Top 10 Ways to Break Down Your Genealogy Brick Wall

The Internet loves Top 10 lists, and the number one topic in genealogy is how to break down your brick walls. So, the challenge is obvious to me. And, I've certainly learned a lot of creative ways to find that impossible mystery relative that seems to have spawned from the ether. This page is my attempt to capture the best tips I've learned that hard way over the years, and to have them all in one place to remind myself of the things to try!

1. Create a Timeline: Building up a timeline for a person is Cousin Detective 101. A timeline gives you a context to double-check the progression of facts and evidence, which if incorrect and non-sensical can perhaps point out why you are a facing a brick wall that isn't the right brick wall. 
2. Go Sideways: You may never find the parents of a particular person due to an absence of available records, but you may be able to find the parents of their siblings.  Go sideways.  
• One awesome trick is to search immigration records for your brick wall listed as the contact person. Those that list them might be cousins or siblings!
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3. Ask Your Oldest Relatives: I know this seems obvious, but ask your older relatives about stuff as you run into issues.  While they may be completely useless at telling you important family history proactively, often they can be extremely helpful if asked a specific question.  
4. Write Letters: This is old school. Find the current town government that your relatives came from and write a letter with as many details as you can.  Use DeepL or Google Translate to write the letter in their language. 
5. Create a Map: Finding the exact right town is super important.  Creating a map of all the known relative's places of birth, marriages, and deaths can help you see cluster patterns and give you a hint that you are not looking in the right place.   I outlined some of the trick I used to find the right town in my post, The Case of the Springfield Dilemma.  
6. 
   Use All the Sites: For some reason, I always seem to forget to search FamilySearch.  I'm sure there are those of you who forget to search MyHeritage. Or Ancestry...  Often we get stuck in routines, and fail to do the same search in all the places.  
• Ancestry
• MyHeritage
• FamilySearch
• JewishGen
• Archion Church Records
• FindMyPast
• Stephen Morse's One-Step
• Find a Grave and BillionGraves 
  
• Newspapers.com
7. Go to a Family History Center: There are many many records that have been digitized from the vast microfilm holdings that are only viewable at a Family History Center in person.  Many are not indexed, but if you are paging through the right set of records you will strike gold. 
8. Ask Facebook: Taking the time to write up the exact question you are looking to solve is amazingly helpful.  Just the act of writing it up and explaining it to a stranger can help you discover flaws in your logic and trigger thoughts of where to look. Then, post it to Facebook in one of the many genealogy groups and you might even get an answer!
9. Read Newspapers: Again, this is likely just my problem, but I always seem to forget about newspapers.com and I'm always pleasantly surprised at the vast wealth of information that can be found there.  Yes, there are many other newspaper sites, but that's the one I'm already paying for every month! 
10. Collaborate: Researching by yourself certainly has its benefits. Nobody questions your crazy assumptions and wild guesses. However, to build a real tree with verified and peer-reviewed evidence requires collaboration.  It has enormous benefits that vastly out-weigh the downsides of having to make corrections to your tree once proved wrong.  Geni.com is the largest collaborative site out there, and as has been said, "if you aren't doing genealogy on Geni you are just wasting your time." 

Since I'm really writing this list for myself, this is a reminder to my future self that each and every one of these items should be linked to a much longer post that details the entire backstory of how I learned that particular lesson the hard way and any smaller exacting detailed instructions that are necessary to really take full advantage of the tip. 

And one last thing.   DNA testing is certainly an important method to break down brick walls in the genealogy world. You just don't know for such which walls will tumble, so test as many different cousins, siblings, and parents as you have available in your tree. 

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Well Who Are They Then? (MyCanvas follow-up)

First things first, if you haven't done so already, now is your chance to read Who Are All These People? -- a post that I wrote in 2016 as a guest blogger for MyCanvas.

In that post, I start off with what I thought was a photograph of my great great grandfather Benno Bodenheimer that turned out not to be him.  This photo might be the most annoying photo I've every run into, and I've spent way way way too much time on it.

In this post, I'll explain how I figured out who was actually in the photo, and I'll tease a little of the punchline right now. The way I discovered who the people were was likely the single most aggravating moment in all of my family research efforts.

The Photo

A cousin of mine first sent me this photo on 20 Oct 2009, and we know for certain that the man on the left is my great Grandfather's brother, Ludwig Bodenheimer.  Seated in front of him is his wife, Else Bodenheimer geb Hahn.    There are a lot of photos of her parents, so it was initially assumed that the mystery couple on the left were his parents -- which they weren't (if you've been following along). 

Ludwig and Else Bodenheimer (left) with mystery couple (right)

So, if the mystery couple aren't Ludwig's parents, and they aren't Else's parents... Well, who are they then?   I'd have to dig deeper.

How I Figured Out Why They Were, Step-by-agonizing-Step

I stole this list of steps from my earlier MyCanvas post, and updated it for this specific case:

• Date the Photo: I left this step off my original list as it seemed too obvious: it is just that critical. You need at least a range so that you can rule out people who died before the photo was taken.  I estimate this photo to be 1915 based on other photos of Ludwig and Else who were married in 1911.  It could be 5 years in either direction. 
• Estimate People's Ages: This is also a new step, where you estimate the ages of everyone in the photo, thus have a birth-year range when you look at the tree in the next step. Based on the estimated date of the photo, you can often rule people out as being too old or too young to be the person in the photo.  Ludwig was born in 1876, and the mystery man in the photo looks older than him, but not that much older than him, so maybe born about 1860?  
• Family Tree: Since the mystery couple is likely related to either Ludwig or Else, I made sure that I had a complete tree for both sides of the family.  Done. Check.  And when looking at the tree I first looked at uncles and aunts on both sides -- one generation up based on my estimates on ages and dates. 
• Build a Bigger Tree: And, yes, I then added more people to make it even bigger.  The people on the tree are the possible matches.   Rule out those who couldn't be in the photo. Rule in those that would be about the right age and don't have reference photos. 
• Ask Your Relatives: This is were I got off-course in the first place and was corrected. One person said it was Ludwig's parents, and the other helped prove it wasn't. Nobody could help with who they really were. 
• Couple Up: This sort of applies in this case. I assume the other couple is a married couple. They might not be, but that's my assumption. 
• Find More Photos: I found a photo of Ludwig's aunt and uncle, Hermine and Salomon Bodenheimer to do a comparison.  There are indeed similarities!  Both women have wavy hair, both men have sharp noses. The problem is with Salomon's beard.  The mystery man doesn't have one.  Here's a strange fact for you: once most men reach the age of 40 they have the same facial hair for the rest of their lives.   

Hermine (geb Weiss) and Salomon Bodenheimer

Mystery couple close-up for comparisons

So, I sat with that one as a possible connection for a few months. Salomon Bodenheimer was born in 1855, which is just about right on my estimated date I did earlier. But it just didn't seem to be right, especially with the facial hair issue.  So, I made one last effort. I did one more thing. 

The Annoying Solution

Ah, yes... there is another step.  If all else fails there is the forgotten step. The first step in fact.

Turn the photo over, and take a look at the back.   Is there anything written on the back?

I didn't actually have the back, all I had was the one scanned image that I'd been sent by my cousin in 2014. So, I wrote him an email asking if it had anything on the back.

Yep, here's what he sent back!  These is IN FACT a ton of writing on the back.

The postcard is addressed to Herrn N. Hahn at Königstraße 41/42 in Berlin, which is Neumann Hahn's home address -- the father of Else Bodenheimer geb Hahn.  

So, I enlarged and rotated the text, and then had the old German handwriting transcribed. 

Herzliche Grüße aus angenehmer Gesellschaft Z
Liebes Papachen: Wie du siehst habe ich mir eine neue Regenkluft geleistet nur sie dir zu zeigen habe ich mich sogar photographieren lassen. herzlichen Gruß Else
Wir gefallen mir dir liebe Onkelxxx ? Liebste Grüße Alex und Johane Hirsch

It starts with, Warm greetings from pleasant company...  Signed with a "Z" at the end. 

Then Else writes, Dear Daddykin: As you can see I got myself a new raincoat.  I have even let them photograph me just to show you. Happy greetings, Else  And yes, Else is wearing what looks like a raincoat as she sits on the bench. 

Then, at the end, someone else added, [something] we favor me you love uncle xxxx? Dearest Greetings Alex and Johane Hirsch

Alexander and Johanna Hirsch

And there we have it.  The mystery couple must be Alex and Johane Hirsch of Hamburg, who are in fact on the tree!  Alexander Hirsch and his wife are in-laws of Neumann Hahn's very own sister Rebekka Hirsch geb Hahn who lived in Hamburg.  And, better yet, Alexander was born in 1861 -- I was only about a year off in my estimate! Not at all who I expected them to be, and certainly people I did not have any photos of before this! 

The other part that fits is that Rebekka had a son whose name started with a "Z"... so Else also saw her cousin Zvi Hirsch on the same day.  

The cousin who sent me the photo (who is on the Hahn side, which should have been another clue) also sent me a rescanned image of the original at higher quality. 

Ludwig and Else Bodenheimer with Alex and Johane Hirsch, circa 1915

So in conclusion, here's my updated method on how to....

How To Identify People in Old Photos (2020 Update)

I'm going to repost a revised list of steps I've talked about before, with updates for this example.

1. Look at the Back: Always scan the back of your photos, and ask for the backs of any photos that people send you. Even if they appear blank, there can be really great information such as a small imprint of the paper manufacturer -- and yes, there are sites you can use to date photo paper. 
2. Date the Photo: Getting an estimated date is just plain critical. You need at least a range so that you can rule out people who died before the photo was taken.  
3. Estimate People's Ages: Estimate the ages of everyone in the photo, in order to have a birth-year range when you look at the tree in the next step. Based on the estimated date of the photo, you can often rule people out as being too old or too young to be the person in the photo.   
4. Family Tree: Build or gather a full family tree for the general families suspected to be in the photo. These are your possible candidates to rule in or out!
5. Build a Bigger Tree: And, yes, as you get a toehold with one person, immediately build out their complete tree up and down and all around. Confirming one person is a big win. 
6. Ask Your Relatives: Yes, sadly you have to talk to people and ask. The older generation often knows exactly who they people in the photos are -- it's your job to get more suspects from their memories. 
7. Couple Up: Many times, married couples are standing next to each other in group photos. Likewise children are with siblings or hanging on their mother. This rule is not set in stone, and yet can often help narrow things down. 
8. Find More Photos: Getting more photos for your list of suspects can help rule in and out people. Also, you may luck out and find another photograph from the same day and place, and that one has writing on the back identifying the people and places. 

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The Bodenheimers of Graaf Florisstraat 104-A

The Saga of the Dutch Postcards, Part 2

I've explained how I received a trove of lost photographs and postcards from The Good Neighbor in Rotterdam.  So, the next step is the big reveal. The Photos!

At first glance at the treasure I had obtained, I was slightly disappointed. The two albums contain very very few family photos. Like a single page, double-sided of photos. All the rest of the albums are postcards from relatives to the Bodenheimers from various places.  On the positive side, the photographs are each absolutely priceless, and because there wasn't a huge amount, I was able to really look at each one for a great deal of time and do deep analysis.   Here are both pages, with a grand total of five photos of people.

Bodenheimer Family

Lugano, San Fruttuoso, Pallanza, and Rosa at Locarno

There only one thing written on the first page, and that's this at the top.

Waibstadt Mai 1928

What's interesting about that is Berthold was born in Waibstadt on 16 May 1885, so this very well could have been taken on his 43rd birthday.

Photo 1: The Bodenheimer Family in Waibstadt, May 1928
So, here's the first photo I really really looked at.  I have scanned it at super high-resolution, cropped it a bit to focus on the people, and colorized it using the new MyHeritage Photo Colorizer tool.

Berthold Bodenheimer with family in Waibstadt, 1928

Well, now what.  Since this is the first photo I've ever seen of the family, how do I figure out who is in the photo and who is who?

I'll just lead with my conclusions and then explain myself later.

Front row: Ruth Ellen FRANK, daughter of Bertha and Hermann (1921-1936), Jeannine BODENHEIMER, daughter of Rosa and Berthold (1922-1942), and Madeleine Marianne BODENHEIMER, daughter of Rosa and Berthold (1924-1943).

Back row: Julia BODENHEIMER, daughter of Berthold and his first wife Maria (1912-1942), Bertha FRANK geb BODENHEIMER, sister of Berthold, wife of Hermann (1883-1970), Berthold BODENHEIMER, brother of Bertha, Husband of Rosa (1885-1943), Rosa Paula BODENHEIMER geb BAER, wife of Berthold (1888-1943), and Hermann FRANK, husband of Bertha (1887-1937).


How to Identify People in Photos

Step 1: Write down all your facts and assumptions.  First, this was taken in Waibstadt in May 1928.  It must have Berthold Bodenheimer in it, and his family.   There looks to be two families here, likely a brother or sister of Berthold or his wife and their kid or kids?

Step 2: Have a full and complete family tree. This is critical, as in May 1928 Berthold was married to his second wife, Rosa Paula Baer and had three girls: Julia Bodenheimer, born to his first wife Maria KORBULY in 1912,  Jeannine, born in 1922, and Madeleine "Mady" born in 1924.  His fourth daughter wasn't born until December 1928, and his first born son, Walter died as an infant in 1910.  This means that most likely Julia is the young lady hiding at the back left, at age 14. That fits. Two of the other three younger girls must be Jeannine and Mady. The third little girl must be a cousin.

To figure out who the other family might be, I looked at the tree on both Berthold and Rosa's side looking for a family with a daughter born about 1923 -- about the same age as Jeannine and Mady. This lead me to only one family that would match, Berthold's sister Bertha BODENHEIMER had married Hermann FRANK and they had a daughter, Ruth Ellen FRANK who was born in 1921.

Step 3: Compare Ages.  In trying to see which woman is Rosa and which one is Bertha, take a look and see if you can tell which person is older.  Then look at the tree and if there is a clear age difference, that will be another clue.  I already did this with the children, and Rosa was born in 1888, and aged 40 -- she was also two months pregnant, but that wouldn't show yet. Bertha was born in 1883, so she was five years older at 45.  Of the two men, Hermann FRANK was about two years younger than Berthold. Hermann hadn't had his 41st birthday yet, and Berthold had just turned 43.

Step 4: Compare Places. The photo was  taken in Waibstadt, Germany, the ancestral home of my entire branch of the Bodenheimer family.  The Frank family lived in Mannheim at the time. In looking at a map, I can see that Mannheim is only about 50 km away from Waibstadt. That would absolutely work without a doubt.  This confirms that it is indeed likely that the other family in the photo is the Frank family.

Map: Mannheim in relation to Waibstadt

Step 5: Look at the composition for family groupings. In this case, I sort of took a guess that Berthold and Rosa were paired up in the middle, with Berthold's sister Bertha next to him on the left.  It sort of looks like the three children hanging onto and around the lady on the left could be their mother, but I suppose a favorite aunt would work too.  Not very conclusive. I also looked at the clothing, thinking that the two younger Bodenheimer girls might be the ones dressed the same and .standing next to each other.

Step 6: Look for other photos of the same people or any other known reference photos for anyone in the photo.  Luckily, this wasn't the only photo I had.  I have the other photos to look at, and see if there is a way to connect the dots.

I found a reference to Madeleine Marianne Bodenheimer in the book, "Cold Feet" by Bill Minco, and wrote to Jeroen van der Beek who maintains an incredible resource on the Jews of Graaf Florisstraat.  He sent me this photo that I was able to use as reference photo for Mady.

Madeleine Marianne Bodenheimer (1924-1943)

Mady, aged 4 eating a banana in Waibstadt

Let's compare her to her much younger possible self, the youngest girl in photo 1.  It might be. In neither picture is she smiling. Same stern stare. Can't rule it out. Even eating a banana she's so serious.


Photo 2: The Bodenheimer Girls with the Children of Waibstadt
The next photo presents way more of a challenge.  It's a bunch of children, and I have not figured out who they all are.  This photo also could have been taken on the same day as photo 3, which I note below can be linked to photo 1.

1928 School Chums

The girl in the left foreground is one of the Bodenheimer girls, a smiling Mady. And Julia is clearly the one holding the little lamb.  This one still needs work! Lots of unknown faces. Could that be Jeannine in the middle back with the dotted flower dress? It could.  My branch of the Bodenheimers left Waibstadt years before 1928, and I've searched my tree for any branches who could be still in Waibstadt in the 1920s and came up empty.  By that time, all seemed to have moved to Mannheim, Heidelberg, Frankfurt, Berlin, or elsewhere.

Photo 3: Rosa in a Flower Field with her Daughters
The next photo could be a clue. This appears to be a mother with her three children.

Mother and three children in flowers, 1928

This grouping leads me to believe that this is Rosa with her step-daughter Julia Bodenheimer, and her two daughters. The youngest, Mady (Madeleine Marianne Bodenheimer), in front of her, and Jeannine on the right, in front of Julia. This help solidify the working theories on the first photo, giving backup data to four of the people in that one. Rosa appears to be wearing the same thing as photo 1, and the girls are taken off their sweaters? That's possible, as the average high temperature in the Waibstadt on 16 May is 66 F at 4:30pm, ranging from 60-72 F, with the record high being almost 80 F.

Photo 4: Cousins Jeannine Bodenheimer and Ruth Ellen Frank
This picture is clearly taken on the same day as photo #1.  The two girls are wearing the same clothes they wore in that first photo. So, taken in Waibstadt in May of 1928, likely on Berthold's birthday of May 16.   And thus, all four photos on the page labeled Waibstadt May 1928 are indeed all taken on the same day.

Cousins Jeannine Bodenheimer and Ruth Ellen Frank in Waibstadt, May 1928

These look like two girls the same age, and as such they should be cousins Jeannine BODENHEIMER, born 13 Jan 1922 and Ruth Ellen FRANK, born 21 Apr 1921 -- about 9 months apart.  Which is which? Well, the girl on the left is shorter and is wearing something similar to the youngest girl in the first photo, so perhaps she is Jeannine? Also, the hair in photo 3 better matches the middle girl in that photo.  And, in photo 3 the two youngest children and standing next to each other and wearing similar clothes to each other.  I conclude that it's Jeannine on the left and Ruth Ellen on the right.

Sadly, both of these girls died way too young. Jeannine died in Rotterdam at age 20 on 26 Aug 1942., and her family posted a newspaper report of her death. It reads, "After a short, severe illness, died our dearly beloved, deeply regretted daughter and sister Jeannine, at the youthful age of 20 years. Berthold Bodenheimer, Paula Bodenheimer-Baer, Julia, Madeleine, and Eliane."

1942 death of Jeannine Bodenheimer

Ruth died at the age of 15 in Frankfurt, Germany on 28 Oct 1936. Ruth is buried in Mannheim with her brother and mother.

Grave of Ruth Ellen Frank in Mannheim

Photo 5: Rosa Paula Bodenheimer geb Baer, in Locarno 1927
This photo is the only photo on the back of the single page that has a person in it.  It was labeled "Locarno 1927", and thus really must be Berthold's wife at the time. This helps with the other photos, as it builds a reference photo for two of the other photos with the same woman in them.

Rosa Paula Bodenheimer geb Baer, Loaerino 1927

Locarno is a town in Switzerland.  What you can't see in this photo is the lake and the mountains behind. It's all washed out.  The church steeple is from the Madonna del Sasso Church above Locarno city, with the Locarno lake in the background.

Madonna del Sasso Church above Locarno lake in Switzerland

The Italian Trip of 1927 
All four of the photos on the second page are from a trip that I mapped out from the city names.  I'll show the same photo again for reference.

Lugano, San Fruttuoso, Pallanza, and Rosa at Locarno

The towns are Lugano (top left), San Fruttuoso (top right), Pallanza (bottom left), and Locarno (bottom right). Here's a map connecting all those places in Italy and Switzerland:

Map of 1927 trip

 I could spend hours looking at photos for those places and connecting and comparing them with the 1927 photos. For example, the little harbor at Pallanza doesn't look quite the same anymore. It's been expanded, and the semi-circle greeting area appears to have been removed.   The water color at the small bay at San Fruttuoso is utterly amazing. I could go on and on. In any case, it looks like a great trip!

But wait, there's more!

In February 2020, three more photos showed up. In the process of cleaning up and organizing his house, P.J. in the Netherlands found a few amazing treasures, bringing the grand total of family photos up to eight.

Photo 6: Julia Bodenheimer between Grandmother and Mother, May 1916
This is the first and only photo I've seen of either Maria Hermina BODENHEIMER geb KORBULY (1891-1917). She was Berthold's first wife, and died just a year after this photo.  Also, likewise this is the only known photo of her mother, Eugenia KORBULY geb WINKELHOFER (1848-1918) who died two years after this photo.  This postcard was sent 25 May 1916, so the photo was taken at least a few weeks before that.   Julia celebrated her fourth birthday on 26 May 1916.

Eugenia Winkelhofer Korbuly, Julia Bodenhiemer, and Maria Korbuly Bodenheimer, 1916

The back of the card has some great details that translate as:

Mr. Gojardus Dersjant, 25 May 1916 [postmark] 
Nijmegen, Jorisstraat 68
Dear Go!
For your postcard, for Julia’s birthday, mine and hers best thanks, what was she glad with it. We had yet a lot of fun on this day, a pity you were not there too! Your sweet mother, Gijs and Guus [Go's brothers] have been here, and have sweet little Julia a mechanical duck (of them) given! Your Pluto [Go's pet dog] was also born 26 May glad because he became 2 years old too! Many greetings from us all your dearest
Mrs M.B. Bodenheimer, Korbuly
PS: Driver B.B.[Berthold Bodenheimer] _ Et. Tel.[ephone] Dir. No 12 in east [?] via Emmerich  

Photo 7: Julia Bodenheimer with Father and Step-Mother on the Beach at Scheveningen
This newly discovered postcard is equally important, as it solidifies the reference photo for Berthold Bodenheimer and his second wife, Rosa.  This one is dated 25 March 1921, so it's of a newly formed family.  Berthold and Rosa got married in Rotterdam on 17 Feb 1921, so just a month earlier.   Before their marriage, Julia, who is aged 8 in this photo was not able to live with her father. After the marriage, the family was reunited again under one roof.

Rosa Baer Bodenheimer, Julia Bodenheimer, and Berthold Bodenheimer, 1921

The back has a short note, "Memory from a trip to Scheveningen on Good Friday 25 March 1921."  
They are on the beach, probably somewhere near the original pier built in 1901.

Photo 8: Cousins at Wedding of Berthold and Rosa, 17 Feb 1921 in Rotterdam
Well, this one. Wow, what an amazing photo!  By the time this photo arrived on my desk, I'd done a lot more work on Rosa's side of the tree.  To be honest, before I started looking at the actual to/from information that I'll cover in part 3, I had her parents and an unmarried sister sitting on the tree.  Well, her sister was indeed married, and had two little girls and an infant in 1921.   Julia is clearly Julia, confirmed by the last two photos.   It's likely the tallest girl with the bow in her hair is Margot SCHWARTZ (1912-1996), with her younger sister Suzi SCHWARTZ (1915-2005) standing right in the middle. But, who are the two boys?

Werner Frank, Margot Schwartz, Suzi Schwartz, Julia Bodenheimer, and Ludwig Frank, 1921

This gets back to finding reference photos for people. I mentioned earlier that I had started with only a single photo for this entire branch of the family, and that was of Julia's cousin, Ludwig FRANK (1914-1945), well in 1921 he'd be 7. Perhaps the boy on the left?  Let's compare that with the known photo of Ludwig from later in life.

Comparing known photo of Ludwig FRANK to possible younger self

What do you think? It's certainly a possibility.  The deciding factor would be to prove that the other boy, on the left was Ludwig's younger brother, Werner FRANK (1915-1998).  When I last looked for photos of Werner and any possible family I can up empty.  Well, it's now 2020 and the official Israel State Archives have put of 32 million scans online for free. Searching there, the first result is his entire immigration record with him and his wife, including photos!  Better yet, using Facebook it's possible that he has three living children that I never knew about (yes, letters are on their way already).

Comparing known photo of Werner FRANK to possible younger self

Yes it could be right. But when on earth would cousins from two different sides of the family get together in Rotterdam in 1921?  The FRANKs are from Mannheim and the SCHWARTZ family is from Strasbourg. Oh yeah, the wedding!  Of course. This photo must have been taken at the wedding of Rosa and Berthold on 17 Feb 1921.

The Updated Family Tree

Berthold Bodenheimer family tree, updated 2020

The Saga of the Dutch Postcards
Part 1: The Good Neighbor in Rotterdam
Part 2: Meet the Bodenheimers of Graaf Florisstraat 104
Part 3: The Postcards
Part 4: Family Updates, Family Found!

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Saying your family is from Posen is like saying you are from New York

Do you mean Posen, or do you mean Posen?

Well, do you mean New York, or do you mean New York?

In that way, Posen is just like New York.  When you say you are from New York, do you mean New York State or New York City.  Most people actually default to New York City based on our common assumptions, but the State is much bigger and probably has more people overall.   Here in America, we assume that if you say you are from New York, then you are from the city.   Most people when they talk about the rest of New York either say "Upstate New York" or "near Buffalo" or their exact town to ensure they are understood.

When my relatives came to America, they just listed Posen on their immigration forms.  I'm sure your family did the same thing.  The problem with that is that we just assume they meant the city of Posen, Prussia.  However there are a lot of other cities in the greater province of Posen. 

1848 map of Posen Province

In fact the Grand Duchy of Posen was about 11,000 sq miles large. About a fourth the size of New York state. It had a lot of cities in it besides the capital city of Posen in Posen.  Cities like Kempen, Lissa, Rawitsch, Schroda, Bromberg, Gnesen, and Kolmar. 

To make things even more complicated and confusing, the Prussian Province of Posen was divided into two government regions: Posen in the south, and Bromberg in the North.  So, the address of the City of Posen was actually something like Posen, Posen, Posen, Prussia.   One hint if you are indeed looking for the city of Posen: the German word to look for is Stadt Posen.  It means Posen City,  just like saying, New York City.

How to do genealogy research for family from Posen

First off, you are in luck. There are a number of great online resources for Posen research, and if you write to the registration offices they are very helpful.

The strangest part is that all the resources are in Polish, and you'll have to do some Google Translating to get around. After WWII Posen was given back to Poland.  However all the records are still in German, so you are looking for are German language records on Polish sites. So, between English, Polish, and German you should be fine.

BaSIA:  Your first stop is to visit the BaSIA Project, the Database of Archival Indexing System for all of Wielkopolska (Greater Poland region in west-central Poland).   They have indexed over 4 million records, many of them with links to the original scanned images!  There are birth, marriage, and death records. And not just for the city of Posen. All Posen!

Poznan Project: While working with BaSIA you may also try the Poznan Project, which is a sister project dedicated to indexing and transcribing all the 19th century marriage records for Posen.  It can be helpful to find the exact record, and then go back to BaSIA to narrow your search down to find the image links.

Luft's Naturalized Jews of Posen: If you have any Jewish relatives, the book Naturalized Jews of the Grand Duchy of Posen in 1834 and 1835 by Edward David Luft is a really great resource.

Posen City Card for Isaak Wolff and Family

Posen City Cards: There is a treasure trove online. It is the City of Posen Population Census, and spans the years 1870 to 1931.  These cards list out all the family members in a household along with their birth dates and places. Sometimes their death dates and address changes.  These are amazing, and there is a searchable index!  Now, these are only for the city of Posen, but like New York many many people ended up in the big city at some point.  My own family was from Lissa originally, and they have a Posen City card for their time there.

Keep searching. You might just discover an entire tree of family members you never knew about!

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Second Cousins Are Magic (Ancestry repost)

Second Cousins Are Magic was originally written as a guest post for Ancestry Blog on July 22, 2016. I'm cross-posting it here in 2020 (back-dated to 2016) for completeness, updates, and follow-up. 

Siegmund Bodenheimer, 11 May 1913 Berlin

“How in the world did you find those great old photos?”

“I wish my family had photos like that.”

“I’m so jealous, all our family photos were lost in the flood.”

We all hear comments like this from time to time, and there really isn’t a good answer to them besides that well-practiced air of mystery we all try to perfect. Revealing the magic trick behind your finds just doesn’t do all the hard work justice. The response to seeing how the magic is done is usually underwhelming. You also could have just been plain old lucky and found your grandmother’s scrapbook – something we’ve all had to sheepishly confess to from time to time.

Your relatives really don’t want to know the techniques you use in your craft. Sadly, it generally bores them to tears. However they do love and appreciate those photos!

Well, to those of us who love genealogy, it is all about technique. I’ll now let you in on the very secret methods I personally employ in my genealogical detective casework to find photographic treasures. Are you ready for the big reveal?

I Talk to Second Cousins

Second cousins hold the magic.

Second cousins have all the best photos. All those great-grandparents who we thought never had their photos taken, the copies of photos that were destroyed in the fire, the photos we thought were left behind when the family left with only the clothing on their backs. Yes, those. For some families, those photos may really be lost, which is sad. But it’s possible that there are people out there who do have copies of photos you don’t know about, people who you never knew about – your second cousins, or better yet, your parent’s second cousins. They’re the ones who may have those precious photo albums.

My second great-grandfather, Benno, was camera shy. I really didn’t think a photo of him existed anywhere in the world. When I finally tracked down one of my father’s second cousins in Brazil, what did I find hanging in his front room? Not one, but two photos of Benno! Right there on the wall in plain sight. My newly-found cousin was astonished at my reaction, as my jaw literally hit the floor.

“Why wouldn’t I have a photo of my great grandfather?” he asked.

Benno Bodenheimer's family at his 70th birthday 21 Mar 1915

That’s the key. Second cousins share great-grandparents. And some of their photos might also have the entire family, which means one of your grandparents at an early age!

When I showed that photo to another second cousin, he said, “Oh, I have a photo that looks like that but I didn’t know who anyone was.” He then sent me a slightly beat-up photo taken on the same day: you can tell by the hats!

Benno Bodenheimer with children at his 70th birthday 21 Mar 1915

It turns out that the mysterious Benno was not at all camera shy. I now have at least seven photos of him.

A Piece of The Puzzle

Another of my father’s second cousins now lives in London. His mother ended up with all the family photos by way of South Africa. My father had never heard of him, yet there they were – photos of his great-grandparents, grandmother, her siblings, and even second great-grandparents. One of the most interesting discoveries was that up until then, I only had two photos of my second great-grandfather, Emanuel Wolff. This included one that just said, “Emanuel Wolff 1901” on the back. Well, since he died in 1901, I had made up a story in my head about this being the last photo taken of him.

Emanuel Wolff 1901

Wolff Family in Pegli, March 1901

In the collection was another photo that told a great deal more of the story. It was a group shot, and it turned out I literally only had a small piece of the big picture. The notes on the back helped the story take shape. The family was on vacation in the Italian Riviera resort of Pegli. It was winter in March 1901, and the family traveled about 1,200 km south by train from their Berlin home to get some much needed warmth and sun.   Emanuel died in December of 1901, some nine months later. So, it was not the last photo after all. It’s a completely different story, and one that I could not have heard without finding that magical second cousin.

Not to say that first cousins are a lost cause. They’re lovely people. You may have known them all your life. You probably know all their stories and photos already. If you don’t, well that’s really your first step: talk to your family. Actually, my motto is if all else fails, talk to your family, but you get the idea. This will also help you fill out the family tree so that you have a complete list of second cousins to trace.

It never fails that I finally track someone down, only to have my aunt tell me, “Of course I know Ronnie; we used to go to the movies together.” How does my family not understand that I am a genealogist?

Second cousins are really close relatives in a genealogical sense. They are the children of your parent’s first cousins. However, they often get lost in the shuffle, especially if you go up one generation and work on your parent’s second cousins. It is much easier to lose touch with your grandparent’s first cousins, whose children would be your parent’s second cousins. Don’t you dare refer to second cousins as distant cousins. Good grief, I have fourth cousins I still consider close.

How to approach your second cousins about photos:

• Talk to your own family and get your tree filled out. Be sure to include all your parent’s second cousins by finding all your grandparent’s first cousins. Also, it wouldn’t hurt to look through everyone’s photo collections again.
• Contact your long-lost cousins, and try not to sound like a crazy person. Establish your family credentials. Tell your story before asking any questions.
• Tell them you are looking for photos. Many people are worried about your motivation. Their first instinct is that you want something from them: money. So ease their fears, and tell them right up front what you want from them: copies of photos.
• Share the family tree with them, and share your photos with them. You’ll be amazed at how excited they are to see your boring old photos. Your photos are the ones that they haven’t seen, just as theirs are so special to you. It works both ways. Each person has a small piece of the puzzle, and they discount the pieces they have, simply because they have them.
• The internet makes sharing digital photos across the world so easy. It’s truly an amazing time to live. If you don’t have a scanner, use something like Shoebox from Ancestry to turn your phone into a scanner.
• Don’t get offended if they refer to you as a distant cousin. Try to repeat long-lost cousin as often as possible.

Second cousins may have more than photos. They could have juicy stories, scrapbooks, paperwork, letters, family lore, and much more. You’ll be surprised at how much you have in common with them. They are indeed family after all. Who would have guessed you’d have so much to talk about.

At the end of the day, my truthful answer to “How did you find those photos?” is a tired smile, and, “Legwork, lots of legwork.”

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How to be an Agile Genealogist

Albert Einstein's desk the day he died

Do you have notes and lists all over your desk reminding you of all those genealogy sites you need to visit? Those surnames your need to research? That e-mail you need to write to the family history center in your great grandparent's hometown?

How do you ever get anything done? 

Well, I know way too much about the Agile software development processes. It's the same in the software world. Thousands of great ideas, and only the time and money to do a few of them a week. I can talk about Agile for hours and hours and hours and hours and I won't bore you to tears about why it is so amazing and awesome. Yes, it's based on Lean manufacturing principals, and all sorts of science. So what. For us in the genealogy world, there are just two things you need to know:

1) Prioritize your next tasks. Giant lists are not at all helpful. They are overwhelming. In Agile they call this your backlog. Manage your backlog. If you only research ten genealogy mysteries in the next month, what would they be? Put them in order on a shorter list: your "Prioritized Burn-down List."

2) Work on one thing at a time and finish it. As much as you think you can multi-task, you can't. Genealogists are human. Yes, and humans can only work on one thing at a time. This is called managing the WIP (Work in Progress). Do one thing; finish it, and move to the next. For you, your limit is one thing. That's your WIP limit.  Teams of people can do more than one thing; and you are a team of one.

There, was that too painful? I actually introduced you to some important Agile terms: burndown list, backlog, WIP, and WIP limits. Easy stuff, and you're one step closer to starting that second career as an app developer!

How to Use Trello to Become an Agile Genealogist

Yes, all the kids these days are using Trello. Dropping Trello into a conversation with your granddaughter will blow her mind. Try it!

Step 1) Sign up for Trello, it's free! 

Really, it's free for all the features you'll need for genealogy! Go to Trello.com and sign up! Do this now. It's the real deal. Millions of people are using it.

Step 2) Create your first board

The dreaded blank screen.  Trello is so flexible, you can do anything you'd like. Therefore, it's easy to get stuck here. Follow me onward friends! Create a board called "Genealogy" or something sensible like that. Once you master Trello, you'll probably want to create another board called "Things for my spouse to do around the house" and then another and another. It's addictive.

Once you create the board you'll end up with this screen:

Step 3) Create your lists

Remember what I said about how giant lists can destroy your life? Oh, I must have left that part out. Anyway, the way to manage a giant list is to spilt it up into smaller lists. In the simplest Agile process, we create Kanban boards that have three lists: To-Do, Doing, and Done.

I recommend for genealogy, that your lists look like this, working in that same Kanban fashion left to right.   All the things you want to do are on the left.   All the things you've done are on the right. And in the middle, instead of just "Doing" you make three lists, Next Week, Tomorrow, and Today.    So, five lists to sort things into:

1. Someday -- these are things you don't want to forget. They need to be on a list. 
2. Next Week -- these items actually need to get done this month; they are just that important.
3. Tomorrow -- the priority short list I need to do when I'm done with today's work.
4. Today -- this is the one thing you need to do today. Finish it. 
5. Done -- large list of completed tasks. Yay you! 

Feel free to change the names of the lists to something that really works for you. An important part of Agile is the idea of trying something, reflecting on the experience, and modifying thing to work better for you.   Add another list if you need one. I have one called "Daily" right next to Today that is a list of all the things I need to do every day, like Twitter, Facebook, and the like.

Step 4) Fill in the lists with cards

Now the fun part.  Start adding cards to the list. Cards are the tasks you need to do. One card for each task. These are those Post-It notes that are all over your wall, desk, and computer. Click on "Add a card..." and type them in.

One rule about cards. Each card should be no more than a day's work. "Scan Photos" is a great card, but if you can't do it all in a day, you'll need to break it down into multiple cards. Step it out into things like, "Buy Scanner", "Sort photos to be scanned", and "Scan important photos from uncle's album".

I recommend adding all your cards to the "Someday" list. Type them in as fast as you can. Get them all into that horrible giant list catch all bucket.

Then sort the cards into their proper list. Just drag and drop.  Grab the one card you need to work on today, and move it over to the Today column.

Next, ask yourself, "If I only do four things this week, what are they?"  Find those cards and add them to Tomorrow's list.

Step 5) Do a Task and Finish a Card

Hopefully, the card in Today's bucket is called something like "Try Trello for Genealogy."  Well, that's done.  Move it into Done. Done done done!

Next, and this is important, pull the next card from the top of tomorrow's list. Drag it into the now-empty today column.  Always pull the top-most card. Therefore, always put the most important next task at the top of your lists. Drag the cards around. It's actually fun and easy.  You're a prioritizing wizard now!

I had to sit through two full days of time-management classes to learn how to break through the tyranny of the inbox, and you've mastered it in the ten minutes it took to read this post: take large lists and break them up horizontally into smaller, prioritized lists.

Advanced Features

Trello has some amazing features that will help you along the way. My favorites include the following:

• Due dates: if something actually has to be done by a certain date you can get a reminder a few days before it's due. This tells you to find that card and move it closer to the top of the tomorrow pile. 
• Trello Apps: you can install the Trello app on your iPad, phone, or other mobile device and have your to-do list with you wherever you go. You can even add things to it, and it is all synched together.  
• Teams: Trello was actually built for teams, so if you have another researcher working with you, there is a good deal of communication and collaboration built in. 
• Checklists: each card can have a checklist of all the little tasks that can be checked off as you do them. 
• Photos: yes, you can add images to Trello cards. Especially cool when taking photos with your iPhone at a research center. 

Seriously, sign up for a free Trello board today. 

How to use @Trello to manage your genealogical research in an #Agile way. https://t.co/xTX95FsOr3 #genealogy pic.twitter.com/17Tfc1HDUL

— the Cousin Detective (@CousinDetective) May 13, 2016

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Who Are All These People? (MyCanvas repost)

Who Are All These People? was originally written as a guest post for MyCanvas Blog on April 12, 2016. I'm cross-posting it here in 2020 (back-dated to 2016) for completeness, updates, and follow-up. 

Benno’s Photo

Many years ago, in the very early dawn of the internet, a complete stranger sent me an e-mail from Israel about his genealogical research into the family of Ludwig Bodenheimer. Ludwig was my great grandfather’s brother. I’d only recently discovered that he even had a brother, and that we had living Bodenheimer relatives here in the US. Anyway, this random chap thought he might have found a picture of Ludwig’s father, Benno Bodenheimer. He wasn’t sure, but wanted to share it with me, as it would be the first known photo of my great great grandfather. I’d heard about Benno many times, and never thought I would see a photo of him.  This was great news, and the photo was attached to the e-mail for immediate gratification.

(Bodenheimer Family Photo, circa 1918: Ludwig, L; Benno? R)

In April 2008 I joined a new collaborative genealogy site called Geni, and I posted my only photo of Benno to his Geni profile. There it happily sat for a couple years. I’d almost completely forgotten that the photo “might” be Benno.

But I Don’t Have Relatives in Brazil

Then one day I opened my e-mail to find a message from another complete stranger, this time from Brazil, telling me that the photo of Benno Bodenheimer on Geni was most certainly not Benno.  I hope I wrote back something short and nice, but I think it actually came across more like an accusation of, “who in the world are you and what makes you think that I could have possibly posted wrong information?”

Well, the gentleman in Brazil wrote back that he was the great grandson of Benno Bodenheimer. And furthermore, he would certainly know what his great grandfather looked like as he had photos of him hanging in his front room.  What? That would make him my Dad’s second cousin. How would I not know about him? Well, to make a long story short, it turns out he was actually telling the truth and sent me some photos to prove his connection (I have since met him, and he’s wonderful).

(Bodenheimer Family Photo, circa 1915; Benno Bodenheimer)

Finally, an authoritative photo of the camera-shy Benno Bodenheimer!  But that wasn’t the only photo he sent me… no, he also sent me a real mystery that I wouldn’t solve for years.

The Real Mystery

(Bodenheimer Family Photo, circa 1915: The Benno Bodenheimer Family)

Yes, this is it: a simple family photo. Armed with the newly acquired reference photo, I can deduce that the one and only Benno Bodenheimer is seated right smack in the center, with his family gathered around him.

Here’s the issue. My newly found Brazilian cousin didn’t know who any of the people were. Nothing was written on the back. All he knew was that all of Benno’s children, and their related spouses (if applicable), were there.  But, as to which were which? Nothing.

Who are all these people?

Solving The Case of Benno’s Family

Here are the steps I took in figuring out each and every person in this priceless family photograph:

• Family Tree: I made sure I had a complete family tree for Benno, including his three wives, two sons, and six daughters. I needed marriage dates and names of all his children’s spouses, as they were potentially in the photograph.
• Build a Bigger Tree: And, being the Cousin Detective, I needed to find all the descendants so that I could reach out to living cousins in the following steps. This involved finding all the children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren of the people in the photograph.
• Ask Your Relatives: I always seem to do this last, but this time I did it first. Yay me! I numbered each person in the photo, and sent the numbered photo around to all the descendants I had contact with so they could help pick out their grandparents (most people have photos of their grandparents). This step took a while, as over the years I kept finding new cousins who might be able to help.
• Couple Up: Generally speaking, it is likely that a married couple will stand together in a photo. It doesn’t always happen, but there seem to be at least two or three obvious couples, so figuring out one of them is a good clue to the other.
• Find More Photos: I scoured the world for reference photos, and I was able to find other group photos that had annotations. For example, I got a photo from another second cousin that was clearly labeled on the back. It was bittersweet to finally be able to identify the Rosenzweigs, knowing they had been killed in Stutthof concentration camp along with their two young daughters during the Holocaust.

(Bodenheimer Family Photo; Flora, Leni, Bella, Felix, Helene, and Hermann)

Meet The Bodenheimers

The years have passed, and I can finally call this case closed.

Using disqualifying date ranges, I was able to figure out that it was most likely the occasion of Benno’s 70th birthday on 21 March 1915. And, by finding a small photographer’s mark in the bottom right corner, it’s certain that the photographer was Oskar Ensslinger of Darmstadt, Germany (about 60 km north of Benno’s Heidelberg 1915 home).

(Bodenheimer Family Photo; Close-up of Photographer’s Mark)

As for the people, everyone has been identified; so let’s meet them.

Standing, left to right: Siegmund Bodenheimer, Bertha Loeb née Bodenheimer, Arthur Loeb, Betty “Bella” Rosenzweig née Bodenheimer, Felix Rosenzweig, Elsa “Minna” Lauchheimer née Bodenheimer, Heinrich “Henry” Lauchheimer, Else Bodenheimer née Hahn, Flora Frank née Bodenheimer, and Ludwig “Louis” Bodenheimer

Seated, left to right: Rosi Bodenheimer née Maass, Klara Ruben née Bodenheimer, Rosa Bianca Bodenheimer née Loeb, Benjamin “Benno” Bodenheimer, Selma Uhlfelder née Bodenheimer, and Philipp Uhlfelder.

(Bodenheimer Family Photo; The Bodenheimer Family, fully annotated)

About the Cousin Detective

The Cousin Detective is written by Dan Bodenheimer, and is dedicated to solving mysteries in family trees, telling funny stories about the amazing things that happen during the investigations, and trying to keep a sharp sarcastic sense of humor fully engaged at all times.

Genealogy draws on many of Bodenheimer’s professional and personal strengths, the most rewarding is connecting people together to build the family tree in collaboration and sharing all the photos that are discovered in the process.

Follow the Cousin Detective’s mysterious cases by visiting http://www.cousindetective.com/ or click on your social media site of choice: Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest.

Upcoming Guest Bloggers

Last Week – Madam Ancestry – “Family Friday”

Next Week – Lynn Palermo – “Family History: From Blog to Book”

April 26, 2016 – Elizabeth Goesel – “Creating Your Family Museum”

See all 15 Guest Bloggers.

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