Cyndi’s List turns 30 today! A genealogy must have.

Paula Stuart-Warren  Cyndi's List  , , , ,  Leave a comment

It was March 4, 1996 when Cyndi’s List was born. It began as a list of websites for members of the Tacoma-Pierce County Genealogical Society from their own member, Cyndi Ingle. Thirty years later, it’s grown into a worldwide extravaganza of genealogy and history links. Thousands and thousands of links to help our genealogy research.

I suggest some anniversary gifts to help keep the list going and expanding. First of all, utilize the Submit a New Link tab and let her know about something she hasn’t yet discovered. Second, send a report if you find a broken link. No one can keep up with all the changes! Third, USE the list and help yourself by doing some general browsing under the extensive Categories tab. Fourth, let others know about this milestone. Fifth, look at the yellow Donate button and send a little gift to help the list get to 40 years! https://www.cyndislist.com/

May be a doodle of text

 

 

Swedish parish records added to MyHeritage

Paula Stuart-Warren  MyHeritage  , ,  Leave a comment

“If you have Swedish heritage, some of the most important records for tracing your family are now fully available on MyHeritage. We’ve completed the publication of the Sweden Births, Marriages, and Deaths collections, spanning 1850 to 1945 (1920 for births). Together, these collections include more than 33 million historical records drawn from Sweden’s Lutheran Church books — the core sources used by researchers to document families across generations.” The MyHeritage blog also added this explanation, “All 3 collections were indexed by MyHeritage from scanned images of the original documents, and the images are available to view alongside each record.”

Sweden Birth, Marriage, and Death Collections Now Complete on MyHeritage

 

 

Pullman Porters records, history, and struggles

Paula Stuart-Warren  Railroads  , , , ,  Leave a comment

It’s already the end of February and Black History Month. It’s been an extra busy month for me with some big decisions, working on genealogy presentations, family things, client consultations, and a whole lotta other stuff. One of the presentations I did this month was for the Western New York Genealogical Society on railroad records. Each time I do one of my railroad records talks, the handout and PowerPoint slides are updated and expanded to include some specifics for the area of the organization that has hired me to participate in a webinar or seminar.

After the presentation, I decided to do some other expanding of the handout and slides and focused on Black History Month, especially on Pullman Porters.  If you have a Pullman Porter in your own ancestry or in a collateral family, I hope these websites and books will guide toward  learning more about them, records that exist, and to honor their struggle to be recognized, treated well, and long-hours on the job. Just learning more about the history is beneficial to anyone. Many of the porters had been enslaved or were descendants of those enslaved.

Their story also includes the route to forming a union in 1925, most-often called a Brotherhood by railroad employees. One of the key men strongly involved in the unionization was Asa Philip Randolph. Several books and articles detail his life, strong beliefs, and the fight for the Brotherhood. Other Brotherhoods in the railroad industry from the late 19th century forward greatly ignored the black workers both men and women. The Brotherhood didn’t include Canada until the 1940s.

This is not a comprehensive list of resources and many of these should lead to other books and websites. Many journals of county, state, and regional levels carried articles about the porters. Other articles and books about the Pullman Palace Car Company included sections about the porters.

Articles and Books  (JSTOR: https://www.jstor.org/ )

Chateauvert, Melinda. “Marching Together: Women of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.” NWSA Journal 2, no. 4 (1990): 687–89. JSTOR.

Foster, Cecil. They Call Me George: The Untold Story of The Black Train Porters. Windsor, Ontario: Biblioasis, 2019.

Hansen, Peter A. “The Sons of Pullman Porters.” Railroad History, no. 201 (2009): 3–3. JSTOR.

Hughes, Lyn. An Anthology of Respect: The Pullman Porters National Historic Registry of African American Railroad Employees. Chicago, Illinois: Hughes Peterson Pub., 2007.

McKissack, Pat. And Fredrick McKissack. A Long Hard Journey: the Story of the Pullman Porter. New York, New York: Walker, 1989.

McWatt, Arthur C. “‘A Greater Victory’: The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in St. Paul.” Minnesota History 55, no. 5 (1997): 202–16. JSTOR and Minnesota Historical Society.

Santino, Jack. Miles of Smiles, Years of Struggle: Stories of Black Pullman Porters. Champaign, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1991. (also a documentary film)

Tye, Larry. Rising from the Rails: Pullman Porters and the Making of the Black Middle Class. United States: Henry Holt and Company, 2005.

Websites

ArchiveGrid. A search for Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters showed 325 results. The descriptions will lead you to archives, historical societies, libraries, and other repositories that hold collections related to this brotherhood. It may be a diary or personal papers of an individual, records of a local division, photos, oral histories, anniversary booklets, correspondence, membership applications, labor issues, and other types of records. https://researchworks.oclc.org/archivegrid/?q=Brotherhood+of+Sleeping+Car+Porters

Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pullman_porter

Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen Records, 1883-1973. Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives, Cornell University Library,  https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/KCL05149.html

National A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum with an ever-expanding National Historic Registry of Pullman Porters. https://aprpullmanportermuseum.org/  Direct to the registry http://www.cfblr.com/national-registry/ (not always working)

Pullman Porter. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pullman_porter A good overview.

Pullman Porters. https://www.nps.gov/pull/learn/historyculture/pullman-porters.htm

Sleeping Car Porters in Canada. https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/sleeping-car-porters-in-canada

As I was posting this on the blog, I remembered that Janice Lovelace did a webinar for Legacy Family Tree Webinars on the Pullman Porters and Maids. I did not rewatch it tonight but it may be something else you need to do and to view her syllabus. It will require a subscription and I would be grateful if you would use my affiliate link https://legacyfamilytree.com/product/membership/?ref=566036

 

 

My genealogy speaking calendar has been updated

Paula Stuart-Warren  Genealogy, Presentations, Webinars  , , , , ,  Leave a comment

Sunday is for updating my speaking calendar that can be viewed by clicking on the Speaking tab at the top of the blog. A few dates are waiting for the organization to fully execute our contract and to make their own announcement. If your organization needs a speaker in April, July, and months beyond, I do have room to add more virtual events from anywhere or in-person if relatively close to the Saint Paul, Minnesota area.

GRIP Genealogy Institute is still taking registrations for the June virtual week. Fees, course details, instructors, and more are on the website https://grip.ngsgenealogy.org/. The syllabus for the Digging Deeper and Not Just Farmers courses are greatly expanded. 

A special event in Minnesota is a May in-person afternoon presentation about basic genealogy and it includes an extensive handout with reminders, book suggestions, and many helpful website connections. I hope to see you in St. Michael, Minnesota, just off I-94. https://stma.ce.eleyo.com/course/7687/winter-spring-2026%E2%80%941/family-history-research-with-paula-stuart-warren

 

Beltrami County, Minnesota, History Center has added more library and archive space

Paula Stuart-Warren  Minnesota  , , ,  Leave a comment

“Emily Thabes, executive director of the Beltrami County Historical Society, said the addition is a great opportunity to repurpose museum space more effectively while expanding its collections.” The new wing in Bemidji honors longtime supporters and volunteers in its name, the Louis and Mary Lou Marchand Library. Read the full article from Minnesota Public Radio https://www.mprnews.org/story/2026/02/21/beltrami-county-history-center-opens-new-library-and-archive-with-unique-local-collections.



Family history sleuth? Please don’t avoid online family trees.

Paula Stuart-Warren  Genealogy  , , ,  3 Comments

Every time I see someone posting on social media or saying out loud something akin to “I avoid those online family trees.” That may be followed by a comment that they are useless and baseless. Oh, do I disagree. Do I trust all family history details that someone told me, wrote about today or 120 years ago, posted on social media, or compiled into an online tree? No, but the CLUES are there. Don’t accept without verifying what you learn. In life and in genealogy.

I wonder if they also avoid all the family history books on library shelves everywhere and those now digitized? More clues to work with even without source citations.

  1. A novice genealogist gets excited and copies a tree, then another, and another. They likely don’t know yet that it requires verification. Someone may tell them or they learn more through genealogy webinars, classes, seminars, conferences, and institutes.

  2. The webinars and other education will provide tips such as look at the mother’s age when her child was born or does that tree have two children born in Indiana, then two in Switzerland, then one in Canada, and the next back in Switzerland. What clues can still be gleaned?

  3. Online trees can spread when copied by multiple genealogists on one website or to other genealogy websites. This is mainly due to the ease of duplicating them. Before doing this, analyze what is on the tree you looked at. Are there errors that pop out, Are there details you can change with actual documents?

  4. That tree from another genealogist, whether a novice or been at it for 25 years, can be a road to hours of additional and beneficial research. A fourth daughter named Annabelle who was born in Kansas to a family that was always in Pennsylvania? Hmmm, you didn’t know that your great great grandparents left Altoona and moved for three years to Salina, Kansas! They were there after the 1880 census and left before the 1885 state census in Kansas. They returned to Altoona to the land they hadn’t sold. Annabelle died at 2 years old in Salina and no one ever told you about her. That other genealogist who posted the family tree knew some family details that your part of the family didn’t pass down.

  5. My own online trees are rather sparse. Names, dates, and places. Some details have  attached documentation. More is kept on my computer and some paper files. I welcome inquiries.

  6. Other researchers may have sparse trees with little documentation, too. Whether because it’s on their own computer or from lack of research, it’s ok to ask them for some details if the tree does have some sound connection to your part of the family. They might have a family bible! 
                  
  7. Yes, there are online trees and even older written family history books that have evidence of little actual research and have copied information from what others have done. If you see one tiny clue that leads to an additional great grandaunt or a connection to the old country,  it’s worthwhile.

  8. Useless? No way. Many things can be learned, shared, investigated, and you add two new third cousins!

 

    Genealogy Learning, Digging Deeper: Records, Tools, and Skills.

    Paula Stuart-Warren  GRIP, GRIP Genealogy Institute, Uncategorized  , , , ,  1 Comment

    Next Thursday, 5 February 2026, at 1:00 p.m. EST, Noon CST, 11:00 a.m. MST, and 10:00 a.m. PST, registration opens!

    Ready for a week of learning, networking, analysis, and insight to a variety of records to further your genealogy research. Would you like an opportunity to receive help on one of your own genealogy dilemmas? Join us in this virtual course for a week of learning in 19th through 21st century U.S. records, online resources, “hidden” records, analysis, and methodology.  Full session details https://grip.ngsgenealogy.org/…/digging-deeper-records…/



     

    Viewing my past genealogy webinars

    Paula Stuart-Warren  Legacy Family Tree Webinars, Webinars  , , ,  Leave a comment

    Every so often someone asks where they can get a preview of one of my presentations. Most are from a genealogical or historical society or library representative who is interested in hiring me to do a presentation. It’s a good way to learn how I present and the comprehensiveness of the slides and handouts. Continuing education is another reason. There are several ways to view my past presentations.

    1. Check out the Speaking tab above and browse my upcoming presentations. Most are virtual and many of these one-hour webinars are at no cost for the initial viewing. Use the link from each webinar listing to sign up for the future presentation. Some of my speaking dates are for multi-hour or institute length courses that do require a cost to attend whether in-person or online.

    2. For past presentations, some societies make arrangements with me to enable society members to view my presentation and the handout for a time after the initial presentation. A nice benefit of membership! Check the society’s website.

    3. Check Legacy Family Tree Webinars for the back library of my annual presentations for them. The back library requires a subscription, and that includes thousands of other presentations  by speakers. Most are 60-75 minutes long and include a syllabus (handout). https://familytreewebinars.com/speaker/paula-stuart-warren/?ref=566036
       
    4. Most presentations via Legacy Family Tree Webinars are initially at no cost and for one week after the webinar. After that, a subscription is necessary and is also needed to view the syllabus. For one year it also allows access to almost 2,700 different webinars by presenters from all over the world. That includes over 10,660 syllabus pages.

    5. My affiliate link for Legacy Family Tree Webinars subscriptions is https://legacyfamilytree.com/product/membership/?ref=566036

    6. p.s. Even if I do a presentation that I have done before, the PowerPoint slides and the handout/syllabus material are updated and expanded each time a topic is repeated.

     

    Suddenly, it was a 4:00 a.m. bedtime for a genealogist

    Paula Stuart-Warren  Family  , , , , ,  Leave a comment

    On a recent evening,  I planned to spend a couple hours on some updating and expanding of syllabus material for upcoming presentations. Then I was going to reward myself with some more time on my own family history. I accomplished both and went to bed at 4:00 a.m.

    1. Added more cousin details to my family tree. That was the plan. Some people ask if we are ever going to be finished with our family history. NO, it’s an ongoing endeavor for many reasons.

    2. I had previously found many trees online that had a 1942 date of death for a 1c3r who died in Canada, and who had connections to the provinces of Quebec and Ontario. No source citations but some don’t put those online. Several do mention Canada as the death place. It’s tougher to research that time period in Ontario and especially in Quebec. I have a long list of what else has been searched for this family, including in the U.S.  Pleasance May/Mary Reinhardt married Thomas Henry Connolly in 1899 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Several of their children were born in the Boston, Massachusetts area.

    3. My Great Grandmother Marie Delia Malvina Daoust (1875-1958 was a first cousin to Pleasance Mary Reinhardt. My great grandmother was only known to me as Nana or Violet Dow Cook. Her father, Arsene Daoust, changed that to Samuel Dow while they were still living in Montreal. Nana married John Thomas Cook in Superior, Douglas County, Wisconsin in 1893.  Following all this so far?

    4. I periodically check for more information on Pleasance and Violet, descendants of Clarinda Copping and Edward Reinhardt. My online trees are pretty basic as I keep most details on my own computer.

    5. My late night (early morning?) sleuthing finally turned  up more details. The one I appreciate the most was a brief notice of the death and funeral for Pleasance Reinhardt Connolly. Another example of why we go back to websites, repositories, databases, and our own records. My searches this night were for variations of her name on Newspapers dot com. Was this newspaper newly added? Newly searchable? New years? Search variations? I’m betting that her own descendants knew of this but for me it was a bonus.

    The Montreal Daily Star. Monday, 14 September 1942, page 18, column 2.