Greetings Fellow Family History Sleuths,

I don't know about you, but I am having waaaay too much fun playing with the 1950 census! On top of the recent release of NYC vital records, it feels as if we're having a surprise genealogical holiday!

Other goodies in this issue include the return of "Who Do You Think You Are?" to NBC, never-before seen immigrant photos, a delightful orphan heirloom reunion, and my 23rd anniversary of being a professional genealogist!

Happy browsing!

Captured in Time: The Immigrant Lillicrap Family upon Arrival in America in 1890

Bessie Lillicrap must have been exhausted when she arrived in New York with her children. The family had left Liverpool on October 7, 1890 and finally disembarked on the 18th. That’s a long time to be at sea with nine children, the oldest of whom was only 12.

So she may have been less than enthusiastic when a man named E.W. Austin approached her about photographing them. Still, it wasn’t an every day opportunity for a poor family like hers, so she agreed. She, Bessie, Susie, Annie, Mary, Dick, Sam, Alice, Emily and baby Thomas were captured for posterity on that day just over 130 years ago.

E.W. Austin had been fortunate enough to gain the money exchange concession to service immigrants arriving in New York in 1890, and while Ellis Island was under construction, he worked at the Barge Office which served as the interim immigrant processing center. He took this opportunity to take photos of immigrants from a variety of countries, and the result is the earliest known collection of this type.

While he scribbled notes about his subjects, they were usually restricted to nationality and maybe another random detail, but in this instance, he had written, “Mrs Lilycroft age 35 & 9 children Oct 18 to 25 1890.” With all this information, it didn’t take long to find them in passenger arrival records in spite of the misspelling of the Lillicrap name.

But what had become of them?

Click here to find out.

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Genealogy Roundup, April 13

Photo Credit: moonietunes from Pixabay

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.)

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Genealogy Roundup, April 6

Photo Credit: Kent Kanouse under Creative Commons license

Delving into the 1950 Census, searchers find rich links to the past – Steve Morse isn’t an amateur and to reduce him to a “computer expert” with all he’s done is ridiculous, but I’m happy to see him in here. The whole genealogical world (and computing world, for that matter) owes him a great debt.

The first census records of three American presidents ... almost – Fun article on presidents in the 1950 census with a little shout-out for yours truly!

As we count down the hours until the release of the 1950 census, I thought I'd share some memorabilia from the release of the 1930 and 1940 census collections!

My mother Seton's census debut!

First Mom, and here's Dad.

And there he is, baby Bruce (Springsteen), in the 1950 Census.

Oh, how I wish she were still with us to see this. 25 year-old "television actress" Betty M. White with her parents, Horace and Tess, in the 1950 Census.

Anyone who knows me knew I was going to look this up. President Joe Biden with his family - including his grandfather Ambrose Finnegan whose tales he likes to share & his aunt Gertie who made the best rice pudding - in Scranton, PA in the 1950 Census.

The Green and White House: Ireland and the U.S. Presidents – I'm admittedly biased because I'm in here, but am reading "The Green and White House" by Lynne Kelleher and finding it really interesting. Have read about Kennedy, Nixon, and Reagan so far and looking forward to the rest. If you're Irish or have Irish heritage, I suspect it might grab your attention as well.

NBC Summer Lineup Includes ‘Who Do You Think You Are?,’ 10 Years After Last Network Airing – Hey, y'all, Who Do You Think You Are? finally returning to NBC this July.

Due to questions in Facebook post comments about my 1950 census finds, I'm posting this here so it's not buried in the comments:

• If you know at least the city where they lived, you can try searching by place and name here: https://1950census.archives.gov
• This first round transcription has been done by AI, so it's hit or miss.
• If that doesn't work, find their address circa 1950 and then use https://stevemorse.org/census/unified.html OR use Ancestry's address search feature for the 1950 census (they just got it so are in the process of uploading it, but you can at least search for the enumeration district).
• Once you've identified the Enumeration District, search here by place/ED and page through: https://1950census.archives.gov.

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Genealogy Roundup, March 30

Photo (The Holodomor Memorial in Kyiv, Ukraine) Credit: Andrew J.Swan under Creative Commons license

How Stalin starved Ukraine – Excellent video about the Holodomor for those who'd like to know why what Russia's doing now in Ukraine is déjà vu for elderly Ukrainians.

The Wallpaper That Is Also a ‘Reminder That My Ancestors Had My Back’ – I love everything about this.

The True Crime-Obsessed Philanthropists Paying to Catch Killers – This makes me all kinds of uncomfortable. 🧬

Countdown to finding my mother in the census for the first time! 🙌

Bride Will Be the 11th Woman in Her Family to Wear 120-Year-Old Heirloom Wedding Dress – Love these living heirloom stories! 😊

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Genealogy Roundup, March 23

Murphy's #Genealogy Law in action. The person you're researching *might* be on one of the top lines. 🙄

I sort of accidentally fell into a story that just keeps unraveling & I can’t stop digging. To give a taste, I’m now trying for long shot documents in England & Lebanon, and I’m loving every minute because I get a kick out of ancestors (not mine in this case, but still fun!) who make you work for it. 🤓🥵🤪

Hey y'all, remember a couple of weeks back when I told you about a Ukrainian Etsy shop owner you could help (thanks to those of you who quietly did so! 🙏)? Well, I just heard from him today and while they had to leave their home, they're still in Ukraine, and astonishingly, he and his wife have re-opened their Etsy shops and they would greatly appreciate any purchases you might be interested in making. By way of example, here's a wheeled album storage I had ordered that just happened to arrive the Saturday before Russia invaded.

Both of the shop URLs are in the comments of this post, but please consider doing a little shopping if you can. Thank you so much!

Someone posted about Osturna kroj today over on Twitter, which caused me to dig out this classic with the Osturna mayor. That’s my niece, Lindsay, on the left. Took a couple of women about 20 minutes to get us in these. They’re more complicated than they look!

Ukraine Independence Day 2021 (Live) – If you'd like to a quick overview of Ukraine's history, and to see a teary-eyed Zelenskyy appreciating it all. And not so incidentally, a swift but blunt description of the Holomodor when the Soviets killed 4 million Ukrainians through starvation in a single year. Ukrainians are survivors. (English subtitles available)

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