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: Strong Woman - Minnie Dauterman

My last post was Favorite Discovery where I wrote about my favorite discovery being the one I found that day.  And as luck would have it, the next day I found a new favorite discovery but because I haven't blogged since, here it is today.

Minnie Dauterman Guzendorfer
about 1896

Minnie Juliet Dauterman, born 17 April 1864, was married to my great grandfather's brother, Gustave George Gunzendorfer.  I wrote about Gustave awhile back and was confused as to the end of their marriage, potential divorce, and how Minnie ended up taking back her maiden name.  You can read it HERE. 

But then a few weeks ago I found new information about Minnie.

San Francisco Examiner
1 Feb 1924, page 11

Uh-oh.  Gustave, a successful attorney, couldn't pay his alimony in cash but instead wanted to pay in booze. 

Minnie must have been very strong for in those days, I'm not sure too many women would have pursued things.  I don't know, maybe I'm wrong but then I found this.

San Francisco Examiner
28 November 1924, page 17

My hunch was right in that Gustave left Minnie and from what I can find, she wasn't too happy about it.  I'm going to keep searching and see if I can find information on how the case ended up.  Then THAT will be my favorite discovery.

More research needed but this is an interesting rabbit hole I'm going down.

52 Ancestors: Brick Wall

We all have them, right?  You know, brick wall ancestors who don't want to be found.  I have more than a few but the ancestor who haunts me the most is my paternal great grandfather, Herman Levy.  I've connected with some Levy cousins and I'm hoping we can figure it out but for now, he's a mystery.  It could be that he was known as Herman Levi before coming to America but for now, he's staying hidden.

I have so many brick wall ancestors who are staring me in the face but I have no idea who they are or even if they are MY ancestors.  Why, why, why did my grandmother not label these beautiful photos?  Even one might have led to a new discovery but no, nothing.  So I scan them and file them in my "unidentified" folder.

What makes it even more challenging is that my great grandfather, Abraham Gunzendorfer, was a photographer so I can't even be sure that these people were anything more than a subject for Abe.  And while I believe those who are related to me are either Gunzendorfer, Schwartz, or Steen ancestors because they were in the same box as some identified by those names, it's a crap shoot.

So here I'll post some of these unidentified characters in the hope that maybe, just maybe, someone can help me out.

I love seeing photos of children - there is so much promise in their eyes and I can just imagine the lives they had ahead of them.  But who are they?

I think these two might be Gunzendorfer boys since the photographer was J.B. Johnson in Gilroy, California.  The four boys were Gustave (b. 1864), Adolph (b. 1866), Abraham (b. 1869) and Jacob (b. 1871) and the family lived in Gilroy in 1870.  Clearly taken on the same day but who are they?

I don't know - the top could be Gustave and the bottom could be Adolph but for all I know, they don't even belong to me.

And until today I thought this gentleman might be my 2x great grandfather, Louis Schwartz, but now I've noticed that it was also taken by J.B. Johnson in Gilroy - and to my knowledge, Louis never lived in Gilroy.  So maybe it was the father of the two boys.  And maybe, just maybe, it was their father, Ferdinand Gunzendorfer.

It sort of looks like Ferdinand as an older man but maybe it's just because I want it to be him that I think that.

Ferdinand Gunzendorfer

And then there's this cutie.  Since the photographer was in Santa Cruz and my Steen and Schwartz ancestors lived there, it could be one of them.  Joseph Schwartz?  Milton Schwartz?  Colman Schwartz?  All brothers of my great grandmother, Bertha Schwartz.  They were born in 1867, 1878, and 1884 so maybe?

And what about this family?  Who are they?

Taken in San Francisco - that's no help since just about every one of my ancestors lived or worked in San Francisco at some point in their life.  

And these dapper young men could be Milton Harry Schwartz, younger brother of my great grandmother, Bertha Schwartz.  He was born in 1878 and lived in Santa Cruz, Berkeley, and San Francisco so it could be him.  Or not.

Could this also be the same boy?  It's the same Santa Cruz photographer.

I have a photo that I know is him - same guy?

Milton Harry Schwartz

Since it's the same photography studio I vote yes.  But I could be wrong.

And how about this lady?  Who is she?

Or this lady?  Oh boy, she looks stern!

And another stern lady in San Francisco.  Who are you?

I could go on and on and on.  I know so many people would just love to have the photos I have inherited but geez, it boggles my mind to not know who these people are.  Please, will one of you come forward and tell me who you are?

52 Ancestors: Oldest

This week’s blog prompt is Oldest.  I decided to focus on Gustave George Gunzendorfer, the oldest brother/sibling of my great grandfather, Abraham Gunzendorfer.  Also, Gustave George was the first in the Gunzendorfer family to be born in the United States.

Gustave George Gunzendorfer, Jones Lotz Photographer, date unknown

Gustave was born 26 Sep 1864 in Monterey.  I know that his father, Ferdinand, arrived in New York on 11 Aug 1854, was settled in Monterey by 1860, and in 1863 was married to Fannie Goldstein.  So 12 to 18 months after they were married, they had started their family.

1870 and 1880 found the family in Gilroy, California.  Based on the ages of the four boys in this photo, I suspect this was their home in Gilroy.

Jacob, Adolph, Gustave, Abraham Gunzendorfer

Of course we have no record of the family in 1890 - once again, I want to curse over that darned census.  In 1900, Gustave was living at 772 Haight Street in San Francisco with his wife Minnie (Dauterman), brother-in-law William Dauterman, and nephew Randolph Stout.  They were renting the home and it states that Gustave and Minnie had been married for 13 years.  But no record of that marriage has been found.  Gustave was an attorney and had been admitted into practice in California on 10 Jun 1886 after attending Hastings.  His bar # was 3292.

In 1900, Gustave and his brothers, as well as brother Jacob’s father-in-law Julius Steinberger, formed a new corporation, Transpacific Commercial Company.

San Francisco Chronicle, 11 Aug 1900, page 18

In 1910, Gustave and Minnie were living on El Monte Avenue in Fremont.  The census shows Gustave was not a veteran and that he owned the farm.  FARM?  It looks like most of the residences in the area were listed as farms although I doubt that Gustave would come home from working as a successful attorney and then spending time on the farm.  Would he?

In 1920, Gustave and Minnie were lodgers at a residence at 745 Pine Street, San Francisco.  Now that’s interesting. 

Interesting because while Gustave and Minnie were together in 1923 and living at 2045 Hyde in San Francisco, things seemed to have changed by 1924.

The San Bernardino County Sun, Fri, Feb 1, 1924, page 2

He owed her money?  I’m almost certain that this was about the time the two divorced because by 1925, Gustave was now going by his middle name of George and was practicing law in Reno, Nevada.

Reno City Directory, 1925, page 41

My hunch is that the divorce was ‘messy’ as somewhere along the line Minnie returned to using her maiden name of Dauterman, which I doubt was a common thing to do 100 years ago.  Did Gustave escape California and somewhat ‘change’ his identify from Gustave to George?

On 15 Aug 1927, George married Katherine Lord Shuster Flesh, who had previously been married to Joel Flesh.  How did they meet?  Had Katherine moved to Reno and George represented her in a divorce or death of her husband.

Uh-oh.

Beaver County News, 7 Sep 1928, page 5

In 1930, George and Katherine were living at 543 Marsh Avenue in Reno.  They stated they rented the home for $75 and had a radio.  It looks like they remained at that address until George’s death on 21 Aug 1939 in Reno.

Nevada State Journal, 25 Aug 1939, page 12

What I find very interesting is that the obituary refers to a host of ‘friends’ but does not mention family.  And when reviewing the list of Pallbearers and Honorary pallbearers, there’s not a Gunzendorfer to be found.  With three brothers, two of whom were still living at the time, you’d think there would at least be one Gunzendorfer listed.  Maybe he had become estranged from his family?

I wrote about finding George’s grave in Reno as one of my top 10 genealogical finds in 2012 HERE.

And just a few months later, I found myself in Reno and was able to pay my respects to George and Katherine.

Katherine died in Pennsylvania 23 Apr 1957 and her remains were brought back to Reno to rest in peace with George.

Minnie Dauterman died 29 Aug 1946 in San Mateo.  After a thorough search by the San Francisco Public Library (a GREAT resource for obituaries for deaths occurring in/near San Francisco), no obituary or burial site was found.

I hope one day to find more details about the mysterious last years of Gustave George Gunzendorfer’s life.