New York

New-Found Marriage Record Creates a Mystery

A couple of days ago I posted about FamilySearch pointing me to a marriage record for Frank Nikkari who married my Aunt Edith in 1915. The record match stated that they were married in Mayfield, Fulton County, New York, some 400 miles from where at least Edith was living in Ashtabula, Ashtabula County, Ohio, according

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FamilySearch Pushes Record Match to My Email

Sometimes genealogical records come to you. FamilySearch.org recently sent me an email with several possible matches. One of them involved my Uncle Frank Nikkari, who married my Aunt Edith Huskonen on 12 Apr 1915. I knew this fact from Frank’s obituary in the Ashtabula Star Beacon. I was happy to learn this date, but I

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My Parents Were Wed in a “Gretna Green Marriage”

During his presentation on “Until Death Do Us Part: An Examination of Marriage and Divorce Records” at the Cuyahoga Valley Genealogical Society meeting on May 6, Tom Neel, Ohio Genealogical Society library director, mentioned “Gretna Green marriages.” He cited marriages that occurred in locations other than where you might expect, often involving young couples. Specifically,

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Six Months Since Passing of MJ

Yesterday, I realized it was 6 months since the love of my life, Mary Jane, aka MJ, passed away. The effect of this realization was softened by being surrounded by family. I am visiting our daughter Karen, and her family, leading up to Thanksgiving. MJ would have enjoyed this visit with Karen, her husband, and

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Why I Joined NYG&B Society

While attending the Federation of Genealogical Societies annual conference in Pittsburgh just before Labor Day, I joined the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society. I have many ancestors who lived in New York state and I aim to bear down on learning more about their lives and times. Here are some of the benefits of

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Hooray! Ancestry.com Adds New York Death Records

If you have ever tried to research death records in New York State, you know it was a big pain. The state death index existed only on microfilm and was accessible only in a half dozen libraries across the state. You had to know the year of death to be able to browse these records

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August Scheppelmann: His Two Arrivals in New York

On 11 Aug 1922, August Scheppelmann, grandfather of my wife, Mary Jane Van Court Huskonen,  arrived in New York on the SS George Washington. The passenger manifest provides some important details: August’s home address was simply RFD Linesville, PA. He was a U.S. citizen by naturalization, which took place in District Court [Federal] Pittsburg [sic]

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