Day 31: Fearless Females: Inspirational Genealogy Quote of the Week

The month of March is coming to an end. In my home, a house full of boys, most are mourning the imminent end of March Madness. I myself am saddened by the end of Women's History Month and the Fearless Females series. Writing almost everyday has a challenge. I truly enjoyed the process of focusing on my female ancestors and connecting with amazing fellow blogger doing the same (see a list of some of my favorites below). I bid adieux to the series with this quote, connecting us women from past to the present into future! 

"The measure of a woman's character is not what she gets from her ancestors, but what she leaves her descendants."Unknown www.scrapbook.com

Day 29: Fearless Female: Friday's Faces From the Past: Mollie Bogdanow

March 29 Prompt — Create a free Fold3 Memorial Page or a Genealogy Trading Card at Big Huge Labs for a female ancestor. Some of you may have created your own card back in September 2009 following Sheri Fenley’s post over at The Educated Genealogist. This time, the card is for your female ancestor. Tell us about who you've selected and why and then post a link to what you've created.

Created at: Big Huge Labs

I present to you a Genealogy Trading Card for my fearless great-grandmother whom I've yet to feature in this inspirational series inspired by +Lisa Alzo's, The Accidental Genealogist. The main reason I neglected Mollie Bogdanow is that I know very little about her. She was born in 1886 in Austria-Hungary. According to her death certificate, she died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Houston, Texas on February 23, 1952. My mother was less than four years old at the time and has little recollection of her grandmother. Mollie immigrated to the US sometime around 1900-1902 (1920 and 1930 US Census respectively). She married my great-grandfather Abe Bogdanow in 1911 in New York. He was an upholster. The lived in the city at least until 1915, where they appear on the State Census living on Amsterdam Avenue. In 1920 they relocated their young family to Jersey City, New Jersey. They parented two children, Gwen and Morris (my grandfather). They moved to Texas around 1943, I assume to be closer to their children and grandchildren. Mollie's native language was German. She spoke English with a strong accent, but read and wrote English well. She had a reputation of being an excellent cook. According to my uncle Larry she went away from home at a young age to study to be a  chef. 

Day 26: Fearless Females: Looking at Women's Education Through 5 Generations

March 26th Prompt — What education did your mother receive? Your grandmothers? Great-grandmothers? Note any advanced degrees or special achievements.

As the month of March is coming to a close, I am trying to catch up on Fearless Females posts. Passover and school vacation are to blame for my falling behind, nevertheless, there are a few post I don't want to miss.

Analyzing the education of women in my family is an excellent way to review how historical changes have affected the opportunities of the women in my family and women throughout this country. I refrain from implying that these advances have equally affected women worldwide, since progress has been much slower in many parts of the world. 

Examining my female ancestors going back four generations is a very powerful exercise. I will begin with myself and travel back the generations. 

1 Generations: 

I have a bachelors in Biology and Doctorate in medicine. My sister is completing her masters in Education. 

2 Generation: 

My mother has three degrees in psychology, a bachelors, a masters and a PhD. 

3 Generations:

My grandmother Ethel was the not only the first of my woman ancestor to go to college. She was the first person in her family to attend college. She had an uncle and cousins who went to college, but neither one of her parents had to opportunity to go to University. Ethel held a bachelors in Chemistry and a Law degree. I am writing about her remarkable achievement extensively on my new blog, Ethel's scrapbook. Her parents were extremely proud of her accomplishments. 

Ethel with her parents Minnie and William Bloomfield
at er Rice graduation 1940

My paternal grandmother, Shoshana Lavi (Celnik) did not attend university. She immigrated to Israel from Poland in her late teens, and gave up the idea of studying in exchange for the dream founding a Kibbutz. 

4 Generations:

None of my great-grandmothers received a higher education. I make this statement with a bit of reservation, as I don't know for sure how much schooling my paternal great-grandmothers received. Cyla Jampel (Reiter) was listed as laborer and Anna Celnik (Rosenblum ) as store keeper on their Holocaust Yad Vashem witness sheets. My mother's paternal grandmother, Mollie Bogdanow (Katz) was a trained Chef. I believe she went to Austria to study cooking, when she was young. 

In her writings, Minnie Crane, Ethel's mother, shares quite a bit about her struggles to obtain an education. As a young female child in a small village in Russia, her education was not a priority to anyone but herself. Though her parents did believe in educations and encouraged the children to study, the boys education came first. Her education came in dribbles, when the family could spare her from housework. Her father taught her to read and write. She followed her brothers to school when she was allowed. The town had a shortage of teachers in the Russian schools and education there was irregular at best. While her brothers were sent to Yeshivas (Jewish High Schools), Minnie was the primary caretaker of her sickly mother and her younger children at the age of ten. She had no real formal education, but she spoke five languages and could read and write in all of them, including Hebrew, Yiddish, Russian, Polish and German. She was able to help her father with his job as the town's postman. She was adept at reading and writing letters for illiterate towns folk. 

Arriving in America, Minnie placed education high on her list. She enrolled in English classes immediately. While working fulltime, she continued to study English as well as take writing classes. Once again, family duties called, and she moved to Hartford to keep house for her siblings. The older Crane brothers worked, supporting the youngest brother. Their goal was to send Bernard to Medical school. Bernard finished high school, college and finally medical school. Minnie continued night school and received a bookkeeping diploma. She studied French with a tutor in preparation for college entrance exams. When she moved to NY, she worked full time as a bookkeeper and took classes at the Columbia Extension School. Her college aspirations ended when she married William Bloomfield and  they moved to Laconia, NH. 

5 Generation: 

Worth mentioning is another detail from Minnie about her own mother, my lookalike, Feige Kranowitz (Yarmovsky). Feige's family was fairly well to do. Her grandfather had hired a tutor for his grandchildren. The tutor, Moshe Aaron Kranowitz was a learned young Rabbi who came to the grandfather's house to teach the boys. Feige, sneaked into the back of the room, to catch a bit of the lessons. Her yearning for knowledge sealed her fate to the man she would marry, Moshe Aaron, the tutor. 

Minnie showing her pride in her grandson's
MFA diploma 

Understanding how difficult it was for Minnie to acquire an education, it is understandable why she pushed her daughter to take advantage of the educational in America. Ethel, on her part, felt a lot of pressure from her parents to excel. Her mother encouraged her to skip grades and graduate early. She pursued Chemistry because it was her father's dream to study Chemistry. She certainly tried hard to please her parents but as a mother and grandmother herself, she encouraged the rest of us to follow our own dreams and not those of others. Her advice has remained with me as I guide my own children to discover what they wish to study.

To learn more about +Lisa Alzo's 31 inspirational writing prompts in celebration of Women's History Month visit her blog:  The Accidental Genealogist.

Day 24: Fearless Females: A Scary Resemblance

March 24 Prompt— Do you share any physical resemblance or personality trait with one of your female ancestors? Who? What is it?

Many members of my family as well as my friends have read Stored Treasures, since it's publication. I received great feedback all around, but one unexpected response occurred  Almost everyone who knew me and read the book, told me how stuck they were by how my resembled my ancestor. "Which one?" I asked, even though after a few times, I knew the response. "The one in that amazing photo. The erie one," they all pretty much replied.

They were referring to my second great-grandmother Feige Kranowitz (Yarmovsky) in the picture where she appeared next to her husband, my second great-grandfather Moshe Aaron Kranowitz. Honestly, at first, I was taken aback by this remark. Feige, in this photo, must be one of the most frightening looking women I've ever seen. The photograph, one of only two known photos of Feige, spent many years hidden away in a box. It was too difficult for me to look at it.

Moshe Aaron and Feige Kranowitz c1922

I've written about this amazing photos, early on in this blog. The January 11th post—A Photo Worth A Thousand Word—to this day, is my all time most popular post with close to four hundred views. I'm pretty sure it continues to get hits, because the photo is so striking. 

How can people think I look like Feige Kranowitz? I thought. Her face is completely scarred from what looks like the pox. Her gaze is very stern. Yet, so many people see the resemblance. "What is it you see?" I began asking, trying not to take offense. "It's the eyes," the reply would come. "There is something in the eyes". And then, I saw it. I have my second great-grandmother's eyes. She had light eyes. Blue? Maybe green? 

Her eyes reminded me of another family story.  For years everyone in the family wondered where I got my green eyes. My mother and all her siblings had brown eyes. My grandmother Ethel had brown eyes as did her mother, my great-grandmother Minnie. My mother repeated asked Minnie where the light eye gene could have originated but she couldn't recall and light eyes going generations back. They almost agreed it was a mutation, when my sister, five years younger than me, was born with blue eyes. One day, Minnie recalled: "My mother had the most beautiful light eyes you've ever seen," she said. I'm pretty sure she must have said Blue or Green, but sadly I don't know for sure which color she reported her mother's eyes to be. All I know is they were light colored, not brown. My mother was amazed. Everyone was relieved that the mystery was solved. I inherited my eyes from Minnie's mother, Feige!

Kranowitz Family Reunion 2010

Here I am at our family reunion with the image of Feige projected behind me. In this view, I can even imagine that maybe we share a bit more than the eyes. The cheek bones or  the shape of the face perhaps? See what you think.

To learn more about +Lisa Alzo's 31 inspirational writing prompts in celebration of Women's History Month visit her blog:  The Accidental Genealogist. It's not too late to join!

Don't forget to check out my new blog Ethel's Scrapbook!

Day 23: Fearless Females: Timeline

March 23 Prompt— Create a timeline for a female ancestor using your favorite software program or an online timeline generator such as OurTimelines. Post an image of it or link. 

OurTimelines.com is a great website. I have generated timelines for various ancestors in the past. I find them very helpful in placing my ancestors lives into a historical context. I chose to share Minnie Crane's timeline in this post. I wish the website had a function which allowed to choose which countries to focus on during each time period. Minnie was born in Russia, and many of the events the timeline inserts, such as Hawaii being organized as a Territory in 1900 probably had little effect on her family's life in Russia. I love the feature where the timeline calculates how old Minnie was during each event. Note: Minnie's personal events are in Yellow.

Custom Timeline

For Minnie Crane

b.1896 Belitsa, Russia (Belarus) to d.1981 Houston, Texas

1837-1901	:	Reign of Queen Victoria (Hanover) [from before birth until age 5]
1881-1896	:	5th Cholera pandemic [from before birth until age 0]
1893-1896	:	Grover Cleveland president of US [from before birth until age 0]
1893-1897	:	US Financial panic, depression [from before birth until age 1]
1896	:	Utah enters the union - 45th [at age 0]
1896	:	Supreme court approves separate but equal segregation [at age 0]
1897-1901	:	William McKinley president of US [from age 1 to 5]
1898	:	Spanish American 1- [year war at age 2]
1899-1902	:	Boer war [from age 3 to 6]
1899-1923	:	6th Cholera pandemic [from age 3 to 27]
1900	:	Boxer rebellion in China [at age 4]
1900	:	Galveston Hurricane - 8,000 killed [at age 4]
1900	:	Hawaii organized as a territory [at age 4]
1901	:	First British submarine launched [at age 5]
1901-1910	:	Reign of King Edward VII (Saxe-Coburg) [from age 5 to 14]
1901	:	Third law of thermodynamics postulated (W. H. Nernst) [at age 5]
1901	:	Max Planck formulates the Laws of Radiation [at age 5]
1901-1908	:	Theodore Roosevelt president of US from age [5 to 12]
1901	:	US President William McKinley assassinated [at age 5]
1901	:	Commonwealth of Australia founded [at age 5]
1901	:	Oil discovered in Texas in significant amounts [at age 5]
1903	:	Nikola Tesla patents logic gates [at age 7]
1903	:	Airplane [at age 7]
1904	:	Radar [at age 8]
1904-1905	:	Russian-Japanese war from [age 8 to 9]
1907	:	Plastic [at age 11]
1907	:	Oklahoma enters the union - 46th [at age 11]
1908	:	Tunguska atmospheric object explosion [at age 12]
1909	:	North pole reached by Matthew Henson of Robert Peary's exp. [at age 13]
1909	:	Union of South Africa formed [at age 13]
1909-1912	:	William Howard Taft president of US from [age 13 to 16]
1910-1936	:	Reign of King George V (Windsor) from [age 14 to 40]
1910	:	Japan annexes Korea [at age 14]
1910	:	Halley's Comet [at age 14]
1911	:	South pole reached by Roald Amundsen[ at age 15]
1912	:	New Mexico enters the union - 47th [at age 16]
1912	:	Titanic sinks [at age 16]
1912	:	Arizona enters the union - 48th [at age 16]
1912	:	Alaska organized as a territory [at age 1]
1913-1920	:	Woodrow Wilson president of US from [age 17 to 24]
1914	:	Immigrated to America [at age 18]
1914-1919	:	World War I [from age 18 to 23]
1914	:	The Bra [at age 18]
1915	:	Einstein's Theory of Relativity [at age 19]
1916	:	Sonar [at age 20]
1916	:	Irish Easter Rebellion [at age 20]
1917	:	Russian revolution [at age 21]
1917	:	US enters WWI [at age 21]
1918-1933	:	Prohibition from age [22 to 37]
1918-1920	:	Flu epidemic - 25 million plus die [from age 22 to 24]
1919	:	League of Nations instantiated [at age 23]
1919	:	Shortwave Radio [at age 23]
1920	:	Minnie Marries William Bloomfield [at age 24]
1920	:	Bloomfield Market, Laconia [at age 24]
1920	:	Women receive right to vote in USA [at age 24]
1920-1929	:	Roaring 20's [from age 24 to 33]
1920	:	Palestine established [at age 24]
1921	:	Birth of Ethel Bloomfield [at age 25]
1921-1924	:	Warren G Harding president of US [from age 25 to 28]
1922	:	Insulin made available to diabetics [at age 26]
1923	:	Move to Houston Texas [at age 27]
1925	:	Max Crane Commits Suicide [at age 29]
1925	:	Scopes trial on Evolutionary Theory [at age 29]
1925-1928	:	Calvin Coolidge president of US [from age 29 to 32]
1926	:	Sound in Movies [at age 30]
1927	:	Holland Tunnel opens (New York City) [at age 31]
1927	:	1st transAtlantic solo flight - Lindbergh [at age 31]
1928	:	Television [at age 32]
1928	:	Geiger Counter [at age 32]
1928	:	Penicillin discovered by Sir Alexander Fleming [at age 32]
1928	:	Video Recordings [at age 32]
1929	:	Stock Market Crash [at age 33]
1929-1939	:	Great Depression [from age 33 to 43]
1929-1932	:	Herbert Hoover president of US [from age 33 to 36]
1930	:	Pluto Discovered [at age 34]
1931-1933	:	Chinese-Japanese war (2) [from age 35 to 37]
1933-1945	:	Franklin D Roosevelt president of US [from age 37 to 49]
1933	:	Armstrong invents FM modulation[at age 37]
1933	:	Soviet communist party purge [at age 37]
1933	:	Radio Astronomy [at age 37]
1934	:	Longshoreman's strike - 35,000 on strike for 83 days [at age 38]
1935	:	Dustbowl [at age 39]
1935-1936	:	Abyssinian war [from age 39 to 40]
1936-1940	:	Ethel Attends Rice Institute [from age 40 to 44]
1936	:	Spanish Civil War [at age 40]
1936	:	Helicopter [at age 40]
1936-1952	:	Reign of King George VI (Windsor) [from age 40 to 56]
1936	:	Reign of King Edward VIII (Windsor) [at age 40]
1937-1945	:	Chinese-Japanese war (3) [from age 41 to 49]
1937	:	Nylon (by DuPont) [at age 41]
1938	:	Germany annexes Austria [at age 42]
1939-1945	:	World War II [from age 43 to 49]
1939	:	Digital Computer [at age 43]
1939	:	Aircraft Jet Engine invented (by Ohain) [at age 43]
1940	:	Color Television [at age 44]
1940	:	1st black general in US army [at age 44]
1941-1942	:	Three siblings perish in Holocaust [from age 45 to 46]
1941-1945	:	Manhattan Project [from age 45 to 49]
1942	:	Ethel weds Morris Bogdanow [at age 46]
1942	:	William Bloomfield Passes Away [at age 46]
1942	:	Nuclear Reactor [at age 46]
1942	:	Magnetic Recording Tape [at age 46]
1945	:	Hypertext [at age 49]
1945	:	United Nations formed [at age 49]
1945	:	US drops the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki [at age 49]
1945-1952	:	Harry S Truman president of US [from age 49 to 56]
1946	:	The Bikini [at age 50]
1946-1989	:	The Cold War from [age 50 until after timeline]
1947	:	Transistor [at age ]51
1947	:	India and Pakistan emerge from ex-British India [at age 51]
1947	:	UN partitions Palestine to Jewish and Arab sections [at age 51]
1948	:	33 1/3 rpm musical recordings [at age 52]
1948	:	NATO formed [at age 52]
1948	:	Israel inaugurated as state [at age 52]
1948	:	Arabs attack Israel on the day it is inaugurated [at age 52]
1949	:	Apartheid policy in South Africa [at age 53]
1949	:	Soviets detonate first nuclear bomb [at age 53]
1949	:	45 rpm musical recordings [at age 53]
1950-1954	:	McCarthyism [from age 54 to 58]
1950-1953	:	Korean War [from age 54 to 57]
1950	:	World pop. est. at 2.4 billion [at age 54]
1950	:	Bunche 1st black to win Nobel Peace Prize [at age 54]
1951	:	Electricity from Atomic Power at age 55
1952	:	1st Thermonuclear Device Detonated [at age 56]
1952-Present	:	Reign of Queen Elizabeth II (Windsor) [from age 56 until after timeline]
1953-1960	:	Dwight D Eisenhower president of US [from age 57 to 64]
1954	:	Racial segregation in schools ruled unconstitutional [at age 58]
1955	:	Introduction of Salk Polio Vaccine [at age 59]
1955	:	Warsaw pact formed [at age 59]
1955	:	Invention of Velcro [at age 59]
1955	:	Fiber Optics (by Kapany) [at age 59]
1956	:	Ocean liner Andrea Doria collides with the Stockholm, sinks [at age 60]
1957	:	Sputnik Launched - 1st (artificial) satellite [at age 61]
1958	:	Stereo LP recordings come into usage [at age 62]
1958	:	FM Stereo Broadcasts [at age 62]
1958	:	Integrated Circuit [at age 62]
1958	:	US space agency (NASA) established [at age 62]
1959	:	1st nuclear powered merchant vessel, Savannah [at age 63]
1959	:	Alaska enters the union - 49th [at age 63]
1959	:	Hawaii enters the union - 50th [at age 63]
1960	:	1st weather satellite (Tiros I) [at age 64]
1960	:	Laser [at age 64]
1960	:	World subsurface circumnavigation by US sub Triton [at age 64]
1960	:	Pantyhose [at age 64]
1961	:	1st US manned spaceflight - Alan Shephard [at age 65]
1961	:	First human in space - Yuri Gagarin [at age 65]
1961-1963	:	John F Kennedy president of US [from age 65 to 67]
1961-1970	:	7th Cholera pandemic [from age 65 to 74]
1962-1965	:	Vatican II from [age 66 to 69]
1962	:	Cuban missile crisis [at age 66]
1963	:	Compact Cassette Recordings [at age 67]
1963	:	Pres. Kennedy Assassinated [at age 67]
1963	:	1st artificial heart [at age 67]
1963-1968	:	Lyndon B Johnson president of US [from age 67 to 72]
1964-1975	:	Vietnam War [from age 68 to 79]
1964	:	US civil rights bill [at age 68]
1965	:	Blacks riot in Watts neighborhood, Los Angeles [at age 69]
1965	:	1st spacewalks (US, USSR) [at age 69]
1966	:	1st soft landings on moon (US, USSR) [at age 70]
1966	:	8-track tape players [at age 70]
1967-1970	:	Nigerian civil war [from age 71 to 74]
1967	:	Six day war: Israel-Arabs [at age 71]
1967	:	Physicist John Wheeler coins the term Black Hole [at age 71]
1967	:	Marshall 1st black supreme court justice [at age 71]
1967	:	1st human heart transplant [at age 71]
1968	:	Martin Luther King assassinated [at age 72]
1968	:	Robert Kennedy assassinated [at age 72]
1969	:	Moon Landing - Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin [at age 73]
1969-1974	:	Richard M. Nixon president of US [from age 73 to 78]
1969	:	Woodstock Music Festival [at age 73]
1970	:	Microprocessor [at age 74]
1970	:	Nat. Guard murders 4 students at Kent State [at age 74]
1971	:	Pakistani civil war [at age 75]
1971	:	Intel ships 1st uProcessor: the 4004 [at age 75]
1973	:	The Internet [at age 77]
1973	:	Yom Kippur War (Israel-Arab nations) [at age 77]
1974	:	Pres. Nixon resigns in disgrace [at age 78]
1974-1976	:	Gerald Ford president of US [from age 78 to 80]
1975	:	Ebola virus appears - 90 percent lethal [at age 79]
1975	:	Byte Magazine, issue #1 - September [at age 79]
1975	:	The 1st home computer: The Altair 8800a [at age 79]
1976	:	American Bicentennial [at age 80]
1976	:	Whites accept principle of black majority rule in S. Africa [at age 80]
1976	:	VHS Video Recordings [at age 80]
1976	:	Television begins satellite delivery [at age 80]
1977-1980	:	James Earl Carter Jr president of US [from age 81 to 84]
1977	:	Neutron bomb [at age 81]
1978	:	Jonestown religious group mass suicide - 913 people die [at age 82]
1978	:	1st test-tube baby [at age 82]
1978	:	Laserdisc video recordings [at age 82]
1979	:	Three Mile Island nuclear event [at age 83]
1979	:	Margaret Thatcher 1st Woman Prime Minister in UK [at age 83]
1980	:	Mount St. Helens Erupts [at age 84]
1981	:	1st space shuttle flight - Columbia [at age 85]
1981	:	1st female supreme court justice [at age 85]
1981-1988	:	Ronald Reagan president of US [from age 85 until after timeline]
1981	:	IBM PC ships [at age 85]