Wordless Wednesday

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Transcribe and/or Translate a Record on MyHeritage Scribe AI Tool

I'm probably not going to go in the direction Randy Seaver is expecting for this week's episode of Saturday Night Genealogy Fun.

Here is your assignment, if you choose to play along (cue the Mission:  Impossible! music, please!):

1.  MyHeritage introduced the Scribe AI tool to analyze, transcribe, translate, and provide historical context to a record or photographic image in the past year.  Have you used it?

2.  Pick one record image or photograph image from your collection and ask Scribe AI to do its task list for you.  How did it do?

NOTE:  If you cannot access Scribe AI, please use another AI tool (e.g., ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Transkribus) that can transcribe, translate, or analyze a record or photograph image.

3.  Share your selected record or photo image, plus what Scribe AI told you about the image, in your own blog post or in a comment on this blog post, or write a Substack post, Facebook Note, or post on some other social media system.  Please leave a comment with a link on this post so others can find it.

1.  No, I have not used it.

2.  I used ChatGPT.  It was informative, but it contradicted itself.

3.  I have written about the photo bonanza that I received from my sister, which consists of scans of my father's photographs.  I have also written about how my father neglected to identify any of the photos he took.  I have experimented a little with ChatGPT to see what it could tell me about some of the cars my father photographed.  I uploaded this photo and asked, "What type of vehicle is this?"

This is what ChatGPT had to say:

===

The vehicle in the photo appears to be an early-1950s Chevrolet station wagon, most likely a 1953 Chevrolet 210 Handyman or Townsman wagon.

Some identifying features include:

• The single-piece curved windshield and rounded "pontoon" body styling typical of 1953 Chevrolets.
• The large chrome grille with five horizontal "teeth" across the center.
• The round headlights integrated into the front fenders.
• The long roof and two-door wagon body style, with the distinctive rear side windows.
• The chrome side trim running along the body matches Chevrolet styling from that era.

The "June 1964" caption likely indicates when the photograph was taken, not the age of the car. By then, this Chevrolet would have been roughly 10–11 years old, which fits with many families still driving early-1950s cars during the mid-1960s.

While the image isn't sharp enough to distinguish between the 210 Handyman and the Bel Air/Townsman trim levels with certainty, I'm fairly confident it is a 1953 Chevrolet station wagon, rather than a 1954 model (which had a noticeably different grille).

If you're interested, I can also explain how the grille and trim identify it as a 1953 Chevrolet and distinguish it from the 1950–1954 models.

I asked:  What distinguishes a 210 Handyman from a Bel Air/Townsman?

The 1953 Chevrolet 210 Handyman and Bel Air Townsman (often just called the Townsman wagon) shared the same basic body, chassis, and drivetrain, but they differed primarily in trim and interior appointments.

Here are the main differences:

210 Handyman	Bel Air Townsman
Economy model	Upscale model
Less exterior chrome	More chrome trim and Bel Air styling
Simpler interior with plainer upholstery	Better fabrics, more decorative trim, armrests, and additional brightwork
Painted window frames and moldings	More stainless steel moldings around windows and sides
Rubber floor coverings common on some models	Carpet and upgraded interior finishes more common

Exterior clues

The easiest way to tell them apart is by the side trim:

• 210 Handyman: Usually has a single thin chrome strip running along the side with relatively plain styling.
• Bel Air Townsman: Features more elaborate chrome moldings, often including a wider spear or accent trim around the rear quarter panel and window area.

Looking at your photo

Your car has:

• A single, fairly simple side molding running from the front fender toward the rear.
• Minimal chrome ornamentation on the body sides.
• No obvious Bel Air-style sweeping chrome treatment visible around the rear quarter.

Those details make it look more like a Chevrolet 210 Handyman than a Bel Air Townsman.

That said, because the image is somewhat soft and only shows one side of the car, I wouldn't call it a certainty—I'd put the identification at about 70–80% confidence as a 1953 Chevrolet 210 Handyman two-door station wagon. A clearer view of the grille, hood emblem, or rear quarter trim would allow a much more definitive identification.

I asked:  Does this photo make it clearer whether it is a Handyman or a Towmsman?

This close-up helps confirm the year, but it unfortunately doesn't do much to distinguish the trim level.

What it does show clearly:

• The grille has five prominent vertical "teeth" across the center bar, a hallmark of the 1953 Chevrolet. The 1954 Chevrolet grille was substantially different, so this strongly supports the car being a 1953 model.
• The Chevrolet script emblem is visible on the left side of the hood above the grille.
• The hood and front-end styling are consistent with all 1953 passenger-car models, including both the 210 Handyman and the Bel Air Townsman wagons.

What it doesn't show:

• The side trim on the rear quarter panel.
• The rear side window moldings.
• The interior trim.
• Any badging indicating the series.

Those are the features that separate a 210 Handyman from a Bel Air Townsman.

One interesting detail is the California license plate "PMS 138", which is consistent with the photo having been taken in California in 1964, as indicated by the caption.

My assessment

Combining this image with the earlier side view:

• Year: 1953 Chevrolet — very high confidence (95%+).
• Body style: Two-door station wagon — essentially certain.
• Trim level: I still lean toward 210 Handyman, because the side view shows relatively plain side trim rather than the more elaborate Bel Air treatment. However, this front view doesn't provide additional evidence one way or the other.

I'd estimate:

• 1953 Chevrolet 210 Handyman wagon: about 75% probability.
• 1953 Chevrolet Bel Air Townsman wagon: about 25% probability.

A photo showing the rear quarter panel or full side profile in higher resolution would almost certainly settle the question.

I asked:  Does this view help?

Yes—this view is much more informative, and it changes my assessment.

The most significant detail is the broad chrome sweep on the rear quarter panel, extending from behind the rear door toward the tailgate. That is Bel Air-style trim, not the plain treatment used on the 210 Handyman.

Other clues visible here:

• The car is clearly a four-door station wagon, with four side doors plus the tailgate. The Handyman was a two-door wagon, so this alone rules out the Handyman.
• The bright trim around the side windows and the more elaborate rear-quarter molding are consistent with Chevrolet's higher-trim wagons.
• The front end still matches a 1953 Chevrolet.

So this is not a 210 Handyman.

The remaining question is whether it is a 150 Handyman, 210 Townsman, or Bel Air Townsman, since Chevrolet offered multiple wagon configurations in 1953. Based on the extensive side trim and upscale appearance, I think it is most likely a 1953 Chevrolet Bel Air Townsman four-door station wagon.

My confidence would now be approximately:

• 1953 Chevrolet Bel Air Townsman (4-door): ~85–90%
• 1953 Chevrolet 210 Townsman (4-door): ~10–15%

One additional detail that supports the Bel Air identification is the large painted insert outlined by chrome on the rear quarter panel. That decorative treatment was characteristic of the Bel Air series and was intended to echo the Bel Air sedan's distinctive side styling.

This third photograph is substantially more diagnostic than the first two, because it shows the full side trim and confirms the four-door body style, eliminating the Handyman entirely.

I asked:  What distinguishes a 210 Townsman from a Bel Air Townsman?

This gets into one of the quirks of Chevrolet's 1953 lineup: there actually wasn't a 210 Townsman in 1953.

The station wagon lineup for 1953 was:

• 150 Handyman – 2-door, economy trim.
• 210 Handyman – 2-door, mid-level trim.
• Bel Air Townsman – 4-door, top-of-the-line trim.

So if your car is indeed a four-door wagon, the only factory possibility is the Bel Air Townsman.

The confusion arises because in later years (1954–1957), Chevrolet offered four-door wagons in both the 210 and Bel Air series, and "Townsman" was used differently. But for 1953, the four-door wagon was marketed as the Bel Air Townsman.

Comparing the 1953 wagons

Model	Doors	Trim level
150 Handyman	2	Basic
210 Handyman	2	Mid-level
Bel Air Townsman	4	Premium

Looking again at your latest photo:

• It clearly has four side doors.
• It has the Bel Air rear quarter panel trim, with the contrasting sweep outlined in chrome.
• The window moldings are bright-finished rather than plain.

Those are exactly what one would expect on a 1953 Bel Air Townsman.

I would now identify the car as a 1953 Chevrolet Bel Air Townsman station wagon with fairly high confidence.

One small point of clarification: Chevrolet also sold a 1953 210 Beauville, which was a nine-passenger wagon with three seats. From the side, a Beauville looks very similar to a Townsman. If your family car seated six and had only two rows of seats, it would be a Townsman; if it had a fold-down third seat and extra side windows in the cargo area, it would be a Beauville. The exterior trim on the two models was quite similar.

===

So ChatGPT apparently did identify the vehicle, but some of the stupidity along the way was highly annoying.

It told me, "A clearer view of the grille, hood emblem, or rear quarter trim would allow a much more definitive identification."  Yet when I provided a photo of the grille, I was told that didn't help.  Then why did ChatGPT suggest it?

When I asked what distinguishes a 210 Townsman from a Bel Air Townsman, after having previously said things about a 1953 210 Townsman, suddenly ChatGPT says there was no 210 Townsman in 1953.  Say what?

Yes, I am much further along than I would have been without using ChatGPT.  But will people who blindly accept what is said the first time without asking more questions and being more critical actually be better off with information riddled with misstatements?  Will they include caveats about how there might be mistakes?

What Would Mary Lou Have Been Like at 88?

Today is Mary Lou's birthday, and her daughter, Laurie (also known as my half-sister from my father's first marriage), is here with a guest post.

===

Today we celebrate the birth of my mom, Marylou Bowen Sellers James.  She was born October 16, 1938 and would have been 88.

Very recently, I had the opportunity to visit with my cousin Linda.  She is the daughter of my mother’s brother, Bobby.  Bobby was Mom’s only sibling and was ten years older.  He was married to Jean and they had four children, Bobby Jr., Linda, Douglas, and Mark.

My Uncle Bob and Aunt Jean got divorced, then Jean and the kids moved to California, so there was little opportunity to see my cousins in my younger years.  My mother and her brother were not very close.  He passed away at 54, and I only remember a few occasions that we were all together.

My meeting with Linda was significant, as we had not seen each other since we were very young.  I wish I could say we just picked up where we left off, but the truth is we only have snippets of events where we were together.  Regardless, it was enlightening and one of the highlights of our vacation.

We started with cocktail hour and quickly jumped to talking about Marylou and Jean, both of us sharing stories about being raised by pretty strong-willed and maybe just a little bit crazy women.  We filled in some timeline blanks to the best of our ability and made sense of which states we were each in at particular times in our lives.

I particularly enjoyed Linda’s stories about our grandmother, Louise Gaynor Bowen Toppa, and her relationship with my cousins, although some of the stories surprised me.  Apparently my cousins had the young, peppy, and adventurous grandmom and I had the stoic, serious grandmom!

Of course, the grandmom I had was wonderful and loving, taking me on trips to various little towns between New Jersey and Rhode Island.  Grandmom would have me for long periods of time and we would explore Rhode Island with Grandpop Tony.  Then she moved to New Jersey, then to California, where I discovered that she was quite a golfer and she introduced me to shuffleboard.  She taught me about antiques and how to knit, and tried to share her love for postcard collecting.  She let me wear ALL her costume jewelry AT ONCE, so I could sing to her while standing on the ottoman in her living room.  She was a treasure and I’m not complaining, but it sounded like my cousins got the crawling around on the floor playing with toys grandmom, and, I have to admit, I was just a little envious . . . for a blink.

Which brings us back to the birthday girl.  I already knew that Marylou was a handful, often defying her mother.  Marylou shared plenty of those stories with me, adding that Grandmom was kind of strait-laced and always wanted her to "act like a lady", something that my mother definitely was not!

Over the course of the cousin reunion, Linda and I were slowly putting together each of our timelines, where we lived and where our timelines overlapped.  I mentioned that I lived in so many places because my mother had wanderlust and, by my mother’s account, our grandmother ended up living in so many places because she was chasing after my mother.

That’s when I was enlightened!  Linda stopped me in my tracks when she said, "Grandmom wasn’t chasing after Marylou, she was worried about YOU!"

This story is bittersweet.

There are so many versions of a life story.  Sometimes you hear a version that makes sense.

Thank you, Louise Gaynor Bowen Toppa.

Thank you, Marylou Bowen Sellers James.

Thank you, Cousin Linda.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: What Were You Doing in 2001?

I know I did stuff in 2001, but how much of it will I remember for Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge tonight?

Here is your assignment, if you choose to play along (cue the Mission:  Impossible! music, please!):

1.  Do you recall what you were doing in 2001?  Family, school, work, hobbies, technology, genealogy, vacations, etc?

2.  Share your 2001 events in your own blog post or in a comment on this blog post, or write a Substack post, Facebook Note, or post in some other social media system.  Please leave a comment with a link on this post so others can find it.

Well, at least now I know how Randy is able to give so much detail about events from many years ago.  I, however, have never written a newsy annual letter, for Christmas or Chanukah, telling everyone what I was doing during the year.  And my recollections are pretty scant.

In 2001 I was living in Oakland, California.  I bought the house and moved into it in 1993, so by 2001 I was pretty well settled.  I think I had four pets:  Cody (dog), Kirby (dog), Hank (cat), and Sassy (cat).  I may have still had a housemate.

I was working at the Seismological Society of America (SSA).  My business card said I was the Junior Web Geek, but I don't remember what title I came up with for Publication Assistant.  The latter meant that I copyedited Seismological Research Letters, the monthly journal that was less of the hard science and more news and history, and I did administrative work for it and for Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, which was hard science, physics, geophysics.  Junior Web Geek meant that I assisted our contract computer person with maintaining our online presence.  I also helped with general administrative work in the office and at our conferences.

I do recall that our annual conference that year was held in San Francisco to commemorate the 95th anniversary of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.  I don't think I stayed at the hotel, but rather went back and forth every day from Oakland into San Francisco.  I distinctly remember taking BART at way too early in the morning on April 18 to be at Lotta's Fountain for the annual ceremony held there in remembrance of the quake.  I dressed in my finest vintage attire from the period and wore it for the rest of the day.

I might have attended one or two conferences during the year related to my work at SSA.

I was at work on September 11.  I don't remember how we learned what had happened.  I think we found a television and were able to watch some coverage.  When I went home, every TV station was showing replays of the same films from CNN except the Food Network, which had a slide expressing sympathy, and Comedy Central, which was airing an episode of The Daily Show with They Might Be Giants as guests.

In gaming, I probably attended GenCon that year, which was still being held in Milwaukee (it wouldn't move to Indianapolis until 2003).  At least I think I was still managing to go at that time.  I might have gone under the aegis of Reaper Miniatures, as I no longer worked full time for a game company.  I probably didn't make it to Origins, though.  I was still going to Strategicon events, so I'm pretty sure I went to OrcCon and Gateway; maybe I went to Gamex.  According to the list of credits I compiled for my own satisfaction, I did editing that year for Citizen Games, Fast Forward Entertainment, Grey Ghost Press, and Hobgoblynn Press and created indices for Alderac Entertainment Group, Reaper Miniatures, and Steve Jackson Games.

I started volunteering at the LDS Oakland Family History Center in 2000, so I'd been doing that for about a year.  My 6-hour volunteer shift was on Saturdays.  I enjoyed helping people with their family history research (and still do!).  And that's all I can think of for genealogy that year.

That's about all I can come up with.  I tried looking through my e-mail archive to see what it might tell me, but I had forgotten that I started my Gmail address in 2004, so it has nothing for 2001.  I think I was still using AOL then, and those messages are long gone, so nothing to look at.

Wordless Wednesday

World Heart Day 2026

September 29 is World Heart Day.  The main emphasis on World Heart Day is the steps that you as an individual can take regarding your health to try to have a heart that keeps on working for you.  But whenever I think of heart health, I think of my half-sister's mother's side of her family.

See, I'm an obsessed genealogist.  So I research just about everyone associated with my family.  And of course I researched my sister's mother's family.  Why wouldn't I?  I even knew her!  (And quite a fascinating character she was, too.)

I had done a fair amount of research on her family.  I was going to be visiting my brother, and my sister was coming too.  So I printed out an updated family tree to give to her.

But when I looked at it, I suddenly noticed an unnerving fact:  In four generations, every man but one had died before reaching the age of 60.  And every single one of them had died from a heart attack.  (I wrote about this aspect of Laurie's family a few years ago in detail.)

The only male member of the family to live to see 60, and quite a few years beyond that, may have noticed this trend himself.  I know that he retired early and enjoyed many years after that.  Coincidence?  You be the judge.

Amazing as it may be to some of us, family history isn't all that interesting to a lot of people.  Health histories, however, especially ones that indicate hereditary conditions, are one aspect of genealogy that attract more attention.  Tell someone his life may be affected by this, and his ears will perk up.

So as you research your family, take note of the causes of death on those death certificates.  If you see any trends, let other family members know.  Maybe they'll be able to stay around a little longer because you told them.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Your Oldest Confirmed Record

I unfortunately don't have records as old as Randy Seaver's, but I do have some old ones that qualify for tonight's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge.

Here is your assignment, if you choose to play along (cue the Mission:  Impossible! music, please!):

1.  What is "your oldest confirmed record?"  What is one of the oldest documents you've personally found for any ancestor?

2.  Share your oldest confirmed record:  what it is, where it came from, and what it revealed.

3.  Share your oldest confirmed record in your own blog post or in a comment on this blog post, or write a Substack post, Facebook Note, or a post in some other social media system.  Please leave a comment with a link on this post so others can find it.

Thank you to Linda Stufflebean for this topic.

My family history database and documents are still missing in action due to a computer crash, but I believe the oldest confirmed record I have for an ancestor is the 1830 U.S. census for my 3x-great-grandfather Joel Armstrong in Mount Holly, Northampton Township, Burlington County, New Jersey.  It came from the U.S. National Archives.  In addition to letting me know where Joel and his family were living, it told me that three males and five females were in the household; no free or enslaved blacks were in the household; and there were no deaf, dumb, or blind individuals or foreigners not naturalized.

Joel Armstrong (sixth from top)
Mount Holly, Northampton Township, Burlington County, New Jersey
1830 U.S. Census population schedule

Census records prior to 1830 do not survive for New Jersey, and I have not yet had the opportunity to search for Joel Armstrong in tax lists.  I have index information about his marriage but do not have the actual marriage record.  So this is the oldest confirmed record I have found for the biological part of my father's side of the family, and Joel is currently my end-of-line ancestor.  I have several earlier records for the Sellers side, which is our adoptive line.

The oldest confirmed record I have found for my mother's side of the family, in comparison, is from 1888.  I wrote about it for a Saturday Night Genealogy Fun post in 2024.

Yes, I need to recover my missing files, and I need to get back to researching my family.

Wordless Wednesday

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Your Unfinished Genealogy Projects

I'm pretty sure tonight's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun topic from Randy Seaver is going to include everyone.  And if it doesn't, that person (could there be more than one?) is amazing and very, very special.

Here is your assignment, if you choose to play along (cue the Mission:  Impossible! music, please!):

1.  What started but unfinished projects do you have?  Define one or more of them and how far along you are in the project(s).

2.  Share one or more of your unfinished projects in your own blog post or in a comment on this blog post, or write a Substack post, Facebook Note, or post in some other social media system.  Please leave a comment with a link on this post so others can find it.

Oh, I have so many, and it's hard to keep track of them all.  But some of the most important are:

• Enter all the information I gathered from research I did before my computer crashed, with citations.  I had a great research streak for a while, and I was finding lots and lots of information.  I probably had entered only about 20% of what I had found.  Oh, but this requires that I . . .

• Get my computer all fixed up, including connecting the storage disk I have already purchased and transferring all my retrieved files.  Part of the benefit of getting the computer fixed and transferring the retrieved files is that most of the research I haven't entered is among the retrieved files.  Oh, and the updated family tree program files are there also.  I think I have everything I need, it's just getting it done.  Since that's the time-consuming part, I'm only about 10% done?

• Properly file all those documents, both physical and electronic.  I have to regain access to the electronic files before I can file them properly, of course.  I haven't started this at all.

• Get my online back-ups started again.  I am woefully behind (about four or five years' worth).  Also not started at all.

• Like Randy, I need to regularize my locations in my family tree program.  Tedious but necessary.  I probably have done about 5–10% of them.  Maybe it isn't that bad.  Maybe about 20%.

• Restart sending updated copies of family information to every relative with whom I am in contact, for every family line each person is a descendant of.  This will be easier than when I used to do it, because previously I printed out everything on paper and mailed it to everyone.  That equaled about 50 to 75 big manila envelopes going out for Chanukah and Christmas every year.  This time around, I intend to send everyone electronic files, unless specifically requested otherwise.  I haven't started this at all.

Okay, that's enough to make me feel overwhelmed, so I better stop while I'm behind.

Wordless Wednesday

Time to Think about Saving Your Photographs!

One of my father's photos which has been saved
Two men working at Harry's Volkswagen
But I don't know their names or what city this was!

Well, as far as I'm concerned, it's always time to think about saving your photographs.  It's something I often harp on in my blog.  But you don't have to figure out how to do it all by yourself.

Last year I discovered Save Your Photos Month, hosted by a company with a direct interest in you doing something about that.  The Photo Managers is a company which you can pay to do a lot of the work involved in saving your photos.  But in September, they offer free presentations on how you can do it yourself and provide tips on some of the best ways to do it.  I have no financial interest in the company, but I'm happy to promote its free offerings!  Because I want you to save your photos and the stories they tell!

I'm a little slow this year, and the first four presentations have already taken place.  But the Photo Managers have posted the recordings on their YouTube channel, so you can catch up and be ready for the next ones!

Already on YouTube:
Before It's Too Late:  How to Protect Your Printed Photos from Damage, Disasters and Time
Scanning Master Class:  How to Create Digital Copies That Last
The Digital Safety Net:  What Happens When Your Phone Fails
Beyond the Cloud:  Building a Photo Backup System You Can Trust

And this is what's coming up live during the next two weeks:

Conquering the Chaos:  How to Organize 50,000 Photos without Feeling Overwhelmed
Tuesday, September 15 (today!), 12:00 noon Pacific Time

Can AI Really Restore Your Old Photos?  What Works—And What Doesn't
Friday, September 18, 12:00 noon Pacific Time

How to Turn 50 Family Photos into a Meaningful Family Legacy Album
Tuesday, September 22, 1:00 p.m. Pacific Time

Record Their Stories While You Still Can:  Simple AI Tools for Preserving Faimly Memories
Friday, September 25, 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time

This year the offerings also include a social media challenge — One Photo, One Story — and a one-day paid virtual event — Memory Keepers Live Summit.

Visit the Save Your Photos Month page, sign up, and take their advice while they're giving it away for free.  If you don't see the presentations live, you'll be able to watch them later on the Photo Managers YouTube channel.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Are Your Ancestors Missing in the Census?

I'm responding to a previous Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge from Randy Seaver rather than the one posted today, so if it seems that my calendar is a little off, that's why.

Here is your assignment, if you choose to play along (cue the Mission:  Impossible! music, please!):

1.  Which of your ancestors or relatives have you NOT found in the census records and what have you done or are doing to try to find that person?  Can AI help?

2.  Identify one or more of your ancestors that are inexplicably missing from one or more census collections.  Why do you think they were not enumerated?

3.  Share your information about your ancestor or relative NOT in the census records in your own blog post, write a comment on this blog post, or put it in a Substack post, Facebook Note, or some other social media system.  Please leave a comment on this post so others can find it.

Thank you to Marian B. Wood for this SNGF idea.

1940 was not a good census year for finding members of my father's family.  I have not found, and at this point do not expect to find, my father, his parents, his half-sisters, or his paternal grandmother in the census.

When the 1940 census was released, I of course excitedly began to look for all my relatives.  Yet even after the names were indexed and searchable on FamilySearch.org and Ancestry.com, I couldn't find my father and those other family members.  And I knew all of their complete names and birth dates!  I tried with names, without names, partial names, with birth information, without birth information, with location and without, and various combinations of those.  I just couldn't find any of them.

At some point in his life (I suspect it was for a security clearance), my grandfather compiled a list of all the places at which he had lived.  He had three different cities for 1940 (and four for 1935!).  I checked all of them through Steve Morse's Unified Census ED Finder and then manually searched each of the enumeration districts.  I found absolutely nothing having to do with my family.  They apparently missed the census taker in all three cities due to their moves.

So that ruled out my father, grandparents, and aunts.  I then focused on my great-grandmother.  She was living in the same house that had been associated with her family since at least 1900, in which census I found her, her mother, and her granduncle and grandaunt.  I even have a photograph of the house.  I also have the street address, so I could narrow down my enumeration districts more finely than I had been able to for the searches for my father.

And when I searched the two enumeration districts that resulted from my use of Steve Morse's tools, I got . . . nothing again.  After going through the pages twice to make sure I hadn't missed her, I found that her specific address was not enumerated, neither in the first listing by the census taker nor in the second go-round.  It just isn't there.  I don't know why the census taker didn't list her address, but it does not appear in the census.

I admit that I have not used AI to try to solve this, and I don't plan to try.  I see no reason to think that AI can help or that it will magically make my family members appear out of nowhere.  I have used the logical available tools.  They simply were missed in the census, which happens to some people in every census enumeration.

I first searched for my father and his family in the 1940 census in 2012, soon after the census was released.  I repeated the searches for this post, and those family members are still not in the census.

Wordless Wednesday

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Describe One of Your Own, or an Ancestor's, Life Turning Point

An interesting topic from Randy Seaver for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun.

Here is your assignment, if you choose to play along (cue the Mission:  Impossible! music, please!):

1.  Every historical person has major events, milestones, and "turning points" in his life, from birth through death and even beyond.  These events, milestones, and turning points can be the basis for family stories of the historical person.

2.  Please share one of those events in your own life or the life of one of your ancestors.

3.  Share your information about your major event, milestone, or turning point in your own blog post, write a comment on this blog post, or put it in a Substack post, Facebook Note, or some other social media system.  Please leave a comment on this post so others can find it.

If you write about one of your ancestors without being able to talk to that person, you have to be the judge of what might have been a turning point in that person's life, which might be difficult sometimes.  It's easy to decide what a turning point was in the life of my paternal grandfather, though, even if he didn't call it that.

After an accident, my grandfather had a leg amputated at the age of 12 or 13.  That's an obvious turning point in someone's life, because it's going to affect a lot of things that happen to you afterward, especially when the event took place in 1916.

Something I have wondered about since having learned more details about the accident is how Grandpa was able to get hospital care and when he might have first been fitted with a prosthesis (and what would that have been like in the first quarter of the 20th century?).  His parents never had a lot of money, and this would have put a huge strain on the family.  I have begun to suspect that his paternal grandmother, Katherine "Kate" Moore, might have stepped in to pay for things.  I know when Grandpa's father, Elmer, died in 1918, she was the one who paid for the funeral.

Elmer's death would also have had an impact on the family's finances, as he was the breadwinner.  In the 1915 New Jersey state census, Grandpa's mother, Laura, was listed as a housewife, so she apparently was not employed outside the home at that time.  What did she do when Elmer died?  How did she support her family?  Did Kate help them?

Two years later, in 1920, Laura and her four children (including my grandfather) were enumerated in the census with her granduncle Amos and grandaunt Rebecca (notwithstanding the fact that the census taker listed her as their daughter and the four children as Amos and Rebecca's stepchildren).  Laura had no occupation; Amos was working as a farm laborer, but he did own his house free and clear.  Was Amos able to contribute to any expenses for Grandpa's care?  I think Kate was still alive then (I don't have documentation of her death, but many people list it as around 1922–1924 in their trees on Ancestry); was she helping?

And in 1923 Grandpa married his first wife, Elizabeth.  Did he have a prosthesis then?  I have found their marriage date in an index, but I don't yet have a copy of the marriage record.  What was his occupation?  How did he support his family?

I started looking around for information about prosthetics in this period.  Grandpa might have benefited from the innovations in this field that took place because of World War I.  With the large numbers of injured soldiers, changes were taking place in how prosthetics were designed and made.

The more I think about this, the more questions I have.  I need to do a lot more digging.

From a Bar to a Museum

Way back in October 2023, I wrote about the photo bonanza I had received from my sister, with thousands of scans of my father's photographs. At least I originally thought they were all my father's photos.

After my first round of labeling photos from one box, I had already discovered that some of the photographs couldn't have been taken by my father, such as the one where he is a months-old baby being held by my grandfather.  But I still had in mind that most of the photos were his.  Then I discovered this one:

This is a photograph of Flannery's bar and restaurant.  The photo has a date of Aug 1973 on it, which reflects when it was developed.

So I immediately wondered what in the world an airplane was doing on the roof of a restaurant.  A few Google searches led me to the knowledge that this was Jim Flannery's Restaurant in Penndel, Pennsylvania, and that is a Lockheed C-121C Constellation aircraft installed onto the roof!

A fairly detailed timeline for this airplane is available online.  The short version is that Jim Flannery, a former World War II pilot, bought the plane in August 1967 and made it into a cocktail lounge in his restaurant, which opened in August 1968.  After other lives as a restaurant, Amoco Corporation bought the property in August 1996 and then donated the plane to the Air Mobility Command Museum at Dover Air Force Base.  It has since been restored to its original configuration and can be viewed at the museum.

The July–September 2015 issue of Hangar Digest, published by the museum, has a two-page article (pages 6 and 7) about Flannery's purchase of the plane, the installation of the plane onto the roof, and bringing the plane to the museum.

A photo of the restaurant from the other side is in Ball State University's digital collection.  On the left is the "Flannery's Restaurant" sign.

After falling into the rabbit hole researching the restaurant and airplane, I then started wondering what my father would have been doing in Penndel, Pennsylvania in August 1973 (or thereabouts) to have taken the photo.  Our family had only returned to the United States from Australia in about March 1973 and was still getting settled in Niceville, Florida, doing things such as registering us children for school and my father finding employment.  So how could he have traveled to Pennsylvania at that time?  And I didn't remember him going on such a trip.

As I have gone through more of the photographs in the bonanza, I have determined that a significant number were actually taken by my grandfather, and I'm now pretty sure this one was.  The article in Hangar Digest included the information that Flannery found the plane in New Castle, Delaware, where some of our family members lived, and Grandpa used to travel up that way to visit relatives.  Rather than my father, it makes more sense that Grandpa probably went to see the restaurant on a family visit and took the photo then.

So what did I learn from all this?  Not only was my grandfather just as bad as my father about taking photos of anything that caught his eye, and not labeling them!, it's always good to be willing to look at your initial hypothesis about something and revise it if necessary.  Otherwise I would still be trying to figure out how Daddy snuck in a trip to Pennsylvania when our lives were in such disarray.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: An Ancestor's School Records

I need to find more of the records discussed in today's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun!

Here is your assignment, if you choose to play along (cue the Mission:  Impossible! music, please!):

1.  Do you have any records of your ancestors' schooling, such as report cards, yearbooks, or photos?

2.  If so, please share one of them and what you learned about your ancestor(s) from the record.

3.  Share your information about your ancestors' schooling in your own blog post, write a comment on this blog post, or put it in a Substack post, Facebook Note, or some other social media system.  Please leave a comment on this post so others can find it.

Thank you to Lisa S. Gorrell for this SNGF idea.

My files are still messed up from a computer crash a couple of years ago, but I scoured previous blog posts to find some images.

1.  Yes, I have some records of my parents' schooling.  I have not found anything for ancestors previous to them.

2.  I found two photographs of my father in the 1954 Seminole [Florida] High School yearbook, Salmagundi.

Glee Club, page 59

I learned the name of the high school my father attended in Florida and which clubs he apparently belonged to.  He may have belonged only to the Glee Club while at Seminole High School; the years listed for the other clubs are for when he was in New Jersey, I believe.

Projectionist Club and Camera Club make sense for what I already know of my father's interests.  I have found newspaper articles about musicals in which my father performed, and Glee Club fits with that area of interest.  But my father didn't particularly use Spanish, and never Portuguese, so I don't know what his participation in the Pan American Club in Moorestown was focused on.

I have a copy of my mother's one-semester transcript from Florida State University (which I don't have to hand to include in this post).  She was nominally an education major, aiming to be a teacher.  I have been told that for the short time she was at college, my mother was a bit of a party girl, and her grades would appear to support that statement.

For another example of school records, I have a copy of my ex's maternal grandmother's brother's exam from the medical school he attended in Scotland.  I think that's really cool.

Wordless Wednesday

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: An Unusual Newspaper Article about Your Ancestors

I love newspaper research, so I knew I would be able to find something suitable for tonight's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge from Randy Seaver.

Here is your assignment, if you choose to play along (cue the Mission:  Impossible! music, please!):

1.  Have you found an unusual, chilling, amazing, or fascinating newspaper article about your ancestors?

2.  If so, please share the article and what you learned about your ancestor(s) from the article.  Provide a source citation, too!

3.  Share your information about your newspaper article in your own blog post, write a comment on this blog post, or put it in a Substack post, Facebook Note, or some other social media system.  Please leave a comment on this post so others can find it.

Thank you to Lisa S. Gorrell for this SNGF idea.

I guess this qualifies as chilling.  Two newspaper articles from 1916 detailed the accident that caused my paternal grandfather to have a leg amputated at the age of 12.  The event was reported in a New Jersey newspaper ("Two Boys Killed When Their Scout Cave Collapses", unknown newspaper name, Wrightstown, New Jersey, January 23, 1916, unknown page number; photocopy of original newspaper article).

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TWO BOYS KILLED WHEN THEIR SCOUT CAVE COLLAPSES

January 23, 1916

Two others probably fatally hurt in Mount Holly catastrophe.  Lads disregarded elders warning against playing in dangerous excavation.

FROM A STAFF CORRESPONDENT:

Mount Holly N.J. January 22 - Caught beneath a mass of rocks and sand when the walls and roof of the cave in which they were playing fell in today.  Howard Powell,jr. 12 years old, a son of Howard Powell of 112 Cherry Street, and Earnest Street, 12 years old, of 135 Risdon Street, were killed , and Russell Street, 10 years old, and Bertram Sellers, 11 years old of Broad Street and Risdon Street  were probably fatally injured.

The accident occurred on the side of the mount from which Mount Holly gets its name,at Rossell and Main Street.  The cave in which the children were playing was made by them several weeks ago.  Sellers who had visited the spot and noticed that a large rock standing on the roof of the cave was making the excavation a dangerous place, had warned the boys to keep out, but their warnings had no effect.

Just before the accident the four boys who were caught in the earth slide and Norman Woodington, 14 years old, of 302 Ridgeway Street, were playing in the vicinity of the cave.  Howard Powell then went into the cave and called the others in.  All entered but the Woodington boy, who started to walk away from the spot.  Hearing a noise he turned and was horrified to see that the whole side of the mount had fallen on the boys.

Running, screaming out into the street, he summoned aid and before many minutes had passed about a dozen men were busy with shovels digging towards the boys who were buried.  The men were spurred on in their work by the moans which from time to time they heard coming from the earth at their feet.  In about fifteen minutes the bodies of the buried boys were in view.

A hasty examination by physicians who had been called to the scene showed that Howard Powell and Earnest Street were beyond help.  After trying the
The physicians placed the other two boys in the automobile of Under Sheriff Joseph Fleetwood and made a hurried trip to the Burlington County Hospital.  After an exhaustive examination the physicians at the institution declared that there   nall possibility of either of the lads recovery.  The Sellers boy is suffering from a broken shoulder, a broken arm and compression of the lungs.  The Street boy, a brother of Earnest Street, is suffering several internal injuries.

MEMBERS OF SCOUT BAND

The four boys all attended the same school.  They had formed a small scout organization of their own and the cave was their headquarters.  Norman Woodington, who gave the alarm and Grace Budd and Eleanor Warwick who saw the accident, were ill, from the shock, last night.

Another member of the band, who probably owes his life to the fact that his duty in the organization is the placing of muskrat traps around the banks of the surrounding streams, is 15 year old Lawrence Powell, a brother of Howard Jr.  He left his brother and his friends this morning to place the traps and had not returned to join in their fun when the accident occurred.

The hill in which the boys had the cave was composed of sand and large stones, with practically nothing to hold the earth together except the small wooden supports erected by the youngsters on the inside of the dugout.  These proved to be entirely inadequate to withstand  the shock when the weight of the large boulder broke in the roof, the excavation was about twenty feet deep and about fifteen feet wide.

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A week later, on Friday, January 29, the Mount Holly Herald covered the story with some updates ("Mount Holly Boys Victims of Distressing Accident", Mount Holly [New Jersey] Herald, January 29, 1916, unknown page number; photocopy of original newspaper article).

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MOUNT HOLLY BOYS VICTIMS OF DISTRESSING ACCIDENT

The hand of fate dealt a cruel blow in Mount Holly on Saturday afternoon when Ernest Street, twelve years of age, son of Ella Street, of Risdon St., and Howard Powell, twelve years of age, son of Mr. and Mrs.Howard W. Powell, of Cherry St., were killed by the collapsing of the upper part of a cave in which they were playing on the Rossell St. side of the mount, and Russell Street, brother of Ernest, and Bertram Sellers, son of Mr. and Mrs. C. Elmer Sellers, of Clover St., boys about the same age as the others, narrowly escaped a similar horrible death.  It was a most distressing accident from which the people of the town, especially those on hand to assist in rescuing the little fellows have not yet recovered.

The boys had gone to the dug-out after dinner to have some real fun and in their innocent play they had no thought of the danger that confronted them.  The cave was a large and deep one, extending into the embankment about ten feet, and in the mass of earth over their heads was a rock that must have weighed close to two tons.  The four mentioned were inside the hole enjoying all there was in that kind of play and William Woodington, a member of the party, was on the outside.  Without warning to any of them, the tons of earth and stone came down upon them and all but Woodington were buried within an instant beneath the great load.  They were prisoners beyond the aid of Woodington, who became almost frantic but not so badly excited that he could no give an alarm.  Grace Budd and Eleanor Warrick were playing nearby and they and Woodington ran as fast as possible to summon assistance.  Men in the vicinity were quickly on the scene digging with all their might with shovels and hands in their efforts to get the imprisoned lads to the surface.  A general alarm sent out by those first informed of the sad affair brought many rescuers to the scene and in a remarkably short time everything possible was being done.  The rock materially interfered with the rescue work.  It was so heavy that planks and jacks had to be used to remove it.  Physicians had been sent for and Drs. Parsons, Barrington, and Whitehead rushed to the mount with all possible speed.  They were on hand before any of the boys had been uncovered.

The removal of the rock and earth presented a sight that those on the scene will never forget--four little boys huddled together, helpless prisoners under the great weight that had crushed them down and two of them companions in death as they had been in play.  Men among the rescuers who had rendered service in numerous emergency cases were noticeably affected by this heart-rending condition and some became almost white with fear that their efforts to save the lads would be in vain.  But they kept on working

The first to be uncovered were the two boys who are alive.  Fortunately they were nearer the entrance to the cave and their heads were nearer the surface.  After the earth and rock had been removed it was possible for them to breathe.  They were unconscious when taken out but the physicians quickly had them restored to a condition that enabled them to say the boys were alive.  Then there was hope that death had not overtaken the other two, but the later developments proved too sadly that all of this hope and the silent prayers that went with it were in vain.  The dead boys had been crushed by the rock and it is thought that death must have come to them almost instantly.  The physicians applied every means known to them to restore life, but their combined efforts failed to produce the desired results.

Russell Street and Bertram Sellers were carried to the residence of Norman W. Barker and there given the attention needed before it was ordered that they be removed to the hospital.  Both were suffering from being crushed and the Sellers boy had a double fracture of one leg near the ankle.  The Street boy gained strength steadily after he was over the shock of his harrowing experience and he was removed to the home of his mother on Tuesday but the Sellers boy has not been so fortunate.  On Sunday it was feared that amputation of his badly injured leg would be necessary, but an operation was performed, the bones were set and held in position with a silver plate and he now appears to be getting along nicely.  The Surgeons were particularly well pleased with the success of the operation.  The lad developed quite a high temperature on Monday and he had sinking spells on that day and Tuesday.  This caused some fear that undiscovered complications were overtaking him, but since then there has been a satisfactory change for the better.  It is to be hoped that there will be nothing more to add to this horrible affair.

The funeral of the Powell boy took place on Tuesday afternoon and that of the Street boy on Wednesday afternoon.

Even though the second article indicated that "the Sellers boy" (my grandfather) wouldn't need to have his leg amputated, something must have changed the prognosis, because Grandpa did lose his leg.  When my siblings and I were little, he used to take off his prosthesis and let us play with it.  But he never talked about how he lost the leg.  We didn't find out until after he died.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Extreme Weather or Natural Disaster Experiences

Yes, I'm late, but at least I finally have some time to write a post!  I'm trying to catch up on my Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenges from Randy Seaver and decided to start with weather and natural disasters, from less than a week ago.

Here is your assignment, if you choose to play along (cue the Mission:  Impossible! music, please!):

1.  Did extreme weather or a natural disaster ever affect you or your ancestor(s)?  In what way(s)?  How did you find this out?  Describe one or more of the extreme weather experiences in your own life or in your ancestors' lives.

2.  Share your information about your or your ancestor's extreme weather or natural disaster experiences in your own blog post, write a comment on this blog post, or put it in a Substack post, Facebook Note, or some other social media system.  Please leave a comment on this post so others can find it.

Thank you to Marian B. Wood for this SNGF idea.

I have previously posted about my family's experience with a hurricane, specifically Hurricane Eloise on September 23, 1975.  Eloise convinced me I much preferred earthquakes to hurricanes.

I had already been through one major earthquake at that point.  My family was living in Pomona, California during the 1971 Sylmar earthquake, which I blogged about for the 50th anniversary of the event.

I returned to California to live after graduating high school.  The third major quake I have experienced was Loma Prieta in 1989 (also known as the World Series earthquake), when I lived in Berkeley.  I wrote about that experiene, which I remembered much better than Sylmar, for the quake's 35th anniversary.

Between those two I was in another big earthquake:  the Whittier Narrows earthquake of October 1, 1987.  While it was "only" a 5.9 earthquake on the Richter scale, because it happened in the heavily built environment of the Los Angeles basin, damage costs were fairly high.  Fatalities were low in number.

I was actually at work already when the quake hit.  I used to go to work early so I could leave early for band practice (for The Greatest Marching Band in the History of the Universe, otherwise known as the USC Marching Band).  I remember that I felt the earthquake in the office (of the French and Italian Department) and had no question about what was happening.  I could tell that it was pretty strong from what I felt, so I figured it wasn't too far away.  I remember learning that the earthquake occurred on a previously unknown fault, so it came as a complete surprise at the time.

I don't recall any damage at the office or on campus, and we didn't have any damage at the house I was living in at the time.  So I wasn't affected much by it, but I have always remembered that a wall collapsed on the California State University at Los Angeles campus and killed someone.

So that's two natural disasters for my family as a whole and two for me as an individual.  I have not learned of such events for any of my ancestors prior to my parents.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Your Farthest-flung Ancestor

I guessed the correct person in my family for Randy Seaver's question this week for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun!

Here is your assignment, if you choose to play along (cue the Mission:  Impossible! music, please!):

1.  Our family trees contain historical persons who came from places all over the world.  Each of our ancestral lines came from somewhere.

2.  Can you identify your Farthest-flung Ancestor (FFA)?  Who in your ancestral tree came from the most geographically distant place from where you live now?  What brought that person (or his descendants) to where your family ended up?

3.  Share your information about your Farthest-flung Ancestor in your own blog post, write a comment on this blog post, or put it in a Substack post, Facebook Note, or some other social media system.  Please leave a comment on this post so others can find it.

Thank you to Linda Stufflebean for this idea.

Based on what I currently know about my ancestry, ancestors on my father's side came from the British Isles and on my mother's side from eastern Europe, in the former Russian Empire, so I focused on my mother's side.

I believe my great-grandfather Joyne Gorodetsky (who changed his name to Joe Gordon after he immigrated to the United States) was born in what is now known as Kamianets-Podilskyi, Ukraine.  It is 5,667.56 miles in a straight line from Gresham, Oregon, USA, where I currently live.

I also checked the distance to Krustpils, Latvia, where my great-grandmother Sore Leibe Brainin (known as Sarah Libby here) is supposed to have been born.  It is 5,152.8 miles from Gresham.

My great-great-grandfather Gershon Nowicki (who changed only the spelling of his last name, which became Novitsky, when he came here) was from Porazava, Belarus, which is 5,357.92 miles from Gresham.

And my great-grandfather Moshe Meckler (Morris Mackler here) was from Kamyanyets, Belarus, which is 5,382.88 from Gresham.

So the winner appears to be Joe Gordon.  He was the first person in that branch of my family to leave Europe for the Goldene Medine for better opportunities than were available to Jews in the Russian Empire.  He arrived at New York City in 1909, going to his uncle Sam Schneiderman.  The family's decision to leave appears to coincide with the death of my great-great-grandmother in November 1908, but I don't know if that was the deciding factor.

Joe's departure started the chain migration of his immediate family, most of whom came to the United States:  brother David in 1910; sister Sarah in 1911; father Victor and brothers Hyman and Morris in 1914; and sisters Anna and Rose in 1921.  The oldest sister, Etta, who was already married and had children, went with her family to Ottawa, Canada, where her husband's family (he had eleven siblings!) had immigrated.

I don't know if my great-great-grandfather Victor (or his father Gersh Wolf) was born in Kamianets-Podilskyi or in nearby Orynyn, but it is only 5,658.4 miles from Gresham.  So Kamianets-Podilskyi is the clear winner for distance.

I used Distance Calculator US to determine the straight-line distances between locations.