Joshua Jelly-Schapiro with Names of New York: Discovering the City's Past, Present, and Future Through Its Place-Names
Join author Joshua Jelly-Schapiro tomorrow at 6 p.m. for a journey through the history of New York City's place names. Submit your own family’s history as you register for possible inclusion in the extended Q&A!
Mary Antin was a Jewish American writer who lived in Boston at the turn of the 20th century and is known for her 1912 bestseller The Promised Land, documenting her experiences as an immigrant in America. She met Alfred Seelye Roe, an educator, editor, and politician from Worcester, after a lecture he gave at Park Street Church in 1898. This collection from the Wyner Family Jewish Heritage Center contains nineteen letters written by Antin to Roe between 1898-1900, and 1912-1913. Browse the letters and discover more Jewish heritage in our online Digital Library & Archives!
Diaries are important primary source records and can provide incredible insight into daily life in a specific time and place. This webinar will feature just some of the diaries held by the R. Stanton Avery Special Collections and the Wyner Family Jewish Heritage Center. Join us Thursday, May 6 at 3 p.m. ET.
The Wyoming Digital Newspaper Collection is a project of the University of Wyoming and the Wyoming State Libraries. The collection is comprised of over 140,000 issues of Wyoming newspapers from as early as 1849. Search by entering keywords in the search box. Clicking the search icon will bring you to the advanced search page where you can filter by publication date, county, city, and/or title. Click the page number link in the search results to view the page image. Click Browse on the site’s homepage to browse the collection by title, date, or county.
Thank you for sharing your DNA stories with us! Here’s a recent submission.
"Because my paternal ancestry is 100% Ashkenazi Jewish, I receive many DNA matches, usually at the 4th to 6th cousin level, without genealogical records to support the match. In 2013, I convinced one of my uncles and my three brothers to take Y DNA tests. Within six months I received an email from a 2nd cousin match in Israel whose surname was very similar to my grandfather's. With help from Google translate, we determined that both of our families were originally from the Poltava gubernia in the Russian Empire (now Ukraine). We have not been able to trace back to our common ancestor using records, but we are very confident that we are indeed cousins. Given the fate of most Jews in that area during the second world war, we never thought we would ever find such a close match." —Karen Pogoloff
Above: Three generations of the Balinky family who emigrated from Priluki, Poltava, Russian Empire beginning in 1891. Karen's maternal grandmother, Bertha Balinky Pogoloff, is the little girl with the big bow in her hair.
What We’re Reading
Phineas Gage, Neuroscience’s Most Famous Patient In 1848, due to a catastrophic accident near Cavendish, Vermont, railroad foreman Phineas Gage was apparently transformed from a clean-cut, virtuous foreman into a dirty, scary, sociopathic drifter. This article reevaluates long-held conclusions about the effects of this incident on Gage’s life.
When a Founding Father Invited Prince Henry of Prussia to Rule America In 1786, during the precarious months preceding the Constitutional Convention, Nathaniel Gorham of Massachusetts, the former President of the Continental Congress, secretly concocted his own plan to save the fragile, new nation.
DNA Testing Reunites Long- Lost Family After 60 Years When Laurie Gandel Samuels became a grandmother in 2020, she began researching her family history for her grandchildren. She connected with German relatives and then learned about her family origins in Belarus.
The Weekly Genealogist Survey
Last week's survey asked about your ancestors or relatives who moved because of a health condition (such as tuberculosis). We received 2,894 responses. The results are:
37%, Yes
30%, No
33%, I don't know.
This week's question asks about your ancestors who were orphans. 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: Ancestors Who Moved for Health Reasons
By Jean Powers, Senior Editor
Last week's survey asked about your ancestors who moved for health reasons. Thank you to everyone who replied. Below is a selection of reader responses.
Frances Taylor, San Francisco, California: My great-grandfather, Barton Stout Taylor (1820-1898), was a physician in Lansing, Michigan. After diagnosing himself with tuberculosis, he decided in 1852 to travel south for his health. He purchased a horse and carriage and began a journey with his wife, Marietta Rowland Taylor, their 4-year-old son, Augustus, infant daughter, Ada, and a "nurse girl." They traveled through Indiana, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama. Marietta sang in concerts at churches and town halls along the way for income. Barton returned from the trip healthy, but Marietta died of tuberculosis in 1857.
Christine Cohen, Redondo Beach, California: My ancestors, George and Nancy (Boyce) Cline, moved from Franklinville, New York, to Strawberry, Iowa, in November 1864. Letters from Nancy to her brother David in New York describe the move, undertaken to improve George's health. In May 1866, Nancy wrote that "George is no better. He grows weaker and he is not much but skin and bones." In July 1866, "George might get well yet if he had the right medicine, there is a woman who say she knows she can cure him if she can get some tamarack bark." Sadly, George died September 18, 1866. On October 14, Nancy wrote “ . . . it is no light task to bring up three children alone but my back will be fitted for the burden and all will be well." In June 1867, Nancy married Nelson Fenner, a widower with ten children. She died in 1925.
Ellen Frueh, Schenectady, New York: My great-grandfather's niece, Florence Chapin, left her Connecticut home at age 25 to live with her Aunt Sarah and Uncle George in Arizona. It was hoped the hot dry air would cure her illness (presumably tuberculosis). Her sister Addie followed a year later to help care for Florence. Florence, Addie, and Aunt Sarah wrote numerous letters to family members. Florence was optimistic and upbeat; she spoke of how she was feeling stronger and gaining weight. Addie's and Sarah's letters were probably more truthful and detailed Florence's weakness, pain, coughing, inability to speak, difficulty eating, and weight loss. Florence’s treatments included nitrate of silver, panopeton, rubbings, electric treatments, vegetable antitoxin, and whisky ("but that goes to her head too much," Addie wrote). Sadly, Florence died less than 2 years after leaving Connecticut.
Charlie Bass, Corpus Christi, Texas: My great-great-grandfather, John Henry Bass, MD, was born in Mississippi and served as a surgeon for the Confederacy. He kept a diary of his wartime experiences, including being shot with a Yankee bullet in May of 1864 near Atlanta. He moved with his brother and father to Texas after the war and in 1866 they opened a pharmacy in Sulphur Springs. Owing to a war wound, Dr. Bass sought the "higher, drier" climate of Abilene, which became my family's home for the next four generations.
Online Course: View-Only
Massachusetts Research: Four Centuries of History and Genealogy
This online course will provide a century-by-century look at the resources and research strategies essential to exploring your Massachusetts roots. Registration is full, but due to popular demand we have created a view-only option for this course. All course materials available through August 2021.
