What color is your heritage?

As I mentioned in my earlier post about Ellis Island, about 40% of modern Americans can trace their heritage through that famous port of entry. An overwhelming majority of the rest of the 60% of the population can find ancestors among the throngs of others who entered via a myriad of other ports of entry into the United States and/or via crossing the border from Canada or Mexico. To say the very least, we are a nation with multicultural heritage.

With the knowledge that we are such a "multicolored" people, the Lower East Side Tenement Museum of New York City created a website entitled We Are Multicolored. The interactive site was created by the museum's Digital Artists in Residence Program. Its goal is to create awareness of the immigrant experience through the opportunity for visitors to create their very own flag representing their heritage or the countries that have influenced them.

The flag I've created above represents the three countries of my heritage: Ireland, Hungary and Croatia. The fun of the website is that you can choose three countries, then manipulate the color bars and symbols of each of the three flags to create your very own symbolic image.

Give it a try and fly your own multicolored flag! If you do so and want to share it, let me know so I can take a look at it on We Are Multicolored.

If you'd like to read more about the other "colors" of my heritage, check out Small-leaved Shamrock and A Light That Shines Again.

Why do I trace my family tree?

I've asked myself this question every now and then over the many years that I've been interested in family history. The fact is, there has never been a time when I was not fascinated by the stories and names and places that have played a role in my family.

My first official effort at genealogy as an eleven-year-old is still fresh in my memory: interviewing my grandparents so that I could fill out a large pedigree chart with my pencil.

I had a friend with a similar interest in genealogy. His parents drove us to a genealogical library one day. I remember the dusty smell of the many old books stacked side by side on the shelves. The sunshine streamed in the window as I determined Soundex codes for each of the family surnames that I knew. Books with large indexes turned up a few possible matches, but there were no real discoveries that day for me. Still, my love for family history grew in that old library.

Perhaps the day in my younger years that I learned the most was the day we mourned the loss of my grandfather. As one of his teen granddaughters, I had been chosen to read one of the Scripture readings at his funeral. I had loved my grandfather very much. It was an honor to do this. Following the funeral, at a nearby funeral home, I learned who had joined us that day. His sisters were there, several brothers of his (whom I'd never heard of), and cousins! I met them all (and their wives and children) and heard stories of their childhoods: where they and my grandfather had lived, their father's occupation, their places of birth, where their parents had come from...

I left that day with a new understanding of my grandfather's life and his role in a family that I had hardly known about, not to mention several pages of notes. Names, dates, places... Once home I carefully entered all the info via pencil into my paper pedigree chart, and marveled at how I could have known so little about my beloved grandfather's life.

My search for family history has continued over the years. Every new bit of information is a spark that lights the fire that makes me want to learn more. And every bit of family history is a gift that gives me an appreciation for the past and an understanding of who I am today. I especially love sharing new family history discoveries with my children and with other members of the youngest generation of the family. In a world that is changing so quickly every day, the knowledge of our heritage and of the people who came before us gives us a solid foundation and appreciation for our lives and the lives and cultures of others.

I enjoyed reading What is Gained by Researching Your Family Tree? by Kimberly Powell. She says, "I research my family history because it provides me with a personal look back into a history that I might not have otherwise ever discovered. The research process challenges me. The learning process enlightens me. The discoveries provide a sense of accomplishment."

I wholeheartedly agree. A little time spent here and there searching for family history throughout the years has provided me with many rewards. Perhaps the best reward is the understanding and appreciation of the world and its cultures that I've gained through the process of discovering my own heritage.

As long as I live I hope to keep busy on my branch of the family tree: looking to the past, sharing stories with other family members and helping to provide the gift of our heritage to future generations.

The image of the Oak tree in winter is circa 1840's. You can view similar historic images from the Fox Talbot Museum at http://foxtalbot.dmu.ac.uk/resources/photo.html.

A European Christmas in America

Think of Christmas and you can't help but think of family and traditions. What better time to celebrate our ethnic heritage than by introducing the yuletide traditions of our ancestors to our families this year?

Here are a few upcoming events that might inspire you in your holiday preparations.

The Croatian Heritage Museum and Library located in Eastlake, Ohio (in the Cleveland area) will be hosting an exhibit entitled Croatians Celebrate Christmas from November 25, 2007 to January 6, 2008. The opening reception will be held on November 25, 2007 from 2:00-5:00 p.m. and will feature wine and cheese along with traditional Croatian music by Joe Cenin. Among the traditional Croatian items that will be offered for sale include Croatian Christmas cards, bonboni, licitarska srca (the Croatian gingerbread hearts pictured above), ornaments, pšenica, embroidered towels and a book of Croatian Christmas customs. Exhibit hours are Fridays from 3:00-8:00 p.m. and Saturdays 1:00-5:00 p.m. Other hours available by special arrangement.

Can't make it to Ohio? Order your own Christmas items from Heart of Croatia Gifts.

The American Hungarian Foundation in New Brunswick, New Jersey will be hosting their 19th Annual Festival of Trees from December 2, 2007 to January 27, 2008. This annual holiday showcase includes Christmas trees with decorations representing various ethnic groups. The purpose of the exhibit is to allow many ethnic groups in the museum's "cultural community to share their traditions and creative talent". The opening reception, with ethnic food and music will be held on Sunday, December 2, 2007 from 2:00-5:00 p.m.

If you incorporate any traditional Christmas customs into your holiday this year, please write and let us know.

Time to get planning now. Advent is just around the corner...

More on Ellis Island

While we're on the subject of Ellis Island and its hospital facility, I thought I might mention that the History Channel website has a nice general overview of the island's story in honor of this week's anniversary of its closing on November 12, 1954. Seeing through about 12 million immigrants since opening in 1892, Ellis Island is now part of family history lore for 40% of modern Americans.

Looking for more interesting reading on Ellis Island? Click here for a nice list of books on the subject to add to your library. Many of these books are also listed on the right sidebar here at 100 Years in America.

I hope you enjoy reading about this amazing time in the history of the melting pot of America.

Ellis Island: the untold story

Image copyright © 2007 by Smallest Leaf Press. All Rights Reserved.

A mother myself, it is heart-wrenching for me to imagine the experiences of my great-grandmother back in 1909 at the age of 24. Her husband had left their home in Hungary in 1906 to smooth the way for his young family's new life in America. Ilona stayed behind, expecting their first child and intending to follow as soon as she was able.

After what must have been a tearful goodbye, Ilona and her 2-year-old son Frankie sailed from February 13 to March 2, 1909 on a trying 18-day journey from Fiume, Hungary (which is now Trieste, Italy) to New York in the steerage section of the oceanliner Carmania. At some point on the journey, Frankie became ill with measles. No easy trip for a mother and her toddler. Then, finally on Ellis Island, the unthinkable for a mother with a sick child in a foreign land: Frankie, to be treated for measles, was separated from her.

This part of my great-grandmother's story has always intrigued me. What did they really experience during their stay on Ellis Island? How many days were she and Frankie there? At what point were they separated and where were they placed? I've never heard mention of Ilona being sick, but their Ellis Island ship manifest indicates via stamp that both were "IN HOSPITAL", then "DISCHARGED". When were they finally reunited and released for arrival into New York and how did they contact her husband Ferencz?

One of the items at the top of my to do list of family history research projects had been to contact Ellis Island and get information about the hospital records for young Frankie, our measles patient there back in 1909.

It looks like I can cross that one off the list.

It turns out that Lorie Conway, a filmmaker who set out to document the history of the Ellis Island hospital, spent almost a decade searching for patient records such as Frankie's. She found one.

Were they lost by someone "cleaning up" after the hospital closed its doors in 1951 and before the Coast Guard shut down its final operations in 1954, leaving the island abandoned? Or were they discarded more randomly during the incredibly busy years of operation? (In 1921 alone the hospital saw an average of 1,500 immigrants a day for a total of 16,666 patients that year - the busiest year for Ellis Island medical care.) One more theory: could they possibly have been tossed during renovations before the 1990 re-opening of the main hall as the Ellis Island Immigration Museum?

Maybe the records will eventually turn up in a federal records facility somewhere. In the meantime, we have a fascinating look into the experiences of patients on Ellis Island through Conway's film and companion book: Forgotten Ellis Island.

Inspired by a 1998 article by Clyde Haberman in The New York Times Magazine about Ellis Island's importance to our history as a nation, Conway set about to document the history of the "other side of the island". Restoration of the main hall had opened the north side of Ellis Island to visitors, but the other areas, including the hospital buildings on the south side, had remained just as they were left in the 1950's (although now overgrown with trees growing through floors, walls and ceilings in disrepair, etc.).

Conway's decade-long project is a treasure for all Americans, particularly those of us with ancestors who passed through Ellis Island. That includes roughly 40% of Americans today.

The book and film bring to life a period in history that, though fairly recent, seems worlds away from our own. Outdated medical practices, classification of people of different ethnic backgrounds based on eugenic beliefs, and fear of the outbreak of strange diseases brought in with these foreign patients drove the organization of the facility. But it was a place that brought healing and hope to many, a place where new arrivals, worn and weary from travel at sea, found kind care and a chance at a new life.

Looking back at the past with the vision that Forgotten Ellis Island brings to us provides not only an understanding of what many of our forebears may have experienced, but a perspective on our own times. And it refuses to let us ignore our own prejudices of immigrants in our world today.

The film Forgotten Ellis Island premiered in New York and Boston in October. If you are in the Boston area, you can view it at The Boston Public Library on December 6.

If you would like more information about plans for the restoration of the remainder of Ellis Island, including the hospital buildings, take a look at Save Ellis Island.

Special thanks to Tim Agazio at Genealogy Reviews Online and Chris Dunham at The Genealogue for their mentions of Forgotten Ellis Island.

A step back in time to 1906

One hundred years in America...

Back in 1906 Ferencz Ujlaki set off for America in search of a better life for himself and his young expectant wife, Ilona. I've often wondered what he might have taken with him, what his journey was like, and how his new world might have looked to him upon arrival.

Now, thanks to YouTube, I have a glimpse into what he might have seen on the happy day that his ship arrived at Ellis Island.



The video above (which has no sound), depicts (according to its description at YouTube) "scenes at the Immigration Depot and a nearby dock on Ellis Island. Appears to show, first, a group of immigrants lined up to board a vessel leaving the island, then another group arriving at the island and being directed off of the dock and into the Depot by a uniformed official."

The video was filmed in the very same year that Ferencz Ujlaki arrived: 1906. What an amazing window into the world of my great-grandfather, the new immigrant arriving in New York more than one-hundred years ago.

Now's your chance - free access to Ancestry.com

Want to try your hand at a little family history research? Take advantage of three free days of access to Ancestry.com. Free access to Ancestry is usually available at many local libraries (although there is no remote access for library patrons). Subscription prices for personal access, however, are quite steep. And personally, I prefer burning the midnight oil when my library's doors have long been closed.

Take advantage of this opportunity and take a look at some online records, including:

• U.S. Census records
• City directories
• Immigration records
• Marriage records
• Old newspapers
• Military records
• More, more, more...

Have fun! And please let me know if you make any exciting discoveries.

Where science meets family history

Have you read about genetics in the news? Ever asked yourself, "How does this apply to me?"

The study of genetics and DNA testing in particular has now become not just a newsworthy topic, but a practical and meaningful tool for personal use. Family historians, in particular, stand to benefit greatly from the use of DNA testing.

Now a simple cheek swab test can be used to provide information that can confirm previous family history research or provide new clues to a family's heritage, both familial and geographical. On the flip side, genealogy is aiding the study of genetics by providing an avenue for further study of current findings.

If you are interested in getting an introduction to DNA testing and genetics and how they apply to genealogy and perhaps your own family history, check out the Carnival of Genealogy: 35th Edition. Hosted by Blaine Bettinger, otherwise known as the Genetic Genealogist, this "blog carnival" is a series of articles posted on various blogs about the topic of genetics and genealogy.

Included in the series of carnival posts are my own entries:

• A rose by any other name here at 100 Years in America
• Mr. Tierney, I presume? posted at A Light That Shines Again
• Bad genes - discovered! posted at Small-leaved Shamrock

Also check out:

• Calling all Ó Cobhthaigh, Cowhey, Coffey cousins! also posted at Small-leaved Shamrock

Happy reading! As I learn more about DNA testing and its application to the Ujlaki family's heritage and that of other related families, I will post more information.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy a little introduction to genetic genealogy thanks to the 35th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy.

A young American family

This beautiful family photo (although a little raggedy at the edges and in need of repair) is one of my favorite portraits of Frank & Helen Ujlaky and their young family. (Click on the portrait to view it up close.) More than likely it was taken in early 1913, before Helen was visibly expecting her fourth child. Pictured are Frankie (about age 7), his parents Frank & Helen (formerly Ferencz & Ilona), and his younger sisters.

Helen and young Frankie had only been in the United States for about four years, but look how the family had changed!

With the exception of one, all of Helen's children were born at home. (She had seven children including a baby who was stillborn in 1918.) The exception was her last child, who was born in a hospital on Staten Island. According to one of her daughters, after having all of her other babies at home, it was quite a shock to her mother to birth her last baby in the hospital. She much preferred the way of birth at home.

Frank & Helen's oldest child Frankie was born in Legrad, Croatia (which was Hungary at the time). Their daughters were born in New York City at the couple's home in Manhattan.

One of the things that strikes me about the image of the Ujlaky family above is the way that the sisters are interacting. The eldest is holding her little sister's hand, being a little mother to her. After Frankie, and until the birth of their baby brother, this family filled with little girls.

According to one of the sisters, she and her sisters shared a bed when they were little girls. Together they learned embroidery from the nuns. When they got old enough, they used to help each other curl their hair using an iron rod heated in the fireplace. (Sounds dangerous to me!)

The closeness of these sisters that began in their childhood has continued throughout their lives, although they lost their belovedyoungest sister Ethel at the age of 22.

It is beautiful to see a portrait like this of the young Ujlaky family: new to family life and new to America. What a long way they have come.

A rose by any other name...

Surnames can be blessings or curses in the search for family history. While a more common last name is a good thing during roll call in elementary school and beyond, the more rare and unusual last names tend to be blessings during family history research. Up to a point, that is.

I have a nice mix of both types of surnames in my family tree. One of the least common ones happens to be one of the surnames which is the subject of this blog: the Ujlaki family.

My Ujlaki ancestors back to the mid-1800's resided in what is now northern Croatia, right on the border with Hungary. My continual question (one that I am always researching for further proof) is:

Just what type of heritage did this family have?

Their homes were right on the border of today's Hungary, and were swallowed up as part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and more modern-day Hungary at different times throughout history.

Were they true Croatian Slavs? Or did they hail from the Hungarian Magyar tribe?

My great-grandmother Ilona Ujlaki's Ellis Island paperwork indicates Hungarian/German ancestry, the first place I had ever come across that idea. Would this note indicate her husband Ferencz' heritage, or hers? If her husband's, that might explain the sky blue eyes that he passed down to several of his children. Would he be of Austrian descent? Or German?

Then, there are the languages that he spoke. Croatian, Hungarian, English... those make sense. But Polish? Why and how would he have learned Polish? Did the family have relatives there?

All these questions, and no help from the Ujlaki surname. I have been unable to determine if the name is truly of Croatian origin or Hungarian origin or other. Perhaps it is a Slavic variation of an originally German name?

So many questions - so few Ujlakis to help me find the right answer.

I'm wondering if genetic genealogy could possibly provide me with a clue to my family's past.

My question for The Genetic Genealogist during the Carnival of Genealogy with a genetic twist:

What would you suggest for the best way to determine the original genetic heritage of a family? What types of information can I learn from a genetic test? How specific can genetic tests get with regard to origins - Western European vs. Eastern European, Croatian vs. Hungarian vs. Austrian?

When a surname is so uncommon (like Ujlaki) what are the chances that I might find someone else interested in a project for that name? Is it worth the time and money for someone with a relatively rare surname to participate in a genetic surname project?

I'll always be on the lookout for modern-day Ujlakis and descendants of Ujlakis (and Ujlakys and Ulakys, etc.). As all genealogists learn, a rose by any other name still shares the genes of a rose.

What I'd really like to know: just where did the Ujlaki family get its start?

Linguistically speaking

"The Arabs learn Arabian with the speed of summer lightning; the Hebrews learn it backwards, which is absolutely frightening!"

~ Professor Higgins in My Fair Lady

Actually, it's more enlightening than frightening. Learning a language, that is.

My great-grandfather, Ferencz Ujlaki, is said to have spoken seven languages. These included Hungarian, Croatian, Polish and English, among others. Today, according to a current resident of his birthplace of Donja Dubrava, Croatia, only the older folk in the neighboring town of Legrad can still speak Hungarian. The younger residents of Donja Dubrava, which has moved in the 21st century a little faster than Legrad, consists of Croatian speakers who live just across the border from Hungary yet don't speak Hungarian.

And then there are Ferencz' American descendants.

Well, we speak English, of course.

Sadly, just English.

The first Croatian phrase that we should all learn is, "Ja ne razumijem. Ne govorim hrvatski." That means, "I don't understand. I don't speak Croatian."

It turns out that my great-grandmother and her generation used the Croatian language to speak secretively in front of their children without them knowing what they were saying. Their family discussion was carried out in Hungarian. A generation later, my grandmother and her sisters may have used Hungarian in the same way that their mother used Croatian to keep little ears from listening. The younger generations had no such "language of secrecy", and we remain primarily English speakers (with the occasional German and Spanish thrown in - learned from travels, college courses, etc.).

Inspired partly by my great-grandfather's linguistic abilities and partly by the desire to learn anything and everything about the world he and his family lived in, I checked out a Pimsleur language audio course on Croatian. I have fond memories of my grandmother speaking with her mother, Ilona, and her sisters, Wilma and Helene, in Hungarian. The language and vocabulary that they used was like a time-capsule version of Hungarian, since Ilona had left her home country back in 1909. To me, the sound of a native Hungarian speaker evokes fond childhood memories. I wondered what Croatian would actually sound like.

What an interesting surprise to hear the language via the Pimsleur audio CDs, especially after learning a few words and phrases in the language.

"Kako ti se svidja hrvatski?" means "How do you like Croatian?"

(Found that phrase thanks to the printable Single-serving.com miniature Croatian phrase booklet.)

I'm not sure that I'll ever have the chance to become even close to fluent in Croatian or Hungarian (surely it won't be with the speed of summer lightning if I do), but it sure is fun to get a glimpse into the world that my ancestors lived in through the language that they spoke daily.