Yitta Schwartz, who died last month in New York at age 93, left behind some 2,000 living descendants.Mrs. Schwartz was a member of the Satmar Hasidic sect, whose couples have nine children on average and whose ranks of descendants can multiply exponentially. But even among Satmars, the size of Mrs. Schwartz’s family is astonishing. A round-faced woman with a high-voltage smile, she may have generated one of the largest clans of any survivor of the Holocaust — a thumb in the eye of the Nazis. [Link]

The Hawaii Health Department has to deal daily with birthers eager to see President Obama's "real" birth certificate, says spokeswoman Janice Okubo.When Okubo told one writer they did not have a right to Obama's birth certificate because they were not related to the president, the person wrote back saying they, indeed, had a common ancestor. "They said they have a tangible right to his birth certificate because they're descended from Adam," Okubo said, referring to the biblical figure. "We told them they need to provide some type of legal documentation." [Link, via]

An odd and touching story by Dave Eggers, founder of Timothy McSweeney's Internet Tendency. His website, literary journal and publishing house bear the name of a mysterious man who shared his mother's maiden name.She grew up in Milton, Massachusetts, one of five children, the daughter of an obstetrician, Daniel McSweeney, and his wife Adelaide Mary McSweeney.When Eggers was a kid, his family started getting "strange mail" addressed to him and his mother.These were usually notes written on pamphlets and other sorts of mail that required no postage. The messages were confusing, but generally ...

Someday we might all be carrying bottles of liquid glass to the graveyard.Spray-on liquid glass is transparent, non-toxic, and can protect virtually any surface against almost any damage from hazards such as water, UV radiation, dirt, heat, and bacterial infections. The coating is also flexible and breathable, which makes it suitable for use on an enormous array of products.The war graves association in the UK is investigating using the spray to treat stone monuments and grave stones, since trials have shown the coating protects against weathering and graffiti. Trials in Turkey are testing ...

The latest chapter in the Annie Moore saga involves the discovery of a photograph that may or may not show Annie and her brothers at Ellis Island in 1892. Megan asks for help in proving the authenticity of the photo. My advice: check the back to see if their names are written there. Other than that ... I've got nothing.

There might be a genetic reason that Uncle Mario prefers eating at the Szechuan Palace.Some people of Italian ancestry, like me, might have a surprise in the family tree—a man of east Asian descent, who was living and working 2,000 years ago in the boondocks near the heel of the Italian boot. The discovery is the first good evidence of an Asian living in Italy during Roman times. [Link]

I do love correcting the New York Times:[J.D. Salinger's] mother, Marie Jillisch, was of Irish descent, born in Scotland, but changed her first name to Miriam (the name, incidentally, of the wife who drives Seymour Glass to suicide) to appease her in-laws. [Link]Not quite. His mother was the daughter of George and Nellie Jillich, born 11 May 1891 in Atlantic, Cass County, Iowa. Here she is in the 1900 census with her parents. They too were born in Iowa. I'm pretty sure that I've seen ship manifests which confirm Miriam Salinger's exact place of birth, but—like the ...

The towns of Ponca City and Cross were both founded in Oklahoma's Cherokee Strip in 1893. Only one would survive.Both aspired to be the county seat, and the war between them waxed so warm that several men bit the dust. Finally the mayor of Ponca City called a public meeting one night and urged the citizens to keep up the fight until they made Cross a cemetery. It is thought by his remark that the mayor actually advised the destruction of the city and the people of Cross by winchester rifles, but if so his threat was not executed in this manner.Ponca City gave a town lot to every owner of ...

I'm sure I'm not the first one to find "The Lesbian Ancestors of Prince Rainier of Monaco, Dr. Otto von Habsburg, Brooke Shields and the Marquis de Sade" a disappointing read.

I was not especially surprised to learn that Sarah Jane Newberry—Britain's Most Famous Virgin—is also a genealogist. Many of Sarah Jane's ancestors are from England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, America, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and distantly France, Rome, Greece, Sweden, Spain, and Italy and there are subsequent family links in all the mentioned countries now. She also has links with other countries and is currently researching these and if there are family links in those countries now. She knows there are some in Alaska. She has got a relative that moved to Jamaica and ...

Actor Christopher Lee has recorded a "symphonic metal" album telling the story of his ancestor Charlemagne.Although he has previously worked on metal projects – narrating several records by Italian band Rhapsody of Fire, and collaborating briefly with Manowar – he has never released an album before. This particular project resonated not just with the actor's dark, storm-whipped soul – but with his family tree. "I am through the Carandini family [his mother's] actually descended from Charlemagne," he revealed. [Link, via]Listen if you dare:

Kind of wish I hadn't read to the end of this article about the 1937 relocation of a graveyard in Maine.Most of the coffins and all they contained are completely gone, and all that remains is an outline of a figure in bones and a discoloration of the earth.It seems one man came to a workman and told him that his grandmother had been buried there 20 years ago. The visitor stated that he did not remember his grandmother, but could faintly remember that she was laid to rest with a huge gold brooch at her throat. He said he would like to have that pin as a keepsake. This was one of the graves ...

10. Too busy writing top ten lists. 9. Irrational fear of states beginning with vowels. 8. Prefer to hold my own Blogger Day alone in my basement. 7. Footnote.com might get jealous. 6. No free airfare for my imaginary wife. 5. Blogging credentials were revoked in 2009 for failure to meet post quota. 4. Plastic explosives in my underwear might have caused problems at the airport. 3. Bitter that Ancestry.com CEO Tim Sullivan has been screening my calls since 2007. 2. Once shot a man in Provo just to watch him die. 1. DearMYRTLE's restraining order.

...but I've been busy.

Missoula Cemetery in Montana received an odd letter from France a month ago—addressed to graveyard resident Hakon Kristian Hauge.It came with a "loser card," a 3-inch piece of cardboard that said, in both Norwegian and English, "I give you the loser card back." And on the other side: "You Lost Loser Too Bad."Sexton Mary Ellen Stubb succeeded in identifying the sender and solving the mystery.The letter, it turns out, was an exercise in "psychogenealogy," a field developed over the past 15 years and based on research by another French professor, Anne Ancelin-Schutzenberger. It centers ...