MyHeritage InColor App

Through April 22nd, MyHeritage is making their new InColor app, free for everyone to use for an unlimited number of photographs. You need to create an account (which is free), but then you can upload as many black and white photos as you wish and see what they look like in color.

Of course, I wanted this 1947 photograph of my paternal great grandparents in Miami. The story goes that they had enough difficulty with Miami hotels, as they were Jewish, but as their vacation lengthened, their difficulties grew, because my great grandfather Herman Feinstein had a very dark tan.

Here is my maternal grandmother at the Grand Canyon in 1925 - age 25.

And my paternal grandparents on their honeymoon. My grandfather's leg illustrates that the inColor app sometimes has difficulty with parts of photographs that are in shadow. But I really don't mind the small colorization errors. The results overall are outstanding.

Here are my maternal great grandparents Samuel and Helen Lichtman Deutsch, and all their children, early 1920s. 

(Their youngest was born in 1914.)

Tombstone Tuesday - Andrew David Van Every

Andrew David Van Every (1795-1873)

St. George Baptist Cemetery, Brant County, Ontario

My third great grandfather

My only maternal Van Every ancestor who lived his entire life in Canada. His father, David Van Every, a United Empire Loyalist, fled the colonies after the Revolution. His son, Samuel Andrew Van Every, immigrated back to the United States.

(Image source: Find a Grave, with permission)

Amanuensis Monday: Declaration of Intent for Jacob Perlik

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.

Today I transcribe a Declaration of Intention completed by Jacob Perlik, a brother of my second great grandmother, Annie Perlik Feinstein.

No. 86276 

US DEPARTMENT OF LABOR NATURALIZATION SERVICE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
DECLARATION OF INTENTION

Invalid for all purposes seven years after the date hereof

State of Illinois County of Cook In the Circuit Court of Cook County

I, Jacob Perlik, aged 41 years, occupation Carpenter do declare on oath that my person description is: Color white, complexion Ruddy, height 5 feet 9 inches, weight 176 pounds, color of hair Black, color of eyes Brown, other visible distinctive marks None.

I was born in Zdobietzen, Russia on the 12th day of April, anno Domini 1879. I now reside at 1438 So. Turner Ave, Chicago, Ill.

I emigrated to the United States of America from Quebec, Canada on the Canadian Pacific R.R.; my last foreign residence was Russia; I am married; the name of my wife is Bessie; she was born at Russia and now resides at With me.

It is my bona fide intention to renounce forever all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, and particularly to THE PRESENT GOVERNMENT OF RUSSIA, of whom I am now a subject; I arrived at the port of Detroit, in the State of Michigan, on or about the 12 day of May, anno Domini 1905.

I am not an anarchist; I am not a polygamist nor a believer in the practice of polygamy; and it is my intention in good faith to become a citizen of the United States of America and to permanently reside therein; SO HELP ME GOD.

Jacob Perlik

Subscribed and sworn before me in the office of the Clerk of said Court At Chicago, Ill, this 10 day of April anno Domini 1918

August W Miller Clerk of the Circuit Court
By G, Sienneschen, Deputy Clerk

---

Notes:

1) You may note that while I underlined all handwritten text, 'White' after 'Color" is not underlined. That is because if you look at the image, it is not handwritten. It is part of the typed form. Non-whites could naturalize after the Naturalization Act of 1870, so Non-white individuals declaring their intention to become naturalized either received a different form, or had to cross White out.

2) We're not exactly sure what town in Russia Jacob came from. There is no town named Zdobietzen. But it could be Dobryzn or Szczebrzeszyn.

Poetry Friday: The Influenza, 1890 - Winston Churchill

The Influenza, 1890 - Winston Churchill, age 15


Oh how shall I its deeds recount
Or measure the untold amount
Of ills that it has done?
From China's bright celestial land
E'en to Arabia's thirsty sand
It journeyed with the sun.

O'er miles of bleak Siberia's plains
Where Russian exiles toil in chains
It moved with noiseless tread;
And as it slowly glided by
There followed it across the sky
The spirits of the dead.

The Ural peaks by it were scaled
And every bar and barrier failed
To turn it from its way;
Slowly and surely on it came,
Heralded by its awful fame,
Increasing day by day.

On Moscow's fair and famous town
Where fell the first Napoleon's crown
It made a direful swoop;
The rich, the poor, the high, the low
Alike the various symptoms know,
Alike before it droop.

Nor adverse winds, nor floods of rain
Might stay the thrice-accursed bane;
And with unsparing hand,
Impartial, cruel and severe
It travelled on allied with fear
And smote the fatherland.

Fair Alsace and forlorn Lorraine,
The cause of bitterness and pain
In many a Gaelic breast,
Receive the vile, insatiate scourge,
And from their towns with it emerge
And never stay nor rest.

And now Europa groans aloud,
And 'neath the heavy thunder-cloud
Hushed is both song and dance;
The germs of illness wend their way
To westward each succeeding day
And enter merry France.

Fair land of Gaul, thy patriots brave
Who fear not death and scorn the grave
Cannot this foe oppose,
Whose loathsome hand and cruel sting,
Whose poisonous breath and blighted wing
Full well thy cities know.

In Calais port the illness stays,
As did the French in former days,
To threaten Freedom's isle;
But now no Nelson could o'erthrow
This cruel, unconquerable foe,
Nor save us from its guile.

Yet Father Neptune strove right well
To moderate this plague of Hell,
And thwart it in its course;
And though it passed the streak of brine
And penetrated this thin line,
It came with broken force.

For though it ravaged far and wide
Both village, town and countryside,
Its power to kill was o'er;
And with the favouring winds of Spring
(Blest is the time of which I sing)
It left our native shore.

God shield our Empire from the might
Of war or famine, plague or blight
And all the power of Hell,
And keep it ever in the hands
Of those who fought 'gainst other lands,
Who fought and conquered well.

Source

Surname Saturday: Mojsabovsky or Mezhibovsky

Back in 2012 for a Surname Saturday I wrote about the Surname Mojsabovsky

I wrote I didn’t know the etymology of the name, or exactly how to spell it. With a lot of ancestral surnames I’ve learned spelling is often phonetic, and this is especially true with names of Hebrew or Yiddish origin. Since these languages use a different alphabet than English, names go through a ‘transliteration’ that doesn’t have set rules.

I’ve recently come across a surname that may be what I was searching for: Mezhibovsky. There are a handful of hits with the surname on Google, as well as in the JewishGen databases. It’s about as common as my ancestral surname, Cruvant, but it does exist. And, like ‘Cruvant,’ it seems to be a location-based surname, referencing the town Mezhybozhe/Medzhybizh in the Western Ukraine. (Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from the Russian Empire, Alexander Beider). The town is considered the birthplace of the Hasidic movement, as the movement’s founder, the Baal Shem Tov, lived there from 1742-1760. The Hasidic movement definitely spread to Lithuania where my second great grandmother Minnie married Moshe Leyb Cruvant. Whether Minnie’s family was originally from Mezhybozhe, is uncertain, but an intriguing possibility.

Where were my ancestors during the 1918 Spanish Flu Epidemic

Recent news stories have compared the reaction in 1918 by the cities of St. Louis and Philadelphia to the Spanish Flu. This got me wondering which of my ancestors were alive in 1918, where they were, how old they were, and what the local reactions were.

Grandparents
My paternal grandfather, Melvin Newmark - St. Louis - 6 years old
My paternal grandmother, Belle Feinstein - St. Louis - 4 years old
My maternal grandfather, Martin Deutsch - Chicago - 11 years old
My maternal grandmother, Myrtle Vanevery - El Paso - 18 years old

My paternal grandfather was only one year younger than my twin sons. He may have had some memories from that year. I am certain my maternal grandparents had memories. They are no longer around to ask.

Great Grandparents:
Barney and Bertha Cruvant Newmark - St. Louis - Both 32 years old
Herman and Annie Blatt Feinstein - St. Louis - 32 and 28 years old
Samuel and Helen Lichtman Deutsch - Chicago - 57 and 37 years old
Melvin and Margaret Denyer Vanevery - El Paso - 55 and 50 years old

Great Great Grandparents
Samuel and Rose Cantkert Newmark - St. Louis - 56 and 53 years old
Minnie Mojsabovsky Cruvant - St. Louis - 55 years old
Anna Perlik Feinstein - St. Louis - 50 years old
Morris Blatt - St. Louis - 56 years old

Great Great Great Grandparents
I am not aware of any third great grandparents who were still alive. If there were any, they were in Poland, Russia. or Transylvania.

There were no Spanish Flu related deaths among my ancestors or their immediate families.

The Wives of Uncle Sam

Back in 2008 I wrote about the FBI file for my great uncle, Samuel "Stanford" Ophan Van Every

A wife of his had written the following in July 1918

War Department
Information Bureau
Washington, DC

Gentlemen: I was married to S.O Van Every, March 20, 1917 in Jacksonville Fla., my husband gave his age then as 28 but on June 5th of last year he very suddenly grew to be 32 he did not register for the draft ... Mr. Van Every deserted me last December in Little Rock Ark. when he went to Oroville Calif. and Martinez, Calif. and became engaged to another ... Mr. Van Every I learn has been married before he married me but had not a divorce.

I would like to know where I stand...He is a native of Texas, his parents live in Fabens, Texas ... Before the war he was pro-German.

Very Truly
Mrs. SO Van Every

The FBI file also indicated that an agent visited the parents of my great uncle, and evidence was provided that Samuel was actually 32 years old. His wife had been the one lied to, and not the government, so the government was fine with that. The FBI apparently also wasn't interested in investigating the accusations of bigamy. (There was a war; their focus was elsewhere, perhaps.)

By 2010 I had answered most of my questions about the FBI file. With a few exceptions.

1) I had names, and dates of marriage for wife #1, and the author of the above letter, but no evidence of divorces

2) I had no name for the woman he allegedly became engaged to in 1918. And I didn't know if they actually got married. Half of that has changed.

Below is a timeline with the information I now have.

• Jan 15, 1886 - Birth, San Marcos, Texas
• Jan 22, 1906 - Marriage to Esther Dahlin, Travis, Texas
• Aug 1, 1906 - Birth of Son, Everett Vanevery
• June 1, 1910 - Divorce filed

• 1911-1916 - Marriage to Elsa/Elsie Diebel
• 1914-1917 - Death of Elsa/Elsie Diebel

Several un-sourced online family trees state the marriage occurred in 1916, and Elsa died in 1917.
There is a tombstone in Goliad, Texas, for an Elsa D. Vanevery, and it says she died on May 21, 1914.

Elsie's name appears in family history notes of one of Samuel's sisters, so I am sure she was at one time married to Samuel. I'm just not certain about the dates. If the tombstone is hers, the marriage obviously occurred prior to May 1914. My grandmother's first husband, Alfred "Jack" Connevey, was a boarder of the Diebels in the 1910 census, so I would like to find out more about Elsie.

• March 20, 1917 - Marriage to Amy Johnston, Jacksonville, Duval, FL
• April 14, 1918  - ex-wife Esther Dahlin marries Charles Haynie
• June 4, 1918 - Engagement to Blanche Shuttler, Oroville, Texas (this is the newest information. Newspaper clippings below)
• July 1918 - Amy Johnston writes to the War Department
• Feb 1920 - Blanche Shuttler and "Mr. Van Every" are attendants at another wedding in Oakland, CA.
• April 1, 1924 - son Everett drowns in Barton Creek, Travis, TX
• 1930 Census - Samuel is living in Kansas City, Missouri, and allegedly has a wife named, Myrtle. His sister, Myrtle (my grandmother) may have visited her brother enough that a landlord, or neighbor, may have provided inaccurate information.
• Sept 18, 1933 - He is listed as a widow on his death certificate. The informant was my grandmother.

Wed, Jun 5, 1918 – 6 · The San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, California) · Newspapers.comFeb 27, 1920, Le Mars Semi Weekly Sentinel, (Le Mars, Iowa)


Further Notes:

1) Enough time elapses between June of 1918 and Feb 1920 that it isn't clear if my great uncle married Blanche Shuttler, and then they divorced, or if they were never married. It is possible that the letter Amy Johnston Van Every wrote to the War Department stopped the marriage from happening. It does make me wonder whether Blanche and my great uncle remained friends, and how tense the situation was when they were both attendants at another wedding in 1920.

2) As to Amy Johnston Van Every’s charges of bigamy, if Elsa/Elsie Diebel died before Samuel married Amy, he appears to be exonerated. Which is the case, if the tombstone is for Elsa, which I suspect it is. Samuel was married twice before Amy; one marriage ended in divorce, and the other in death. The 1918 engagement doesn't appear to have been followed by a marriage. Unless there is yet another wife that I have not uncovered.

Amanuensis Monday: The Petition for Naturalization of Herman Deutsch - 1927

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.

Today I transcribe a Petition for Naturalization completed by Herman Deutsch, a first cousin of my maternal grandfather, Martin Deutsch.

---

United States of America
PETITION FOR NATURALIZATION

To the Honorable the District Court of the United States, Northern District of Illinois:

The petition of Herman Deutsch, hereby filed, respectfully showeth:

First: My place of residence is 1251 Irving Ave., Chicago, Illinois.

Second: My occupation is Upholsterer.

Third. I was born on the 7th day of April, anno Domini 1895, at Bucium, Roumania.

Fourth. I emigrated to the United States from Liverpool, England, on or about the 1st day of March
anno Domini 1921, and arrived in the United States at the port of New York, on the 11th day of March anno Domini 1921 on the vessel Imperator.

Fifth. I declared my intention to become a citizen of the United States on the 29th day of May, anno Domini 1922 at Chicago, Ill. In the Superior Court of Cook County.

Sixth. I am married. My wife’s name is Dora; she was born on the 1st day of May, anno Domini 1893 At Roumania, and now resides at with me, Chicago, Illinois. I have 5 children, and the name, date and place of birth, and place of residence of each of said children is as follows:

Sarah, born 29th July 1914 in Roumania
Sollie, born 22nd June 1916 “
Pearl, born 2nd June 1921 Chicago
Albert, born 31st December 1922 “
Lillian, born 21st May 1924 “
Reside in Chicago, Ill

Seventh. ….. renounce absolutely and forever all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, and particularly to Ferdinand I, King of Roumania, of whom at this time I am a subject, and it is my intention to reside permanently in the United States

Eighth. I am able to speak the English language

Ninth. I have resided continuously in the United States of America for the term of five years at least immediately preceding the date of this petition, to wit, since the 11th day of March, anno Domini, 1921, and in the State of Illinois, continuously next preceding the date of this petition, since the 13 day of March, anno Domini 1921, being a residence within this State of at least one year next preceding the date of this petition.

Tenth. I have not heretofore made petition for citizenship at any court.

Signature – Herman Deutsch

Declaration of Intention # 14316 and Certificate of Arrival from Department of Labor filed this 21st day of April, 1927.

Affidavits of Petitioner and Witnesses

Witnesses:
Abraham Glick, occupation Tailor, resideing at 1452 Western Ave., Chicago Illinois
And Joseph Schwartzman, occupation Unemployed, residing at 1215 Irving Ave., Chicago Illinois

Subscribed and sworn to before me by the above named petitioner and witnesses in the offices of the Clerk of said Court at Chicago, Ill, this 21st day of April, anno Domini 1927

---

Notes:

1. Starting in 1922 women had to start filling for Naturalization separately from the husbands, so there is a corresponding petition filled out for Dora (Diamant) Deutsch dated in 1929.

2. The passenger manifest indicates Herman's brother, Joseph, as the contact in America to which they were headed. Until finding the manifest, I wasn't positive Herman was Joseph's brother. I knew he was related, and my grandfather and siblings recalled him as the brother of Joseph in a tape recording they made in the 1970s, but memories of family relationships can be imprecise at times. But due to the petition and manifest I can definitively place him in the tree.

3. Bucium is also the birthplace of my great grandfather, Samuel Deutsch. Though it was part of Hungary at the time of the births for both Samuel and Herman. The border-changing is part of the reason I stick with "Transylvanian" when describing that part of my ancestry.

4. For some reason Sollie is listed on the Passenger Manifest as Bela, and identified as a daughter. I suspect it was a clerical error in reading the information from their Passport Book. I have the passport book my great grandfather's family traveled under in 1913, and I'm sure it was similar. I suspect they would show the book to the ship authorities, who would then transcribe the information.

5. I do not yet know if the witnesses are relatives or friends.

Mineral Wells Texas - What Were Morris & Mollie Blatt Doing There?

Back in 1987, my paternal grandmother was interviewed, and she stated that her mother, Anna Blatt Feinstein, first arrived in the United States in Mineral Wells, Texas. In 2010, when I transcribed the interview, I knew there had to be some story behind this, as no one comes up with the town Mineral Wells, Texas out of thin air.

However

• My great grandmother, Anna, was born in 1890, in Poland.
• In 1893 my great great grandfather Moshe "Morris" Blatt married his second wife, Mollie, in St. Louis.
• In 1898 their first child, Henry, was born, in St. Louis
• In 1900 they, and his daughters from his first marriage, Anna and Blanche, are all recorded in St. Louis
• In 1903 Morris and Mollie's second child, Pearl was born, in St. Louis
• In the 1910 census they are all still recorded in St. Louis.

So I was left wondering.

Below is a page from the 1907 Mineral Wells, Texas City Directory

There is a Moses (and Mallie) Blatt
And in the next line there is an Annie.

Moses is a tailor, which matches my 2nd great grandfather's profession.

In 1909 Moses and Mallie were still in Mineral Wells, though Annie doesn't appear in that city directory.

City directories prior to 1907 currently aren’t available online.

So, while these could be different Blatts, it is likely I have confirmed they did spend some time in that city, and have an approximate time-span.

But why did they move to Mineral Wells, Texas, and why did they return to St. Louis? Will I ever know?

I will also note I still have not found my great grandmother's immigration records. So it is possible that at some point in time between 1890 and 1900 she did immigrate to the US through Texas, with other relatives perhaps, met up with her father in St. Louis, and then returned briefly around 1907.

Possible record sources for further research might include researching the community to see if there were any synagogues in or near Mineral Wells at the time and seeing if any membership records still exist.

Wordless Wednesday: Advertising Slogans

My second great grandfather, Selig Feinstein, and my great grandfather, Herman M Feinstein, may not have been the best at coming up with advertising slogans for their laundry.

Royal Laundry Advertisement Fri, Aug 26, 1910 – 1 · The Jewish Voice (St. Louis, Missouri) · Newspapers.com

Veterans Day/Remembrance Day 2019

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)

Monday, 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 National 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. I am also including a Conscientious Objector ancestor since the DAR counts him as a Patriot.

Fifth Great Grandfathers
McGregory Van Every (1723-1786) Loyalist/Butler's Rangers
Michael Showers (1733-1796) Loyalist/Butler's Rangers
Mark Fretz (1750-1840) Patriot (Inactive Duty) Pennsylvania militia

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)

Second Great Uncle
Nelson D Van Every (1845-1926) (Union 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 (KIA)
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)

AncestryDNA Ethnicity Results

DNA Ethnicity results aren't an exact science, and in some respects, are mostly for entertainment purposes. A large number of genealogists will tell you they do the DNA tests in order to find living relatives to communicate with, not for ancestral ethnicity. For that knowledge, we research the records.

In 2012 AncestryDNA described my Ethnicity like this. I knew I should be about 75% European Jewish, if I inherited exactly 25% of my DNA from each grandparent, but 53+17 came pretty close.

In October of 2013 they updated their results, and the Uncertain amount disappeared.

The trace amounts of Pacific Islander surprised me. Caucasus can include Russia, so that wasn't too surprising. Though I later learned that the Caucasus was on my maternal line, which meant either some of my Transylvanian Jewish ancestors came from Russia originally, or there were some Caucasus roots elsewhere.

The breakdown has remained pretty consistent at Ancestry. At some point in the past 7 years, they  added their information on Communities, but the overall ethnicity breakdown has remained the same for me. Until a recent update:



No more Caucasus. No more Pacific Islander. And I am 79% European Jewish. (That's actually the high end of a 66%-79% range. So I think it's a pretty good estimate. And illustrates how useless DNA ethnicity charts are for most European Jews. Yes, the community information is nice, but Ancestry is unable to currently tell us how much from each.) The composition of the remaining 21% of my ancestry doesn't divert much from my research. 5% is almost one second great grandparent, so that feels a little high for my Irish/Scottish ancestry, but I know I have some. I don't know who my Finnish ancestors are.

Labor Day Weekend 2019

As you light up your barbecues this weekend and enjoy your day off from work Monday (those who have the day off) - take some part of the day to consider the advancements we have made in workers' rights over the last century - Many of us may have ancestors who worked in the coal mines or sweatshops.

Also, consider in what ways the struggles aren't over.

Here's a playlist of songs which may help.



A Pict Song - Rudyard Kipling (1917)

Rome never looks where she treads,
Always her heavy hooves fall,
On our stomachs, our hearts or our heads;
And Rome never heeds when we bawl.
Her sentries pass on—that is all,
And we gather behind them in hordes,
And plot to reconquer the Wall,
With only our tongues for our swords.

We are the Little Folk—we !
Too little to love or to hate.
Leave us alone and you'll see
How we can drag down the Great!
We are the worm in the wood !
We are the rot at the root!
We are the germ in the blood !
We are the thorn in the foot !

Mistletoe killing an oak—
Rats gnawing cables in two—
Moths making holes in a cloak—
How they must love what they do!
Yes,—and we Little Folk too,
We are as busy as they—
Working our works out of view—
Watch, and you'll see it some day!

No indeed ! We are not strong,
But we know Peoples that are.
Yes, and we'll guide them along,
To smash and destroy you in War!
We shall be slaves just the same ?
Yes, we have always been slaves;
But you—you will die of the shame,
And then we shall dance on your graves.

We are the Little Folk, we ! etc.

Missouri Historical Society Library and Research Center databases

I received my copy of the Missouri Historical Society’s Genealogy and House History monthly eNewsletter yesterday.

They too mentioned the ongoing digitization of St. Louis area newspapers by Ancestry.com, which was announced back in April. Apparently they also have a subscription to the ProQuest version of Newspapers.com, and visitors can access it at their Library and Research Center.
.
I go to the St. Louis County Library headquarters for most of my library-based genealogy research, but I have a nostalgic fondness for the Library and Research Center building. It used to be a synagogue. The reading room is the former sanctuary where I became a Bar Mitzvah in 1982, and where my grandmother was confirmed in 1930.

I decided to see what other subscription databases they might offer

1) America: History and Life
2) Ancestry.com (the library edition)
3) Fold3
4) Frontier Life (includes the journals of Lewis and Clark)
5) JSTOR
6) Newspapers.com (library edition)
7) WorldCat Discovery (with links to full text results from America: History and Life, and JSOR)
8) World’s Fairs: A Global History of Expositions

St. Louis County Library has Ancestry, Fold3, and Newspapers.com, however it doesn’t have America: History and Life, or JSTOR. Access to these is definitely worth making the 7 mile trip to visit my childhood sanctuary on a more regular basis. They don’t have evening hours, but they are open on Saturdays.

Cousin to Boris Johnson - Oy Vey!

American Ancestors – the website of the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) – has released a press release on “The American Ancestry of Boris Johnson, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Is Revealed by American Scholar”

The American scholar is Gary Boyd Roberts, Senior Research Scholar Emeritus at NEHGS. The press release and Gary Boyd Roberts' research suggests Johnson is descended from Samuel Lathrop and Elizabeth Scudder. I have posted before that I am not related to all Lathrop descendants, but I am related to Samuel Lathrop’s descendants through his wife Elizabeth Scudder. 

The American Ancestors article states:

Lathrop descendants include U.S. First Ladies Edith Kermit (Carow) Roosevelt and Nancy (Davis) Reagan; Canadian Prime Minister Sir Robert Laird Borden; the traitor Benedict Arnold; politicians William Jennings Bryan, Thomas E. Dewey, John Foster Dulles, and George and Mitt Romney; poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. and Jr.; inventor Eli Whitney; financier J. P. Morgan Jr.; artist Georgia O’Keeffe; composer Charles Ives; Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints founder Joseph Smith Jr.; Cecil B. DeMille and Agnes de Mille; aviator Amelia Earhart; and, among actors, Julie Harris, Clint Eastwood, Cissy Spacek, and Ben and Casey Affleck.

I’d have to conduct some research on those listed to see which Lathrops were their ancestors. From past research I’ve read, I believe Longfellow, Romney, and Holmes are all among my list of cousins.

The Value of a Library Card - St. Louis

Post updated from 2015

I conduct a lot of genealogy research from the comfort of my home computer. One of the key resources I use is my St. Louis County Public Library Card. (Other library systems, as well as some genealogy societies, provide similar resources for their users.)

Here's a sampling of databases I can search/browse from the comfort of my home, for free (complete list) I have indicated the subscription price I'd have to pay without the library card

Databases I could subscribe to as an individual

• NewspaperArchive.com ($75/6 mos)
• AccessibleArchives: ($90/year)
• African American Newspapers 19th century
• A Newspaper Perspective
• Newspapers.com ($45/6 mos)
• I am assuming that the ProQuest library edition is similar to the Newspapers.com Basic subscription
• Fold3 ($80/year)

Databases only available to libraries and other institutions - not by individual subscription

• Fire Insurance Maps Online
• HeritageQuest Online
• Newsbank: St. Louis Post Dispatch (1981-Current) 
• Newsbank: Access World News (1978-current) 
• Newsbank: America's Obituaries
• ProQuest: Historical New York Times (1851-2011)
• ProQuest: Historical St. Louis Post Dispatch (1874-1922)
• ProQuest Digital Microfilm - St. Louis Post Dispatch 1989-Present
• Gale Group: Nineteenth Century US Newspapers
• EBSCOhost: Academic Search Elite (1985-current)
• EBSCOhost: AAS Historical Periodicals Collection (1684-1912)
• HistoryGeo (searchable database of 12.3 million names connected to land ownership maps covering the 29 public land states and Texas)

And while I can't access it from home, it is available to me at the library:

• Ancestry Library Edition ($99/6 mos)
• American Ancestors ($95/year)
• FindMyPast ($129/year)
• Archion (baptisms, confirmations, marriages and burials for Protestant churches in Germany. 16th-19th century) $200/year (at current Euro to $ rates)

So calculating only the databases which I could purchase access to as an individual, I am saving $1,127/year with my library card. Then there are the databases I can't purchase access to as an individual.

I know I am lucky to live in St. Louis, as not every library has equivalent resources. However, if you don't check, you won't know what your library has to offer.

Amanuensis Monday: Simon Cruvant breaks his leg - 1889

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.

Today I transcribe a newspaper clipping describing a horse and wagon accident a brother of my second great grandfather was involved in. This clipping was found on Newspapers.com

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At 3 o'clock yesterday afternoon, while Simon Cruvant, a Russian peddler, was driving a horse attached to a wagon on Broadway, near Koeln street, the shaft of the wagon broke, causing the horse to run away. Cruvant was thrown out of the wagon and had his right leg broken and received other injuries. He was sent to the City Hospital. Cruvant is a married man, and lives at 1122 North Seventh street.

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Horse-wagon accident involving Simon Cruvant Fri, Oct 25, 1889 – 5 · St. Louis Globe-Democrat (St. Louis, Missouri) · Newspapers.com
Notes:

1. Samuel "Simon" Cruvand (1841-1895) would have been 48 years old at the time of this incident, with four children. His brother, Moshe Leyb Cruvant, was my second great grandfather. The family came from the town of Kruvandai in Lithuania, and different branches spelled the surname differently. At least five different phonetic spellings have been used by those who settled in the US: Cruvant, Cruvand, Kruvant, Kruvand, and Kroovand. I believe the 'Cruvand' spelling may no longer be in use. This is the second oldest newspaper article mentioning one of my paternal kin I have currently found.

Amanuensis Monday: Play Ball! - Junior Baseball League 1914

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.

Today I transcribe a newspaper clipping listing the teams of a municipal junior baseball league from 1914. While I don't know any of the youth on the teams, one of the teams appears to have been sponsored by my second great grandfather, and/or a combination of his sons. This clipping was found on Newspapers.com

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St. Louis Globe Democrat
19 April 1914 Page 47

Junior League Will Meet Monday Night

The Junior Baseball League umpires, managers and captains of teams will meet in room 304 City Hall Monday evening at 8 o’clock. General instructions will be given in order that a thorough understanding between all will be had. The league is composed of ten teams: Day Ice Cream Company, Welsbach Company, H.N.’s, Lamoth Piano Company, Newmark Tailors, Claxton Juniors, Rock Islands, Majestic, A.C. Empires and American Steel and Foundry Company.

The Schedule Committee will meet Tuesday to arrange schedule and all necessary details for the opening of the season, which will be Sunday afternoon April 26, as follows: Preliminary games on grounds No. 8, Forest Park; grounds 2 and 4 at fair grounds and a double header at O’Fallon Park grounds No. 1. The double-umpire system will be in use at all games. All teams have strong line-ups and the public should witness some of the most interesting games in the Muney League on Sunday afternoon during the season.

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Notes:

1) My second great grandfather, Samuel Newmark and his family immigrated to St Louis 1908-1909. Samuel and his sons Sol, Barney, and Max were all tailors. I can’t imagine they had any experience with baseball as a sport in Poland or England (where they lived for 15 years before immigrating to St. Louis.). However, they were sponsoring a team, not playing. From other articles I know  the players were age 14-16, and there were no Newmarks of that age in 1914.

Amanuensis Monday: The Education of Herman Feinstein

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.

Today I transcribe a newspaper clipping mentioning a great grandfather's schooling. The St. Louis Globe-Democrat has recently been added to the digitized holdings at Newspapers.com. Born in 1886, my great grandfather Herman Feinstein was 15 years old in 1901.

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St. Louis Globe-Democrat, 17 April 1901, page 9. 
JEWISH ALLIANCE SCHOOL
Closing Exercises Held Last Night at Jefferson Building.

The closing exercises of the Jewish Alliance night schools, at the Jefferson school building, at Ninth and Wash streets, were held last night under the direction of Prof. Emil Mayer, the principal. An attractive program was presented. It was opened by a song, “The Flag of the Free,” sung by the school. Recitations were presented by Ida Gellman, Louis Lambrakis, Ralph Goldman, Simon Shipper, Fannie Brenholz, Beckie Herman, Jacob Frelich, Annie Hall, Ike Stern and Mary Fridkin; orations by Sam Shor and Sam Shipper; dialogue by Esther Sherman, Sadie Greenspan, Carrie Dubinsky, Jenny Mason, Herman Feinstein and Jacob Rosenblatt; debate on “Resolved, That education should be compulsory,” by Emil Goldstein on the affirmative and Simon Ludwig on the negative; a song, “The Linden Tree,” by Fannie Brenholz, Rose Alberstein, Jennie Mason and Sam Shor; essay by Harry Singman, and the song, “Good Night,” by the school. A number of prizes were distributed by Rabbi Samuel Sale, and short addresses were made by Rabbis H. J. Messing and Moritz Spitz.

The enrollment for the term, which began in October, was about 350. Six assistant teachers were employed, Misses Sophie Barron, Rose and Minnie Kahn and Fishell, Isaacs and Goldberg. The school is maintained by the Associated Jewish Charities for purpose of affording opportunities for acquiring an education to the younger Jewish element of that locality who are employed in the daytime. It is under the management of a board of directors, the officers of which are Elias Michael, president; Louis Bry, Vice President; Albert Loth, secretary, and Isaac Schwab, treasurer. The next term of the school will begin in the new building that is being erected by the Jewish Charitable and Educational Association at Ninth and Carr streets. The new building is a three-story structure, 150x50 feet in area, and will cost upward of $40,000.

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Notes:

1) Closing exercises doesn't necessarily mean graduation. From the description it appears all students at the night school participated, and there is no indication which students would be returning the following term. From this article I know my great grandfather in 1901 at age 15 had a job during the day and was receiving the equivalent of a secondary education at night. I also have insight into the type of education he was receiving.

2) I wonder if the presentation category of "Dialogue" was similar to the "Dramatic Interpretation" or "Duo Interpretation" categories in modern Speech and Debate competitions.

D-Day Plus 75 Years

Today marks the 75th anniversary of D-Day

The closest relative I have found involved in the D-Day invasion was Arnold Burton Kruvant, a second cousin of my paternal grandfather. The details of his death were, I believe, first described in a book on his battalion published in 2016. While apparently several surviving members of his battalion witnessed his death, they decided not to share the details with his family, due to its gruesome nature.

First Lt. Arnold Kruvant of New Jersey was a Camp Claiborne original. He transferred to the 37th Parachute Artillery Battalion and became the S-3, jumping into Normandy even though he had never had jump training. Kruvant carried in with him the funds for the battalion, $500 in U.S. currency. He is listed as KIA and MIA on June 6. He was twenty-six years old.

Kruvant’s widow was well known and well liked by the men of the 321st. They decided at the time that she would not be told of her husband’s gruesome death. Several 321st officers recalled that Kruvant was bayoneted to death while hung up in his parachute harness, dangling from a tree just off the ground. Why his body was never positively identified remains a mystery to this day. (Source: Screaming Eagle Gliders: The 321st Glider Field Artillery Battalion of the 101st Airborne Division in World War II, G. J. Dettore, Rowman & Littlefield, 2016, pp 83-85. Image: East Orange High School Yearbook, 1936, p. 44. Retrieved from Ancestry.com June 5, 2019.)

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Note: A week and a half ago I neglected to make my annual Memorial Day post. On future Memorial Days, I believe I will honor Arnold Kruvant's service in addition to that of my great uncle, Mandell Newmark. (Mandell and Arnold were second cousins.)