Genealogy By Tim G.: A Personal Audio Blog

Although the summer of 2022 has been highly productive, I did not manage to complete even three of my six challenges. I did, however, make some progress cataloging soldiers buried at the Philadelphia National Cemetery's Mexican War Monument. I did visit a local cemetery with my brother and his kids. I did get back some Y-DNA results. I did solve a long-standing family history mystery. I did do some seaside genealogy in Atlantic County, New Jersey. So even though I did not manage to complete even half of my challenges. I still call this summer of research a success. Why? Because it's my show. I do what I want. ? Links in the show notes.

This month on the podcast, in the process of preparing family history media galleries for web publication, I take a stroll down memory lane, and revisit a few research loose ends for ancestor surnames beginning with the letters 'A' and 'B', specifically the Anflicks, Arrighys, Balmers, and Berrys. Then I take on a Find-a-Grave photography project. Lastly, I give updates on last months proposed summer challenges.

This month I launch my 14-day free trial of Ancestry.com in order to discover photos from public member trees that are not available to AncestryLibrary users. I describe some recent adventures in self-hosting, including hard drive corruption, data loss, and restoration from backup. Lastly, I lay out some personal challenges for my upcoming summer vacation. Links in the show notes.

In this month's episode, recorded on May 7th, I make some early discoveries in the 1950 Census, including my Grandaunt Sheila's occupation as census taker and my Granduncle Albert's residency Philadelphia State Hospital at Byberry. I make contact through FamilySearch with some potential distant cousins along the Smith and Foley lines, including an e-mail contact with a descendant of Bernard Smith of Boston. Lastly, a recent update to the Webtrees software will enable me to whitelist photographs and documents as I clear them for publication.

I break the 20 minute podcast precedent to say, in one audio file, everything I know about my family's roots in the region now known as Ukraine. I begin with a little bit of deep history on how the area came to be a part of the Russian Empire in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. I continue to describe a likely reason why the Anflick and Snyder families left the area, and I finish up by listing off some of the place names within present day Ukraine that are of family history importance, so you know what areas to focus on as you watch the news for updates on the war. Links are in the show notes.

We discover more documents about the Snyders this month, including Minnie Snyder's immigrant passenger list, Blitztein and Lipschutz Bank passage order records for Minnie and Eva, and a Sing Sing prison record for another member of the Snyder family. Lastly, we say farewell to my father's Aunt Sheila, who passed away this month at the age of 92. Links are in the show notes.

This month on the podcast, I visit the Saints Peter and Paul Cemetery in Springfield, Delaware County, Pennsylvania to photograph a Smith monument, and I make a breakthrough in Snyder family research, revealing the identity of the long-elusive "Mrs. I. Beechman", sister of Minnie Snyder Anflick and Pauline Snyder Miller. Links in the show notes.

This month I inadvertently added my podcast feed to the Google Podcasts directory.  We're now live and searchable to the podcast-listening world! Let's hope my server can handle it! I've also apparently exhausted my FamilySearch.org Family Tree document hints. I'm sure I didn't clear them all, so where did they go? Lastly, my genealogy origin story. Hear my grandfather, Joseph A. Graham, describe in a 2007 recording how our Graham ancestors allegedly fled Scotland for Ireland. My desire to confirm this story through documentary evidence evolved into a lifelong genealogy obsession.

This month I received a pair of contacts online, on through Facebook, and another through FamilySearch.org. One of these contacts was more closely related than the other. I talk about them, and offer a few tips for using Facebook to enhance your genealogy.