52 Ancestors: Favorite Photo - It's not just a house

A house is not just a house - it holds special memories for generations.  One such house is this one - I doubt there are too many homes that a professional artist captured in color.  This "photo" hung on my parents' wall for years and I was lucky enough to take it home with me when we cleaned out the house in 2013.  Thanks brother and sister!  

Sig Levy house, Echo Avenue, Fresno - Artist Donna Locati

My grandparents, along with my Dad and his older brother, built and moved into this home in 1934 when my dad was just 7 years old.  I've written about the house HERE and HERE.  But to recap.....

The house looked a lot different in 1934 when they moved in.  I can just imagine the excitement of the young family as they looked forward to the many memories that would be made in that house.  Amazing what a little landscaping does.

In 1982 when my grandmother died, we went to finish cleaning out the house and I took a few photos.  It sure was bittersweet to see a 'For Sale' sign in front.

My 2nd cousin (our grandfathers were brothers) lives around the corner and knows the owners of the house, only the second owners since 1982.  I remember at one point my dad was in Fresno and because he was fearless, he stopped the car in front of the house and marched himself up to the front door and rang the bell.  Sure enough, the owners were home and invited him in for a tour.  

Google Maps shows it looks like this today.  Much nicer to see the foliage cut back so the house can be seen better.  I did like the dark trim and balcony railing, though.

I love having the painting in my home - it brings a smile to my face every time I walk by.  Be sure to take some photos today of your house, and other important houses, so you can see the changes as time goes on.  Remember, it's not just a house.  

52 Ancestors: Family Legend - Living in a Cable Car

One family legend that has been told for years is that of my husband's grandmother, Ethel Theresa Reussing, living with her family in a cable car after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.  I guess there could be stranger places to live but if this story is true, I can't think of too many.

Ethel Theresa Reussing, c. 1906

Ethel was born 11 March 1894 in San Francisco and was the fourth child, and first daughter, of Carl and Cecilia (Gorham) Reussing.  In 1900, the family was enumerated in San Francisco at 117 Langton Street.  Sadly, two of the older children had died before 1900 so were not living with the family.  Using Zillow, I found a current townhome nearby on Langton Street and it stated that it was built in 1906.  That leads me to believe that the family home was, in fact, destroyed in the earthquake .

1900 United States Federal Census; San Francisco, California; Roll T623_101; Page 7B, Enumeration District 56

Looking at a current map, Langton is not too far from Market Street which is a major transit artery for the city and has carried horse-drawn streetcars, cable cars, electric streetcars, electric trolleybuses, diesel buses.  While cable cars no longer operate on Market Street, the surviving cable car lines terminate directly adjacent to the street at its intersections with California and Powell Streets.  (Wikepedia).

To show what Market Street looked like, this incredible video was shot a few days before the earthquake in 1906.

Market Street 14 April 1906

Due to this horrific disaster on 18 April 1906, 3,000 people lost their lives, 28,000 buildings were destroyed, and 250,000 of the city's residents were left homeless.  My husband's grandmother, Ethel Theresa Reussing, was one of them.

So what is a family to do? With a need to find a place to keep the family safe, family legend says that Ethel's father, Carl Reussing, and a neighbor found an empty cable car and moved their families in.  Pretty creative if you ask me!

Photo courtesy of San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA)

I can't even imagine two families packed into a cable car but considering what was going on around them, it was probably a pretty comfortable way to live while they were finding a new home.  I don't know if they were in the cable car for 1 day, 1 week, 1 month....or even if it happened at all.

By 1910, the family had secured a new home and were living at 47 Goethe Street in Daly City (San Mateo).

1910 United States Federal Census; Township 1, San Mateo, California; Roll T624_104; Page 4A, Enumeration District 0048.

I'll never know for sure if this happened or was a family legend.  But my imagination finds the thought of it fascinating.

Edited to add a newspaper article that a reader shared with me.  Looks like people DID live in cable cars!

The United Railroads has tendered the use of its entire system to Mayor Schmits for the benefit of the people during the present crisis.  Free transportation will be furnished the people over the lines of the company for themselves and their baggage.  The company's cars standing in the streets and all of its car barns not destroyed are also free for the use of the people for the purpose of shelter and lodging.

San Francisco Examiner, 24 April 1906

52 Ancestors: Beginnings

The beginning of a new year and such a fitting prompt.  BEGINNINGS

I often think about how and why this genealogy journey started more than 10 years ago.  My mother, who is not descended from the Gunzendorfers, made the statement that there were no more Gunzendorfers in the United States.  And when I began my blog just shy of 10 years ago, my first post talked more specifically about my beginnings.  You can read it HERE.  

The short story is that my mother may just have been right as I still haven't found any living Gunzendorfers in the United States.  My grandmother married and changed her name, thus having no Gunzendorfer descendants, and her brother married but never had children.  So check them off the list.  

There were four Gunzendorfer brothers, one of which was my grandmother's father, Abraham Gunzendorfer.  And of his three brothers (Gustave, Adolph and Jacob), only one, Jacob, had children.  Unfortunately, Jacob's only son never had children and the girls married, thus changing their last name.  So check them off the list.

I have found a group of Gunzendorfers in New York and I am almost certain that they are related to my clan.  The patriarch of that group was Adolph, father of Bernard (b. 1829) who had a son, Adolph, in 1867.  My Abraham's father was Ferdinand, (b. 1838) who also had a son named Adolph in 1866.  I suspect that NY Adolph and my Ferdinand were brothers and this year I hope to confirm that.

NY Adolph had a daughter named Lenore who was born in 1896.  My grandmother, Loraine, was also born in 1896.  And as she wrote letters to my grandfather in 1918 during their engagement, a paragraph stood out to me:

Quite a coincident [sic], sweetheart.  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.

If Lenore's father, Adolph, and Loraine's father, Abraham, were cousins then their fathers were brothers, right?  Which makes NY Bernard (father of Adolph and Ludwig) and my Ferdinand (father of Gustave, Adolph, Abraham, and Jacob), brothers.  Not definitive proof but as close as I've come so far.

Coincidentally, there was a Ferdinand Gunzendorfer hanging out in California who was born in 1864 and died in Stockton in 1946.  However, his tombstone shows he was born in 1874 and died in 1956.  But either way, about the right time frame that he could have been, and probably was, a NY Gunzendorfer descendant.  Did NY Adolph name a son Ferdinand while his brother, my Ferdinand, named a son Adolph?

This goes to show that I still have a lot of work to do on my beginnings.  I will focus some time again on this branch of my tree and see if I can find things I've missed and confirm (or not) some of these facts.  

In other beginnings news, I learned of a fun tidbit recently.  Jacob Gunzendorfer's great granddaughter and I connected several years ago - you can read about it HERE - and recently have spent some time sharing information.  My cousin, J, has been reading a journal that her mother wrote and shared this with me.

In one section her mother wrote about how her parents Irene (Lolly) and Albert (Bump) met.  Irene was the daughter of Jacob Gunzendorfer and was my grandmother's first cousin.  I remember Grandma talking about her cousin, Irene, but I'm not sure if I ever met her.  Anyway, J's mother wrote:

Lolly and Bump met in 1915 at the fair at the Palace of Fine Arts.  Lolly and her cousin, Loraine, and girlfriends, sisters Dorothy and Hortence, were browsing a display of portable housing shown by a handsome young redhead.  "Red" eyed Lolly and it was "love at first sight".

So now we know how Irene met her husband - and my grandmother was there to witness it!

I've not been very motivated to research lately so maybe this is my new beginning and I can get started up again.