Wordless Wednesday

 

A Photo of My Mother for Mother's Day

Myra (Meckler) Sellers, Janice Sellers?, Sam O'Connor

It's Mother's Day today, so I went scrolling through the great photo bonanza to find a new (to my blog) and interesting photo of my mother to post, and I came across this one.

As usual, with all the photos taken by my father (and I'm sure my father took it, particularly because it is black and white), it is unlabeled and unidentified.  But I recognize my mother on the left, and I'm now pretty sure it is Aunt Sam on the right.  I think the child looking goofy in the center is me.  My estimate for the year is about 1967.

This kitchen appears in several photographs from the bonanza.  I think it's in our house in La Puente.

The photo appears as though it could be torn on the left side.  As I do not yet have the originals (subtle hint to my sister), I can't verify that.  It's possible that the big white void could be a refrigerator or freezer.

There was probably no occasion or special event.  Sam happened to be visiting and my father simply liked taking photographs.

My mother has something in her hands, perhaps a small box.  Maybe it was some kind of pills, such as aspirin.  She's laughing, as though she thinks it's funny that my father is taking a photo of this scene.

Happy Mother's Day!

Alphabet Magnets, But Which Alphabet?

Modern alphabet of Gurmukhi script
Published under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. 

There really are national days for just about anything, if you hunt around long enough.  Such as today, which is National Alphabet Magnet Day.  No, really, just check the page here.

See, I told you.  I wouldn't make this up.

But the reason I'm writing about National Alphabet Magnet Day isn't to get you to look at the page for it.  It's to get you thinking about alphabets.  Because I'll bet when you read "National Alphabet Magnet Day", you automatically thought of the alphabet for the English language.

I'm right, aren't I?

But when you think about it, there are other alphabets out there.  So that means there could be alphabet magnets for those alphabets, right?

And there are!

My favorite alphabet magnets that I own are for Gurmukhi, the alphabet used to write the Punjabi language.

What?  You've never heard of Gurmukhi?

Well, I hadn't either.  But when your ex is half-Indian, and his father was Sikh and came from Punjab, somehow you end up learning about it.

And one day I ran across something online for Gurmukhi alphabet magnets.

Of course I had to buy a set.  And then bought a second set for my grandchildren.  They haven't shown any interest in it yet, but one day they might.

Then I started wondering about other alphabet magnets.

My mother's family is Jewish.  My mother never learned Hebrew and learned only a few words and phrases in Yiddish.  But my grandmother was fluent in Yiddish (it was her first language) and knew some Hebrew.  And Hebrew and Yiddish use the same letters (mostly).

So off I went in search of Hebrew alphabet magnets and found some.  You can find all sorts of interesting things on Amazon.  I found Swedish alphabet magnets, Cyrillic alphabet magnets, and more.

I have not yet learned to speak or write in Hebrew, Yiddish, or Punjabi.  But I'm working on it, and when I do, I'll be able to post phrases and sentences on the refrigerator with my handy-dandy alphabet magnets.

One of the suggestions on the National Day Calendar page for how to celebrate the day is to use the letters to teach children the alphabet.  Wouldn't that be a wonderful way to help children learn about their ancestry?

Go do it.  Now.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: What Automobiles Did Your Ancestors Own?

It's either "everything old is new again" or a flash of déjà vu this week for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun, as another blogger contributes a topic that Randy Seaver has covered previously.

Here is your assignment, if you choose to play along (cue the Mission:  Impossible! music, please!):

1.  What automobile models did your ancestors have?  Pick an ancestor and share something about his cars.

2.  Share your information about your ancestor's car(s) in your own blog post, write a comment on this blog post, or put it in a Substack post, Facebook Note, or some other social media system.  Please leave a comment on this post so others can find it.

NOTE:  I can use ideas for different SNGF topics.  Please e-mail me (randy.seaver@gmail.com).

Thank you to Lisa Gorrell for this week's SNGF challenge topic.

Randy asked us about family cars on November 25, 2017, and I wrote a very detailed post about our cars then, with comments from my father about even more cars, including many of which I had no memory.  That post is here.

Since then I have not added any new vehicles, although I do keep thinking about finding another motorycle for myself.  Maybe this summer I'll do that.

I have followed up on one thing my father wrote:  He and my mother rode to Death Valley (who was taking care of my brother and me?) with the Norwalk Centaurs motorcycle club.  I discovered that they still exist and have a Facebook page!  I have contacted them and asked whether they have any photos of the 1963 or 1964 trip to Death Valley.

My father took photographs of cars everywhere he went.  My guess is that any car that looked interesting to him, he would take photos.  You can see some of those photos and read more about my father and cars by clicking here.

I really need to take a photo of my current car, the Toyota RAV4, for the family archive.  Since I haven't done that yet, I'll include a photo of my brother and sister sitting on the Indian that was in my 2017 car post.

Mark and Stacy Sellers, probably in La Puente, California, 1967

Who Are the Skilled Tradesmen in Your Family?

The first Wednesday in May was chosen to celebrate the skilled trades in this country.  A company in Youngstown, Ohio founded National Skilled Trades Day to bring attention to the importance of skilled trades and to the shortage of skilled tradesmen in this country.

So I'm going to write first about my father, who was indeed a skilled tradesman.  He was a mechanic, and by all accounts a very good one.  I knew this from growing up and hearing people talk about his work.  When my family moved to Australia, it was based on his skills as a mechanic.  At the time, Australia was looking for skilled tradesmen to come as potential immigrants, and we qualified because of my father's skills.

This was really brought home to me when I wrote a blog post about my father and included an advertisement from the Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia) in which he was shown working with a piece of equipment.  A friend of mine who reads my blog immediately recognized the machine as a Sun 1120 Engine Analyzer and said that you had to be a pretty smart mechanic to be able to use one.  My father confirmed that my friend had identified the machine correctly.  I figure if you have an independent assessment of your skills like that, you must actually be pretty good.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Your Ancestors in the 1930's Great Depression

I actually know the information for this week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge from Randy Seaver for most of my families without even looking.

Here is your assignment, if you choose to play along (cue the Mission:  Impossible! music, please!):

1.  What did your ancestral families do during the Great Depression (1930–1940)?  Did they keep their jobs and standard of living?  Did they suffer personally or economically?

2.  Share your information about your ancestors in the Great Depression in your own blog post, write a comment on this blog post, or put it in a Substack post, Facebook Note, or some other social media system.  Please leave a comment on this post so others can find it.

NOTE:  I could use ideas for different SNGF topics.  Please send me a message at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

Thank you to Marian B. Wood for this week's SNGF challenge topic.

My paternal grandfather, Bertram Lynn Sellers, was still married to his first wife at the beginning of the Great Depression.  They had two daughters.  In the 1930 census, the four family members were enumerated in four different locations.  My grandfather was living at home with his mother and two siblings in Mount Holly, Burlington County, New Jersey; he was working at the large textile mill which provided most of the employment in that city.  The older daughter was in the Burlington County children's home.  The younger daughter was in Camden County, boarding with a well-off family who was otherwise not connected to my family.  And the girls' mother, Grandpa's first wife, was also living in Camden County, working as a live-in private servant to another unconnected family.

I interviewed Grandpa for a civics class while I was in high school.  We were studying the Great Depression, and we were told to interview a family member who had been alive at that time.  I can't find the interview notes (I don't know if I kept them!), but I remember him telling me that he did have financial problems, particularly that he mentioned trouble supporting his family.  I really hope I kept that interview, because it will be even more relevant to me now that I know more about the family.

Grandpa's mother, Laura May (Armstrong) Sellers Ireland, was living at her home in Mount Holly in 1930, as I wrote above.  She was married at the time to John Ireland, whom she married in 1929.  I don't know when he was no longer in the picture, but I was told she didn't keep him around long.  She kept the name Ireland, though, and was known in the family as Nanny Ireland.  In 1940 she was still living in the same home, but her address was not enumerated in the census.  She was able to keep her home throughout the Depression, even though she was not listed as having an occupation in 1930.

My paternal grandmother, Anna (Gauntt) Stradling, who was at least separated from her husband (if not divorced), was living in Mount Holly and was working at the same textile mill as my grandfather.  I have always guessed that's where they met/got together, which had to have been at least by about March 1935, because my father, Bertram Lynn Sellers, Jr., was born in December 1935, but in an entirely different county in New Jersey (Bergen).  I have been told the family moved around quite a bit during the Depression as my grandfather found construction and civil engineering work in New Jersey and New York.  They were missed by the enumerators in 1940, but they apparently lived in three different locations that year, so they were probably either just ahead of or just behind the census takers.

Nana's parents, Thomas Kirkland and Jane (Dunstan) Gauntt, were living in Mount Holly in 1930 and 1940.  They owned their home, and both were retired.  They lived in a rural area, and I've never heard that they were affected much by the Depression.

My maternal grandmother, Lily Gordon, was living with her parents, Joe and Sarah Libby (Brainin) Gordon, and two older brothers in Baltimore, Maryland in 1930.  They moved there sometime after 1924, because they were enumerated in 1925 in the New York state census in Manhattan.  My grandmother told me they moved to Maryland because her father had some trouble finding good work in New York, but I don't know what year, so I don't know if it was related to the Depression.  By 1939 they were back in New York, but in Brooklyn instead of Manhattan.  From what I have learned my great-grandfather had continuous employment throughout the Depression working in the garment industry.  The 1940 census recorded Joe and Sarah as retired and as owning their residence.

Sarah's parents, Morris and Rose Dorothy (Jaffe) Brainin, were living in Manhattan as documented by the 1930 census.  Neither was working.  Morris died in February 1930 and Rose died in November 1934, so they did not make it through the Depression.

My maternal grandfather, Abraham Meckler, was enumerated with his parents, Morris and Minnie (Nowicki) Meckler, and four of his siblings in 1930 in Brooklyn, New York.  His father was working as a carpenter.  I have no stories that reported them as having financial problems during the Depression.  Minnie died in August 1936; Morris was still in the same house in Brooklyn in 1940.

Abraham and Lily were married in October 1939 in The Bronx for some reason, but they were living in Brooklyn according to the 1940 census.  Their occupation was retail candy store, and I even have a photo of them in the candy store they owned.  (My mother was born in November 1940, so she isn't quite enumerated in the census.)

My great-great-grandparents Gershon and Dora (Yelsky) Novitsky, Minnie Meckler's parents and Abraham Meckler's grandparents, were enumerated in the 1930 census living with one of their sons in Brooklyn.  Gershon was working as a Hebrew teacher.  Dora died in February 1936.  I know Gershon was alive in 1940, because he didn't die until 1948, but I have still not found him in the census.  I'm pretty sure he was in Brooklyn, but I don't know if he was working.  His son owned the building where he was living in 1930 and did well through the Depression, but Gershon was not living with him in 1940.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Who Is Your Ancestor #50?

This week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge from Randy Seaver was an interesting exercise, even if I didn't come up with much concrete information.

Here is your assignment, if you choose to play along (cue the Mission:  Impossible music, please!):

1.  Who is Ancestor #50 in your Ahnentafel list?  What were his birth date and place, his parents, death date and place, spouse's name, and marriage date and place.  How many children did he have, and which of his children do you descend from?
(Note: if you don't know your #50, then choose #25 or #12, or some other number).

2.  Share your information about #50 (or other) ancestor in your own blog post, write a comment on this blog post, or put it in a Substack post, Facebook Note, or some other social media system.  Please leave a comment on this post so others can find it.

Thank you to Lisa S. Gorrell for this week's SNGF challenge topic.

I don't routinely use Ahnentafel lists, so I had to look up how to figure out who #50 is on my list.  I used the reverse method #1 described on the Wikipedia page about Ahnentafels.  If I did it correctly, then #50 is my mother's father's father's mother's father, who is one of my 3rd-great-grandfathers.  It also means that the example using the method isn't accurate, because #1 is yourself.  But since Randy and other people who responded got 3rd-great-grandfather, I think I'm right.

So that means the person I should be writing about is:
mother Myra
grandfather Abraham
great-grandfather Moshe
great-great-grandmother Bela
3rd-great-grandfather UNKNOWN

I don't know Bela's maiden name or anything about her other than her given name.  I have her given name from my great-grandfather's death certificate.  I don't remember who the informant was for that, but it had to be one of his children, because his wife died 17 years before he did.  The older children may have known their grandparents, depending on when the grandparents died, because they were born in Kamenets Litovsk, where the family emigrated from.  So the name Bela might be correct.  My great-grandfather had a niece named Bela, so that lends some support to the name.

Even though I don't have any documented information about my 3rd-great-grandfather, I decided to write this about him to see what I could guess based on information I do have.

My great-grandparents Moshe and Mushe (Morris and Minnie in this country) named their first son Simcha, after Moshe's father.  I know that the second son, Herschel, was not named after Minnie's father, Gershon, or either of Minnie's grandfathers, Abraham or Ruven.  Maybe he was named after Moshe's grandfather, Bela's father.  I know that Moshe's sister Sore also named a son Herschel, so it's not an unreasonable hypothesis.  Moshe and Sore's grandfather was named Zvi, however, which is the Hebrew equivalent to Herschel, so their sons could have been named for him rather than their maternal grandfather.  But both men could have had the same name.  So now my 3rd-great-grandfather has a given name, even if it has a question mark after it.

I don't have a birth record for my granduncle Herschel, but the birth date he used in the United States is January 14, 1905.  So I can guess that my 3rd-great-grandfather had to have died before that date, because this part of my family followed the Ashkenazi Jewish minhag ("custom") of naming children after deceased ancestors.

To estimate 3rd-great-grandfather Herschel's birth year, I have to work from another hypothesized year.  I wrote recently about my great-great-grandfather Simcha Dovid Mekler, for whom I have no documented birth or death dates.  I estimated his birth year to be before about 1862 based on him being at least 21 when my great-grandfather Moshe was born.  Simcha Dovid was married to Bela, the daughter of 3rd-great-grandfather Herschel.  So if I say that Bela was two years younger than Simcha Dovid (just to pick a number), which would make her birth year before about 1864, and use the same logic that her father was at least 21 when she was born, that makes him born before about 1844.

I can estimate 3rd-great-grandfather Herschel's marriage to Bela's mother based on my estimate of Bela's birth year.  Since I made that before about 1864, the marriage year can be before about 1863.  As for whom Herschel married, the only other child I know of from Simcha Dovid and Bela's marriage was a daughter named Sore.  So maybe Bela's mother was named Sore.  I know that Simcha Dovid's mother's name was Esther, so Sore was not named after her.  On the other hand, Simcha Dovid had a sister and a niece named Sore, so the name was used in the Mekler family.

Because a common pattern seen in Ashkenazi Jewish families is that names skip one or two generations, it's possible that 3rd-great-grandfather Herschel's father was named Moshe.  Simcha Dovid's father was Zvi, as mentioned above, so my great-grandfather was not named after him.

Because the only location I have associated with my Mekler family is Kamenets Litovsk, Russia (now Kamyenyets, Belarus), my only guess for where 3rd-great-grandfather Herschel was born, married, and died is there.

I can put together the information from all of these hypotheses thusly:
Herschel (unknown family name), father possibly Moshe, mother unknown; born before about 1844 in Kamenets Litovsk, Russia; died before about January 14, 1905 in Kamenets Litovsk, Russia; married possibly Sore before about 1863 in Kamenets Litovsk, Russia.  I know of only one child, Bela, who is my great-great-grandmother.

I Used to Talk Like William Shakespeare

Well, maybe.  Kind of.

I performed at the Renaissance Pleasure Faires (unfortunately now part of Renaissance Entertainment Corporation) in California (originally held in Calabasas and Novato, then later in Devore and Vacaville [and Gilroy after that]) for several years.  (You can read more about the history here.)  They were nominally set in the Elizabethan era (as in Queen Elizabeth I of England) in an English village, roughly in the 1580's.  When they started, there was a strong focus on history and education.  At some point that included trying to sound like Elizabethans theoretically would have sounded.

And that brings us to Basic Faire Accent (BFA).  I was told it was originally inspired by the actor Robert Newton and how he spoke when he portrayed the pirate Long John Silver in the 1950 movie version of Treasure Island.  Apparently he was told at some point to make the character sound distinctive, so he used the local West County accent, where he grew up in England.  And it stuck.  That's how everyone thinks pirates should sound.

But someone thought that's close to how regular people would have sounded in the 1500's, and BFA was built on that logic.  So when you worked at the Faire, you were taught BFA in pre-Faire workshops (yes, we took workshops to educate us on what life and people would have been like in the Elizabethan period; like I said, it was started with an educational focus).  A good breakdown from someone who used to work at the same faires can be found here.

As written there, the short "a" is one of the more distinctive sounds, because it is always like the "a" in "apple."  You never say it the way we pronounce that letter in the word "want" nowadays.  Short "e" and short "i" are pretty much how we say them now, though.

Our warm-up in the morning to get us in the right linguistic mindset was reciting the 23rd Psalm from the Bible.  Here's the beginning, as best as I can write it with the pronunciation.  Don't forget that all those short a's are as in apple!

Thee loord is muh-ee shep-herd, Uh-ee shall not want.
He me-keth mee to luh-ee do-oon in green pas-tyoors.
He lay-deth mee bee-suh-eed thee still wa-ters.
He re-stoor-eth muh-ee so-ool.
He lay-deth mee in the path of ruh-ee-tee-us-ness foor his nems sek.
Yay, tho-oo Uh-ee wak throo the va-lee oov thee sha-duh-oo oov dayth,
Uh-ee shall fair no ee-vil,
Foor thuh-oo art with mee.
Thuh-ee rood and thuh-ee staff thay coom-foort muh-ee.

Now, whether Shakespeare actually sounded like this, I don't know!  I haven't heard anyone refute that BFA is a reasonable approximation of how people spoke in that era.  But today is "National Talk Like Shakespeare Day", celebrated on the anniversary of his death, which gave me an opportunity to remember fondly my days of speaking in Basic Faire Accent.

Wordless Wednesday