March, Music, and Mucous

March has certainly come in like a lion for me. I started the month (March 1) attending an amazing concert by Steve Gillette and Cindy Mangsen. This is an incredible duo who perform together like hand in glove, but who also perform their separate songs with perfection. I like their technique - when one is going to sing solo, the other slips off the stage to give the whole spotlight to the performer. Very effective and courteous, in my opinion.

The next day we attended the Orange County Calif. Genealogical Society BASH (which I call "Big Ancestor Scavenger Hunt") where I represented the So. Calif. Chapter of APG and also gave two presentations. I also tested out a new song on the inspiration - professional genealogist Barbara Renick - detailing the woes of a migraine sufferer. She approved, though will probably do a little editing of the final draft.

That night we attended a Songmakers meeting in Laguna where I introduced the Migraine Song to the group there and was validated by many attendees who also suffer from the malady.

The next day, in spite of all my hand washing and refusal to shake hands at any event, I came down with a cold. As is traditional with me, the cold slid right into my lungs (I believe this tendency is courtesy of my parents, who were non-stop smokers, resulting in my being raised in a cloud that, in my opinion, destroyed my lung strength). Regardless, I discovered that my illness, though confining me to my bed, coughing up all sorts of disgusting stuff from the dark recesses of my respiratory system, gave me lots of thinking time.

Before I was bedridden three or four days, I wrote another song - this time about being sick when I was a child. In those days (the 1950s), understanding of the negative results of smoking was unheard of. So, while puffing on her cigarette, my mother would care for me in the best ways she knew how. The things we remember about our childhood are largely tainted by such elements as our understanding at the time; our physical, as well as mental, size; the memories others have shared; and our adult perspectives. What I remember of being sick as a child includes a bottle of nose drops that, as I recall, had to have been the size of a half gallon. And there was also a large, ceramic vaporizer that was filled and emptied from a large hole in the front and could only be filled in the bathtub. I remember being sick and hearing that apparatus being filled, knowing that soon I would be enveloped in hot steam.

(Hankscraft Vapor Master photo from http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-porcelain-hankscraft-vapor-132082892)

Other such memories made their way into the lyrics of this song of sickness, which was finished within short order, but my own laryngitis means that I have yet to actually sing it!

With a good dose of antibiotics, which I hate to take because of the danger of developing a tolerance to them, I was much improved within a little more than a week and we attended another concert, this time by Lou and Peter Berryman. This comedy duo sings songs that I feared would cause me to laugh, resulting in fits of coughing. I was lucky - only one coughing fit (but lots of laughing). Their song of the artist who starts many projects but finishes none was an inspiration to me. It reminded me of the people who start researching one ancestral line but then move to another and another, soon confusing the different clans. I have some fodder for another song, but only have the first few lines, which I will not divulge here. But I hope to get it completed while I am spending some time in Salt Lake City at RootsTech and other meetings before that.

My conclusions: being ill gives a person time to think. Some of the thinks are not very positive ("will I survive this one?" "how much will the doctor visits cost?" "I miss my life," etc.) but, at least for me, I've had time to put together some song lyrics. I don't write many songs, mostly because I lack the time to do so. I am not hoping for more illness, but at least I made good use of the time with this one. Maybe now I'll have enough material for my next CD!

Now I have to go cough up some more "stuff" and take a nap. Then pack for Salt Lake. I think March will be going out like a lion, too!

A new year is upon us. Well, I don't make NY resolutions, as a rule, because I believe change should be exacted when/as needed, not when a particular date arrives. Of course, sometimes I fail to make the needed changes at the moment they are required, but I guess that also makes me human.

I would like to say that I hereby resolve to post in my blog on a more regular basis, but I have already discovered that my failure to post frequently is often due to more pressing issues. As a strong believer in knowing one's priorities, I will then say that I will post as the time and circumstances allow. Oh, wait, that's what I am already doing. Good. Right on schedule.

I would like to comment here about two exciting events that occurred in 2012 that have advanced my genealogy exploits and that were direct results of blogging about my ancestors. I have already mentioned the one - my contact with an angel from the Czech Republic who has informed me more about my Knoetgen and Trapschuh origins and who has taken the time to research and copy the baptism and marriage records of my family members. I cannot explain how excited that has made me. Now, with a lot of new research comes new problems and I am faced with yet secondary birth dates for some of my Bohemian family members, so I have been given new information and new problems at the same time. But I am up to the challenge and am now creating spread sheets that identify the ancestor, name given (those have been altered, too), the birth date provided, and the respective source. I think that these charts will help with uncovering the mysteries.

The second angel who entered my life in 2012 is also German. She lives close to where my Bonn ancestors lived. She was interested in my book, which she read about in the blog, and I got her a copy, which she read with fascination. Then she proceeded to offer help. She has already made inquiries about the convent where my g-grandmother was raised and learned about an associated orphanage. She is working on obtaining the records, but administrative personnel are not available during the holiday time. I am so excited that she is providing me with such a service, especially since I will be starting my second novel, a sequel to the one on Elisabeth, dealing with her daughter who came to America 10 years later. The information from Bonn will be exceedingly helpful.

So, you see, I have my work cut out for me and I have great plans for 2013. I pray that this year will be low on stress and high on discoveries for my genealogy friends. I also wish for peace and good health in the months to come.

I finished the novel. Of course, if you didn't know I was working on a novel, that might come as a complete surprise. I haven't really been mentioning it much because the words "I'm working on a novel" sound rather pompous to me (mostly because I have known folks who have been working on their novels for decades). But now that it's done, I guess it is time to say: "I wrote a novel." (That still sounds pompous.) The folks who have helped by reading it as critics (and much-needed editors) have told me that it is really good, so now I feel OK posting the news.


The story is about my great-great-grandmother who escaped a terrible marriage and her native Germany "under the cover of darkness." Helped by a confidante and family friend, she left her children in the care of her sister and abandoned her husband for the safety of America. I realize that, had she not done this, her abusive husband (my great-great-grandfather) probably would have killed her and I would not be here . . . at least, not in America! Nevertheless, her experience was hard on her, physically and emotionally.

When I first started working on my genealogy (about 1979), my father gave me a box of photos and letters and poetry, etc. (much written by my grandmother, Pauline Elizabeth Miller Wilcox, the granddaughter of Elisabeth in my story). One of the pieces of writing was a six-page manuscript called "Rescued from a Living Death" written about 1935 for publication (which may or may not have occurred). Initially, I thought it was just a short story my grandmother had composed, but, about 20 years later, I discovered that my g-g-grandmother had come to America (I had been led to believe she never left her native Bonn, Germany). By close scrutiny, I learned that the story was actually the history of my ancestor, put down by my grandmother so it would not be forgotten. Hopefully, my novel will ensure that her story, maybe similar to thousands of others, will be forever remembered.


The novel is historical fiction - that is, fiction by the fact that I "put words in the mouths" of my ancestors, created needed relationships with lesser characters, and imagined certain living situations. Historical by the fact that I have researched the various events that likely affected the lives of the people in the areas of New York state and City, Jersey City, and Chicago. The immigration took place during the industrial revolution (she arrived in the U.S. at the end of the Civil War in 1864 and lived until 1895, dying in Chicago in the home of her daughter). This means that she saw the advent of the indoor bathroom, creation of such innovations as "time" payments, and the invention of the telephone, among other things. She also witnessed the rise of women's rights (though she died before women got the vote), the end of slavery, the celebration of the end of the Civil War, the Columbian Exposition, and other events in history that surely touched her life (at least they did in my vision of her life).

But her experiences were also based on clear facts, verified with census records, city directories, military and pension records, legal documents, and family records, among other things. Elisabeth: The Story of a German Immigrant is told in first person from the perspective of someone who learned a new language and a new culture at the same time.


An excerpt from the book can be found on my website where there is also a link for ordering it in eBook format from Lulu.com (click on photo at right for a direct path to my page at Lulu).

For those who have heard my presentation on this person (by the same title as the book), this is the extension of her story. At right is a photo of this presentation done in Orange County in 2008 (photo by Gary Friedman).

My grandmother ended her manuscript with the statement: "I hope my little story will be the means of helping some bewildered soul." Considering that it led me to hundreds of documents - birth, marriage, death, census, military, etc. - and, until that time, I was one very bewildered genealogist, I would venture to say that the little story fulfilled that desire. To that I add that I hope my little novel will be the means of inspiring those who read it.