The mystery of former East Orange major James W. Kelly, Jr.

My brother Jeff has begun a new blog about the elementary school he attended in East Orange, New Jersey, during the late 1950s: Stockton School.  I'm enjoying seeing the photos and reading his postings about some of the people whom he went to school with or who taught there. 

One of his more recent postings mentioned an occasion where he met the mayor of East Orange, James W. Kelly, Jr.  What baffles him (and me) is that we can't find anything about Kelly after he left office in 1970.  I plan to keep searching, but unless Kelly is still alive somewhere (living off the grid in a retirement community?), I find it hard to believe that I can't find any record of his death.  Unfortunately, "James Kelly" is such a common name that I can't say for certain that one of the ones in the Social Security Death Index isn't him.

If someone out there happens to know something about what happened to Mayor Kelly after 1970, I'm sure that Jeff and I would love to hear about it.

Altha Corinne Martin - 1938

Is blogging dying? Well, not exactly...

This New York Times article suggests that younger people are moving away from traditional blogs to other ways to share information (certainly Facebook and Twitter), but notice the statistics for older bloggers (the age groups into which most genealogists fall):

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/21/technology/internet/21blog.html

RootsTech 2011

It would be odd to have a blog about genealogy and technology and not talk about where I am right now, attending the first annual RootsTech, a conference dedicated to the intersection of genealogy and technology! So far, this conference has been like no other genealogy conference I've ever attended. Yesterday was a keynote by Shane Robison, Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy and Technology Officer for Hewlett-Packard Company. Tomorrow, the Founder of the Internet Archive, Brewster Kahle, will be a keynote speaker. Combine those with people already well known to the genealogy community (such as Curt Witcher and Jay Verkler), and you've got a high-powered event full of sessions for all levels of technology experience.

As a blogger and podcaster, I'm flattered that an entire area (the Media Hub) has been set aside for those of us who communicate online. Tables with power and wired Internet connections, plus a glassed-in area for video interview recording and audio interview recording. I'll be sharing interviews that I'm conducting as part of future episodes of the Genealogy Guys Podcast.

The toughest time is squeezing in every fascinating event without wearing out! But I'll be posting a few more entries about the conference before I leave.

A downside to DNA testing...

http://xkcd.com/830/

SS-5 and the Grandparents

Let's complete the collection of SS-5 images by looking at the ones for my 4 grandparents.  3 of them were easy to obtain, because three of my grandparents were originally listed in the SSDI.

The 4th, belonging to my paternal grandfather William Henry Smith, required me to use his death certificate as the way to document his death (and thereby obtain his SS-5).  Here is his SS-5: 

Notes based upon other knowledge: His father's name was Charles Henry Smith, his mother's name was Mary Ann Bannon.  (The Bannon surname was sometimes spelled "Bonnon".)  

Next up is the SS-5 for my paternal grandmother, the most interesting (in my opinion) of all of the SS-5s:

Notes: In the early 70s (on a visit to my brother, who was living near DC at the time), I learned that Grandmother Smith had converted from Judaism to Catholicism in order to marry Grandfather Smith.   So she had taken the name "Elizabeth".  I had known her only as "Elizabeth C. Smith", without any idea as to what the "C" stood for, although if I had been asked to guess, I would have assumed another typical Catholic name, such as "Catherine".  Imagine my surprise to read "Conceptia".  Her birth name was "Rachel", but she was frequently called "Rae".  Also surprisingly, she was not born in the NY/Northern NJ area, but instead, in England, Arkansas.  And she fails to give her mother's maiden name, which I learned from other sources was "Grodowitz".

Now, my maternal grandparents, beginning with my maternal grandfather:

Note: His mother appears as "Jane" in most records, and with the surname spelled "Bodie".

Finally, to complete the set, the SS-5 for my maternal grandmother:

Notes: In nearly all records, she appears as "Lizzie", but she appears as "Elizabeth" in the 1930 census.

SS-5 and the Parental Units

If I'm starting my new family database from scratch, then it stands to reason that I should begin by focusing on my parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents.  I've previously posted my mother's birth certificate.

Now let's take a look at the SS-5 applications of my parents, beginning with my father's:

Notes: Dad worked for Reynolds Metals before and after World War II, but after he attended television repair training (RCA, funded by the G.I. Bill), he quit his job and became self employed as a TV and radio repairman.  He continued that job until his retirement.  Dad's mother was born Rachel Weinglass, but when she converted from Judaism to Catholicism to marry my grandfather, she took the first name of "Elizabeth".

Now my mother's:

 

Notes: Mom spelled her name "Corinne" throughout her life, but it appears as "Corene" on her birth certificate.