52 Ancestors: Land - Sig's scrapbooks

This weeks' blog prompt, LAND, immediately reminded me of my paternal grandfather, Sig Levy, who spent much of his life selling commercial real estate.  He and his three brothers opened the firm Levy Brothers in the early 1900's.  Unfortunately, due to some family "disagreements" that I don't thoroughly understand, they didn't stay together throughout their lives.

In the letters between my grandparents in 1916-1919, he often mentioned a "big deal" he was working on but as of yet, I haven't learned any of the specifics of these deals.  But as I've stated on numerous occasions, he was an avid scrapbooker - maybe the love of scrapbooking is what brought my grandparents together? 

For this blog, I pulled out one (out of about 10-12) of his scrapbooks and decided to take a closer look.  It will take A LOT of time to digest everything that's included in the books but that is far down on the list of to-do items.  So for today I thought I'd just include a few articles that might have some interest in the history of Fresno.

Here's a sample of one of the pages.

You can see that the articles are glued, some folded, and even some staples in there which makes scanning difficult.  But the Flip Pal Mobile Scanner came to the rescue!

Fresno Bee, March 16, 1961

This is hard to read but it says:

CHANGES IN TRAFFIC:  This photo shows the one way street pattern which will being in downtown Fresno March 26th between Shields Avenue on the north and San Benito Street on the south.  Southbound traffic will flow from Wishon Avenue to North Fulton Street and then across Fulton Lane, now under construction, and onto Broadway.  Northbound vehicles will travel along Van Ness Avenue to North Van Ness Avenue and onto Moroa Avenue.  Fulton Street will carry two way traffic with Divisadero Street as the exit for northbound traffic.  Bee aerial photo by Loyal Savaria from a Whirl-Wide Helicopters, Inc, aircraft.

Being that I haven't been to Fresno in close to 40 years, I have no idea how this compares to the traffic pattern today.  But I do remember hearing several of those street names as a child.

Fresno Bee, March 21, 1961

For those in Fresno, is the Mayfair Market still there?

60 unit Marlo Carousel Motel under construction near Roeding Park
date unknown

Here's how it looked after completion.

On June 11, 1971, The Fresno Bee reported on Page C4:  

"There are six, maybe eight, fine restaurants in the area to which one can take visitors from San Francisco and Los Angeles and not have to apologize," says R. 'Bob' Duarte, operator of the Carousel Restaurant in Carousel Motel across from Roeding Park Playland on West Belmont Avenue... The facility is unique in the Valley because of its merry-go-round lounge complete with horses and calliope music. Hanging brass chains and bas-reliefs give the lounge and restaurant an almost haunting air. A decade ago the Fresno architectural firm of Robert Stevens Associates was cited by the San Joaquin Chapter of the American Institute of Architects for the design."

Per Wikipedia, the Hotel Fresno was built in 1912 and is the oldest surviving hotel in Fresno.  It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2018.  But how many people realize it was sold to Northern Realty in 1961 for $500,000?

It's a long article so I have just included the first part here

Wikipedia also states that it was vacant for 30 years beginning in 1983 and in 2019 was under renovation to become affordable housing for 79 families.  I'll bet that hotel would have a lot to say if walls could talk.

So, so much more that my grandfather kept all these years and one day, if I live long enough, I will get through it all.

52 Ancestors: Air - Sig loves the air!

U.S. Army Recruiting Service

My grandfather, Sig Levy, seemed to be interested in anything to do with airplanes and flight.  I wish I'd known that so I could have asked him about it.  I blogged about it a few years ago - you can read about it here.  National Aviation Day and First Days as a Cadet. 

I've mentioned before that Sig was a Flying Cadet and at one point was stationed at March Field in Riverside California.  He looked so dapper in his uniform - look at those cool boots!

He and my grandmother, Loraine Gunzendorfer, wrote letters back and forth during this time and I love reading tidbits about what they were doing and feeling at the time.  On November 9, 1918 Sig described a little about his time flying.

Well another day is over and I am still alive - and I had my first flight.  Sweet it was a wonderful ride and I felt right at home - honest it didn't frighten me a bit.  Was up for almost an hour just on a joy ride and went up a little over 2000 feet.  I have a peach of an instructor and he is a Mason so that helps.  They strap you in tight and away you go - it really is fascinating - and they also have you take hold of the controls and run the ship for a tiny bit now and then.  It only takes the least bit of movement to sway in any direction.  I dressed up real warm and was not at all cold in the air - have my helmet, goggles, etc. & look like the real stuff.  Wish I could send you a picture love, but they don't allow them down here.  From now on I fly every morning so wish me luck.  I have the same instructor every day.  I can't reach the rudder control without stretching a lot so I am having a pillow seat made.  They seem to think that I won't have any trouble flying and there are a lot of pillow aviators down here.  But if I do sweet I'll not venture beyond the proper point so don't worry - but it seems that it is going to be easy to handle the plane from today's experience.  The country below looks beautiful & I didn't feel at all sick and took it all in.

Yes, my grandfather was too short so they were making a pillow seat for him so he could join the 'pillow aviators'.

And two days later, Loraine wrote a letter addressed to just Flying Cadet Sigmund Levy, March Field, Riverside, California and it made it safely to him since I have it now.  Notice the date - the war was over!

An excerpt from her letter.

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.

The other big event going on at the time was the Spanish Flu pandemic and here she mentioned the masks that people were wearing just like we are doing today.

I haven't found any other mention of Sig flying so that may have been his only flight.  But I know that he continued to be interested due to pictures and 'clippings' he kept throughout his life.  These two must have been very special to him since they were from March Field, albeit from the late 1930's.

Official Photograph U.S. Army Air Corps
July 23, 1938

Official Photograph U.S. Army Air Corps
January 29, 1938

I wonder if he lived in those barracks?

And later in life, it seems like he loved anything to do with planes.  Check him out here!

Sig Levy, right

I think that his Flying Cadet hat (or was that his helmet?), which I have along with his uniform.  Glad that he found a time to wear this other than Halloween.

Although I have SO much information about my grandfather, I have so many questions I wish I'd asked.

52 Ancestors: FIRE! - William McAboy's Greenhouse

This week's blog prompt immediately reminded me of the fire in my 2x great grandfather's greenhouse in Clinton, Illinois in 1883.  I've written a few times about William Warren McAboy which you can read HERE and HERE.  William was a bit of a "black sheep" but after learning more and more about him, it seems that he had a bit of a difficult life.

Map of Clinton, Illinois

I know from previous research that William's nursery was in Block 21 which was 4 blocks south of the public square.  I believe the area circled in pale orange is the public square - Johnson Street is noted by the green arrow.

Online publication - Provo, UT: The Generations Network, Inc., 2005.
History of De Witt County, Illinois : with illustrations descriptive of the scenery,
and biographical sketches of some of the prominent men and pioneers. Philadelphia: W.R.

Before opening the nursery, William was the janitor of the public school building, which was an elected position.  His salary was $500 per year.

In 1879, he resigned his janitorial position perhaps to get the nursery business started.

Clinton Register,  Fri, Sept 12, 1879, page 1

William did a bit of advertising to entice people to visit the nursery.

Clinton Register, 20 September, 1882, page 5

And then the unthinkable happened on Saturday, December 30, 1882 - William McAboy's greenhouse suffered a fire.  I can't even imagine the horror of battling a blaze and watching the destruction of your business.

Clinton Register, Fri, 5 January 1883, page 3

It looks like the business recovered and William was able to show some "curiosities".  The mention of figs is interesting as William later moved to Fresno, where figs are plentiful.

Clinton Register, 15 August 1884, page 4

And then William shared a bouquet of flowers with the Clinton Register.  I wonder what prompted that?  But since the newspaper was the social media of the day, they felt it was worthy of mentioning it in the paper.

Clinton Register, Fri, 5 September 1884, page 4

Want to see some novelties from Florida?  I guess you could say that a lime the size of a football would definitely be a novelty!  And the name A.V. Lisenby means something, although at this moment I don't know what.  But his name has definitely come up in some of my research.  And six bits - my grandmother and dad used to use the terms "bits" when they talked about quarters - six bits would have been 75 cents.

Clinton Register, 27 March 1885, page 4

The Clinton Register seemed very interested in the Greenhouse, calling it Clinton's Greenhouse.  I haven't found the name of the greenhouse so, perhaps, this was it.  I like reading that William was sociable and pleasant, a description I have not heard before.

Clinton Register, 7 May 1886, page 2

The business seemed to flourish and by 1889, William was ready to expand the business by erecting two new green houses.

Clinton Register, Friday June 7, 1889 - page 3

I love reading the details of the improvements.  There it is again - sociable and pleasant.  Maybe he wasn't such a bad guy after all.

Clinton Register, Friday, August 23, 1889, page 3

But wait!  All of these improvements and just a few short months later, he sold the greenhouse to Mr. C.W. Moore.

Clinton Register, December 6, 1889, page 5

From the Clinton Register, Friday, January 3, 1890, page 3 I learned that William was to make his future home in Fresno.  Of course I knew he moved to Fresno but even now, I have no idea why.  More research needed.

Clinton Register, Fri, 3 January 1890, page 3

So while the fire was a tragic occurrence, it seems that William Warren McAboy, my 2x great grandfather, was able to salvage his business and even expand it in later years.

52 Ancestors: Water - Swimsuits!

This week's blog post - WATER - brought to mind several photos I have of some of my ancestors in swimsuits.  At this time of social distancing and sheltering at home, it's nice to see people together and having fun.  And look how the fashion has changed over the years.

My grandmother, Mildred Loraine Gunzendorfer, rocked her suit in 1915.  In her scrapbook she captioned this "In the Baths" 27 Feb 1915.

Loraine Gunzendorfer, 2nd from left

And that same day, the girls hit the Del Monte Baths.  Looks like they added a few friends along the way.

Loraine Gunzendorfer, 2nd from left

Even my grandfather, Sigmund Levy, got into the act.  That's Sig on the right - not sure who the others are.

Date unknown

My parents also posed for some swimsuit photos.  Here's mom, Geraldine Martin, in July, 1931.  I'm not sure but I think that could be her mother, Clara Fitzgerald, watching her.

 And this is the woman my dad fell in love with.

Geraldine Martin, 1945

Dad showed up in a swimsuit a few times.  Here he is on 13 May, 1928 when he was 15 months old.

In the sandbox - cutie patootie

And here he is in his first swimbirthday suit.

And where would this lead except a picture of ME in a swimsuit all those years ago.....

Debi and big sister, June 1956

It's been fun to take a look at these photos - if I can't be outside among the people (one of my dad's favorite phrases), at least I can enjoy these from the comfort and safety of my computer.

52 Ancestors: Nearly Forgotten - Pamela Jean

This week's blog prompt is Nearly Forgotten.  There are many people who have been nearly forgotten, and maybe some who have not yet been found.  But one nearly forgotten child was my husband's older sister, Pamela Jean Ast.  *The family name was originally Ast - more to come on the name change in a future post.

My husband was the third of three sons but early in our relationship I remember hearing about two "lost" babies - one boy miscarried at 4 months and one born alive at 8 months, Pamela Jean.  Over the years I learned that she was born with what I believe was Anophtalmia - a birth defect where a baby is born without one or both eyes.  My mother-in-law told me that in addition to having no eyes at birth, she also had heart defects.  But other than that, she never talked much about Pamela.

When I started this genealogy journey, I asked my mother-in-law about Pamela's date of birth, death, burial, etc., and she said she didn't know.  She thought it was somewhere between the years of 1951 and 1955 since that's when two of her sons were born.  But nothing else.

As I started researching, I stumbled upon information for Pamela.  Date of birth was 22 May 1952 and after a short life of just 54 minutes, she died at 8:20 a.m.

I find it interesting that the cause of death is not listed.  Is that common to not have that on a death certificate?

And from the death certificate I found her burial place - Alta Mesa Cemetery - and after an e-mail exchange with a cemetery employee, I learned that she was cremated and placed in Community Niche A, Ct. of the Stars #2 in Mausoleum #2.

When I told my mother-in-law about this information, she was stunned as she said at the time of death she told her husband to take care of the arrangements but either apparently never asked, or didn't remember, where she was interred.

So Pamela Jean Ast, you have not been forgotten.  RIP, sweet baby.

52 Ancestors: Popular - Fresno High School 1944

When thinking about this blog prompt, my thoughts immediately went to my dad, Gordon Levy.  I'd always known he was popular in high school (and beyond) so pulled out his year book from 1944, the year he graduated from Fresno High School, to see what I could find.  Since my mom graduated from Fresno High School in 1946, I'm a little surprised to only have one (where is hers?) because as you probably recall, MY FAMILY SAVED EVERYTHING!

The Owl, Fresno High School, 1944

Sure enough, there were dozens and dozens of well-wishes from his classmates.  Here's a sample.

Of course, I instantly looked for the message from his girlfriend, and my mother, Gerry Martin.  And here it is.

I'll leave it small in order to preserve some privacy

What's really interesting is that I knew my dad graduated on June 9, 1944, just three days after D-Day.

Commencement Exercises
Fresno High School, 1944

My dad was the Valedictorian of the class and gave a speech entitled "To Promote the General Welfare, to Secure the Blessings of Liberty".  I'm still on the lookout for a copy of the speech.

And here he is on the list of graduates from June.  His BFF from his early days and throughout his lifetime was Jimmy Bradshaw, who is also on the list.  I don't really recognize any of the other names.

The last page shows the January graduates, those who would graduate in July, and the Seal-Bearers, those who have on their diplomas the gold seal of California Scholarship Federation.  And there is dad and Jimmy Bradshaw again.  Proud daughter moment.

Puzzled that I don't see dad's cousin, Gilda Levy, on any of the lists since she was only 2 months younger than dad.  I know she was there in 1943 as she and my dad worked together on the Owl staff.  I don't see her photo in the class photos, either.

My dad was the Fall Semester President.

These are the notes below describing the Executive Committee, Fall Semester.

With a platform of better rallies and assemblies and more interest in student body government, President Gordon Levy began the semester by appointing a hard working executive committee, which gave the administration a flying start.

It goes on with more detail but I won't bore you with that.

There are several pages of collages and this photo caught my eye.  It is titled 6 boys and a girl so it doesn't really help me much but I'm wondering if the young man circled is my dad.  Maybe, maybe not.

This leads me back to D-Day, June 6, 1944.  It's really at the forefront of my mind because during this time of social distancing and staying home, we have been watching Band of Brothers and The Pacific.  They are produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks (get well soon, Tom) and are exceptional.  I am NOT someone who typically likes war movies/series but these are outstanding.  I'm sure you can find them elsewhere but we're watching them through Amazon Prime.

So my popular dad has led me to D-Day.  Who knew?

52 Ancestors: Strong Woman - Minnie Dauterman

My last post was Favorite Discovery where I wrote about my favorite discovery being the one I found that day.  And as luck would have it, the next day I found a new favorite discovery but because I haven't blogged since, here it is today.

Minnie Dauterman Guzendorfer
about 1896

Minnie Juliet Dauterman, born 17 April 1864, was married to my great grandfather's brother, Gustave George Gunzendorfer.  I wrote about Gustave awhile back and was confused as to the end of their marriage, potential divorce, and how Minnie ended up taking back her maiden name.  You can read it HERE. 

But then a few weeks ago I found new information about Minnie.

San Francisco Examiner
1 Feb 1924, page 11

Uh-oh.  Gustave, a successful attorney, couldn't pay his alimony in cash but instead wanted to pay in booze. 

Minnie must have been very strong for in those days, I'm not sure too many women would have pursued things.  I don't know, maybe I'm wrong but then I found this.

San Francisco Examiner
28 November 1924, page 17

My hunch was right in that Gustave left Minnie and from what I can find, she wasn't too happy about it.  I'm going to keep searching and see if I can find information on how the case ended up.  Then THAT will be my favorite discovery.

More research needed but this is an interesting rabbit hole I'm going down.