52 Ancestors: Cousins

Nothing like a blog prompt sending me farther down a rabbit hole!

As you may (or may not) remember, my interest in genealogy began about a decade ago when my mom threw out the challenge that there were no more Gunzendorfers in the United States.  And that was my first post on this blog nearly 9 years ago.  My first post.  And, it turns out, my mom was right.  Who knew?

As I've researched and blogged, I've "met" many distant cousins from both sides of my family.  For someone with only one first cousin, it's been quite an adventure and so exciting each time I connect with someone.  And while I'd love to write about each and every one of them, in the interest of privacy I'm going to refrain from doing that.  But to those cousins who are reading my blog, it's been GREAT getting to know you!

My Gunzendorfer family has been a bit of a mystery to me.  I can document back to my 2x great grandparents but since they came from Germany or Poland, I've not gotten past the first of my California born ancestors, Abraham Gunzendorfer (1869-1944).  I've learned a lot about this branch of my family but something was always nagging me - the Gunzendorfer family who lived in New York.  Could they be related?  My gut tells me they are but I can't definitively prove that.

Here's some facts leading me to that conclusion:

In my grandmother's (Loraine Gunzendorfer) letters to my grandfather, she wrote on 28 November 1918:  "Dad has a cousin in N.Y. who has a daughter my age and whose name is similar to mine, Lenore.  They were at Del Monte nine years ago when I met her.  We later corresponded for some time but the last few years lost track of each other.  Yesterday we received a letter telling of her engagement.  Funny, isn’t it?  Now I’ll have to write to her to inform her of mine."

I know that Lenore Gunzendorfer was married to Leonard Oppenheimer on 17 June 1919, so it would make sense that she would have written about it in late 1918.  And my grandparents were married on 23 February 1919 so that checks out, too.

Dad's cousin.  Okay, if there was a cousin in New York their fathers could have been brothers, right?  And if their fathers were brothers, their names would both have been Gunzendorfer.

Lenore's father was named Adolph Gunzendorfer.  Abraham's brother was named Adolph.  Wouldn't it make sense that he was named for his uncle who lived on the other side of the country in New York?

I've learned through NY Adolph's passport application that his father's name was Bernard (or Bernhard).

I'm hypothesizing that my 2x great grandfather, Ferdinand, was the brother of Bernard.  That would make their sons, Adolph and Abraham, first cousins.  And their children, Lenore and Loraine, would have been 2nd cousins.  Loraine was born 22 January 1896, Lenore was born 13 October 1896.  "Daughter my age."  Check.

Lenore Gunzendorfer
Barnard College Yearbook, New York, 1917

Look at that - she attended Barnard College!

And here is my grandmother at about the same age.  Is it just me or do they resemble each other?

Loraine Guzendorfer,
Monterey High School Yearbook, 1915

I don't know, maybe it's just the hairstyle which I'm sure was quite popular in that time period.

Maybe I'm just wishing to put the it all together but there are just too many pieces of the puzzle that seem to be falling into place.  

And I won't even go into another Ferdinand Gunzendorfer who was in Stockton at about this time.  And on 30 September, 1917 my grandmother wrote:  "Dr. Franklin is very nice and a funny thing – my father’s cousin in Stockton is a very good friend of his."  So there's a cousin named Ferdinand?  How many Ferdinand Gunzendorfer's could there be?  I have not found any evidence of Ferdinand being Bernard's son but could that be possible?

And then today, a new clue emerged.  As I was searching on Ancestry for all things Bernard Gunzendorfer I ran across something very, very interesting.  I had always known that my great grandfather's middle initial was B but I hadn't been able to determine just what the B stood for.  He was always Abraham B Gunzendorfer or even A.B. Gunzendorfer.  

So what popped up today?  The 1902 California Voter's Registration from San Francisco.

California Voter's Registration, San Francisco, 1902

I know, I know - it's hard to read.  So I cropped it and enlarged it.

HIS MIDDLE NAME WAS BERNARD!!!!

Okay, it could just be a coincidence but there are way too many coincidences now to ignore all of this!

I know this is very confusing for anyone other than me - heck, it confuses me!  I have A LOT more research to do but I'm glad to have put my thoughts down so I can go farther.

Now I hope I can sleep tonight - if not, I'll count Gunzendorfers instead of sheep!