New Additions to my Pedigree

For a frame of reference, this was my pedigree BEFORE I spent a week collecting data at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.



Well, my time is up in Salt Lake City. Time to pack my computer, my notes, and my clothes into a suitcase and fly back to Charlotte, NC.

Before I left for SLC a week ago, I told my family and friends that if could not find even one more person to add to my pedigree, it would be OK- the trip would still be worth it. I just wanted to see this world famous collection of genealogical data at the Mormon's Family History Library; to see what the Library had to offer. I was very impressed and pleased, and moreover, I did climb up a few more branches on my family tree.

Also, I had the opportunity to see changes that are happening at the Library. For example, the Library catalogue is searched by going to FamilySearch(dot)org on the Internet. The "face" of that website is being changed, though I confess I still go back to the old face to perform my searches.

So, I found a lot of new information and pushed back one of my maternal ancestral lines about three generations. I say "about" because I have not had a chance to analyze the new data. I have been sitting in front of the microfilm readers from dawn until way past dusk and feeding nickles into the photocopy machine.

But briefly, follow the bottom line of my mother's branch in the pedigree above. Note that my great, great grandparents were Ludwig Gutgsell and Margarethe Kessler. I obtained their birth dates and places from the death entry of their daughter, Marie, nee. Gutgsell. Her death entry was recorded in the parish record of a catholic church in Burglen, Canton Thurgau, Switzerland, but that's another story. This week, I found the marriage entry (performed on 17 Nov 1847) of Marie's parents on a microfilm of the civil marriage registrations for the commune (village) of Kaysersburg, arrondisement (county) of Colmar, Department of Haut Rhin, in Alsace, which was in French territory at the time. The Germans occupied Alsace from about 1871, until the end of WW I, and then it was returned to France. So, Marie's parents were married by their French names: Louis and Marguerite. I just love the details of genealogical research.

The information didn't stop there, there were many genealogical details in the full-page, marriage entry in this civil record. More research in the microfilm section revealed the marriage entry for the parents of Louis Gutgsell. Louis' father, Andre Gutgsell married Madelaine Scherrer on 28 Jan 1824, in Kaysersburg. I also found some of Andre's siblings. THEN, I discovered that Andre's parents, Leo Gutgsell and Marie Ann Madar, were married in Kayserberg. Finally, the parents of Leo were Joseph Gutgsell and Elizabeth Wachen. If I recall correctly, Andre Gutgsell's marriage entry included the names of his parents and grandparents.

Incidentally, while perusing the microfilms of data from this region of Alsace, I noted another prominent surname, "G'sell". At first I thought it was an abbreviation for my ancestral surname, Gutgsell, but after looking at several family relationships in the records, I do not believe G'sell is equivalent to Gutgsell. Furthermore, Gutgsell seemed to be spelled variously as Guthgsell, Guttgsell, and GutheGsell. To further confound the issue, many times the names of individuals were not captalized.

So, how many generations did I uncover? I believe I am back to my 5X great grandparents on the Gutgsell line. Not a bad effort for a week's research at the largest depository of genealogical data in the world.

Another way to "publish" one's genealogy: electronic digital readers

It's difficult for me to stop collecting genealogical data and take the time to publish what I have gathered into a printed book with hard covers. There always seems to be one more fact to uncover, one more census to consult, one more relative to interview, and so on. However, along the way, I have faithfully entered most of my data into my chosen genealogical computer program- which happens to be Ancestral Quest (AQ) by Incline Software. Every two or three years, I create Modified Register Reports for several end-of-the-line ancestors. I take the option to save the reports in Adobe's pdf format and then take the files to Kinko's Copy Shop or similar place to be printed on their laser printer. Finally, I bind the reports with plastic combs. I consider these reports to be interim. Almost immediately I begin to make corrections with my red pen. One can see so many errors once a report is printed. And yes, I find new ideas for further research and further put off the final printing.

However, I am getting to the age at which I believe I must stop and publish my findings. I do not want to take any of this genealogical information with me to the grave- as many of my relatives have already done.

Publishing and printing is expensive. My brother-in-law recently contracted a professional printer to make 150 copies of his McCutcheon Line. It cost thousands of dollars- and that's just for one family line. Nevertheless, each book is invaluable. His genealogy is archived in libraries all around the country including the Congressional and LDS Libraries. His data are carved in granite and will be here for many generations to enjoy.

So, I plan to have my genealogies professionally printed. Nevermind the cost. I'll mortgage my house if I have to.

IN THE MEANTIME, I came across a new technology that might be used to simply and quickly archive genealogical data. I am talking about electronic digital readers (e readers). A large portion of the market is cornered by Barnes and Noble's "Nook", Amazon.com's "Kindle", and Sony's "eReader". These readers usually cost less than $150. After looking at the features of each of these models, I settled on Sony's eReader (Trade Mark). In particular, I was looking for a device in which:

1. A media card could be inserted into the e-reader and loaded with my OWN pdf files.

2. A reader that could be turned on its long side (landscape orientation) so that more of the text would be visible, left to right.

Let me break here and show a few images of the Sony eReader that I purchased. I loaded the Reader with a 2GB SD media card containing Modified Register Reports (MRR) in pdf format which were created in Ancestral Quest. The card was inserted into a slot on top of the Reader. Realize that these images are photos of the reader.

Image 1. (below). Sony eReader (Trade Mark), vertical orientation, small font (shows whole page). MRR for Joseph Austel, page 1 of 115. Adobe pdf format.



In Ancestral Quest, one can add a primary image to the vital statistics and biological notes for each individual. It would be extremely difficult to read the text in this set up of the Sony eReader. Now, if we go to the next image:

Image 2. Sony eReader set in Landscape orientation, medium-size font. MRR for Joseph Austel, p. 1 of 115. Adobe pdf format.




In this setting, I could easily read the text in the report. Though I can't read the whole page, top to bottom, I can drag my finger across the screen to scroll down to the rest of the page. The reader automatically re-formats the text of the original pdf file such that the width of the lines is not cropped. In other words, the text is re-flowed.

Image 3. Sony eReader (TM), showing the editing feature: add a free-hand note or type one.



The last image shows the editing feature. I can add notes either in free-hand as shown using a stylus, or call up a box and virtual keyboard and type in a note.
The notes do not affect the original pdf file. Also, I can call up all the notes at once for a specific book (pdf file).

I have loaded my SD media card with 14 individual, Modified Register Reports (books) each of which were originally created in Ancestral Quest as a pdf file. The pdf files range from 100 to 300 pages. In addition, I also loaded 15 Scrapbook reports in pdf format. The SD card can be removed from the eReader; inserted into a computer; and then read in the Adobe Reader application. I made a copy of the SD media card with all of its pdf files and gave it to my brother to be used as a back-up.

One can also load jpeg images and mp3 audio files into the eReader. Images are seen in black and white on this eReader, but Barnes and Noble is now marketing a "Color Nook".

I believe the Nook and Kindle readers to not have the capability of loading SD media cards. Therefore, electronic books have to be downloaded from the Internet either wirelessly or via a computer. The "3G" readers can connect to the Internet directly for downloads. Unless you have your genealogy posted in a book at Amazon or B&N, you can not load your own genealogy into their readers. However, I recently discovered that a fellow genealogist, Thomas MacEntee, posted a Guide entitled, "A Genealogy Blog Primer. Everything You Wanted to Know About Genealogy Blogs but Were Afraid to Ask". The Primer is free and can be downloaded as a pdf file fom LuLu bookstores.

One final note. After saying all this, I do not like to read my genealogy books on the eReader. My old eyes get tired reading the text against a light grey background. Even the e-reader manufacturers say that traditional books are still easier to read. I saw a recent advertisement which claimed that their "new" reader had 5o percent greater contrast. The Color Nooks might be easier on the eyes. This technology is still young but growing fast. And I must admit- it is more convenient to carry around an electronic reader rather than a case of traditional books.

Vintage Baby pictures- HOLD STILL!

Chris, a friend of mine, was recently browsing an antique store in Barnegut, New Jersey, and found a magazine for collectors of postcards and other paper items. He mailed me a copy, because he knew that I enjoy collecting postcards which illustrate my family history. Incidentally, Chris collects old 45 rpm records; one time he tracked down a copy for me of Lee Dorsey's "Working in a Coal Mine". The song ends with the line, "Ohhh, I'm so tired".

In the studio photographs shown above, do you see the ghostly shape of another human being behind the baby- but hidden by a drape or curtain?

The January 2010 issue of The Paper and Advertising Collectors Marketplace (PAC CM) had an interesting article on "Uncovering the Hidden Mother (and Father) in Photographs. In the nineteenth century, exposure times for photographs were often measured by several seconds rather than fractions of a second as in modern cameras. So, how does a photographer hold a squirming baby down long enough to take an un-blurred picture- and still focus mainly on the baby? One way is to have the mother sit in a chair, hold the baby, and cover the mother's face with a drape or curtain.

The PAC CM magazine article mentioned several other techniques. In some cases, holes in the back of the chair were large enough for the mother to squat down and reach through the holes to hold the baby. A photographer named Fred Pohle invented a medal holder which babies were strapped into and held motionless for the photographer. Perhaps a less traumatic method was for the mother to hold the baby and then be cropped out of the picture during the processing or matting the picture so that the mother was hidden in the frame of the mounted photograph.

The article prompted me to go through my own photo collection looking for vintage baby pictures of my family to see if any of these techniques were used- particularly "Hidden mothers".

(click to enlarge; then use browser's "back" key)

Perhaps the oldest picture in my collection (see above) is that of my great grandparents, Thomas W. Russell and Eleanor, nee. Hartley, holding their second- and third- born children, Nicholson and Jane Ann or "Jenny". The date of the photo, 1880, is easy to pinpoint. Jenny was born in Sep 1879 and looks about a year old or less. The photo was taken at Schmiechen Studios in Sunderland, County Durham, England, and by Aug 1881, the family, or at least the father Thomas, had immigrated to Pennsylvania. In the picture you can see the parents have a pretty tight hold on the children, particularly holding their arms or tiny little hands.

Unfortunately, the first two children, both daughters, of Thomas and Eleanor died before this picture was taken. One daughter died at about a year; the other daughter, at 11 years. One of the points of the PAC CM article was that often pictures of children were taken because of the high infant mortality in the mid-19th century. The photographs served as reminders.

My great grandfather, Joseph Austel, had 10 children by his first wife, but only one child by his second wife, Rosa, nee. Friedrich. Rosa had a valued picture of the son, Paul, who died in 1904 at age 4 or 5 years. Rosa kept the photograph on an alter that she put together herself and placed at the top of the stairs leading to the second floor. She kept a candle burning on the alter. My mother remembers her grandmother praying at the makeshift alter, but somehow, the picture of Paul has been lost.

The two baby pictures above show my maternal grandfather, Charles Anton Gailliot, born 1894, and his first cousin, once removed, Mildred Ann "Millie" Gailliot, born 1907. Their common ancestors were Anton Gailliot and Johanna "Helena" Schlebusch. Both babies are propped on a chair and lay on what looks like sheep skins. Perhaps these shaggy foundations gave more warmth and comfort than if not present. Would that not have been a calming influence on a baby? In Millie's picture, on the right, there seems to be a folded piece of material behind her head. Could this be her "hidden mother". In certainly does not look like part of the chair. I like the cute way Millie is grasping the back of the chair in her left hand.

By the early twentieth century, cameras and films had improved so that exposure times were reduced, and thus the pictures were less likely to be blurred by the subject's movement. Still, the youngest child in the middle of these offspring of Robert William Kramp and Martha, nee. Streich (on left) apparently needed to be steadied. Note the sister holding the baby's hand.

On the right, is my grandmother's sister, Mrs. Rose Salmon, nee. Austel, holding her first child, John. John's left hand seems to be slightly blurred compared to the rest of the picture. I'm glad the beautiful mother in this case was not hidden.

LINKS AND REFERENCES:

1. Go to the homepage of The Paper and Advertising Collectors' Marketplace. Today, I could flip through the pages of their publication and see more pictures of "Hidden Mothers" in baby photographs including the whole text of the article. Perhaps in the future, one may have to look up Vol. 32, No. 1 (Jan 2010) on their site.

2. The "Dead Fred" genealogy photo archive web site also has an unidentified couple who were photographed at Bolko Schmieken Studios in England. I do not believe they are related to my family.

Jacob Imfang, Prussian Soldier

One of my mother's uncles was Jacob Imfang. He immigrated to America arriving at Castle Gardens, New York, in Oct 1905 on the S.S. Finland. He came to Braddock, as suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and there, met Anna Austel. The Austel family had immigrated to Braddock from Canton Thurgau, Switzerland, about two years before Jacob arrived on the scene. Jacob and Anna were married at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Braddock in Oct 1909. They had three daughters: Margaret Ann, Martha Ann, and Elizabeth "Betty".

Several years ago, I tracked down Jacob and Anna's daughter, Martha, who was living in northern Pittsburgh. Martha's father, Jacob, was a professional carpenter and furniture maker; his cabinets were sold in Pittsburgh's well-known Department store, Joseph Horne Company. As Martha invited me into her house to see some of the fine furniture her father had made, I noticed a handsome portrait of Jacob in Military Uniform (see the first image below). I knew he was originally from Germany and I presumed he had served in the Prussian Military. Martha showed me a smaller, black and white, cabinet card of the same image. On the reverse, someone had written what looked like Jacob's regiment including a few numbers and symbols that I couldn't decipher. However, I wrote the information down in my journal like a good family historian. More recently, a friend referred me to a web site that had information on Prussian Regiments, and fortunately, I was able to identify Jacob's regiment. (Thank you, Jon von Briesen). Jacob served in:

"Grenadier Regiment Graf Kleist von Nollendorf, Nr. 6 (1. Westpreußisches)", and probably in the 10th Division. "Graf" is a title meaning count. How Jacob got from the Frankfurt area where he was born to being recruited in a Prussian regiment in Posen is still a mystery.

IMAGE: Jacob Imfang in Prussian military uniform. He is wearing his "Dunkelblau" (dark blue) tunic. On the side table, lies his Picklehaub (spiked helmet) with black-colored, parade plume made of horse hair. The epaulets on shoulder, the color and design of piping, the design of buttons and medallion on helmet, all identify Jacob's unit in the military. Darn, if I knew all that BEFORE I took the picture, it sure would have helped. Sorry about the reflection on the convex glass which covered the framed portrait.

Martha also showed me a newsclipping featuring Jacob and titled, "Native of Germany celebrates his 90th [birthday]. I folded the clipping to fit into the image below. The article did not mention Jacob's Prussian service, but it did tell about his interests in dancing and a men's singing group called a "Mannechor" in German, and his hobby working with wood. Also, it told about an incident in Jacob's childhood when he attended his neighborhood school with former President, Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1890s. Apparently, Roosevelt's parents thought it would be healthy for their son, who was afflicted with Polio, to spend several summers in Bad Nauheim, a health resort famous for its baths (Die Bad). I was wondering how I could confirm this family tradition- but see "References" below.

(click image to enlarge)

Sometimes we forget to realize that millions of German immigrants who came to America in the late 19th century, including my own ancestors, had to turn around in a generation or two and do battle with their former countrymen during two world wars. That is truely ironic.

REFERENCES:

Names of Prussian Regiments

Franklin D. Roosevelts summer visits to Bad Nauheim (in German)

Pedigree Ornament No. 7, My Maternal Grandmother

Margaret Austel, born 1894, Bürglen, Canton Thurgau, Switzerland; died 1963, Alexandria, VA; buried St. Mary’s Cemetery, Alexandria, VA.

The Pedigree ornament above shows the German-printed Himmelsleiter which once belonged to my maternal grandmother. Literally, it translates “Heaven guide” but essentially, it is a prayer book, with prayers about Holy Communion, Stations of the Cross, and certain other litanies of the Catholic Mass. The picture is captioned, “Der Liebe Jesusknabe” which even I can translate, “the dear child Jesus”. But that’s about as far as I can go. My grandmother was born Margaret Austel, in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, in Canton Thurgau, in the village of Burglen. The village is named after a small castle (Burg) which dominates the hill overlooking the town. Margaret immigrated to America with her family when she was about eight years old; thus, German was her native language. Undoubtedly, a mixture of German and English was spoken in their home in Braddock in the early days. In any case, Grandma could speak German when she wanted to, even though I rarely heard anything around her house other that an occasional “Gesundheit”. Apparently, she could also read the Gothic German quite well as evidenced by the Himmelsleiter which she often brought to mass.

Let me interject a biographical note here. Grandma was fortunate to be able to bring a little black book to Mass which she could read and understand. However, when I was brought up in the Catholic Church, parishioners brought little black books (missals) which were printed in Latin. And the priest prayed in Latin. I don’t think I ever understood what was really going on. I guess that all changed later on when the liturgical vernacular was changed to English.

Margaret Austel married Charles A. Gailliot in Braddock, near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1917. Unfortunately, she lost her husband in 1948, when he was only 54, and she was the same age, as they shared the same birth year. I was six years old when grandpap died; so, Grandma was a widow for most of the time I knew her. Grandma Gailliot was the grandparent I spent the most time with as a youngster, especially when our family lived within walking distance of her house. We continued to visit Grandma on most holidays, even after we moved further away and had to drive the car. When I went to high school and college, my visits to grandma became far and few between. Now that I am a grandparent myself, I can see I missed a lot. As they say, wisdom is wasted on the old.

A Remembrance Card

I was leafing through the Himmelsleiter in preparation for this blog entry, when I came upon a remembrance (Andenken) card wedged between a couple of pages. It had a picture (see below) of a priest (Hochw. Herrn Pfarrer) named Josef Zündt. The text mentioned that he was a Kaplan in Bruggen, Appenzell and Gonten, between the years, 1880-1920. Appenzell was a town also located in Canton Thurgau. I wonder what the relationship of this priest was to Grandma. Was he the family’s priest, a friend, or maybe a relative? I will leave it here for the Google surfer to find, and hopefully, provide a comment.


The Pedigree ornaments for my grandparents have now been posted. Tomorrow, I will begin posting Pedigree ornaments for my eight great, great grandparents. To see all the Pedigree ornament in this series, click on the tag "Xmas-2008" in the far right-hand column of this web site.

The hand seemed to reach out of the coffin ...

For the 58th edition Carnival of Genealogy, a group of us genealogy bloggers have committed to write a haunting story or weird tale taken from our family's history in honor of Halloweeeeeeen. Also it has been suggested that we keep from naming the subjects of our story so that readers might guess who they are. That would be difficult to do in my case unless the reader is a member of my family who rarely reads this blog. On the other hand, the reader could guess whether this story is fact or fiction, or perhaps creative non-fiction. I do not know if the following story is true or not, but as they say, there is always a grain of truth in family tradition.

Below, on the right, is the subject of my story, and for now, I'll call her simply "Grossmom". She will be identified after the deadline for submissions has passed. As a hint to her identity, she immigrated to this county in early 1900s and settled in Braddock, Pennsylvania. Also, she had converted to Roman Catholicism in order to wed her first husband, Joseph (surname temporarily withheld). Grossmom was Joseph's second wife, and she was married into a family of nine step children, seven of whom were still under the marrying age. As you might know, converts are usually quite zealous about their "new" religion, and Grossmom was indeed a zealous convert. She assumed all of her step-children would marry within the Catholic faith. It was the Eleventh Commandment.

Image: "Grossmom", about 1918, and her niece. For this story, you might take notice of the beaded necklace that Grossmom is wearing.

However, as time progressed, a daughter married a German immigrant who was a Lutheran, and moved to the north end of Pittsburgh. Grossmom showed her disapproval by withholding visits to her daughter's family, essentially disowning her. I think it is interesting that Grossmom's husband's behavior was quite different. He would often take the bus, alone, to his daughter's home for a visit.

I might add that a similar situation grew up in another branch of the family in which the mother seemed to show disdain for any family member who married a non-Catholic. And again, the father of the family showed indifference. Is this because men are just disinterested in a son or daughter's choice of faith, or is it that men believe that some romantic idea takes precedence over religious matters? I wonder what comments will come in response to this rather sexist notion.

In any case, Grossmom soon faced the fact that her step-son fell in love with not only a non Catholic but also a DIVORCED non-catholic with a son from her previous marriage. Oh, Heaven forbid. Despite Grossmom's objections, Frank Joseph Austel married the former Gladys Henshaw around 1924. Joseph was an adventuresome soul who had served two enlistments in the military before finally settling down in marriage. He certainly had a mind of his own. Seeing the beautiful lady he married, I can see why Frank disregarded his step mother's objections.

But here's the weird part of this story. It occurred during the funeral service of Frank Austel who died at the age of 46 years. Grossmom raised enough courage and forgiveness to attend the service. As she kneeled over the coffin, and as she described later in a shaking voice, a hand seemed to rise from the coffin, grab her cultured pearl necklace, and pull her closer. The force was so strong that the necklace broke and pearls darted everywhere across the floor. A granddaughter of Grossmom, Martha Imfang, who was 24 years old at time, told me that she ran after the scattered pearls to retrieve them. The pearls could have been restrung. However, Grossmom refused to have anything more to do with that pearl necklace.

NOTE after submission: Grossmom in the story above is none other than the former Rosa Friedrich, of Canton Thurgau, Switzerland. Rosa was about half the age of Joseph Austel when he took her as his second wife in 1897. Soon after Joseph died in 1924, Rosa remarried the widowed Joseph Poeschl. Joseph Austel and Rosa are buried together under the same tombstone at Braddock Catholic (All Saints) Cemetery, near Pittsburgh, PA.

LINKS and REFERENCES:
For other weird and haunting tales submitted by Genealogy Bloggers for the 58th Edition, Carnival of Genealogy go to Jasia's Creative Gene

Interests and Activities of my Maternal branch, Part II.

I sat down with my mother a few days ago and talked about her interests in porcelain and china painting. I posted some images of her work in an earlier blog entry. One of Mom’s favorite topics to paint were flowers, in particular, roses and daisies. I occasionally visited my grandmother before she passed away in 1963, about 45 years ago; so I had a little difficulty in immediately remembering what were some of her life-long interests. I asked mom.

“Oh no, she didn’t have much time for hobbies and interests like that- she was too busy raising us four kids- doing laundry, cleaning house, mopping floors” I persisted, “She must have had some kind of pastime besides housework ... at least to take her mind off the drudgery of keeping up the house.” Mom always seems to pick the negative side of these type discussions.

Later on, it came to my mind- Flowers. Of course. Grandma had a grand and memorable flower garden. It began at the corner of the neighbor’s garage in the backyard and ran along the property boundary all the way out to the road in front of the house. The whole length of the garden was lined with a flagstone walkway. When I drove by the old house a few years ago, there was no such garden. I believe most people are too busy today to take the trouble to have a garden like Grandma’s. My friend, Ben, who breeds roses for nurseries to sell, told me that sales of Roses are not as strong as they used to be when his father was a rosarian.

In any case, the desire for a beautiful garden has always been strong in our family- and not just by the women. The picture below shows my grandmother walking her stepmother, Grossmom Rosa Friedrich, beside the garden. Unfortunately, the picture was printed in black and white as were most prints at that time in the early 1950s. Rosa was leaning on Grandma’s arm as she was very weak from cancer. She had refused what little therapy there was at the time for fighting the disease. And I believe there was a staunch acceptance of the inevitable in Rosa’s case. However, she must have really enjoyed these walks along the garden as I know it reminded her of her own expansive rock garden back home in Edgewood, near Pittsburgh, PA.

Image: My grandmother, Margaret, walks her step-mom, Grossmom Rosa Friedrich, beside the garden. Taken in early 1950s, in Del Ray, VA, near Alexandria. Sure wish it was in color.

While I have my grandmother’s interests and passions in mind, I must mention the interests of her husband, Charles Gailliot, my maternal grandfather. He worked as a pattern maker at the U.S. Navy Yard in Washington, DC. He built their house from a Sears Kit. All the wood and materials needed for the structure were delivered in the kit, but my grandpap put in a lot of extras like the brick-a-brac around the eaves of the house. He could do any kind of woodwork with his hands and he had large toolbox full of augers, chisels and other wood turning tools. He made a kiddy car for me and painted it a bright red and blue- even the wheels were made of wood. But the pastime I believe he liked best was the canaries he raised in the garage- dozens of the birds. My aunt Helen told me that the family didn’t have much money to spend on hobbies like this. So, when she took her first job as a typist, she gave her father $100 to spend on building bird cages. He couldn’t say anything she said, something swelled up in his throat, and then he let a tear fall.

As family historians, we are always looking out for traits which are passed from one generation to the next- perhaps looking for examples of "What is Past is Prologue". Well, my mother, like her father, raised canaries on a smaller scale and kept a couple of cages of canaries for several years. I remember the tiny, fragile, cream-colored eggs that would one day show up in a canary's feather-lined nest. Now, for eggs to happen, one must have at least one male and one female in the same cage. So how does one determine the sex of a canary. Mom told me we had to wait until one of the birds matured and started to sing. The ones that sang the most eloquently were the males. The proof was in the pudding, er ... rather the nest.

Image: a PARTIAL glimpse of my mother's garden in Westminster, MD, Aug 2004. Click to enlarge. The Black Eyed Susan is the state flower of Maryland. Don't let anyone kid you, they ONLY grow in Maryland. Because, I've transplanted many bunches of the flower in my garden in Monroe, NC, just to have them whither and die before the next season.

My mother always had a flower garden wherever she lived. Her garden at our house on Nelson Road in Bethesda, Maryland, was the envy of the neighborhood. It was the most beautiful garden in the area and I ought to know because I traveled the neighborhood for years on my newspaper route. In those days, one did not purchase bags of soil at Walmart or K-Mart. So, my father made many trips up to the woods at the end of our block with his wheel barrow. He dug up and transported several loads of top soil and then he filled up his barrow with marble rock which were used to line the border of the garden. In the Spring, the deep pick Creeping Flocks would crawl over the rocks and the deep purple Grape Hyacinthes would form a swath of color about a foot wide and growing the length of the garden.

Image: I go for perennials myself- less work. These Day Lillies are doing well this year. In the rear are purple Spider Wort, roses, and an overgrown Carolina Jessamine (delicate yellow flowers are past blooming).

Links:

1. As soon as my Mother recently moved into a cottage in her community, she had to start another heritage garden as noted in this earlier entry.

2. Archived photos from my garden in Monroe, NC (Picasa album)

Heirlooms the Austel family brought to America

Well, I've worked up sufficient background information on the Austel family that I can tell a story about some of our family heirlooms. The Austel Family brought a few household treasures with them when they immigrated to America. They embarked from Antwerp, Belgium, on Oct 24, 1903, in hte steerage compartment of the S.S. Finland of the Red Star Line. Eleven days later, on Nov 4, 1903, they arrived at the Immigrant Processing Station on Ellis Island. All their clothes and personal items were what they could carry in their hands. So, any "extra" or luxury items they carried on board must have been very dear.

I already mentioned the necklace and locket which contained a miniture portrait of the young Joseph Austel. One of my aunts, the late Mrs. Martha Schuster, nee. Imfang, told me about a watch fob that Joseph Austel carried with him all the time. It was made from the braided, auburn hair of his first wife, Maria, nee. Gutgsell. So, listen up all you auburn-haired descendants of Maria Gutgsell.

Another item is the cup shown below. It might have been a cup to hold tea or milk. The handle had broken off sometime in the past. The German expression, "Dein Wohl" (To your health) was painted on the side. My aunt told me that Joseph Austel liked to dip his Brot (bread) in his coffee before he slurped it down. This is the same person who remembers that her grandfather used to take the train from Braddock out to Evergreen Road, Ross Township in northern Pittsburgh, to visit her mother, Anna. Once he listened to his grandchildren singing and playing on the piano "twinkle, twinkle Little Star". He took out his hankerchief and wiped away a tear.

Another item that I actually have in my possession is also a ceramic cup. It is smaller than the one above, and I believe it might have been good for holding a small bouquet of flowers. This cup apparently belonged to Frieda Austel because "Freda" is painted on the cup. That makes this cup very special. Frieda was 20 years old when the family arrived in America. She was an epilectic and died in 1922, a month shy of her 39th birthday. Grandma Margaret wrote down in her little black book. "Frieda, died from "epileptischer anfall" (epilepsy). Mrs. Martha (Imfang) Schuster told me that she recalls visiting Frieda in a hospital run by nuns. She was dressed in black and her hands were tied to her bed. There is always a grain of truth in family tradition.

I was going to submit this blog entry to the 55th Carnival of Genealogy, "Show and Tell", but I have another special entry that I want to write about next- only 80 minutes before the submission deadline.

REFERENCES and LINKS:

Earlier blog entry on Austel Family Line- First Geneation, with a picture of young Frieda Austel and the rest of the immigrant family, including a picture of the father, Joseph Austel, found in a small locket.

Austel daughters who remained in Europe

Coming on the heels of my last entry in which I described the First Generation Austel-Gutgsell Family Lines, I would like to turn now to two daughters who did NOT emigrate with the family to America in 1903. The daughters were the oldest: Marie and Ida. Fortunately, I have pictures of these Austel sisters and you can compare these images with those of the girls at a much younger age in the previous entry.

Marie Austel, 1877-1951, stands by her husband, Heinrich Schlumpf. The two children are Fritz and Therese. As already mentioned, contact with this family was lost sometime after WW II. There are a few old letters floating around in the attics of our family at large and I continue to search them out. My maternal grandmother, Mrs. Margaret (Gretl) Gailliot, nee. Austel, kept a "little black book", in which she wrote down her siblings names along with their birthday and the day on which they died. Grandma Margaret was the youngest of the first geneation and the last to pass away, born 1894 and died 1964.
Image above: The couple on the right are Ida, nee. Austel, 1882-1934, and her husband, Fidelius RINK, 1878-1966. The couple on left are unidentified. On reverse is hand-written caption:

"Im Frühling 1935. Flemberg (or Hemburg?) St. Gallen- Oberland"

Translated: "Spring, 1935, in Flemberg (or Hemburg), St. Gallen- in the Alps".

Image above: Mrs. Ida Rink, nee. Austel, is being helped to her feet after apparently slipping on the snow. I don't see any skiis and she is smiling, so I don't think she was seriously hurt. Others in the photo have not been identified. On Reverse: "Rulshssorh auf dem Weg Z. Noanlichen, 28 Jul 1935. Erst ich mach her alle andern warum haben sie gelacht".

Translation: ? Anybody give it a try ? Please post in comments below.

Fidelius Rink and Ida, nee. Austel, had two surviving children, Martina and Paul. Martina never married nor had children. Paul married a lady named Isabelle and they had one son, Wolfgang Rink. In 2001, I heard from a third party that Wolfgang Rink and his widowed mother moved to Berlin, Germany, after Paul died in the mid 1990s. They had resided in Lauterach, Austria, on the eastern shores of the Bodensee.

REFERENCES and LINKS:

I googled "Wolfgang Rink" and found a match at this web site. Could this be OUR Wolfgang Rink? I believe he looks too young. I wish I could get in touch with him and refer him to this blog entry.

Austel and Gutgsell Family Lines- Introduction to First Generation

This is another in a series of entries in which I describe the first or earliest generation for each of my family lines. The present entry concerns my Austel and Gutgsell Lines, specifically the married couple, Joseph Austel and Maria Gutgsell. They were my maternal great grandparents (Mom’s grandparents). It might be helpful if you go to a graphical representation of my pedigree to orient yourself as to which pair of great grandparents are being considered.

Image: Joseph Austel and his first wife, Maria, nee. Gutgsell (who is sitting and holding baby Franz); Maria’s mother, Mrs. Margaret Gutgsell, nee. Kessler, stands in the rear; and 7 of the 10 children born to Joseph and Maria. Maria’s first child, named Joseph, died within a month of birth. Two other daughters, Rosa and Margaret, were not yet born when this family portrait was taken at Jacque Studer Studio, Weinfelden, Canton Thurgau, Switzerland, circa 1888.

The following image is the three youngest children of Joseph Austel and Maria, nee. Gutgsell: Frank Joseph, now a young man, the sisters Rosa and Margaret (or Gretl, my grandmother), about 1915.

My aunt, who was the late Mrs. Helen R. Bailey, nee. Gailliot, possessed a necklace and tiny locket which contained a miniature portrait of Joseph as a young man. Since the portrait measured only 1 x 3/4 inches, and since Helen was a talented artist, I asked her to sketch a larger bust of Joseph so I could frame and hang it on the wall of my home. She did a wonderful job and I joined the two images together for this entry (see below) using Adobe Photoshop Elements:
Later on, I enlarged the original several times in a photocopier and digitally scanned it. But in the meantime Helen almost went blind drawing from the tiny miniature which she had clipped to the corner of her easel. Ahhh, the wonders of technology!

Joseph Austel was born 1851 in Haindorf, Bohmen, (Bohemia in English) which is in the Czech Republic today. The village name has since been changed to Hejnice in the Czech language. Joseph was a Roman Catholic, as were most of the Austrians at the time he was born. The only Catholic Church in the village was Panna Maria. It is an ancient church and was used for centuries as a site for pilgrimages. According to the Internet, the church is known as, “The Temple of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary”. Today, it is a retreat for spiritual rehabilitation. I imagine that all the parish records have been removed.

However, I was fortunate to find parish records of the family after Joseph was married and after the Austel family migrated to Burglen, Canton Thurgau, Switzerland. I have a copy of an affidavit concerning Joseph Austel which I believe was some sort of character reference, titled in German, "Leumunds-Zeugnis". It confirmed that Joseph was originally from Haindorf and that he lived in Burglen between 1875 and the year the document was created, 1900. Over that 25 year period, 10 children were born to Joseph and Maria and are recorded in both Catholic and civil records in Canton Thurgau, Switzerland. In Sep 2001, I visited Saints Peter and Paul Catholic church in Sulgen, near Burglen, I was able to copy baptismal entries from the parish record. I wanted to take a picture inside the closet archives of the church which contained shelves of old parish records, but strangely, the parish priest turned down my request. However, he did allow me to take at least one picture of the record book which contained the data of the Austel family.

Also from the Parish Records, I discovered that the mother of the family, Mrs. Maria Gutgsell, daughter of Ludwig GUTGSELL and Margaret, nee. KESSLER, died in 1895. Fortunately, the parents of the deceased were also listed in the record. The CIVIL records were even more helpful; they gave vital statistics for the deceased and the parents. Maria Gutgsell was born 1857 in Wintzenheim, Alsace (France at the time) and her mother, Margaret, was born 1820, Ammerschwihr, Alsace. The record went even further to give the parents of Margaret Kessler as Marc KESSLER and Magdalena ZUSCHMITT. How Joseph Austel from Haindorf, Bohemia, on the east side of Germany, met his bride from Alsace, on the far west side of Germany, is a mystery. What was going on in history in 1875 in middle europe which might give a clue regarding their rendezvous?

Two years after his first wife died, Joseph Austel, married a Protestant convert to Catholicism, Rosa Friedrich, who was 25 years younger that he was. Actually, Joseph gave Rosa an ultimatum to convert if she wanted to marry him. They had one son, Paul (b. 1898), who later died as an infant.

Again, the records of the civil authorities, or what I came to know as the Zivilstandesampt Haushaltungs (Household Registers) came through with welcome genealogical data. The marriage record for Joseph and Rosa listed their parents. Joseph’s parents were Franz AUSTEL and Veronika NEISSER (no vital statistics) and Rosa’s were Johann FRIEDRICH and Josephina, geboren (born) ODERMOTT.

In Nov 1903, Joseph and his second wife, Rosa, and Joseph’s mother-in-law from his FIRST wife, and the youngest six children immigrated to America and settled in Braddock (a borough of Pittsburg) Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Braddock was already home to the mother-in-law’s only other child, Louis Gutgsell, and Joseph Austel’s oldest son, Ludwig Austel. Joseph's son had come to America the year before in 1902 at the request of his uncle. Two daughters in the first generation, Maria and Ida, remained in Switzerland and never emigrated. They were already married by 1903: Maria to Heinrich SCHLUMPF and Ida to Fidelius RINK. There were descendants from these families, but unfortunately, communication diminished to a point where contact was lost.

Austel home in N. Braddock, near Pittsburgh. Address plate on house reads "562" [Stokes Ave]. Probate of Joseph's estate in 1924 confirmed the same address. Joseph and Rosa, on left. Margaret Frances Gailliot and Margaret Austel on porch swing; about 1915. The girls were school mates and close friends. Mary introduced her older brother, Charles A. Gailliot, to Margaret, who he eventually married in 1917.

REFERENCES AND LINKS:

For other First Generation Family Lines at this blog, click on the tag, SurnameLine-Intro. And replace "Surname" with Gailliot, Russell, etc.

Hejnice, the parish church and pilgrimage of the Visitation of our Holy Lady. Also, check out the many Czech tourism sites.

My blog entry on the two oldest daughters, Maria and Ida Austel, who remained behind in Europe.

How the history and culture of my Bohemian Austel Family almost floated away

Image: The National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library (NCSM&L), Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was inaugurated in 1995. I own a postcard which shows the Presidents of three countries standing on an outside terrace waving to a crowd gathered for the event: Bill Clinton (US), Michael Kovac (Slovak Republic) and Vaclav Havel (Czech Rep.).

In June, 2008, our country experienced record flooding in Iowa and Missouri and raging wild fires in Northern California. The environment seemed to be angry at us. And I can’t say that we have been exactly kind to the environment. But this is not to be a diatribe on the conflict between man and the environment- just one of its disastrous consequences.

When I heard that the Cedar River in Iowa crested several feet above flood stage, I was immediately concerned about the Czech and Slovak Museum in Cedar Rapids. Three years ago, in 2005, I was returning from a two month job at a nuclear plant in Blair, Nebraska. As I traveled east along Interstate 80, crossing Iowa, I took a side track and stayed the night near the historic German immigrant community of Amana. Next morning, I took an early hike on the nature trail at Amana, and then drove about 20 miles further north to the National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library in Cedar Rapids. I spent most of the day touring the museum and the adjoining Czech Village.

The Museum proved to be an excellent way to learn about the culture and history into which my great grandfather was born in the mid 19th century. JOSEPH AUSTEL was born in 1851 in the former village of Haindorf, Boehmen (or Bohemia in English) which then was part of the Austrian Hungarian Empire. Franz Joseph was both the Emperor of Austria and the King of Bohemia. The name of the village was changed from Haindorf (from village in the woods in German) to Hejnice, in the Slovakian tongue when Czechoslovakia was re-established after WW I. In the 1990s, the country was split during the so-called velvet divorce into two countries: the Czech Republic and Slovakia. So, there is a lot of history and changes to absorb for the family historian who is trying to understand where his Bohemian ancestors came from. For the greater part of a day, I delved into the history and culture of my ancestral homelands. The displays were artistically created and very informative. I collected stamps as a kid- and still do on occasion. So, I was quite pleased when I saw enlarged reproductions of commemorative stamps being used as part of the displays.

Image: Historical Time line shows events during the last 80 years for Czechoslovakia beginning before its establishment in 1918. Commemorative stamps are used to illustrate various events and personalities.

My favorite displays were the mannequins dressed in the folk costumes (Tracht in German or Kojke in Slovakian) for the various regions of the county. When they dressed up, the Bohemians wore material of embroidry and lace. I learned that lace and other textiles were significant export items from Bohemia, and then I could understand WHY my great grandfather, born in Bohemia, worked in a Textile Mill in the latter part of the 19th century in Canton Thurgau, Switzerland. However, I still cannot say why he and his wife MIGRATED to Swizterland around 1875, but at least he had a trade when he got there.

I was particularly impressed by a statue of the founder and first president of the re-established Republic of Czechoslovakia: Thomas Garrique Masaryk. The statue has a fantastic history; it was designed by Jan Vitele and cast in bronze by Bartak shortly after the death of Masaryk in 1937. However, when the Germans invaded Czechoslovakia at the beginning of WW II, the owner of the statue, Vaclav Ilk, had to bury it in his backyard garden during the German occupation. The statue was moved and re-buried three times to keep it from being discovered. Ilk would have been executed by the Nazis if his secret was ever discovered. After WW II, the Russians confiscated the statue from a local town square and it was “lost” until the late 1960s. It was then that Ilk read about three statues of Thomas Masaryk which had been stored at a Museum in Prague. His sculpture was identified and returned to him. The statue was gifted to the Iowa museum in 1995 by Jira and Anne Jilick in memory of Ilk, and it now stood in front of this visitor for a digital picture (see image).

Paired with the image of the statue is a picture of an historical marker in downtown Pittsburgh, PA, indicating the Pittsburgh Agreement which was signed by Mazaryk among others in 1918. It established the intention to form the democratic country of Czechoslovakia. At the time of the signing my immigrant Bohemian great grandfather, JOSEPH AUSTEL, was residing just a couple of miles away in Braddock Borough- interesting how history weaves itself.

By the way, Thomas Masaryk has an interesting genealogy which includes his disputed parentage and his marriage to an American, Charlotte Garrigue, from whom he took his middle name.

As I was leaving the museum, I took a closer look at two panels showing portraits of famous persons of Czech and Slovak birth or descent. I am sure you will recognize a few: photographer, Ansel Adams; actor Robert Urich; astronaut Eugene Cernan; athletes Martina Navratilova and George Blanda; artist Andy Warhol, playwright Havel; military leader, Stefanik; “Good King” St. Wenceslaus; McDonald’s founder, Ray Kroc; blogger, Bob Kramp- hey wait minute, I know that guy.

After my tour of the museum, I wandered over to the nearby Czech Village to buy some postcards and have a snack. The Bakery looked- and smelled good. I decided to assimilate myself into some enticing, ethnic food. There seemed to be a lot of pastries with poppy seeds. One pastry looked like a patty of dark chocolate on a bun. The lady behind the counter explained it was a “Bohemian Burger” made from a patty of mushed poppy seeds. Fearing I might fail the security drug test at my next nuke job, I opted for a cream puff of some sort- with fewer poppy seeds. Actually the baker gave me a complimentary cookie. Everybody knows the way to my heart is through my stomach, so I can say I really admired these people. I scribbled the name of the pasty on my museum brochure- looks like “Kalajke” or “Kalachee”. The latter is probably a phonetic spelling. If your grandma makes them, put a few in a box and mail to the address on my home page.

So, what happened to this fantastic learning and research center during the floods last month? Take a look at the image below- and you may gasp for air. Moreover, you may gasp and wonder what in the world was lost in this disaster. There are plenty of images and videos of the flood and its aftermath at the references and Internet links below. One can see the determination of the friends of the NCSM&L who are committed to preserving the museum. I know it must be depressing to look at the water damage, but please, hang in there. I certainly appreciate how much you have given to me and my family- for generations to come.

REFERENCES and LINKS:

Flood Damage assessment and clean-up: images, news updates, and how you can help.

Story and interviews regarding the NCSML flood on National Public Radio.

The original Czech and Slovak Museum and Library Web site

Permanent exhibit on "Homelands: The Story of the Czech and Slovak People" and a free guide downloadable in pdf format. If you have ancestors from the area of Czechoslovakia, you have to go here. I downloaded and saved all 6 pages of the full page spread.

The Gailliot and Austel Families tour Washington, DC (vintage photos)

Henry C. Gailliot (sitting, left) and his wife, Franceska, nee. Dumoulin, and their oldest son, Charles A. Gailliot, pose in front of the Bartholdi Fountain with the Nation's Capital dome in the far background. The date was about 1918. I understand the Fountain has been re-located, but it is still in sight of the Capital. In the next week or so I plan to be touring Washington, DC, and one of my destinations/ projects is to take a picture of myself sitting on the ledge of the fountain. The straw hat is optional of course. I believe there is a word for that style of hat. Help me out here.

I also plan to bicycle around the District of Columbia mall and along the C&O canal.

A few entries ago, I mentioned that the Franciscan Monastery, a few blocks away from the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, was also one of the favorite tourist destinations of the early Gailliot family. The following photo was taken at the replica of the Grotto at Lourdes (France), which is located in the garden of the Franciscan Monastery. Sitting on the bench is Henry C. Gailliot and his wife, Franceska, on the left, and his son's mother-in-law, Mrs. Rosa Austel, nee. Friedrick, on the right. I believe it was taken on the same trip on which they visited the Bartholdi fountain, about 1918. Mr. and Mrs. Austel were in town to attend the baptism of the families' first grandchild, Helen Rose Gailliot. The "modern-day" photo of the Grotto with me standing in front of the iron gate was taken about 1999. As you can see, not much has changed in 80 years. I plan to revise and make additions to this entry in my blog in a few days. I will be leaving in a few hours to drive up to the Washington, DC, area to visit Mom on Mother's Day, and I hope to find out more about the sites and visits of my ancestors to Nation's capital.

About 20 years after these photos were taken of my great grandparents, a book and a movie were pulished regarding the miracles which occurred at the actual grotto at Lourdes, in sourthern France. Entitled, The Song of Bernadette, the 1942 book became a popular best seller and the 1943 movie won four Academy Awards, including a Best Actress Award for Jennifer Jones.

Henry C. Gailliot sits on a bench between his wife, Franceska, on the left and Mrs. Rosa Austel, nee. Frederick, on the right. In 1918, the group visited the replica of the Grotto at Lourdes (France) on the property of the Franciscan Monastery, Washington, DC.

I visit the replica of the Lourdes Grotto to see what my ancestors enjoyed over 80 years ago on a similar visit.

References:

Frederic Bartholdi in Wikipedia

Bartholdi Fountain and Park in A View on Cities

Public Photos of Bartholdi Fountain posted on Flickr

St. Bernadette of Lourdes defined in Wikipedia