Happy Holidays from all of us at American Ancestors!
We wish you and your family members a safe and happy holiday season. Thank you for subscribing to The Weekly Genealogist, and for supporting our mission to promote and advance the study of family history. Happy holidays!
The American Ancestors Research Center will be closed Friday, December 24, through Saturday, January 1, 2022, for holiday season. Our Center will reopen on Tuesday, January 4.
Our expert staff is available to guide you through our collections by appointment only. Schedule Your Visit
Join Now Before Our Membership Price Increases!
On January 1, 2022, the rate for Individual Memberships will increase from $94.95 to $99.95. If you join between now and December 31, 2021, you will lock in the current membership price. Join Now
Dig Deeper into Globe-Spanning Primary Source Material
NEW! Explore 90 Unique Collections of Historical Material from Around the World
For a limited time, American Ancestors members can access millions of pages of primary source collections featuring content from the 15th century to the present. Collection titles include Colonial America, American Indian Histories and Cultures, African American Communities, London Low Life, America in World War Two, and more! Make sure you're logged into the site, and scroll down to "AM Explorer": Explore the Collections
Would you like these collections to be a permanent benefit of membership?Let us know!
Online Research Tour
Virtual Winter Research Stay-at-Home
Advance your research skills from home! Includes one-on-one consultations, lectures, live demonstrations, extended Q&As with our experts, and access to recorded content and other materials after the end of the program. Members save 10%! February 24–26, beginning at 9 a.m. (ET) each day. Register Now
Online Seminar
Connecticut Research: Four Centuries of History and Genealogy
This online seminar will provide a century-by-century look at the resources and research strategies essential for exploring Connecticut roots. We will also examine the historical context, settlement patterns, and migrations to and from the state both during the colonial era and after statehood. Live broadcasts: January 5, 12, 19, and 26 at 6 p.m. (ET). Register Now
Spotlight: Divide County Public Library, North Dakota
by Valerie Beaudrault
Divide County is located in northwestern North Dakota, on the Canadian border. Crosby is its county seat. The Divide County Public Library has made a digital history archive available on its website. The archive comprises a number of different types of resources: more than thirty local newspapers, high school yearbooks, census records (1910–1925), and a Divide County history. Search Now
Online Lecture
Join rare book expert Kenneth Gloss for a special presentation about the history of the Brattle Book Shop and his experiences in private and institutional collecting. Conservator Todd Pattison will moderate. Q&A session. January 7 at 4 p.m. (ET).
A Gift Card from the Bookstore at NEHGS is sure to please and allows the recipient to choose whatever they want from our wide selection of books, genealogical classics, blank charts, how-to guides, and beautiful gift items.
In this seminar, experts at American Ancestors will demonstrate how you can use Microsoft® Word to streamline your writing process, saving you time and delivering a professional and easy-to-reference finished product. January 15 at 1 p.m. (ET).
Genealogist’s Handbook for New England Research, 6th Edition
A must-have for anyone researching New England family history. This new full-color edition is an extensive update of an indispensable resource for those researching in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Research basics, unique resources, repository locations, and extensive county and town information (maps, dates established, parent counties, parent and daughter towns, other names, and more) are now uniformly presented for each state. Due to longer shipping times, we cannot guarantee delivery in time for Christmas.Purchase Now
“Footage shot by American ornithologist Benjamin Gault was recently uncovered in Chicago, offering a glimpse into daily life in Ireland during the 1920s.”
A Thoroughly Modern Christmas in Northfield In December 1860, Edward (“Wells”) Colton attended a Christmas festival at the Northfield, Massachusetts, town hall. In a letter describing the event, Wells noted that he received his first-ever Christmas gift at the gathering.
Christmas Advertising This post from the Blue Earth County Historical Society in southern Minnesota takes a look back at Christmas gifts advertised in the Mankato Free Press.
The Weekly Genealogist Survey
Last week's survey asked if your ancestors or relatives lived in a tenement before 1940. We received 2,684 responses. The results are:
25%, At least one of my ancestors or relatives lived in a tenement.
74%, I don’t think any of my ancestors or relatives lived in a tenement.
2%, I lived in a tenement.
8%, I have visited the Tenement Museum in New York’s Lower East Side or another museum or historic site that highlights the tenement experience.
This week’s survey asks how your Christmas or Hanukkah celebration has been influenced by previous generations. Take the survey now
Want to share your thoughts on the survey with us? We are always happy to hear from our readers. Email us at weeklygenealogist@nehgs.org. Responses may be edited for clarity and length and featured in a future newsletter.
Readers Respond: Tenement Living
By Lynn Betlock, Editor
Last week's survey asked whether any of your ancestors or relatives lived in a tenement before 1940. Thank you to everyone who replied. Below is a selection of reader responses.
Rachel Powers: Some of my ancestors lived in what I assume were tenements in New York City in the Lower East Side. Joseph and Helena Neu Schwarz were immigrants from Prussia and Bavaria, respectively, probably arriving in New York City around 1850. They lived at 84 1/2 Lewis Street from 1870 until the 1890s, when I think the building was demolished to make way for the Williamsburg Bridge. They then moved to 707 East 6th Street. Their new building was home to at least eight families, including Joseph and Lena and 17 of their relatives living in four of the units; most worked in the textile industry.
Marilyn Bowles-Nejman, Endwell, New York: My great-grandparents, Michael J. and Catherine (O’Reilly) Fitzsimmons, emigrated from Ireland. They had seven children (two died young). Catherine's father left her money, so Michael and Catherine were well off—they even owned a house in Brooklyn, with a carriage house across the street. Michael, who was well educated, worked at a furniture store in Manhattan. He lost his job and then they lost their home. The family moved into a tenement house on the grounds of the Brooklyn Home for Aged Men. Eventually, the agent for the tenement gave them one day’s notice that they would be evicted for lack of payment. Catherine was in the hospital at the time. With his last pennies, Michael purchased a bottle of carbolic acid. He gathered his children at home and told them to mind their mother. He went to his room, drank the acid, and died. My grandmother and her siblings were placed in a foundling home where they lived for several years. The Brooklyn newspapers carried the story on September 27, 1900. One paper ran this headline: “A story of misfortune which is not unusual in large cities—Something is wrong with our social system when poverty compels men to commit suicide."
Lynne Hayden-Findlay, New York City, New York: My great-aunt, Maria Heidorn Weissenborn, lived in a tenement with her second husband. Between 1890 and 1897, four of their daughters died from various forms of "tenement disease" before the age of four. (Their conditions included rheumatism, premature birth, bronchial pneumonia, gastrocolitis and asthmatic convulsions.) By 1900, Maria, her husband, and their surviving son, Julius, were able to move to a beautiful house in New Jersey. They had lived on the east side of Manhattan, in an area that was demolished in the late 1940s to build Stuyvesant Town—where I have lived for the past 40+ years, within a block or two of their original building site!
Upcoming Free American Inspiration Author Events
Brian Matthew Jordan and Debby Applegate
On January 11 Brian Matthew Jordan will discuss A Thousand May Fall: An Immigrant Regiment’s Civil War. See the Civil War anew in this intimate, absorbing chronicle revealing the forgotten contributions of immigrants to the Union cause. On January 19 Debby Applegate will present Madam: The Biography of Polly Adler, Icon of the Jazz Age. From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author comes a story of the Roaring Twenties and New York’s notorious Madam who played hostess to famous figures. Learn More
Database News
New towns in Massachusetts: Vital Records, 1620-1850
Today we’re announcing the addition of vital records from nine new towns in western Massachusetts to Massachusetts: Vital Records, 1620-1850. This update includes over 36,000 records and 80,400 names. The new records come from the Corbin Collection and include the following towns: Blandford, Florence, Goshen, Haydenville, Huntington, Middlefield, Monson, Pelham and Plainfield. Search Now
Educational events brought to you by
Holiday Image: American Winter Scene 1867. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.
