52 Ancestors: Cousin Bait - Mrs. Gunzendorfer's Nut Cake

One of the best things about having the name Gunzendorfer in my tree is that the name is cousin bait all by itself.  My first blog post told about my start with genealogy when my mom exclaimed "there are no more Gunzendorfers in the United States", which you can read about HERE.  Here's a post from early this year talking about the Beginnings of my blog where I can finally admit that she just might have been right.    

Early in my research I connected with George Fogelson, the author of a book that was my #1 Top 10 Genealogical Find of 2017 - you can read it HERE.  Over the years we've kept in touch and shared information and photos - it's so great to talk with someone who "knows" my family.  A few weeks ago I received an e-mail from George with the subject line Gunzendorfer.  Boy did that pique my interest and I immediately opened it up to see this:

Mrs. Gunzendorfer's Nut Cake?  What the heck?  George was with a friend, Ann, cleaning out some things and this was in her mother's cookbook.  Where and how did her mother get this?

The three of us talked on the phone and it turns out that her grandmother lived in Monterey which is where my Gunzendorfer's lived from about 1860 until 1944.  While my grandmother wasn't born in Monterey, she was raised there and two generations of the family owned/operated the mercantile The White House.  You can read some posts HERE and HERE.

The White House, Monterey, California

Ferdinand Gunzendorfer on top step

Since I had two Mrs. Gunzedorfner's who lived in Monterey - my 2x great grandmother, Fannie, and my great grandmother, Bertha - I didn't know which one made such a delicious Nut Cake that someone would hang on to the recipe all these years.  But her grandmother and mother did!

I don't know too much about censuses but I did determine that in 1900 Ann's great grandparents lived at 422 Franklin Street and my 2x great grandparents lived nearby on Webster Street.  Both families can be found in District 0009, her family on page 18 and my family on page 10.  I'm sure Monterey wasn't that large in 1910 but they were almost neighbors.  Since they weren't too far apart in age, my guess is that the two ladies 'hung out' together and maybe made Nut Cake!

So while not really a cousin, the name Gunzendorfer (who can forget that name, anyway?) "baited" me a new recipe.  Thanks for the introduction, George!

52 Ancestors: Mother's Day - Mabel Viola McAboy

This week's blog prompt is Mother's Day.  I've written a lot about the mothers in my life - you can read some of them at Memorial Tributes  The Mothers in My Life  Meet My Grandparents  Memories of Mom - but this time I'm going to focus on my maternal great grandmother, Mabel Viola McAboy.

Mabel was the sixth (and youngest) child of William Warren McAboy and Rebecca Waller.  Years and years ago I sent away for Mabel's birth record and once I received it, I stuck it in a file for "later" (you've done the same thing, right?) and today is finally "later".  Back in 1883, the birth was hand noted in a "register" that seemed much like the old financial ledgers we used 50 years ago.  

Yep, that's her - born 6 June 1883 in Clinton, Illinois to Maria Rebecca (I've always seen it Rebecca Moriah) Waller McAboy and Wm. W. McAboy.  Interesting to see that she was the sixth child.  I have record of all six children, although the oldest, William L., died in 1881 at the age of 17.

I recently was given a photo of Mabel from a cousin I connected with - it is so wonderful to see her as a young woman because, of course, I only knew her as an older woman.  I think she's beautiful!

Sometime around Mabel's 4th birthday, the family moved from Clinton, Illinois to Fresno, California.  I can't imagine what it was like to move halfway across the country with five children.  Did they take a train?  What took them there?

The first time Mabel shows in the census is 1900 (darn that missing 1890 census!) where she is living in Fresno with her parents and brother, John.

November 18, 1901 marked the marriage of Mabel and my great grandfather, Edward Francis Fitzgerald.  One interesting note is that the two honeymooned at a cottage at Copper King Mine - you can read about it HERE  - but I've added the photo of the honeymoon cottage below.  Quite the spot!

Fresno Bee Republican, December 3, 1961

Their first child, my grandmother, was born 22 January, 1903 and two children followed within the next few years.

By 1910, the family was complete and living in Fresno on Butler Avenue, although the census shows Butter Avenue.  And in 1920, they were all still together on Dwight Way.

One thing I've learned about this family is that they moved around - a lot.  In 1924 they were at 3844 Liberty, in 1930 they were at 3833 Lyell, 1932 back to Liberty, 1934 at 338 Michigan, and by 1940 at 1023 Thorne Avenue.  Some of those addresses found their youngest child, Stanley, with them so I can't be sure if he was living with them or they were living with him.

I loved Mabel dearly but I do recall that she always looked a little stern as evidenced here with her first great grandchild, my sister.

Mabel (McAboy) Fitzgerald and my big sister

And in the blink of an eye, Mabel died on 12 November, 1966.  She was the first person close to me who died - I remember that I didn't know what to say or do.  There was a nice service for her but I don't even remember if we attended or not.  You can read about it at the Memorial Tribute link above.

Interesting to see that her mother is listed as Rebekah M. - the spelling is something I've not seen before.

RIP, Mabel Viola McAboy Fitzgerald, my great grandmother.

52 Ancestors: Favorite Place - 1945

My Favorite Place seems to depend on my mood and what I'm doing at the moment.  And right now I'm immersed in transcribing letters that my mom wrote to my dad while he was in basic training in 1945 so I'll say this is currently my Favorite Place in Time.

Gordon Levy, 1945

I have so many of the letters Mom wrote to Dad starting in the summer of 1944 when he went away to college at Stanford University.  She was about to enter her junior year in high school and even though I don't have the letters that he wrote back to her (she, apparently, didn't have the pack rat gene), I can tell that their priorities were a little different.  

From his Army records, I've learned that he entered into active service on June 16, 1945 and separated on December 1, 1946 - more on that in later entries.

After nearly a one year gap in letters (did he lose the packrat gene for awhile?), she's back at it in September, 1945 when Dad was at Keesler Field, Mississippi.  I've surmised that he didn't like it so much there but I'm sure he was happy to hear from her every day.  She talked about what was going on at school - this person went out with that person, I made the square dance team, the football team won 7-0 - and added every. single. detail. about every one of her classes every day.  I've learned that she nearly failed Physics the first quarter of her senior year (she ended up with a B!), loved Trig, and also took Civics, English, and P.E.  She "scolded" Dad when she didn't receive a letter from him and longed for him to come home.  She shared her feelings about her friends, some of whom were boys, and I'll just leave it at that - some things are best left unshared.  At one point she talked about a dog named Butch who sat at her feet while she typed - could this be him?

Geraldine Martin, 1945

As I was preparing for this post, I pulled out the letters I'd stashed away that Dad wrote to my grandparents (remember, they were the King and Queen of packratting) while he was away at school and then in the military.  In just a few short minutes I've learned a lot more about his experiences so now that I'm finished transcribing Mom's letters, it's time to get started on his parents' letters.  

A few things stick out from the first few letters.

Upon his arrival at Keesler Field on June 28, 1945, he wrote to his parents:

Dearest Mom & Pop:

Well, well, well!!  Outside of the heat, this place isn’t as bad as everyone said.  But of course we just got here last night and haven’t seen anymore than our own barracks.  They don’t seem to know what to do with us yet so we just sit and wait.  Out of my two weeks of “battle” service, I wouldn’t be exaggerating if I said we’ve sat & waited 13 of them.  Now I see why they call it a standing army.

From what I can gather, by listening to a million different guys who don’t know a thing but think they know it all, I think we’ll be in basic training for 35 days and have to stay on the post the first month.  After that almost everyone becomes an aviation mechanic.  But with something like 40,000 men here, there’ll have to be some other jobs open.  No one knows the actual story.

And then on July 1, he wrote:

We get up at the bright hour of 5 in the morning (3 o’clock your time) and get off about 5:30 at nite.  Our basic consists of from 30 to 60 phases of training (30-60 days) and we begin #1 tomorrow.  A five day bivouac in the hills comes in the twenties.  Then you either get classified or continue in advanced basic.  Nobody knows how we’ll be classified, but I do know that some will be sent to OCS (I think) and some are made pre-aviation cadets.  Others are made gunners, mechanics, etc.  Um-m how I would like OCS – now I see why everyone wants to be an officer.  We will be temporarily classified within two weeks after we take more tests.

Our class is still scattered through a bunch of barracks waiting to be put together.  Some of us are with a bunch of draftees from NY (over 30 yrs. old) who have the same training we have and will probably get pretty good jobs.  They are the “work or fight” bunch – mostly married and fathers.  I’d rather be with young fellows – I think we will.  A pre-aviation cadet is in charge of us, a private, so it’s not like being bossed by a sergeant.  There are about 60 in a class – two classes go through together.

This is going to be an interesting project so I'm off to tackle those now.  I'll report back when I've come up for air!

 

52 Ancestors: Great - Hannah Plotzky?

I was lucky enough to have known two of my great grandparents, Edward and Mabel (McAboy) Fitzgerald.  I was nearly 12 when Mabel died and 14 when Edward died so I do have some clear memories of them.

As I was preparing for this blog prompt, I thought about my other great grandparents whom I never knew and then thought about my ancestors' great grandparents.  I know for sure that my paternal grandmother, Mildred Loraine Gunzendorfer, knew her great grandmother because I have a picture of them together!

L to R: Rebecca Steen (grandmother), Bertha Schwartz (mother), Loraine Gunzendorfer, Hannah Plotzky? (great grandmother)

I'm not 100% sure that Hannah's birth surname was, in fact, Plotzky.  Or for that matter, was her first name at birth really Hannah?  Someone on the Jewish Ancestry in Poland Facebook page suggested that her name might have been Chana and then Americanized to Hannah.

Her death certificate shows that her father was Morris Plotzky of Poland and that her mother was unknown.  The same Facebook member stated that Morris might have been Moshe, Moszko, or Moszek.  And as we know, often times the informant had incorrect information.  So the jury is still out on her surname, first name, and father's name.  I also have the death certificate for two of her children - Rebecca and Samuel.  Rebecca's shows her mother's name is unknown, Samuel's shows his mother's name as Hannah Plotzky.  

What I know about Hannah is that she was born on 20 December, 1828 in "Poland" - but where, exactly, I don't know.

It appears that she came to America via New York in 1851 with her husband, Joseph Steen, and their daughter (my great grandmother), Rebecca and an infant named Dina.  But the records I've found show their surname as Stain so is it the correct family?  Maybe, maybe not.  If this is them, infant Dina must not have survived because there is never another mention of her.  

I found a family enumerated in New York on June 29, 1855, which makes sense since I believe they arrived in New York in 1851 and son Samuel was born in New York on May 4, 1855.  But this family is Joseph Stein, Hanagh Stein, Rebecka Stein, Solomon Stein, Julius Stein, and David Morrison.  Ages don't add up for Joseph and Hannah but I've seen a few references to Samuel as Solomon so this could be them.  Joseph was a barber and had several brothers so that could add up.  I'll chalk this up to "probably".

New York, State Census, 1855

Somewhere between 1855 and 1857, the family must have moved to Santa Cruz as the next child, Meyer, was born in California in 1857.

I'm about 100% sure that this is them in 1860 in Santa Cruz.

1860 United States Census NARA mircofilm publication M653, 1438 rolls, Washington, D.C., National Archives Records

It's hard to see but next door to the family is Louis Schwartz, who would later marry Rebecca and the two of them would become my 2x great grandparents.

Joseph died in 1866 (you can read a bit about me discovering his grave in the #2 top 10 find of 2012 HERE) and Hannah was on her own.  By 1870 she had moved to San Francisco with children Solomon/Samuel, Meyer, Lillie, Julius, and Dena.

1870 United States Federal Census, San Francisco Ward 10, San Francisco, California, Roll: M593

That checks out.  But by 1876, Julius was gone.  

Hills of Eternity Memorial Park, Colma, California

1880 found the family at 626 17th Street, Oakland, California.

1880 United States Census, Oakland, Alameda, California; Roll: T9_61, Family History Film: 1354061, Page: 183.2000, Enumeration District: 9, Image: 0369

Dena is often referred to as Lennie but I know she was, in fact, Dena, when she died from pericarditis in 1894.  Hannah had endured so much sadness.

Hills of Eternity Memorial Park, Colma, California

I've been unable to find Hannah in the 1900 census but I haven't given up trying.  What I've taken away from this blog post is that I have A LOT to learn about Hannah.  I'm thankful for the suggestions I've received on the Jewish Ancestry in Poland Facebook Group page and will be following up on those.

Hannah died on 11 April, 1909 and as you can see above, she is buried with Dena at Hills of Eternity Memorial Park in Colma.

You can see the family here - Julius next to Hannah/Dena, Rosalind (Samuel's daughter) and Meyer (Hannah's son) in front.

Steen family, Hills of Eternity, Colma, California

Hannah was my 3x great grandmother and my grandmother's GREAT grandmother.  I hope to learn more about her.

52 Ancestors: Loss - Levy Bros. Profit & Loss Records

I've had this book, which belonged to my grandfather Sig Levy, for many years sitting on a table.  I'd glanced through it a few times but it wasn't until this blog prompt came up that I spent more time with it.  Remember, my grandparents saved everything.

Here's the first page.

When I looked at this it occurred to me to search for it to see if I could find any history on it.  While I didn't find history, I did find an identical book selling on eBay for $31.45.

Look at that - a Profit and Loss Statement for May.  Actually, there are pages and pages for each month but this is just an example.

And on the opposite side of each month is individual years - this is 1931-1936.

Even though my father thought I'd be a good accountant, I quickly realized that profession was not for me.  So I'd really have to study this to figure out what it all means.

I found the salary detail interesting - this is from Jan 1-June 30, 1941.  I laugh to myself that each time the four brothers were listed it is always in age order - Herb, Leon, Sig, Ben.  So they each made $1500 dollars over 6 months or $250 per week.  In today's dollars that would be $4618 per month.  

And look at that - a couple of other Levys were working with the firm.  Herb Levy, Jr. was Herb's only son.  And Robert Levy was Sig's oldest son and my uncle.  In 1941 Rob would have been just 21 years old and about ready to enlist.  I can see that the following 6 months (July 1 - December 31, 1941) he earned $117 and the following six months was just $18.  Probably just a part time job.

And Herb's daughter, Barbara, also worked for the firm in 1944 and made a whopping $92 for the year.  

The commission page was especially interesting to see what properties sold for back then.

I looked up the house at 647 No. Van Ness Avenue, built in 1932, and Zillow shows the estimated value of $260,000 today.  And the house at 610 Pine Avenue, built in 1935, has an estimated value of $592,352.  

Levy Bros. was a successful business until 1965 after Ben's death left Sig as the only remaining brother.  Hopefully, the business never experienced a "Loss".

 

52 Ancestors: Fortune - 10 years of blogging

This week's blog prompt is Fortune.  Many of my ancestors had one fortune or another - a long and healthy life, a house full of children, a successful career, or a large bank account.  But today I want to concentrate on the Fortune I've had by starting this blog 10 years ago tomorrow.

Photo by Phae

You can read my first post HERE.  I remember writing that first post (thanks again for the push, Kerry!) and wondering if I'd have enough to say.  When I first started blogging I was so envious of the ephemera that other bloggers had and longed to find just a snippet of what they had. Be careful what you wish for!  

The first two years of blogging I was able to share what I'd learned with my mother and each year for Christmas I put together a book using Blurb to share with her since she didn't use a computer.  I remember sitting together and looking through the book and I could see a gleam in her eyes when she learned something new about her family.  Seeing the happiness it brought to her is what helped me to keep going and sometimes when I feel like I've had enough, I think that maybe, just maybe, someone will be glad that I did.

Over those 10 years, I've written 407 posts and had 1835 comments on the blog plus countless others on Facebook.  In looking back on the posts, the most read posts were:

Back in Time  The story of my grandfather asking my grandmother's parents if they could be married.  And the letter they wrote back to him giving their permission.  What a beautiful love story.

Wanted: Herman Levy Herman Levy was my great grandfather and has been a bit of a brick wall for me.  I posted this on the History of Fresno Facebook page and received a lot of views.  Over the course of the last 10 years I've connected with many grandchildren and great grandchildren of Herman - maybe one day we'll all be able to bust through this wall!

Best Wishes for a Long and Happy Life Together  The end of the books recording the wedding of my parents.  I have such wonderful memories of lying on the floor with my sister and pouring over these books.  

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Where Were They 100 Years Ago?  It's fun to look back at where our ancestors were living, especially when there's a picture of the house!

Grandma Was a Party Animal!  I loved going through my grandmother's scrapbook and learning about her as a young woman.  Not only am I happy that she had a scrapbook but that she saved it for me to find!

Not necessarily one of the most viewed posts (although it is much more recent so hasn't had the opportunity for people to "find" it) was one I struggled with for the blog prompt.

52 Ancestors: Multiple - Love Letters  My grandparents' thoughts during the Spanish Flu Pandemic in 1918. I have finished the transcription project and am now working through the letters my mother wrote to my father when he went away to college and then into the service.  Just proves that my dad had the packrat gene as he saved the letters.  Unfortunately, my mother must have missed the memo that she was supposed to save his letters as I haven't run across any yet.  

It's been an amazing 10 years and I've learned so much about my family.  I would like nothing more than to share this with my father, who used to give me tidbits of information, for I know the joy it would have brought him.  But he knows, he knows.

Thanks for sticking with me!

52 Ancestors: Name's the Same - Winfield Scott Byrd

A year ago, the blogging prompt was Same Name and I wrote about my husband's great grandfather, Winfield Scott Byrd.  You can read about it HERE.  

A similar blog prompt this week had me thinking about another ancestor(s) who had the same name and it suddenly occurred to me that as I was preparing last week's blog, I found a photo of Winfield Scott Byrd! 

It started with discovering this photo album that belonged to my mother-in-law.  Sure, I'd seen it before but had tucked it away into a box to save for a rainy day.

I showed it to my husband and we couldn't figure out who most of the people were because many of the photos were loose or just haphazardly thrown in.

My mother-in-law had included a Record of the Photographs, although it was written in pencil so it was a little difficult to read.  And not sure how to figure out who was on which page.

On one page there was a photo of an older gentleman who we thought might have been a teacher.  It was 'glued' down but my husband decided he wanted to look on the back to see if it was labeled.  I about had a heart attack as he lifted the photo out and what did we see?  A labeled photo.  And not just any photo but the label read "Daddy Byrd (My Grandpa), January 27, 1935, Nampa, Idaho".  This was Winfield Scott Byrd!

Winfield Scott Byrd, January 27, 1935

88 years old

I'm so glad to have found this - and especially glad that my husband didn't listen to me as he took it out of the album!