by Paula Stuart-Warren, CG

In Part One of this series, we looked at some records that tend to be overlooked by many researchers. As promised, we’re going to delve a little deeper into some of the records mentioned in that article. Records related to orphanages are covered in today’s edition of this continuing series. Although I am writing from the viewpoint of U.S. records, much of this relates to orphanages in other countries too. 
           
Who Lived in Orphanages?
Children who were truly orphaned by the death of both parents needed a place to live and not all were taken in by neighbors or relatives. Many were sent to orphanages. Other residents of orphanages were children who had lost only one parent or whose parents could not raise them. Others were children who had been abandoned and the parental situation may not have been known. There may be files on the children, cemetery records for the parent(s) or children, or data on whether the child left the orphanage. Continue reading →

by Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak

As I write this, it’s a gorgeous Saturday morning here in South Jersey. It’s bright and sunny–a perfect day for a walk. So my husband and I decided to meander around our town.

Not surprisingly, we stumbled across a few garage sales–and then, an auction. An elderly woman had been placed in a nursing home, so something had to be done with her belongings. That something was an auction.

History for Sale
All of this woman’s possessions had been piled in rows across the lawn and driveway. A crowd of perhaps twenty-five people milled about and poked through everything as an auctioneer sold off lot after lot. Linens, once stylish hats, even canned goods. You name it.

Of course, I had to look. I had to do exactly what I do whenever I enter an antiques store and check for any family-related items. Much to my dismay, I spotted it almost instantly. A framed, 1916 marriage certificate written in Cyrillic. I picked it up and sounded out the names–Maksim and Anastasia. I could make out that they had married in a church called St. Michael’s in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 12 February 1916. And this really got me–they were Greek Catholic. That’s the same relatively unknown faith of half of my own ancestors. An authentic marriage certificate like this was a treasure, up for sale to the highest bidder. Continue reading →

Photo Contest
I would like to share an idea that has become very popular in our family. I am the “keeper” of the family history and have accumulated many photographs over the years. My brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, and children have only been mildly interested in the history of our family.

Several months ago I started a quiz contest. Each week or so, I e-mail everyone a photograph from my collection with a quiz question. Usually I just ask, “Who am I?” but sometimes when that is too easy I’ll change the question, maybe to “Where was this picture taken?” or “Name the year.”

The first person to e-mail me back the answer gets a point and every few weeks I release the “standings.” I am pleasantly surprised at how popular and competitive it has become. Everyone is enjoying it very much and an added benefit is that they are calling my parents much more frequently to describe a picture to them and ask who it is.
 
Nancy Grant Continue reading →

The year was 1884 and it was an election year. The candidates’ campaigns were both marred by scandal. The Democratic candidate Grover Cleveland, who had been governor of New York, was reported to have had an illegitimate son with a young widow. Rather than deny the charges, Cleveland stepped up, admitted the affair, and took responsibility. This diffused the situation and eyes turned to his Republican opponent, James Blaine, who was accused of taking bribes from a railroad in exchange for a land grant. Cleveland won the election by a narrow margin and began the first of two non-successive terms.

The women’s suffrage movement was gaining momentum and on 8 March, Susan B. Anthony petitioned Congress for women’s right to vote. A suffragist who devoted much of her life to the cause, Ms. Anthony died in 1906, fourteen years before the amendment, nicknamed in her honor the “Anthony Amendment,” would be ratified in August of 1920.

In England, it was the vote of working class males in rural areas that was at stake. William Gladstone negotiated the 1884 Reform Act, which would enfranchise more than 6 million men. Continue reading →

Contributed by Marilyn Givian Franklin, Lithonia, GA
My paternal grandmother, Anna Roberson (a.k.a., Todd, Gadsen, Givian). She lived the majority of her life in Dallas County, Alabama. This picture was taken in Atlanta, Georgia, about 1943. She died in Escambia County, Florida, in 1945, at the age of fifty-three.

Click on the photo to enlarge it.

Contributed by Kim Valentine, Ontario, Canada
This is a photo taken about 1911 of great-grandfather Edward Hilliard (Bursar of Balliol College, Oxford, England, his wife Kathline Margaret Alexander Arden, and their children Edward Arden Hilliard (b. 1904), Heather Evelyn (b. 1899), Barbara Joyce (b. 1902), and
Margaret Lilian Kathleen (b. 1907).