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.

Wordless Wednesday

 

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Did Your Ancestor Have a "Different" Occupation? Try "Sam the Digital Archivist" on ChatGPT

I still think it's much more beneficial for people to do their own research rather than have AI do the work for them, but I am participating in this week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun from Randy Seaver.

Come on, everybody, join in and accept the mission and execute it with precision.

1.  Did one (or more) of your ancestors have a "different" occupation?  If so, try to find out more about that occupation in Steve Little's "Sam the Digital Archivist" custom prompt using the free ChatGPT4 artificial intelligence tool.  Click on the "Exploring unique ancestral occupations?" button and tell Sam in the "Ask anything" box to define and/or describe the occupation.

2.  Tell us about your ancestor's "different" occupation, and what Sam had to say about it,  in your own blog post, in a comment on this post, or in a Facebook post.  Please leave a link on this post if you write your own post.

So I had to start by creating a login for ChatGPT4, because I have not used it previously.  After I did that, confirmed my e-mail address, and logged in, I used Randy's exact phrasing, substituting the information for my 2x-great-grandfather.  He didn't have a particularly different occupation, but so far none of my ancestors did.  I chose him because I have previously researched what a file grinder did, and I wanted to see whether ChatGPT4 would reveal anything I had not found.

So I typed the following question for Sam:

"My 2nd great-grandfather Frederick Cleworth Dunstan (1840-1873) resided in Hulme, Lancashire, England in 1871. The census record says he was a file grinder.  What was he doing?"

And this is what Sam/ChatGPT4 told me:

-- >< -- >< -- >< -- >< --

Great question! Your 2nd great-grandfather, Frederick Cleworth Dunstan, was a file grinder, which means he had a tough, dangerous, and highly skilled job in the metalworking industry. Let’s break it down:

What is a File Grinder?

A file grinder was responsible for sharpening, shaping, and finishing metal files used in various trades, from woodworking to metalworking. The job was part of the cutlery and tool-making industry, which was booming in industrial-era England, particularly in places like Sheffield and Lancashire.

The Process:

 Rough Shaping: Workers took raw, forged metal files and ground them to the correct shape using massive, high-speed grinding wheels made of sandstone.
 Sharpening the Teeth: The characteristic teeth of a file were cut (often by hand) and then refined on grinding wheels for precision.
 Smoothing & Polishing: Final grinding ensured the files were smooth, sharp, and ready for sale or use.

The Danger Factor 

File grinding was one of the deadliest industrial jobs of the 19th century due to:
 "Grinder’s Rot" (Silicosis & Lung Disease): Grinding metal and stone created a fine dust that workers inhaled daily. This led to serious lung diseases, often fatal.
 Exploding Grinding Wheels: If a stone wheel cracked or ran too fast, it could shatter, sending razor-sharp debris flying. Many workers were killed or maimed this way.
 Sparks & Fire Hazards: Grinding produced intense sparks, increasing fire risks, especially in factories filled with flammable materials.

Working Conditions

• File grinders typically worked in dimly lit, poorly ventilated workshops called grinding hulls.
• Most worked long hours (10-12 per day) for low pay.
• Protective gear? Ha! Workers had little to no protection, and safety regulations were practically nonexistent.

Why Was This Job in Hulme, Lancashire?

Hulme was part of the greater Manchester industrial area, known for its ironworking, tool-making, and manufacturing industries. Though Sheffield was the heart of steel grinding, Manchester had its fair share of metal and tool trades feeding into the broader economy.

Given that Frederick died in 1873 at only 33 years old, it raises the question:
 Could his occupation have contributed to his early death? Many grinders didn’t live past 40, succumbing to lung disease or workplace accidents. If his death certificate lists lung-related illness, consumption (TB), or a sudden accident, it could be tied to his trade.

What Next?

 Check Frederick’s death record—cause of death could confirm if his job played a role.
 Look for trade directories—they might list his employer or the workshop he worked in.
 Explore Hulme’s industrial history—find out more about metalworking in the area.
 Something else? What do you want to dig into next?

-- >< -- >< -- >< -- >< --

Well, no great revelations here.  As I wrote above, I have previously researched what work a file grinder did, including health hazards on the job.  Frederick Cleworth Dunstan died of chronic bronchitis, which is indeed a lung-related illness, so his fatal illness likely was related to his trade.

The only thing Sam told me that I had not read before was that a file grinder was a highly skilled job.  My research has indicated it was more the opposite, the type of job that people who couldn't find better ones ended up in.  Part of that reasoning was related to the job hazards due to the dangerous conditions.

Welcome to America, Mr. Gorodetsky and Sons!

1914 passenger list for Wigdor, Chaim, and Moische Gorodetky (first page)

February 19, 1914 (111 years ago!) is the date on which my great-great-grandfather Wigdor Gorodetsky and his two youngest sons, Chaim and Moishe, arrived in New York on the Nieuw Amsterdam, a ship of the Holland-America Line.  I'm going to look at every piece of information about them on the passenger list for their trip, which I have found.

They traveled in steerage.  They are on lines 6, 7, and 8 of the passenger list.  The first page shows that they departed from Rotterdam, the Netherlands on February 7, so the trip took almost two weeks.

Their names are written as Wigdor, Chaim, and Moische Gorodetky (someone apparently lost the "s").  Wigdor is 46, Chaim is 11, and Moische is 5, and Chaim and Moische are noted as being Wigdor's "Sons" in handwriting that is lighter than that on the rest of the page.  From his 1888 marriage record, I have estimated Wigdor's birth year as around 1863, whereas an age of 46 in 1914 would have him born around 1868.  He might have "youthened" himself for the trip, so as not to appear too old (maybe rumor said that being 50 or older might make you seem too old to be able to work?), or he might not have known how old he really was.

I have previously found the Russian birth records for Chaim and Moishe.  Chaim was born November 16, 1899, so he was actually 14 years old.  I'm not sure how beneficial it would be at his age to have fudged those three years, or again they might not have kept accurate track of his age.  Moishe was born November 13, 1908, so he really was 5 years old!  After looking at so many census records over the years, the younger someone is, the more accurate the reported age often is, so maybe that's why his age is correct.

They're all noted as male.  Wigdor is married, and the boys are single.  Wigdor was a furrier, while the two boys had no occupation.  Chaim could read and write (in Russian?  Hebrew?), while neither Wigdor nor Moishe could.  They are all listed as Russian subjects and of the Hebrew race, meaning they were Jewish, and their last residence was Kishinew (Kishinev), Russia (now Chisinau, Modolva).

For Moishe, in the columns for marital status, occupation, and ability to read and write, above the answers to those questions is some additional handwriting in heavy black ink:  2-479123 (505) 11/16/36.  Then two columns to the right appears "Rech 4/17/39."  I am pretty sure the 1936 date points to a Certificate of Arrival being generated when Moishe (by then known as Morris) applied to become a naturalized citizen by filing a Declaration of Intention, and the 1939 date was when he filed his petition.  I have copies of his naturalization paperwork (which I can't find right now); he became a citizen on June 4, 1940.

No similar notations for Wigdor and Chaim indicate they probably did not become U.S. citizens.  I do know I haven't found any naturalization paperwork so far for either one.

The name and address of the nearest relative where they had departed from were Wigdor's wife, Surki Gorodetsky (they found the "s"!) in Kishinew, Bess, which is short for Besserabia, the gubernia (province) in which Kishinev was.  There might actually be an address written, but I'm not sure what it says.  My best guess is Sessiona Pilenetz 7.  For all I know, it might not be an address.  Any takers?

Surki is Sura Galperin, my great-great-grandfather's second wife.  While the passenger list says that Surki is Chaim and Moishe's mother, she was actually their stepmother.  I have found an index entry for their marriage, which took place May 26, 1911 in Kishinev, but I don't have the complete marriage record.  My great-great-grandmother Esther Leah Schneiderman died December 8, 1908, less than a month after Moishe was born.  (The death record says the cause of death has something to do with blood.)

And that's everything on the first page!

The second page of the passenger list has "pecXam" to the left of the number 6, which is Wigdor.  The person two lines above Wigdor has "SpecXam."  I am interpreting both to mean Special Examination (Inquiry).  I looked through all five Special Inquiry pages for this sailing of the Nieuw Amsterdam that are online at FamilySearch.org, but I didn't see his name.  I also checked the five pages for Detained Aliens and didn't find him.  When I looked again at the first page, however, I noticed that the person on line 5, Menasche Biczowsky, is marked SI and deported, but there is no notation on that page for Wigdor.  In addition, Mr. Biczowsky does appear on the list of aliens held for Special Inquiry.  I think the notation by Wigdor on the second page is misplaced and was intended for the person on line 5.

The final destination for all three is New York, and they're marked as having a ticket to that destination, which is conveniently where the ship docked and where they offboarded.  Their passage was paid by Wigdor's son and Chaim and Moishe's brother (probably Joine, the person they are coming to meet here).  For the question of whether they are in possession of $50 and if less than that how much, $15 is noted by Wigdor's name and nothing by the two boys.

The number 13 and a mark around it are written under the $15.  Two lines above Wigdor is the number 35, and two lines below Moishe is 43.  Similarly, other numbers are written in the same column on the page.  I don't know what these are for.

The two columns asking whether the passengers have ever been in the United States before and when have a short dash for almost everyone on the page, including Wigdor and the boys, indicating none of them had.  On Wigdor's line is handwriting in a lighter ink that I don't understand.  It looks like a word and then the numeral 2.  The "word" almost looks like "dau &", but there's no girl, so that doesn't make sense (more on this below).

Next come the name and address of the relative or friend the passengers are going to join, where it says "son[s] Joine Gorodetsky c/o M [?] Brainin 1651 Madison Ave. N York."  Joine is my great-grandfather.  He is indeed Wigdor's son, and on the line below is written "brother", as he is Chaim and Moishe's brother.  M Brainin is my great-great-grandfather Mendel Hertz Brainin, father of Sarah Libby Brainin, who married Joine on April 4, 1914, less than two months after Wigdor arrived.  Joine was a boarder in the Brainin household, and that's how he met Sarah.

The [s] after the word son is confusing.  It's in the same lighter writing as "dau & 2."  Was it intended to make the word "son" plural, which is what it seems to have done?  Maybe the word I'm reading as "dau" is referring to Wigdor, and it's saying "& 2 sons" for Chaim and Moishe?  I noticed that the lighter handwriting for this looks similar to the word "Sons" on the first page.  In that case, "dau" must be something else and I just can't read it.

The next six columns are ditto marks for all three of my relatives (and for everyone on the page except the person on the first line), indicating that they are not prisoners, beggars, insane, anarchists, polygamists, coming on a work scheme, or crippled and that they are in good health.  Wigdor is 5'4"; no height is listed for the two boys.  All of them are marked as having fair complexion, brown hair and eyes, and no identifying marks.  All three were born in Russia.  Wigdor was born in Kamenetz, which would be Kamenets Podolsky, now in Ukraine; both boys were born in Kishinew.

A large block of handwriting in heavy ink goes at an angle across many lines, including the ones for Wigdor, Chaim,and Moishe.  It mentions certs, likely meaning certificates; two dates; and Scranton.  Three passengers were going to Scranton (the three lines after Moishe), so I think it's related to them and not to my relatives or anyone else on the page.

1914 passenger list for Wigdor, Chaim, and Moische Gorodetky (second page)

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Did Your Grandparents Know Their Grandparents?

We have a really fun challenge today for Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun!

Come on, everybody, join in and accept the mission and execute it with precision.

1.  Marie Cooke Beckman on her blog, MarieB's Genealogy Blog--Southeastern USA, asked and answered this question, and it is right up the SNGF alley:  Did your grandparents know their grandparents?  Thank you for the idea, Marie!

2.  Tell us about your grandparents and their grandparents in your own blog post, in a comment on this post, or in a Facebook post.  Please leave a link on this post if you write your own post.

This is a really cool topic!  I love it!

My maternal grandparents were Abraham Meckler (1912–1989) and Lillyan "Lily" E. Gordon (1919–2006).

• Abraham Meckler's maternal grandparents were Gershon Itzhak Nowicki (c. 1856–1948) and Dube Yelsky (c. 1848–1936).  Gershon and Dube immigrated to the United States in 1922 and lived in Brooklyn.  They changed the spelling of their family name to Novitzky, and Dube used the name Dora.  My grandfather knew both of them.  My maternal uncle Gary Meckler, who was born in 1951, was named after Gershon.

• Abraham's paternal grandparents were Simcha Dovid Mekler and Beila (birth and death years unknown for both).  They both died in Europe, almost definitely before my grandfather was born, and he never met them.

• Lillyan Gordon's maternal grandparents were Mendel Hertz Brainin (c. 1862–1930) and Ruchel Dvojre Jaffe (c. 1868–1934).  The immigrated separately to the United States in 1906 and lived in Manhattan.  They used the secular names Morris/Max and Rachel Dorothy, and my grandmother knew both of them.  She was born in their house.

• Lily's paternal grandparents were Avigdor Gorodetsky (c. 1863–1925) and Esther Leah Schneiderman (c. 1867–1908).  Esther Leah was my grandmother's birth name, following the Ashkenazi tradition of naming after a deceased ancestor (my grandmother changed her name as an adult).  Esther Leah's death was what precipitated the chain migration of this branch of my family to the United States.  Avigdor came in 1914 and changed his name to Victor Gordon.  My grandmother knew him, and I have a big family photo with the two of them in it.

My paternal grandparents were Bertram "Bert" Lynn Sellers, Sr. (1903–1995) and Anna Gauntt (1893–1986).

• Anna Gauntt's maternal grandparents were Frederick Cleworth Dunstan (1840–1873) and Martha Winn (1837–1884).  They both died in England before my grandmother was born, and she never knew them.

• Anna's paternal grandparents were James Gauntt (1831–1899) and Amelia Gibson (c. 1831–1908).  Everyone lived in Mount Holly, New Jersey and the nearby vicinity.  Since Anna was born in 1893 and James died in 1899, there's a reasonable chance she knew him.  Amelia died when my grandmother was 15 years old, so I'm pretty sure she knew her.

• Bertram Sellers' maternal grandparents were Sarah Ann Deacon Lippincott (1860–aft. 1904) and Joel Armstrong (c. 1849–c. 1921).  I don't know if he knew them.  I don't have documented dates of death for either person or confirmation that they were divorced, which I believe to be the case.  I suspect he might have known his grandmother; I'm pretty sure she's in the household with Grandpa's mother in 1900, so his mother was apparently on speaking terms with her mother.  If I have researched the correct person, his grandfather remarried and had a second family, so maybe he didn't know them, but I really don't know.

• Bert's biological paternal grandparents are still unknown to me, as I have not yet determined his biological father.  His adoptive father's parents were Cornelius Godschalk Sellers (1845–1877) and Catherine "Kate" Fox Owen (1849–c. 1923).  As Cornelius died so young, none of his grandchildren knew him.  Kate had a second husband, George W. Moore (1840–1920).  Bert did know Kate, and we have a photo of her.  In fact, she's the person who paid for his father's funeral, as he also died very young.  It's reasonable to believe that Grandpa probably knew George Moore, even though we don't have a photo of him, as Grandpa's brother was named after George.  I was told that Grandpa's father loved his stepfather so much that he named his second son George Moore Sellers after him.  That certainly suggests he was around the family.

And I am proud to say that I didn't need to look up any of the above information except some of the birth and death years.

The Gregorian Calendar Enters Use in Russia

Pope Gregory XIII

On my mother's side of the family, I am (as far as I know and have been able to verify through research) 100% Jewish.  All of my Jewish immigrant ancestors and most of my Jewish immigrant relatives within memory (and based on research) lived in the Russian Empire.  A small number of those relatives remained within the empire long enough also to live in the Soviet Union.

And that means that all of those ancestors and collateral relatives lived with the Julian calendar.  You know, the calendar that was corrected and improved upon by Pope Gregory XIII (lucky 13?), thereby giving the world the Gregorian calendar.

The Julian calendar dates back to the days of Julius Caesar, from whom it takes its name.  It had a 365-day year with a leap day added every fourth year.

The Julian calendar was a little longer than the actual solar year — .0078 days per year.  That doesn't sound like much, but over time — 1,628 years — this created a problem with when the seasons began and, more importantly, with determining when Easter began.  That then became a problem for the Catholic church, which is when Pope Gregory enters the picture.

Pope Gregory commissioned a new, more accurate calendar and declared on February 25, 1582 that the day after October 4, 1582 would be October 15, 1582, correcting for this mistake by dropping ten days.  But he did not rule the world, only the church, so at first only the Papal States and the church itself enacted the change.  Not long after, many Catholic countries switched over.  Protestant countries took longer, because they didn't want to be following the edict of the Catholic church, but eventually most of them made the change also (Great Britain and its colonies, including what would become the United States of America, corrected the calendar in 1752, dropping eleven days).

But many parts of the world didn't change until the 20th century, including the Russian Empire.  In fact, the Russian Empire never did make the change.  The Russian Revolution occurred, the Russian Empire was dissolved, and the brand-spanking new Russian Soviet Socialist Republic, which became part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), declared that the country would switch to the Gregorian calendar.  January 31, 1918 was followed by February 14, 1918, dropping thirteen days to bring the calendar into compliance (because those additional centuries of extra leap days added up!).  So today is the 107th anniversary of the Russian change to the Gregorian calendar.  I love the fact that, once you took into account the changes in dates, the October Revolution actually took place in November.

All of my ancestors who were still alive left the Russian Empire before the October Revolution.  Most of my other relatives did also.

But a few were not able to leave quite that early and did live in the Soviet Union for some amount of time.

My great-grandfather's older sister, Etta Gorodetsky, married Dovid Kardish in the Russian Empire, and they had at least eight children there.  One child died in Europe, but Dovid, Etta, and the other seven children immigrated to Canada in 1927.

Dovid is probably my cousin, based on information I have found and been told, although I have not determined exactly how. But that makes everyone else in his family my cousins.  He had eleven known siblings.  Dovid's father and four of the siblings died in Europe, but his mother and six of his siblings were living in the Soviet Union before they left for Canada.  And one of Dovid's sisters never left; she married in the Russian Empire in what is now Ukraine, was still there during the transition to the Soviet Union, and eventually went to Uzbekistan, dying there before it became independent.

So all of those who did not leave before the fall of the Russian Empire went through the calendar transition from Julian to Gregorian.

The records I find for my relatives before the switch to the Gregorian calendar have dates based on the Julian calendar.

So I need to note in some way in my family tree that those dates are Julian, to make sure I'm accurately recording events.

I would prefer to enter the dates per the Julian calendar, because that's how they were originally recorded, and that's the logic I use for entering locations.  What it was called when the event happened is what I enter, and then I make a note that the location is now called something else.

But my computer program isn't able to handle dates that way.  When I put in a Julian date, it wants to interpret it as a Gregorian date, like all the other dates in the database.

What I eventually decided was to record the dates per the Gregorian calendar and then to make a note for each one of what the original Julian date was.  That way, the computer doesn't get confused, I still have the information about the date as originally recorded, and everyone is happy.  And I want to keep my computer happy.

Wordless Wednesday

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: What Were Your Ancestors Doing 100 Years Ago?

Keeping tabs on my ancestors for this week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun from Randy Seaver should keep me busy for a while.

Come on, everybody, join in and accept the mission and execute it with precision.

1.  Every one of your ancestors was doing "something" in their lives in early 1925.  Do you know, or do you have to guess?

2.  Tell us about what your ancestors were doing in early 2025 in your own blog post, in a comment on this post, or in a Facebook post.  Please leave a link on this post if you write your own post.

Well, in 1925, neither of my parents was born yet, so I'm starting with my grandparents.

My paternal grandfather, Bertram Lynn Sellers (he wasn't Senior yet, because there wasn't a Junior yet), was still with his first wife, Elizabeth Leatherberry Sundermier.  He was 21, and she was 19.  Their first child, Bertram Ezra Sellers, was 18 months old.  My aunt, Dorothy Mae Sellers, was just barely a gleam in their eye, as she wouldn't be born until October.  They were living in Northampton township, Burlington County, New Jersey.  I don't know what my grandfather was doing for work; the first occupation I have for him is from 1930, when he was a textile weaver in the silk mill in town.

My paternal grandmother, Anna Gauntt, may have already separated from her husband, Charles Cooper Stradling; I don't know when that happened.  In 1925 she was 32 and living in Northampton, New Jersey.  She and Charles had an 11-year-old daughter, Ruth Carrie Stradling; I'm pretty sure that she was with her mother.  I don't know if my grandmother was working or if Mr. Stradling was.

My maternal grandfather, Abram Meckler, was 12 years old and living with his parents (my great-grandparents), Morris Meckler and Minnie Zelda (Nowicki) Meckler, and four of his siblings (two older brothers, two younger sisters) in Brooklyn.  Morris was about 43, and Minnie was about 45.  Morris was a carpenter, Minnie was a housewife and took care of the children, and my grandfather was going to school.

My maternal grandmother, Esther Lillian Gordon, was 5 years old and living with her parents (my great-grandparents), Joe Gordon and Sarah Libby (Brainin) Gordon, and her two older brothers in Manhattan.  Joe was about 33, and Sarah was about 35.  Joe was an operator in the clothing industry, which meant he was involved in production.  He may have been observing Jewish mourning practices, because his father had died on January 26, but this branch of my family was not as observant as my grandfather's (who were very traditional and very Orthodox), so maybe not.  Sarah was a housewife and took care of the children.  I don't think my grandmother was going to school yet.

Anna's parents, my great-grandparents Thomas Kirkland Gauntt and Jane (Dunstan) Gauntt, were living in Northampton, New Jersey.  Thomas was 54 and Jane was 53.  Thomas was probably a farm laborer, as that is what he did for most of his life.  Jane was a housewife.

Minnie's parents, my great-great-grandparents Gershon Itzhak Novitsky and Dora (Yelsky) Novitsky, were living in Brooklyn, possibly with their son Sam.  Gershon was about 69, and Dora was about 67.  They had arrived in the United States in 1922.  I don't know if Gershon was working yet, but in 1930 his occupation was listed as a Hebrew teacher, so it's possible.  Dora was a housewife.

Sarah's parents, my great-great-grandparents Morris Brainin and Rose Dorothy (Jaffe) Brainin, were living in Manhattan.  Morris was about 64 and Rose was about 57.  Morris may have been a rabbi at the time, and Rose was a housewife.

Wordless Wednesday

 

Matzoh Ball Soup, Yum!

Somehow, February 4 became National Homemade Soup Day.  I can't find any information on how this came to pass, but more than one site agrees on it, so I'm going with it.

My favorite homemade soup is matzoh ball soup.  I make it for my Passover seders, and I also usually make it for Chanukah, to go along with the latkes and my new favorite fried chicken recipe, which is an Italian Chanukah fried chicken.

When I make matzoh ball soup, it's almost always with chicken.  I make my chicken stock from scratch.  I save bones all year long, in addition to the cut-offs from carrots and celery and the skins from onions.  Sometimes I'll actually go buy a parsnip or two to throw in there, but not often.

Once I made a fish stock for the matzoh ball soup, just to try it.  Fish stock is much lighter than chicken stock, so instead of onions, the recipe called for shallots.

I make my matzoh balls from scratch also, including the super special "secret" ingredient for making the matzoh balls light and fluffy.  I didn't get that from my family, since my mother wasn't particularly domestically inclined and I never knew her to make matzoh ball soup, or any soup from scratch.  (The only Jewish food I vaguely recall her making was chopped liver.)  No, I had to borrow another family's secret ingredient.  But everyone I know has the same secret ingredient:  seltzer water.  There, I've said it.  Now the secret is out.  But if everyone has the same secret, was it really a secret?

I like small matzoh balls, about an inch in diameter.  I find they cook better and actually benefit from the seltzer water, so they really are light and fluffy.  I know that some people prefer big honking huge matzoh balls, the kind that one matzoh ball fills up the whole bowl.  Nope, not for me.  What's the point of the seltzer water if you get this dense, heavy medicine ball?

The soup itself, I don't put any meat or vegetables in it.  It's just the stock and the matzoh balls.

And I am proud to say that everyone loves my matzoh ball soup.  Even Jason (now the husband of my second former daughter-in-law), although it took three times of me bringing some over before he finally remembered to eat it before it went bad in the fridge.  And then he decided he wanted to come over to have it the day it was made, just to enjoy the freshness.  He liked it then also.

When I was still living in the San Francisco Bay area, my friend Anne always came for seder, and usually her daughter Karen did also.  Karen is a vegetarian.  After a couple of years of making the chicken version for everyone else and a small amount of vegetable stock for Karen, I got tired of making two versions and started doing the vegetarian version for everyone.  My secret for that is lots of onions to give it good flavor.  Karen actually asked me for the recipe to make it herself, which I took as a high compliment.  But now that I'm not cooking for a vegetarian, it's back to chicken stock.

Image copyright Just Nora.  Used under a Creative Commons license.

Feed the Birds Today

It's amazing how many dedicated "days" there are out there.  Did you know that today, February 3, is Feed the Birds Day?  One page says this was established in 2016 as part of National Bird Feeding Month, which dates back to 1994.

I don't have any bird feeders set up, although I do plan to install a hummingbird feeder this spring.  I am a bird lover, though, so to help celebrate Feed the Birds Day, I found some photos that feature the bird feeder in my late father's back yard.  They all seem to be of the same pair of birds.  These were in the ever-popular photo bonanza scanned by my sister's niece.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Five Fun or Different Facts

I knew when I read the subject for tonight's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun that it sounded familiar.

Come on, everybody, join in and accept the mission and execute it with precision.

1.  We all find fun or different information about ourselves, our relatives, and our ancestors in our genealogy and family history pursuits.  What are five fun or different facts in your life or your ancestors' lives?

2.  Tell us about your five fun or different facts in a comment on this post or in a Facebook post.   Please leave a link on this post if you write your own post.

[Thank you to Jacquie Schattner for suggesting this topic last year.]

I'm glad I looked at last year's post on this subject, because the first thing that came to my mind to write about was something I wrote about last year!  But here's a new group of fun and different facts about me and my family members.

• My father played the part of Captain John Landry in a Sanford (Florida) Theatre Guild production of Petticoat Fever in May 1954.  (In the 1936 movie, that part was played by George Hassell.)  I know my father finished high school in Sanford, but I don't know if the guild was connected to his school or was an independent group.  The newspaper review (to the left) calls it a "local amateur group", so I'm leaning toward it being separate from the school.

• My mother liked to name our cats with different names for the Devil and similar creatures.  We had Beelzebub, Demon, Diablo (Spanish for devil), Lucifer, and Shaitan (which she told us was Hebrew for the Devil, but which Wikipedia identifies as an evil spirit in Islam), among others.

• My sister Laurie has gotten big into dragon boat racing and competes internationally.

• My uncle Marty was stationed with the U.S. Air Force in Alaska during the Good Friday earthquake in 1964.  When I asked him what he remembered about the quake, all he could come up with is that they had to help clean stuff up in Anchorage.

• The only F I have ever gotten in my academic career came in physical education when my teacher (may she forever be cursed) failed me because she thought I was faking it when I couldn't do a cartwheel.