The Second Tuesday of Next Week

The International
Date Line

While I was growing up, my mother was known for using interesting turns of phrase.  She would talk about the "oneth of the month" (the first day of the month).  She and my father both used Spoonerisms deliberately, so we saved Chublip Stamps instead of Blue Chip Stamps and ate chotato pips instead of everyday potato chips.  One of my favorites, though, was my mother threatening to knock us into the second Tuesday of next week when we were being, um, precocious.  But, of course, there is no second Tuesday of the week.

Until there was!

When my family moved to Australia in 1971, we flew on a Pan Am 747 and crossed over the International Date Line.  When we did that, the day we lost was a Tuesday.

When we returned to the United States in 1973, we took a Greek cruise ship, and of course we had to cross the International Date Line again.  On that trip across the date line, we happened to repeat a Tuesday.  So not only did we make up for the Tuesday we lost, we finally had the second Tuesday of next week!

And yes, we gave my mother a bunch of crap about all the times she had said that to us.  She had somehow finally succeeded in knocking us into the second Tuesday of next week.

Unfortunately, my parents have both passed away, and neither my brother nor I remember the specific Tuesday we repeated.  But we know we came back in March, and the Tuesdays in March 1973 were 6, 13, 20, and 27.  So I picked today to write about it.

And I am pretty sure my mother would love the fact that I still remember.

Wordless Wednesday

 

My First Musical Instrument Was the Recorder

I bet it was for a lot of people.  Wasn't it a standard thing around 3rd or 4th grade to introduce young students to music by teaching them to play the recorder?

I always figured that had become established because the recorder is a relatively easy instrument to learn to play (although it does take time and effort to learn to play well, without sounding like a screeching cat; recorders are kind of like clarinets in that way).  Once they were available in plastic, they were also pretty affordable.

Whatever the original impetus for schools was, I think I learned to play in the 4th grade, while I lived in Australia.  I don't remember the recorder from when I was in the 3rd grade in California.

And why am I writing about recorders today?  I guess you didn't know that today is Play the Recorder Day, did you?

Play the Recorder Day (PtRD), celebrated on the third Saturday of March, grew out of a one-day event held in 1989 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the American Recorder Society (ARS).  ARS started PtRD in 1992, to be an annual event.  Play the Recorder Month came after that, just to promote the recorder even more.

I have to admit, after originally learning to play recorder, I didn't do too much with it, even though I kept my instrument through several moves (kind of like keeping my Barbie dolls).  That was until I started participating in the Renaissance Pleasure Faire (the vestiges of which are currently called the Original Renaissance Pleasure Faire and owned by a for-profit corporation, but not the for-profit corporation that bought it when the original in which I participated ran into financial problems and was sold).

And hey, I suddenly had a place where I could play my recorder!  So I did!  And I had a lot of fun!

We didn't use plastic recorders at the Faire, of course, because they wouldn't have that "period" look.  I found a very nice wood recorder and played in the opening and closing parades.

I continued to play for several years.  I became interested in expanding my range from the standard alto recorder and picked up a soprano recorder.  I experimented a bit with tenor and bass recorders also.  I could produce decent notes on a tenor, but I had problems with the bass.  I never invested in purchasing either one, though, sticking to my alto and soprano recorders.

I haven't played either of my reorders in many years, but when I found out about Play the Recorder Day, it encouraged me to reminisce and document a little bit more of my personal history.

The Invisible Man Turns 75

That's not actually what people used to call my stepfather.  They didn't say he was invisible.  They used to question whether he existed at all.

Ric was (and is) a very hard-working man.  So if we were going on a trip, he opted out, because he stayed at home and kept working.

So the running joke from people outside the immediate family became that he wasn't really there at all, and that my mother had made him up as a cover story.

But he's real, and he's still here.  He took good care of us after my parents divorced and he married my mother.  He took good care of her, or as good as he could, even when she didn't make it easy to do so.

And he has made it to 75 years old!  Something he had seriously questioned whether he was going to do.

I figured he would make it.  He had a good role model with his mother, our Grandmama, who lived to see her 90's.

So happy birthday, Ric, and congratulations on making it to three quarters of a century!  Let's see you make it to 100!

We love you!

Wordless Wednesday

 

Hooray for Barbie!

No, I'm not talking about the movie (which I have seen, and once will be enough, thank you very much, dear daughter-in-law).  I'm talking about the actual doll.

March 9 is National Barbie Day because the Barbie doll was introduced at the American International Toy Fair on March 9, 1959, so today is Barbie's 66th birthday, making her older than I am, if not by much.

I don't remember if Barbie was my first doll — I might have had a baby doll before that? — but she was the first doll I remember, and I still have my first Barbie.  I think my second doll was a Stacey, which I recall as a redhead.  (I might have been given Stacey as a gift because my sister's name is Stacy.  Hey, they should have come out with a Laurie doll!)  Number three I believe was Midge.

I have taken my dolls with me from California to Australia, when my family moved there, then back to the United States when we returned in 1973, and across country when I moved back to California in 1979.  Then they moved with me from Los Angeles to Oakland in 1989, and up to Oregon in 2017.  I have never left a single doll behind.

I never got into the collectible Barbies, because I didn't want to leave them in the packaging ("never removed from box").  I wanted to take them out and play with them!  I have only one collectible Barbie, which a friend bought me for Christmas one year.  It's Barbie as Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, in the green and white barbecue dress.  And yes, I took her out of the box.

Barbie is what really got me into sewing.  I had a sewing class in the 5th grade while my family lived in Australia, and when we came back to the States I started making clothes for my dolls.  I have dozens of patterns for Barbie clothes, most of them officially licensed by Mattel and produced by the big pattern companies.  The majority are from Simplicity, some are from McCall's, and a few others are from different companies.  I also have a few unofficial patterns, including some for Elizabethan clothing a friend gave to me when we were both performing at an Elizabethan faire.

Unfortunately, most of my dolls are still boxed up and in storage from when I moved to Oregon.  Not long after my arrival I tore my rotator cuff, and I've never regained the momentum I had for unpacking since then (it was probably the momentum that caused the tear in the first place).  But I've been adding to my collection since discovering groups such as Buy Nothing on Facebook.  It is amazing how many people give away Barbies and their accessories.  Now I have things I could never afford when I was younger, such as a Barbie airplane, car, condo, and house.  Soon I will be adding an RV!

One of my recent acquisitions, obtained specifically to pair with my dolls, is a dollhouse in the style of Victorian painted ladies.  I'll need to find (or make?) some patterns for Victorian clothing so that my dolls will look totally at home in their beautiful residence.

j

It's National Genealogy Day!

National Genealogy Day is not to be confused with Family History Month.  The latter is observed during the entire month of October.  It was established by Congress in 2001 and has stuck around since.

National Genealogy Day, on the other hand, was created in 2013 by Christ Church, a United Presbyterian and Methodist parish in Limerick, Ireland, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of that specific church (which was not always associated with United Presbyterian and Methodist).  Church records were brought together from Christ Church, Church of Ireland parishes, Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons).  People were invited to come and research their ancestors in the church records.

The celebration of National Genealogy Day has carried on and has spread to other areas after the 200th anniversary of Christ Church.  It's one day to focus on researching your genealogy and family history.

I am the family genealogist, and I don't do research on only one day, or during only one month, for that matter.  What I'm celebrating today is that most of my family members know that I'm the family genealogist, and they know they can ask me questions about the family.

Recently my brother asked me about specifics on relatives who died in or who survived the Holocaust.  I learned he was asking because my niece had to do a report on World War II and chose the Holocaust for her specific subject.  I was able to point my brother to my annual blog posts on Yom HaShoah, where I list all of the relatives I know/believe died in the Holocaust, including one cousin who was murdered in Auschwitz.  I also gave him details about several cousins who would be classified as survivors.  I may have drowned him in information, because I didn't hear back again after sending a long message.  I figure that meant my niece had enough for her report.

But I don't do research only on my own family, and even "extended family" members know who to turn to.

My uncle's wife is my aunt by marriage, but I've been researching her family for about 30 years.  A few years ago her sister's daughter, who had previously shown little to no interest in family history, sent me a message out of the blue, asking whether I still had all that research I had done on her family, particularly her father's side.  Of course I did!  And I sent her copies of everything.  She didn't use the information to do research per se, but to connect with people she was matching on DNA tests.  They also shared family information, a lot of which I received, so now I've added more to her tree.

Of course I did research on my ex's family.  Two different times after he was my ex, he called me because someone was asking him about his family history, and he knew I could do a much better job of explaining it.  Once he had me on the phone, he just handed his phone to the person who was asking (the same person both times), and we had a lively conversation about his family.

A more unusual conversation about his family came when I had just landed in the Portland, Oregon airport and was waiting for my luggage.  My younger stepson texted me with a question about his family, which I answered.  Then came another text with a new question, and I responded to that.  This went back and forth for close to ten minutes before I finally just called him and asked what it all was about.  As with my niece, it was for a school project, and he knew I had the information.  I told him that rather than giving him bits and pieces by text, I would wait until I was at my computer and send him all the information then, which worked much better for me than one dinky little text at a time.

So today I am celebrating National Genealogy Day and the fact that I have the opportunity to share family information with so many people!

William Brainin, Victim of the Spanish Flu

Although cases occurred before this date, a generally accepted start date for the Influenza Pandemic of 1918 (commonly called the Spanish flu epidemic) is March 4, when a U.S. Army cook by the name of Albert Gitchell at Camp Funston, Kansas was recorded as being ill.  In a very short time more than 500 men at the camp had been reported sick.  Only one week later, on March 11, the flu had reached Queens, New York.

One of the groups that was hit hard by the flu was men being inducted into the U.S. Army and attending boot camp, where close quarters and the effects of physical activity helped the virus spread quickly.  My great-granduncle William Brainin was one of those men.

I don't know much about Uncle Willie, as Bubbie (my grandmother) called him.  He was born about 1892 (he used the birthdate October 23, 1892 here), possibly in Kreuzberg, Russia (now Krustpils, Latvia).  He immigrated to the United States as Wolf Brainin with his mother, Ruchel Dvojre (Jaffe) Brainin, and three siblings — Chase Leah Brainin, Pesche Brainin, and Kosriel Brainin — aboard the Caronia, arriving at Ellis Island on October 3, 1906.

The Brainin family was enumerated in the census on April 20, 1910, living at 236 East 103rd Street, Manhattan, New York.  In the household were parents Morris [Mendel Hertz] and Rose Dorothy [Ruchel Dvojre] with children Lena [Chase Leah], Sarah [Sora Leibe], William [Wolf or Welwel], Bessie [Pesche], and Benjamin [Kosriel], everyone having chosen American names to use here.  William's occupation was ladies' tailor, a common job for young male Jewish immigrants at that time.

I have not found William in the 1915 New York census, but he might have already moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts, to live with his older brother Max Joseph [Nachman] Brainin and his family.  Certainly he was there by June 1, 1917, where he registered for the Army draft.  I don't know when he entered the Army, but I have seen a photo which Bubbie identified as, "That's my Uncle Willie in his Army uniform."  (Unfortunately, the photo disappeared soon after that identification.  I'm still trying to figure out where it went.)

By the time of the 1920 census, William had returned to live with his parents in Manhattan.  They were enumerated there on January 12, 1920.

William had no occupation listed in the census, suggesting that he was probably already sick when the census taker came by.  Two weeks later, on January 26, William Brainin died in Manhattan.  His cause of death was given as pneumonia caused by influenza.  He was buried in the Workmen's Circle plot of Mt. Hebron Cemetery in Flushing, Queens on January 27.

I'm fortunate that some of Bubbie's memories, which were usually spot on, have proven to be inaccurate.  She told me that Uncle Willie had come home sick from the Army while my great-grandmother Sarah was pregnant with my grandmother, that my great-grandmother became ill, and that Uncle Willie died before Bubbie was born in 1919.  But that is Uncle Willie with his family in the 1920 census, and it's definitely his death certificate, so he absolutely did not die before Bubbie was born.  Finding him with the family in 1920 made it easier to identify him in the death index and get a copy of his death certificate.

So far Uncle Willie is the only member of my family I have found to have died due to the Influenza Pandemic.

Steinfirst Serendipity

Bird's-eye view map of Titusville, Pennsylvania, 1896, by Thaddeus Mortimer Fowler

The city of Titusville, Pennsylvania, in Crawford County, was incorporated on February 28, 1866.  So today is the 159th anniversary of that event.  Happy birthday, Titusville!

But I've never had family in Titusville, so why do I care about this city?

Well, you never know when or where you're going to find people researching the same families you're working on, or even used to be working on.

Last year I was giving a presentation to the Jewish Genealogical Society of Pittsburgh.  The topic was resources to help find maiden names, one of those perennially difficult research areas.

Several of the examples I use in that talk come from research I did many years ago on the (Jewish) Steinfirst family of western Pennsylvania.  Various members of the family were in Pittsburgh at different times, ranging from 1880 through to the present day.

And would you believe it, someone at the presentation recognized many of the names in the examples I used?  That's his family!

I began my research on the Steinfirsts in 2005 and pretty much stopped in 2010.  I had never determined where they emigrated from in Europe or even whether Steinfirst was the original family name.  One branch of the family, the Stones, I knew did not start out with that name, but I had not learned what the name was in Europe.

And now I know!

Steinfirst, which I had thought was a name the family had created here because I couldn't find anyone outside the family with that name, was actually the name in Europe, albeit spelled a little differently.  Stone was originally Stamm; I had been focusing on names that either started or ended with "Stein", so I was way off and doomed to failure.

More records have become available since I stopped researching the family, which made some of these discoveries possible, along with dedicated research by other individuals.

And even though I am no longer actively researching the Steinfirsts, I am still fond of the family because of the amount of time I put into the research, and I was really excited to have answers to some of the questions I was stuck on years ago.  Plus I'm sharing the research I did with the person at my presentation, so I'm adding to his knowledge of his family.

That's one of the really cool aspects of genealogy:  helping other people find more information about their families.  It just makes you feel good.