52 Ancestors: How do you spell that? Alex Seneft

My great-grandfather had several names in his life. He was born Elias Seneft, but by the time he was married he was known as Alec Hilinger, and when he died, Alex Hillinger. Why the change? Because the Germans didn't recognize his parents' marriage in a religious (Jewish) ceremony. His first name was because the family moved to England when he was young. He and most of his family used Anglicised nicknames to better fit in. I still haven't been able to figure out his younger brother or either of his sisters' Hebrew names at this time, though I keep trying to determine that.

Both Seneft and Hillinger are names that have caused several problems in my genealogy search. 

Hillinger is my maiden name, and for my whole childhood, I remember people mangling it. Missing one of the letters when they tried to pronounce it or spell it was a very common occurrence. Worse, when I first began my search, I assumed that Hillinger was the correct spelling, until I realized that my great-great grandmother spelled her name with one L. Or at least, that is what I have been told. So though there are Hillingers in Austria, it is quite possible that we're in no way related to them. At one point, I looked up the name Hilinger on a name mapping site that showed you where the name was most commonly found. The country that came up when I did was Spain, which I found quite fascinating. If that's true, it's quite possible that we're possibly Sephardic Jewish on that branch somewhere. But I have no way to prove it at this time.

Seneft is even more confusing. Some records show it as Senft, some as Seneft, and one branch in England specifically used Senefft. While most searches on genealogy sites do look for variants on a name, I have found it works better to look for all three variants to check for my family, as it only brings up a selection of possibilities otherwise. I will say it's made finding records proving anything about my great-grandfather's family very complicated. 

For a long time, I wasn't even sure of my great-grandfather's eldest brother's name. I'd narrowed it down to Isaac shortly before a distant cousin from that branch of my family got in touch. His grandfather, my great-grandfather's brother, is the one who used Senefft. And it's because I got in touch with him that I now know for certain his name was Isaac. Unfortunately, he and my great grandfather were the only ones of their siblings that had any kids, so none of the rest passed down their pictures or records to show their truths. I keep digging, but unless I get lucky, I doubt I will be able to find out much more about any of them.

Lessons from this branch include: the fact that names change over time. That names changed when people came to the US, not because the Ellis Island people changed them, but that the families changed them to fit into their new country better. That just because the name isn't spelled the way you expect doesn't mean that it isn't the right record. That Jewish people often have more than one first name they used in records. That names weren't a consistent thing before the turn of the 20th century. And that immigration causes loss of records quite often.

I will say that Jewish genealogy is one of the more difficult types of genealogy to engage in. So many moves, and so many attempts to wipe Jews from the face of Europe. People have done everything they can to make the Jewish people no longer part of our world. It's led to a scattering or actual destruction of the records on my people. And it's made those who still practice more secretive. 

Add to that the Mormon insistence on bringing everyone under their "god's" banner, and I have been very disinclined to help them "baptize" a people who have been struggling to keep their community together despite gentiles' insistence that they need to be done away with. If you are part of that church, I beg you to remember what happened to these people less than a Century ago. And what happened across Europe even before that. I would beg you to remember that yours is not the only belief, and to think of how you would feel if it were your mother, cut down by people who felt the Mormon faith needed to be expunged from the world that someone decided to bring her into their faith to "save" her. Don't do it. I don't care if you were related to these Jews or not. They would not have converted. Don't forcibly "convert" them now.

52 Ancestors: Check It Out - Daniel Jones

This one was a hard one for me, but eventually I turned the prompt on its ear. Instead of something I want to show off, I decided to go with something I wanted to see myself. And that is one of the places I've most wanted to see: Merthyr Tydfil, Wales.

I've actually been there once before, when I was still young. My family went to England and Germany when I was just starting fifth grade in school. I do have fond memories of the trip, but they are faint, and I really don't recall everything we did. So when mom found her journal and I was reminded that we visited the town her grandfather Daniel was born in, I was sad I really remembered almost nothing. All I can think is just how much time I'd want to spend there, see where my great-grandfather grew up, finding records about him and his parents. Maybe even meet relatives I've not met before. I believe some of his siblings' descendants still live there or in the area today.

My great-grandfather Daniel was born in Merthyr Tydfil in 1882. His parents ran the local post office, from what I have been told. I know he had several siblings, though I know almost nothing about any of them aside from a few stories here and there. I know that he lost one to pneumonia when he was still a young man, and that he had two younger sisters, including one who had a son about the same age as Daniel's own son who was born in the early 1920s.

Daniel also went out of his way to name one of his children for his hometown. When my great-grandmother sent him to go to register my grandmother's birth, they'd decided on a name, but when he returned, she learned that he had named her Merle Tydfil for his home. 

So you can see why I feel so attached and curious about this place my family has an origin in. I'd love to see the post office (or where it used to be). I'd love to look into the local stories, see where my great grandfather lived before he came to Canada.

So there you go, of all the places I'd like to Check Out, Merthyr Tydfil, Wales is definitely at the top of the list.

Howells Placeline

So I think this is the last post of this series, because as you can see, these are getting fainter in knowledge as I go back in time. I have thoughts as to what I might do next, but for now I think I'll go back to one post a week for a bit until I work up some new posts. I hope everyone's enjoyed these, even if just a little.

The Howells line, as I said a few weeks ago, is one I believe is of Huguenot origin, but as of yet, the Howells and Gabriels online have not yet managed to get far enough back to prove or disprove this link.

As always, Bold are Birth, Marriage, and Death locations, and Italics are other locations.

1. Eliza Anne aka Bessie Howells

A. New Westminster, BC, Canada. New Westminster is basically a suburb of Vancouver, and it was here where Bessie lived until her death at the age of 94. I'm so lucky I got to know her for as long as I got--ten years. I still miss my Nain.

B. Vancouver, BC, Canada. I'm not sure exactly when she moved to Vancouver, but it was here she met her husband, and here she made her life with him. All four of their children were born in Vancouver, and she lived here for more than half of her life.

C. Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. When the Howell family first came to Canada, they lived for a time with Bessie's uncle Louis, who had a farm in Saskatchewan, but soon moved to Winnipeg, where they lived for several years until the family slowly migrated one by one east because of the milder winters available in Vancouver.

D. Pontypridd, Wales. Pronounced Pant-ee-prith. This is where the family lived before Bessie's father finally decided it would be better for the family to move to Canada. Bessie's two younger siblings were born here.

E. Penrhiwceiber, Wales. Pronounced Pen-ruh-ky-ber. This is a small mining town in southern Wales where the family was living when Bessie was born.

2. Gabriel Howells

A. Vancouver, BC, Canada. In his later years, Gabriel and his wife Selina moved to Vancouver to be close to their children. They celebrated their 50th anniversary here, and lived here together until her death in 1933, and his in 1934, ten years after that anniversary.

B. Winnipeg, Manitoba, BC. After a short time in Canada, remembering why he didn't like farming, Gabriel moved the family to Winnipeg, where Gabriel was able to use his masonry skills to make a good living.

C. Pontypridd, Wales. Gabriel was working with the mines here, using his masonry to help shore up the mines before he realized that not actively doing the mining was no less unhealthy, and thus he decided it was time to find a less unhealthy job. He soon decided that it would be better to move to Canada and start a whole new life.

D. Penrhiwceiber, Wales. This is where the family moved to for a time before moving to Pontypridd, working with the mines to help with masonry there.

E. Dolgelly, Wales. Pronounced Dol-geh-lay. Also spelled Dolgellu, depending on when and where the record is written up. This is where the family lived while Gabriel was young, and it was here he met and married his wife, Selina. They started their family here, losing two children in an influenza epidemic and having four more children before moving south so that Gabriel could make money with his masonry skills, leaving the family farm to his younger brother to run.

F. Tywyn, Wales. This is the place I have always had as my great-great grandfather's birthplace. It is very close to Dolgelly, so it's possible he never lived here, but was just born her for some reason, as the ancestors I have listed for him only have Dolgelly as their place of residence from birth to death.

3. Howell Gabriel

A. Dolgelly, Wales.  This is the only location I have for Howell or the ancestors I have for him, I believe they lived and died here for many generations.

4. Gabriel Howel

A. Dolgelly, Wales. See Howel above. 

5. Howell Gabral

A. Dolgelly, Wales. See Howel above. 

6. Howel Gabriel

A. Dolgelly, Wales. See Howel above. If I am right, I believe this is the place my Huguenot ancestor settled after leaving France, but as of yet, I have no proof of that.

* 

And that's all the locations for this branch of the family, which gives me another 7 locations.

It's been very interesting looking into where my family lived, and I highly recommend going through your family's locations from time to time. It definitely helps you find things you may have missed before, or correct issues in your tree.

52 Ancestors - Sisters: Bessie and Catherine Howells

I have a few sister pairs in my family tree, but I couldn't resist the chance to talk about my Nain and her younger sister for this one. I have been told that my great-grandmother was very close to her younger sister, Catherine. They were born three years apart, and were two of the three youngest children of their family. Truly, I do not know much about their life or their friendship, only that Nain was very close to her sister.

I do know of a trip I believe they took together down to Seattle to the Alaskan Yukon Gold Rush Exposition. We have lots of shots of that trip, which was a long way to come in those days. We even have a few pictures of my great grandmother here in Seattle, which I have always been fond of once I found them.

As married women, they both lived in Vancouver, BC, and I imagine they likely spent a good deal of time together with their young children, though I imagine that got more difficult as they grew older. Nain had three girls before her sister had her first child, and her sister had only boys, though when my great uncle was born in the early 20s, I'm sure their children had fun playing together.

I wish I knew more about Catherine's life, because the records I find show that by the end of it, she was likely a very unhappy woman. I found a record of a daughter who died in infancy, and she had a series of at least five quick pregnancies in a row. It's a hard thing on a woman's body, just having one child. And to lose a child, and continue to have more so quickly, I'm sure had a detrimental effect on her mental health. The only reason I think this is because in 1937, she was sent to Essondale. In Vancouver, saying the name Essondale is equivalent to saying Bellevue in the US. It was an asylum. And not the good kind. I won't go into details here, but it was finally closed down in 1983, after a long history of some of the worst kinds of offences against mental patients. 

Catherine was not there long. Apparently she had a major depressive episode. She was there less than a month. The death certificate I have doesn't give details, only a statement that she died of "Exhaustion of Manic-Depressive Psychosis." I can only imagine what was truly wrong. Possibly the effects of untreated postpartum depression. Women's issues simply weren't given the right attention in those days. I try not to be angry at her husband for the fact that she ended up there. I don't know enough of their marriage to know if they were happy or not. All I know is that my great-great aunt was only 45 when she died, leaving behind at least two living sons, possibly as many as four, according to the records I have found.

It makes me sad, knowing that my Nain lost her sister this way, given how close she felt to her. I wish I'd known about her, and gotten to talk to Nain about her. I would have loved to hear her stories about her little sister, and their happy times together. 

Park Placeline

Just a year ago, this post would have been two generations shorter, as the g-g-g grandfather I had in this line was wrong. And I had literally nothing for him and his wife but names, and only a surname in this case. Now thanks to my cousin Kate, who kept digging and pushing until she found more information and got us a whole other generation back in the Park line. So thank you, Kate, for helping to expand our family tree. This family line was why I started my search. And aside from the above, I've made very little headway with them, so having that expansion was quite exciting. Who knows what we'll find now that we have more names.

As always, bold are important places for birth, marriage, and death records, and italics are other locations they lived in for at least a year.

1. Mary (May) Dunlop Park

A. Des Moines, Washington. When Granny grew too old to live on her own, my grandfather found a place for her here in Washington at a Masonic nursing home. My grandfather was a Mason, and used his connections to get her a very comfortable and pretty place to live. Despite that, she wasn't happy to be here. She remembered her youth in the US poorly, and hated how her father had been treated at that time. If she'd had her way, she never would have lived in the US again. But we were glad to have her close by, where we could see her, and I have fond memories of visiting her here several times before she passed away.

B. Vancouver, BC, Canada. My great-grandmother lived the majority of her life here in Vancouver. She moved here in her twenties, and lived here until late in her life. Here she met her husband, Bjarne, and here she had her two boys. I would venture to say it was the place she felt was her home.

C. Belfast, Ireland. At the time, it was before Irish independence, so I will call it just Ireland. For a short time before the Parks moved to Canada, they lived in Belfast.

D. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This is where Mary and all her siblings were born. Their parents came here from northern Ireland in 1883, and only left when it became too difficult to be immigrant Irish in the Eastern US, when they returned home to Ireland.

2. Robert James Park

A. Vancouver, BC, Canada. This is where my great-great grandparents settled finally with all their children, and lived until they passed away, which for Robert was almost twenty years, a good, long time. 

B. Belfast, Ireland. After no longer wanting to be in the US, the Parks returned to Belfast before moving again to Canada. The only reason I have this confirmed is because they were there long enough to be in the Irish Census for 1911.

C. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After Robert and Lizzie married, they emigrated to the US, settling in Philadelphia. According to the work my cousin Kate has done, it seems they had at least one if not several family members and friends from Ireland in their community. Robert made a living as a cabinet maker. It was only when the push against Irish immigrants began in the US in the 19-teens that they left and returned to Ireland.

D. Belfast, Ireland. I do not know at all how long Robert lived in Belfast, only that this is where he was when he married Lizzie. And I know this is where they left for America from.

E. Ballymena, Ireland. Robert was born in Ballymena, which is also in Northern Ireland. I know almost nothing about his life there, though he had at least two sisters and two older half brothers.

3. David Park Esquire

A. Ballymena, Ireland. I know almost nothing about David or his father. They are very new in my tree thanks to my cousin. I only know that David married twice, and had at least five kids between those wives. Nearly all the locations I currently have for him are Ballymena, so I presume he lived most if not all his life in or near the city of Ballymena.

4. John Park

A. Antrim, Ireland. I know even less about John than I do about David. I have four sons for him, but no spouse, and all his locations are in Antrim. 

*

We do have one more generation back, but no specific locations attached to him, so I will not include him here at this time. Six locations for this one. Very little information once I get back to Ballymena, unfortunately, but at least that is beginning to grow thanks to all the digging my cousin is doing.

52 Ancestors: Joined together - Sam & Maggie

One of the courting stories I didn't cover last month came immediately to mind when I saw this prompt, and I couldn't resist telling their story, especially after finding some new references to it when digging through the paperwork I had for something else earlier this year. My grandparents, Sam Hillinger and Maggie Hansen, both served in the Army during World War II, and both came through the war quite safely, and were eventually assigned to the Frankfurt area after the war to help with reorganization and cleanup. 

Maggie took her time in Europe to go visit her father's family up in Denmark when she was free of duties, but she also took an opportunity to go on an organized trip to relax. The Red Cross had organized trips to Switzerland for those who were helping with everything in Europe. I believe she told me her sister, who also served, was going to come with her, but didn't manage, so she chose to go alone, just to get away and relax. The trip was to Saint Moritz. Maggie found herself alone on a train, watching the scenery go by.

Sam had also decided to go on this trip with a group of his friends. But as the trip progressed, they grew loud, and upon seeing a young lady sitting alone on the train, he broke away from his friends and chose to sit with her. And this was how my grandparents met. Together, they learned how to ski, which remained part of their life until shortly before my grandfather passed away. My father still skis every winter, teaching others in our local ski areas.

Maggie and Sam at their Wedding Reception

But...that is only the beginning of their story. Maggie and Sam were both still part of the armed forces when they decided to marry, so like anyone in the armed service, they were required to ask permission to marry, and last month, I found the letters they both wrote up to request permission to marry. Permission was granted, of course, and so they were married in Frankfurt at the register's office with her sister and his best friend at their sides. The next day, they had a celebration with all their friends in attendance.

Nana told me that she'd always hated having no middle name. Her little brother had one, but she and her sister did not. She said that it was especially difficult during her time in the army, because she had to put something in the middle initial section of any form she filled out, which meant that when she filled out any form, her name became Margaret NMN (No Middle Name) Hansen. So she was very excited when she got married, because now she had three names: Margaret Hansen Hillinger.

Sam and Maggie started their family right there in Frankfurt. My father was born shortly before they got their chance to return home. They stayed for a short time in Ohio while my grandfather got his degree in accounting. Then they had to decide which of the offers Grumpy should take for a job. In the end, they chose Seattle because it was near enough to the mountains to ski. Our family has lived in the area ever since, and all of my dad's siblings were born here.

They celebrated their 50th anniversary in 1998, with crowds of friends and family in attendance. Grumpy passed two years later. We scattered his ashes at one of his favorite ski areas. Nana died ten years later, and her ashes were scattered on Mount Rainier. Any time the mountain is out here in Seattle, I think of her.

Sam and Maggie, skiers for life

Censuses!

So the 1950 Census will be out in just ten days. I'm very excited. This will have my dad and his parents in it, so long as they weren't actively on the move when it was taken in their neighborhood. I think I have the right ED, but I'll probably wait until info is at least a little searchable on Ancestry. Ancestry has a tool for looking up your family's Enumeration District (ED), if you know where they were living at the time. If that doesn't work for you, there is also Steve Morse's site, which can help you narrow your ED  down. 

However, the US isn't the only census to come out this year, and the Canadian 1931 census will come out next year. So here's what I've found out:

At this time, the 1921 UK Census is out. However, it is only available on Find My Past, only if you pay for an account, and even then, you have to pay for each image of the census you look at. So that one's not easily available, unless you live in the UK. My great-great grandfather Leon should be in that UK Census, so hopefully it will eventually be more widely available, though I doubt that will be this year.

The Danish 1950 Census is also available this year, and should be up sometime soon. I wasn't able to narrow down a date, so if you know one, feel free to let me know! I don't have anyone in my direct line who should still be in this Census, but some of my great-grandparents' siblings should be in it, at the very least.

the US 1950 Census comes out on April 1, and Ancestry and Family Search are already chomping at the bit to get the translated to data on their sites so that they are easily searchable on both sites. This one should, if I am very lucky, have my dad and his parents in it. Wish me luck!

The Canadian 1931 Census will be out next year. I don't know much about when or how this will be available, so all I can do is wait impatiently, as both my grandparents and their parents should be on this one. They were both supposed to be in the 1921 census, too, but I was never able to find the Jones family, so it is possible that they were in Wales at the time it was taken. Hopefully they'll be there this time.

And those are the ones I'm most looking forward to getting my hands on. 

Have you started prepping for the Census? Who are you looking forward to seeing on it?