Finished?!

Every Family Historian will at some point interact with someone who declares

"Oh, I finished researching my family history."

We'll stare at them, confused. Finished?

It's very confusing from a mathematical perspective. Two parents, four grandparents, eight great grandparents. It keeps building. 4096 10th great grandparents. I know a handful of my 10th great grandparents, but not even double digits. Sure, there is undoubtedly some pedigree collapse, but I still have to identify the ancestors each time, so there are 4096 slots to be filled in that generation regardless of how many names get repeated.

And even if at some point I have all 4096 identified, there are 8192 11th great grandparents. And then 16,384 12th great grandparents. How can anyone finish?

And here I am only addressing one's ancestors. Family trees don't only go backwards in time. There's also the research of siblings, and descendants.

So, no, don't tell me you finished. Maybe you stopped. Maybe you gave up. Maybe you are satisfied with what you have found. (I guess that is possible) But, no, you didn't finish. You left the rest of the research for someone else to accomplish. (Please tell me you took good notes, and cited all your sources. Sigh.)

Amanuensis Monday: Israel Swayze and The Beaverdams Church

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.

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Below I transcribe a plaque, mentioning my 4th Great Grandfather, Israel Swayze (1753-1844)

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THE BEAVERDAMS CHURCH 1832

Early in the 1790s a group of settlers in this area had been converted to Methodism and formed a Class which in 1795 was included in the newly-established Niagara Circuit. Services were held in the home of a prominent local settler, Israel Swayze, and camp meetings took place on his property. This church, one of the oldest remaining Methodist chapels in the province, was built in 1832. The Reverend Egerton Ryerson, who later was principally responsible for the founding of this province’s educational system, was the first minister to preach in the chapel. The building was renovated extensively in 1879, but regular services were discontinued about 1890.

Architectural and Historic Sites Board of Ontario.

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Image source: OntarioPlaques.com

Notes:

1. Other sources indicate the meetings were on the property of Israel and his son, Hiram Swayze. Hiram deeded the land to the congregation where the church was built in 1832.

2. Israel Swayze isn't the only ancestor of mine responsible for the founding of a place of worship. My 8th great grandfather, Myndert Frederickse, helped found a Lutheran church in Albany, New York. And my 2nd great grandfather, Selig Feinstein, helped found Tpheris Israel Congregation in St. Louis.

Weekly Genealogy Picks and Calendar

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.

• Leland Meitzler at GenealogyBlog shared an article on how More States are Giving Adult Adoptees Access to Original Birth Records
• Lorine McGinnis Schulz at Olive Tree Genealogy shares Five Ways to Jumpstart Your Genealogy When It Has Stalled
• Linda Barnickel at Ancestry Blog highlights 5 Hidden Questions in the US Census
• The National Archives is Rebooting their Social Media Strategy
• Natalie at Crestleaf provides Cemetery Research for Genealogy: A Step-by-Step Beginners Guide
• Chery Kinnick at Nordic Blue lists Ten Things I've Learned in Ten Years of Blogging
• Euny Hong at Quartz argues 23andMe has a problem when it comes to ancestry reports for people of color

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

• August 29
• Beheading of St. John the Baptist (Christian)
• International Day Against Nuclear Tests (United Nations)
• August 31
• Day of Solidarity and Freedom (Poland)
• September 1
• Ecclesiastical Year Begins (Orthodox Christian)
• September 2
• VJ Day (US)
• September 3
• Flag Day (Australia)
• VJ Day (Republic of China)
• September 4
• Immigrant's Day (Argentina)
• September 5
• International Day of Charity (United Nations)
• September 6
• Start of Paryushana Parava - Sept 6-15 (Jain)
• September 8
• Nativity of Virgin Mary (Christian)
• International Literacy Day (United Nations)
• September 9
• Day of the Victims of Holocaust and Racial Violence (Slovakia)
• Children's Day (Costa Rica)
• September 10
• Waqf al Arafa - Hajj Day (Islam)
• World Suicide Prevention Day (World Health Organization)
• September 11
• Start of Eid al Adha  - Sept 11-14 (Islam)
• Auditor's Day (Church of Scientology)
• Grandparents Day (US & Canada)
• National Day of Service (US)

Who got married?

One of the two individuals mentioned in the clipping below from the  Cincinnati Daily Press, July 26, 1860, might be related to my wife. However, that is not why I am sharing this. 

I found the phrasing particularly interesting. I am fairly certain if the below appeared in a newspaper today, many readers would assume something very different from what most 1860 readers assumed. 

"...Night before last, however, a wedding took place near the Brighton House and almost before the pair had become legally one, Charles Schrock and Henry Erndt became involved in a difficulty, when, after many words and a few blows, the latter drew a knife and stabbed his antagonist in the side and arm..."

Of course, both readers are making an assumption. We need to be extra cautious about the assumptions we make.

Amanuensis Monday: Anton Schrock - Obituary (*Where* was he born??)

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.

---

Below I transcribe the obituary for my wife's 3rd great grandfather, Anton Schrock, which appeared in the Marble Hill Press on June 21, 1900. The clipping was found at ChroniclingAmerica.

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Died – At his home near this place, the 15th, Anton Schrock aged about 81 years. Deceased had been in poor health sometime and being quite old, was an easy victim. He was a highly respected citizen and has been a resident of this county about forty years and of the United States sixty years. He was born in Frankenstine, Germany December 31, 1819. He leaves a widow, seven children and a host of friends to mourn their loss.

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Notes:

1. The one word which, for almost any reader, will jump up and wave its arms about forcing the individual to take notice, is the name of the village in Germany. Not everyone realizes it is a name of an actual village. There is a castle there, too. Mary Wollstonecraft, along with three author friends, including future husband Percy Bysshe Shelley, traveled nearby in 1814. They challenged each other to a competition to see who could write the best horror story. I don't think there is any dispute who won. Frankenstein was published in 1818.

It should be noted that the only documentation I've seen indicating the village of Frankenstein as Schrock's birthplace is this obituary. Anton Schrock was born after the publication of the novel, and it's very easy to imagine that his claim to have been born there is about as truthful as my Polish-born great grandfather's claim to have been born in Dublin, Ireland.

The passenger manifest for Anton Schrock and his wife, Caroline, indicate their town of origin was Neurode, Germany. Which is approximately 750km from Frankenstein. It's certainly possible Schrock was born in Frankenstein, moved to Neurode, and then immigrated to America. Caroline could have been from Neurode, and Anton from Frankenstein. There are a lot of possibilities.

Weekly Genealogy Picks and Calendar

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.

• Emily Garber at (Going) The Extra Yad discusses Serendipity and blogging
• Janice Brown at Cow Hampshire discusses ways to Promote your Blog
• Genealogy software today encourages us to enter GPS coordinates for locations. What happens if those GPS locations change? Newsround, the BBC's News for Children, reports Austalia is moving! (Slowly, yes, but GPS coordinates are off.)
• With the Jewish holiday of Tu B'Av this past week, I found the timing appropriate for Ancestry's recent addition of Niagara Falls Honeymoon and Visitor Registries
• In Challenges of Adding Sources to Family Trees Part I James Tanner at Genealogy's Star discusses the historical reality that source citations are a relatively new focus.

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

• August 22
• Flag Day (Russia)
• August 23
• European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism
• International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition
• August 25
• Krishna Janmashtami (Hindu)
• Liberation Day (France)
• August 28
• Women's Equality Day (USA)
• National Grandparents Day (Mexico)
• Feast of the Mother of God (Eastern Orthodox Church)
• August 29
• Beheading of St. John the Baptist (Christian)
• International Day Against Nuclear Tests
• August 31
• Day of Solidarity and Freedom (Poland)
• September 1
• Ecclesiastical Year Begins (Orthodox Christian)
• September 2
• VJ Day (US)
• September 3
• Flag Day (Australia)
• VJ Day (Republic of China)

Adoption and Genealogy

Six years ago, Tamura Jones at Modern Software Experience discussed Adoption and Genealogy in the posts Adapted Ahnenlist and Adoption in Genealogy. At that time, I had no idea adoption was in my future.

If you're already familiar with the traditional Ahnenlist/Ahnentafel format, his idea for adapting it to include both (A)dopted and (B)irth parents is so natural, you probably don't need me to explain it here, or follow the links in the paragraph above. An instance where the letters in a numbering system are actually meaningful in themselves is rare, it seems like kismet when it happens.

Of course, adoption isn't the only non-traditional relationship that the genealogist has to think about today. For example, it's 'conceivable' someone might want to indicate surrogacy in a chart. Polyfamilies may also wish to chart multiple lineages. The individual genealogist might need to come up with their own lettering system, but no one should feel compelled to ignore a lineage in their reports important to them in their research.

While it is possible to separate the lineages into separate reports, and this may seem easier, sometimes the whole can be greater than the parts. An interwoven ahnentafel might reveal commonalities and differences previously unconsidered. There are 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, and their meanings can be indicated in a key at the bottom of the list. If somehow we run out of room for relationships, there's always the Greek alphabet waiting in the sidelines.

Days of Love - Religious and Personal

Tu b'Av is a relatively obscure Jewish holiday that falls on the fifteenth day of the month of Av (sundown Thursday, August 18 to sundown Friday, August 19 this year).

The fifteenth day of each month on the Hebrew calendar falls on a full moon, and the holiday was observed as a sort of fertility festival during the period of the Second Temple. After the destruction of the Second Temple, it was forgotten for the most part in the Diaspora, only to be revived in modern times as a Jewish alternative to St. Valentine's Day.

To some, St. Valentine's Day, or Tu B'Av, may feel manufactured for greeting card companies, florists, and chocolatiers. However, most couples have their own personal "Days of Love." Whether the annual date commemorates a first date, an engagement, a marriage, or another anniversary, it's significant only to the individual couple.The memories connected with these dates are often stronger than the ones associated with the annual religious or societal holidays. Still, any reason for two people to celebrate their love for one another is a good reason.

To A Lady
by Victor Hugo,
From Les Feuilles D'Automne 

Child, were I king, I'd yield my royal rule,
     My chariot, sceptre, vassal-service due,
My crown, my porphyry-basined waters cool,
My fleets, whereto the sea is but a pool,
     For a glance from you!

Love, were I God, the earth and its heaving airs,
     Angels, the demons abject under me,
Vast chaos with its teeming womby lairs,
Time, space, all would I give--aye, upper spheres,
     For a kiss from thee!

translation by Thomas Hardy
photogravure by Goupil et Cie, from a drawing by Deveria, appears in a collection of Hugo's poetry published by Estes and Lauriat in the late 1800s.

Weekly Genealogy Picks

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.

• Diane L Richard at Upfront with NGSGenealogy discusses the importance of name pronunciation to genealogists. 
• Lithuania puts an old Jewish cemetery under state protection
• Cnaan Liphshiz at the Jewish Telegraphic Agency looks at the impact of geography on religious ritual in Fasting in the Lands of the Midnight Sun. As family historians we might consider the impact geography may have had on the customs of our ancestors as they migrated.
• The Lincoln Trio, a Chamber Ensemble, has released an album celebrating their ancestors with English, Armenian and Swiss composers. Have you researched the music of your ancestral homelands?
• Owen McCafferty at The Mischpoche Tree provides some tips on contacting distant relatives

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

• August 14 
• Tish'a B'av - Jewish (begins at sunset Aug 13)
• August 15
• Assumption of Blessed Virgin Mary - Catholic Christian
• Dormition of the Theotokos - Orthodox Christian
• August 17
• Birthday of Marcus Garvey - Rastafari
• August 18
• Raksha Bandhan - Hindu
• August 19
• Tu B'Av - Jewish (begins at sunset Aug 18)
• August 20
• St. Stephen's Day - Hungary
• Feast of Asma - Bahai
• August 23
• European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism
• August 25
• Krishna Janmashtami - Hindu
• August 28
• Women's Equality Day - USA

DNA Cousin Matching

Below is the AncestryDNA summary for my wife's DNA matches

188 4th-6th cousin matches

Below is the AncestryDNA summary for my DNA matches

1025 4th-6th cousin matches

I suspect a number of readers who have had their DNA tested will look at my wife's numbers, and feel they are similar to their own. And then look at mine and be surprised. "You're so lucky!" they'll think.

Except...I'm sure there's a large number of false positive matches. Back in 2014 Ancestry changed their formula to reduce the number of false positives in general, but I think it's still high for Ashkenazic Jews. It's definitely still high for me.

• I have 437 pages of matches, 50 matches each, or a total of 21,850 matches. This obviously includes a lot of ancestors Ancestry categorizes as "Distant" or 5th-8th cousins.
• My wife has 163 pages, or 8,150 matches

The situation is similar at FamilyTreeDNA. I have a total of 5,728 matches, my wife has 876, and my mother has 3,374.

So if I assume the number of matches everyone gets, in a purely random environment, should be approximately similar...It's possible between 4/5 and 5/6 of my "4th Cousins or closer" matches are wrong.

So if the match doesn't have a family tree, and their Ethnicity information suggests we connect on my Jewish ancestry, why should I bother emailing them, when there's over an 80% chance of a false positive? [Unfortunately, even those with family trees don't include generations beyond the 'immigrant ancestor' which would be necessary to make a connection.]

Another situation I have -- several years ago, I came into contact with another researcher on one of my paternal lines who had done a lot of research in Polish archives, and his research took back that surname for me a couple generations providing many cousins. Yay! However, the name he had for my second great grandmother was wrong, the date of birth for my second great grandfather didn't match family records, and the birth record for my great-grandmother hasn't been discovered yet, leading me to wonder if there wasn't a second person with my second great grandfather's name. Well, this person has been declared a cousin of mine by FamilyTreeDNA, and the distance corresponds to the research I was given. However, is this proof?

Well, no. I can assume that I am related to all people of that surname from that Polish town. In some manner. However, the DNA match in no way confirms what generation we really have a shared ancestor. And the less accurate the matching is, the more this is the case. [But it is still nice to see his name pop up in my matches at FamilyTreeDNA.]

Augmented and Virtual Genealogy?

James Tanner at Genealogy's Star has been discussing the future of genealogy in a series of posts on The Dawn of the Genealogical Information Age.

Science Fiction author David Brin asks the question: How will augmented reality change us?

Augmented reality (AR) is a live direct or indirect view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented (or supplemented) by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data. [source]

Brin's focus is on whether AR spells doom or excitement. I have a preference for being optimistic. The two of them got me thinking, with the increasing amount of data available, and increasing technological advances, how will this impact the future of genealogy? In particular, augmented reality and virtual reality.

• Instead of just QR barcodes popping up additional information on your phones, might future trips to cemeteries involve images of the deceased telling visitors about their lives. 
• Augmented or Virtual librarians? I doubt a computer program can provide the personalized  help a living librarian can, but when all the staff are helping other patrons, an AR/VR librarian might be available to provide some assistance.
• Will there come a day when the average person can do their own programming as easily as we can create webpages today, and generate simulations of their ancestors? Imagine the possibilities for family reunions.
• Can you imagine a virtual cemetery version of FindAGrave? Will people be able to visualize walking through the actual cemetery? When they find their ancestor’s plot, perhaps they will be able to lay a virtual flower, or place a virtual stone, on the grave. Perhaps the program will have a link to relative graves – at other cemeteries to ‘walk.’ It won’t matter if the writing on the actual tombstone has long since been worn away if the image of it is in the database.
• Will you be able to provide a computer program with a photo of your ancestor and military records, and they’ll insert the face of your ancestor into a battle they actually fought in. Many family historians would like to be able to visualize how their ancestors lived, and we might be close to being able to provide that experience.
• Lots of genealogists are worried about the disappearance of microfilm, saying if you don’t know exactly where it is with indices, it’s much easier to find a record in microfilm than it is online. What about a virtual microfilm reader? If microfilm readers really do provide an easier browsing mechanism, why not recreate that mechanism virtually. 

Amanuensis Monday: St. Louis Synagogue Confirmation Classes of 1926

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.

---

Below I transcribe a list of Confirmation classes from St. Louis area synagogues in 1926, found in the May 14, 1926 issue of The Modern View.  

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5686 – St. Louis Confirmants – Shevuos – 1926

B’NAI EL CONGREGATION
CONFIRMATION CLASS

FEIGENBAUM, Joseph D.
1262 Isadora Ave., St. Louis Co.
MORRIS, Sidney
4119a Shaw Ave.
SAGER, Harry
733 Heman Ave., University City.
FERMAN, Annetta
2620 Margaret Ave., Maplewood, Mo.
GOLDSTEIN, Ruth
719a Westgate, University City
FUDEMBERG, Sylvia
3751 South Jefferson Ave.
HASTERLIK, Elise K.
3024 Glasgow Place
NEWMARK, Melvin
4906 Aldine Place
FISCHER, Morris
7209 South Broadway
BLATH, Sigma F.
5740 Kingsbury Place
BENSINGER, Murial
4216 Lafayette Ave.
MAYER, Joe
3311 Osage
HERSKOWITZ, Edward W.
1286a Goodfellow Ave.
TEMERLIN, Jeanette
3645 McRee Avenue
NADLER, Harry T.
2236 Tower Grove Ave.
ECKER, Lucille S.
3236 Walter Ave., Maplewood, Mo.
JOSEPH, Joe
4158a Lafayette Ave.
KAHN, Leona
8770 Manchester Rd., Brentwood
KORACH, Jeannette
6301 Clemons Avenue
LEVY, Lillian
804 Eastgate
PETER, Anna R.
3729 Hydraulic Ave.
SCHIFFMAN, Adeline
4123 Lafayette Ave.
KLEIN, Bernice B.
3205 Meramec Street

SHAARE EMETH
CONFIRMATION CLASS

ABERSON, Leo
1217 Blackstone Ave.
BAUMAN, Robert
775 Belt Ave.
BLUMBERG, Louis
2208 Franklin Ave.
BROWN, Margaret
227 Westgate Ave.
EDMONDS, Henry
4563 Forest Park Blvd.
GOGEL, Edith
5788 Westminster Place
JACOBSON, Fannie
3527 Cass Ave.
JACOBSON, Nettie
445 Wilmington Ave.
KORNBLUM, Genevieve
754 Leland Ave.
LANDAU, Morris
3623 Commonwealth, Maplewood
MAYER, Carleen
739 Westgate Ave.
MARCUS, Blanche
5789 Westminster Place
NUSSBAUM, Robert
6965 Alamo Ave.
SHERMAN, Irvin
3611 Wyoming Ave.
SCHARFF, Arthur
5771 Waterman Ave.
WITT, Myron
4905 Argyle Place
WOLFF, Morris
5644a Etzel Ave.
YAWITZ, Corinne
5579 Waterman Ave.
LASERSOHN, Robert
900 DeMun Ave.
PERES, Clarice
5537 Pershing Ave.
SALE, Francis
5632 Cabanne Ave.
GREENFIELD, Milton
5139 Westminster Place
HIRSCH, Markus
5601 Waterman Ave.
POLLOCK, Ida
5223 Enright Ave.
LANDAU, Homer
5277 Waterman Ave.

1926 CONFIRMATION CLASS
OF TEMPLE ISRAEL

BAUM, A.W.
5906 Plymouth
BRASCH, Norvell
4464 Washington
EPSTEIN, Leon
5656 Waterman
FRIEDMAN, Harry
5755 McPherson
GROLLNEK, Julian
5725 De Giverville
MEYER, Richard
5917 Washington
MOSKOVITS, Stanley
7069 Delmar
SHAPIRO, Jacob
4020a DeTonty
SINGER, James
5744 Theodosia
RICHMAN, Stanley
6227 Northwood
OLIAN, Ralph
5656 Waterman
BERLINER, Sophie
5656 Cote Brilliante
FORCHEIMER, Jacquelyne
5657 Waterman
GILLERMAN, Gertrude
5168 Raymond
GOSSMAN, Leah
6952 Waterman
GRAM, Myra
22 Cornell Ave.
HORWITZ, Sylvia
5700 Etzel
JACOBS, Libbie
6193 Westminster
KOHNER, Melba
6124 Westminster
KOPLAR, Estelle
1241 Hamilton
LANDAU, Evelyn
5752 Westminster
NATHAN, Clara
5037 Waterman
ROCKLING, Lucille
4137 Manchester
ROSENFELD, Lucille
5728 Westminster
ROSENHEIM, Ellen
4611 McPherson
ROSENTHAL, Ruth
5786 Westminster
SHMOOKLER, Eleanor
3234 Audubon (E. St. Louis)
STEINER, Ruth
5746 Kingsbury
THALER, Dorothy
5101 Delmar
WOLFORT, Erma Louise
6145 McPherson
SORKIN, Mary
1374 Shawmut
HORWITZ, Regina
5768 Kingsbury

UNITED HEBREW CONGREGATION
CONFIRMATION CLASS

ALBERT, Harry
5790 Kingsbury Blvd.
APPELMAN, Beulah
6320 Northwood Ave.
BRANDT, Irvin
2945 Dayton St.
BRANDT, Isabel
5467 Delmar Blvd.
COHEN, Anna
5249 Cabanne Ave.
COHEN, Louise
6678 Washington Ave.
FADEM, Julius
4962 Labadie Ave.
FAINSOD, Harriet
5193 Enright Ave.
FERER, Ruth
6665 Washington Ave.
FINE, Pauline
5932 Ridge Ave.
FIXEL, Ruth
6274 Cates Ave.
FIXMAN, Clarabelle
4009 Evans Ave.
FRANKEL, Frances
704 Leland Ave.
FRELICH, Lillian
808 Washington Ave.
GARFINKEL, Paul
7007 Pershing Ave.
GASTING, Paul
5477 St. Louis Ave.
GLICKSBERG, Frances
6627a University Drive
GOLDSTEIN, Leonard
1150 Hamilton Ave.
GROSSMAN, Edwin
5389 Pershing Ave.
HIRSHFIELD, Ben
5445a Easton Ave.
KOPOLOW, Gertrude
6274 Cates Ave.
KUSMER, Lucille
5233 Garfield Ave.
LEONARD, Paula May
5732 McPherson Ave.
MENDLE, Milton
7029 Westmoreland
PRICE, Cecila
5795 Waterman Ave.
PRIWER, Esther
5062 Maple Ave.
REINFELD, Marvin
5764 Westminster Place
ROSEN, Melvin
5593 Waterman Ave.
ROSENFELD, Stanley
6963 Waterman Ave.
SEGELBOHM, Beulah
5860 DeGiverville Ave.
SERKES, Charlotte
1347 Blackstone Ave.
SHANKEN, Leah
740 Eastgate Ave.
SILVERSTEIN, Alice
7280 Forsythe Blvd.
SOLOMON, Rosalie
5126 Waterman Ave.
STEINBERG, Edna
5134 Cates Ave.
SUSMAN, Bernice
7200 Westmoreland Ave.
TYNER, Rosetta
5584 Page Ave.
WISE, Milton
6429 Cates Ave.
WOLFF, Albert
5350a Wells Ave.
WOLFF, Frances
418 Clara Ave.
WALKOWITZ, Maury
1171 Hamilton Ave.
YAWITZ, Paula
19 Columbia
ZIMMERMAN, Cecilia
4327 DeTonty St.

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Notes:

1. Here's a photograph of the B'nai El class, which I have shared previously. My grandfather has the thin white rectangle outline in the lower right. Somewhere else in the photograph is his first cousin, Sylvia Fudemberg. Melvin was 13 in the photograph. He would turn 14 in August of 1926. Sylvia had just turned 14 in April. 10th grade, when the youth are 15 or 16,  is a more common age for confirmation ceremonies today.

Weekly Genealogy Picks

It's been a few years since I've done this. I'm still following genealogy news and advice on blogs, and other social media, so I'll try to share a weekly list.

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.

• Philip Trauring at Blood and Frogs advises: Don't Get Stuck Inside the Box.
• The Ancestry Insider illustrates why detailed image citations matter.
• Michael Twitty of Afroculinaria challenges Bill O'Reilly to eat like a slave for a week.
• The Smithsonian Magazine discusses the newly released London Picture Map. "Think of the map as Google Street View for vintage London. You can click on the map to view historical images of particular buildings, streets or areas, or search the collection by topic to reveal everything from historic coffee houses to buildings associated with different authors or time periods."
• James Tanner at Genealogy's Star wonders if we will witness the end of microfilm, with FamilySearch's announcement that they are 3 years away from digitizing all LDS microfilm. (My thoughts: Just the beginning perhaps. Lots of microfilm exists outside of the LDS holdings.)
• FamilyTreeDNA has a $30 off sale on several of their packages. $69 for the basic FamilyFinder package is probably the lowest you will see an autosomal test offered anywhere. 
• Often there are multiple obituaries for a deceased individual. Rarer do multiple obituaries appear in the same paper at the same time. (In this case, they were written by "a loving wife" and a "longtime girlfriend.")
• Maureen Taylor at The Photo Detective provides some tips on how to tell if two photos are of the same man.