Mother's (and mother and mothers and mothers...) DAy

Mother's day used to be a sort of second tier holiday that I took for granted.  I thought of it as a Hallmark Holiday and not one that required a great deal of effort and usually did little more than call my mom.  Many years I sent flowers or a gift but I never thought of it as a biggie.

Then I lost my mom and I regret not celebrating it to the max all the while.  It's ironic that the person who would most dig the creative display projects featured on this blog was my mother.  I wish I had learned to do some of this earlier.  She loved antiques, pictures and other vestiges of our Americana heritage more than anyone else in my family and she would have loved this next project.

With no one I can call Mom (no step mothers, no living grandmothers, no mother in laws) I am off the hook now for this holiday but the void on this day after losing Mom is much more intense than any other day for some reason.

Anyway, while updating my ancestry.com file with pictures I've gathered from more distant family members, I noticed that I had an unusually long string of photos (by number of generations) in one of my lines.  And even more interestingly, they were up the purely maternal line.  Damn....why isn't Mom here to show, I thought.

Then thought of how this string continued on through my sister to her daughter making an unbroken line of SEVEN generations of mothers and daughters of whom I have photographs...so....my sister is a mother...I decided I would celebrate mother's day with her by honoring her since she is the closest relative of mine who is a mother herself.  And this crazy luck re the photographs was a perfect opportunity.

This would be difficult to design however.  There were a lot of issues to ponder.  All black and white or do I use color when I have it?  What format is best and how can I put seven photos in one display without it being very big or with pictures too small to actually see unless the viewer was right next to it.

In the end, i decided to go with 4x6 photos side by side which would mean that I would need a pretty wide frame.  My usual frame vendor had a frame that would work well enough from a width perspective but would leave a lot of space above and below the photos.

So what to do with that space.  I could put biographies below each one but that would detract from the simplicity of the message.  Perhaps just a label below it.  I decided on the latter to say something like 172 years of mothers and daughters 1841-2013.  The only problem was that it was a pretty long title and my printer would only print a page 11 inches long which was a mere fraction of the entire width.  Plus, it looked rather...I don't know....plain and uninteresting have an opening n the mat for that phrase in a perfectly rectangle box.

The it came to me...what about those little scroll like things below coats of arms that have mottos and such?  I would have to do it some way that only uses straight lines as my mat cutter is not magic...But, I thought to myself, a mottoesque scroll is a little masculine for this project...maybe it's not such a great idea here....what could soften it up a bit?  That would allow me to split up the entire thing into three pieces meaning I wouldn't be limited to 11 inches total in width.

Then it occurred to me that if I made the scroll look more like a hair ribbon than a scroll of parchment, it would fit better with the theme.  So I used a light blue textured fill with white stripes and a font that was pretty but not overly ornate or gaudy.  Then I cut out the seven frames for the pictures and inserted photographs of each of the seven mothers and daughters with a brief label on the bottom of each that displayed their name, their birth and death year and their relationship to their daughter (save for my niece who I described as daughter of my sister).

The result is one of my favorite projects to date.  The first thing my sister said when she saw it was "Oh David, Mom would have loved this."  Alas...

A More Contemporary Decor Idea...

Earlier, I demonstrated a way to celebrate one of my Ellis Island/20th century immigrant using his certificate of citizenship, ship's manifest from his voyage, and a photograph of the ship on which he arrived.

Today, I will bump up the degree of difficulty and creativity to make something celebrating this same man but which results in a more contemporary decor look.

Once again, I used the citizenship certificate of my great grandfather, Jan Paruch.

This time however, I used a photo editor to remove the wrinkles and old lines which would be more noticeable and less appropriate for this purpose.  Then, I in effect, made 9 copies of the certificate from a very high resolution scan each of which was 8.5" x 11" the same size as the whole original.  For each copy, however, I cropped the image to only use 1/9th of the overall image each one of a 3x3 subsection of the whole.  One of these images looks so:

Now the reason this works is because the original document was of such high resolution (including the tiny photo of my great grandfather attached to it!) coupled with access to a high resolution scan that loses near nothing of the original.

The next steps include trimming the image to an 8x10 size and gluing it to some gesso board (masonite).  Then, I glued a thicker gesso board block of greater thickness but much smaller in width and height, to the back to the board so that when I hung it on the wall, the panel with the image would not be flush with the wall but rather "floating" out from the wall creating a shadow and depth.

Finally, I made a faux picture frame out of standard wood trim I found at the hardware store and some satin black paint and some wood glue.  To mount it on the wall, I found S shaped brackets that are used for some legimate purpose I presume and used glue to adhere them to the frame.

And because this was a panel display that requires precise placement of each panel to make a whole, I mounted all of these panels and the frame using Velcro tape adhesive which allows for adjustment of the panel position.

And voila, a more contemporary styled display for a more modern look despite the less than contemporary subject.  I placed this one over my bar in the foyer and I think you can see the scale of the project from the bottles of liquor below it.  It may be harder to see in a picture but the frame and panels are all an inch away from the wall.

What do you think?

Ellis Island Immigrant

For those of us with not only long time Yankee (or tidewater Virginia, etc.) colonial immigrant ancestry but also relatively recent late 19th/early 20th century ethnic ancestry, one of the most the common stories involves a great grandfather escaping famine, subjugation, or just plain bleak prospects in Eastern or Southern Europe in search of a better life in America.  This archetypal American story usually involves a ship full of foreigners who likely can't speak English, have little idea how to spell their name or home town in the mother country, and a two week or more journey across the Atlantic to Ellis Island or similar ports teaming with millions with similar stories.

In many ways, this story resonates deeper with us than that colonial ancestor who arrived with or shortly after the pilgrims in Plymouth or in Jamestown because we many have even met or certainly knew older relatives who remembered their stories which escaped the fog of time and memory and are relatively fresh family legend and anecdotes still bantered around at family reunions and the holidays.

Luckily for those of us with such ancestry, which is most of us in the United States, these ancestors' journeys and arrival are much more likely to have left evidence in the records of our Country and in the trunks, shoe boxes, and photo albums of our older relatives.  Thus, creating a genealogical display of their story which usually resonates much greater with us today is typically an easier project with greater options and avenues for one's creativity.

For this project, I am creating a framed collection of images documenting my great grandfather's (my father's maternal grandfather), Jan Paruch's, journey from southern Poland (Galicia or Malopolski for you Polish purists) to United States citizen.  Jan Paruch left Poland for good in 1912 and although he bypassed the chaos at Ellis Island by traveling to Canada and then to Detroit through Port Huron, MI, the display is no less compelling.

Thankfully, my father had in his possession and was thoughtful enough to save and pass on an envelope that he presumably found when my ancestor's daughter and son in law (my grandparents who lived in the same house) died not so long ago.  In this envelope was Jan Paruch's U.S. Citizenship certificate which although folded for nearly 70 years, was in good condition considering it was issued in 1939.

Framing the original by itself was a wonderful option and one I may pursue but in the meantime I had a very special relative, my godmother and Aunt Arlene (Dad's sister) to thank for her willingness to send to me her oldest and most treasured family photographs of our family so that I could scan them in and use them in another project or to frame by themselves.  Thus, I wanted to create a display for her while preserving the original for myself.

At top is the original Citizenship certificate as I found it in the envelope my father gave me.  As you can it is in great shape considering it had been folded for 70 years after being handled and perhaps displayed or passed around to proud relatives upon receiving it.  While the scan is fine and could be used as is (the folds could even lend an air of authenticity to it being the original I suppose) I wanted to reduce the distortions from a not exactly flat document.  Further, the photograph of my great grandfather has flaws in the hairline and margin of the photograph that likely came from where it was stapled to the original application.

The problem with using the typical flattening techniques (other than just putting it in a dictionary for a few years) is that they usually involves some sort of liquid like water or at least steam being applied to the paper to loosen the fibers in the paper, before applying heat via an iron to the document.  Normally this might be worth the risk but this was an original which contained an actually photograph of some age and the several signatures, two of which were my great grandfather's in ink the durability of which when interacting with water I could not predict or risk.

As a compromise, I placed the document in my bathroom on a shelf shielded from any possible splashing, and turned on the shower on hot with the door closed for ten minutes.  While using steam from the shower was still a risk, it was a minor one compared to the suggested spray bottle, etc.  After about ten minutes of steam, I placed the document face down on a clean sheet of paper and covered it with another, after which I ironed the image using constant motion being sure not to shift the document relative to the paper buffers and with a no steam setting.  This flattened out the document somewhat and was followed by placement of the document including the paper covering in an Atlas which was placed under a stack of uniformly spaced heavy books.

After two days, the document was somewhat flatter but still retained creases as I found it and the imprint of a seal (forget to mention the danger of losing this aspect of the document) which was applied to the document partially overlapping the picture.

Citizenship papers for Jan Paruch, my great grandfather

Finally, I rescanned the document, and used the free online photo editor from Google, Picasa, to touch up the blemishes in the photograph from the staples, which might bother purists, but was minor enough to ease by my conscious without difficulty.

The result was not dramatic but I think useful for this project.  it may be difficult to see but the image below reflects the lessened distortive effect of the folding and the picture touch-ups:


Details of the Journey to Citizenship
While framing the certificate would certainly be a wonderful thing to display by itself, it doesn't so much tell his story as document the destination.  After some work on ancestry.com, familysearch.com, ellisisland.com, etc., I discovered and verified that Jan Paruch emigrated from Poland for good in 1912 via a transatlantic journey from Glasgow, Scotland to St. John's, New Brunswick, Canada, aboard the SS Cassandra, and steamship of the Anchor line.  Thankfully, his name was not particularly subject to the spelling and indexing errors so commonly a thorn in the genealogist's side and I was able easily to discover the ship's manifest which provided very useful information regarding where he came from (Rozdziele, Poland) and where he was going (Hammond St., Detroit, which allowed me to verify I had the correct passenger since he lived on Hammond St. for the rest of his life).

Luckily for my display project, the entry containing his name was fairly close to the top of a page in the ship's manifest so I could use the heading contained at the top of the page as well as the line containing his name without wasting a lot of space with the information of dozens of other passengers, which while interesting and perhaps even useful, would only clutter the display.

The only issue with using this was the quality of the image which was clearly taken from a microfilm facsimile of the original and was therefore pure black and white and not particularly sharp.  Thus, to make use of the image, I decided to add a little color to image in MS Powerpoint (yes, I know, I should be using something expensive and sophisticated like Adobe's photoshop or the like but I already own and know how to use Powerpoint and it has been adequate so far) to give the image a little artificial age and realistic appearance.  The result is below:

Excerpt of ship manifest for SS Cassandra on March 16, 2012

The original manifest covered two pages and using both pieced together would have had some advantages such as more interesting information and the whole "United States" listed on the top, but due to the design I had in mind and the documents I wanted to use, using only half worked better for me this time but that is a great option.  As you can see, the last full line of passengers contains the entry for my great grandfather and I purposely let the document spill over into another line to make it clear that this was a clip and not the entire document.  I left the heading on top regarding "saloons, cabins, steerage....aliens must be manifested" language at the top despite the ability to crop it, to add more color to the story.  Finally, I printed the document out in the size required to fit my inexpensive but relatively attractive 10x20" frame given the desire to print the citizenship paper in its original 8x10" size.

Picture Postcard of the SS Cassandra

Finally, I had a horizontal space available for one more document.  I could have used his WWI draft registration document, or a pay envelope from his early employer Ford Motor Co., which would have been interesting as he worked their so early in the company's history (but which I will use in another display).  Instead, I wanted a picture of the ship to add more visual appeal.  Ancestry.com has a database of immigration ship's images that vary in quality but is surprising thorough given the sheer numbers.  Knowing the name of the ship and line, however, gave me the ability to search online for alternate images and I decided on this attractive, if not a little grubby, picture of a picture-postcard sold to passenger of the Cassandra because it was visually striking and available in a size online that would allow me to enlarge it without losing visual appeal and clarity due to low resolution (see picture above).

With my substantive content selected, it was only a matter of printing them out on my photographic oriented ink jet printer on special matte paper on the high quality setting and placing them in the matting I cut myself using a matte cutter I purchased from an art supply store (Utretch's in DC) which saves a LOT of money, and attaching them to a backing board overlaid by the matting in the frame I selected for the job.  The result, I hope you will agree, is a wonderful display that better tells the story of my great grandfather's journey to US citizenship than simply displaying the certificate itself, which I will send along to my Aunt Arlene later today hopefully garnering much appreciation and her willingness to continue her assistance to my genealogical efforts on our shared Polish ancestry:

I hope you liked it.  Let me know what you think or send along suggestions or thoughts.  Cheers, djm

Display for a Civil War Ancestor

Finished product (minus the glass so it can be seen better)

I have always been interested in history and intrigued by family ancestry in particular but it wasn't until my Great Grandmother, Ethel Benjamin, passed along her recollections and family knowledge via a sort of typed notebook that was transcribed by one of my cousins that I really began looking into the subject myself.

My father's side was too difficult to pursue immediately as they were all recent Polish immigrants but my mothers side provided much more promise as they appeared to have been in Michigan for multiple generations.  Once armed with my great grandmother's notes, I was excited about the possibility that one of my ancestors had fought in the Civil War and so it began.

Gravestone of Lyman Benjamin

I didn't originally have much luck as I had to learn how to do genealogical research from trial and error and the resources available today did not exist or were in their infancy.  Still, I had the names and approximate dates/locations of my great grandmothers parents, and her husband's parents, along with some related facts about their siblings, etc. and it was not long before I discovered what no one in my family knew - my great great great grandfather, Lyman Benjamin, fought in the Civil War in the 14th Michigan Volunteer Regiment and was buried less than 60 miles from my home town.  I was hooked at that very moment and genealogy has been my primary passion ever since.

Since that initial "Eureka" moment, I have discovered two more Civil War ancestors and have learned much about them and their experiences through regimental histories and research at the National Archives in Washington, DC (luckily I live in DC and have convenient access).  In fact, among the most helpful genealogical resources I have ever come across is the Civil War pension file.  If one is lucky enough to have a Civil War ancestor who received or even applied for a pension, the documentation required and still stored in Washington is beyond compare in helpfulness for continuing research on that line.

Through this research of pension files, I have examined the actual enlistment papers my ancestor signed in the 1860's and thanks to my enthusiasm for photography, have taken high resolution photographs of them which I have used in the display that is the subject of this post.  An example of one such photograph is below:

You'll notice that the condition is delicate due to the document being over 160 years old and folded up into an envelope.  I doubt anyone other than an archivist has looked at this in a hundred years until I opened it.

Much of the information on this document can be found online or in books published my nearly every state such as the date of enlistment, the hometown of the soldier, his age, etc. but just this single document has information not known anywhere else other than this file in all likelihood.  For instance, from this one document, I know that Lyman Benjamin could not write as he signed his name with a single "x."  I also know that he was a farmer, and that he was 5'9" tall, had brown hair, grey eyes, and a fair complexion.

The difficulty faced by veterans and widows of veterans in applying for a pension (which were granted for injuries or ailments received as a result of their service) is a boon to genealogist even if it was a hardship to the applicant in an age before email.  Research into Lyman Benjamin's pension file, and that of his brother, Ezra, revealed dozens of affidavits by neighbors, relatives, and fellow soldiers, aiming to verify the information contained in the application for the pension.  These affidavits almost always contained a paragraph explaining how that person knew the soldier so as to lend credibility to their statement.  This info is often the most valuable.  For instance, in the case of Lyman's brother Ezra, his sister in law, Mary Elizabeth (Brown) Benjamin, Lyman's wife, state her relationship with Ezra via her marriage to Ezra's brother but added a nugget that was extremely helpful - that she and Ezra (and her husband Lyman) were actually cousins.  Since I knew here maiden name was Brown, it couldn't be that her father and her husband's father were siblings.  And I knew that neither of her parents were named Benjamin, so it could only be that her mother was a sibling of Lyman and Ezra's mother, which was later confirmed as her mother's name was Mary Jane Shelley and Lyman and Ezra's mother's name was Joannah Shelley.

Anyway, back to the subject of this blog, displaying genealogical discoveries.  For a lover of history and genealogy like myself, knowing this document exists, indeed holding this very document in my hands, while wonderful, was not enough.  I wanted to display this somehow.  So below, is an example of my design for a display of one of my civil war ancestors which is in progress.

I have finished a couple of others but I've used this design rather than the finished project so that it is clearer what I've done.  On the left side, is the photograph I've taken of another civil war ancestor's enlist papers - Abraham Ritchey, 10th Ohio Cavalry.  On the right, I've created a biographical display in powerpoint which can be easily printed out on a descent home printer designed for photographic prints using high quality paper (in this case I used matte photo paper).  The top of the bio contains the soldier's name and unit, and lists other biographical information contained in his pension file including his physical description, his occupation, home town, etc.

In the middle section, I've provided a brief summary of the 10th Ohio Cavalry's service in the Civil War which is merely a condensed version of what can be found online or in Dyers Civil War compendium.  I specifically included only the regiment's service from the date of my ancestor's service.  Here, Abraham Ritchey, joined the regiment in early 1864 nearly two years after the regiment was formed so while interesting, the regiment's service prior to his joining has been omitted so that what is summarized pertains to my ancestor's service.  Luckily for me (and perhaps not him), most of the really interesting events and battles in which the 10th Ohio Cav. participated, occurred after his joining.

The lower third of the biographical page lists the major engagements in which his regiment participated and in which he was likely to have participated.  In Abraham's case, he was on the March to the Sea with General Sherman.  For visual appeal, I've added a photograph I happen to have been given by my mother of Abraham Ritchey, and added it to the top, and on the bottom, I've added a picture of the 10th Ohio Cavalry's regimental flag which I found online.  I was lucky to have a photograph in this case but one can substitute other images if a photograph is not available.

For example, in a similar project I did for my brother in law, I photograph of the soldier was not available.  So instead of a photograph, I inserted an image of the most well known battle in which he participated, Missionary Ridge, which was rendered by Kurz and Allison and which I found online:

Another idea is to use a picture of the gravestone of the soldier if available.  Often these stones are half sunk into the ground or illegible to to time and the elements wearing away the original inscriptions but that doesn't mean they can't be displayed in an attractive and inspiring way.  For example, another one of my ancestors's stones is very difficult to read but I will use it anyway because I find the picture moving.  See the picture of Ezra Harmon, 1st Michigan Engineers and Mechanics, below:

Thanks to the volunteers who regularly honor our veterans final resting spots with flags, I happened upon a wonderful image which will be included in display of Ezra Harmon once I get to it.  Of course if one is interested and able to take a similar photograph, bringing a flag of your own is a good idea...I was just lucky.

The detail is difficult to read but not nearly as difficult as it was in person or in the original photograph.  I used the free online photo editing program, Picassa, from Google, to enhance the contrast in the photo rendering the detail on the photograph easier to read.  Now it is possible to barely make out that this gravestone is that of Ezra Harmon, Artificer, of the 1st Michigan Engineers and Mechanics.

The civil war pension or service files may contain other subjects worthy of photographing and using in such a display such as a letter or affidavit from the soldier himself detailing his service or of an injury sustained in a particular battle or perhaps his actual signature or discharge papers.

The final product is a display that is both attractive and that celebrates one's ancestors service to his or her country such as this one that I made for my brother in law.  Here, there were no enlistment papers in his file unfortunately and we didn't have a picture of the soldier or his gravestone.  Still, I was able to include a number of visual images that made the display interesting and informative.  On the right side, I used a photograph of the soldier's account of his service and injury at the Battle of Missionary Ridge which I found in his pension file.  I also added a Kurz & Allison image of that battle as well as a picture of the regiment's national colors and the soldier's signature from is file to make it more personal and visually appealing.

Let me know what you think. - djm

Descent from Charlemagne Project

The colonial ancestor I mentioned before, Olive Welby, who is the daughter of parents who were both members of the English gentry in the 17th century before emigrating to the colonies, creates links to many more famous and documented ancestors.  Thanks to the system then in place in England for titles and estates to be inherited by the oldest male heir of the holder, it was important to have good records of the birth of nobility and for genealogists like me who happen to find an ancestor like Olive Welby, records going back hundreds of years still exist and have been preserved because of this system and the incredible work of professional genealogists/researchers/authors like Douglas Richardson and Gary Boyd Roberts.  More on the wonderful work of Douglas Richardson and others in a later post.

The problem with sharing this with family members is knowing what, if anything, if known about our shared ancestry is interesting to each family member.  For example, my brother Andy is in the military and I suspected that he might be interested in knowing more about ancestors who were also warriors of one type or another.  NB:  For the record my brother is a very nice and peaceful sort of guy who has and continued to serve his country with honor and distinction.

Thus, I wanted to find a historical subject of the thousands known and documented to be ancestors of Andy to use as the subject for a Christmas gift project.  After speaking with him, he seemed pleased to learn that Olive Welby was a descendant through dozens of lines to the Emperor Charlemagne.  He explained that he remembered studying Charlemagne in high school and he stuck out as one of history's characters he found most interesting.

So, I put together the following display for my brother (who I hope doesn't see this before I give it to him).  As you can sort of see, the left side contains a sketch and picture of Charlemagne (as imagined by Abrecht Durer).  The bio is basic info from wiki and other sources.  The right side is a line of descent from Charlemagne to my brother Andy, the emperor's 42nd great grandson.

In fact, Charlemagne is the direct ancestor of nearly everyone of European descent.  If one figures 40 generations back to Charlemagne (one generation every 30 years) that means that we all should have over one trillion 37th great grandparents of that 40th generation.  Of course, that is more people than have ever lived probably and certainly more than the entire population of the earth at that time.  The thing is that many of those (most of them perhaps) are your 37th great grandparents several times over just as Charlemagne is to me through several known lines.  Statistically then, almost everyone with European ancestry is a descendant of Charlemagne and the only interesting or noteworthy thing I can claim is that I know how I'm related to him in a few of the probably thousands of different lines.  (Charlemagne got us off on a good start by having 20 children!).  Anyway, I chose the line I did among many possibilities for Andy's chart because among that line of descent are a  number of additional interesting individuals including ten other kings such as William the Conqueror.

Let me know what you think.

Presidential Kin Calendar Project

So my first pan-family Xmas gift with a genealogy theme.  I have traced my mother's side of the family back along an number of lines to primarily New England colonists of the 17th century.  Of course, 9 out of 10 times I hit a road block before I get that far but I've been lucky in that early Michigan residents came primarily from old New England colonist families who gradually drifted westward from CT and MA to western Massachusetts, Vermont and/or upstate New York and then followed the opening of the Erie Canal to Michigan.  

Several of my ancestors, such as the parents of colonial immigrant Mary Lawrence, were the ancestors of Americans much more famous than I such as President Taft.  Thanks to the work of Gary Boyd Roberts of the New England Historic and Genealogical Society in his book "Ancestors of American Presidents," one can easily check to see if any one's ancestors were also an ancestor to American Presidents.

I've been immersed in researching my family tree for 15 years and I wanted to share this with my family who shared my ancestry.  How to make it interesting though....So I decided I would create a calendar annually that highlighted a particular them in our ancestry.  As I've uncovered 12 US President with which we are distant cousins thanks to Robert's book cited above, it was the perfect debut subject matter.  Thus, for each year, I created a chart along with some info about that president, who shares a common ancestor with either of my mother's maternal grandparents. 

Above, is October which features William Howard Taft.  The two columns on the right display the lines of descent from our common ancestor to my great grandparents (left column) and the descent to President Taft (right column).  I used this same template for each President.  The image was created in Powerpoint as I don't know how to use any other graphics program.  The resulting page was then turned into a jpg image.  

Once I completed these and a cover, I uploaded them to Snapfish which created 20 calendars for me for $10 per calendar.  The quality is very high and the pages nearly card stock.  One could certainly do this cheaper elsewhere but I wanted this to look professional (to the extent possible).  

I also enlisted my great aunt Carol to compile the birthdays of my family members and I added them into the dates on the calendar - occasionally adding pictures I have obtained of generations long gone like my Great Grandmother who is featured on her birthday, Oct. 30th.  The image is a little off in color as the carpeting is an olive green color in real life but you get the idea.

Here is the final product.  I used one of Snapfish's templates and altered the background from deep red to navy blue, each month.

If this doesn't capture my family's attention then nothing will.

Let me know what you think.