Tag: family
Blown Away By The Power of the Internet
The Internet is a wonderful thing. It can be used for bad (witness the folks who get dumped via text messages), but it can also do miraculous things. For example, it has brought me in touch with numerous relatives searching my family tree: I’ve gotten to know whole new branches of my family, and will now be going to Nashville in late June 2007 for a family reunion. I’ve gotten to know more of the Weinbaum clan than I’ve ever thought existed. I know far fewer of my father’s father’s side, although I am in regular touch with a relative on MySpace (those of you in Davis might know him: Erik, who plays the bagpipes).
However, the Internet has just blown me away.
Not many people know that I had a brother, Erick. He was from my father’s first marriage, about 8 years older than me. I never really knew him that well (for how well does a 5 year old know a 13 year old). In 1969, he started school at UCSB (a law degree, I believe). This was the era of the hippies, and he dressed the part, with long stringy hair. Sometime while he was at UCSB, I have distinct memories of visiting him in the dorms, near Isle Vista, not long after the Bank of America burned. During the summer of 1970, while I was at camp, I received word that he had been electrocuted. This is a tragic shock (no pun intended) to our family, and I think changed people in many many ways we didn’t realize for years. Over time, we lost track of Erick’s friends. Some died, some drifted away. But I always wondered what happened to folks like his girlfriend or his college roommate.
About 15 minutes ago, while working on the family tree, I received the following email:
are you the daniel whose father was adrian and brother was erick? if so, i was his roommate at ucsb and have been wondering what happened to you and the rest of your family.
Whoa! Blown away time!
I just got off the phone with Andy, Rick’s roommate. He works at BJE Jewish Community Library in San Francisco. I don’t have the whole story, but evidently my brother was involved in some way in pushing him into religous studies. Amzaing the paths one lives takes. We spoke briefly; we’ll hopefully get together the next time he is LA.
The power of the Internet.
Climbing the Tree
I have various hobbies that weave in and out of my life. One of these is genealogy, and it is weaving itself back in as a result of an upcoming reunion of the Weinbaum side of the family in Nashville in June 2007. I’ve actually maintained a family tree since 1975, and have updated it periodically as information comes in. I go through bursts of writing inquiry letters, but I’ve never gotten to the point of actually going to geneology clubs, or going to some of the LDS research centers I’ve heard so much about.
As a result of the recent Weinbaum inquiries, I’ve been getting a lot of information from that side of the family. It is one of the sides that has been in the US the longest, generally centered around the Nashville, Memphis, and Paris TN areas going back to the 1860s and earlier. One of the researchers has a large tree on Ancestry.Com, and so I’ve activated a two-week trial membership before it charges my card. As some others are actively researching Weinbaum, I’ve been focusing my research on some similarly related lines: Seches, Powell, and Meyer.
I’ve had some luck with the Powell line, finding some whole new trees. I’ve been stymied by the lack of an 1890 census online, as well as the lack of records after 1930. The presence of daughters is also frustrating, in that they change their name when they get married, making it difficult to continue to track them down. I’ve had less luck with the Seches line, as there appears to be an orphanage involved, and I have records of an entire tree somehow connected, but the reasons for that connection are lost to the fog of time. Meyer has been even more fruitless: it is a very common name, and I have been unable to (for the most part) find records that confirm anything, or even seem to place a particular set of siblings together.
Still, I’ll keep looking, but it does get to be frustrating. Now that I’ve gotten started, if anyone has ideas on other good places to research, please let me know. I’m particularly looking for records that might show familial relationships, births, deaths, marriages, etc. I do tend to try Google searches, but that usually doesn’t find much. I’ve still got to check out Rootsweb and Jewishgen. I should probably make my tree more available online (I do have the names online), but some family members have privacy concerns. In terms of Geneology software, I’m currently using RootsMagic, which is the successor product to Family Origins, a product that goes back to the days of Parsons Software (remember them?). I’ve never been a big fan of Family Tree Maker; that sort of biases me against Genealogy.com. I also don’t like the fact that genealogy.com tends to try to charge for everything.
This sort of comes together this afternoon: I get to go to an unveiling for a close family friend of my mother’s.
Today, I Am A Fountain Pen
This evening, we went to the Bar Mitzvah of my cousin/nephew, N. Excuse me, a “Barn Mitzvah”, for it was held in the Barn at Calamigos Ranch. Despite a number of last minute problems, and my worries about it being a 6:30pm service outside a sanctuary, it was quite good.
There was a normal afternoon service led quite capably by the Bar Mitzvah Boy and Cantor Ron Li-Paz of Valley Outreach Synagogue, followed by havdalah. We presented the BMB with a kiddish cup which he was delighted with, and used for the first time that evening. We had a good dinner. There was a DJ who did the usual DJ stuff (modern music, one hora, etc.) It was a good evening.
On the drive back, we talked with NSS&F about what she wanted to do for her Bat Mitzvah in December 2007. Her thoughts:
- No DJ. She wants a songleader to lead a zmirot session like at camp, with a few additional songs thrown in that everyone can sing. She’d like Israeli dancing, again like at camp, with some dances taught. She does want that weird candle thing they do nowaday (where does that come from, anyway).
- We’ll do ballons, but we really don’t like the mylar stuff.
- We’ll do a professional photographer to ensure good pictures, but no video.
- We still like the idea of using one of the temple’s captive caterers. We haven’t figured out menu yet.
- She’s thinking of a Broadway Theatre page. We think we could get posters of closed shows from some of the theatres we hit regularly (Pasadena Playhouse, Cabrillo, REP), and from theatre poster calendars. We could then make table decorations around that.
Quite sensible, in my opinion.
Tomorrow morning (which comes far too soon) is packing and getting ready to head out on vacation. If you are in the Sacramento or San Francisco/San Jose/Oakland Bay areas, we’d love to get together: respond here, or in this friends-only post with more details.
It’s Friday. Woo-Hoo
This has been an incredibly busy week. Other than my shoulder still bothering me, I’ve been going like gangbusters. So what’s going on:
- I’ve just completed the process of bringing all my journal entries into the tag space. Next is refining the tag space.
- Wednesday night we had our first Bar/Bat Mitzvah parent’s round robin. ’twas quite interesting, although I was a bit of a show-off due to my knowledge from the FAQ. I do like Rabbi Jim’s approach to having the kids to a lot of the service and coming out feeling good. He recommended that we all see the movie Keeping Up With The Steins. Luckily, we’ve got a head start on the Mitzvah Project… it looks like NSS&F will be helping our good friend Jolie revamp the webpage for, and work with, the Los Angeles Radio Reading Service.
- Last night, I did some more rearranging in the garage. We’re getting closer to being unpacked. We only moved… almost a year ago!
- This Saturday I’m going to the No Ho Arts Festival, a two-day festival of theatre and the arts in North Hollywood. Hopefully the weather will hold up for this. It should be fun, but I’ll be going by my lonesome: ‘da wife and kid will be at the CDF Annual Conference and Food Faire, ellipticcurve will be gaming, and venedotia will be working. Is anyone reading this going to NoHo on Saturday? Perhaps we could meet.
- I’ve been having a bunch of fun communicating with some family members back east whom I’ve never met (Weinbaum branch), who might be coordinating a family reunion in the Nashville area sometime next year. See what happens when you put your family tree online.
- Early next week is the California State Science Fair at USC. Monday afternoon I’ll be taking NSS&F to view all the projects–she’ll then write a report for her teacher on what she saw. Tuesday I’ll be a judge and panel chair for the Jr. Division Math and Software Panel. I’ve already looked through the projects a few times: there are some that are quite good, some that I’ve got good questions for, and some that I just don’t quite understand (J1218…and this is her 4th year on the same related subject [2005, 2004, 2003]… she started in 5th grade). I’m always amazed, reading the project summaries, that these are 6th – 8th graders (Jr. Division). The projects are just amazing.
- I’ll likely be doing my Stash Tea Order over the weekend. If you’re local and want to jump into the order, let me know and we’ll see what can be done.
Why Is It You Only Learn About People After They Die?
[It’s National Delurking Week. Click here for info. Have you de-lurked yet?]
Today, I learned that my Godfather, JC Strauss II, died at the end of December. The funeral is Friday. So, I decided to write a remembrance post, as I did when my dad died. So, I decided to google JC.
I was in for a surprise.
I learned that he was the grandson of a very famous St. Louis Photographer, Julius Caesar Strauss. I knew he was from St. Louis, but I never knew much about that part of his life. The pieces, however, are there. The article notes that:
Strauss had three sons and one daughter. The eldest son, Louis Reuben Strauss, began a fulltime association with his father in the studio in 1911. His skills and professional interests made him heir apparent and Louis did indeed become the head of the studio when his father died in 1924. Louis’ son, named after his grandfather, is currently helping with information on the family.
I remember JC working on his family tree; in fact, I helped him get a new computer for tree work. I also learned how he came to Los Angeles:
The studio was closed in 1940 by Louis who moved to Los Angeles. The depression had been difficult times for the Strauss studio as it was for most businesses.
This was around the time my mother came to Los Angeles from St. Louis; her mother (Hortense) and a relative of JC’s (Ruth Fhrolicstein) were good friends.
This also explains the old pictures I always remember seeing at JC’s house, including an apparently very cherished one of a little boy. I’m guessing now that it was one of his grandfather’s pictures of him. You can see a picture of JC with his family on this page.
Wow. I never knew this.
So what else do I remember about JC. First, he was Army, through and through. He was a retired Lt. Col. (actually, LTC FA AUS), very proud of his military service. He was very active in the Military Order of the World Wars, and at the time of his death, was Special Assistant to the CINC of that organization.
Being ex-Army (and proud of it), he would put up with nothing. You don’t make it to LTC without being sharp. If you got your foot anywhere near your mouth, JC would gladly help you put it in the rest of the way, and make sure you chewed vigorously. Some took this as crochety; others took it as lovable.
He was a bank officer for many years. I remember visiting him at the bank.
He was a stamp collector. I do remember learning how to do stamp collecting with him.
In his later years, after we moved to the valley, we didn’t see him that much. This was especially true after my mom died in 1990. I did get a chance to see him and talk to him at a funeral in early December. I never got a chance to call him back and catch up.