Top 10 Genealogical Finds of 2016

Photo by Pierce Place

As 2016 comes to a close, I’d like to step back and reflect on what I’ve learned over the past year.  Unfortunately, I’ve been sluggish when it comes to genealogy this year and haven’t really accomplished much so picking out 10 top things was a bit of a stretch.  I hope to rectify that in 2017.  I did go back and read what I’ve accomplished in years past (it helped a little) so inevent you’re interested in what I’ve done before this year, you can read my past posts.  2015 2014 2013 2012 2011

So in my best David Letterman voice, I bring you my sixth annual Top 10 genealogical finds of 2016.

Number 10:  The book is close to completion!  When I first began this journey, I connected with a woman who was editing a book about the Jews of Santa Cruz and my peeps were included.  Over the last several years we’ve shared information and she’s kept me apprised of the status of the book.  I shared some photos of my family (which I think might just be used) and we even met a few months ago when she was in Seattle for the International Conference on Jewish Genealogy.  And just a few weeks ago, I received an e-mail from the author to say he is hopeful the book will be published in March, 2017.  Be on the lookout for the book Between the Redwoods and the Bay: The Jewish Community of Santa Cruz County.  Stay tuned - I’m hopeful that the completed book will be one of my top 10 finds of 2017.   

Number 9:  Letters.  I know I’ve posted before about the letters I have between my grandparents while they were courting in 1916-1919 – it’s probably something that should be on my Top 10 Finds every year – but this year I felt like I made some headway.  I was able to get all of the letters from my grandmother to my grandfather sorted by date and transcribed and am pretty proud to see one of the boxes (there’s another one just like this) looking so organized.  And to know I have the words transcribed and saved in several places makes me really, really happy – even though there are 253 pages in 11 point font!

I did get started on organizing and transcribing the letters he wrote back to her but I still have a LONG way to go.  Maybe I should be blogging about my goals for 2017 and put that on the top of the list?



Number 8:  Revisiting the Copper King Mine.  It’s always fun to read about the history of a particular place from someone who was there, but even more fun when that ‘someone’ is your great grandfather!  Read the article HERE  Not only did my great grandfather, Edward Fitzgerald, work in the mine but he and my great grandmother actually spent their honeymoon there.  

Number 7:  I found a mini photo album.  Once again, my packrat grandmother has amazed me with the things she kept throughout her lifetime. 



Take a look HERE.  It’s a small look into life at the turn of the 20th century.  I love all photos but seeing my ancestors doing “normal” things is just so rewarding and a real glimpse into the past.

 
Number 6:  The mystery of Harry Meals.  



Yep, that’s right.  The headstone for Harry Meals, the husband of my husband’s great aunt.  Doesn’t look like much of a mystery here but after delving in a bit deeper, it turns out Harry Meals was, at one time, known as Charles Biesel.



After blogging about him HERE, several readers gave me some suggestions on how to proceed.  And after requesting and receiving his SS-5 form, I promptly put it aside and DID NOTHING WITH IT.  Note to self:  Put this on the top of the pile for things to do in 2017.

Number 5:  Finding the Diploma of Graduation from the Grammar School of Monterey from 1911 for my grandmother, Mildred Loraine Gunzendorfer.



After spending a few years in my garage – not even in a box – I stumbled across this and realized what I had.  It prompted me to search through some other things which helped me discover her autograph book from about the same time frame.  You can read about it HERE. 

Number 4:  There were photo booths in the late 1800’s.  While I can’t be sure these photos were actually from a photo booth, it looks possible to me.  But the best part is seeing my grandfather and his brothers as young kids.



Number 3:  Photos, photos, photos!  A cousin of my husband whom I had recently connected with filled my e-mail inbox with photos of my husband’s paternal grandfather and his family.  It is amazing to me how you can know someone from the last years of their life and when you see a photo of them as a child, you know them instantly.  It was nice to take a Time Out and document these new finds – I particularly love this photo of his paternal grandfather, Herman Paul Ast, and Herman’s sister, Bertha Ast.



Number 2:  Aunt Charlotte.  Because of #9 above, I’ve been able to learn so many details of my grandparents’ lives, and even the lives (and deaths) of their families.  We all hope for these details and pray that one day we will discover first hand accounts of what our ancestors were doing on a daily basis.  And, in some cases that actually happens.  It sure hits home when you read the personal story about a victim of the 1918 Flu Pandemic, especially when it my grandmother’s Aunt Charlotte.

Number 1:  COUSINS!  This should be in my Top 10 finds every year!  What struck me this year is now that I have connected with cousins, and continue to connect with more, I’m also reminded how short life is and how loved ones come in and out of our lives.  While I found a new cousin – his great grandmother and my grandmother were sisters – I also lost one of the cousins I have met because of my blog.  I loved getting to know her and loved the family connection we shared.  For someone who has one surviving first cousin (out of two), I’m overwhelmed with just how many cousins I actually do have.  Read about my lost cousin HERE. 

It’s been a quiet year but I am pleased that I was able to add to this blog as my goal has been to document things for future generations.  While genealogy typically has us focused on the past I’m going to take this opportunity to focus on the future and what I still have ahead of me.  Onward!

Will the real Harry Meals please stand up?

Oh boy, do I have a mystery on my hands!  And the farther I get into this, the more mysterious it becomes.

To start from the beginning, my husband’s paternal grandmother was Ethel Theresa Reussing.  All of his grandparents were gone by the time we started dating, except for Ethel, so I might feel a little closer to her since she was the only grandparent of his I ever met.  I also had the pleasure of meeting her younger sister, May Reussing.  They were the only two children who survived into adulthood of Cecilia (Gorham) and Carl Wilhelm Reussing.

One of our most treasured wedding gifts was a gift from Aunt May and from what I’ve learned, she was quite ‘famous’ for her beautiful grape trivets.  And since I don’t have many photos to share for this post, I thought I’d share a photo of the trivet - the grapes are actually made around bottle caps!



Ethel’s oldest grandchild and I have been researching and sharing information on the Reussing family for the last few years.  This family was in San Francisco during the earthquake in 1906 and there is so much to learn about them and how they survived the event.  Because the San Francisco Public Libary will do obituary lookups rather quickly, I decided it was time to look for an obituary for Carl Reussing who died in 1919.  SCORE!

San Francisco Examiner Monday, December 1, 1919

But wait – who are the two children mentioned?  Mrs. H.P. Ast (yep, that’s Ethel) and Mrs. C.H. Biesel (WHO?).  May was married to Harry Grant Meals and we’d always known her as May Meals.  So who was C.H. Biesel?  Was May married before she married Harry?

We went back to the records we had saved and reviewed everything again.  May and Harry’s first child was born in 1922 so we knew they were married in 1922.  So just what was up?

Here’s what we know about Harry.  He was born 13 Jun 1893 in Pennsylvania.  By 1900, he was in Alleghenny, Pennsylvania with his mother, Ella, and a new family she had with Edward McDonald and was listed as step son.  Okay, makes sense.  Harry’s father must have died somewhere between 1893 and 1900 and Ella had remarried.

By 1910, he was in Pittsburgh with the same family only now was listed as Harry McDonald.  I know that’s not uncommon for a step child to be enumerated with the same last name as a step father so it doesn’t set off too many red flags.  Unfortunately, we have been unable to find Harry or May in the 1920 census – where were they?  And what happened between 1910 and 1922 when their son, Robert H. Meals, was born?  And from that point on, there are several references to Harry and May, together with both Robert and his younger sister, Barbara, born in 1930.  So where did C.H. Biesel fit in to this story?

Back to reviewing all of the records.  And that’s when it hit me, Harry Meals’ U.S. National Cemetery Interment Control Form!



Look closely at the name!  It was typed as Charles H. Biesel, crossed out, and Harry G. Meals was handwritten in!  And you can see it is him because it shows his widow as May Meals but under Remarks it says “Name legally changed to Meals, Harry G.  NOK wants MEALS on headstone”.  WHAT????

And then I found this.



A nearly identical form with the name Charles H. Biesel clearly shown with the same reference to Harry G. Meals.  So Harry and Charles were the same person?  What the heck is going on?

And to add even more clues to the Harry/Charles mystery, I found both Charles H. Biesel and Harry G. Meals listed in the California Death Index.  And not only are they both listed, they are both listed with the same date of death and same social security number.  Cue the Twilight Zone music!

What’s really sending shivers down my spine is that while I was preparing this blog post this afternoon, I noticed a message in my ancestry account.  I’d forgotten that I’d sent a message a month or so ago to someone who was a DNA match with my husband and she had responded back to me.  Wanna know who she is?  HARRY MEALS’ GRANDDAUGHTER!  Is that music sounding louder?

And just to confirm that Harry is interred as Harry Meals, here is his headstone from Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno, California, where he is buried with his wife, May (Reussing) Meals.


So now what?  Where do I go from here?

* No, I already asked Harry's granddaughter and she has never heard the name Charles Biesel before.