The Strange Travels of a Civil War Bible – Last year I donated a bible to the American Civil War Museum and I’m delighted that it was featured in a cover article for their magazine, Ironclad. You can read pages 3-11 (lots of photos!) to discover its surprising journey. Am so happy to have found an ideal home for this bible!

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From America to Israel and Back Again

Welcome
Welcome to the inaugural article of Found, a column that’s all about rescuing orphan heirlooms! What’s an orphan heirloom? Any item that’s strayed from the hands of the family of origin. It could be the beautiful Victorian photo album you spotted at your favorite antiques store, that family Bible you spotted on eBay, or the old photos you found in the attic of the fixer-upper you just bought. However it happens, you’d be surprised how many people wind up with other people’s stuff.

In this column, I’ll take up the hunt to track down “rightful owners” for items submitted by readers.  No, you don’t have to send the actual item. Just drop me an email describing the treasure you’ve found and how you came into possession of it (photo attachments welcome). Let me know about any family or other details available, such as names, dates and places.  I’ll go into detective mode to find an appropriate home – usually a descendant of the first owner(s) – and you’ll return it. Then I’ll write about the sleuthing trail followed to locate the happy recipient. With a bit of luck, you’ll learn some tricks for rescuing a few orphan heirlooms yourself, should you feel so inspired. And not so incidentally, these little tricks are handy for conventional genealogy as well.

1940s Photo Album
So let’s start with one of the most contemporary and far-flung rescues I’ve ever done. It involves a photo album from the 1940s. Even if there weren’t some dates scattered throughout the album, the images themselves would have made this easy to deduce. I don’t often tackle such “young” objects, but this was especially intriguing because of the story behind it.

1940’s Photo Album

Chana Saadia wrote that her mother had come across the album on a street in Jerusalem about nine years ago. The owner’s name was clearly displayed, but no one in the area had ever heard of the fellow. Several years ago, Chana’s mother passed away, and she received many of her mother’s possessions, including this album. Captions on some of the photos suggested a connection to Brooklyn, New York at one time, so Chana wrote to me wondering if perhaps I could locate the original owner. How could I resist such a tempting invitation? The hunt was on!

A Good Start
I was fortunate to have many more clues than I usually start with. I had a name – Newton Rodman – and while the surname was not especially uncommon, the first name was somewhat unusual. I also had a location. In fact, I had several locations. A link to Brooklyn was apparent, but it appeared that the owner had also lived in Washington, D.C. and traveled elsewhere.

Newton Rodman

And I had a relationship and a half. By this I mean that I could tell that the owner had a brother named Howard – and while I had a photo of his mother, I didn’t know her name. But I could at least tell that she had lived in America at some point, so it was likely that there was a paper trail somewhere in the U.S., even though the album had been found in Israel. And finally, I had a timeframe. I guesstimated that the original owner would now be in his 80s.

To the Internet!
My first instinct was to jump on Ancestry.com to search the 1930 census. The owner would have been a youngster at the time, and I hoped that by focusing on New York and using his unusual first name, I might be able to surface him quickly. Luck was with me, and I quickly found my subject, along with his brother Howard. I now knew I was looking for a gentleman who should be about 82.

I also discovered that Howard was a few years older and that the brothers’ parents had been born in Russia and Argentina. And of course, I had the parents’ names and rough years of birth – a solid jump forward.

What Next?
I had a good fix on the owner’s birth family, but I was doubtful that I would still find anyone in Brooklyn today. After all, the album had wandered, as had the owner, so where was everyone today?

sample page from photo album

I decided to focus on Howard first. Unfortunately, I quickly located him in both the Social Security Death Index (SSDI) and the California Death Index. He had passed away about 20 years ago, but the California index provided another helpful clue – the mother’s maiden name, a highly unusual name I had never encountered before. On the down side, I was now dealing with a family with connections to Israel, New York, California, Russia and Argentina. I checked the SSDI for the album owner himself, and was relieved to find no likely entry, but was that because he was hale and hearty or because he had moved overseas at some point? Was I wasting my time focusing on the U.S.?

The Benefits of an Unusual Name
I decided to play a long shot and search on the mother’s unusual maiden name to see if anyone had uploaded a tree for this family. For families with deep, colonial roots, there are usually multiple trees, if only due to the sheer number of descendants, but those of us with more recent immigrant roots are not as well represented in such databases yet. Still, it was worth a try.

Nothing popped up on Ancestry, but there was a hit in OneWorldTree. It referred me to another online tree that had the mother’s first name as Hattie instead of Hettie, but the other details showed that I definitely had the right family.

Back to Basics
Armed with this correction to the mother’s first name, I did another general search and quickly found her in the SSDI. She had died in Brooklyn several decades ago, so apparently, not everyone in the family had dispersed far and wide. Maybe the album owner was in the U.S. – and not even as far removed as California.

At this point, I searched Ancestry.com’s Phone and Address Directory. Several candidates popped up, but one in particular caught my eye. It was in New Jersey, not all that far from Brooklyn and not, as it happened, far from where I live. Could my “prey” have been in my backyard all along?

Cold-Calling
Usually, I prefer that submitters make the first contact with a potential recipient, as they’re the one returning the item. I want to be sure that they get the credit! But in this case, Chana lived in Israel, while the possible owner lived a few miles from me. I picked up the phone and explained the peculiar reason for my call.

As sometimes happens, he was doubtful. He didn’t really remember such a photo album and a call from a stranger spouting family details was certainly reason for a degree of caution. But even his limited answers assured me that I had the right fellow. Chana sent the album to me, so I asked for his email address, scanned a few photos, and sent them off. Curiosity overcame his incredulity, so he agreed to meet. The result? The flowers you see in the accompanying photo were sent to me the next day in thanks. And no, he has no clue how his photo album wound up on the streets of Jerusalem, but he’s grateful to Chana for sending a piece of his past back home.

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My Quest to Find the Owner of a Mysterious WWII Japanese Sword – I haven’t shared an orphan heirloom story in a while, and this is a really unusual one.

The Network Of Time – So this isn’t genealogical, but it’s a fun, visual 6-degrees game. I just tried it with Dolly Parton and Alan Rickman and it linked them in 3 photos. Good practice for spotting unexpected connections!

Photo: Ramon F Velasquez, CC0, (Cabanatuan American Memorial) via Wikimedia Commons

The post Genealogy Roundup, March 5 appeared first on Megan Smolenyak.

Ancestry Tests Produced Shocking Results. Should I Tell My Family? – Familiar but uncomfortable territory for genetic genealogists.

Doctored photographs create false memories of spectacular childhood events. –

Her bridal photos disappeared 30 years ago. A stranger just found them. – Can never get enough of this kind of reunion story!

Photo Credit: Michael Lamberty under Creative Commons license

The post Genealogy Roundup, January 31 appeared first on Megan Smolenyak.

National Concert Hall presents You Raise Me Up – The Songs and Stories of Brendan Graham with the National Symphony Orchestra – For any of my friends in Ireland (or expecting to be there soon), please consider attending this concert featuring the music of Brendan Graham. So many have been mentioning his song, “Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears” in relation to Annie Moore of Ellis Island (and BTW, he flew from Ireland to NYC to attend her memorial service), and that’s just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what he’s given us. It’s a new year – treat yourself!

The Clifden Station House Hotel are still waiting for the people to claim their lost luggage from 100 years ago! There is so much history in this place. – Oh, to trace the descendants of the original owners!

Amateur Family Genealogists Researching Their Family History: A Scoping Review of Motivations and Psychosocial Impacts – Want to know what makes genealogists tick? Check this out for the latest study results.

A Montana Visit to Find My Great-Great-Grandfather’s Grave – I think this is the kind of tale many genealogists can relate to.

The post Genealogy Roundup, January 10 appeared first on Megan Smolenyak.

UPDATED: Owner of Pageturners sells mysterious 318-year-old Bible to local collector – Fingers crossed that the new owner bought it to do the sleuthing to return it to the family of origin.

The Great Cousin Decline – Food for thought!

132 years ago, 17 year-old Annie Moore of Ireland was the first immigrant to arrive at Ellis Island. It took 4 years of research, but I finally managed to pluck her out of obscurity back in 2006. Seen here with her brothers on Jan. 1, 1892.

The Low Down on the Greatest Dictionary Collection in the World – I wish I had known Madeline Kripke.

Soldier Accounted for from WWII (Hurst, R.) – Welcome home, Pvt. Robert Lee A. Hurst. Honored to have researched your family.

Photo Credit: Chun Yip So under Creative Commons license

The post Genealogy Roundup, January 3 appeared first on Megan Smolenyak.

He lost his wedding ring. A group of strangers showed up to find it. – Helpful neighbors and a happy ending!

Restored Glass Negatives Capture Daily Life in 19th-Century New England – Lucky New Englanders!

Photo Credit: Caroline Davis2 under Creative Commons license

The post Genealogy Roundup, December 13 appeared first on Megan Smolenyak.

He thought his parents’ wedding rings were lost forever. Then, he got a message. – Could read stories like this all day long.

So if I use this for my holiday greeting card to fellow genealogists, what should it say on the inside?

Sean Kirst: 75 years ago, life-or-death struggle overshadowed Buffalo high school game with 50,988 fans – Another moving story from my friend, Sean Kirst.

Longing to Belong Led Me to Genealogy – I had the opportunity to do something similar to this with a 96-year-old woman last week, and it’s very special. This tale is heartbreaking at times, but ultimately heartening.

The lack of pockets in women’s clothing has always been a pet peeve of mine, so it was a no-brainer that I was going to read this! And yeah, I’m one of those who enjoys one-topic history – salt, walls, disease, etc.

Top Photo Credit: Sean Biehle under Creative Commons license

The post Genealogy Roundup, November 15 appeared first on Megan Smolenyak.

So now I’m on Mastodon, Post, and – the latest entry – Spoutible. If you’re on any of them, please let me know!

Captured in Time: Syrian Immigrant Sultana Numeir upon Arrival in America in 1890 – I love that after so many years of being a genealogist, I can still be stunned by where a bit of curiosity takes me. This case was a wild ride research-wise. I had no idea where it was going to take me. Grateful to those who choose to read and/or share.

Museum of Lost Memories helps reunite misplaced family mementos with their owners – Many genealogists do this, but the scale and use of crowd-sourcing take this to another level.

Photo Credit: Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

The post Genealogy Roundup, February 15 appeared first on Megan Smolenyak.

How many Americans imagine their family tree

For anyone who might be curious, here’s 6 year-old Barry Manilow (name already changed from Pincus) in the 1950 census. (Click image below to see enlarged version.)

Top Photo Credit: moonietunes from Pixabay

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