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.