Month: January 2025

Candy/Baseball/Alcohol: Laying the Groundwork

Six weeks to go: What’s clicking, and what isn’t

This past week I continued to make progress on the plans for my upcoming Brooklyn genealogy trip. As discussed, I’m treating this like a fact-finding mission or a business trip. I have so much I want to get done, so much to see and experience—being strategic is the only way to do that.

Hotel and flight have been pinned down. Bodegas and Italian bakeries have been added to my big Google map. And I’m going to try to squeeze in a photography exhibit. All the important stuff.

Wins!

Genealogists will tell you that only a fraction of records have been digitized. So in this before-trip time, I’m doing all the online database work I can, but also identifying what I should aim for when I’m on the ground in New York.

You can book a free half-hour online consultation, and one of their four genealogy librarians will walk you through their offerings. She was great about explaining their processes and setting expectations. While my specific surnames aren’t getting hits in their databases, she helped me find resources that may be useful for larger-context searches.

So in other words, I will definitely be going to the Ghostbusters library!

  • Reaching out to the Center for Brooklyn History got me a nice email answer and some helpful links. I will definitely follow up on those, as I expect to be spending a lot of time there.

Can’t Win ‘Em All

As I had anticipated, finding experts to talk to about candy/baseball/alcohol is slow going. My cold-call emails are are getting nos in return or no responses at all. It’s a bit of a bummer, but I knew this might happen.

if I can’t find an expert to talk to, I can still get informed. I’m already learning about pre-Dodgers Brooklyn baseball… and starting to question whether my relative REALLY played for Ned Hanlon.

More to come. ☗

© 2025 Tori Brovet/All rights reserved. GraveyardSnoop — at — gmail.com.

Baltic, Beekman, Budget: Planning My Brooklyn Genealogy Trip

The free sites I’m using to plan my Brooklyn genealogy trip and keep it organized.

Now that the new year is here, I’ve started organizing my upcoming genealogy trip to Brooklyn instead of just talking a big game about it.

As I’ve discussed, I have two main goals:

At this stage I’m identifying who I want to focus on and what resources can be helpful.

In some cases (NY Municipal Archives) I’m casting a wide net, and I know that my chances of finding anything there are a toss-up. In other cases, like the church, I already know that an ancestor was a member there. My hope is that in those places, I’ll have better odds of finding a record or reference.

The goal of “gaining context” is a little more amorphous. As I mentioned before, there are three ancestors I’m particularly interested in understanding because, frankly, I think they had cool and fascinating lives.

  • 3X great-grandfather Benjamin Huppler, a candymaker.
  • Great-granduncle Gus Weinpahl. Semipro ball player in Brooklyn, Sayville, and Connecticut, from about 1895-1910.
  • Gus’ father and my great-grandfather Justus Weinpahl. German immigrant, Civil War veteran. Buried at Green-Wood. He operated a liquor-dealing business (like a wholesaler) for almost 40 years.

I’ve started hunting for experts who can talk to me about these topics and are willing to spend the time (and I’m planning to compensate them).

Obviously, all of this–locations, experts, goals, itinerary–is a lot to keep track of. Below I’ve listed the sites I’m leaning on most heavily. All are free–important as I’m trying to budget for Brooklyn hotels AND expert hours. And none of these companies are paying me to promote them. I wish.

Asana
I’ve used the project manager system Asana in other contexts, so I was already familiar with it. The free (“personal”) version has limits, but is still plenty useful. I’m able to do everything from creating a color-coded itinerary, to managing to-dos, to compiling a list of gear I’ll need to buy ahead of time.

My Maps/Google Maps
My husband will tell you that I never plan a trip without using Google’s MyMaps. I use it A LOT. My one gripe is that it doesn’t integrate with Google’s directions finder (why? someone please fix this). But otherwise, I love using it for pinning locations and generally laying out adventures of all sizes.

Google Docs
This one, you probably already know about. Google Docs is where I keep anything text-based: my suitcase packing list; the slide laying out my goals and strategy; and a big list of genealogy locations with addresses and hours. And anything I create with Google MyMaps also shows up there. I’m sure I will be adding more as the weeks go on.

ChatGPT
I know, I know.

I was compiling my list of possible genealogy locations, and I decided to ask ChatGPT a few questions, on a lark. Ta-da: it pointed me toward two genealogy locations I hadn’t heard of or thought much about. Now I have a scheduled consultation with a librarian from the NY Public Library*, to find out if I can and if I should visit their genealogy archives.

So take ChatGPT with plenty of grains of salt, and plenty of fact-checking, but don’t count it out. ☗

*THE library from Ghostbusters. I hope they let me use their services!

© 2025 Tori Brovet/All rights reserved. GraveyardSnoop — at — gmail.com.