Fearless Females: Photo time!

Lisa Alzo at The Accidental Genealogist launched a series of 31 blogging prompts for celebrating and honoring the "fearless females" in our family trees in March, 2010. This year the series is being revisited in honor of National Women’s History Month and the purpose is to focus on the women in our lives and to make sure their stories are told.

Today I will use the prompt from March 2: Post a photo of one of your female ancestors. Who is in the photo? When was it taken? Why did you select this photo?



I’ve posted this photo before but it is so special that I have to post it again.  How often are you able to get a photo of four generations of women together?

The baby is my grandmother, Mildred Loraine Gunzendorfer.  Loraine was born 20 Jan 1896 so judging from her size, I’d say this photo was taken in March or April, 1896. 

Holding Loraine is her mother, Bertha Schwartz Gunzendorfer (21 Jan 1872 – 1 Aug 1950).  “Birdie” was a beautiful young woman and I can pick her out of a photo anywhere! 

To Birdie’s right is her mother, Rebecca Steen Schwartz (8 Feb 1848 – 7 Jan 1918). 

The oldest woman is Rebecca’s mother, Hannah Plotzky Steen (20 Dec 1828 – 11 Apr 1909).  Hannah was widowed very early (1866) and lived the rest of her life alone.

I’m fortunate to have another photo of four generations of women – this time on my mother’s side!



The baby is my sister, Carolyn, who was born in 1952 so this photo would have to be from early May, 1952.

My mother, Geraldine Martin Levy, is holding her.  Mom looks so happy to have that little baby in her arms!

To her right is her mother, Clara Fitzgerald Martin Hunter (22 Jan 1903 – 27 Feb 1987).  Stay tuned for more on Grandma in another Fearless Females post!

The oldest woman is Clara’s mother, Mabel McAboy Fitzgerald (6 Jun 1883 – 12 Nov 1966).  I’m so fortunate that I had the opportunity to know my great grandmother!  Mabel was the granddaughter of one of my favorite subjects, Emery Waller. 

So I couldn’t just pick one female ancestor – I picked eight of them!  How’s that for hitting the jackpot?

Fearless Females: Is there a diary?

Lisa Alzo at The Accidental Genealogist launched a series of 31 blogging prompts for celebrating and honoring the "fearless females" in our family trees in March, 2010.  This year the series is being revisited in honor of National Women’s History Month and the purpose is to focus on the women in our lives and to make sure their stories are told.  I’ll participate as I can, even though I’m a week behind. 

Today’s prompt: Did one of your female ancestors leave a diary, journal, or collection of letters? Share an entry or excerpt.

My paternal grandmother, Mildred Loraine Gunzendorfer, has left me a boatload of information and I’ve recently been concentrating on blogging about the scrapbook she kept as a young woman.  But she, along with her beau and my grandfather, spent nearly three years apart and actually ‘courted’ through letters.  They weren’t that far apart geographically (he in Fresno, she in either Monterey or Oakland) so they were able to see each other occasionally but the letters flowed in the days they weren’t able to be together.  And after nearly 100 years in either a basement or storage unit, I have the honor of transcribing these letters which are in absolutely amazing condition.  At the rate I’m going, though, I’ll be hard pressed to complete the project in my lifetime but I’ll give it a try.

Mildred Loraine Gunzendorfer
20 Jan 1896 - 8 May 1982

Several of the letters hold special significance so I’ll share some excerpts here:

January 7, 1918
Monday eve

My very own Sweetheart,
 
We are a house of mourning here at 1933 tonight, my Grandmother passed away at 15 minutes to six tonight, poor soul, she is much better off, but, of course, we all shall miss her terribly. She is to be buried Wednesday. 

Enough about sorrow, sweetheart. You can see how much I think of you to be writing tonight, all the folks are in the front room and I am in the dining room trying to collect my thoughts for you only.

Loraine lived with her her grandmother’s brother, Samuel Steen, and his wife, Rachel Letter Steen, at 1933 Harrison in Oakland, hence the reference to 1933.  Her grandmother was Rebecca Steen Schwartz, someone I’ve written about before. 

Rebecca Steen Schwartz
8 Feb 1848 - 7 Jan 1918

 

Not even two months later, another tragedy struck the couple – my great grandfather, Herman Levy, died. 

March 6, 1918 – 10 pm 
Wednesday night 

My own sweetheart  

If there are tear drops mingled with the ink in this letter tonight forgive me, as I am thinking so much of you that the tears won’t stay away. Ever since I heard your voice I have wanted you so badly, the message was all too short though. Why didn’t you let me talk longer, dear? I wanted to talk to you so badly but was afraid that it might be disturbing. I hope it wasn’t.  

You surely have all my sympathy in your bereavement, sweetheart, and if I could only have been with you now when you really need to one who loves you and whom you love, I would be happy. Instead, though, I’ll be with you in spirit every minute to help you overcome your sorrow. You and your family probably realize that it is all for the best but knowing your temperament like I do, I know how badly your father’s passing will affect you. But make the best of it all, sweetheart, and remember that you still have me and I’ll never fail you, if I can help it.

Please, sweetheart, extend my condolence to your family and I do hope your mother will hold up all right after the severe strain that she has been under.
 
Oh, yes, when I found your telegram today, before I opened it I said, as usual, “now what is the matter”. I rather had an idea that it was pertaining to your father, though, knowing that he was so ill.  

Just talked to Aunt Charlotte, told her that I phoned to you. She felt badly to hear of your sorrow. She surely is an admirer of yours, dearest.  

As much as I want to hear from you Friday I don’t want you to write to me tomorrow if it will inconvenience you. At this time all your time should be for your family and not for me even though I am one of your family.  

It is fine that your business will be so nicely taken care of. You’ll probably be worn out, though, by the time you are finished reorganizing. Don’t forget that we still have our lives to live and you must take care of yourself. The above sentence reminds me of you – always wanting me to be so careful, but never thinking of yourself.  

I’m not going to take up any more of your time this time so I’ll stop now.  My very own, please don’t forget for a moment that all my love is for you and these next few days you’ll, doubtless, not be out of my thoughts a minute.

I truly love you with all my heart and tonight of all nights I feel that we are very close to each other, even though miles separate us. I realize what a poor letter of sympathy this has been – I’m not a composer so in my few words I’ve merely tried to tellk you how much I love you and long to be with you to comfort.  

All the love possible, my love, to you tonight. Thanks for the kisses, I’ll have to imagine them.  

Your very own Loraine



It is so wonderful to be able to know the “real” words that were spoken (or written) in response to something I’ve otherwise only known through records, obituaries, etc.  Sadly, Loraine never met the father of her future husband.  

And then World War finally came to an end – I can’t imagine the excitement!

November 11, 1918 – 9 PM 
My dearest Boy

I was so overjoyed this morn at the wonderful news that I just had to telegraph you and hope you received my telegram O.K. At 4:20 A.M. I was awakened by whistles blowing and bells ringing out the joyous news of peace. They kept the racket up for two hours and started it again at nine this morn. Then at two this aft all the automobiles who could paraded and everyone was so happy. Everything was closed up so we went for a lovely ride around the 17 mile drive and just returned. 

My, but I was busy this afternoon down town receiving congratulations from friends I met, dear. It was rather hard to recognize people in their masks but I managed to. 

And to think that my boy is really flying. Received your letter this morn and was so happy to get it and to learn that your first flight was so successful and I hope the rest have been likewise. And now that the war is a thing of the past, love, am so anxious to know what they are going to do about discharging you. Guess now that you have had a start at flying you would like to continue but I’d rather have you safe on terra firma. And I hope my wishes will have some weight. But it must have been a wonderful sensation – flying 2000 ft and I am so proud to think of my boy being so brave and fearless. If conditions hadn’t changed you would have probably been driving alone in a very short time. I am wondering and wondering if they will still continue to train you. Hope not. So please, let me know, sweetheart, about it as soon as you can.  

Those were lovely letters from your cousins and I want to answer them but don’t know their last names or addresses. Please send them.  

Am so sorry that the food is miserable. Hope it improves. Want to send you something but don’t know what will keep for so long a journey as to Riverside. Will try to send a cake.

Oh, Wilt phoned at 8:30 this morn to rejoice with us. Said they got word at 1 A.M. and everyone dresses and paraded over the campus and there were several bands out to[sic]. I can just imagine how immense the noise was in S.F. 
 
I am sending you the clipping from the S.F. Chronicle. They didn’t put it in the way I gave it but we should worry.

My girl friend and I are going to see a young married couple for awhile tonight. Shall I try to get some pointers, love? I don’t think we need any, though.
  
Believe me, dearest, I am so happy tonight and am just bubbling over and how I’d like to see you so we could be happy together. Your love is so wonderful and I love you so very much and now we can really plan for the future and our hopes will be realisms quite soon.  

I hear the whistle of the evening train and I wonder if the train could be bringing me a letter from you. Possibly I won’t hear until tomorrow.  

All for tonight, love. Be the best boy in the world and be careful. All the love that my heart possesses for you dear and a whole lot of kisses from  

Your very own
Loraine

Sig Levy, my grandfather, was a Flying Cadet stationed at March Field in Riverside, California on November 11, 1918.  Thankfully, he hadn’t been there long when the war was over and he never saw active combat.  Wilt Gunzendorfer was Loraine’s younger brother.

Sigmund Levy
31 Jul 1888 - 16 Aug 1968

As I transcribe the hundreds of letters I have, I often wonder what Grandma would think to know that her granddaughter was reading them 100 years later.  But somewhere in my gut I know that she saved them hoping that someone would one day read them and love them like she obviously did.  Thanks for thinking ahead, Grandma!

Oh what a week!

Looks like my grandmother, Loraine Gunzendorfer, stayed in the Bay Area after her visit to the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in October, 1914.  She certainly was one busy young lady!

First stop was The Key Route Inn, which was a major hotel in Oakland at the time.  The wood framed structure opened in May, 1907 and was located at what is now Grand Avenue along the west side of Broadway.  The major feature of the hotel was a large archway and corridor through which the tracks of one of the rail lines passed – it was there that a stop connected to the main lobby of the hotel.  The Inn sustained major damage from a fire in September, 1930 so between that event and the Great Depression, the Inn was demolished in 1932, just 25 years after it had opened. 

Key Route Inn The archway can be seen under the “hotel” sign

I’m wondering if Grandma stayed at the Key Route Inn while she was visiting as she had two meals there on October 20, 1914 with her grandmother, Rebecca Steen. 



And here’s another menu that shows a pretty nice meal for $1.00.  I definitely inherited the “love” of collecting menus from Grandma!



Next stop was the Industrial Fair Coliseum.  Not sure what this was but Grandma thought it was odd.



After a few days rest, it was time to go to the theater.  October 23 found Grandma at the Orpheum Theater in San Francisco to see a “poor show” with her cousin, Irene Gunzendorfer.



And the next day she went to The Columbia Theater to see Disraeli.



I researched this play a bit and found that George Arliss was awarded the Best Actor Oscar in 1930 for his portrayal of British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, the role he played in 1914 in the play Grandma attended at the Columbia Theater.  He began his career in theater and toured the United States for 5 years in Disraeli.  He then went on to star in silent films before transitioning to the “talkies”.  Coincidentally, he was also nominated that year for Best Actor for his role in The Green Goddess, a remake of the 1923 silent film.  Interesting piece of trivia to learn on the day we will celebrate the 85th Academy Awards.  Who will join George Arliss as Best Actor this year?

George Arliss as Benjamin Disraeli The Theatre magazine, 1911

Next stop was a “surprise party at Balkin’s” on October 25, 1914.  I don’t know anything about the Balkins – was it a person or a place – but she must have enjoyed it enough to keep a napkin in her memory book.



My grandmother sure got around and had a pretty full week in October, 1914.  And all of this while she was still in high school!

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun – Ancestor Roulette!

Thanks to Randy Seaver at geneamusings, it's time for some Saturday night genealogy fun!  This week it’s Ancestor Roulette!  Our mission:

1) What year was one of your great-grandfathers born? Divide this number by 100 and round the number off to a whole number. This is your "roulette number."

2) Use your pedigree charts or your family tree genealogy software program to find the person with that number in your ancestral name list (some people call it an "ahnentafel").  Who is that person, and what are his/her vital information?

3) Tell us three facts about that person in your ancestral name list with the "roulette number."

4) Write about it in a blog post on your own blog, in a Facebook status or a Google Stream post, or as a comment on this blog post.

5) NOTE: If you do not have a person's name for your "roulette number" then "spin" the wheel again - pick a great-grandmother, a grandfather, a parent, a favorite aunt or cousin, yourself, or even your children!

Here’s mine:

1)  My great grandfather, Abraham Gunzendorfer was born 28 April 1869, which makes my “roulette” number 18.69 or 17.

2)  The person in my “Ahnentafel List” at number 17 is Fredericka (AKA Frances) Wilzinski.  Fredericka is my 2nd great grandmother.  Her vital information is:

Born 20 April 1840 in Germany.
Married Benjamin Benas in 1875.
Died 4 October 1915 in San Francisco, California.

3)  Three facts:

* Fredericka and Benjamin had 4 children – Isaac (1863-1951), Goldie (1864-1926), Max (1867-1928), Morris (1872-1929).  Goldie was my great grandmother, mother of my paternal grandfather, Sigmund Levy.

* Fredericka was the daughter of Tobias Wilzinski (1816-1890) and Amelia Jackson (1816-1902).

* Fredericka was also known as Frances, I’m guessing in an effort to “Americanize” her name.  I had a hard time finding her grave at first as the listing showed as Frederick (and at the time I only knew her as Frances) so I thought she was really a he!  She is buried at Hills of Eternity in Colma, California.



I don’t know much more about Fredericka and I have not photos of her.  At least no photos that I can identify as her.  I hope one day I’ll be able to rectify that.

Thanks for the fun!

Submarines

As I’ve worked through the scrapbook, this little piece of redwood has been quite pesky as it wasn’t fastened in any way and just kept slipping out whenever I’d open the book.  What could it be and what significance did it have?  Today I have figured it out!

Grandma wrote this in her scrapbook:

 

So that’s why it says “The Submarines” on the redwood – she got this at the Panama Pacific International Exposition when she was there on October 18, 1914.

As I researched the Submarines Exhibit from the Pan Pacific International, I ran across a description of the Submarines from “The red book of views of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition”:

The first thing to greet the eye of the visitor to this great spectacle is an allegorical front, with cascades of moving water typifying the restlessness of the ocean.  Neptune sits proudly over all, basking in the beams from a near-by lighthouse.  At the dock the passenger enters a steel submarine, is taken beneath the waters where he sees a shipwreck, marine animals, and a typical ocean floor.  Landing again, he is taken through the labyrinths of Neptune, a succession of wonderful scenes by H. Logan Reid of New York City. 

And when I looked at this photo from the San Francisco Museum, it looked very, very familiar to me.



And here’s from Grandma’s scrapbook!



Now I’ve figured out what those buildings were – sounds like it was a pretty cool exhibit back in 1914.

From Images of America, San Francisco’s Panama-Pacific International Exposition, by Dr. William Lipsky:

In some ways ahead of its time, the Submarine Ride was one of the largest attractions on the Zone – and one of the most expensive to build.  Fairgoers entered through one of the shark mouths, then wandered through coral caves or voyaged under the waters of the seven seas aboard a facsimile of a U.S. Navy submersible.  Among other sites, they visited Neptune’s workshop, tropical sponge beds, sunken galleons, blue grottos of Capri, mermaids and mermen, and Davy Jones’ locker.  But it wasn’t all smooth sailing: a violent storm battered the submarine before returning it safely home.

And based on this ticket, I can verify that she was, indeed, there on October 18, 1914.



I wish I knew the story about why the date (12) was crossed out and a new date (18) was written in.  But I do know that she was there on the 18th because not only does the redwood and the ticket show that date, but this little memento of her ride on the Hippodrome Carroussel with MG.



The Hippodrome Carroussel was built by Charles I.D. Looff (1852-1918), who was a master carver and builder of hand-carved carousels and amusement rides in America.  He built his first carousel at Coney Island in 1876 and during his lifetime manufactured over 50 carousels and built the famous Santa Monica Pier. 

And then there was this gift from Al, whomever that might be.



Grandma must have worked on this memory book (or scrapbook, as I’ve called it) for many years.  Because in 1918 she wrote this to her then fiancé, my grandfather, Sigmund Levy.

 


Oh Grandma, how I wish I’d had the opportunity to talk to you about all of this stuff!

Out and About

My grandma, Loraine Gunzendorfer, is out and about again!

Loraine Gunzendorfer

The next pages of the scrapbook shows Grandma back to the theater.

 

Greek Theater University of California, Berkeley Photo courtesy of UC Berkeley

“The Heart of Paddy Whack” opened on Broadway on November 23, 1914 and ran for 17 performances.  So my guess is that Grandma saw this in Monterey on May 29, 1915. 

 

Twelve reels?  Can you imagine the person who had to change the reels right at the precise time during the film?

Theatrical poster Wikipedia Commons

The Clansman was the original name of the silent film known as The Birth of a Nation which was released on February 8, 1915.  According to Wikipedia, the film was highly controversial due to the portrayal of African-American men (played by white actors in blackface) as sexually aggressive towards white women.  The movie was used as a recruiting tool for the Ku Klux Klan and under President Woodrow Wilson, was the first motion picture to be shown at the White House.

I sure wish Grandma had made notes about her impression of the film – somehow this doesn’t seem like something she would have enjoyed.

  




I wonder who she knew at Lowell High School.  The names of those graduating are on the back but since it is glued to the scrapbook, I’m hesitant to remove it.  From the portion I can see I don’t see any familiar names - I might just have to get brave one day and remove it.

Lowell High School was originally known as Union Grammar School and by 1915, had moved from Powell Street in San Francisco to Hayes & Masonic Streets.

My grandmother sure loved to be out and about as a young woman and my recollection is that she never changed!

What happened to Arnold?

The Levy Brothers, c. 1889 Leon, Sigmund, Herbert

These three adorable boys are my paternal grandfather, Sigmund Levy (1888-1968), and his brothers Leon (1886-1962) and Herbert (1884-1952). 

But I’ve learned that there was a fourth brother, Arnold, who was born in 1890.



Herman Levy, the clothier, was very happy yesterday.  The cause was the arrival of another Levy heir --- a fine boy.  “For three years past” said Mr. Levy in explaining the situation, “Mrs. Levy has presented me with a fine boy.  We concluded that we couldn’t skip this year, and for the fourth time Mrs. Levy has shown her devotion to me.”  ---Fresno Evening Expositor, 4 January 1890.

So based on this account, Arnold Levy was born 3 January, 1890, and the Levy family had expanded once again.  But sometime between that joyous event and April 28, little Arnold was gone.


There is no Death! what seems so is transition;
This life of mortal breath
Is but a suburb of the life elysian,
Whose portal we call Death.
In Loving Remembrance of
Arnold Levy.
Died April 28, 1890
A precious one from us has gone,
A voice we loved is stilled;
A place is vacant in our our home,
Which never can be filled.
God in His wisdom has recalled,
The goon His love had given;
And though the body moulders here,
The soul is safe in Heaven.

After less than 4 months, little Arnold was gone.  What happened?  How did he die?  So many questions that will never be answered.

The family did grow again two years later when the youngest son, Benjamin (1892-1965) was born and once again there were four sons in the family.  I don’t remember hearing anything about little Arnold as we were growing up – maybe my grandfather never knew about him or maybe it was just too painful for him to share. 

While the sons grew apart over the years, there were some happy times when they were all together.

The Levy Brothers Herb, Leon, Sig, Ben