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.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: The Weather on the Day You Were Born

This week for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun, Randy Seaver found a fun site to play around with.

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission:  Impossible! music) is:

(1) Have you ever wondered what the weather was like on the day you were born?  Was it a bright, sunny day, or a wet and windy dreary day?

(2) Go to the site http://weather.sumofus.org/ and follow the directions.  Put in your birthdate and birthplace and find out what the weather was on that day.  [Note that it only goes back to 1901.]

(3) For extra credit :), find out the weather when your parents and your spouse(s) were born.

(4) Tell us in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or on social media.  Please leave a link on this post so we can see what you found.

So here are my results.

• I was born April 9, 1962 in Los Angeles, California.

• My father was born December 4, 1935 in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

• My mother was born November 11, 1940 in Brooklyn, New York.

• And my boyfriend was born November 28, 1951 in Santa Monica, California.

Okay, I have to admit that I like the fact that the temperature was the same on my boyfriend's and my birthdays.

I also entered the date for a funeral that took place in Titusville, Pennsylvania in 1932 for a family that I have researched, because I wanted to see just how cold it was when everyone was there.

My guess is that the site is using the high temperature for the day.  It would be even more fun if it could take into account the time the person was born.

Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Make a Timeline

Today's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun event from Randy Seaver was interesting, so I thought I'd participate.  He asked people to create a timeline for an ancestor and then post about it.  So here's my entry.

1) Have you created a Timeline for one of your ancestors using a genealogy software program (e.g., Family Tree Maker, RootsMagic, Legacy, Reunion, etc.) or an online family Tree (e.g., Ancestry Member Tree, FamilySearch Family Tree, Geni, MyHeritage, etc.), or in a spreadsheet (e.g., Excel) or in a word processor table?
2)  If not, try to create a timeline using the program/website of your choice.  If so, create another one for the ancestor of your choice!
3)  Show us your Timeline creation, and tell us how you did it.  Which program/website did you use, the process you used, and how you captured the images to display your timeline.
4)  Share your Timeline creation on your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or on Facebook or Google+.

1) and 2) I have created timelines previously, but I put this one together tonight.

3) I used Family Tree Maker 16 (I've seen no need to upgrade past that version) and created a genealogy report that included all the facts I had.  I then exported the information in an RTF file and did some editing in Word.  I copied and pasted from Word directly into this post.  (I found it amusing that a timeline with fourteen entries has thirty-eight sources!)  Because I did the timeline in a word processor, I don't have any images.

Like Randy's timeline, this is pretty plain, but it has all the information and is easy to read.  I also would like to add more information, starting with what O.K.S.B. stands for.

4) So I'm sharing my timeline here on my blog, I'll add a comment to Randy's post, and it will show up on Facebook and Google+.  I'm covering all the bases.

ELLIS STEINFIRST:

Abt. December 1851, born in Poland/Germany, to a Jewish family^{1,2,3,4,5,6,7,49,50,51,52}

Abt. 1870, Immigration to United States^{34,35,36,37,38,39}

July 14, 1872 married JENNIE WEINSTEIN in Titusville, Crawford County, Pennsylvania^{11,12,13,14,15}

Bet. 1879–1880, member of O.K.S.B.^40,41

June 4, 1880, enumerated in census at 83 Spring Street, Titusville, Crawford County, Pennsylvania, occupation huckster^29,44

Abt. 1892, naturalized in Titusville, Crawford County, Pennsylvania?^42,43

June 1, 1900, enumerated in census at 104 North Martin Street, Titusville, Crawford County, Pennsylvania, occupation scrap iron dealer^30,45

April 21, 1910, enumerated in census at 110 Martin Street, Titusville, Crawford County, Pennsylvania, occupation junk dealer^31,46

January 9, 1920, enumerated in census at 320 North Martin Street, Titusville, Crawford County, Pennsylvania, occupation scrap iron dealer^32,47

April 5, 1930, enumerated in census at 320 North Martin Street, Titusville, Crawford County, Pennsylvania, occupation scrap iron co manager^33,48

February 27, 1932, died in Syracuse, Onondaga County, New York, cause of death bronchopneumonia^8,9,10,28

February 29, 1932, obituary published in Titusville Herald⁷

March 1, 1932, buried in B'nai Gemeluth Chesed Cemetery, Titusville, Crawford County, Pennsylvania^25,26,27

Endnotes

1.  1880 U.S. Census, Titusville, Crawford County, Pennsylvania ED 125 Pg 8D Ln 31. STE-C001

2.  1900 U.S. Census, Titusville, Crawford County, Pennsylvania ED 45 Pg 2A Ln 49. STE-C002a

3.  1920 U.S. Census, Titusville, Crawford County, Pennsylvania ED 45 Pg 7A Ln 31. STE-C003

4.  1930 U.S. Census, Titusville, Crawford County, Pennsylvania ED 20-48 Pg 4B Ln 32. STE-C004

5.  New York State Department of Health, New York State Certificate of Death, February 27, 1932, #8963. STE-V002

6.  JewishGen.org, JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry, "Electronic," accessed online database July 12, 2008. STE-V003

7.  1910 U.S. Census, Titusville City, Crawford County, Pennsylvania ED 44 Pg 11B Ln 99. STE-C019a

8.  "Titusville Morning Herald," February 29, 1932, page 2. STE-N013

9.  New York State Department of Health, New York State Certificate of Death, February 27, 1932, #8963. STE-V001

10.  JewishGen.org, JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry, "Electronic," accessed online database July 12, 2008. STE-V003

11.  1930 U.S. Census, Titusville, Crawford County, Pennsylvania ED 20-48 Pg 4B Ln 32. STE-C004

12.  "Titusville Morning Herald," February 29, 1932, page 2. STE-N013

13.  1910 U.S. Census, Titusville City, Crawford County, Pennsylvania ED 44 Pg 11B Ln 99, 100. STE-C019a

14.  "Titusville Morning Herald," July 15, 1872. STE-N049

15.  "Titusville Herald," Titusville, Pennsylvania, July 13, 1922, page 5. STE-N057

25.  "Titusville Morning Herald," March 2, 1932, page 3. STE-N014

26.  New York State Department of Health, New York State Certificate of Death, February 27, 1932, #8963. STE-V001

27.  JewishGen.org, JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry, "Electronic," accessed online database July 12, 2008. STE-V003

28.  New York State Department of Health, New York State Certificate of Death, February 27, 1932, #8963. STE-V001

29.  1880 U.S. Census, Titusville, Crawford County, Pennsylvania ED 125 Pg 8D Ln 31. STE-C001

30.  1900 U.S. Census, Titusville, Crawford County, Pennsylvania ED 45 Pg 2A Ln 49. STE-C002a

31.  1910 U.S. Census, Titusville City, Crawford County, Pennsylvania ED 44 Pg 11B Ln 99. STE-C019a

32.  1920 U.S. Census, Titusville, Crawford County, Pennsylvania ED 45 Pg 7A Ln 31. STE-C003

33.  1930 U.S. Census, Titusville, Crawford County, Pennsylvania ED 20-48 Pg 4B Ln 32. STE-C004

34.  1900 U.S. Census, Titusville, Crawford County, Pennsylvania ED 45 Pg 2A Ln 49. STE-C002a

35.  1920 U.S. Census, Titusville, Crawford County, Pennsylvania ED 45 Pg 7A Ln 31. STE-C003

36.  1930 U.S. Census, Titusville, Crawford County, Pennsylvania ED 20-48 Pg 4B Ln 32. STE-C004

37.  "Titusville Morning Herald," February 29, 1932, page 2. STE-N013

38.  New York State Department of Health, New York State Certificate of Death, February 27, 1932, #8963. STE-V001

39.  1910 U.S. Census, Titusville City, Crawford County, Pennsylvania ED 44 Pg 11B Ln 99. STE-C019a

40.  "Titusville Morning Herald," June 23, 1879. STE-N002

41.  "Titusville Morning Herald," July 5, 1880. STE-N005

42.  1920 U.S. Census, Titusville, Crawford County, Pennsylvania ED 45 Pg 7A Ln 31. STE-C003

43.  1910 U.S. Census, Titusville City, Crawford County, Pennsylvania ED 44 Pg 11B Ln 99. STE-C019a

44.  1880 U.S. Census, Titusville, Crawford County, Pennsylvania ED 125 Pg 8D Ln 31. STE-C001

45.  1900 U.S. Census, Titusville, Crawford County, Pennsylvania ED 45 Pg 2A Ln 49. STE-C002a

46.  1920 U.S. Census, Titusville, Crawford County, Pennsylvania ED 45 Pg 7A Ln 31. STE-C003

47.  1910 U.S. Census, Titusville City, Crawford County, Pennsylvania ED 44 Pg 11B Ln 99. STE-C019a

48.  1930 U.S. Census, Titusville, Crawford County, Pennsylvania ED 20-48 Pg 4B Ln 32. STE-C004

49.  "Titusville Morning Herald," December 1, 1885, page 1. STE-N007

50.  "Titusville Morning Herald," April 16, 1887. STE-N008

51.  "Titusville Morning Herald," February 29, 1932, page 2. STE-N013

52.  "Titusville Herald," Titusville, Pennsylvania, March 7, 1910, page 5. STE-N051