Inaccuracies in the Ancestry SSDI Database

Michael John Neill at RootDig has been discussing some issues he has with various Ancestry Databases. He’s had some success with Ancestry resolving some of the issues.

He asks if anyone else has issues with some of the databases. Why, yes, I have an issue with the Social Security Death Index, and in particular, Ancestry’s data for “Last Residence.” In a large number of instances, it’s simply wrong. Not ‘sort of right’ or ‘incomplete’ – wrong.  I blogged about this back in 2008, but it hasn't been fixed.

The problem arises because the original data provided to the various websites (Ancestry, GenealogyBank, etc) contains a couple different fields for “Last Residence.” One is the zip code. That piece of data Ancestry handles perfectly. However, the City and County information it mangles. One zip code often covers multiple cities, and I assume the original data source provided to all the companies lists all of them. Ancestry only provides in its records the first city in the list. This gives the incorrect appearance of a definitive answer, as opposed to multiple options. And the odds of Ancestry being correct go down as the number of cities the zip code covers goes up.

Additionally, possibly due to a unique event in St. Louis history in 1877, the first option the data provides in the list of cities for zip codes in much of St. Louis County is "St. Louis," which implies the City of St. Louis, which is wrong. The City of St. Louis isn’t part of the zip code. While this is a data-error for which Ancestry isn’t responsible, if they listed all the options, it would be clear to the researcher they had to conduct some further research to figure out which one is accurate. As is, it’s likely many researchers write down the wrong bit of information, thinking it is correct. And it’s not.

Let’s take a look at an some examples, and some maps, comparing Ancestry’s record, to the parallel record at GenealogyBank, and using Google Maps to visually see what I am talking about.

Here are the records for my grandmother, Belle (Feinstein) Newmark. Her last residence was in Creve Coeur, Missouri. The record on the left is from GenealogyBank. The record on the right is from Ancestry.

As you can see, Ancestry claims her last residence was in Saint Louis, Saint Louis. This actually is a non-existent location. In 1877 St. Louis City 'divorced' itself from St. Louis County, and they are separate entities. However, I'm not concerned about a database not being designed to facilitate a rare exception. GenealogyBank is able to display in its record that the city might either be St. Louis, or it might be Creve Coeur. Ancestry states that the city is St. Louis.  Ancestry is wrong.



Here's a record for my grandmother's uncle, Henry Blatt. I'm actually unsure which of the three cities for the zip code is the correct one, as I don't have his death certificate, and don't know his last known address. A small part of the 63105 zip code is in the city of St. Louis, though I suspect he resided in either Clayton or University City.  Once again, GenealogyBank lists all the possibilities. Ancestry picks the first one, whether accurate or not.


Here's a map of a portion of St. Louis County, courtesy of Google Maps.  The red polygon is the 63141 zip code. As you can see, it is a fair distance from the city of St. Louis, which is on the far right of the map. Several towns lie in between.  One border of the city is marked by where "Forest Park" meets Clayton.

Back in 2008 I theorized that the reason St. Louis City is listed as an option in the data was that part of 63141 is unincorporated.  However, I'm fairly certain now that that isn't the reason. Last Residences in most zip codes of St. Louis County seem to include St. Louis City as the first option. And thus, Ancestry lists it as the only option.  By conducting a search at Ancestry on just the year of death and a zipcode, I've also checked Kirkwood (63122), Brentwood (63144), Sunset Hills (63127), and Maryland Heights (63043). [Sunset Hills and Maryland Heights are off the above map. Sunset Hills is where 270 and 44 meet; You can almost see the label for Maryland Heights on the Northwestern part of the map.]  Of those four, St. Louis is absent from the options in only 63043.  One possibility is that St. Louis City is provided as an option for all zip codes beginning with the digits '631.'

To recap:

There is something funky going on with the data that the Social Security Administration provides for St. Louis County. Neither Ancestry nor GenealogyBank can do anything about that.

However, Ancestry only providing one option for the city of Last Residence creates a lot of inaccurate records. And this will happen whenever a zip code covers more than one city, which I suspect is often.

Surname Ngrams

Google has an interesting feature: The Google Ngram Viewer. An  n-gram references the frequency a phoneme, word, or phrase occurs across a span of text or speech. The Google Ngram Viewer allows you to search through Google Books across a span of years for a series of terms, and it will graph the rate of appearance for those terms.

 

I thought it might be interesting to graph the frequency for several of my surnames. I chose the eight surnames of my great great grandparents. However, after the inital attempt, I removed 'Deutsch' from the list since it dwarfed the rest of the surnames. Terms that are relatively similar in frequency work best in these graphs.

 

Below is the chart for Cruvant, Blatt, Feinstein, Newmark, Vanevery, Denyer and Lichtman. The span of years I chose was 1900-2000. I selected English language texts. Below the graph are links to the actual Google Books search results for each term graphed for particular decades.

 

(Click to enlarge)

If you enlarge the graph, and look carefully, you'll notice that the blue line for Cruvant appears briefly in the 1950s. This is due single-handedly to my cousin, Bernard Cruvant, who got some press for his psychiatrical work.  The surname Feinstein definitely grew in use in the last half of the century, going from least frequent to most. I was at first a little surprised "Denyer" wasn't more common, but I have to go back a couple centuries for that particular spelling of the English word, for someone who denies, to be prevalent.  And I hadn't noticed the search was 'case-sensitive.' When I plotted 'Denyer' vs 'denyer' it was clear that in the 1700s the religious term made several appearances. If I hadn't limited the seach to English texts, the Blatt surname would likely have increased in frequency significantly.

Some reviews I found online raised questions about the accuracy of the results.
1) The amount of texts from particular time periods are likely uneven, does Google weigh this into the equation?

I believe the answer must be, "yes." The Y-axis is a percentage, not number of occurrences. They claim each point on the graph is the frequency for a given year.

Of course, the type of material that has been scanned will make a difference. (Fiction, scholastic journals, reference works, etc) I suspect the diversity of digitized material decreases the further back one goes.

2) Optical character recognition can easily get confused. One example is that in older texts the letter 's' looks a lot like the modern 'f''. 

3) If a particular term has had multiple spellings over time that will also, naturally, impact the graph, as I pointed out with the surname, Denyer.

Wordless Wednesday: Critical Thinking Test

The questions and answers on this "Critical Thinking Test" are circa 1960s.

(Answers below the fold)

---

Amanuensis Monday: Myrtle Van Every Requests Documentation On Her Grandfather's War Service

Amanuensis: A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another.

I continue my project to transcribe family letters, journals, newspaper articles, audiotapes, and other historical artifacts. Not only do the documents contain genealogical information, the words breathe life into kin - some I never met - others I see a time in their life before I knew them.

I began this project back on February 16, 2009.  Since I began, many others have joined in on the meme. I am thrilled that this meme I started has inspired so many to transcribe their family history documents. Why do we transcribe? I provide my three reasons in the linked post. You may find others.

***
This week I share documentation of my maternal grandmother participating in some genealogical research of her own. She submitted a letter requesting official documentation of her maternal grandfather's war service. She received two responses - one from the War Department, and one from the Texas Library and Historical Commission State Library. (If she submitted a separate request to the Texas State Library, she didn't save a copy.)

Weekly Genealogy Picks: Nov 18-24

Highlights from news stories and blog posts I have read in the past week that deal with my overlapping interests in Genealogy, History, Heritage, and Technology.

• Michael John Neill at RootDig reminds us that Indexes Point, But You Have to Look at the actual record.

• Leigh Anne Ellison at Digital Preservation discusses Preserving Digital Archaeological Data

• Inspired by the new Ken Burns documentary on The Dust Bowl, Judy G. Russell at The Legal Genealogist shares some resources for Dust Bowl images we can use. (That is, those that are free from copyright restrictions.)

• Amy Coffin at We Tree Genealogy takes issue with the term, Drive-by Genealogist.

• Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings describes the process of Pruning his Ancestry Member Tree Hints.

• Bill West at West in New England presents the submissions for the Fourth Annual Great Genealogy Poetry Challenge

Other Weekly Lists

• Julie Cahill Tarr's Friday Finds at GenBlog 
• Dan Curtis's Monday's Link Roundup at Personal Professional Historian 
• Jana Last's Fab Finds at Jana's Genealogy and Family History 
• Lynn Palermo's Monday Morning Mentions at The Armchair Genealogist 
• Randy Seaver's Best of the Genea-Blogs at Genea-Musings 

Upcoming holidays - religious and secular, national and international - for the next two weeks

Two Week Calendar

• Nov 25 - Feast of Christ the King (Christian)
• Nov 26 - Day of the Covenant (Baha'i)
• Nov 28 - Ascension of Abdu'l-Bahá (Baha'i)
• Nov 28 - Birthday of Guru Nanak Dev Sahib (Sikh)
• Nov 30 - St. Andrew's Day (Christian)
• Dec 1 - Great Union Day (Romania)
• Dec 1 - National Transit Tribute to Rosa Parks Day
• Dec 2 - International Day for the Abolition of Slavery
• Dec 2 - Advent - First Sunday (Christian)
• Dec 3 - International Day of Persons with Disabilities
• Dec 6 - St. Nicholas Day (Christian)
• Dec 7 - Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day (US)
• Dec 8 - Feast of the Immaculate Conception (Christian)
• Dec 8 - Rohatsu/Bodhi Day (Buddhist) 
• Dec 9 - International Anti-Corruption Day
• Dec 8 - Hanuka - Dec 8 (sunset) to Dec 16 (sunset) (Jewish) 

Repost: Conflicting Emotions

I want to talk about a holiday filled with conflicting emotions.

This is a holiday that remembers our ancestors’ religious persecution.

This is a holiday that commemorates freedom and hope.

Celebration of this holiday involves food, prayer, games, and family gathered.

This holiday requires us to close our eyes, temporarily, to the facts.

This holiday requires us to forget, for the moment, what happened afterward, in the following generations.

We focus on the freedom, the hope, the opportunity, with the albatross of that same opportunity squandered hanging over our heads, but not welcome at the holiday table filled with food, family, and festivities.

I probably should wait to talk about this holiday, since it doesn’t begin for another 2.5 weeks.

Hanuka begins on the evening of December 8 this year.

However, in the year 164 BCE, when Mattathias, his sons, and their followers fought back against religious persecution, the month on the Roman calendar was November. Kislev 25 fell on November 21st, to be exact.

As Rabbi Joseph Telushkin in Jewish Literacy, writes, “One of the sadder ironies of Jewish history is that the Maccabees led a successful revolt against King Antiochus’ anti-semitic oppressors only to turn into oppressors of the Jews themselves. (p. 112)”

On Hanuka we will focus on the freedom, the hope, and the opportunity, just as we as Americans do on Thanksgiving. We need to teach our children what happened next, so they aren’t blind to the forces of history, but that can be done on a different day. It doesn’t need to weigh us down on a holiday meant for celebration.

The Mystery of the Secondhand Shop

I'm not always adept at adding or subtracting years from a face and judging whether two photos are a possible match. However, since composing this morning's Amanuensis Monday, I've been looking back and forth between the photograph of the secondhand shop, and some photographs I have of members of the Cruvant family. As I mentioned in my notes, while I'd like the photograph to be of Selig Feinstein and his family, for whom I don't have photographs to compare, my second great grandfather Moshe Leyb Cruvant also owned a secondhand shop in 1900.

On the top left is the secondhand shop from the news article.

On the right is my second great grandmother, Minnie (Mojsabovski) Cruvant, and my great grandmother, Bertha (Cruvant) Newmark. To the immediate left of this text is my second great grandfather, Moshe Leyb Cruvant.

In 1900, Bertha would have been about 13. Her older brother, Ben, would have been 15. And her younger brother, Sol, would have been 7.  I do see vague facial similarities between the photos I have of Bertha, Minnie and Moshe Leyb and the individuals in the photograph from the St. Louis Republic. I don't believe I have any photos of Sol.

I don't know when the photograph of Moshe Leyb was taken, but he passed away in 1911, so if we assume ten years had passed, he would still have had to age significantly. However, he would have been 43 in the 1900 photo, which looks about right. He only lived to age 54 - he looks older in that photograph by today's standards than he really is.

Their shop on Morgan Street was within the boundaries of Little Jerusalem as defined in the article, though not as close to the location on Seventh street as the Feinstein shop.

If this is the Cruvant family, the baby is a complete mystery.  Sol is the youngest child of Moshe Leyb and Minnie we know about. However, Moshe Leyb had some kin in St. Louis, and perhaps that's a nephew or niece that happened to show up in a photo.

The facial resemblances are tantalizing, but I really need a known photograph of one of them from much closer to 1900 to make a comparison.

Update


This photograph of my great grandmother, Bertha, I believe comes from a few years prior to the one above. She is on the right. (It is her sister, Stella, on the left.) I think the resemblance remains, though the girl in the newspaper's photo isn't looking straight at the camera, and is partially hiding her face with her hand, making it difficult.

This is the earliest photograph I can find of Sol, dated 1930.

I have looked at the known Cruvant births in St. Louis, and none of Moshe Leyb's kin had babies who would be under a year old in August of 1900. The closest was born in October of 1898. The presence of that baby throws the greatest wringer in the theory of a match.

Amanuensis Monday: Little Jerusalem - St. Louis - 1900

Amanuensis: A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another.

I continue my project to transcribe family letters, journals, newspaper articles, audiotapes, and other historical artifacts. Not only do the documents contain genealogical information, the words breathe life into kin - some I never met - others I see a time in their life before I knew them.

I began this project back on February 16, 2009.  Since I began, many others have joined in on the meme. I am thrilled that this meme I started has inspired so many to transcribe their family history documents. Why do we transcribe? I provide my three reasons in the linked post. You may find others.

***
This week we return to "Little Jerusalem" - an area of St. Louis mentioned in last Monday's entry - for an extensive feature story on the town. I discovered this article at ChroniclingAmerica as well.

Weekly Genealogy Picks: Nov 11-17

Highlights from news stories and blog posts I have read in the past week that deal with my overlapping interests in Genealogy, History, Heritage, and Technology.

• Elyse Doerflinger at Elyse's Genealogy Blog offers Some Thoughts for Genealogy Societies on how to react  (or not react) when a 20-something genealogist shows up at a meeting, or a conference.

• Those whose ancestors migrated by ship, traveling in steerage class, may be interested in Michael J. Leclerc's post at The Mocavo Blog: Steerage Not Exactly Luxurious.

• At The Huffington Post Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak asks, and illustrates the difficulty in answering, What Race is Bruno Mars? (I thought my ancestry was diverse!)

• Granite, genealogists are familiar with mistakes such as these. However, Charles Apple of the American Copy Editors Society at The Visual Side of Journalism suggests: Before you etch it in stone, call a copy editor.

• China's Xinhua News Agency reports Confucius' family tree has been digitized.

• George Geder at Geder Genealogy announces submissions are open for a blog carnival in honor of The National Day of Listening.

• Tamura Jones at Modern Software Experience presents his own Genealogy Blog Awards for 2012.

• Mocavo has announced a Free scanning service until the end of the year

• Those who use Gmail for their email will be pleased to know you can now search for emails by their size. So if you are running out of space, finding those photographs you emailed to relatives is now significantly easier. Even if you were utilizing FindBigMail or a similar application, you will likely find Gmail's new search functions are an improvement.

Other Weekly Lists

• Ruth Blair's Ruth's Recommendations at The Passionate Genealogist
• Julie Cahill Tarr's Friday Finds at GenBlog
• Dan Curtis's Monday's Link Roundup at Personal Professional Historian
• Beth's Genealogy News Corral at Genealogy Insider
• Lynn Palermo's Monday Morning Mentions at The Armchair Genealogist
• Randy Seaver's Best of the Genea-Blogs at Genea-Musings 

Upcoming holidays - religious and secular, national and international - for the next two weeks

Two Week Calendar

• Nov 20 - Universal Childrens' Day
• Nov 21 - National Adoption Day (US)
• Nov 21 - Yule (Neopagan)
• Nov 22 - Thanksgiving (US)
• Nov 23 - Ashura (Islam) - Nov 23 (sunset) - Nov 24 (sunset)
• Nov 24 - Guru Tegh Bahadur Martyrdom (Sikh)
• Nov 25 - Feast of Christ the King (Christian)
• Nov 26 - Day of the Covenant (Baha'i)
• Nov 28 - Ascension of Abdu'l-Bahá (Baha'i)
• Nov 28 - Birthday of Guru Nanak Dev Sahib (Sikh)
• Nov 30 - St. Andrew's Day (Christian)
• Dec 1 - Great Union Day (Romania)
• Dec 1 - National Transit Tribute to Rosa Parks Day
• Dec 2 - International Day for the Abolition of Slavery
• Dec 2 - Advent - First Sunday (Christian)

SNGF: 100-word challenge

Tonight's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge from Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings was based on the 100-word challenge.

The 100-word challenge is a weekly challenge given to children under the age of 16. The majority of participants appear to be from England or Australia, though there are some American youth. Last week's prompt was "Grandparents are important because."

For the SNGF challenge, Randy provided readers with the same prompt.

I didn't write a story. I wrote a poem - exactly 100 words in length, if one includes the title.


Grandparents are Important Because 

They can share the stories
of when our parents were young
and didn’t listen to what they were told.

They can also share the stories
of when they were young
and didn’t listen to what they were told.

They can teach us
the world was around long before we were,
and while we may think

everything is now different
a lot of it is still very much the same.
And while it might appear

we aren’t listening,
when we are grandparents
we’ll remember the stories,

and pass them on,
and that is why
grandparents are important.

Cinderella Genealogy

Just because the shoe fits, doesn't mean it belongs to Cinderella.

When a marriage document indicates that someone was 21 when they got married, the researcher is likely to go back 21 years and look for a birth record. Finding one with the appropriate name doesn't mean you have 'found Cinderella.' The more common the name, the more likely there could be doppelgängers lurking.

Back in July I indicated that I had found a William Denyer baptized in Headly, Hampshire in 1771. This was of interest since my fifth great grandfather, William Denyer, was married in 1791, in Hampshire, at the age of 21. Since slightly delayed baptisms aren't uncommon, I thought there was a possibility I had found my fifth great grandparents - William Denyer and Elizabeth Fyfield.  As nicely as the shoe fit, I realized there could be another William Denyer out there with another perfectly matched shoe.

As I detailed in my July post, these aren't the same parents as those on many online family trees. Many of them suggest a William baptized in 1763, which would have made him 28 in 1791. The marriage allegation specifically says 21. In this case, the shoe doesn't fit, and it seems several researchers are  behaving like Cinderella's step-sisters, and attempting to cut off toes or heels to force a fit.

Today in Google I found a marriage allegation for a William Denyer (of Headly) and Elizabeth Hunt about 21 years prior to the 1771 baptism. It's the loosest of connections - a name, a place, and an approximate time. But it certainly deserves further research. I hesitate researching too much further back until I find corroborating evidence.

28 Feb., 1748-9. William Denyer of Headly, co. Hants, taylor, bachelor, 21, and Elizabeth Hunt of Farnham, spinster, 21 ; at Farnham. Francis Hunt of Farnham, labourer, 2nd s.

Source: Eng. (Diocese) Commissary Court Surrey. Allegations for marriage licences issued between 1673-1770; with an appendix of allegations discovered whilst the ms. was passing through the press (Volume 2). p. 30.

Hants is a common abbreviation for 'Hampshire.'

(Image Source: Andy Lapham, 2012. Used under Creative Commons license) 

Amanuensis Monday: Nightshirt Parade in Little Jerusalem - 1900

Amanuensis: A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another.

I continue my project to transcribe family letters, journals, newspaper articles, audiotapes, and other historical artifacts. Not only do the documents contain genealogical information, the words breathe life into kin - some I never met - others I see a time in their life before I knew them.

I began this project back on February 16, 2009.  Since I began, many others have joined in on the meme. I am thrilled that this meme I started has inspired so many to transcribe their family history documents. Why do we transcribe? I provide my three reasons in the linked post. You may find others.

***

I discovered the following news story at ChroniclingAmerica, a digital collection of newspapers belonging to the Library of Congress. It makes reference to Julius Odelsohn, the brother of my second great grandfather, Selig Feinstein. They both changed their surname from the original Dudelczak upon arriving in America.

Weekly Genealogy Picks: Nov 4 - Nov 10

Highlights from news stories and blog posts I have read in the past week that deal with my overlapping interests in Genealogy, History, Heritage, and Technology.

The US Election

• Judy G. Russell at The Legal Genealogist discussed Voting and The Law

• Jeanne Kramer-Smyth's Election Eve: Fighting for the Right to Vote at Spellbound Blog shared several historical images of suffragists

• Bill West at West in New England presented the poem, The Poor Voter on Election Day by John Greenleaf Whittier

• The Children's BBC explained the US Presidential Election to its young readers.

Other Topics

• Malka Margolies at The Tablet wrote about rescuing her father's library

• Jasia at Creative Gene published The 123rd edition of the Carnival of Genealogy. The theme was birthdays. Jasia also announced that the Carnival of Genealogy is taking a hiatus.

Other Weekly Lists

• Ruth Blair's Ruth's Recommendations at The Passionate Genealogist
• Julie Cahill Tarr's Friday Finds at GenBlog 
• Dan Curtis's Monday's Link Roundup at Personal Professional Historian 
• Diane Haddad's Genealogy News Corral at Genealogy Insider 
• Michael J Leclerc's From the Blogs at Mocavo Genealogy Blog 
• Lynn Palermo's Monday Morning Mentions at The Armchair Genealogist 
• Randy Seaver's Best of the Genea-Blogs at Genea-Musings

Upcoming holidays - religious and secular, national and international - for the next two weeks

Two Week Calendar

• Nov 11 - New Year (Jain)
• Nov 11 - Father's Day (Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Sweden, Norway)
• Nov 11 - Armistice/Remembrance/Veterans Day (US, UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, France, Belgium)
• Nov 11 - Deepavali/Diwali (Hindu) - Nov 11-15
• Nov 11 - Birth of Baha'u'llah (Bahai) - Nov 11 (sunset) to Nov 12 (sunset)
• Nov 13 - World Kindness Day 
• Nov 14 - World Diabetes Day
• Nov 14 - Hijra (Islamic New Year) - Nov 14 (sunset) to Nov 15 (sunset) 
• Nov 15 - Shichi-Go-San (Japan)
• Nov 15 - Beginning of Winter Lent (Eastern Orthodox)
• Nov 16 - International Day of Tolerance
• Nov 17 - International Students' Day
• Nov 20 - Universal Childrens' Day
• Nov 21 - National Adoption Day (US)
• Nov 21 - Yule (Neopagan)
• Nov 22 - Thanksgiving (US)
• Nov 23 - Ashura (Islam) - Nov 23 (sunset) - Nov 24 (sunset)
• Nov 24 - Guru Tegh Bahadur Martyrdom (Sikh)
• Nov 25 - Feast of Christ the King (Christian)

Veterans Day / Remembrance Day 2012

Caption for photo to left: Human Statue of Liberty. 18,000 Officers and Men at Camp Dodge, Des Moines, Iowa. Colonel William Newman, Commanding. Colonel Rush S. Wells, Directing. Mole & Thomas, 09/1918. (source)

November 11 is Veterans Day in the US, and Remembrance Day in the UK, Canada, Australia, France and Belgium. In Poland it is celebrated as Independence Day.

Below are the names of ancestors, and their siblings, who I know served their nation's military, either in a time of war, or in a time of peace. I am including my Loyalist ancestors; their nation was Great Britain. Canada became their country after the war. I am including my Confederate ancestors too, despite their desire to form a separate nation.

Fifth Great Grandfathers
McGregory Van Every (1723-1786) Loyalist/Butler's Rangers
Michael Showers (1733-1796) Loyalist/Butler's Rangers

Fourth Great Grandfather
David Van Every (1757-1820) Loyalist/Butler's Rangers (served briefly as a Patriot in the NY militia)

Fifth Great Uncle
Benjamin Van Every (1759-1795) Loyalist/Butler's Rangers (served briefly as a Patriot in the NY militia)
William Van Every (1765-1832) Loyalist/Butler's Rangers
Peter Van Every (1771-bef 1816) Loyalist/Fifth Lincoln and Second York regiments (War of 1812)

Fourth Great Uncles
David Van Every Jr. (1782-1847) Loyalist/Second York regiment (War of 1812)
Michael Van Every (1790-?) Loyalist/Fifth Lincoln and Second York regiments (War of 1812)

Second Great Grandfather
Ebenezer Denyer (1828-1872) (Mexican-American War) (Confederate Army)

Third Great Uncles
Samuel Jennings Denyer (1822-1861) (Gonzales County Minute Men - Republic of Texas -1841)
Samuel T Hartley (1830-1920) (Confederate Army)

Great Grandfather
Samuel Deutsch (1861-1938) (Franz Josef's Austro-Hungarian Army)

Grandfathers
Melvin L Newmark (1912-1992), WWII
Martin J Deutsch (1907-1991), WWII

Great Uncles
Jerry Deutsch (1909-1950), WWII
Allen Deutsch (1914-1988), WWII
Harold Newmark (1915-2003), WWII
Mandell Newmark (1923-1945), WWII (Killed in Action)
Bernard Feinstin (1913-1968), WWII
Seymour Feinstein (1917-1999), WWII

Uncle
Stevan J Newmark (1942-1997) Army Reserves

Photographs of those who served in World War II

My grandfathers Melvin Newmark (1912-1992) and Martin Deutsch (1907-1991)


Allen Deutsch (1914-1988) and Maurice "Jerry" Deutsch (1909-1950).


Harold Newmark (1915-2003) and Mandell Newmark (1923-1945).


Bernard "Benny" Feinstein (1913-1968) and Seymour "Babe" Feinstein (1917-1999)

Goldie and Ben Cruvant's Daughter

I continue to progress slowly on unraveling the mystery of what happened to Goldie (White) Cruvant and her two children.

My great grandmother's brother, Benjamin Cruvant, married Goldian Lillian White in Chicago, IL May 26, 1904. They had a son, Edward (Clifford Paul), July 19, 1904, and a daughter, Goldie (Sarah M), July 22, 1905.  When Ben returned home to St. Louis with his family in 1907 all heck broke loose. Goldie wasn't Jewish, and Ben's parents weren't pleased. Goldie Lillian and her two children returned to Chicago, and Ben ultimately remarried and had two more kids. What became of Goldie and her two children are somewhat of a mystery, one a cousin and I have been trying to solve. She started the search over a decade ago, and I started helping a few years ago.

Goldie's Birth Report July 22, 1905	Edward's Birth Report July 19, 1904	Certificate of Correction (~1930s) changing "Edward" to "Clifford Paul"

I found this newspaper article from June of 1907 

The love of a blue-eyed baby girl is awaiting the return of Benjamin Cruvant, who left his home in East St. Louis two months ago. His 2-year-old daughter is worried over his absence and in her baby prattle she daily calls for her “dada,” whose absence she cannot understand.

The resolution of the drama isn't completely clear, but in 1910 Goldian Lillian and her two children Clifford E. and Sarah M. are in the Chicago census. Goldian is listed as 'widowed,' which was common for divorced women at the time.  The age of "Sarah M." is appropriate for the daughter.

I found an issue of the Typographical Journal indicating in 1914 Mrs. G. L. Cruvant applied for union membership in Denver, Colorado.

However, we've been unsuccessful in finding the three of them in the 1920 or 1930 census.  I know the Certificate of Correction for Clifford Paul's name was filed between 1934 and 1950, and at the time Clifford and his mother were both alive. At some point I will request from the Chicago Records department the exact date of that correction. Unfortunately, the Family History Center microfilm record cut off the date. The only way I know it is between 1934 and 1950 is due to the name of the Deputy Clerk.

Of course...when the 1940 census was indexed...one of the first things I did was search for the more unique surnames in my tree, including Cruvant and its various different spellings.

Mary Cruvand, age 36, born in Illinois, living in Miami Beach, Dade, Florida, divorced, a housekeeper.

Sarah's middle initial on the 1910 census was M, and neither my cousin nor I are aware of anyone else named Mary who was either born a Cruvant, or married one.  It's a rather unusual surname making it much easier to narrow down the possibilities.

Three years later Mary M. Cruvand appears in Ancestry's Florida Marriage Collection, marrying a Sam P. Bieber in Dade.

All the record provides is the certificate number, which I will have to order to find more information. It is possible this is the same Samuel Bieber who was born Nov 12, 1898  in St. Louis, was in Chicago by the 1910 census, and passed away on Jan 4, 1950 in Chicago. If so, he is buried in Section 37 of Waldheim Cemetery, perhaps not too far from my maternal great grandparents. I have contacted the cemetery to see if Mary is perhaps buried next to him.

I haven't found either Goldian Lillian or Clifford Paul in the 1940 census.

November 9:International Day Against Fascism and Anti-Semitism

 November 9th, 1938
September 11th, 2001

What do these dates have in common? Well, Americans and Europeans write their dates differently. Americans use Month/Date/Year, while the Europeans use Date/Month/Year. So September 11th is 9/11 in America. And November 9th is 9/11 in Europe.

So what happened on November 9th, 1938? That is the date of Germany’s pogrom where they broke the glass on many Jewish businesses. At the time, they called it Night of the Broken Glass (or Kristallnacht). Some have argued we shouldn’t refer to it is Kristallnacht today, since that is the euphemism Hitler's government chose, and instead we should refer to it as what it was — a pogrom. Those who feel this way often call the day Pogromnacht. Others argue that over the decades the word has developed a connotation that cancels out any original euphemistic intent. Anyway, it is considered by historians as the beginning of the Holocaust.

There are several major historical events that fell on November 9th.

694 – The Seventeenth Council of Toledo (more about below)
1494 – The Medicis assumed rule of Florence, Italy
1799 – Napoleon overthrew the French government in the coup d’etat of 18 Brumaire
1918 – Kaiser Wilhelm stepped down, and Germany’s Republic began
1923 – Hitler’s failed Beer Hall Putsch
1938 – Kristallnacht/Pogromnacht
1953 – Cambodia declared its independence
1989 – The gates to the Berlin Wall separating East and West were opened.

The term Schicksalstag "Day of Destiny" is often used in Germany to describe November 9th. However, it should be pointed out that all the German events that occurred after 1918 were planned actions. Even in 1989, the demonstrations that led up to the event began in September; the government of East Germany at least to some extent chose November 9th as the date to officially open the gate. That said, obviously the earlier events outside of Germany on November 9th couldn't have been planned to coincide with later events.

Now let's approach this from a numerology perspective.

November, literally means Ninth Month in Latin. This is because for the Romans, November was the 9th month. The year ended in February, which is why February is the shortest month, and has a day added to it every four years. So November 9th, from the Roman perspective, would be 9/9. And September 11th would be 7/11 (or 11/7). Both total 18.

Nine and its multiples are considered by some to be an unlucky number. 18, however, is considered by Jewish mystics to refer to Life, since in Hebrew numbers and letters are interchangeable – it would be as if we used A to mean 1, and B to mean 2, etc. The tenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet is the Yod, and the eighth letter is a Chet. The number 18 is written Chet-Yod, which is pronounced ‘Chai’, and means ‘life.’

Finally, a note of explanation to one of the dates in the list above. At the 17th Council of Toledo on Novmeber 9, 694, King Ergica of Hispania and Septimania claimed to learn from informers that the Jewish population in Hispania had attempted a revolt, conspiring with Jews and Muslims in North Africa. Responsively, Ergica declared all Jewish-held land forfeit, all Jews to be slaves, and all Jewish children over the age of seven to be taken from their homes and raised as Christians. If the Rosetta Calendar is correct, November 9th, 694 (Julian) and November 9th, 1938 (Gregorian) were both Heshvan 15 on the Hebrew calendar 4455 and 5699 respectively.

This is all just something you may or may not want to think about on the anniversary of what I like to refer to as “The European 9/11″.

Ebenezer Denyer Registers to Vote

Below is the Voter Registration of my second great grandfather, Ebenezer Denyer. (bottom line of cropped images below.)

Transcription:

Date of Registry: Nov 24, 1869
Name: E. Danyer (Denyer)
Place of Residence: Hays County
Precinct: 1
In State: Twelve Months
In County: Thirty Days
In Precinct: Thirty Days
Native: Pennsylvania
General Remarks: White

I don't learn much I didn't already know from this record (retrieved from a database of Texas Voter Registrations at Ancestry). I believe his state of Nativity positively identifies him as my second great grandfather, as opposed to somebody else with a similar name. 

The length of time in State, County and Precinct is of course the minimum requirement, not the specific amount for each individual.

I did at first wonder why he was registering in November of 1869 - what seemed an off-political year. Of course, I'm not overly familiar with Texas history. He appears to have been registering to vote in the first election following the Texas Constitution of 1869. From Ulysses S Grant's First Annual Message (Dec 6, 1869)

Elections were called in Mississippi and Texas, to commence on the 30th of November, 1869, and to last two days in Mississippi and four days in Texas. The elections have taken place, but the result is not known. It is to be hoped that the acts of the legislatures of these States, when they meet, will be such to win your approval, and thus close the work of reconstruction.

Was he registered to vote anywhere else in Texas prior to 1869? That I don't know.

Amanuensis Monday: A Feat of Heroism - 1915

Amanuensis: A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another.

I continue my project to transcribe family letters, journals, newspaper articles, audiotapes, and other historical artifacts. Not only do the documents contain genealogical information, the words breathe life into kin - some I never met - others I see a time in their life before I knew them.

I began this project back on February 16, 2009.  Since I began, many others have joined in on the meme. I am thrilled that this meme I started has inspired so many to transcribe their family history documents. Why do we transcribe? I provide my three reasons in the linked post. You may find others.

***

I discovered the following news story at ChroniclingAmerica, a digital collection of newspapers belonging to the Library of Congress. I had conducted a search on "Mabel Fulkerson," my wife's great grandmother. Born on June 14, 1901, she had just turned 14 years old at the time of the article.

Weekly Genealogy Picks: Oct 28-Nov 3

Highlights from news stories and blog posts I have read in the past week that deal with my overlapping interests in Genealogy, History, Heritage, and Technology.

• Maureen A. Taylor at Photo Detective discusses Photo Manipulation before Photo Shop

• Dear Myrtle shares the information that a new source-centric genealogy program, Evidentia, is issuing a call for beta testers.

• Michael Leclerc at the Mocavo Genealogy Blog discusses Copy Right and Copy Wrong

• Jill Hurst-Wahl at Digitization 101 witnesses evidence that Paper Still Matters.

• Kate Theimer at ArchivesNext suggests a couple places to donate money to help archives impacted by Hurricane Sandy.

• Rebecca Goldman at Derangement and Description presents some archival humor on LucasFilm being purchased by Disney.

• A parody of Malvina Reynolds' Little Boxes (Hat/Tip: Upfront with NGS)

Other Weekly Lists

• Ruth Blair's Ruth's Recommendations at The Passionate Genealogist

• Julie Cahill Tarr's Friday Finds at GenBlog

• Dan Curtis's Monday's Link Roundup at Personal Professional Historian

• Diane Haddad's Genealogy News Corral at Genealogy Insider

• Michael J Leclerc's From the Blogs at Mocavo Genealogy Blog

• Lynn Palermo's Monday Morning Mentions at The Armchair Genealogist

• Randy Seaver's Best of the Genea-Blogs at Genea-Musings

Upcoming holidays - religious and secular, national and international - for the next two weeks

Two Week Calendar

• Nov 4 - Mischief Night (UK)
• Nov 5 - Guy Fawkes Night (UK)
• Nov 6 - US Election Day
• Nov 6 - Finnish Swedish Heritage Day
• Nov 8 - World Urbanism Day
• Nov 9 - Schicksalstag (Germany)
• Nov 9 - International Day Against Fascism and Antisemitism
• Nov 10 - US Marine Corps birthday
• Nov 11 - New Year (Jain)
• Nov 11 - Father's Day (Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Sweden, Norway)
• Nov 11 - Armistice/Remembrance/Veterans Day (US, UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, France, Belgium)
• Nov 11 - Deepavali/Diwali (Hindu) - Nov 11-15
• Nov 11 - Birth of Baha'u'llah (Bahai) - Nov 11 (sunset) to Nov 12 (sunset)
• Nov 13 - World Kindness Day 
• Nov 14 - World Diabetes Day
• Nov 14 - Hijra (Islamic New Year) - Nov 14 (sunset) to Nov 15 (sunset) 
• Nov 15 - Shichi-Go-San (Japan)
• Nov 15 - Beginning of Winter Lent (Eastern Orthodox)
• Nov 16 - International Day of Tolerance

Schrödinger the Cat’s Election Theorem: You can’t know whether your candidate has won or lost until the votes are counted. Until that moment, your candidate is half a winner, and half a loser.

Fourth Annual Genealogy Poetry Challenge: Portsmouth, Hampshire

It is time for me to share my selection for the Fourth Annual Great Genealogy Poetry Challenge hosted by West in New England.

Find a poem by a local poet, famous or obscure, from the region one of your ancestors lived in. It can be about an historical event, a legend, a person, or even about some place (like a river)or a local animal. It can even be a poem you or one of your ancestors have written! Or if you prefer, post the lyrics of a song or a link to a video of someone performing the song...If you submit a humorous poem or song that will be entered under the "Willy Puckerbrush" division. Willy was the late geneablogger Terry Thornton's alias for some humorous posts and comments. [Deadline: November 18th]

• For the Third Annual Genealogy Poetry Challenge, I shared a poem by Chaim Bialik, representing my ancestors from Volhynia, Russia.
• For the Second Annual Genealogy Poetry Challenge, I submitted the song, Texas our Texas, representing my ancestors from the Lone Star State
• For the First Annual Genealogy Poetry Challenge, I shared a poem by Emilius Buczi, representing my Hungarian ancestors, Julian Ursin Niemciwicz, representing my Polish and Lithuanian ancestors, and T.S. Eliot, representing my hometown of St. Louis, as well as my London ancestors, since he was an ex-pat.

This year I decided to return to England and find a poet or poets from there, preferably from Hampshire, where my Denyer and Goldfinch ancestors were from, and more specifically, from Portsmouth.  I soon realized I had several choices.

Rudyard Kipling spent six years of his childhood (age 5-11) in Portsmouth. However, most everyone is familiar with the poetry of Kipling.

I found another two authors who were born in Portsmouth, very well-known for their fiction. I went in search to see if I could find some poetry, and I did. Both of these poems display wit possibly suitable for the Willy Puckerbrush division of this challenge.

***

This first poem is not only in honor of my Portsmouth ancestry, but also the blacksmith trade.

I have several ancestral blacksmiths:
My 2nd great grandfather, Selig Dudelsack/Feinstein
My 7th great grandfather, Burger Van Iveren
My 8th great grandfather, Myndert Fredericksen

The humor in this poem should be obvious to even the least artful old codger - as it is forged on word-play.

***

The Blacksmith
Charles Dickens (1812-1870)

Old England, she has great warriors,
Great princes, and poets great;
But the Blacksmith is not to be quite forgot,
In the history of the State.

He is rich in the best of all metals,
Yet silver he lacks and gold;
And he payeth his due, and his heart is true,
Though he bloweth both hot and cold.

The boldest is he of incendiaries
That ever the wide world saw,
And a forger as rank as e'er robbed the Bank,
Though he never doth break the law.

He hath shoes that are worn by strangers,
Yet he laugheth and maketh more;
And a share (concealed) in the poor man's field,
Yet it adds to the poor man's store.

Then, hurrah for the iron Blacksmith!
And hurrah for his iron crew!
And whenever we go where his forges glow,
We'll sing what A MAN can do.

***

It doesn't take the world's greatest detective to identify the following poem as satire. If I were to offer some literary criticism, I'd say the author should have shown faith in his readers, and omitted the final stanza.

***

The Bigot - 1919
Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930)

The foolish Roman fondly thought
That gods must be the same to all,
Each alien idol might be brought
Within their broad Pantheon Hall.
The vision of a jealous Jove
Was far above their feeble ken;
They had no Lord who gave them love,
But scowled upon all other men.

But in our dispensation bright,
What noble progress have we made!
We know that we are in the light,
And outer races in the shade.
Our kindly creed ensures us this—
That Turk and infidel and Jew
Are safely banished from the bliss
That's guaranteed to me and you.

The Roman mother understood
That, if the babe upon her breast
Untimely died, the gods were good,
And the child's welfare manifest.
With tender guides the soul would go
And there, in some Elysian bower,
The tiny bud plucked here below
Would ripen to the perfect flower.

Poor simpleton! Our faith makes plain
That, if no blest baptismal word
Has cleared the babe, it bears the stain
Which faithless Adam had incurred.
How philosophical an aim!
How wise and well-conceived a plan
Which holds the new-born babe to blame
For all the sins of early man!

Nay, speak not of its tender grace,
But hearken to our dogma wise:
Guilt lies behind that dimpled face,
And sin looks out from gentle eyes.
Quick, quick, the water and the bowl!
Quick with the words that lift the load!
Oh, hasten, ere that tiny soul
Shall pay the debt old Adam owed!

The Roman thought the souls that erred
Would linger in some nether gloom,
But somewhere, sometime, would be spared
To find some peace beyond the tomb.
In those dark halls, enshadowed, vast,
They flitted ever, sad and thin,
Mourning the unforgotten past
Until they shed the taint of sin.

And Pluto brooded over all
Within that land of night and fear,
Enthroned in some dark Judgment Hall,
A god himself, reserved, austere.
How thin and colourless and tame!
Compare our nobler scheme with it,
The howling souls, the leaping flame,
And all the tortures of the pit!

Foolish half-hearted Roman hell!
To us is left the higher thought
Of that eternal torture cell
Whereto the sinner shall be brought.
Out with the thought that God could share
Our weak relenting pity sense,
Or ever condescend to spare
The wretch who gave Him just offence!

'Tis just ten thousand years ago
Since the vile sinner left his clay,
And yet no pity can he know,
For as he lies in hell to-day
So when ten thousand years have run
Still shall he lie in endless night.
O God of Love! O Holy One!
Have we not read Thy ways aright?

The godly man in heaven shall dwell,
And live in joy before the throne,
Though somewhere down in nether hell
His wife or children writhe and groan.
From his bright Empyrean height
He sees the reek from that abyss—
What Pagan ever dreamed a sight
So holy and sublime as this!

Poor foolish folk! Had they begun
To weigh the myths that they professed,
One hour of reason and each one
Would surely stand a fraud confessed.
Pretending to believe each deed
Of Theseus or of Hercules,
With fairy tales of Ganymede,
And gods of rocks and gods of trees!

No, no, had they our purer light
They would have learned some saner tale
Of Balaam's ass, or Samson's might,
Or prophet Jonah and his whale,
Of talking serpents and their ways,
Through which our foolish parents strayed,
And how there passed three nights and days
Before the sun or moon was made!

....

O Bigotry, you crowning sin!
All evil that a man can do
Has earthly bounds, nor can begin
To match the mischief done by you—
You, who would force the source of love
To play your small sectarian part,
And mould the mercy from above
To fit your own contracted heart.