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How a Simple Act Saved One Man’s Most Valued Memory of His Dad

August 28, 2024

His father was an advertising executive back in the 70s and 80s. Think Mad Men style. He was a bit of a wild man, a creative entrepreneurial sort that had a habit of building and losing fortunes, hustling, taking risks, and living and loving life.  

When he won the contract to shoot a Tiffany & Co. catalog, he was on the spot. He had to deliver on everything from art directing to photography on a dime to get the stunning results Tiffany & Co. expected. When time came for payment, his eye was not on a cash payout that his family needed but instead on a trade: Services rendered for a single Tiffany ring. And the good folks at Tiffany & Co. obliged. 

The Onyyx Stone Vintage Signate ring set in a simple 14k gold band is eye catching. It’s a manly ring. Bold in its simplicity. His Dad wore it everywhere.   

Matt and his father; his father's wearing the black onyx ring

Many years later, on his death bed, he gave this ring to his son Matt to carry a piece of him and his spirit forward. It’s the sort of dramatic gesture you usually only see in the movies.  

Like his dad, Matt wore the ring every day, everywhere, an omnipresent touchstone to his roots.

Then one day, Matt took it off. Out one evening for a dinner meeting in Cincinnati, Ohio, Matt removed the ring, placing it in his pocket, to avoid a potential mess while enjoying an exceptionally juicy burger at his favorite local restaurant.

Only later when Matt returned to his hotel room did he realize the ring was missing. No hole in his pocket, but no ring either.

What Happened Next 

What do you do when you lose something?

You retrace your steps.

You picture what you’ve lost, and you try to describe it to those who might help you find it.

You hunt through photos on your phone hoping to find one that shows the ring clearly. But come to think of it, how often do you take a photo that clearly shows a ring you wear unless you’re newly engaged? 

Matt was lucky. He may have had the stress of this lost family heirloom, but he did not have the stress of how to describe this invaluable piece of his father. Matt had Artifcted that ring.

 
CLICK THE IMAGE to view the Artifct and listen to Matt tell you about his father and the ring in his own words.

Artifcts to the Rescue

After Matt discovered he’d lost the ring, he did two things next: 

      1. He shared the Artifct with his insurance company. His Artifct of the ring included photos with the ring clearly pictured along with the story of its provenance. This is every insurer’s dream. Instant notice from a client of a lost item, multiple photos of the item, and details about its provenance. Far fewer emails and calls back and forth to process the claim, less concern about fraud, and a lower stress, more likely to be satisfied, policyholder. 
      2. He shared the Artifct with the restaurant where he had taken it off. The restaurant owner shared the ring photos with his staff to begin the search. Not everyone can easily imagine a ring generically described. Photos help.

Two days later

The restaurant staff came through. They found Matt’s ring in two days later in the parking lot. Dented a little but found! Matt raced back to the restaurant hours before his flight home to recover his father’s ring.  

Matt then shared the Artifcted ring a third time. This time he shared it with a local jeweler in hopes that the ring could be restored to its former glory. Spoiler: It’s good as new!

If You Love It, Artifct That! 

There's simply, truly, we beg you to understand, no time like the present.

We share this story with Matt’s permission as further evidence of how taking all of one minute to create Artifcts for items that you value most in this life can have many returns to you in the future.  

This was never just a ring. This is the ring his father gave him. This is the ring that belonged to the man that Matt wanted to keep alive for his own children to know. This is the man whose actions taught Matt that you must always get paid for the work you do.

This story is not about the ring, not really. It’s about a wild man, a creative, a hopeless entrepreneur and the life lessons he passed to his son, and that his son now will pass to his children.

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© 2024 Artifcts, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Unusual Digital Artifcts from Genealogy 

Earlier this year we called out on social media for a genealogist​ who ​was interested in collaborating with us to see if our co-founder Ellen was in fact related to a global superstar.

Guess who the mystery superstar was? Lady Gaga!

This potential connection seriously confused Ellen, who asked, “Isn’t she Italian!?” whereas her family has a mix of Luxembourgian, German, French, and English heritage. It turns out Lady Gaga was a case of an over eager auto correct in a text message from Ellen’s genealogist aunt. The message should have read Lady Gage, with an “e,” as in the wife of Thomas Wentworth Gage, a commander-in-chief, North America, during the early days of the American Revolution. Granted, Lady Gage is still in impressive ancestor, but she somehow lacks the awe power of Lady Gaga.

We met with our volunteer, Jill Browne, Founder of Clutter School (@MessyNestDeclutterCoach on IG), and discussed exploring other family history instead, potentially through what, with a ​bit of ​latitude, could become ​ancestral ​Artifcts.

Today we’re sharing the highlights with​ you​, Artifcts style, as Family History Month ends, and we all settle in for a long winter’s nap, aka the holiday season with our family where family lore and history are born and shared. Seize the moment. Use these Artifcts as inspiration as you ask for details, sift through old family photos, and maybe even take home an heirloom or two, and Artifct That!

Over to you​, Jill​!

An Uncommon Ancestry Approach to Artifcts 

I love the concept of Artifcts. To me Artifcts offers an opportunity to create a digital museum of whatever one wants to preserve.  
 
As a geographer, I am fascinated by the immovable parts of our histories: landscapes, buildings, towns, roads, statues, and so on. As a genealogist, I can't resist a good cemetery, too. As Winston Churchill said, "We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us." He was talking about the Commons Chamber in the UK Houses of Parliament, but the same thing applies to our homes and to the shapes of our cities and towns. Buildings and cultural landscapes show us what we think is important in the part of the world we occupy.

This collection of Artifcts includes only one portable object, and it’s not in Ellen’s family's possession. It's in a museum and probably most people in her family have no idea it exists.

But with this one object, we can all appreciate how a single artifact can become a significant piece of family history to dozens, even hundreds of people with the passage of time. After​ ​all, you probably don’t even know your third cousins, and yet you share the same 2X great-grandparents. If any family heirlooms that belonged to those ​distant ​great-grandparents still exist, most likely you and your third cousins, their descendants, have no idea, or, if you do, have lost the history behind them. 
 
This is one reason why I love the intersection of genealogy and Artifcts, and ​it’s also ​my defence of Artifcting things you don't actually own. It gives people a chance to share and to discover parts of their family's history that basic genealogy doesn't usually include.

Now, let’s check out this Artifcts collection!

The Artifcts

Out of the many possible objects and stories tied to Ellen’s May (maternal) and Bowker (paternal) heritage, here are the ones I chose for Ellen’s ​ancestral ​deep dive:

      • a piece of WWI trench art, 
      • two cemeteries, 
      • a town, 
      • a homestead, and 
      • a national historic site. 

Artifct #1: First World War Trench Art engraved "Leut AH Yorton"

The Artifct preview below shows a piece trench art, in this case a decorated artillery shell. The ​etching​​ indicates​ France, May 21, 1918, A. H. Yorton​.​ ​It ​commemorates the day Andrew Yorton entered the trenches with Wisconsin’s 127th Infantry. As this article from the Lewis Army Museum points out, it's not known whether Andrew created this piece himself or commissioned the work, but the article does offer amazing details of Andrew's service during WWI.

 
 
 
 
Trench art engraved "A. H. Yorton", illustration in "An Introduction to Trench Art: The Story of AH Yorton," Allie Krisko, "Virtual Exhibits," Lewis Army Museum, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, photograph on website (https://lewisarmymuseum.com/virtual-exhibits: accessed 23 October 2024).

And who is Andrew to Ellen?

Andrew Henry “Hank” Yorton (1886-1959) was Ellen’s ​second ​great-uncle, the elder brother of Ellen’s great-grandmother, Rena Yorton Wilson (1888-1965). ​In January 1906, ​Rena ​​married Glidden Wilson, ​​the very man who bought the family harp ​that ​Ellen has often referenced and shared here.

From a family history point of view, the story here is that Ellen’s great-grandmother and all the rest of her brother Andrew's family had to endure the long wait while he was away in France, never knowing if he would return. He sailed for France on February 18, 1918, and while the war officially ended on November 11, 1918, he​ didn’t leave​ France ​until​ December 10, 1918.

The US ​observes​ Veterans Day, and Canada Remembrance Day, every November 11th, making this ​shell ​a fitting Artifct to share and reshare this time of year.

Artifct #2:  Two cemeteries in Aurora, Kane County, Illinois 
 
Can a cemetery be an Artifct? In my book, yes! Cemeteries are pieces of our heritage that connect families to their past. As physical places, they create a tiny dot on the map where we can say, yes, this is part of me. I would be especially likely to keep a cemetery as an Artifct if it had several generations of my ancestors. I don't have that, but Ellen does, and then some!

In fact, Ellen’s maternal family ancestry converges in Aurora: If Ellen were to look at just this one geographic area, she would find the impact of multiple ancestral families.

The Marywood Cemetery in Aurora has the graves for Ellen’s May and other ancestors going back in a nearly unbroken line to their very arrival in the US.  
 
The ​Calvary​ Cemetery has the ​graves and memorials for the ​original May family immigrant parents, Johann Petur May (1799-1861) and his wife Anna Knapp May (1794-1857), who were from Luxembourg. Their son, Nikolaus May (1838-1909), buried in Marywood, was also born in Luxembourg. He emigrated with his parents and at least some of his siblings in 1856. 

The May parents died within a few years of their arrival, but their son Nikolaus, continued to live in Aurora, where he married Eva Kellen (1842-1910). Eva, while born in Germany, had a father who was native to Luxembourg as well. That’s why it’s unsurprising to see Luxembourg feature prominently in Ellen’s maternal side DNA profile.

Artifct #3: The Town of Clockville, New York

Clockville also gets my vote for another unconventional family history Artifct. It has a known connection to not one but two families in Ellen’s family tree (Yorton and Lamoreux). In addition, Clockville is so small, that if Ellen were to visit, no matter where she’d venture in Clockville, she’d probably be retracing her ancestors' footsteps.

Remember Ellen’s great-grandmother Rena Yorton from our Artifct above about the trench art? She descended from Paul Yorton (1793-1871) and among her siblings was a brother, Hank, who was born in Clockville, New York. This is just a hamlet, but in its cemetery, you will find their dad Paul, Ellen’s 4X great-grandfather.

It’s through Rena’s brothers that the connection the Lamoreux family is made: Hank married Electa Lamoreux, and George married Electa's sister, Elizabeth Jane. This connection between the Yorton and Lamoreux families persisted as a number of them migrated west from Clockville to Wisconsin, where Ellen grew up. The “Old Lamoreux place” near Ashland, Wisconsin, is well known and Hank’s and Electa’s son Morris lived there at the end of his life.

BONUS TIDBIT: When you’re conducting genealogy research you often find threads you don’t have time to pull in the moment. This is one of those threads and too good not to share. Previous research by Ellen’s aunt traces the Yortons back to the Netherlands and Germany, although some other members of Ancestry.com may have found different lineages than her aunt, including a potential family association with the Dutch East India Company in Cape Town. That may be valid or completely fanciful. More research for another day!

If Ellen were to visit [Clockville], no matter where she’d venture, she’d probably be retracing her ancestors' footsteps.

Artifct #4: Castle Garden Emigrant Depot

Castle Garden deserves an Artifct if for no other reason than to dissuade you from potentially thinking of Ellis Island as THE point of entry for immigrants to the US. Not so fast!

It’s understandable that many people associate Ellis Island with the immigration of their families, as many immigrants to the USA did pass through the famed location.

But "about 20% of Americans can trace their ancestry to someone who went through [the earlier arrival station] Castle Garden,” according to the US National Park Service. Ellen’s May ancestors immigrated to the US in 1856, which would have put them in the right time frame to be processed at Castle Garden.

Artifct #5: Bowker homestead, Shabbona, Illinois

For the 5th and final Artifct, we’re switching gears for a peek into the paternal (Bowker) side of Ellen’s family to place them on the map (wink, wink) before we close out this genealogical Artifct exploration.

On March 16, 1849, Daniel Bowker bought 160 acres of land from James Jack, a Private in the Army who was given a Military Warrant for the land. Here is a copy of the transfer document dated December 20, 1850.

 
 
Bureau of Land Management, land transfer James Jack to Daniel Bowker, no. 43544, 20 Dec 1850, for SW12-Tp38N-R3-E3M; image General Land Office Records (https://glorecords.blm.gov/details/patent/default.aspx?accession=1020-324&docClass=MW&sid=42unaev4.g2y#patentDetailsTabIndex=1 : accessed 16 Oct 2024).

The land is close to Shabbonna's Grove, named for Chief Shabbonna, a Potawatomi Chief and notable figure in the history of the area. Here is a map of Shabbonna Township, DeKalb County, Illinois from 1860, with Daniel Bowker's name on the south-west quarter of section 12.

 
 
 Lamb, Daniel W, Map of DeKalb County, Illinois (Philadelphia: Daniel W. Lamb, 1860), enlargement showing D Bowker's land (SW 1/4 of section 12, Shabonna Township); image, Library of Congress (https://www.loc.gov/resource/g4103d.la000110/?r=0.306,0.82,0.288,0.127,0 : accessed 16 Oct 2024).

You can see how the area looks today – wide open farmland – on Google street and satellite view. 

Genealogy and Artifcts

These are the sort of Artifcts that genealogy and family history research can turn up, with only a taste of the finer details left in to give you a feel for how genealogists go about the telling of family history. But for most people, it’s not about the historical facts and dates but the key themes, stories, and connections behind these discoveries that matter most. And have no doubt, there are loads of more conventional artifacts hanging out in Ellen’s tree should she go looking to Artifct them, too – census records, photographs, drawings, certificates of birth, marriage, and death, and so on.  
 
Artifcts is a wonderful place for keeping and sharing memories. The five Artifcts I've shared are about recovering memories, recognizing the connections, and discovering and sharing the stories and doing so in a way that resonates through the generations. I hope they inspire you to preserve and share your own family history discoveries, traditional or otherwise, too.

Happy Artifcting! 
 
Jill

Enjoy all things family history? Take a look back at these ARTIcles, too.

DIY Family History Book: Publish Your Artifcts with Akin

An Easier and More Personal Approach to Family History

Use Artifcts Timelines to Enrich Your Family History

10 Ways Genealogists are Using Artifcts That May Help You, Too

How to Artifct Family History and Heirlooms

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© 2024 Artifcts, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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65+ Years Old & Brain Health on Your Mind?

Let’s dispel a myth first thing in case it’s lingering in your mind: Dementia is not a normal part of aging.

According to the Alzheimer’s Association, research has shown many risk factors contribute to causing Alzheimer's and other dementias, including genetics, behaviors, and habits. "While some risk factors, such as age and family history, may be set in their influence, there are many risk factors that can be changed to potentially reduce a person's risk of cognitive decline."

The organization Hilarity for Charity: Bringing Light to Alzheimer’s nicely summarizes some of these factors in this simple graphic (read more at https://wearehfc.org/5-brain-health-habits/):

5 Brain Health Habits

Artifcts wants to play a role in reducing the risk of cognitive decline and helping people to get ahead of symptoms to adjust those factors within their control and others that could be influenced through medical intervention, too.

How will Artifcts do this?

Glad you asked!

Join Our Brain Health Study Today!

Like many, our co-founder Ellen’s family has been enduring the uncertainty and fear that often come with a loved one living with dementia. We’re grateful to share with you an opportunity to potentially bring to this world an easy, early access screening tool to get ahead of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia that's as simple as creating 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Artifcts!

Information about joining a brain health study with Artifcts

 
 
CLICK THE IMAGE to learn more, or fill in the interest form at: https://redcap.link/2rbbhnwt 

The Artifcts-UMass Chan Medical Brain Health Study—funded by the Massachusetts eHealth Institute—is looking for volunteers age 65+ to join an at-home, Artifcts web/app-based research study that aims to answer whether the Artifcts platform can be used as a digital screening tool for cognitive health. Just imagine being able to screen your own brain health anytime, anywhere with the Artifcts you create every day anyway? We could flip the script and get people thinking about and acting on this information earlier than ever when more can be done to prevent and slow decline.

Participants will receive a one-year Artifcts membership at no cost to create and privately share Artifcts for the study, all from the convenience of your personal device (e.g., phone, tablet, or computer). You may be eligible if you are:

      • 65 years of age or older
      • Fluent in English
      • Able to give consent to participate; MCI/dementia status is not a determinant of participation
      • Able to provide/create audio files via Artifcts app or Artifcts.com

Please act today. We need your help to make this research study a success. Take the first step to enroll today and/or share with a friend or loved one who may qualify. Learn more >

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© 2024 Artifcts, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Can Chocolate Chip Cookies Be Your Legacy?

I always seem to have the funniest and yet profoundly moving conversations with my teenage daughter while stuck in traffic in our nation’s capitol. Yesterday was no exception. After a difficult conversation with a series of family members (all on speaker phone), my daughter turned to me and said, “Mom, I think your legacy is chocolate chip cookies.” 

I’ll spare you the details of the family conversation, but suffice it to say legacy, death, and dying were discussed. Not necessarily the happiest of topics, but topics that needed discussing nonetheless.  

Leave it to my daughter to come up with a one-liner that not only made me laugh but also made me think. You see, here at Artifcts we talk a lot about ‘stuff,’ legacy, family history, and stories. And although I have Artifcted my chocolate chip cookie recipe, I don’t think I ever would have lumped it into the category of my “legacy.” 

 

 
 
 
 
 

How Do We Define Legacy? 

Legacy is a complicated word. For some legacy may mean a name on a building, a patented invention, or other grandiose, broadly recognized achievements. For others, it may be the small moments, memorable stories, or favorite “isms” that made that person unique.  

Regardless of ‘what’ legacy is, all of us are busy creating, living, and building our legacies every single day. Each action we take, each ‘thing’ we make, all becomes part of our collective journey through life.  

So, although the Oxford dictionary defines legacy as either, “the amount of money or property left to someone in a will,” or “the long-lasting impact of particular events, actions, etc. that took place in the past, or of a person’s life,” we at Artifcts think “legacy” is so much more. It’s the stories, memories, and small moments that others will remember long after we are gone. It’s the things that made us laugh and maybe even the things that made us cry. It may be our habits, traditions, and favorite things.  

We’ve tried to capture the essence of all things legacy in our Legacy Checklist and know there is bound to be a thing or two that we missed. Why? Because we are all different, and we all lead different lives. One legacy is not like any other legacy.  

 

How Will You Define and Preserve Your Legacy? 

Seeing as October is Family History Month, and this week is National Estate Planning Week, we want to ask how will you not only define but also preserve and share your legacy? Take a moment this week to ponder this question and then take action. There is no time like the present to preserve and share the stories, moments, and yes, ‘stuff’ that make you, you! 

Will valuable assets and charitable donations be part of your legacy?  

If the answer is yes, ensure those assets are documented, and your directives are recorded in your estate plan or will. Our Artifcts “In the Future Field” can help you denote what happens next to those assets, creating a roadmap for your family or executor, including if the asset is to be donated or bequeathed.  

Do you find yourself thinking, “I have no children, but I have all this ‘stuff.’ I don’t think anyone will want it, and I don’t think anyone cares about my stories.”  

So often we undervalue our own life experiences. But we have to think more broadly: They are personal history, family history, and even world history. We’re members of communities and are valued. It’s also true that by linking a story with an item, you can increase its value, such that if you were to sell-off your estate one day, your stories may mean you can boost the ultimate value of the estate you might leave to a charitable organization in your community! 

Remember the “softer side” of your legacy, all those stories, memories, and small moments.  

Give yourself a goal of creating one Artifct a week that highlights some aspect of you that you want others to know about. Like me, it could be a favorite recipe that you’re famous for, or perhaps its tied to a memorable trip with an equally memorable souvenir, or a family heirloom with the family history you intend to pass down to the next generation. Sometimes those small moments mean just as much if not more than the big ‘stuff.’ 

Part of my legacy is indeed those chocolate chip cookies, as my daughter pointed out. The ones I bake before every cross-country meet, the ones the older kids hope for when coming home from college, and the ones I first baked (and delivered!) to my husband’s office when we were dating. The original recipe was my mother’s, although I have altered it over time to include salted butter and chocolate chunks rather than chocolate chips.  

Had you asked me, I would have said they were my mother’s cookies, and part of her legacy; she did teach me to bake them after all, seated on our old butcher block countertop. My daughter, however, has a different viewpoint. And isn’t that the whole point about legacy? Our legacy is what we will one day leave behind for others to remember about us.

_______________

This October, go BEYOND the balance sheet of life and capture the legacy that is you and the stories of your life. Grab that favorite item from your desk, your kitchen table, your living room shelf, and tell its story as only you can, because you lived it!

Happy Artifcting!

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© 2024 Artifcts, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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