Top 10 Genealogical Finds of 2015

Photo by Pierce Place

As 2015 comes to a close, I’d like to step back and reflect on what I’ve learned over the past year.  So in my best David Letterman voice, I bring you my fifth annual Top 10 genealogical finds of 2015

Number 10:  My great grandfather, Abraham Gunzendorfer, invented the cash carrier.  

The Monterey New Era
Thursday, April 28, 1892

I would say, since the family owned a mercantile, that this was a pretty useful contraption for them in the 1890's.  Pretty cool!

Number 9:  My grandfather, Sigmund Levy, apparently spent quite a bit of time trying to convince people that my dad should be allowed to go back to his studies at Stanford University rather than serve in the military in 1945.  Click here to read the post.  I was able to follow along with his correspondence and see the response he received.  My dad did end up going overseas but, thankfully, the conflict was over.

Number 8:  Isn't it rewarding when we can finally figure out the mystery that lies before us?  I found a photo of two handsome gents and finally paid attention to what it was telling me.  

Abe and Gustave Gunzendorfer
Taken about 1890

My grandmother had actually written on the back:

But try as I might, I just couldn't figure out what not driving horses meant.  And, thankfully, a couple of very, very smart readers helped the light bulb to go off for me.

Abe is not driving the horses, as the reins are in the other man's hands. Ergo, Gus is driving the horses.

SCORE!  

Number 7:  Facebook has been a great tool for me to learn about the areas of the world where my ancestors lived.  I've joined several groups, mostly historical societies, and thought they were pretty helpful.  But imagine my surprise when I received a comment on my blog that said:

Your grandfather was mentioned in a Facebook post today on Fresno's Past page. 
>>AVIATIONby Sigmund Levy(Fresno Realtor)"Glaring National Headlines proclaimed Fresno as the scene of the first attempt to deliver newspapers by air express when Glenn L. Martin flew 100 copies of the Fresno Morning Republican to Madera on April 13, 1912.Martin had just stepped into the aviation picture & was predicting that airplanes would some day be used to carry passengers, mail & express over land & sea. In providing basis for his predictions, he brought Fresno its first recognition in the field of aviation."(Source: Fresno County Centennial Almanac)
You are also mentioned in that particular post. Don't know if you follow the FB page or not. 

Wait - WHAT?  Not just my grandfather but I'm mentioned on a Fresno Facebook page? So of course I immediately joined the group and found several posts and comments linking back to my grandfather and my blog posts!  How cool is that?  Even though it's only been a month or so, I can see already that this is going to be FUN!

Number 6:  Earlier in the year, I received another comment on my blog that made me smile - a new cousin found me from my blog.  Her husband sent me a message and told me that her 2x great grandmother, Lilly Gay McAboy Langworthy, was the older sister of my great grandmother, Mabel Viola McAboy Fitzgerald.  Once again, someone found me through my blog.  And not only that, she was able to see photos of Lilly, an ancestor she had only seen once before.  Welcome to the family, Terese and Bart!

Number 5:  After my mother passed away, my siblings and I had the daunting task of cleaning out the home our parents had lived in for over 55 years.  Since none of us lived in the same city, we had to do this pretty quickly so we packed up a bunch of stuff and each went back home.  The task of documenting and researching everything is overwhelming but I decided to just do what I could, when I could.

One of the items that I ended up with was the Family Photo Album.  What fun it was to relive my early childhood.  Here's my favorite photo from the album - my dad even captioned this photo from 1957 The Greatest Photo Ever Taken.  

That's me on the right

Number 4:  Yearbooks are an amazing find for a family researcher/historian - it is so fun to look through them and learn what our ancestors were doing during those times.  One of my first purchases when I got started with this was a copy of the Monterey High School yearbook from 1915, the year my grandmother, Mildred Loraine Gunzendorfer, graduated from high school.  It was especially fun to see her friends and as I documented her scrapbook from about that time, I was able to really get a feel for what life was like then.

As we were cleaning out the house, I just couldn't leave the high school and college yearbooks of my parents behind.  Thank goodness I didn't!  And then I found even more yearbooks from my grandfather and his brothers from Fresno High School, the same school both of my parents went to.  The publication was called The Owl and even though I'm just starting to document these priceless books, it is fun to go back to the early days of the 20th century and see how things have changed.

I've posted some blog posts on the Fresno's Past facebook page and have been able to find a photo for someone of a family member she has never seen before.  Love that!

Number 3:  My dad was quite a guy and was loved by all who knew him - I still can't believe he's been gone over 10 years.  But thankfully, my family saved everything so I have been able to find gems that just make me smile.

In 1999 my dad, a very dedicated Rotarian, was asked to speak at a meeting and as luck would have it, he kept the speech he wrote documenting his life.  What a treasure to have! You can read about it here.

Gordon Levy
c. 2005

Number 2:  Once again, a cousin I met through my blog and ancestry has given me a gift by sharing a photo with me.  Not just me, but my new found cousin (see Number 6 above) also loved the photo of her 2x great grandmother and my great grandmother.

Lilly Gay McAboy Langworthy (L)
Mabel Viola McAboy Fitzgerald (R)
c. 1952

Thanks again, Kris!

Number 1:  This genealogical find is so recent that I really haven't been able to absorb it yet.

As we cleaned out our parents home, we were overwhelmed with photos, slides, movies, and many other sentimental items.  My brother took the movies home and the plan was for him to watch them and covert them into DVD's.  I know the project was completely overwhelming (thank goodness he took it on) but when he finally got to it, he learned that just watching movies from the 1930's could damage them.

He was able to find an expert to restore them and convert them and we (my siblings and I) decided that our Christmas present to each other would be tackling the first set of films and getting them converted.  And just in time for Christmas, these arrived in the mail.

That's right, movies from my grandfather from 1936-1942!

What a treat to see my father, his older brother, and their parents on vacation in Washington D.C. and New York.  And so many other places they visited that I have yet to figure out the locale.

And film - not just a still photo but actual FILM - of my great grandparents, Abraham and Bertha (Schwartz) Gunzendorfer from the early 40's.  Playful film of the family in the back yard of the home my dad grew up in, film of the new car they bought in the late 30's, my uncle looking sharp in his officer's uniform, and even film of the Golden Gate Bridge being built.  And since I'm trying to get better about backing things up and keeping notes of what I have, I had an extra copy made which I put notes on and packed away in the safe deposit box.

So that's what I've been up to in 2015.  I really felt like it was a slow year but now that I've listed some of the things I've found, I feel like it's been more productive than I thought.  I've found new family and friends, I've learned even more about my family, and I've documented things for future generations.

Who knew?

.

Oh what a life!

Gordon Levy, 2005

For the last 10 years, and I’m quite sure for the rest of my life, Labor Day will always be a difficult time for me.  It was September 5, 2005 (Labor Day) that in one short instant and without warning, my dad was gone.  Sure we’d always worried about his heart since he suffered a heart attack in 1978 and a bypass in 1979 but he always told us he was an “Iron Man” – wouldn’t that mean he’d be the first person ever to live forever? 

When I first started blogging, I wrote about my dad, Gordon Levy, and why Labor Day was such a hard day – you can read about it here.  But this year I decided that rather than focusing on his death I would focus on his life. 

Dad always loved to talk and he was one of those people who could talk to anyone at any time.  Large crowds?  No problem.  Give him the stage and off he’d go.  But on this day, sometime in late 1999, he actually prepared a talk for a Rotary meeting.  And as luck would have it, we were fortunate enough to find his typewritten notes which described his life as he was introducing a fellow Rotarian.  So who better than to tell us about his life than him!  Read on…..

It is a pleasure to have the opportunity to discuss my life directions before my fellow Rotary members, and perhaps you will agree that it has been a relatively normal life that was anticipated for me in 1927 - about the time Lindbergh flew the Atlantic and Herbert Hoover moved into the White House and the great depression was around the corner. My birthplace was Fresno, where I attended local schools, and looked forward every year to the Raisin Day parade, which my father helped promote when he was not engaged in the real estate business. After all, raisins were big in Fresno, and still are a major part of the economy. My parents' families both came from Germany, my father was raised in Fresno and my Mother in Monterey. Her grandfather appeared on the Monterey Peninsula during the 1860s, and eventually opened a general store called the White House, which lasted until 1944.

Gordon Levy, c. 1929

 
Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941, changed our lives forever; and I remember hearing FDR call it a day of infamy at an all school assembly. Suddenly everyone wanted to be in uniform, sports were curtailed, but our activities continued - blackouts, gas rationing and sugar stamps, although many felt we on the West Coast were in for serious times. As valedictorian of my high school class, in 1944, I talked about the future of civilization and the concept of One World described by Wendell Wilkie, never realizing that my next most important speech would be today before the Greatest Rotary Club in the world - 55 years later.
 
In high school, besides the normal things, I prepared to enter the military service, bedazzled as we all were by uniforms, war ribbons, battle plans, and Glenn Miller. As a matter of fact, June 6, 1944, the D Day invasion, was two or three days before we graduated. In that year they called me a pretty good high school sprinter, winning the Fresno Relays High School 100 yard dash in 10.1 seconds - 55 years ago on a dirt track with subpar shoes, less conditioning than today and non-scientific diets.
 
I took up residence at Stanford University, awaiting my call to the US Army Air Force, and due to a lack of upper classmen, ran a few hundred yard dashes, and debated on the University team, primarily against Univ of California on subjects such as Should we Have Military Constipation uh, Conscription and should we join the United Nations.

Gordon Levy, c. 1945

 
Once in the Army, I learned that flight training, navigator school and gunnery training, were out because the war was ending, and I was going to be a cryptographer. The school lasted one day. That was fortunate because I did not really know what a cryptographer was. We were slated to be in the invasion of the Empire of Japan, but the atom bomb terminated that plan, for which I was eternally grateful. As a result, the military took me to the Army of Occupation in Germany, barely six months after the end of hostilities, and my prior training as a journalist landed me a position on the staff of an Army newspaper - where I covered sports, war crimes trials, and put the paper to bed in a German printing shop - Buchdrukerei - and couldn't wait to get home - just in time for the Big Game of 1946, which Stanford won, naturally. And as I look back, the experience in Germany, of seeing in person the Nazi leaders on trial, of watching the Bitch of Buchenwald in testimony - this year was a highlight of my life.
 
Next followed several years of returning to the world of academia - at Stanford, where we lived the good post war life, and I spent one season as a sprinter on the track team, where I ran against USC's Mel Patton in the LA Coliseum. Believe it or not, the world's greatest sprinter vomited before both the 100 and 220 in fear of ME, then proceeded to defeat me by 10 yards in the short race, and a bigger gap in the 220. My roommate summed it up, when I said how badly I was beaten, "At that moment, you were the second fastest sprinter in the world."

Gordon Levy, c. 1947

 
I attended Stanford Law School for one year, as part of a special undergraduate program, then successfully negotiated with the Graduate School of Business, coming to San Jose in 1951 with Dean Witter and Co. Why San Jose? I had been the Stanford Sports correspondent for the San Jose Mercury - working with Louie Duino, Wes Mathis, Dan Hruby etc. - and got paid 10 cts per inch, so I wrote the longest stories possible. I figured my name would be recognizable in San Jose because of the many by-lines in the sports section, and it gave me a place to feel like it was home, but that proved to be an idle dream.
 
Dean Witter was my career until 1974 - I was the branch manager for 11 of those years, and I can recall when I came here in 1951, the Dow Jones Average was around 240 (now over 11,000), we did not have quote machines, copying machines, FAX machines, computers, cell phones, barely any TV - instant communications were a thing for the future. We had a boardmarker to keep stock quotes up to date with chalk, but EF Hutton put in an electric board to show us the wave of the future. There was no Microsoft, Yahoo or Apple - everyone was looking for the next IBM, and they sprouted up all around us.
 
In the early fifties, starting a family, creating a home and getting involved in community affairs, plus building a securities business occupied me completely. When our manager, who opened our office in 1947, Fred Korb, proposed me for Rotary in 1954, as an additional active, it was a thrill and a proud moment. Fred became president of this club on July 1, 1954, and suffering from heart disease and jaundice, passed away two weeks into his term, to be replaced by Bill Powell. Fred was a veteran of Pearl Harbor, diving off one of the Navy ships during the attack to save his life and swimming to shore on that day of Infamy. That experience caused the heart condition that took his life, and my membership in Rotary has been a type of memorial to him. He was a dynamic leader, and he was the real reason I came to San Jose.
 
After 23 years in the brokerage business, I decided that there must be more to life than Dean Witter, and joined Ron James, who was the new president of the San Jose Chamber of Commerce and Convention Visitors Bureau - a mouthful. I spent ten glorious years with Ron, but a heart attack and subsequent heart surgery caused me to reconsider my life, which brought me back to Dean Witter at the insistence of John Elliott, your current Treasurer. I have been back with Morgan Stanley Dean Witter (I already paid a fine for this ) for 14 years, and must say that Dean Witter, John Elliott and San Jose have been good to me. In the twenties, Dean Witter himself travelled through here on a train, selling stocks and bonds along the way, while his cousin Jean Witter did the same in the San Joaquin Valley. And in those times the NYSE was open Saturdays.
 
I still have the wife I married 49 years ago, her name is Gerry, and many of you know her because she, too, believes in Rotary -- three marvelous children - one a golf professional if you can believe that, one an executive with Weyerhaeuser Lumber and the other a full time Mom at the moment. We have four grandchildren, all of them priceless. We just returned from a wedding of our first grandchild in Seattle, and we experienced a family reunion that we often dream about. So if it goes no further, it has been a good, productive and exciting life.
 
A couple of observations - as I mentioned, the change in the way we do business is significant, as well as the level of the DJ from 240 to 11,000. I was not smoking anything unusual in those days when I tried to interest people in stocks. We were known as customers men in those days, now financial advisors. At that time we had five brokers in San Jose, now about 100. A daily volume of 1,000,000 shares was big then - so big in 1970 that the NY Exchange closed one day a week to handle paperwork - now it often is a billion shares in one day. During my lifetime I was always younger than everyone else - now I am given senior citizen prices without asking, people hold doors open for me, and I can get preferred parking with a handicapped placard.
 
Through it all, Rotary has been a major part of my life - perfect attendance for 45 years - feeling that somewhere in every week there should be room for a Rotary meeting. In 1943, as president of the Fresno High School student body, I was privileged to attend the Fresno Rotary Club, so I can almost match Ernie Renzel in time of service. Serving as President of this Club in 1966-67 is the greatest honor I have ever received. The associations and friends I have made, through Rotary, the YMCA, Junior Achievement, the Jaycees and a flock of other activities has made it all worthwhile. But as I see that there are only a few past presidents, alive, who served before me -- Ernie Renzel, John King, Gordon Graham (who lives in Wyoming) and Bill Brownton I am beginning to sense how many years have passed. Thank you all for being part of it.
 
Through it all, I have tried to follow the principles of honesty and loyalty, which my father instilled in me at an early age, and I strongly urge everyone to practice those characteristics, because it has worked for me.
 
And now a word about Bob Kieve - he is a shining light on our community scene, he has been a giant in Rotary to this day. He and I were both sprinters of sort, we often confuse people because our hairlines have disappeared, he has had heart surgery - twice - while I have only had it once, and we both treasure Rotary. He is a journalist, which I pretended to be, and we have become good friends. And, at indoctrination meetings with new members, he means it when he says, "If you cannot stay for the whole meeting, don't come." We are both glad you came and stayed today.
 
Dad was one of a kind.  We still laugh today when we think of all of the crazy things he used to do and say.  But a picture is always worth 1,000 words so I hope this photo of him at his second grandchild’s wedding gives you a sense of what he was really like – after all, it was the big University of Washington/Stanford football game day and Dad needed to keep track of the score!

Gordon Levy, 2004

Miss you today and every day, Dad!

Memories of Dad

Today is Father’s Day.  What to many is a day of celebrating dad, for others it is a time to remember and miss dad.  This is the 10th (I can’t believe it!) Father’s Day without my dad and I miss him as much today as I did on that first Father’s Day.  But what saddens me the most is that as time marches on, the memories seem to become more faded.  So in order to preserve as many memories as possible, here’s a little about my dad, Gordon Levy.



In 1982, my dad was awarded the Legacy Medal, an award given annually by the San Jose Hospital Foundation.  How exciting to drive down the street in San Jose and see my dad smiling down at me.  I like to think things haven’t changed all that much now.

Gordon F. Levy 1982 Legacy Medal Award winner

My dad never met a person who didn’t quickly become his friend.  He loved to be around people and would often exclaim “let’s go where the PEOPLE are”.  He’d find joy in visiting with his seat mate on an airplane and by the time he landed, he knew pretty much everything about them – their name, where they lived, why they were going wherever they were going and, often times, he’d even have their phone number.  I think his great grandson has a bit of Gordy in him when he announced “strangers are just friends I haven’t met yet”.  Ah, dear boy, your great grandfather would have loved to hear you say that!

Dad and his new friends

My dad loved to take pictures.  His photography wasn’t anything out of the ordinary but boy did he have fun with it (as evidenced by the thousands of slides which have now been scanned).  I can’t remember ever going anywhere noteworthy with him when he didn’t have a camera (or three) around his neck and we’d have to stop so he could take one shot or another.  Since Dad was the photographer, there didn’t seem to be too many photos of him but after going through the slides, I’ve learned that he must have shared the camera with someone so he could be in at least a few photos.  Thanks for that, Dad!

By looking at the tree in this photo, I’d guess he was in Monterey or Carmel or somewhere near there.  Mom and Dad always went to the Bing Crosby golf tournament (now AT&T Pro-Am) in Pebble Beach every year so maybe this was during one of their excursions.  Note the cameras hanging around his neck. 

Looks like he’s checking his phone!

The photo above also reminds me that Dad loved to wear hats.  He was a stock broker for most of his career and off he’d go every day to work dressed to the nines in his suit and matching hat.  After his death, we donated all of those hats (remember, he never threw anything away) to the community theater group in the area.

Dad was a devoted and faithful Rotarian.  I remember the annual Father/Daughter luncheon where we’d get dressed up and go to the weekly Rotary meeting with Dad.  What a thrill it was in 1966 when Dad was the President of the San Jose Rotary – we were the guests of honor!  One of his proudest achievements in his life was his perfect attendance record for 51 years – if we were on vacation we always had to find a Rotary meeting so Dad wouldn’t miss a meeting.  And it looks like he found one here!



Dad loved to have fun and was always game to try new things, even if it involved riding an elephant!

Note the camera around his neck

Mom and Dad loved to travel.  And boy did Dad love to take photos of anything possible in whatever city of country they were in (did I mention Dad loved to take photos?).  When we went through the slides so that we could scan them, we found hundreds of photos of landscape, scenery, and buildings which, for the most part, we couldn’t identify so out they went.  But it looks like Dad might have given his camera to a passerby to snap this photo.

He didn’t give up the camera case, though!

Dad took a decade long break from the rigors of the stock market and worked for the San Jose Chamber of Commerce, Visitors and Convention Bureau, in the 1970’s.  It was a perfect job for him because he got to be around people all the time.  And when they traveled, he often times found the local Chamber of Commerce and stopped in to make some new friends.

What?  Nothing around his neck?

Mom and Dad spent their entire married life in San Jose, all in the same house after their first 7 years of marriage.  They were both sports fans and became quite friendly with Bruce Jenner, and his wife Chrystie, while he was training at San Jose City College for the 1976 Olympics.  So it was only natural that he’d buy a shirt from the Bruce Jenner Michelob Light Classic, which appears to have been a track and field event in 1982.  Dad was a former track star (Fresno High School and Stanford) so I can imagine he sat through every race of the event. 

Wonder if that shirt would be worth anything today?

Dad was a loving dog owner.  I don’t think I remember a time when they didn’t have at least one dog in the house.  He loved these two little ones as it wasn’t too often he could pick up two of their dogs at the same time.

Tinka and Buffy

One thing Dad never wavered from was his devotion to Mom.  They did everything together – bridge, golf, travel, Rotary events, and Stanford sports to name a few.  There are so many pictures of them doing crazy things and all of those memories have now been laid to rest.  But at least we have some photos and our imaginations to try to determine what they were doing at any given moment.

They were together for over 60 years and married for 55!

The older Dad got, the more emotional he seemed to get, especially with something that was near and dear to his heart.  I can remember at their 50th anniversary celebration he got a little teary as he stood up and addressed the crowd (really just the family of about 13 people).  He was a great speaker but boy, sometimes it got a little tough for him to get the words out.  I didn’t remember any tears flowing at his Legacy Medal Award dinner but by the looks of this picture, I think there might have been a few.



Dad wasn’t just a great Dad but he was also a loving Grandpa and had a few years of being a Great Grandpa.  All of us have so many “Gordyisms” which remind us of him constantly.  He waited patiently for the big game to come on TV only to fall asleep once it started, his anxiety at getting to Fred Meyer when he’d come for a visit so he could get some tooth powder, his headphones during critical games so he always knew the score, his exclamation when his grandchildren would arrive at the door of “what are these KIDS doing here?”, to so many more which will forever be etched in our minds.  And as the little ones grow older, even they know some of his best one liners.  He sure would love to hear everyone mimic him.

“What are these KIDS doing here” Nice curlers, girls

And that’s enough about my dad today because it’s getting a bit dusty at this computer.  I guess the emotional gene didn’t stop with Dad.

Happy Father’s Day, Dad.  We all miss you and love you – well we do!

Gordon Levy c. 2005