52 Ancestors: Steps - Hills of Eternity

When I saw the blog prompt Steps, I immediately thought of a very special step at Hills of Eternity Memorial Park in Colma, California.

Yes, that step shows the name Gunzendorfer, which was the family name of my paternal grandmother.  There are several Gunzendorfers buried at Hills of Eternity.  The family plot shows a few.

Ferdinand and Fannie, seen in the foreground, were my second great grandparents.  They spent the later years of their lives in Monterey - I'm not sure what took them to the San Francisco area for burial.  To the right of the Gunzendorfer monument is their grandson (my grandmother's brother), Wilton, who was placed there after his death in 1989.

From the Hills of Eternity website:

Judaism views death as a natural part of life.  Hills of Eternity Memorial Park honors the two basic principles that are part of this natural life cycle:  k'vod ha-mayat - the dignified and respectful treatment of the dead - and k'vod he-chai - the honored treatment of the mourners.

Congregation Sherith Israel established its first cemetery in accordance with these principles when it was founded in 1850.  The cemetery was located in Pacific Heights on Vallejo Street, between Gough and Franklin [San Francisco].  In 1860, Sherith Israel dedicated its second cemetery in the area that is now Dolores Park.  Twenty nine years later, Sherith Israel's cemetery moved again to its current location in Colma.

I'm relieved to learn that the Gunzendorfers are interred in their original burial location.

Also from the website:

Hills of Eternity Memorial Park consists of twenty acres of graciously landscaped gardens at the foot of the San Bruno Mountains.  The grounds and mausoleums are respectfully maintained under endowed care.  Fresh flower placements and grave ornamentation plantings add to the dignified beauty and serenity of the park.

Also at Hills of Eternity is the Portals of Eternity mausoleum and chapel, which was built in 1934, and was designed by Samuel Human and Abraham Appleton.

Photo by jcemsf.org

It is the Portals of Eternity Mausoleum where my great grandparents, Abraham and Bertha (Schwartz) Gunzendorfer, are interred.

It's hard to see but that's them in the center with the arrow pointing to their name.  I did not add that in the picture - the arrow is actually scratched etched into the plate.  Why would that have been done?  They are very high up so really no way for vandals to have been able to accomplish that.  A mystery, for sure.

Also interred at Hills of Eternity are some of the Steen family - Bertha's mother was a Steen and while she is not there, these are some of her relatives.

Interred here are:  Dena Steen (1866-1894), Hannah (Plotzky) Steen (1828-1909), Hyman Steen (1887-1924), Jacob Steen (1831-1909), Julius Steen (1862-1876), Lena (Jacobson) Steen (1848-1927), Meyer Steen (1861-1926), Rosalind Steen (1885-1902).  

I was so fortunate to have been able to spend time in this cemetery in 2012 and, hopefully, will be back again one day.

52 Ancestors: Fashion - Hats off!

This week's blog prompt, Fashion, had me going through some photos to discover a theme.  It was then that I noticed how many hats there were in my family, particularly on the paternal side.  It is amazing how many different style of hats there are.  So, hats off to those in hats!

My grandmother, Loraine (Gunzendorfer) Levy, had a lot of hats.  Here's a few through the years.

Mildred Loraine Gunzendorfer, 1896

On her honeymoon?  1919

I remember "back in the day" when we would dress up to fly on a plane.  Looks like Loraine did just that before she took her seat.

I remember Grandma wearing a hat like this.

Grandmother back from Hawaii, c. 1959

Her mother, Bertha (Schwartz) Gunzendorfer, also liked hats and the two of them liked to show them off together.

Abe and Bertha (Schwartz) Gunzendorfer, Loraine Gunzendorfer c. 1919

Bertha (Schwartz) Gunzendorfer, Loraine (Gunzendorfer) Levy

She was sporting quite a hat at Dad's graduation from Stanford in 1949.

Here's an old one - check out all of these hats!  Bertha and Abe are in the front.

Even Bertha's family liked hats!

Parents Louis and Rebecca (Steen) Schwartz, 

Brothers Milton and Colman Schwartz

Looks like little Colman didn't have a hat - but he found a few!

Colman Schwartz, 1890

Colman Schwartz, 1896

And the Levys liked hats, too!

Sig Levy, 5th from the right - you'll see that style of hat again

Sig on the right with his WWI hat on

Sig Levy, ready for a costume party

Looks like Sig posing while on his honeymoon.  Is that the same hat?

Keeping the head warm!

My dad liked hats, too.  I remember in the 60's he always matched a hat to his suit.  Sadly, I haven't found any photos of that.  Check out this hat!

Gordon Levy, Vancouver BC, 1936 - Like father, like son

This one is a little goofy but SO "Dad".

Gordon and Gerry (Martin) Levy

Believe it or not, the hats got even goofier.

Now they're ready for a costume party

Keeping his head warm AND dry!

Crazy Hat Night at Family Camp

Even my sister and I got into the act.

What a pose!

And a few of our own creations from Crazy Hat Nights.

I'm in the middle - 1958

1961

But the most elaborate hat I came across was modeled by my grandmother's first cousin, Henrietta Schwartz.  Grandma's mother (Bertha Schwartz) was the younger sister of Henrietta's father, Joseph Schwartz.  Maybe she was going to the Kentucky Derby?

Henrietta Schwartz, date unknown

That's a lot of hats!!!

52 Ancestors: Fortune - 10 years of blogging

This week's blog prompt is Fortune.  Many of my ancestors had one fortune or another - a long and healthy life, a house full of children, a successful career, or a large bank account.  But today I want to concentrate on the Fortune I've had by starting this blog 10 years ago tomorrow.

Photo by Phae

You can read my first post HERE.  I remember writing that first post (thanks again for the push, Kerry!) and wondering if I'd have enough to say.  When I first started blogging I was so envious of the ephemera that other bloggers had and longed to find just a snippet of what they had. Be careful what you wish for!  

The first two years of blogging I was able to share what I'd learned with my mother and each year for Christmas I put together a book using Blurb to share with her since she didn't use a computer.  I remember sitting together and looking through the book and I could see a gleam in her eyes when she learned something new about her family.  Seeing the happiness it brought to her is what helped me to keep going and sometimes when I feel like I've had enough, I think that maybe, just maybe, someone will be glad that I did.

Over those 10 years, I've written 407 posts and had 1835 comments on the blog plus countless others on Facebook.  In looking back on the posts, the most read posts were:

Back in Time  The story of my grandfather asking my grandmother's parents if they could be married.  And the letter they wrote back to him giving their permission.  What a beautiful love story.

Wanted: Herman Levy Herman Levy was my great grandfather and has been a bit of a brick wall for me.  I posted this on the History of Fresno Facebook page and received a lot of views.  Over the course of the last 10 years I've connected with many grandchildren and great grandchildren of Herman - maybe one day we'll all be able to bust through this wall!

Best Wishes for a Long and Happy Life Together  The end of the books recording the wedding of my parents.  I have such wonderful memories of lying on the floor with my sister and pouring over these books.  

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Where Were They 100 Years Ago?  It's fun to look back at where our ancestors were living, especially when there's a picture of the house!

Grandma Was a Party Animal!  I loved going through my grandmother's scrapbook and learning about her as a young woman.  Not only am I happy that she had a scrapbook but that she saved it for me to find!

Not necessarily one of the most viewed posts (although it is much more recent so hasn't had the opportunity for people to "find" it) was one I struggled with for the blog prompt.

52 Ancestors: Multiple - Love Letters  My grandparents' thoughts during the Spanish Flu Pandemic in 1918. I have finished the transcription project and am now working through the letters my mother wrote to my father when he went away to college and then into the service.  Just proves that my dad had the packrat gene as he saved the letters.  Unfortunately, my mother must have missed the memo that she was supposed to save his letters as I haven't run across any yet.  

It's been an amazing 10 years and I've learned so much about my family.  I would like nothing more than to share this with my father, who used to give me tidbits of information, for I know the joy it would have brought him.  But he knows, he knows.

Thanks for sticking with me!

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.  

52 Ancestors: Labor - Abe's Photos

Until I started this journey, I had no idea that my great grandfather, Abraham Gunzendorfer, was a photographer.  What I still don't know is if he did this as a paying job or just a LABOR of love.  I do know that he took lots of photos, many of which I have in my private stash, which makes it difficult, at times, to know if the subject is an ancestor or, rather, someone who might have paid Abe to take their photo.

One of the first 'Abe' photos I discovered is one of my favorites - the interior of the family store in Pacific Grove.  At one point, there were two stores - one on Alvarado Street in Monterey and the one photographed here.

The White House, Pacific Grove
prior to 1896

But the store in Pacific Grove failed and closed in 1896.

San Francisco Chronicle
5 January, 1896
page 20

What's interesting about the date of the article is that my grandmother, Loraine Gunzendorfer, was born just two weeks later on 20 January 1896.  I know that during the course of her teen years she worked at "the store" so I now know that she worked at the store on Alvarado Street in Monterey.

Abe was on hand when President McKinley visited Monterey on 11 May 1901.  I'm fairly certain that the first building, with Beeman's on the side, is The White House.

And then he captured the President on a stroll in San Francisco a few days later.

It seemed that Abe liked to photograph parades.  This must be downtown Monterey.

And another parade - not sure if this is Monterey or maybe San Francisco.  

Back of photo reads
Photo by A.B. Gunzendorfer
2040 Sutter Street
San Francisco, Cal.

I know next to nothing about Palo Corona Ranch, which was the property of Alonzo E. Allen.  Was this an important place to Abe or was he merely taking photographs for Mr. Allen or someone else?

Abe wrote on the back of this photo "A sample of my first photographs".  Wonder what/where it is?

This is an interesting shot.  Seems too large of a city to be Monterey?  The photo is clearly sepia in person but it looks colorized here.

One of the many things I remember about my grandmother was her love of abalone.  Whenever possible, she'd order abalone when we went to a restaurant.  It seems that Abe also shared that love, at least when it came to the process of fishing for them.

The back of the photo is interesting since it says "compliments of Ad. Sept 18/1900" yet has a marking of a Photographic Supplies company in Los Angeles.  "Ad" was how is brother, Adolph, was referred to at times so maybe Adolph gave the photo to Abe.  But the writing at the bottom is Abe's.  

Abe's mother-in-law, my 2x great grandmother, was Rebecca (Steen) Schwartz.  Many of the Steen family resided in Monterey so I found this photo very interesting.  Based on this, there was a reason he photographed Palo Corona Ranch.  Thank you, Abe, for labeling so many of your photos.

Abe did take photos of his children as seen here in the photo of his son, Wilton Louis Gunzendorfer, in 1900.

What makes this photo so special is the inscription on the back.

Wilton Louis Gunzendorfer
July 8th 1900
This photo property of his dad

I have so many of Abe's photos and, perhaps, photos that he took that have no marking on it.  I am forever grateful that he labeled so many of his photos.

Thanks to this blog prompt, it's caused me to bring out the box of Abe photos to scan some more and get into archival boxes.

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!