Those Places Thursday- Witebsk, Belarus and The Mother of Abraham Green or Rose (Brave) Green

Mother of Abraham Green or Rose Brave- name unknown.
Mother of Abraham Green or Rose Brave- name unknown.

One of the cardinal rules of genealogy should be, “Go back and look at everything again. Do it again. And again.” People mention it but we don’t always want to do it- we would rather do the exciting searching and find the big, new, ta-da!

I really should know better, and I really should revisit families every few years. I also really should have learned my lesson after searching for a maiden name for years, and then finding it later in handwritten notes taken while talking with older family members long ago. Oh well, the thrill of discovery was so sweet- at least until I realized I already had that information and could have been researching something else instead.

The above photo is a prime example of why one should revisit data after they have learned more, or just when time has passed and one can see things with a fresh eye. I have had a copy of this image for 30+ years, and occasionally thought about trying to have someone translate the reverse of the photo but didn’t know where I could get that done. Today I was looking at a scan of a family history album that a dear aunt put together, and it hit me- look up the word on the right– “Witebsk”- it is probably a place. Sure enough, it is. And it may have just told us where that branch of the family lived before immigration to the United States.

(Note: Family oral history and the death certificate of Rose Brave state she was born in Kaunas, Lithuania, which is 285 miles from Witebsk; Abraham was also born in Kaunas per oral history/their daughter.)

Mother of Abraham Green or Rose Brave- name unknown.
Reverse of Mother of Abraham Green or Rose Brave- name unknown.

The woman in the photo is probably the mother of either Abraham Green, or his wife, Rose (Brave) Green’s, mother. See my previous post for more information about Abraham Green and Rose Braef: http://heritageramblings.net/2014/01/07/wedding-wednesday-abraham-green-and-rose-braef-or-rose-brave If she is Rose’s mother, her first name may have been Sarah.

The portrait of the woman we suspect was Abraham or Rose’s mother was taken in Witebsk.

Vitebsk Map
Vitebsk Map

Witebsk is the Polish spelling for Vitebsk, one of the oldest Slavonic cities found in the northeastern section of what is today Belarus. It is strategically located at the Zapadnaya Dvina and the Vitba Rivers, and is a crossroad to many trade routes. It had been a part of Lithuania but became a part of Belarus and the Russian Empire in 1772. In 1812, Napoleon battled Russian armies near the walls of Vitebsk- Abraham and Rose’s parents or grandparents may have witnessed those battles.

Map of Europe with Belarus in green. Wikimedia Commons.
Map of Modern Europe with Belarus in green. Wikimedia Commons.

Witebsk and Belarus were centers of European Jewry for much of the 1800s, although the Russian Czars repressed the local Polish culture, and that of the Jews, during that time in a campaign of Russification. By the 1897 Russian Census, about 52% of the Vitebsk population of 65,900 were Jewish ( 34,400 persons). This large percentage of Jews persisted in the region until World War II. Sadly, in 1944 when the city was liberated from the German occupation, only about 118 of the city’s 138,000 inhabitants remained in the city; most of the Jews (possibly 16,000) had been moved to the Vitebsk Ghetto and then massacred in October 1941, possibly including some Green and Braef cousins. Other citizens had been put into concentration or work camps, died during the occupation, etc.

Abraham and Rose chose to emigrate in the mid-1880s, thankfully before the World Wars- was it the draw of freedom of religion, language, speech, assembly, etc. in America that made them undertake such an arduous plan? Was it a poor economy in Witebsk? Was it the parental hope of making life better for their children? Maybe all these played into the tough decision to leave family and friends and move to America.

Vitebsk Town Hall, built 1775. Wikimedia Commons,  GNU Free Documentation License.
Vitebsk Town Hall, built 1775. Wikimedia Commons, GNU Free Documentation License.

The town hall, above, would have been regularly seen by Rose and Abraham as they traveled throughout the city, as would be the Catholic churches below.

Painting by Józef Peszka, Viciebsk,_Rynak._Віцебск,_Рынак_(J._Pieška,_XIX).
Painting by Józef Peszka, Viciebsk,_Rynak._Віцебск,_Рынак_(J._Pieška,_XIX).

 

Marc Chagall (1887-1985), the Jewish artist, is one of the Vitebsk region’s most famous sons.

Today, Vitebsk is a cultural, industrial, and economic center in the region. With over 350,000 residents,  over one-fifth of the region’s industrial output is contributed by Vitebsk, concentrating in mechanical engineering, metal- and wood-working, light and food industries. Science and education are well represented. It is still a crossroads with connections via rail, air, and automobile transport.

 

Notes, Sources, and References:

1) Wikipedia entries and Wikimedia images for Belarus, Vitebsk, Vitebsk Ghetto, Marc Chagall: wikipedia.org.

2) Vitebsk City Executive Committee Offical Site: http://www.vitebsk.gov.by/en/region/history

 

Please contact us if you would like higher resolution images.

Copyright 2014 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

 

 




Time Travel Tuesday: Time Traveling into the Future

1940s Birthday Card- Front
1940s Birthday Card- Front

When we think of time traveling, especially as genealogists, we tend to think of traveling back in time, to the past. This was discussed in a post a couple of weeks ago,  “Where- and When- Will Your Family History Research Take You?” at http://heritageramblings.net/2013/12/10/time-travel-tu…earch-take-you/

Of course, there are also those who look to the future- space travel and life on distant planets intrigues them. Making memories today for those to have in the future is an important part of life, too. As we have children and grandchildren, even great-grandchildren if we are lucky to be here with them, we think about making the time count more and more.

 

Have you ever thought about making memories for others you don’t even know? How about providing them with the means to have memories that will be cherished throughout their future, and a way they can time travel to the early 21st century when they are old and living in a space station revolving around the Earth? The way that I love to do this is by making handmade greeting cards that get sent to our troops overseas. Since there are no Hallmark stores in the mountains of Afghanistan and other remote places our troops serve, these handmade cards are for many occasions- birthday, anniversary, thinking of you, thanks, Christmas, etc. The cards are decorated on the front and are blank or have a sentiment inside, so that our troops can write home to their families on special occasions- or just any day of the week that ends in “y.” 😀  It is a great way for families to keep in touch, but more importantly, a way for them to keep those memories throughout the years- something that cannot easily be done with our electronic communications today. Deployed troops and their family members have written notes to the various organizations and said how much they treasure a love letter from a spouse in these cards, and how fun it is to send a Halloween, Way to Go, Birthday, etc. card to their children back home. (Click the links below to read heartfelt thank yous from our troops.)

1940s Birthday Card- Inside
1940s Birthday Card- Inside

There are a number of groups that collect cards from cardmakers, package them up in boxes with no duplicates and for a variety of occasions, and then send cases overseas to military units around the globe. The cards can be found by our troops in Chaplain’s offices, chow halls, etc.- anyplace they can gather and write a note. One Chaplain even carried them in the many pockets of his fatigues, to hand out to servicemembers he met out in the field. Our troops are able to mail the cards home for free- no stamps needed. Some units even use the cards to give to those deployed on their birthdays!

Probably the biggest group that sends cards to our troops is Operation Write Home (OWH). They have sent over 2.5 million cards since 2007. They also send “AnyHero Mail”- these are cards made or purchased, a note, or even a coloring page by kids, with a ‘thank you’ note written in by folks here at home. “AnyHero Mail” goes to any service member- they are given out to troops who may not receive much mail, or those who need a lift, or just someone passing by who would appreciate a note of thanks for their hard, dangerous, work. “AnyHero Mail” is a great project for schools, companies, church groups, and Scouts. (Our BSA troop really enjoyed it, and some of the boys really got into writing a note to a service member thanking him or her for such unselfish service.)

My favorite group, though, is smaller but still sends a lot of boxes of cards to our military: From Our Hearts in Jefferson City, Missouri. They had sent 380,000 cards overseas by Nov. 4, 2013. They also collect supplies and have a big ‘garage sale’ for crafters, with the proceeds going to pay for mailing supplies, postage, etc.

Please make sure that if you choose to make cards, that you follow the guidelines for each group- it is very important to not use glitter on any mail sent to our troops, because if it gets on their uniforms, the enemy may be able to see them at night. Additionally, strong adhesives are needed because of the heat in the desert,  deadlines must be followed to allow time for the cards to get to the troops and then mailed home before a holiday, no parts of commercial cards may be used, etc.

If you don’t want to make cards but want to help make memories, any of these groups would be very grateful for donations, even very small ones- you know how much postal rates and supplies have increased!

 

Please visit one of the links below, or find a local group that makes cards to send to our troops. Being old enough to remember the horrible way our Vietnam Veterans were treated when they returned to the US, I am so happy to be a part of something that helps to honor our troops and their families, and the sacrifices they all make to protect our precious freedoms and those of people around the world. It is wonderful to be able to time travel into the future, knowing that a card I made with love was sent with love by a service member to family or friend. That card may be stashed in a box of treasured items that will always be held close to heart, for many years, and many generations, to come.

 

1940s Birthday Card- Back
1940s Birthday Card- Back

 

 

Notes, Sources, and References:

1) Operation Write Home: http://operationwritehome.org

2) From Our Hearts: http://www.fromourhearts.info

 

Please contact us if you would like a higher resolution image.

Copyright 2013 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.




New Year’s Resolution 2014- FSLOW

Searching for something...
1955- Searching for something…

 

Find it.
Scan it.
Label it.
Organize it.
Write about it.

 

FSLOW.

That’s my New Year’s Resolution.

We won’t talk about all the things the acronym could mean.

‘Nuff said. Off to FSLOW.

 

Challenge, anyone???

[Edited to add: Oops! If you already received this post in your email as a subscriber, I apologize for the repeat. I was trying to schedule it for January 1, 2014- when I entered the date to publish, I forgot about changing that last digit for the New Year. So it published itself on Jan. 1, 2013, thus appearing in your mailbox today. Oh well, my first New Year since starting the blog- hopefully I’ll remember next year to change to 201..- oh, I just can’t bear to think about how quickly that number will appear on our calendars.]

 

Please contact us if you would like a higher resolution image.

Copyright 2013 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.




Stories- A Family Legacy, Part 2

Edith Roberts- Declamatory Contest. Prairie City News, Prairie City, Jasper Co., Iowa, shortly after 2 Feb 1917. (from a clipping without date)
Edith Roberts- Declamatory Contest. Prairie City News, Prairie City, Jasper Co., Iowa, shortly after 2 Feb 1917. (From a clipping without date)

Telling the family stories is a wonderful legacy to pass on to your children.

But I can’t find ANYTHING about my ancestor ANYWHERE…

Don’t know much about the actual stories of the lives of your ancestors? There are many resources available, both online and at specific places that can help you piece together a life and/or a family. If you are not lucky enough to have many family stories, you can learn more about your ancestors to help put their lives in context.

Newspapers

Newspapers are a great resource for learning the stories of ancestors, or the places and times in which they lived. Newspapers of 50+ years ago included who was visiting where, long or one-line obituaries, detailed political and voter information, etc. The obituary of Jefferson Springsteen (1820-1909) tells of him running away to join the circus as a boy- how could he then be upset when his son Abram Springsteen ran away to join the Union Army as a drummer boy at age 12? There is a story there… A short note about Miss Edith Roberts (1899-1982) taking first place in the Declamatory Contest as well as “the Dramatic’ is on the same page as the notice of  the “Death of Grandma Roberts” (her paternal grandmother, Elizabeth Ann Murrell Roberts, 1835-1917). What mixed emotions Edith must have felt that day! Such information from newspapers allows us to realize and then understand the challenges and triumphs of those who have gone before, and help us tell the stories of our ancestor’s lives.

"Death of Grandma Roberts"- Elizabeth Ann Murrell Roberts. Prairie City News, Prairie City, Jasper Co., Iowa. Undated newspaper clipping but Elizabeth died 02 Feb 1917.
“Death of Grandma Roberts”- Elizabeth Ann Murrell Roberts. Prairie City News, Prairie City, Jasper Co., Iowa. Undated newspaper clipping but Elizabeth died 02 Feb 1917.

Genealogy Bank is my favorite newspaper website for ease of use and breadth of papers held, though it is a for-pay website. Ancestry.com also has newspapers, as do a few other for-pay websites. Some favorite free websites are chroniclingamerica.loc.gov, http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc for California newspapers, and http://fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html for New York state and other newspapers, postcards, etc.

If you can’t find articles about your own family, read through the headlines, ads, and social columns of the newspaper from where they lived and during that time period- it will help to put your ancestors into the context of their times.

Books

There are many books that can be found in the history section of the bookstore or library that can help you to piece together more information about your ancestor’s probable daily life. (Jane Austen’s England by Roy Adkins is on my list to read- it tells about everyday life in the late 18th and early 19th century England.) Used or out-of-print books may be found at abebooks.com, alibris.com, or a local used bookseller can do a search for you. Many other family or social history sources can be found on Google Books (books.google.com), such as county histories. Although your ancestor may not have had the money or inclination to buy a writeup in a county history (AKA “Mug Books” since they sometimes required a payment to be included), just reading about the area in the first part of the history can give an idea of the topography, religion, economics, goods and services provided, social groups, etc. Google Books may give you a snippet of information from a book so that you can determine if you would like to buy it, or it may provide an ebook for free to download. The Internet Archive (https://archive.org) has millions of pages of books, videos, etc. available for free. (Sadly, some of them are OCR’d images and may be hard to read, but may still be useful.) They also offer “The  Way Back Machine” to help you find old web pages from now-defunct websites. Another good free online book source is hathitrust.org.

WorldCat (http://www.worldcat.org) is a great place to find a book, and then your library may be able to get it on interlibrary loan for you if it can’t be found locally. College libraries that include manuscript or special collections and dissertations may provide wonderful information. Some may be dry and/or scholarly, but you may be able to find information that can help you enhance the date and place information you already know about your family.

Here are some social history questions to ask, and research, about your ancestor’s time, place, and life:

What events were going on locally, nationally?

What was the economy like? Boom time or bust, or just a long struggle like in the 1890s?

What were prevailing religious views?

What were political leanings and issues of those in the area where your ancestor lived?

What provided income to your ancestor, and how common was that occupation?

Some of the answers can help provide family stories. We inherited some strange tools- they were very old and it was hard to tell what they were used for. They belonged to descendants of George Lee (1821-aft 1880) who lived in Irthlingborough, Northamptonshire, England, which was a large shoe-making center. George and his sons all came to America, and at least one son, Josiah, was a shoemaker. With the knowledge that shoemaking was important in their hometown in England, and then the US Federal Census that listed shoemaking as an occupation for Josiah, some online research for shoemaking tools helped us identify the purpose of the artifacts. The tools we have were probably Josiah’s, and now we can add shoemakers to the family stories.

When telling your family stories, whether in print, electronic form, or oral stories, it is important to ALWAYS differentiate general facts from those known specifically about your family. Also, document sources with proper citations, so that you or others may revisit those sources to verify or  disprove ideas and ‘facts.’

 

Adding social history to your research can give a deeper understanding of the lives of our ancestors, and enrich the family stories we leave as a legacy to our descendants.

 

Notes, Sources, and References:

1) Newspaper clippings are from the Prairie City News, around 02 Feb 1917.

2) I have no affiliation with any of the websites listed, and do not receive any benefits from them financially or in product. (FTC Disclosure.)

Please contact us if you would like higher resolution images.

Copyright 2013 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

SaveSave




Stories- A Family Legacy, Part 1

Edith Roberts McMurray with Son, about 1924.
Edith Roberts McMurray with Son, about 1924.

Family historians have a saying:

Genealogy without sources is just ‘mythology.’

We really should go a step further and say:

Genealogy without stories is just… well, BORING!

A recent New York Times article, “This Life. The Stories That Bind Us,” discusses developing a “strong family narrative.” The article (and book) is based on research by the Emory University psychologist Marshall Duke and his colleague Robyn Fivush. Their studies showed that children who had a strong sense of their family history had a higher sense of control of their life and greater self esteem. They also found these children were more resilient when faced with challenges.  This research hit home with me- at tough times in my life, my grandmother would tell me, “You come from strong pioneer stock- you can do anything you set your mind to.” Knowing those pioneer stories, and knowing the family support I had, helped me get through those tough times and use it as a lesson in my own life, and helped some of those times become a story for our own family.

When I started doing genealogy back in the 1960s (I really was a teen then, so not quite THAT old now), pedigree charts, family group sheets, and Ahnantafel and Register reports full of names and dates and places were what genealogy was all about. What really hooked me, though, was a trip to the county library where I found a book that actually told a story about my ancestors. I had family bible, obituary, and other information that my grandmother helped me find, but they were just cold, hard facts (mostly). When I saw the Benjamin name in a book I was browsing in the library stacks, however, my heart skipped a beat. I didn’t think it could possibly be my ancestors in a library book. Then I saw the name Brown, and because of the place and dates, knew it had to be my ancestors! The book was a reference book, so I could not check it out. I couldn’t stop reading, even though I knew my mother would be sitting out in the car waiting to pick me up. (See, I really wasn’t that old- couldn’t drive yet.) The story was about an Indian massacre of the Brown and Benjamin families in Loyalsock, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, in May of 1778. Many family members were killed, others taken captive and later released. (More in an upcoming post.) I copied the information by hand- copiers were still new-fangled  machines back then and not readily available- and rushed breathlessly to the car. My mother was not happy she was kept waiting, but thrilled when I told her what I had found about my father’s family. She was somewhat disappointed that it was not her family, and felt that since her ancestors were probably poor immigrants from Ireland and Germany, we would not find much about them. Little did she know what wonderful stories were to come about her family- one of her “poor immigrant” ancestors was actually a physician, John H. O’Brien (1808-1887). Dr. O’Brien came to America shortly after receiving his medical degree at the University of  Dublin, Ireland, around 1830, in the midst of a cholera epidemic in Pennsylvania. He survived and married Jane Neel (1823-1895) who came from a family of early pioneers in this country. (More about them in another post too.)

Social History

Telling the stories of the common people is a part of ‘social history.’ Scholarly historians have long looked down on genealogy as a mythology of name seekers who want to be related to someone famous, but are finally realizing that the everyday life of everyday people has as much importance as famous generals, battles, and political figures. (I think even more important.) This movement began with books such as Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s, A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812, and continues with the hundreds of books more recently published by both scholarly and family historians. Some of the books are biographies, but others are scholarly studies on events or places. These books can help us place family in the context of the times. Tip: Check the index to see if your family is listed. Indexes do not always pick up every individual, however, so skim through the book and you may find a treasure. Even if your family member is not listed, other information in the book may apply to your family. I had ancestors in northern New England in the late 1600s-early 1700s, so another Ulrich book, Good Wives: Image and Reality in the Lives of Women in Northern New England, 1650-1750, had much information to help me gain a sense of what their daily lives would have been like.

 To be continued…

Notes, Sources, and References:

1) New York Times article “This Life. The Stories That Bind Us” published online 15 Mar 2013 at http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/17/fashion/the-family-stories-that-bind-us-this-life.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2. “Bruce Feiler’s recently published book, “The Secrets of Happy Families: How to Improve Your Morning, Rethink Family Dinner, Fight Smart, Go Out and Play, and Much More.”

2) Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812  (Knopf, New York, 1990)

3) Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Good Wives: Image and Reality in the Lives of Women in Northern New England, 1650-1750  (Knopf, New York, 1980.)