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Search my family tree8/6/2023 ![]() ![]() Preserving my grandparents' lives in a photo bookMom's letter offered many clues to jump-start my research into her parents and grandparents. Minnie celebrated her 15th birthday on board the S. Two years after her father left Hungary, one year after her mother left Hungary, Minnie and three siblings arrived at Ellis Island to be reunited with their parents. A teenaged Minnie came to America after her parents, with 2-3 younger siblings "under her wing" for the voyage. Correct.Unconfirmed: the crop failure, but that story was passed down in multiple lines of the family tree, and it makes sense as the catalyst for leaving an otherwise comfortable home life, so I accept there has to be some truth to the story. Correct: I confirmed that the men in the family were managers of a big-shot's acreage in Hungary. They didn't insure the crop one year and it failed, leaving her father financially ruined-the reason he left Hungary to come to New York City. Grandma Minnie's parents/grandparents were prosperous farmers, renting farmland from an admiral.Apparently, Mom had no idea that after WWII, her father was in touch with his niece, a survivor of Auschwitz. Not entirely correct: Although most members of Teddy's family were, sadly, killed in the Holocaust, his niece and one or two other folks escaped, thankfully. Teddy's brother and sister came to America also, but the rest of his family was killed in the Holocaust. Correct: His brother and sister came to America.Correct: his hometown of Ungvar was part of Czechoslovakia but only briefly, today being in Ukraine. Mom didn't know the name of her father's hometown, but happily, it did appear on Teddy's Social Security application, among other documents. Incorrect: not of peasant people-they were actually middle class, according to first-hand info from Teddy's niece. Grandpa Teddy came from peasant people in Czechoslovakia, arriving in America at 13 years old. Correct: Teddy was 13 when he arrived, turning 14 just a few weeks later.Over the years, I learned that some of what my mother wrote in her letter was correct, some was slightly off, and much was incomplete. Fast-forward to 1998, when I began my genealogy journey, and returned to this letter for clues as starting points for additional research. Somehow I knew I would want it in the years ahead, when I could no longer ask Mom about her family's past. She typed a few paragraphs of what little she knew about Hermina "Minnie" Farkas (1886-1964) and Theodore "Teddy" Schwartz (1887-1965), my maternal grandparents. Each page provides such hints along with a review of the website's search capabilities.When Roots became a national phenomenon in 1977, I was riveted to the TV set and asked my mother to write me a letter about her parents' ancestry. ![]() Should you decide not to use Your Active Family Tree Searches right now, we have pages with hints and suggestions for manually searching the various family tree sites. Search Hints and Suggestions for Family Trees If you would like to see how Your Active Family Tree Searches works before actually using it, then look at the Your Active Searches Tour. Also, Your Active Family Tree Searches determines the best type of search for each family tree website based on the information you enter on your ancestor. With Your Active Family Tree Searches, you can search the major family tree sites by entering your ancestor's information just one time. Use the family tree search hints and suggestions to manually search each of the family tree websites.Quick and Easy Way to Search for Family Trees: Use Your Active Family Tree Searches to quickly search multiple websites for family trees.There are two ways you can search for family trees: ![]()
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