Intellectual Property in My Family Tree

Annually, April 26 is World Intellectual Property Day, which was first celebrated in 2000.  It was established by the World Intellectual Property Organization to raise awareness of the impact of patents, copyrights, trademarks and design on daily life.  And some members of my family have patents and copyrights, so I'm going to celebrate them.

My cousin Al Lore, who worked as a chemist at DuPont, told me he holds five patents, relating to composition of matter and textile finishes (hospital nonwoven gown finish).  I was able to find three of them in the patent database by searching with Google.

Fluorine-containing terpolymers, as Albert L. Lore with Stuart Raynolds

Fluorosurfactant leveling agent, as Albert L. Lore

Oil- and water-repellant copolymers, as Albert Lynn Lore with Edward James Greenwood and Nandakumar Seshagiri Rao

I took chemistry in high school and got all A's, but I have to admit that I don't understand any of what Al's patents do.  I guess I'm not an organic chemist.

My cousin Sam Brainin, who was an electrical engineer, is in the database with one patent.

Space stabilization of a search pattern, as Samuel M. Brainin

My aunt Mary Meckler has written several books, for which she owns the copyrights, as far as I know.

The Magic of Tobias Twissle, as Mary Meckler

Aimsly's Attitude, as Mary Meckler

Tangled in Life:  A Lainey Kelso Mystery, as Mary M. Meckler

Everybody's Grandma, as Mary Meckler

Jangled Lives:  A Story of Love and Fear, as Mary M. Meckler

I had the pleasure of editing Tobias Twissle for my aunt.  I think I did some editing on Tangled in Life also.

My sister Stacy Fowler has cowritten two books.  I believe she shares the copyrights with her coauthor.

A Century in Uniform:  Military Women in American Films, Stacy Fowler and Deborah A. Deacon

Military Women in World Cinema:  A 20th Century History and Filmography, Deborah A. Deacon and Stacy Fowler

I know I have a thank you in the second book, because I translated several Russian titles and credits for Stacy.  I think I have a thank you in the first book also.

Maybe by posting this, I'll find out I have even more talented relatives!

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Be a Time Traveler

I think Randy Seaver has previously posted a challenge similar to that of today's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun, but it's an idea that deserves to be revisited multiple times.

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

1.  We all wish that we knew more about our most elusive ancestors — the ones we might not know the surname for, or the one who was probably adopted, changed his name for some reason, or lived through war or a natural disaster.

2.  Be a time traveler.  Where would you go, whom would you speak with, what would you ask them?

3.  Share your time traveler adventure on your own blog, on Facebook or other social media, or in a comment on this blog.  Share the link to your stories on this blog, so readers can respond.

Randy didn't state this was only one trip, but that's how he wrote his response, so I'll stick with that.

Since I'm time traveling only one time, I have to choose to be there when my cousin Raymond Lawrence Sellers was adopted.  This probably took place in Cumberland County, New Jersey, with a small chance of it having been in Burlington County, New Jersey instead.  Raymond was born September 23, 1945 and apparently was surrendered for adoption by my Aunt Dottie soon after that, possibly before the end of October 1945.  So those are my estimated time and place.

As for whom I would speak with, I'll try to cover the bases.  I want to talk with the adoptive parents and anyone else who participated in any steps of the adoption.  If it was a documented adoption through the court system (the second version of events that I was told), that would include a presiding judge and any administrative personnel who observed the process or handled paperwork, either in the court system or at the adoption agency.  If it was an informal adoption to friends or extended family (the original version I heard), then probably the only other individuals would have been additional family members or friends who were there.

The one question that I would be asking is the name given to Raymond after adoption.  Without that piece of information, my research has been stalled for the almost 10 years that I have been trying to find him.  New Jersey still keeps its adoption records sealed since 1941.  My aunt registered with New Jersey as being willing to speak with Raymond if he ever contacted the state to try to find his birth parents.  Not only have we never received any communication from New Jersey, Dottie died in 2021.  I have not checked with the state to find out what alternatives might be available for contact given that fact, because I'm not optimistic that there are any, but I still need to do so just in case.

If I can learn Raymond's new name, I can try to trace him through his life.  I can look for school records, marriage records, birth records (of possible children), and death records.  I might find out he died young as a child.  But I also might discover that he married and had several children and grandchildren.  I concede that I consider the latter unlikely, as I have not been alerted to any DNA matches, and I have all of the databases covered with close and fairly close relatives who should match Raymond or his next generations if they test.  So either no one among Raymond and his possible progeny have tested, or it was only him, and he either has not tested or died without testing.

But even if the answer were that he died young and had no children, no one to connect with, I would finally have an answer and could tell his siblings, particularly my cousin Pattie, who since Dottie passed away has been the primary standard bearer hoping for a resolution to the search.  I'm sure that, even posthumously, Dottie would appreciate that we knew what had happened to the son she gave up.

Yom HaShoah: May Their Memory Be for a Blessing

Yom HaShoah is the annual day of remembrance commemorating the deaths of the approximately 6 million Jewish victims of the Holocaust during World War II.  It falls on 27 Nisan of the Jewish calendar, which measures days from sunset to sunset.  If 27 Nisan falls adjacent to Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, the observation is shifted one day forward or back.  This year 27 Nisan falls on a Friday, so Yom HaShoah has been moved one day earlier, beginning at sunset today, April 23, and ending at sunset on April 24.

The following is the list of my family members I believe died in the Holocaust.  They are all are from the Mekler/Nowicki branch of my family and lived in what was Grodno gubernia in the Russian Empire (mostly now in Belarus).  I repeat their names every year so that they may not be forgotten.  May their memory be for a blessing.

Beile Dubiner
Eliezer Dubiner
Herschel Dubiner
Moishe Dubiner
Sore (Mekler) Dubiner
Aidel Goldsztern
Golda Goldsztern
Josef Goldsztern
Pearl (Gorfinkel) Goldsztern
Tzvi Goldsztern
Esther Golubchik
Fagel Golubchik
Lazar Golubchik
Peshe (Mekler) Golubchik
Pinchus Golubchik
Yechail Golubchik
Mirka (Nowicki) Krimelewicz
— Krimelewicz
Beile Szocherman
Chanania Szocherman
Mobsza Eli Szocherman
Perel Szocherman
Raizl (Perlmutter) Szocherman
Zlate Szocherman

Sore (Mekler) Dubiner was the sister of
my great-grandfather Moishe Mekler

Wordless Wedding Wednesday

Learning More about My Cousin Billie

I've written previously about the photo bonanza that my sister sent to me after her niece had scanned thousands of photographs that were left in the house after our father passed away.  I've made many discoveries and unearthed several childhood memories by going through the photos, and I still have a long way to go to identify all of them.

Now that bonanza has to compete with another one.

About a year and a half ago, I was contacted out of the blue by a woman named Wendi Shaw, who looks for family items for sale in auctions and the like.  She called herself an heirloom hunter, which she does as a hobby.  She goes through the items, puts them in binders, does some research, tries to find family members, and offers to send the items back to them.

She told me she was trying to reach the Brainin family, because she had acquired several of Billie Brainin's items.

I recognized the name right away.  Billie was the daughter of David Brainin, a younger brother of my great-grandmother Sarah Brainin.

Wendi included four photos of the pile of letters.  Three photographs were visible in the collection.

So I shouted out loud, jumped up and down, did the genealogy happy dance, and told her I would love to have the items.

I discovered that she had found me through my blog (this one!), where I had written about Billie a couple of times.

I sent her my address and looked forward to receiving this new family history bonanza.  I even posted the photo of Billie that she had sent me.

And I waited.

After several months, I sent another message, asking if something had happened.  Which it had:  Real life had interfered.

But Wendi was glad I had written again, because she apparently had lost my contact information.  And said she would be sending me the items soon, with one catch:  She wanted me to confirm when I received everything (I already did that) and to let her know when I blogged about this discovery.  And hey, that's what I'm doing now!

It was clear when I started looking at all the items that Wendi had already done some sorting and that they were not in the order in which they had been in the storage unit; she had told me that she had gone through them and put them into plastic sleeves.  So I did not feel compelled to keep them in the order in which I had received them, something that should be considered from an archival perspective.  Since the original order was already lost, I have chosen to put everything in chronological order as much as possible.  So far I have found six items with no dates on them.  Two of those (a music program and a piece of a newspaper) I have determined the dates by searching for text that appears.  That leaves me only four undated items:  two cards and two letters.  Maybe I'll be able to figure out where they fit by context.

The earliest item is a funeral bill from 1924.  The most recent so far is a letter from 1964.

I've only begun to go through the items and actually read them.  Some of what I have found already in this amazing gift:

I learned that Billie, the only name I had ever heard for my cousin, was not actually her given name at birth!  A couple of the letters were addressed to Mildred Brainin, and when I looked for that name in the New York City birth index on Ancestry, I found her.  Totally news to me!  I had not searched for her birth previously because Billie was born late enough that I know New York City won't send me a copy of her birth certificate, even though she died more than 30 years ago.  They're just not a friendly jurisdiction to work with.

Among the letters were four from my cousin Sam Brainin (whom I knew personally) to Billie, his sister, while he was in the Navy.  I have been in contact with Sam's children for several years, so I wrote to one of them to ask if she would like to have the letters.

I'm looking forward to reading all of the letters and learning more about Billie.  I don't know yet how personal any of the information is, so I can't tell how much I might feel comfortable posting.  But it's going to be a fascinating adventure, I'm sure.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Five Funny, Strange, Interesting, or Unique Surnames in Your Family Tree

I have too many possibilities for tonight's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge from Randy Seaver.

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

1.  We all have a plethora of surnames in our family trees — and some of them are funny, strange, interesting, or unique.  Please share five of your funny, strange, interesting, or unique surnames in your ancestry.  How are they related to you?

2.  Share your five surnames on your own blog, on Facebook or other social media, or in a comment on this blog.  Share the link to your stories on this blog, so readers can respond.

[Thank you to Linda Stufflebean for this SNGF prompt.]

I started out with about a dozen possibilities.  How did I narrow it down to five?  I managed somehow.

If I go for funny, I have:

Ida Bogus (1907–1978), who was married to Harry Herman Meckler.  Harry is my granduncle, the brother of my maternal grandfather.  I am in contact with extended family from the Bogus line.  Apparently that was the name in the old country.  Notwithstanding what the meaning of the name was there, here, in English, it's an amusing name to have.

I also have Mr. Byers (sorry, no given name or dates), who married my 6th cousin 1x removed Chris Eve Meeks.  I realize that is not amusing in and of itself, but the juxtaposition of Byers and Sellers certainly is.

For strange, I offer:

Berdelia Martha Elisa Abplanalp (1898–1967), who was married to Calvin William Hutson.  He is my 5th cousin 2x removed.  I know Abplanalp is a fine Swiss surname, but it's another one that English puts a different spin on.  When you say it, it kind of sounds like you're blubbering.

I have one name in my own family that I have found to be unique, at least in the form originally used by my family members.

Chanania Szocherman (no dates known), who married my 2nd cousin 3x removed (I think) Rojzla Perlmutter (about 1885–about 1941).  With that spelling, which is how it occurs in European records, I have found it only for my family members, and no one else.  Of the seven children I know of from this marriage, four died without issue, one daughter changed her name when she married, one son kept the spelling Szocherman, and one changed it to Socherman, which is also unique to this family, as far as I know.

Unique in a different way:

Margarita Artabotavsky, the mother of my 4th cousin's ex-husband.  When I Google this name, I get absolutely zero results.  So it must be spelled wrong, but that's the spelling my cousin gave me.  This name should eventually resolve when I learn the correct spelling.

Not in my family, but two other unique surnames I have researched:

Leo Martin McStroul (about 1881–1943), paternal grandfather of my aunt Mary McStroul.  His original name was Moska Leib Strul.  When he became an American citizen, he wrote a letter asking that his name be changed to Leo Martin McStroul.  Family members have told me that he didn't want a name that sounded Jewish.  So he made up the name McStroul.  If I find that name, I know it's my aunt's family.  I might be behind on a kid or two, but I know of only 21 people who have had that surname.

George Gudapel (1871–1950), maternal grandfather of Kathleen Joseph, with whom I used to work.  George's original surname was Gutapfel.  That name comes from three small villages in Alsace-Lorraine.  Most immigrants to this country tended to change the spelling to Goodapple, which is the literal translation of the German.  George changed it to Gudapel.  He married and had two daughters.  Four people in the history of the world have had that name with that spelling.

How Was the Trip, Mr. Brainin?

1906 passenger list for Mendel Brainin

Mendel Hertz Brainin, my great-great-grandfather, arrived at the port of New York on April 17, 1906 on the S.S. Gneisenau.  He departed from Bremen on April 5.  As I did with my great-great-grandfather Avigdor Gorodetsky, I will go through and analyze all of the information on his passenger list pages.

As I believe was the case for all of my immigrant Jewish relatives, he traveled in steerage.  He appears on line 25 on the page above.  Over the number 25 is a stamped word, "ADMITTED."  (We'll talk about that soon.)  His name was recorded only as Mendel Brainin; I know the middle name of Hertz from family information.  He was 46 years old, suggesting a birth year of about 1859–1860.  This is the earliest document I have for him; other documents extend the range for his year of birth to 1863.  I do not have any documents for him from the Russian Empire.

He was male and married, and his occupation was shoemaker.  If I can ever find any Russian documents for him, that's not a common trade, so it will be helpful information.  He was able to read and write; I'm sure he could write in Hebrew, as he later worked as a rabbi.  Maybe he could read and write in Russian also.

He was a citizen of Russia (well, maybe) and of the Hebrew race, meaning he was Jewish.  Somewhat surprising to me, he seems to be the only Jewish person on this list, or certainly the only one designated as such.  Half the people on the page are "Kovak" and from Hungary, but I don't know of an ethnicity by that name; Kovak to me is a blacksmith.  Others are German, Magyar (Hungarian), Bohemian, Croatian, and Polish.  Hmm, that Croatian is a little out of his native area.

Mendel's last residence was Kreuzburg, Russia, which is now Krustpils, Latvia.  Everyone in this branch of my family said they were from Kreuzburg when they came here, but I still haven't found any documentation from the old country to substantiate it.  Mendel's destination was New York.  His ticket was for that destination, and it was paid for by his son.

He had $3 in his possession.  He had never been to the United States before.

The person to whom he was going was his son Max Brainin at 236-34 (I think) 103 Street, New York.  Max, whose Jewish name was Nachman, was the oldest son and the first family member to make the trip to the Goldene Medine, arriving in August 1904.

The next six columns are ditto marks for Mendel and for everyone on the page except the person on the first line, indicating that they have not been prisoners, in an almshouse, in an institution for the insane, or supported by charity; they're not polygamists; they're not anarchists; they're not coming due to some agreement to work in the United States; their mental and physical health is good; and they are not deformed or crippled.  Hooray, everyone is in great shape!

And that's the end of the passenger list.  Only one page in early 1906.

Now back to that stamped ADMITTED.  That indicates that Mendel was held for some reason and potentially could have been deported, but that the authorities decided to admit him.   If there's an ADMITTED, an X, or an SI next to someone's name, you want to look for a page about that detention.  Usually I have found them after all the regular pages for the ship manifest, but sometimes they were microfilmed at the beginning.

I did find the page with Mendel on it.  It is titled Record of Aliens Held for Special Inquiry.  Sometimes you can find these online by searching in the index for the database, but sometimes the passenger's name is spelled differently on the two pages.  If the index doesn't find your person, look at the top of the passenger list for a large, handwritten number.  On this page, it's in the upper right and is called List, and it's number 1.  Then find the detention pages and look through them manually for your person's name and that number, which will be under Group.  (I do not know why it's called List on one page and Group on the other.)  Sometimes not all of the detention pages survived, so on occasion you might not find your person at all.

1906 Gneisenau Record of Aliens Held for Special Inquiry

Below the page title it shows that this is for the S.S. Gneisenau (N.G.L.), which stands for North German Lloyd.  (This Gneisenau is not any of the ones with pages on Wikipedia, but I did find information about it on GGArchives.com.)  The official arrival date of the ship into New York was April 15, but this page shows the detainees' arrival as April 17.  I have read that sometimes steerage passengers were deboarded later than other passengers.  I don't know if they were held on the ship those extra two days or maybe somewhere else.

The columns on this page are different from the regular passenger list.  The first column, which has no header, is the passenger's age and sex.  For Mendel this is 46 and m.  Next is the number of the passenger on this page, which for Mendel is 25.  Then is the passenger's name:  Brainin, Mendel.

The next three columns correspond to information from the main passenger list:  Group number, line number, and number of people in the party.  For Mendel these are 1, 25 again (a coincidence?), and 1.

The next column is the Cause of Detention, which is the same for every person on this page:  LPC, or "Likely Public Charge."  This means that when the passenger was being checked in, someone thought he wasn't going to be able to support himself and was going to end up being supported by the government.  Single women, women with children, and young people without trades were routinely held as LPC.

Mendel wasn't very old and did have a trade, so it was a little surprising that he was listed with this reason.  But some people have additional information in this field, and Mendel is one of those.  The additional comment is "Dr. Cert."  Maybe he looked frail or ill.

Next is the column for Inspector, and the name is Bechtel.  I noticed that Bechtel was the inspector for the person two lines above Mendel, who also had a comment of "Dr. Cert."  Maybe Bechtel was assigned to those specifically.

Next there are several columns under Actions of the Board of Special Inquiry.  This section has three subheads:  Dep. Excl. [Deportable Excludable], Rehearing, and Admitted.  Each of these also has subheads.  All three have Date, Page, and Sec'y [Secretary].  Admitted has a fourth, Time.  Most people on the page were admitted, including Mendel.  The only thing I can read for his line is the date, 4/24, which is written in the page column.  The other writing there is too light for me to interpret.

The two sections after Actions are Departmental and Executive Orders, with subheads of Date, Record No., and Orders; and Deported, with subheads of Date, Ship, and Officer.  Only one person on this page appears to have been deported.  I'm glad it wasn't Mendel.

The last section is Meals, with subheads of Breakfast, Dinner, and Supper.  The more meals, the longer the person was held.  The arrival date on the page is April 17, and the date given for Mendel's hearing is April 24.  His meal numbers are 7 breakfasts, 8 dinners, and 7 suppers.  That almost adds up right.  I wonder why or how he apparently had two dinners in one day.

Going through this form has made me realize that I have never requested a search for Mendel's Special Inquiry records.  I have read many times that most Special Inquiry hearing files did not survive, but that means that some did (such as that of actress Lea Michele's great-grandmother, as discussed on an episode of Who Do You Think You Are?).  And if I don't ask, I'll never know if Mendel's is one of the surviving files.  I think I need to add that to my (long) list of things to do.

As I wrote above, the Special Inquiry page indicates that Mendel arrived on April 17, 1906.  Coincidentally, April 17 is the day now celebrated as Ellis Island Family History Day!  That date was chosen because one year after Mendel came to this country, on April 17, 1907, the busiest day in the history of Ellis Island apparently took place, with 11,747 people passing through.  The day has been celebrated since 2001, when Ellis Island launched online access to passenger lists of people going through the immigration station.

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Birthday, Baby Brother!

It's my brother's birthday!  So I decided to celebrate by posting this black and white study that our father took of him.  This was at our father's house in Mary Esther, Florida, but I don't know what year (maybe Mark will know).  Since it's in black and white, Daddy may have developed it himself, although I don't remember him having a dark room at this house.