52 Ancestors: Family Photo

I consider myself to be one of the lucky ones who had packrat ancestors – who doesn’t love to see photos, newspaper clippings, and scrapbooks so that we can learn more about those who came before us?  While I love all of them, I especially love photos.  Not just to see their faces but to see their clothes, houses, cars and everything else to help me get a real sense for what their lives were like.

Without a doubt, my favorite find was this photo of four generations of women in my family.

Rebecca (Steen) Schwartz, Bertha (Schwartz) Gunzendorfer,
Mildred Loraine Gunzendorfer, Hannah (Plotzky) Steen

I remember seeing this photo for the first time and hoping, just HOPING, that someone had written on the back of the photo to confirm who I thought I was looking at.  And sure enough, there it was!

I’m pretty sure this isn’t my grandmother’s (baby Loraine) handwriting so I suspect it was “Mama’s”, Birdie (Schwartz) Gunzendorfer.  I’m guessing this writing was added in 1943, which would have been when my grandmother was 47 (cute that someone did the math on the back of the photo) and Birdie would have been 71 years old.  And the writing that says The Four Generations, Santa Cruz, Aug-1896 looks to be that of Birdie’s husband, Abraham Gunzendorfer.  Maybe he wrote that when the photo was first taken and then Birdie came back and identified the people 47 years later.  Whomever did what – THANK YOU!

Another favorite is this photo of the Gunzendorfer Family which was taken not too much later – maybe early 1897?

Back:  Abraham Gunzendorfer, Gustave Gunzendorfer, Minnie (Dauterman) Gunzendorfer,
Adolph Gunzendorfer, Jacob Gunzendorfer
Seated:  Birdie (Schwartz) Gunzendorfer holding Loraine, Ferdinand Gunzendorfer,
Fannie (Goldstein) Gunzendorfer, Inez (Steinberger) Gunzendorfer holding Mervyn Gunzendorfer
Front:  Irene Gunzendorfer

And a new favorite is this one I’ve seen before but finally dug it out of the box and scanned it.  These are the “Levy Cousins” in 1964 – me, brother, sister, and two paternal cousins.  Since my mother had no full siblings and we never knew her half siblings, these are my only first cousins.  The older one has passed away so now there are only four Levy Cousins.  My brother must have really liked watches – notice he has one on each wrist! 

Levy Cousins
Debi, Brother, Sister, Cousin V, Cousin M
August, 1964

I could post a photo every day for a year and still not run out - heck, probably every day for 10 years!