even the few black and white photos I have of my ancestors, wouldn’t it be amazing to see them in color?

3 – Wireless Printers and Scanners

I’m shopping for a wireless printer-scanner.  Does anyone have any recommendations?

4 – Local Historians

My local historical society found my local history article from the COG in May, so this week I’ll attend a meeting and likely join their group.

5 – Laugh of the Week

Footnote.com or footnoteMaven.com?  LOL  That really cracked me up!  I must confess that I visit Maven’s site far more than the records site!

That’s all, folks.  Have a happy 4th of July and enjoy the 3-day weekend if you are lucky enough to have one!

Lampooning Vacations

While footnoteMaven is off to California for the Southern California Genealogy Jamboree, I’m blog-sitting today over at Shades of the Departed with my monthly “Weekend with Shades” column, The Humor of It.  In keeping with the season, today’s article is “Vacation Lampoonery” with some tips on taking photographs that help you remember the humorous side of your summer vacations!

1985: Lou and Donna in front of St. Peter's, Rome, Italy. My first real vacation - with lots of lampoonery!

My Favorite Finds

I just spent more time than I want to admit working on Bill West’s Genea-bloggers’ Just Make Up Some Lyrics Challenge!  I’m used to making up lyrics to songs on the radio – yes, people think I’m strange.  So I was lucky that Bill had such an excellent idea.  I’m still strange, but now I have company!  Oddly enough, I had seen the original post of the challenge as well as some of the great contributions so far.  I even commented on footnoteMaven’s post today that I had better post mine before someone “steals” my song.  Imagine my surprise when I saw Bill’s response to his own challenge.  It was posted almost two weeks ago, but I somehow missed it.  Ooops!  It seems as though Bill is singing MY song!  But our surnames are different, and so are our rhymes, so I am going to post my lyrics anyway.  Great minds think alike, so I’m sure Bill won’t mind (I could use a flutaphone accompaniment though).  I knew I should have chosen “Disturbia” or “Superfreak” or something more original…oh well, there is still time to submit another song to the challenge!

My Favorite Finds (to the tune of “My Favorite Things” from The Sound of Music)

Finding Pfaffenhofen, as Echerer’s birth place,
Lots of Bergmeister’s to meet and embrace,
The census online; genea-blogs of all kinds,
These are a few of my favorite finds!

Piontkowski grandfather, changing his name,
Finding his arrival was just like a game,
Finally found it, nearly losing my mind.
One more example of a wonderful find!

Zawodny’s in records, but Miller’s a mystery,
Pater’s from Poland, all part of my history,
Slesinski photos showing family tree binds,
These are a few of my family tree finds!

I can’t find them!
What’s the spelling?
Handwriting’s really bad!
I simply remember my favorite finds,
And then I don’t feel so mad.

[Submitted for the first-ever Just Make Up the Lyrics Challenge: Family Names – see the rules here.]

Weekend with Shades

It’s that time again…time for my monthly Weekend with Shades column, The Humor of It, at Shades of the Departed.  After being sick this month, I had a hard time finding the humor in anything, but I found some inspiration in events that happen around this time of year – and seeing how silly my old photos of those events looked certainly helped!  This month’s column is called Rites & Wrongs of Passage.  It tries to find the humor in those two events that were oh-so-important long ago – the prom and graduation.  Once again, I have a special photo (two for one this month) to invite you to join me at Weekend with Shades.

Lou and I at my senior prom; my friend Kathy as one seriously cool graduate.

Yes, I know footnoteMaven doesn’t refer to these sorts of shades, but I can’t resist.  Besides, I want to see how many shades photographs I can find – it’s my own personal photo carnival each month to entice you to wander over to Shades of the Departed for my column.  Come to think of it, you should also wander over every weekend because there is a stellar collection of columnists, as well as during the week for the illustrious footnoteMaven’s own writing.