Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with geneology

I wanna know about the old country.

twistofrhyme — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 21:42:14 -0800

I'm going to be at a rainy cottage all weekend with 3 senior citizens: my dad, aunt, and uncle. I want my non-talkative dad and his sister to reminisce about their childhoods, but I suspect my aunt's talkative husband will dominate the conversation. If that happens, Dad and Aunt won't talk much. How can I encourage them to reminisce without hurting my uncle's feelings? Here's a little more info about the personalities:

My dad, age 70- good-natured, physically active, not very talkative, has terrible hearing (like 30%, even with a hearing aid).
My aunt, age 65- dad's younger sister. Has badly arthritic knees. She's fairly chatty, but can get a little tense with her husband.
My dad and his sister have not spent more than 3 hours together in about 30 years (no specific conflict- they just drifted apart). Also, they are both retired and spend a lot of time alone so they have withdrawn slightly- lots of naps and newspaper crosswords, not much socializing.

My uncle (my aunt's husband), age 65- professorial, very social, still works so he's "younger" than my dad and aunt and more plugged into the world. He tends to be dominant with planning and conversation, which irritates my aunt and causes tension between them. He is really sweet, and I like him a lot, but I am really more excited to spend time with my dad and aunt, since they are never ever together and my aunt is hard for me to contact (whereas uncle and I share some interests so we communicate by email already).

Two questions:

1. How to get Dad and Aunt talking about life in the old country?
I already asked Uncle to bring old slides and photos.
I'm gonna grab some photo books & a DVD documentary about the country to spark memories.
Any other ideas?

2. What else would be fun for us to do together?
My dad's bad hearing can make it really hard to do group activities.
My aunt's bad knees make walking a problem for her (so no hikes).
The cottage has electricity, TV, DVD player, etc.

I really want this weekend to be special and help my dad and his sister connect after so long apart!
I'm not gonna be all stressy and neurotic about it or try to force them to reminisce, but I would like to go in with a couple of ideas.
Thanks in advance for your help!

Interviews, Research & Archiving, oh my!

ikahime — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 12:06:04 -0800

I'm preparing for a massive personal archiving/interviewing trip with my grandparents and need advice regarding many aspects of the project. My grandparents came to America from Lithuania during WWII and have an amazing story that my cousin and I started documenting several years ago. Life being what it is, we really only got a rough outline and are now going for another week long visit with them (now 97 and 90 years old, but still witty and spry). Not only do they have some great/astounding anecdotes that we haven't documented, they also have an amazing collection of photos (some taken by Life Magazine photographers) which are in not such good order (to say nothing of being stored or digitally preserved).

Here are some of my concerns that perhaps y'all could help me with:

History: I'm not a historian, and so have been trying to bone up on the Soviet-Nazi conflict that took place in the Baltic States. Books and online resource recommendations are appreciated.

Preservation: I need to construct a good workflow for organizing/digitizing old photos. How best to store? Should I be uploading to the cloud, or bring an external hard drive with me?

Interview: Getting these stories out of them is not usually too hard, but I'm wondering about tried and true methods of biographical interview. Should we march thru the historical timeline? Jump around and organize later? Are there some good prompts I shouldn't forget to ask them?

Documentation: I would like to either film or audio record or both. I will probably have access to a decent microphone + laptop and a so-so digital video camera. Should I have both roll at the same time, or just favor one vs. the other? This is my weakest link. Is Audacity a good enough program, or should I be throwing down for something else?

In addition to doing this for my own (and my family's) edification, I'm gathering this info now for some sort of creative project in the future (still yet to work out - could be something as mundane as a book, or more outlandish like an interactive sculpture, or hyperlinked map). I've started making things like timelines and maps of their trip from Lith to Germany to Britain to the US; got any other ideas of rich add-ons?

Lastly, I'm looking for other media to bring with me that may enhance their reminiscing, especially music of the era/region (they were in Germany for quite a few years in the late 40s. Got some faves?

Thanks to all in advance!

Seeking Fortin, my grandfather

azieger — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 19:59:32 -0800

I'm doing a family tree. As part of doing this, I'm trying to trace the ancestors of my maternal grandfather, Lawrence Fortin. The problem is that not only did he die before I was born (in the 40s), as it turns out he was adopted by the Fortin family. The question is, where on earth do I begin in finding records on Lawrence Fortin and who his biological family was? Note: unfortunately, I'm starting out knowing nothing about him, since my late grandmother kicked him out in the late 40s and disliked talking about him. My mom doesn't remember him. All I can tell you is that they lived in Worcester, MA during their marriage and were probably married there.

By the way, in case this helps sleuths out there, he allegedly died at age 28 (again, late 40s), of cirrhosis of the liver (you see why grandma booted him), in a hospital in Rhode Island.

Also, at the risk of being obvious, from my other geneological studies I've learned that many, many Fortins emigrated from Quebec around the turn of the century. Don't know if that helps or not.

Was this dude my great-grandfather...or an IMPOSTOR?!

dumbledore69 — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 12:15:32 -0800

If my maternal grandfather was my (alleged?) great-grandfather's biological son, why would his last name be different from both of his parents'? In my great-grandfather's obituary (1896-1960), which I found online and am positive is the right person, his children (who were my great-aunts/uncles & grandfather) were listed.

All male/unmarried children of my great-grandfather listed in that obit have a completely different last name from that of my great-grandfather & great-grandmother. This completely different last name is my mother's maiden name.

So, it seems like he is probably not really my great-grandfather after all, and that maybe these were children from a previous marriage of my great-grandmother's.

I'm trying to figure out if there was any reason why they would change the last names of their children if they are, in fact, both his biological parents. My Google attempts turned up nothing but discussions on giving a child both parents' last names.

So...is there a reason why a pioneering family in the US Northwest (actually, in a territory at the time) would change the last names of both of their children?

It is definitely not to make the name more "Americanized". My great-grandparents' last names was very "typical" American, it's a normal English word, actually. My grandfather's last name, however, seems to be German.

Thoughts?

in case he grows up and gets rich, i need to know that I can get some kind of family money from him

carpyful — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 13:44:02 -0800

Familytreefilter: Okay, so my mother's brother's wife's sister's daughter had a child. What is his relation to me? What's his mother's relation to me? I've always called the mother of the child my second cousin, but when I think about it, I'm not sure if that's right. And I have no idea what the little guy is to me.

This is twisting my brain, so I need the hive mind's help

Why is Marat Safin's sister's last name Safina?

Cosine — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 10:36:38 -0800

Why is Marat Safin's sister's last name Safina? I know they are Russian but adding an 'A' to a daughter's last name is not a Russian tradition that I know of, anyone?

Hi-Res Image Need of Specific Dawes Rolls Page

vanoakenfold — Sat, 12 Aug 2006 12:45:33 -0800

Need High-Res image of one particular Dawes Roll page. I have a low-res image, but I can't read some of the words. Longish story within. The story goes that my grandmother was left at the doorstop of a family friend as an infant, like in the classic cartoons. The adopting family knew the parents well, and a note said they would return for her, but never did. The family that took her in eventually adopted her, and was fairly certain her parents were full-blood Native American. So began our quest to see if we could find the parents' names on the Dawes Rolls, the crudely made Census of made of Natives. We knew their names and approximate locations at certain times, but could uncover no actual proof (documentation) that they actually existed except merely by recollection of repeated stories.

Alas, we found them on the Dawes Rolls, but all we have is a fairly low-res, pixelated image of the actual page with a b/w computer printing job. Can anyone find me a more clear image of this particular page? The following are the known details of it that we can make out.

15th Census of the United States: 1930
Sheet No. 10A
Pyote City, Texas
Ward County, Precinct 4
(Enumberation?) District 238-6
Supervisor's Number 16

First two entries are for "Ragsdale, Thurmon" and "---------, Gladys" (assuming the dashed line is the same as repeat-quotes). Thurmon listed as "brother" and occupation "engineer" and something about a "gasoline pump".

Thanks for your help!

If they can find out my DNA line why couldnt OJ pay to find real killer?

beccaj — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 12:31:36 -0800

Has anyone ever done the National Geographic Genographic Project ?? It's the one where you swab cheek -they map your DNA (maternal or paternal).. A friend did this ($100) then had an option to do more testing (an undisclosed amount -think 200-300). He said according to info on paternal line he is 85% Irish ancestry (he an African American man).
Seems pretty interesting (accurate tho??). I just bought 2 kits as a gift for my dad (maternal and paternal lines) and would love to know if anyone's done or heard things about this.

Tracking Down An Address In 1939 Vienna

yankeefog — Tue, 18 Oct 2005 07:22:24 -0800

How can I get my hands on a Vienna phonebook from circa 1938? I will be spending a weekend in Vienna next month, and I would love to see the apartment where my late grandfather lived before fleeing the Nazis. Unfortunately, nobody in the family knows the address, and there aren't any letters or other documents to provide it. Things are also complicated by the fact that I won't be visiting on a weekday, so any archives that might have this information will presumably be closed. Plus, I don't speak German. Am I out of luck, or is there any way to track this information down in the next few weeks?

Geneology/Census Question

BrodieShadeTree — Wed, 10 Nov 2004 09:17:25 -0800

Geneology/Census Question: Any way to find out how many humans of Nth generation live in a state. For example, how many 6th generation Arizonans are there?

I am your father's uncle's cousin's nephew's...

WolfDaddy — Sat, 30 Oct 2004 10:08:11 -0800

GenealogyTilYourEyesGlazeOverFilter: Trying to figure out (and this page just confuses me more) the whole "second cousin" and the whole "cousin x removed" thing. (more family relationships inside) Okay, so I've had two older relatives die this year, and have seen a lot of people I haven't seen in a loooooong time recently, and was trying to figure out how we're all related.

The way I understand the way it goes is this:

The children of my mother and the children of my mother's brother are first cousins.

Now, if I and my first cousin have kids, those kids are second cousins to each other but my cousin's kid and I would be first cousins once removed to each other. Should my kid and my cousin's kids go on to have kids, their kids would be third cousins to each other but would be first cousins twice removed from both me and my first cousin.

When applied to all the various relations I met at two funerals recently, this seemed to all hang together, but my mom SWEARS I've got it all wrong, but can't explain it to me in a way that makes sense. I thought the chart on the link I provided in the question would help me, but ... no. Help?