I could have helped you with this, Mom

The next two pages show my starting point with researching my family history – not much!  Oh Mom, I wish I’d been around in 1950 so I could helped you complete this family tree.   Here’s a close up of the first page.



Okay, that’s a decent start.  Mom’s parents were Clara Maxine Fitzgerald and Earle L. Martin.  Check – good job Mom!  After her parents divorced in the late 1930’s, her mother remarried Sheldon Hunter so at the time of Mom’s marriage my grandmother was Clara Maxine Hunter.

Clara’s parents were Mabel Viola McAboy and Edward Francis Fitzgerald.  Got it.  And that’s all she wrote!  Was that all she knew?  I’m betting it was because when I first started this journey she didn’t seem to know much about her family at all.  I was able to fill in some of the blanks and she seemed to really enjoy hearing what I’d found while helping her fill in the blanks.  Mabel’s parents were Rebecca Waller and William Warren McAboy and Rebecca was the granddaughter of my favorite ancestor, Emery Waller.  And Edward’s (or Eddy, as we called him) parents were Julia Horgan and Matthew William Fitzgerald.  Just this week I connected with a descendant of Matthew Fitzgerald – another cousin!

Earle’s parents were Frances Maria Brooks and Robert Lewis Martin.  I don’t think Mom had any idea of their names until I started researching.  She had a copy of a book about the Martin side of her family – Some of the Descendants of Daniel Martin (1745-1829) of Laurens County, South Carolina – but I don’t think she really paid attention to the information.  Frances’ parents were Sarah Jane Miller and William J. Brooks – William was killed at the Battle of Fredericksburg and Sarah later remarried and moved to Fresno.  Robert’s parents were Millicent Moore and Lewis Saxon Martin. 

And then Dad’s side of the family.



Now surely she knew more than that!  But I’ll fill it in for her.

Dad’s parents were Mildred Loraine Gunzendorfer and Sigmund Levy. 

I have had so much fun learning about Loraine as I’ve been documenting her scrapbook and transcribing the letters she and my grandfather wrote to each other from 1917-1919.  Loraine’s parents were Bertha “Birdie” Schwartz and Abraham Gunzendorfer.  Birdie’s parents were Rebecca Steen and Louis Schwartz.  And Abe’s parents were Fannie Goldstein and Ferdinand Gunzendorfer.

Sig’s parents were Goldie Benas and Herman Levy.  Goldie was the daughter of Fredericka “Frances” Wilzinski and Benjamin Benas.  And Herman was the son of…… oh shoot, I don’t know. 

I could have helped Mom with a lot if she’d only asked!  :-)