George Rienerth (1883-1973)

Today is the 38th anniversary of the death of my great-grandfather, George Rienerth. Here is a small tribute to him with the information I have to date (please note that not all of this information has been verified).

He was born on 18 Aug 1883 in Reusmarkt, Transylvania, Hungary in a German settlement. His parents were George Rienerth and Sophia Reuss. He was the oldest of six known children (there is a possible 7th). His siblings are, in order, Sophia (Konnerth), Mary (Schonauer), Katherine (Stancel), Simon "Sam," and Martin. He immigrated to America on 13 May 1903 via Ellis Island, New York on the Friedrich der Grosse, which had departed from Bremen. He was headed to Youngstown, Ohio from there.

George married Regina Konnerth on 10 Mar 1907 in Mahoning County, Ohio by the Pastor of Martin Luther Church. They allegedly met  On their marriage record, her parents are listed as John Konnert[h] and Katy Fronius.  The children of George Rienerth and Regina Konnerth are Hilda, Karl, Herman, Paul, and George Jr.

George & Regina Rienerth with baby Hilda, ca 1908

He first lived in Youngstown and then moved to farmland in Boardman, Mahoning Ohio, where he built his own home made of brick and stucco. He was a mason by trade. His grandchildren remember spending time at his house on Sundays and listening to his stories about the "old country." He was said to be a very healthy and loving man although he had a bad heart.

George lost his wife in 1943 and it doesn't appear that he ever remarried. He died on 23 Mar 1973 in Youngstown, Ohio from coronary artery disease. According to his obituary he was a self-employed brick mason who was known for installing fireplaces. He was a member of the Good Hope Lutheran Church in North Lima as well as Bricklayers Local 8.

As I was compiling the information for this blog post, I realized how little information I actually have. I have what I call the "skeleton" of his story, but no real meat on the bones. Hopefully by next year, I will be able to tell more about this ancestor!

South School Cemetery, Catlin, New York

Entrance to Cemetery

Yesterday, I went to a small remote cemetery on a photo request from Find A Grave. It was called South School Cemetery, also known as Martin's Hill Cemetery. It was kind of off the beaten path although you could see it from the road. I enlisted my family to go with me as I didn't want to be out there by myself, and my 9 year-old son agreed to be my "assistant." He likes to help me on these little tasks because he feels like a detective and it is more action than looking at records. I had looked up any interments already listed for this cemetery and since there were only three, I decided to look for all of them even though there was only one actual photo request.

Before going out, I looked up the cemetery on Tri-Counties Genealogy & History by Joyce M. Tice (this is becoming one of my favorite online databases) and attempted to search for the name on the photo request. I didn't find it, but thought I would make the trip anyway since it is a small cemetery.

Grave markers going every which way

When we got there, I gave my son a paper with all three names and told him to give it a shot on finding them. He, as I suspected he would, started walking quickly through the rows glancing at the headstones. This is a pretty old cemetery, so a lot of the stones are hard to read or illegible without some extra efforts. It is kind of a sad looking cemetery with sunken, broken, and missing grave markers. Some of them don't appear to have any names or I was unable to read them because they were face down. There were also sunken areas that appeared to have someone buried there without any kind of marker at all.

Large tombstones that had fallen over

I really don't like to mess with the markers other than removing debris or leaves, so I started taking pictures of the ones that I could. It was around noon so the lighting was okay, but so many of them were tilted downwards that I just couldn't get a good shot of them. It made me a bit sad walking through there as it just seemed so forgotten. When I go to a cemetery like this, I like to record as many of them as I can to put on Find A Grave for some future descendant to hopefully find.

I was unable to locate the name on the photo request as I had suspected would happen. I did, however, find the other two names already listed on Find A Grave and took photos of those. My son was unable to find them on his first go round. This was not surprising because he wasn't looking very carefully. I had seen them, photographed them and moved on. I sent him back around with some hints on looking for both the first and last names. He was so excited when he finally did find them... right at the front entrance. He had walked right past them! After an hour, my husband and kids had reached their limit of "cemetery time." As always, I was grateful that they humored me long enough to tag along so I wouldn't have to go alone.

There was one grave marker that was interesting though. It had fallen over and the grass around it was already starting to grow over it. It was the grave marker of a baby that was only 3 months old. These markers always make me a little extra sad. Someone had thoughtfully placed a baby blanket and pacifier on the grave and it seemed fairly recently since as they looked relatively new. It was nice to see that someone else had been out there to visit and that little baby was still being remembered.

Fallen over grave stone with offerings

Wordless Wednesday - The Capek Sisters

Antonia & Rosie Capek, ca 1907

This is Antonia Capek and Rosie Capek. Shortly after this photo they lost their father (1908) due to sickness. Antonia later died in 1913 from sickness at the age of 8.

I love my new iPhone

So my husband and I recently bought new cell phones and we decided on getting the iPhone 3GS (because it is $100 cheaper than the new iPhone 4). I really wanted it because of the apps, especially the ones that could be used for genealogy. 

The first app I added (after Facebook) was the Ancestry.com Tree to Go. You can take pictures from your phone and add them directly to the tree. The photos that you've already added to your tree via the internet come out very clear on the phone as well. It shows events and research notes as well. My main use for this will be for reference if I'm out and about and the opportunity to do some research presents itself. It's also good for research trips so that I don't have to lug around my laptop. The downside is that you are not able to review your sources, such as census records. Ancestry.com does not have regular iPhone app either so that you can do searches on your phone. You can always go through the internet browser (Safari) though. I don't see myself doing a whole lot of research on it because it is a small screen. It is more for convenience sake and it's pretty neat since the app is free.

The other genealogy specific app I installed was the Families by TelGen Limited. It is specifically set up for a family tree from the Legacy Genealogy Software. I had to download a sync program to my computer, but once I did that it was very quickly added to my phone. My entire family tree at my fingertips! The photos looked great, but the most exciting thing was that all my sources, including images, were available! I was able to look directly at the birth certificates and other records added to my tree right on my cell phone! You can edit and make changes to the tree on your phone, including adding media, and it will sync back with the tree on your PC. Love it! This one was not free. It was $14.99 + tax, but it was worth every penny!

Two other apps I added that can be used for genealogy purposes were Evernote and an app called CamScanner. Both of these are free so that is a bonus. The CamScanner has a full version that you can buy, but right now I have only started using the "light" version. It basically turns your phone into a scanner. You take a picture of something (i.e. a document or a photo). It scans the image and you can either email it to yourself or upload it to Dropbox.com, Google Docs, or even Evernote. It has a couple of other options to upload to as well and the full version may have more. This is perfect for those family members who won't let you leave with photos. It would also be great for scanning documents in a library. I tested it on a photocopy I took of a book in a library. It came out great! 

I'm all set with all these tools to make researching easier... now I just need some extra time to do some research! Where's the app for that?

Wordless Wednesday

Arlene Rienerth, ca 1970's

This is a photo of my grandmother, Arlene. She passed away before I was born and I love this photo because it gives me a glimpse into her sense of humor.