How many direct ancestors have I found on my pedigree in 10 generations (out of 1022 possible persons)?

To find the answer, I created an “Ancestors” report, including generation numbers, in my computer genealogy program, Ancestral Quest.  I did not include myself since I’m really not an ancestor yet. Then, I added up the known ancestors in each generation. Details are shown in the table below (click to enlarge).

As you can see, I know almost all of my direct ancestors in the first 5 generations.  Then, my knowledge of the next 5 generations falls off precipitously. In summary, I only know 5.1% of a possible 1022 ancestors in my 10 generation pedigree.

Except for the first 2 generations (myself and my parents), most of my ancestors were born overseas, particularly in Germany. Therefore, it is quite challenging- in terms of financial expense and time- to find the names and vital statistics, particularly, of my immigrant ancestors. See the last two columns in the Table.

Randy Seaver of the blog, GeneaMusings, calls the percent knowledge of his direct ancestors,  “Ancestral Name Number”. That is, he has knowledge of 544 names (including his own name) out of a possible 1023 names in 10 generations for an overall Ancestral Name Number of 53.27 % (544/1023).  Randy beats my Number by an order of magnitude

*Unfortunately, I do not know the PARENTS of my paternal great grandfather, Karl Streich, of Posen or West Prussia.

**Waiting for Ann Robinson’s (and William Hartley’s) 1842 Civil Marriage Registration from GRO (England) to determine her father’s full name. Hopefully, I will be able to find her mother’s first name in 1841 U.K. Census. Thus, the number in this cell may be boosted from 12 to 14 in a couple of weeks. And if I’m really lucky, one of the death certificates I ordered from Pennsylvania Vital Statistics may have the maiden surname of my 2x great grandmother, Augusta (m. Frederick Hohnke), as well as her PARENTS.

As one of the comments attached to Siever’s blog indicated:  it’s the story BEHIND these names that is the most meaningful for a family historian.  And oh yes, I have photographs for 7 out of 8 of my great grandparents. I know what they look like. And you know a picture is worth at least a thousand words. Maybe we should add another statistic- Ancestral Picture Number.

REFERENCES AND LINKS:

Judy G. Russell posted “More Lost Than Found” in which she came up with an Ancestral Name Number of  12.3% (126/1022).

Randy Seaver’s blog on “What’s Your Ancestral Name Number?": his was 53.3%.

Becky at Kinexxions calculated 21.3% (218/1022) of her direct ancestors were accounted for in her post, “This and that and 21.3%.".

My Pedigree with images.

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.

Pedigree Ornament No. 10: my paternal Great Grandfather.

Thomas William Russell, born 1847, in the village of Holytown, Bothwell Parish, Lanarkshire, Scotland; died 1928, West Barnesboro (now Northern Cambria), Cambria County, Pennsylvania; buried International Order of Odd Fellows Cemetery (no marker), Brisbin, Clearfield Co., PA.

Pictured above is the former National Bank of Barnesboro (red-brick), in Cambria County, PA. But, you know how banks are these days. National Bank became Laurel Bank, and the latest is the Bank of Northern Cambria. Photo was taken in 1992, by Bob Kramp.

My father’s maternal grandfather, Thomas William Russell, spent his last couple of decades, 1900-1925, as a janitor at the National Bank of Barnesboro. He lived in an apartment in the basement of the bank. My uncle Russell Stryke remembers visiting his grandfather, Thomas. He said that Thomas spoke with a Scottish Brogue, and used the pronouns “thy and thee”.

Thomas was born in Scotland, but within a year, his family migrated to the coal fields of County Durham in northern England. Here, he met his English-born (Yorkshire) wife, Eleanor Hartley, and they had their first five children in County Durham. Unfortunately they also witnessed the death of their first two children who were girls. Thomas and all of his male siblings were coal miners. They immigrated to Pennsylvania about 1881, and Thomas in particular was joined by some of his in-laws, the HARTLEY and HESELTINE families.

Thomas and his kin first settled in Clearfield County, PA, and continued to mine coal. Although the mining industry was a dangerous place to work and labor strife occurred regularly, I believe the Russell families were somewhat better off than in England. There is some evidence that they bought land in Houtzdale and the materials to build their own houses. Thomas wanted his two sons not to become coal miners. Apparently they never did. Sons in the next generation were proprietors of grocery stores and movie theaters, laborers, and at least one of Thomas’ nephews became a Primitive Methodist Minister.

Unfortunately, Thomas' wife was relatively young, about 48 years, when she died. There were five children left in the household, aged 6 to 16 years. Thus, Thomas was an elderly widow during the times he spend living in the small apartment at the bank.

Being a coal miner and a bank janitor seem to be pretty humble occupations in my opinion. But I believe he did those jobs well and without complaint. There were activities of bygone days by which men judged their fellow man. For example, Thomas was one of the oldest members of the local Lodge of the Scottish Rite Masons. When I read Thomas Russell’s obituary, I can see why Robert Burns, Scotland’s favorite son, who is also known as the Ploughman Poet, was Thomas’ hero. Burns was born about 50 years before Thomas. As I read, I had a changed and respectful vision of the person who was my great grandfather though I never heard much about him from my close relatives. Below is an excerpt from Thomas’ obituary. In those days, in a small town, some obituaries of an honored citizen took up quite a bit of newsprint, thank goodness.

From The Barnesboro Star, Thursday, 10 Jan 1929, page 7:

"Death of Thomas Russell, Sr. He was a great student and lover of Bobby Burns, memorizing many of his poems.’ 'The Cotters Saturday Night', 'The Two Dogs', 'Man was Made to Mourn’, ‘The Wee Mouse’, and Burns' ‘Letters to his young friend’ were always at his tongue's end. He often said that when a small boy, his father who was somewhat of a poet himself, used to gather him, and the other children around his knee, and recite to them Burns' poems. All through his life, Burns was his constant friend and companion. Another of his favorites was the poem often quoted by Abraham Lincoln: ‘Why should the Spirits of the Mortals be Proud’ [by Robert Burns] and only a short time before he went to his bed, he surprised his friends by reciting this entire poem. Coming from a man of his years, a typical Scotchman (sic) with hoary head and of venerable appearance it created an impression on the minds of his hearers that they will never forget."

Thomas W. Russell, “with hoary head and of venerable appearance” sits to the left of his brother, Robert Russell, and their brother-in-law, Alexander Forsyth (m. Alma Emma, nee. Russell). The man on far left has not yet been identified. Photo was taken in Syracuse, New York, 1920. Thomas was about 73 years old; Robert, about 70 years.

Pedigree Ornament No. 9, my Paternal Great grandmother.

Henrietta Hohnke, born 1842, probably in West Posen, Prussia (now Wielkopolska, Poland); died 1922, West Houtzdale (also known as West Moshannon or Cross Keys), Clearfield County, Pennsylvania; buried International Order of Odd Fellows Cemetery, Brisbin, PA.

Today’s Pedigree Ornament features an image of the former Saint John’s German Lutheran Church of Houtzdale, Pennsylvania. Like other “ornaments” is this series, I am choosing an image which is unique to a particular ancestor. Though not entirely unique to Henrietta, this image does characterize the religious community for several of my German ancestors and their neighbors who settled in Houtzdale, PA, in the early days. They included the STREICH, WAGNER, HOHNKE, TUSCHLING, KRAMP, and SROCK families among others. The early days actually began in 1870s when the area was a fertile resource for timber. Then coal was discovered on the lands by Dr. BRISBIN, and soon the Berwind and White Coal Company opened up mines into the Moshannon vein of the surrounding mountains as well as in the town itself. The soft coal was the perfect grade of mineral for powering the Steamships which were bringing hoards of immigrants to the New World. A system of railroads was built linking Houtzdale to New York to haul the coal.

In the 1990s, I visited the church office and discovered the Kirchenbuch (parish record book) which listed the baptisms and vital statistics for the congregation. Also recorded were early lists of communicants. The latter were helpful for grouping individual members together as family units. The marriage of Karl (Charles) Wagner to his third wife, Witwer (widow) Henrietta Streich, was recorded as shown below (click on image to enlarge):

I included this image to show why genealogists can go nearly blind during their research. The Wohnen (residence) of Karl is stated as “auf Pommern, jetzt Houtzdale” (“from Pomerania, now Houtzdale”) indicating Karl’s former and current residences. The column heads are not shown here in order to present a closer look at the individual entry. Karl’s birth date (Geborn) was 29 Sept 1849. The location and date of Henrietta’s birth is not stated. Oh well, she’s a female; it doesn’t matter. But, the female in this case was MY Great Grandmother. The opposing page 251 (not shown), listed the witnesses: “Rudolf Srock and Wilhelmine SROCK”. I have deduced that Wilhelmine was Henrietta’s sister who was married to Fredrick SCHROCK and Rudolf Srock was Fredrick's brother. HOHNKE was the maiden surnames of the sisters. The pastor was Detlef Ph. EBERT.

In St. John’s Kirchenbuch, in the section subtitled Gestorbenen (deaths), Henrietta’s vital statistics came to light, sort of. She was born 30 Aug 1842, (her tombstone was inscribed, 1841) at “P. Posen, W. Prussia”, Germany. She died 27 Jan 1922, at the age of 80 years, 4 months, 27 days, of cancer, and buried 31 Jan 1922, at Brisbin cemetery. John T. JENNINGS, pastor. Unfortunately, the birthplace is not too specific. “P. Posen” probably means the Province of Posen which was one of the largest provinces in Prussia at the time of Henrietta’s birth. The location “W. Prussia” is probably West Prussia which further confuses the issue because West Prussia was a Province just east of Posen. Incidentally, both West and East Prussia were far east of Berlin.

Since the church was only open on Thursday afternoons, I spent many hours on those days recording data from the Kirchenbuch. Fortunately, I discovered that the LDS church microfilmed the same Kirchenbuch many years ago. What luck, even if it was discovered a little too late. At least I could obtain photocopies to study the German writing.

The congregations of the former Bethel Swedish Lutheran and the St. John’s German Lutheran were merged in the 1970s and services were held at the Bethel Church whose name was changed to Faith United Lutheran to reflect the merger. However, when there was a fifth Sunday in a month, services were held at the old Gothic style, white clapboard, St. John’s. Unfortunately, in 1997, the water pipes froze and the cost of repairs was too much for the congregation to handle. St. John’s Lutheran Church was demolished. An outdoor gazebo and garden now stands on the former church’s foundation. The old church bell is mounted inside (see below):


REFERENCES and LINKS:

1. A memorial plaque for the former St. John’s German Lutheran church, Houtzdale, PA, has been added to the gazebo and was shown in an earlier blog entry.

2. The Latter Day Saints library at Salt Lake City, has microfilmed the Kirchenbuch of St. John’s German Lutheran Church, Houtzdale, Clearfield Co., PA: Microfilm no. 1671236.

Pedigree Ornament No. 8, my Paternal Great Grandfather.

Karl Streich, born unknown date, probably in Prussia; died 1885, probably in Peale, Clearfield County, Pennsylvania; buried in unknown location.

It is quite difficult to create a unique Christmas Ornament for a person who seems to have been invisible, which is the case for my great grandfather, Mr. Strike. To compound the issue, his descendants used various spellings of the surname which in some cases have been documented, for example, on marriage records and at least one tombstone- his grandson used the “Stryke” version on his inscription. But never mind, the surname has disappeared from this particular descendant line of our family tree. Of course, we know Mr. Streich existed, because four of his children survived- Amalie, Otto, Julius, and Martha- though one of those children, Julius, seems to have also become invisible many years ago. But not before he fathered a daughter who was “found” not so long ago. With some persistence, even Julius’ abandoned wife was located. I believe Mr. Strike’s first name was Karl based primarily on naming patterns and a process of elimination. One of his two sons and a grandson both have the middle name of Karl.

Karl Streich probably resided in Pennsylvania over the 3 years period between 1883 and 1885. The youngest of his children, Martha Streich, was born in June 1883 in Peale, Clearfield Co, PA, and his widow’s marriage application to her second husband states her first husband died in October, 1885. Unfortunately, the town where the Streich family first settled after immigrating to America was completely removed lock, stock and barrel, to various locations around the turn of the twentieth century. After the mines were exhausted, the stores, company houses, and churches, were loaded onto rail cars and transported elsewhere, like a tent circus. The only landmark of the town that remained was the cemetery. But care of the cemetery was abandoned and the tombstones, whether made of wood or stone, have crumbled to the earth and then covered with the succession of a new forest. Only one tombstone survived for many years, but the last time I tried to visit the cemetery, I could not ascertain the outline of the cemetery or the last known tombstone.

Nevertheless, I will still hang Karl Strike’s Pedigree Ornament on my blog just in case someone ever comes around to claim it.

REFERENCES and LINKS:

1. The Ghost Company Town of Peale, PA, an informative web site maintained by John Krygier

2. Web site of the Peale Research Foundation organized by a couple of local residents (Wagner family) of nearby Grassflats.

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.

Pedigree Ornament No. 6, My Maternal Grandfather.

Charles Anthony Gailliot, born 1894, Braddock borough, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania; died 1948, Alexandria, VA; buried St. Mary’s Cemetery, Alexandria, VA.


My maternal grandfather worked as a pattern maker, as did several others in the early Gailliot Line. He married the former Margaret Austel at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Braddock, PA, in August 1917, and within a few days, received his induction notice to be drafted into the Army in the Great War, also known as WW I. At the same time, he also received notice that he was approved by the Navy Yard in Washington, DC, to work in the Pattern Maker Department. Since the job was part of the War effort, Charles was not drafted into the Army. Thus, in short order, Charles married; moved to the City of Washington; and began his career in the Navy Yard. Charles and Margaret’s first child, Helen Rose, was born in 1918.

Since my grandfather died when I was only 6 years old, I did not have an opportunity to talk much about what he actually did as a pattern maker. From what I gather, a pattern maker is sort of like a draftsman and they design and make molds for machine parts. I imagine some of the parts which Charles drafted were used in weaponry for the War or for building the Navy’s battleships. On the other hand, I had a hunch of what Charles was able to do by looking at the bookends he made during his “spare time” at the Navy Yard. They were made out of solid brass and one design in particular was the bust of an Indian (see image above). He also made a few brass doorstops which were in the shape of dogs- German Shepherds. Grandpap’s house had two large double doors that separated the living room from the foyer. The brass Shepherds were used to prop these doors open.

One of my favorite activities as a kid was to place the Indian on a sheet of typing paper and trace the outline of the figure’s head. Then I would use different colors of crayons to draw and color in the feathers. By the way, I keep a folder in my file drawer in which I place the scribbles and art work of my grandkids. I sure wish I could see some of these colorings that I made when I was so young.

Shown below is a vintage picture of my grandfather with some of his fellow pattern makers at the Navy Yard. They are grouped together on the steps of the Nation’s Capital. I hope that someone, somewhere, someday, might comment below that, yes, that is probably my grandfather in the group. Similar things have happened in the past. Charles Anthony Gailliot is the third man from the right, standing in the back row (click to enlarge).

**

Pedigree Ornament No. 5, My Paternal Grandmother

Emily Russell, born 1880 Thornley, County Durham, England; died 1918 at Detroit, Wayne Co., Michigan, buried Barnesboro (now Northern Cambria) Cambria Co., Pennsylvania.

These are the real “granny glasses”. They belonged to my paternal grandmother, Emily Russell. She died during the world-wide Spanish Flu Epidemic and probably as a consequence of it. Her death certificate states she died of septic peritonitis following child birth with a secondary complication of pneumonia. Emily was only 37 years and 5 months old. It was estimated that one out of every ten persons in the world died of the Flu. The rapid spread of the disease was partially attributed to American Soldiers of the Great War (WW I) who were exposed while fighting in Europe and then brought it home after the war. Even children were aware of what was going on. A ditty chanted by girls while playing "jump rope" went:

"I once had a bird

whose name was "Inza"

I opened the window

And in flew Inza"

The “child birth” was my father who was born just 7 days before his mother died. The family had gone to Detroit so that the father, Otto Strike, could use his skills as a machinist at the American Car and Foundry according to his WW I draft registration. The company was the primary manufacturer of electric street cars in America at the time. Otto’s family had been in Detroit only about 3 years when the tragedy of Emily’s death occurred. There were now five children under the age of 13 years, a week old baby, and no mother. Otto brought Emily’s body back from Detroit on a train and buried her in Northend Cemetery in Barnesboro, Cambria County, Pennsylvania. The older children were taken to Otto’s mother, Mrs. Henrietta Strike-Wagner, nee. Hohnke, and the baby was given to Otto’s married sister, Mrs. Martha (Strike) Kramp to foster. Otto took about a year to recover from his wife’s death and to regain employment. The 1920 census indicates he had gone back to coal mining. After a year or so, the children returned to their father in Barnesboro, but the baby remained with Otto’s sister in the neighboring county of Clearfield, in the village of Ramey. The Kramp family eventually adopted the boy. The boy grew up, married, and became my father. Incidentally, at the Millennium, Barnesboro, the town in which the Strike children were raised, was merged with the adjacent town of Spangler, and the name was changed to Northern Cambria.

Emily’s eyeglasses were essentially the only thing that was passed down to my father. Furthermore, he had only one or two pictures of the mother he never layed eyes on. Indeed, it was thought that most of the pictures of Emily had been destroyed. As I started to research my roots in the 1990s which is about 20 years after my father passed away, I was given several pictures of Emily by the late Mrs. Alice Wagner and the late, Mrs. Eleanor Grove. The women were related to the Kramp and Wagner families, respectively. None of the pictures ever showed Emily actually wearing eyeglasses.

The eyeglasses are currently in the hands of my sister. She put them up to her eyes the other day and told me they were definitely not magnifying lenses. Indeed, she said everything either close-up or far-away looked fuzzy. So, I guess the lenses were prescribed. I will have to do a little more research on the optometry of 1918. But I do know this, Emily never saw her children go through their teen-aged years, never saw them get married (which they did), and of course, never read The Christmas Story to any of her seventeen grandchildren. Never take for granted reading a book to your grandchildren. And you grandchildren, always appreciate being able to ask one of your grandparents to read you a story.

Pedigree Ornament No. 4, Paternal Grandfather

Otto Karl Strike, born 1877 in Prussia; died 1946 at Cresson Sanitarium, Cambria Co., Pennsylvania.

Click ornament to enlarge. This is a vintage photograph of the kitchen at the Cresson Tuberculosis Sanitarium, which was located on the outskirts of Cresson, in Cambria Co, Pennsylvania. I have studied it closely with a magnifying class. Though most of the persons are women, there appears to be two men toward the back of the room, and the man on the far right pushing a cart may be none other than my Dad’s biological father, Otto K. Strike. I say “biological”, because my father, after the sudden death of his mother, was fostered by Otto’s sister, Martha, who was married to Robert William Kramp. Mr. Kramp, who we called “Pop”, legally adopted my father shortly after his sixteenth birthday. Thus, I consider Otto Strike as my biological grandfather; and Pop Kramp, my adopted grandfather.

Otto Strike’s Death Certificate states he was an "ice plant operator" at Cresson Sanatarium and an employee of Pennsylvania Department of Health. I never met Otto in person (I was 4 years old when he died), but my older cousin, who was raised in Akron, OH, told me she and her mother would visit Otto at Cresson. She remembers Otto treating them to ice cream cones. Perhaps one of Otto’s duties at the ice plant was making or storing the frozen dessert.

Cresson Sanitarium, or the “San” as it was called locally, was built on land originally owned by the mogul of the steel industry and a millionaire, Andrew Carnegie. Carnegie was going to build a large mansion on the site for his mother who suffered from Tuberculosis. The refreshing mountainous air around Cresson was ideally suited for the health and recovery of TB patients; however, Mrs. Carnegie died before the house was built. Carnegie agreed to sell the land to the state for one dollar if they would build a Sanitarium and hospital on the property.

After tuberculosis was essentially eradicated in America by the mid-1950s, the Sanitarium and its buildings were converted into a state prison. In 1993, I drove out to the prison hoping to take pictures of the institution which was once my grandfather’s place of employment. Unfortunately, the site was surrounded by a high fence topped with razor wire and large signs warning, “No Pictures”. One day as I was searching though vintage postcards at an antique store far removed from Cresson, I was fortunate to find a series of vintage post cards which depicted the old TB Sanitarium. I bought the whole lot (see below)

The individual postcards are captioned starting from the top row, left: Grace Chapel, Administration Building, Children’s Gymnasium and Swimming Pool. Middle row: Unit No. 3, West Wing, East Wing. Bottom row: Surgery Building, Unit No. 1, and East Wing and corridor.

According to Otto’s Death Certificate, he died on his birthday, 20 May 1946, in “Cresson Sanitarium No. 2”. I did not make the connection between that number and the San until I posted these post cards. There are images of Unit No. 1 and No. 3, but not No. 2. Was there ever a postcard perhaps showing the specific building in which my grandfather died? Please, you antique hunters, keep an eye out.

Only a few years ago, I traced down a distant cousin with the help of a fellow researcher, Lyn. Our mutual relation, Bill Albright, got out his shoe box of pictures and pulled out a realistic view of the old Cresson Sanitarium as show below:

Children and their parents would sometimes board at the San. The Historical Society of Cambria County in Ebensburg, PA, has a file on the San, and I noted the following item of interest from a booklet:

"A great interest was taken in the Sanitarium by Mrs. Mary Thaw of Pittsburgh who had a summer home near Cresson. She gave generously in a financial way, particularly in the building of the chapel, and she visited the Sanitarium frequently familiarizing herself with its needs."

"On her visits she several times brought with her HELEN KELLER, her friend and protégé and Mrs. Keller's teacher, Mrs. ANN SULIVAN MACEY. On one occasion Mrs. Keller gave a short talk to the sanitarium children who were gathered in the assembly room."

I would like to imagine that my grandfather had a chance to meet and hear Helen Keller in person.

I posted a couple of my vintage postcards on a genealogical web site I maintain for my father’s branch of our tree. I was amazed that out of the hundreds of people who went through the San, there was one former patient who stumbled upon my web site about two years ago and contacted me. He was an eye witness. Ron emailed me from London, UK:

“Thank you so much for displaying the photos ... I was a patient there in 1953 and 1954, and at seventeen years old, I was one of the youngest. I lived in Unit 1 for about five months prior to my discharge in December 1954. I made occasional appearances at the chapel but I remember it well. I have several photos of other patients taken in the sanitarium and a couple taken on the roof of one of the buildings but while there I didn't take any of the grounds and other buildings”.

“The orderlies and male nurses had rooms in the attic of the west wing or else they lived in the town of Cresson. There is one building I don't recognize- it might be the dreaded surgery building.”

“Once you were well enough but not ready for discharge, you were moved into a dormitory. One dorm for men, one for women, situated to the rear of the admissions building. Behind the men's dorm there was an abandoned mine entrance. … As part of my therapy I was given a job in the San's post office and I delivered the mail from one end to the other, quite a trek. Aside from a few doctors I was the only male allowed into the women's wards. The kitchen girls, all from local towns, such as Lilly and Holidaysburg, did not wear long dresses and black stockings. Instead, their dresses were a bit shorter and they never wore stockings. And they were terrible flirts.”

“From Cresson I went directly to Penn State on a rehabilitation scholarship. After graduating in 1960, I lived at times in New York City, in Florida and in San Francisco for the next 20 years …”

REFERENCES AND LINKS:
1. The vintage photograph of the kitchen at Cresson Sanitarium is taken from “Images of America. Around Cresson” by Sister Anne Frances Pulling, 2000. Published by Arcadia Publishing, Charleston, SC.

2. Two of the Vintage postcards of Cresson Sanitarium mentioned in the text were also posted to an album at my Father’s genealogical web site.

3. Chuck Felton, a former patient at Cresson Sanitarium, has collected much information on the historic Sanitarium and has posted it on his web site "Cresson Sanitarium Remembered"

Pedigree Ornament No. 3, My Mom

Image: Mrs. Mary Margaret Kramp-Franck, born Mary M. Gailliot (still living)

Here is my mother sitting at her old Singer sewing machine with a smiling face in the mid-1950s. She sewed many of her own dresses and skirts. Mom said she took a class in high school which taught her how to sew. The same type of class which was taught at my middle school in the 1950s was called Home Economics. I don’t think it was offered to the guys, or if it was, I do not know of any who took it. Nowadays, however, I believe these predominantly female classes have changed their curricula so that they are more relevant to modern times. My step daughter, who is a Media Specialist in middle school, told me she has not seen a sewing machine in her school in the last dozen years or so. Moreover, the “Home Ec” classes are more likely to be called Family Living or Consumer Science. Another daughter said that one of her electives was called “Child Development”, which included several boys in her class. Glad I will never have to go back to high school; I would certainly be lost.

My mother said she also learned to sew from her mother. I particularly remember the sewing machine Grandma used. It was powered by a foot pedal or tray which one could rock back and forth which then turned a belt and pulley system which made the needle arm go up and down. I was mesmerized by its mechanics. They were called Treadle sewing machines. After sewing machines were electrified, many of the Treadles, especially the bottom part with the foot pedal, were made into small tables- perfect for holding house plants.

My mother grew up during the Great Depression when many materials were scarce. Grandma took in old clothes and coats from her mother-in-law, Mrs. Franceska Gailliot, and ripped the seams apart. Then, she cut patterns from the non-worn out parts and sewed them together to make “new” dresses.

Mom said she also took a millinery class one time and learned how to make hats. All I remember was the form she had in the “sewing room”. It was shaped just like a human head and made out of wood. Sort of like mine. I wish I could find one of those forms now; it would make a great hat rack and many other things that I can imagine.

Shown below is one of my mother’s sewing projects modeled by my sister. Mom even had material left over to sew a similar dress for Beverly’s doll. Judging by the looks of the TV and knowing when Beverly was born, I believe the picture was taken about 1955.

Another one of Mom’s dresses which she made is shown in a previous entry. And one of her most complex and difficult projects by her own admission was the cowboy suits she made one Christmas for me and my brother.

A little while ago, I received a gift of some leisure pants in which the pant legs were about a foot too long. I cut off the extra material, but now I need them hemmed so they won’t unravel. H-e-e-e-e-y Mom!

Pedigree Ornament No. 2, My Father

I am numbering my Pedigree Ornaments according to the Ahnentafel System. Each ancestor has a number based on their relationship to the Principal who is number 1 (that's me). I posted Pedigree Ornament No. 1 yesterday. If you are really interested in the details of an Ahnentefel: each father has a number twice that of his child, and each mother has a number twice that of her child, plus one. For example, my father is Number 2; and my mother, Number 3. My paternal grandfather would be 2 x 2, or Number 4. My maternal grandmother would be (2 x 3) + 1, or Number 7. Now that you know the details, forget the math and enjoy the images and stories of the ornaments. Click on any ornament to enlarge it.

Image: Robert Carl Kramp, born Robert C. Strike, 1918-1974.

As I described this series of blogs yesterday, I am posting images of my ancestors which depict something unique about their life. Here, Dad is playing his guitar. He played by himself most of the time, in the quiet corners of the house. But when he was growing up in Ramey, Clearfield County, PA, he told me he had a grand old time jamming with the other boys and young men in the neighborhood. Several years ago, I talked to one of Dad’s neighborhood chums, Cecil Lloyd, about these musical get-togethers occurring in the late 1920s and 1930s. By the time I saw Cecil, all the boys had grown up, moved away from Ramey, and started their own families. Cecil was now a grandfather, and Dad had already passed away.

“What kind of songs did you used to play”, I asked.

“Oh, that was the time of the Cowboy movies, y’know. We would play cowboy songs. ‘I’m an old cow hand’ … and stuff like that. There was one that Albert [Johnson] liked. I don’t remember the name of it, but it went something like [Cecil begins to sing] … the riders of perdition are posted in every … [starts to laugh]. We’d harmonize y’know.”

“I remember one time Albert and I sang at a Major Bowes contest down in Houtzdale. Sort of like the old ‘Skip O’Day’s Amateur Hour’ on the radio. You probably don’t remember anything like that. Anyway we took second place. Albert’s father got right up there with us and played the fiddle”

“Did Pop Kramp ever join your jam sessions?”

“No, he was more to himself. Although he was never mean to us kids, or anything like that.”

“I remember he’d mumble to Bob all the time. I don’t recall that he was a good talker. Maybe because he was from Germany. He seemed to have an accent; he didn’t talk much. He’d tell Bob to do this or that. I remember how he used to talk. And I was a devil to mimic people. He’d say something to Bob, and when we’d get away, I’d say Bobdo-wob-di-bob-dobob-way. I couldn’t understand what he’d said, and we’d laugh about it.”

“I recall Bob had to do chores around the farm. He used to grind up chicken bones to feed the chickens. I always thought that was something- feeding chickens their own bones.”

Cecil Lloyd lived in Altoona , PA, when I interviewed him. I always wanted to return and reminisce with him some more. But on my last trip to Altoona, I discovered that Cecil died in August 2004. I ran across his obituary while researching at the library. It read in part, “was a member of Fifth Avenue United Methodist Church for more than 40 years, where he sang in the Chancel Choir. … Mr. Lloyd was a longtime salesman, who enjoyed SINGING, hunting, fishing and golfing.”

One day I saw Dad had modified his guitar. Some of you may know of the hands-free harmonica holder that the 1970s singer, Bob Dylan, hung around his neck. That device was a little uncomfortable and could slip when you played it. So, Dad improved on the device by mounting the harmonica with two pieces of bent wire attached to his Martin guitar with screws (cringe). He would have to sit in a chair to play both instruments together.

Though Dad was quite modest about playing guitar in front of anybody, we used to force him to sing “Edelweiss” while playing the guitar-harmonica combination. Very Sweet.

The best legacy and gift Dad left me was he taught me to play the guitar. The banjo came later.

Hanging the First Pedigree Ornament on my Blog

I am initiating a new tradition this Christmas, but first, I want to mention a few of our family’s traditions that seem to have run the course. Our family members, like many others in America, reside at relatively long distances from each other. My brother lives in Florida; my Sister, in Maryland; I’m residing in North Carolina. One of my daughters and her family lives in Maryland; the other, fortunately, resides in my current home state of North Carolina. Some of my cousins have children scattered all over the country from coast to coast. Sad to say, like many families since the 1980s, there have been several break-ups and estrangements because of divorce. Depending on which branch of the family being considered, I have recently calculated that 40 to 50 percent of the cousins in my generation have gone through a divorce. Most have remarried, resulting in what we call EXTENDED families. Nevertheless, there are some who are still alone. What I’m saying is that it is often difficult to get the family, or what’s left of it, to come together in one place to carry on any kind of family tradition- to share in the camaraderie and excitement of the Thanksgiving or Xmas holidays. There are fewer and fewer of us sitting around the table for the “traditional” meal or the hand to hand exchange of gifts. Yes, we could take a plane flight or pack into our car and drive, but that’s getting truly expensive these days. Furthermore, it drains our energy resources and puts a strain on the environment. And, is it really safe to be driving on ever more crowded highways perhaps during dangerous weather conditions? Back me up you people who drove home for Thanksgiving.

The situation was not always so. Back in the 1950’s, when I was a pre-teenager, my family would drive over the Potomac River to Alexandria, Virginia, to Grandma’s house. There, I would play and run around with my ten cousins- all of them. Actually, a few cousins were born a little later, as I was the oldest. My cousins and their families all lived within a 20 mile radius of Grandma’s home.

We were so excited to find out what each other had received from Santa Claus. Indeed, it was here we discovered the real story about Santa, but we didn’t have the heart to tell our parents. We exchanged gifts and had a good old time. Grandma spent several days beforehand making up bushel baskets of Fastnachtskuchele, a traditional Swiss pastry that grandma learned to make from her stepmom, Rosa Frederick, who grew up in Canton Thurgau, Switzerland. Then after dinner, after the gifts were unwrapped, after the toys were broken and mended, and after I won the “war” card game, we would all gather around Grandma to take the “traditional” cousins picture (see below). I was able to date the pictures, taken in 1953 and 1956, from the birth dates of the infants on Grandma’s lap.

Image: Grandma Margaret (Austel) Gailliot is surrounded by seven of her grandchildren in this 1953 Christmas picture. (Two of my younger cousins have since passed away).

Image: Grandma Gailliot is surrounded by nine of her grandchildren in this 1956 traditional Christmas picture. One last grandchild, the tenth, was born in 1960. Four years later, that is about eight years after this picture was taken, Grandma passed away. By the way, you would not believe how difficult it is today to get a similar photo of the grandkids together with a grandparent. I am the mean, camera guy at Christmas for trying to force everybody to gather together for a picture.

Christmas Cards and Photo Cards

So you see, these pictures are reminders of some of our family traditions. Perhaps another way to bridge our scattered brethren is to send Christmas cards. I hardly ever sent Cards until about 15 years ago. Actually, it was a means to gather family history and share it with members of my family. I created Xmas letters and cards that featured portraits of my relatives or of places in which they grew up. Recently, one of the more interesting evolutions in Xmas cards is the creation of Photo cards. Now, you can not only send and receive Xmas greetings, but also, you can see how the faces have changed of friends, relatives, and particularly, the children. For several years now, I have archived the photo cards I received, and also, scanned and inserted them into my genealogical computer database. Below is a collage of a few examples:

But even here, forces are working against the tradition of sending cards. A first class letter or Xmas card cost three cents to mail in Grandma’s time in the 1950’s. This week, it costs 43 cents. Maybe we can get around these obstacles by using the computer for sending photos and greetings, though I believe there are some who think this is too impersonal.

A Series of Christmas Ornaments

Now it is time to introduce perhaps a new tradition- a project that can be uploaded by my computer to a public site to be enjoyed by relatives afar, or even by We Three Kings of Orient Are. They would otherwise probably never remember all those user names and passwords at private sites.

Every day, from now until Xmas week, my goal is to hang (OK, post) a Xmas ornament on this blog. However, these ornaments are not going to be like the ones you usually see. I will be creating Xmas ornaments with images that characterize each one of my ancestors in my lineal PEDIGREE back through my great grandparents. This calculates to be 15 ornaments including myself. I might throw in a few extra ornaments, such as those for my father’s adopted parents. Elsewhere on this blog, I have posted pedigree charts containing thumbnail images of my ancestors. However, for this project, instead of facial images, I am going to choose an image which depicts something unique about that individual’s life. It might be related to their occupation, avocation, place of birth or residence, or other things of which you and I will eventually learn.

Shown below is the first ornament on my Pedigree. The first person in a pedigree chart is called the principal. That would be me, Robert C. Kramp, and I am on the left in the red shirt; I stand next to my sister, Beverly, and my brother, Russell. We are standing behind my mother, the former Mary Margaret Gailliot. We are all living and the only ones in my pedigree who still survive, so I won’t go into too much detail for now. I will divulge this: the picture was taken within the last three years.

I am going to try an experiment here, if you are a Facebook.com subscriber you should be able to link here and go to the same image posted at my personal Facebook site.

Incidentally, Webster’s dictionary emphasizes that a tradition is not written down. Rather, it is an oral transmission of information, beliefs, and customs from ancestors to posterity. So, ask somebody to read this blog entry out loud to your children, preferably an older person who can embellish the written story. And after that, read what other genealogists have written about their family traditions in the Carnival of Genealogist, 61st Edition (see link at end of this entry).

Actually, this blog is becoming a type of tradition in itself. About a year ago, I wrote about the animal stable my father constructed out of wooden packing crates and placed under our Christmas tree in a Nativity scene. I will always remember it, and hopefully, it will also be impressed upon my grandchildren.

To the right of this page, I placed a tag, “Xmas-2008”, so that you can pull out the complete series of these particular blog entries, as I also plan to post entries on other topics during December.

REFERENCES AND LINKS

1. My lineal pedigree including facial images of my ancestors.

2. Read what other Geneabloggers (people who blog genealogy) had to say about their Holiday Traditions, all linked from Jasia's Creative Gene.

The Negative Impact of some Early Deaths of my Ancestors

The Age at Death Pedigree for my ancestors is kind of scary. The yellow colored squares indicate my direct ancestors who died at less than 55 years of age. At a genealogy conference I once attended, a physician talked about Medical History for the genealogist. He told the audience that nobody could predict when one would likely die. It was a combination of GENES and LUCK. Well, I guess I am pretty lucky because I am over 60 (I’ll leave it at that), and I’m still kicking. My mother is extremely lucky- but I don’t believe she sees it that way.

On the other hand, my father was not so lucky, he died at a relatively young age. But, that was not the worst of it. His mother, Emily, died in the 1918 Influenza epidemic only seven days after giving birth. Robert was then fostered and eventually adopted by his father’s sister, Martha Streich (Strike). She was married to Robert William Kramp, and that is why I am a Kramp instead of a Streich. But yet, there is a blood connection; Martha was my father’s paternal aunt. Not shown on the above chart is that Dad’s adopted mother Martha died of a heart attack when she was only 50 years old. By the way, I wish there was an easy way to show these adopted relationships on one’s pedigree.

My father did not comprehend the circumstances surrounding the death of his biological mother- how could he; he was only a week old when she died. That these German immigrants did not talk too much about such things to the children further added to my father’s frustration. His first inkling that he was adopted came from the neighborhood kids. Sometimes they teased him about it.

When his adopted mother died, my father’s biological brother, Russell Stryke, took him from Ramey, PA, to Alexandria, VA, and started him in the printing trade as a Linotype operator. As my father applied for his apprenticeship card, they asked for his name. He replied that he was Robert Kramp. It was then that his brother told him that this was not true; his name was not Kramp, but Strike. Still not fully comprehending the situation, my father made the decision, perhaps with some resentment to his biological family, to become legally adopted by the Kramp family- even though his biological father was still living at the time. The episode sparked some hard feelings between my father and his biological family of which there were five other siblings.

So, my father lost his biological mother when he was a week old and his foster mother when he was 15 years old. Go now, hug your children or your mother.

However, as I researched further, I discovered that Dad’s biological father, Otto, lost his own father, Karl Strike, when he was only 8 years old. His mother quickly re-married but her second husband was a rather stern, German step-father. Otto and his brother, Julius, left home at a very early age. Julius married a 16 year old Welsh girl when he was only 18 years old. He had one child, a daughter, and then abandoned his family, never to be heard from again. Incidentally, Julius is one of the “missing persons” in my research.

My point regarding these early deaths is that I believe it disrupted the closeness and togetherness of the family. Also, I believe that the loss, in particular, of the Nourisher of the family which has traditionally been the mother often has a drastic negative impact on the family unit. I was told that Emily Russell’s daughter, who did not talk for a year after her mother died, took all the family pictures and letters to the backyard when she was a teenager and burned them. I can see the mouths of my fellow genealogists dropping to the floor now.

In my great grandparent’s generation, there were two early deaths of the matriarchs, Eleanor Hartley and Maria Gutgsell. Eleanor’s husband never re-married and his five motherless children were raised by older daughters in the family. However, Maria Gutgsell’s husband Joseph Austel remarried a girl half his age. She was a good and faithful wife, but some say she was very partial to her own nephews and nieces to the consternation of her step children.

What was that story told by the Brothers Grimm regarding the wicked step mother? I’m sure everybody has heard of Cinderella. My mother told me that Mrs. Emily (Russell) Strike made Otto promise on her death bed that he would not allow the children to be raised by a step mother. Otto kept his promise.

NOTE: This blog entry was submitted to the 52nd Carnival of Genealogy; topic, “About Age” hosted this week by the owner and blogger of Lisa's 100 Years in America

Take the Genealogical Challenge

I have been fortunate enough to obtain facial images for 7 of my 8 great grandparents. Click to enlarge.

Recently I read the results of an interesting survey in Eastman's Online Genealogical Newsletter which was posted 24 Mar 2008. The findings of the survey showed that Americans lacked a knowledge of their family history and in particular their pedigree. The survey was sponsored by The Generations Network (parent company of Ancestry.com) and conducted by an independent source.

The survey discovered that:
*One-third of Americans cannot name any of their great-grandparents.

*Half of Americans know the name of only one or none of their great-grandparents.
*Six out of ten Americans do not know both of their grandmothers' maiden names. (probably even fewer would know the names of their four great grandmothers).

So I thought how I would respond to this survey. Everyone has eight biological great grandparents. For an extra measure, I also provided vital statistics including locations. I numbered my great grandparents according to the "Ahnentafel" system:

8. Karl or August Streich (or Strike), b. ? in Prussia (Posen?); d. 1885 in America.
9. Henrietta Hohnke, b. 1842 in Posen, Prussia; d. 1922 in West Houtzdale, PA.
10. Thomas W. Russell, b. 1847, Holytown, Lanarkshire, Scotland; d. 1928, Cambria Co, PA.
11. Eleanor (or Ellen) Hartley, b. abt 1845, Yorkshire or County Durham, ENG; d. abt 1892, Houtzdale, PA.
12. Henry Caspar Gailliot, b. 1862, Wesel, GER; d. 1926, Alexandria, VA.
13. Franceska (Francoise) Dumoulin, b. 1871, Roeschwoog, Alsace; d. 1941, Alexandria, VA.
14. Joseph Austel, b. 1850, Haindorf, Boehmen; d. 1924, Braddock, PA.
15. Maria Gutgsell, b. 1857, Wintzenheim, Alsace; d. 1895, Burglen, Switzerland.

I've been collecting these data for about 16 or more years, but I tried to recall the above without peeping into my computer's database. I also made these observations:

• All of my great grandparents were born in Europe.
• Three of my four grandparents were also born overseas.
• I can say that my heritage is 6/8 German (based on the German borders, 1871-1918), 1/8 Scottish, and 1/8 English.
• All of my great grandparents died before I was born in 1942. My children saw two of their great grands (Harry McNeeley and Lemma Drake on their Mother's branch).
• Grave sites or burial locations are known for six of my eight great grandparents; but only 4 tombstone inscriptions exist.
• I am not certain of my paternal great grandfather's first name, nor the "correct" spelling of his surname.
• I have facial images of 7 of my 8 great grandparents, almost all of which I discovered in the hands of my collateral family who graciously let me copy them.
• My father was fostered and then adopted by his father's sister, Martha, nee. Streich, who married Robert W. Kramp from Kries Stolp, Hinterpommern (Poland today). Thus, I have a more complex ancestral tree. Oh boy, another tree to climb!

The survey results continued:
*Twenty-two percent of Americans don't know what either of their grandfathers did for a living.

My Response: My paternal grandfather, Otto Strike, was a coal miner; then a machinist for American Car and Foundry Company in Detroit- they made most of the nation's street cars; then a maintenance man (ice plant operator) at Cresson Tuberculosis Sanitarium, PA. My maternal grandfather, Charles Gailliot, was a pattern maker for the Navy Yard in DC.

*Although America is known as a nation of immigrants, 27 percent don't know where their family lived before they came to America.

My Response: I did pretty good on this one. I have even visited the birth places of 3 of my great grandparents: Thomas W. Russell in Holytown, Lanarkshire, Scotland; Henry C. Gailliot, in Wesel, Germany; and Franceska Dumoulin, in Reoschwoog, Alsace. My goal of course would be to visit all birthplaces. You'll hear about it here.

*The study also found that in comparing regions, Southerners know the least about their roots. Only 38 percent know both of their grandmothers' maiden names, compared with 50 percent of Northeasterners.

No comment.

*Young Americans are looking to their roots- 83 percent of 18 to 34 year-olds are interested in learning their family history. Following closely are the 35 to 54 year-olds at 77 percent and Americans ages 55+ at 73 percent.

This surprised me as I thought older Americans would be most interested in knowing their ancestors- after all they will meet them sooner rather than later. And, it would be nice to be acquainted with their names and where they were from- just to make conversation.

References for survey: Dick Eastman's Newsletter, 24 Oct 2008, and The Generations Network