August 26, 2026
www.megansmolenyak.com

Greetings Fellow Family History Sleuths,

I hope this finds you somehow managing to keep cool and fresh! This month has yet another genealogical mishmash including DNA and AI-sparked reunions, unusual baby names, the impact of AI-generated images, roots tourism in Japan, inherited family trauma, and a feature article (and video with a younger me) about one of my favorite orphan heirloom rescue cases. This one involved a photo album found on the streets of Jerusalem. Imagine my surprise when I wound up finding the original owner practically in my backyard!

Also, if you've got the time, I'd appreciate your feedback about this newsletter - good, bad or indifferent. As many of you know, I've been doing it for decades now. The main response I get is genealogy questions, but I'd like to know your thoughts on the newsletter itself. Do you regularly read it? Do you enjoy it? Do you ever share it with others? Are there topics you'd like to see more or less of? Any kind of feedback you can offer would be welcome. For a variety of reasons, I'm planning on making some changes to this newsletter (among other things, likely switching to a once-every-two-months schedule), and I want to be sure to take your perspective into account going forward. Thanks in advance should you trouble to reply to this newsletter to share your thoughts!

Until next time!

P.S. If you have any genealogy buddies you think might enjoy this newsletter, I'd appreciate it if you'd let them know they can subscribe here (right column). It's free and I promise to never share your name or email address. Thanks!

From America to Israel and Back Again

sample page from photo album

Way back in the day, I wrote a column for Ancestry Magazine called “Found,” and I thought it would be fun to share some of them again – partly because it can be interesting to see how genealogical research was done in the not-too-distant past and partly because there still may be some resources and techniques that could come in handy today. I hope you’ll enjoy the first of these below – one which originally appeared in May-June 2006.

So let’s start with one of the most contemporary and far-flung rescues I’ve ever done. It involves a photo album from the 1940s. Even if there weren’t some dates scattered throughout the album, the images themselves would have made this easy to deduce. I don’t often tackle such “young” objects, but this was especially intriguing because of the story behind it.

Chana Saadia wrote that her mother had come across the album on a street in Jerusalem about nine years ago. The owner’s name was clearly displayed, but no one in the area had ever heard of the fellow. Several years ago, Chana’s mother passed away, and she received many of her mother’s possessions, including this album. Captions on some of the photos suggested a connection to Brooklyn, New York at one time, so Chana wrote to me wondering if perhaps I could locate the original owner. How could I resist such a tempting invitation? The hunt was on!

Continue reading

Watch Orphan Heirloom Rescue: Photo Album Found on the Streets of Jerusalem

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Genealogy Roundup, August 19

Photo by Brent Ninaber on Unsplash

Childhood friends find ‘missing piece’ when DNA test reveals they’re sisters – Another genetic reunion! The two girls, who grew up in different adoptive families in the Netherlands 100 miles apart, discovered they were sisters through a DNA test

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Genealogy Roundup, August 12

Photo Credit: irisWphotography under Creative Commons license

‘I’ve seen 1,000s of baby names as genealogist – one left me utterly stunned’ – We genealogists have seen some, um, interesting names over the years, and there are some real doozies in this article!

The Strange Business of Selling People Their Own Family’s Lost Photos – I mean, I’m glad families are getting their memorabilia back, but I’ve done this for decades for free – and many other genealogists do the same – so I think it’s kind of sad that some are monetizing this.

AI-generated fake historic images are destroying our past, present, and future – I fear this is true – especially since I occasionally spot fellow genealogists sharing these AI-generated photos/stories here on FB.

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Genealogy Roundup, August 5

Photo by Peter Herrmann on Unsplash

Buyer of 160-Year-Old Home Sets Out to Uncover the Stories of Every Family Who Lived There – Love it when people appreciate the history of their homes!

The Quest for Annie Moore of Ellis Island – If you’re heading off on vacation soon, I’ve heard that my book about Annie Moore of Ellis Island makes great reading for planes or beaches (hint, hint )

The “Kafkaesque” process of getting public records from a post-DOGE government. – It’s not your imagination. Genealogists aren’t the only ones struggling to get records that used to be fairly easy to obtain from the federal government.

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Genealogy Roundup, July 29

Photo by Sorasak on Unsplash

Japanese descendants drive rise in roots tourism – Some of us have been doing it for decades, but roots travel truly is a global phenomenon now.

Genealogy Firm Revises Loan Conditions to Attract Bondholders as Debt Deadlines Loom –

‘I thought, I’ve tried everything else, why not give AI a shot?’: the long-lost family reunited by ChatGPT – They oversell AI’s role in this, but still a cool reunion story.

How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are (& How to End the Cycle) – May be of interest to those curious about how inherited family trauma can shape who we are. Interview with Mark Wolynn, author of “It Didn’t Start with You.”

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You can also find Megan on Authory andHuffington Post.

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