52 Ancestors: Earliest

This weeks' blog prompt is Earliest.  At first I was stumped - should I write about the earliest document I have, the earliest ancestor I have documented, or earliest memory I have of one of my ancestors?  Wait - how about the earliest photo I have of my ancestors?  So here we go.....

Paternal side

3x great grandmother, Hannah (Plotzky) Steen, 1828-1909

2x great grandmother, Rebecca (Steen) Schwartz, 1848-1918

2x great grandfather, Louis Schwartz, 1834-1893

2x great grandfather, Ferdinand Gunzendorfer, 1838-1907

2x great grandmother, Fannie (Goldstein) Gunzendorfer, 1848-1910

Great Grandmother, Bertha (Schwartz) Gunzendorfer, 1872-1950

Great grandfather, Abraham Gunzendorfer, 1869-1944

Great grandfather, Herman Levy, 1856-1918

Great grandmother, Goldie (Benas) Levy, 1864-1926

Grandmother, Mildred Loraine (Gunzendorfer) Levy, 1896-1982

Grandfather, Sigmund Levy, 1888-1968

Father, Gordon Levy, 1927-2005

Maternal Side

2x great grandmother, Sarah (Miller) Brooks Anderson, 1836-1923

2x great grandmother, Rebecca (Waller) McAboy, 1845-1928

2x great grandfather, Mathew Fitzgerald, 1850-1905

Great grandmother, Mabel (McAboy) Fitzgerald, 1883-1966

Great grandfather, Edward Fitzgerald, 1879-1968

Great grandmother, Frances (Brooks) Martin, 1860-1936

Grandmother, Clara (Fitzgerald) Martin Hunter, 1903-1987

Grandfather, Earle Martin, 1900-1986

Mother, Geraldine (Martin) Levy, 1928-2013

And last but not least - ME!

I'm missing a few and hope to one day find them but I feel like I have a pretty good collection!

SNGF: Female Ancestors' Age at Death

This week’s Saturday Night Genealogy Fun (okay, so I’m a day late) from Randy Seaver is to review your pedigree chart and determine the age at death of your female ancestors back at least 5 generations.  You can read about it HERE. 

What’s interesting about this exercise is that I’ve actually given it quite a bit of thought as when my mother died at the age of 84, I thought back to her mother, and her mother, and her mother and I thought they were all about the same age.  It made me realize that I’d really like to go from age 83 to about age 85 and just bypass those ages altogether. 

So an added exercise for me was to identify the ages of those women, in addition to five generations.

My mother, Geraldine (Martin) Levy, died 15 days before her 85th birthday.  So 84 years old.

Her mother, Clara (Fitzgerald) Martin Hunter, died at the age of 84.  Uh-oh.

Geraldine (Martin) Levy & Clara (Fitzgerald) Martin Hunter

 

Clara’s mother, Mabel (McAboy) Fitzgerald, died at the age of 83 years, 5 months.

Mabel (McAboy) Fitzgerald

 

Mabel’s mother, Rebecca (Waller), died at the age of 83 years, 2 months.

 

Rebecca (Waller) McAboy

See?  I’m turning 83 and then poof – I’m gonna be 85! 

Okay, so back to the original exercise.  Some of my math might not look correct as I took into account the age at their last birthday.

Mother
Geraldine (Martin) Levy – 1928-2013 – 84 years

Grandmothers
Clara Maxine (Fitzgerald) Martin Hunter – 1903-1987 – 84 years
Mildred Loraine (Gunzendorfer) Levy – 1896-1982 – 86 years

Great Grandmothers
Mabel Viola (McAboy) Fitzgerald – 1883-1966 – 83 years
Frances Maria (Brooks) Martin – 1860-1936 – 75 years
Bertha (Schwartz) Gunzendorfer – 1872-1950 – 78 years
Goldie (Benas) Levy – 1864-1926 – 62 years

2nd Great Grandmothers
Rebecca (Waller) McAboy – 1845-1928 – 83 years
Julia (Horgan) Fitzgerald – 1849-1886 – 37 years
Sarah (Miller) Brooks Anderson – 1836-1923 – 86 years
Rebecca (Steen) Schwartz – 1848-1918 – 70 years
Fannie (Goldstein) Gunzendorfer – 1848-1910 – 62 years
Fredericka (Wilzinski) Benas – 1840-1915 – 75 years
Millicent (Moore) Martin – 1827-1884 – 56 years
Unknown ( ) Levy

3rd Great Grandmothers
Rebecca (Parker) Waller – 1814-1845 – 30 years
Margaret (Finley) Miller – 1812-1884 – 72 years
Monima (Williams) Brooks – 1801-1867 – 66 years
Hannah (Plotzkey) Steen – 1828-1909 – 80 years
Margaret (Callahn) Horgan – Unknown
Sarah (Frankel) Goldstein – 1838-1897 – 59 years
Sarah (Mann) McAboy – 1825-1910 – 85 years
Margaret (Cullen) Fitzgerald – Unknown
Amelia (Jackson) Wilzinski – 1816-1902 – 86 years
Elizabeth (McDaniel) Moore – 1808-1867 – 59 years
Tabitha (Rodgers) Martin – 1800-1860 – 60 years
Unknown x 5

The female ancestor to live the longest was Sarah Jane (Miller) Brooks Anderson at 31,586 days.  Sarah’s first husband (and my 2nd great grandfather) was killed in the Battle of Fredericksburg and at one point she moved across country from South Carolina to California – what stories she would have had!

A close runner-up was my grandmother whom I’ve written so much about, Mildred Loraine (Gunzendorfer) Levy at 31,519 days.  Besides my parents, I probably know more about her than any other ancestor.

The ancestor to live the least amount of time was Rebecca (Parker) Waller, my 3rd great grandmother.  Rebecca died at the age of 30, within days of giving birth to my 2nd great Grandmother, Rebecca (Waller) McAboy.

The average age of the 23 women I know the age for at the time of their death was about 70 years old.

It sure is hard to see how many of these women died at an age younger than I am today.  But I’m not dwelling on that, at least not until I get to be 83 years old!

Now they’re man and wife

So now my parents, Gordon and Geraldine (Martin) Levy, are man and wife.  Let the party begin!



Here’s the happy groom and his groomsmen.  My dad is in the middle toasting with his brother and best man, Robert Levy.  I know the names of the others but I’m not sure who is who.  Those in the picture are:  Keith Miller, Sheldon Lewis, John Hammell, Horace Chandler, Joseph Connolly, Herb Harband, and Bud Richter.  If I had to guess I’d say Joseph Connolly is third from the left and Keith Miller is second from the right.  I’ll have to go through old yearbooks to see if I can identify these fellows.

And here’s the bridal party.




Left to right:  Sandra Dick, Jody Renner, Geraldine Martin Levy, Dona Jean Adams, Patricia O’Farrell.  I was able to find Dona Jean in the Stanford annual pretty quickly but didn’t find Patricia – I’m not sure if O’Farrell was her maiden or married name.  I do know that Jody Renner was married so I’ll need to figure out what her maiden name was.

And I love seeing the receiving line, which is something that doesn’t seem quite as popular these days.



I love how my parents are looking into each other’s eyes – they were so in love!

 

Left to right:  Sandra Dick, Dona Jean Adams, Patricia O’Farrell, Jody Renner, Geraldine (Martin) Levy, Gordon Levy, Sigmund Levy, Loraine (Gunzendorfer) Levy, Clara (Fitzgerald) Hunter.

A few things come to mind as I look at this group.  I always knew my grandfather, Sig Levy, was short but geez, he really was!  My dad was only about 5-9” and my grandmother was only about 5-4” and he is dwarfed by both of them.  I’m guessing he was only about 5’1” which is proof that he is the cause of the “Levy curse”.   I remember reading a letter that Loraine wrote to him as he was training to be a Flying Cadet and she made a comment about him sitting on a pillow while he flew :-)

Although my mother’s step-father, Sheldon Hunter, walked her down the aisle, neither he nor her biological father, Earle Martin, participated in the receiving line.  And where was Robert Levy, my dad’s brother?

Here’s the next pages of the Bride’s Book.




Wow, her father, Earle Martin, isn’t even mentioned.  If I didn’t know better I’d think he wasn’t living at the time.



My mom wrote “Taken on our honeymoon – in front of Montery [sic] Harbor on September 4, 1950. 

I’ve always known they spent their honeymoon in Monterey and Carmel but it wasn’t until today that it hit me – they spent their honeymoon in the city where my grandmother grew up.

I could have helped you with this, Mom

The next two pages show my starting point with researching my family history – not much!  Oh Mom, I wish I’d been around in 1950 so I could helped you complete this family tree.   Here’s a close up of the first page.



Okay, that’s a decent start.  Mom’s parents were Clara Maxine Fitzgerald and Earle L. Martin.  Check – good job Mom!  After her parents divorced in the late 1930’s, her mother remarried Sheldon Hunter so at the time of Mom’s marriage my grandmother was Clara Maxine Hunter.

Clara’s parents were Mabel Viola McAboy and Edward Francis Fitzgerald.  Got it.  And that’s all she wrote!  Was that all she knew?  I’m betting it was because when I first started this journey she didn’t seem to know much about her family at all.  I was able to fill in some of the blanks and she seemed to really enjoy hearing what I’d found while helping her fill in the blanks.  Mabel’s parents were Rebecca Waller and William Warren McAboy and Rebecca was the granddaughter of my favorite ancestor, Emery Waller.  And Edward’s (or Eddy, as we called him) parents were Julia Horgan and Matthew William Fitzgerald.  Just this week I connected with a descendant of Matthew Fitzgerald – another cousin!

Earle’s parents were Frances Maria Brooks and Robert Lewis Martin.  I don’t think Mom had any idea of their names until I started researching.  She had a copy of a book about the Martin side of her family – Some of the Descendants of Daniel Martin (1745-1829) of Laurens County, South Carolina – but I don’t think she really paid attention to the information.  Frances’ parents were Sarah Jane Miller and William J. Brooks – William was killed at the Battle of Fredericksburg and Sarah later remarried and moved to Fresno.  Robert’s parents were Millicent Moore and Lewis Saxon Martin. 

And then Dad’s side of the family.



Now surely she knew more than that!  But I’ll fill it in for her.

Dad’s parents were Mildred Loraine Gunzendorfer and Sigmund Levy. 

I have had so much fun learning about Loraine as I’ve been documenting her scrapbook and transcribing the letters she and my grandfather wrote to each other from 1917-1919.  Loraine’s parents were Bertha “Birdie” Schwartz and Abraham Gunzendorfer.  Birdie’s parents were Rebecca Steen and Louis Schwartz.  And Abe’s parents were Fannie Goldstein and Ferdinand Gunzendorfer.

Sig’s parents were Goldie Benas and Herman Levy.  Goldie was the daughter of Fredericka “Frances” Wilzinski and Benjamin Benas.  And Herman was the son of…… oh shoot, I don’t know. 

I could have helped Mom with a lot if she’d only asked!  :-)

Something Old, Something New

Something old – a white lace hankie that “Gram” had made & Mother carried at her wedding
Something new – most everything
Something borrowed – The hankie and the half-dime in my left shoe
Something blue – the garter

Here is mention of “Gram” again.  While I thought Gram was probably my dad’s grandmother, I’m not so sure now.  I know my mom called her mother-in-law Mother in later years but would she have called her Mother right when she got married?  I need to ponder that for awhile.  I remember carrying a hankie when I was married and Mom told me it was my grandmother’s – which grandmother would that have been?  And the half-dime in my left shoe?  Yep, had that with me, too.  And I think (help me out here, girls) my daughters both carried the hankie and half-dime, too. 

Here’s the hankie we carried.  Doesn’t look too white or lacey but Mom told me this was the one. 



I also have a half-dime, too, but since it’s in the safe deposit box, I can’t post a photo of it here.

And Mom even talks about her trousseau – do brides even worry about that today?



Lovely nighties, slips, panties, robes & other lingerie.  Dresses, shorts, slacks, bathing suits, shoes – everything anyone could want – and Gordon too!

Awwwwwwww.



And now we know who the bridal party was.  Some of these names are familiar to me.

Mrs. Nicholas Renner – this was Jodi (or Joanie) Renner, matron of honor.  I remember asking mom about that earlier this year.

Mrs. Keith Miller – Keith Miller was one of my dad’s best friends growing up in Fresno.  We always had an inside joke about Keith Miller and his lack of expression in his voice.  I’m sure my siblings will remember it.

Mrs. Clarence Follet – Mom’s cousin, Loraine Feuerenstein.  Loraine’s mother, Viola, and my grandmother, Clara Fitzgerald, were sisters.

Mrs. Robert Burkhart – Mom’s cousin, Norma Jean Hoey.  The relationship is a little more complicated but Norma Jean descends from Clara McAboy, sister to my great grandmother, Mabel McAboy. 

Patricia Davis – Future wife of my dad’s brother, Robert Levy. 



So many newspaper articles with more to come.  And the question as to who carried the hankie will be answered!

Sunday's Obituary: Sarah Jane Miller Brooks Anderson 1836-1923

PIONEER TO BE BURIED TODAY
Services for Matron are Arranged

Funeral services for Mrs. Sarah Jane Anderson, who died Monday evening, will be held tomorrow afternoon at 2 o'clock at the chapel of Stephens and Bean.  Burial will be in Mountain View cemetery.

Mrs. Anderson, widow of J.H. Anderson, was born in South Carolina, November 5, 1836, and came to Fresno in 1888.  Since the death of her husband she made her home with her children, her death occurring at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Mamie Burks, at 445 Abby.  She had been a member of the St. Paul's Methodist church for many years.

Four sons, A.P., J.B., and W.W. Brooks and J.T. Anderson, two daughters, Mrs. R.L. Martin and Mrs. Burks, 21 grandchildren, Edward, Albert and Oscar Brooks of Richmond, W.A. Brooks of Taft, C. Bart Brooks of Kerman, George H. and Rexford Anderson and W.B. Martin of San Luis Obispo, Earl Martin of Fresno, Mrs. Fred Donleavy, Mrs. Robert Kilpatrick, Mrs. Earl Granger, Mrs. Fred Redden, Mrs. Percy Perry of Madera, Mrs. Allan Dennison of Berkeley, Mrs. Hattie Whitman of Fresno, Mrs. Pearl Fortado of Concord, Mrs. T.J. Delany of Oakland, Misses Nell Martin, Ethel Martin and Ruth Brooks and 15 great grandchildren survive her.

Sarah Jane Miller Brooks Anderson was my second great grandmother.  Her daughter, Mrs. R.L. Martin, was my great grandmother and Earle Martin was my maternal grandfather.

Sarah's memorial on findagrave.

Sarah Jane Miller Brooks Anderson

Sarah Jane Miller
1836-1923



I've spent more time lately researching my mother's paternal line thanks to a Randy Seaver's recent Saturday Night Genealogy Fun to list all 16 of our great great grandparents.  My maternal grandparents divorced when my mother was about 10 and since she didn't stay close to her dad, we never really knew our grandfather.  Her mother remarried and her step dad was the man we considered Grandpa.  But that other line has always been out there, just waiting to be found :-)

I last wrote about my 2nd great grandfather, William Brooks, who was killed at the Battle of Fredericksburg in 1862.  While I've had other ancestors who served in the Civil War, William is the first I've found who died during the war and the first who served for the Confederate Army. 

I wonder how long it took before Sarah Jane Miller Brooks knew she was a widow with four small children to care for.  What must communication have been like in 1862?  Did someone come to her door to notify her or did she wait anxiously for a letter from her husband that never arrived.  No matter how she was told, she was alone.

Sarah was born in South Carolina in November, 1836 and was the third child of Albert Miller and Margaret Finley.  I have a lot more research to do on Albert and Margaret but I do know that when Albert died in 1856, he left "one negro girl (value $595) and ten bushels of wheat (value $13.25)" to Sarah's husband, William Brooks. I guess the daughter's share was given to her husband in those days.

In 1868 Sarah married John Hayward Anderson and together they had two children and moved to Fresno in 1888.  It is this part of the family to which I've recently connected and my new-found cousin has graciously shared the photo above (as well as many other treasures) with me.  Thank you, Terry!

Sarah died in Fresno on April 30, 1923.  She was survived by all six of her children, 21 grandchildren, and 15 great grandchildren.

I don't know much about Sarah but I'm sure I'll learn more.  I do know that she looks like a very kind woman and I wish I'd had an opportunity to know her.  There are so many questions I'd like to ask.......

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - My 16 Great Grandparents

Photo by Tomorrow Never Knows

Thank you, thank you, thank you to Randy Seaver at genea-musings for the Saturday night challenge of listing our 16 great great grandparents.  I've been in a "blog fog" (where I can't think of anything to write about) for the last few weeks and now I have something to blog about.  I will admit it is Sunday night and I'm 24 hours late but I've been out of town this weekend so I get a free pass :-)

The challenge was:

1)  List your 16 great-great-grandparents with their birth, death and marriage data (dates and places).  [Hint - you might use an Ancestral Name List from your software for this.]

2)  Determine the countries (or states) that these ancestors lived in at their birth and at their death.

3)  For extra credit, go make a "Heritage Pie" chart for the country of origin (birth place) for these 16 ancestors. [Hint: you could use the  chart generator from Kid Zone for this.] [Note: Thank you to Sheri Fenley for the "Heritage Pie" chart idea.]

I'm not going for extra credit as I'm too tired and too technically challenged but here goes:

1.  William Warren McAboy:  Born 12 December, 1842 in DeWitt County, Illinois.  Died 12 January, 1925 in Santa Cruz, California.  Married 10 January 1864 in DeWitt County, Illinois to....

2.  Rebecca Moriah Waller:  Born 7 February, 1845 in Warren County, Ohio.  Died 23 October 1928 in Fresno, California.

3.  Matthew Fitzgerald:  Born 10 September 1850 in Ireland.  Died 24 August 1905 in Fresno, California.  Married June 1869 in Derryleagh, Cork, Ireland to....

4.  Julia Horgan:  Born 1849 in Derryleagh, Cork, Ireland.  Died 4 August 1886 in Black, Yolo County, California.

5.  Lewis Saxon Martin:  Born 9 April 1820 in South Carolina.  Died 19 July 1903 in Laurens County, South Carolina.  Married 12 April 1848 in Laurens County, South Carolina (second marriage) to....

6.  Millicent Moore:  Born 6 October 1827 in South Carolina.  Died 3 January 1884 in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina.

7.  William J. Brooks:  Born 1835 in South Carolina.  Died 1862 in Fredericksburg, Virgina.  (I need to research this - I just realized he must have died at the battle of Fredericksburg).  Married to.....

8.  Sarah Jane Miller:  Born November 1836 in South Carolina.  Died 30 April 1923 in Fresno, California.

9.  Louis Schwartz:  Born 28 December 1834 in Shildberg, Prussia.  Died 23 May 1893 in Byron Springs, Contra Costa County, California.  Married 15 October 1865 in California to....

10.  Rebecca Steen:  Born 8 February 1848 in Poland.  Died 7 January 1918 in Oakland, California.

11.  Ferdinand Gunzendorfer:  Born 1 August 1838 in Adelsdorf, Bavaria.  Died 20 October 1907 in Montery, California.  Married in 1863 in California to....

12.  Fannie Goldstein:  Born 6 March 1848 in Poland.  Died 22 July 1910 in San Francisco, California.

13.  Benjamin Benas:  Born 26? December, 1826 in Posen, Germany.  Died 17 April 1892 in Vallejo, California.  Married before 1870 in California to....

14.  Fredericka Wilzinski:  Born 20 April 1840 in Prussia or Germany.  Died 14 October 1915 in San Francisco, California.

And that's all I've got.  I do not know the parents of my paternal great grandfather, Herman Levy.  I've hit a bit of a brick wall so I've put them aside.  For now.