The Most Colorful Cemetery in Guatemala – I’ve been to Chichicastenango, Guatemala, but unfortunately not to this cemetery.

The man who turned his dead father into a chatbot – Bit of a double-edge sword, eh? Part of me loves this and part of me fears for future genealogists who will have to sort out what’s real and what isn’t. Regardless, it’s interesting to learn about “death tech” and I only wish something like Settld had existed back when my sister and I handled our mother’s estate.

The post Genealogy Roundup, May 22 appeared first on Megan Smolenyak.

On the Prowl for Bruce Springsteen’s Irish Roots – Since Bruce Springsteen is back performing in Ireland, now seems a good time to re-share this.

National Archives and Ancestry team up to digitize millions of records – I know there will be mixed feelings about this in the genealogical community, but still, great news that these records will be more accessible! And NARA’s site is getting an overhaul as well!

Bodkin: The first thing Barack Obama said when I met him was “You know I’m Irish right?” – Looking forward to Bodkin & raising my hand to take credit for discovering Barack Obama’s Irish heritage! Tickled that he said this and that he and Michelle undertook this series in Ireland!  

UK toddler has hearing restored in world first gene therapy trial – 16 minute surgery and she can hear! Amazing! #DNA

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

Photo Credit: Dharmabumstead under Creative Commons license

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

Providing Fresh Meals For Those In Need After Disasters – If you’re in a position to help with World Central Kitchen’s efforts in Ukraine and elsewhere, that would be terrific. All of Kyiv is now without water.

Robert Clary, Corporal LeBeau on ‘Hogan’s Heroes,’ Dies at 96 – Extraordinary. What a life.

Remains of Brooklyn veteran killed in World War II finally identified – Welcome home, Lt. John Joseph Heffernan, Jr. Honored to have researched your family.

Bruce Springsteen will plant a tree in his great-great grandmother’s home of Rathangan on his next trip to Ireland – Well, this is cool. Bruce Springsteen might visit Rathangan, a town I traced his roots to in Ireland.

Common Sense About Ancestors – Familiar territory for genealogists. BTW, one of my favorite authors.

Searchers find five World War II-era US bombers in waters off Croatia – Wondering if some of those I’ve researched might be among potential crew members. Sure hope we get to bring more home.

Photo Credit: MattCC716 under Creative Commons license

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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, 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.

Top Photo Credit: Kent Kanouse under Creative Commons license

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I’ve had the privilege of researching a number of Black heroes for the Army. This thread features five of them (this post and the first 4 comments), starting with Capt. Lawrence E. Dickson. Killed in 1944, he’s the first missing Tuskegee airman to be identified.

Name Game: Celebrities Have Nothing on the Rest of Us – “there were a whopping 2,323 people named Paris in the 1900 census, along with New Jersey Cannon, New Orleans Boice, Newark Berkowitz, Prague Sherman, Moscow Beard, Cairo Izard, Munich Miller, and Bombay Pasquale.”

Torchon Portrait de Famille – How’s this for a family portrait?

Philip Reed, The Enslaved Man Who Rescued Freedom – There’s been a lot of coverage over the last month or so about the horrific discovery of tombstones from Columbian Harmony Cemetery, an African American cemetery in DC, being found in the Potomac, and while notables from the cemetery are often mentioned, I haven’t seen any mention that Philip Reed, the once enslaved man responsible for placing the Statue of Freedom atop the U.S. Capitol, was also interred here. And that was *after* he had been moved from another cemetery.

Michelle Obama’s Jumper Roots: Proving Your Freedom Over and Over Again – Imagine that you’re free, but you have to keep proving it. That’s what happened to ancestors of Michelle Obama and countless others.

You know so many have been decluttering during COVID-time? Well, I did a bit of that as well and decided to have a quilt made from a bunch of my genealogy t-shirts, and I’m really tickled with the outcome. If you look closely, you’ll see DNA, companies I’ve been associated with, Ellis Island/Annie Moore, shout-outs to my Irish/Rusyn heritage (including several Osturňa reuions), and assorted genealogy commentary we can all relate to. What do y’all think?

The post Genealogy Roundup, February 24 appeared first on Megan Smolenyak.

Bonus points that they’re often oddly hard to research (who doesn’t like a challenge?). This one, for instance, seems so easy since I found his nephews, but I really had to work for it.

At any rate, I hope you’ll take a few minutes to read this compelling profile of a forgotten hero – Casimer (aka Charles) Mazurek. Perfect time to resurrect his memory.

Bruce Springsteen accepts Ellis Island award with his mother & aunts – As Bruce Springsteen recently marked his 70th birthday,  I thought it was a good time to take this charming look back at him paying tribute to his immigrant ancestors at Ellis Island (VIDEO). His mother and aunts are adorable!

And here’s a little something about his Irish roots.

Photo Credit: Sean Kirst/Buffalo News

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Mattel chief Georgiadis quits for top job at Ancestry.com

On the Prowl for Bruce Springsteen’s Irish Roots

Top Photo Credit: Collection Stadsarchief Rotterdam/Municipal Archives, Rotterdam

The post Genealogy Roundup, April 25 appeared first on Megan Smolenyak.

Boy George hopes he belongs to a ‘gypsy clan’ after discovering his grandma was found abandoned and walking the streets in Ireland aged 6 during Who Do You Think You Are? filming – Well, this should be interesting. You know who else was hoping for gypsy heritage? Brooke Shields.

Opinion: The Historians Versus the Genealogists – OK, folks, let me know what you think about this. My blink reaction is that he’s creating a genealogist vs historian rift as a premise to help sell his book, but maybe I’m being too cynical.

“The Historians Versus the Genealogists.” Really? – Yup, I’m with Amy Johnson Crow on this. “The Historians Versus the Genealogists.” Really?

On the Prowl for Bruce Springsteen’s Irish Roots – In this piece, I get my geek on tracing some of Springsteen’s Irish roots. There’s also a charming video at the end (taken at Ellis Island) where he chats about his mother and aunts and shares his thoughts on immigrants – or as he refers to them, “hopeful wanderers.”

As always, if you enjoy this, please “clap” by clicking on the little pair of hands at the end of the article on MEDIUM (you can click 1-50 times) – or consider sharing this piece with your friends. Thanks!

Signing Off on Signing Credit Card Receipts – The beginning of the end of signatures?? h/t Mary Beth Devine

The 6 Chinese Survivors of the Titanic That U.S. History Purposely Erased – I *need* to see the genealogy done for this. Sounds fascinating.

Just submitted my 1300th repatriation case to the Army – So grateful I get to do this. Have the privilege of researching every state, every ethnicity, every nationality (so many of our soldiers are immigrants or children of), every set of family dynamics – all to help make good on our nation’s “no man left behind” pledge.

The post Genealogy Roundup, April 18 appeared first on Megan Smolenyak.

On January 1, 1892, 17-year-old Annie Moore from Cork, Ireland became the first immigrant to ever arrive at Ellis Island, so both Annie and Ellis Island celebrated their 125th anniversary on January 1, 2017. Of course, hopeful wanderers from other countries had been teeming to our shores by choice or force for centuries by then, but perhaps because 40% of Americans have at least one ancestor who arrived via Ellis Island, it has always been synonymous with immigration in a nation of immigrants.

As the first, Annie became the poster child for immigration, which is why there are statues of her in both New York and Cork, and songs, books, awards, and even pubs sport her name and tell her story.

Almost from arrival, Annie suffered a series of indignities. No doubt appreciating the $15 in coins she received that day (a small fortune to her family), she was also overwhelmed by all the attention and used as a PR prop with the invention of a tale that it was her 15th birthday (she was 17 and her birthday was in May). And then, after her Kim Kardashian moment, she vanished from the pages of history into what was to be a sadly common, but somewhat hellish immigrant experience in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

Annie and her family bounced from tenement to tenement as so many foreign born did back then, often in search of lower rents. At 21, she married Joseph Augustus Schayer and soon had the first of at least ten children she would bear over the next quarter of a century. Her first child died before his second birthday, but the next four were fortunate enough to make it to adulthood. And then things took a turn. Due to the family’s living conditions and likely to Annie’s own weakening health, only one of her final five children made it past the age of three, and the lone survivor died at 21. Even with the infant mortality rate in New York City at that time hovering around 34 per 100, it’s apparent that the Schayer family suffered more than most, and though we might want to convince ourselves that such high loss rates must have better equipped parents to cope, it’s not true. Frequency and familiarity did not render the death of a child any less painful than it is today.

The causes of death from her children’s records all point to the underlying culprit of poverty. Annie herself managed to make it to 50 and to Calvary Cemetery where my husband and I discovered that she had been buried without benefit of a tombstone in a plot with ten others. Still, her family was luckier than some as the child of a friend who couldn’t afford a grave is mixed in with Annie’s – a kindness immigrants often extended to others in need.

Megan Smolenyak with Annie’s unmarked plot at Calvary Cemetery, August 2006

It’s appropriate that Annie should have been the first at Ellis Island, as her story is so representative and American. In a precursor to what many of us wrestle with today, Annie numbed her sorrows with food – possibly at least in part with the macaroons her German-born father-in-law received a patent for – and struggled with her weight. Family lore has it that she was too large to be taken down the narrow tenement staircase when she passed, so was lowered out the window.

On a more positive note, as is so often the case with immigrants, her sacrifices led to greater opportunities for her descendants who have since flourished. At least one remained in the Lower East Side until this century, but most fanned out to New Jersey, Maryland, Wisconsin, Arizona, and elsewhere. They took on a variety of professions, worked their way up the economic ladder, and married others with diverse backgrounds so that Annie’s Irish genes have now blended with Hispanic, Jewish, Scandinavian, and more.

This is the pattern we see again and again: the immigrant struggles, but ensuing generations reap the benefits. So Annie’s tale is a fitting one for the poster child of the immigrant saga, but until I found them in 2006, most of her scattered descendants did not know about her because a usurper had taken her place, a discovery I tripped across while working on a documentary in 2002.

Descendants of another Annie Moore unwittingly asserted that their ancestor was Ellis Island’s first (a forensic analysis of sorts revealed that a commemorative plate, of all things, triggered a chain of events that allowed this error to germinate and spread), and curiously, no one troubled to verify the claim for years, even though the few relatives of the real Annie who knew of her all along had tried to raise the issue. Most likely this is because the other Annie’s story was a wild ride involving Western-migrating adventurers and revolutionary Irish kin – the way we like to see ourselves, I suppose – but it little reflected the harsh and selfless reality of most of our immigrant ancestors.

So the genuine Annie was a victim of historical identity theft by another Annie who wasn’t even an immigrant (the giveaway being her Illinois birth). By the time I found her resting anonymously under a bit of grass in a Queens cemetery, 114 years had passed since her arrival at Ellis Island and 82 since her death, so January 1, 2017 is the first milestone anniversary since we’ve known who she truly was.

And the timing is, well, interesting. Just as we should be celebrating Annie and Ellis Island’s 125th, we are instead in the midst of an anti-immigrant fervor. The attempt to otherize immigrants is gaining momentum and hearkens back to the days of Know Nothings, exclusion acts, and internment camps.

All of this makes now an especially relevant time to reflect on the Annie Moores in our own family trees – those pioneers who made a leap that so drastically altered the trajectories of their descendants’ lives for the better. In my own case, I think with gratitude of Ellen Nelligan, Peter Smolenyak, James Reynolds, Padonia Lukacz, and others whose choices and challenging lives have given me the opportunities I have.

Welcoming today’s Annies – those hopeful wanderers that Springsteen speaks of – requires generosity of spirit that doesn’t always come naturally, but it’s our legacy, and centuries of American history make it clear that the return on investment from this particular form of speculation is exceptional. Then again, maybe we should do it simply because it’s the right thing to do.

Featured Photo: (Left) – Annie and her brothers as commemorated in a statue at
Cobh Heritage Centre (credit: Katherine Borges) and
(right) – on the day they arrived at Ellis Island (colorized)

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