Pieces of Me

I was always into genealogy as long as I can remember. In 1984 at just 11 years old, I remember going to my great grandma Lanning’s 90^th birthday celebration and sitting with my grandma Zink and her brother, Uncle Don, with my notebook and asking them tons of questions.  What were your grandparents names? What about aunts and uncles names? Did they have kids? What were their names? Where did they live? How often did you see them? I still have that notebook somewhere.  But I’ve always done this. I loved hearing old stories, writing them down. I always have felt once they’re gone, the stories are gone forever. Even in my grandma Loewenstine’s final days in the hospital I was asking her things; even in those last days her mind was sharp.  Back when I started, genealogy was a lot of leg work. Most of my life I was too young and poor to travel. So I would write away for documents and call places.  I remember calling a tiny town in KY for a marriage license when finalizing paperwork for my DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) membership and the woman told me it cost a quarter.  She said “tape a quarter to a piece of paperwork and mail it to me with the information and I’ll send you the copy”.  I did it and got the copy.  Once the internet became more available some of the work became easier. But, it still took many years for the documents to be uploaded digitally and even still many documents are not available. 

I spent many years working on my moms side (Zink/Lanning).  Although I knew there wasn’t much to find out about the Zink family because they were so small, I knew the Lanning side was huge and went way back.  After years, and I mean years, of collecting information I decided to try to get membership to the DAR.  Sadly, I wasn’t able to prove it on the Lanning side because I was missing one document that linked the patriot to his son.  We just couldn’t find it.  In working with the DAR historian, she spent some time sifting through the paperwork and my family trees.   Finally, she reached out and told me she thought it would be easier to prove on my dads side and the documentation was already there.  This was shocking to me. I had a lot of information on my grandma Loewenstine’s family (Stevens) but I didn’t see anything to use there.  She quickly pointed out my grandpa Loewenstine’s mothers side (Porter) would be an easy connection to gain membership.  Together we were able to get membership to the DAR through the Porters.  How much I learned about my great grandma’s family. It was really remarkable.  So, that gave me a spark to really start to dig into the Loewenstine family. I knew very little about them.  I had always “heard” the Loewenstine’s were Jewish; a rumor my great grandma Frankie adamantly denied and refuted.  Thanks to a bitter divorce of two teenaged gg grandparents, beyond my dad, my grandpa and my great grandpa I knew nothing.  It was like a big secret.

For years, I did the old fashioned research. The internet was there but what I could find online was just limited. I started to piece the family together using documents (census, birth/death certificates, marriage license, wills, cemetery records and newspaper articles).  Low and behold, the Loewenstine’s were indeed Jewish. Baptized Jewish, married Jewish, buried Jewish together in a family plot.  Funny that my great grandma thought that was some deep dark secret to take to her grave; I’ll never understand why it was so secret.  As documents and newspaper articles became digitized I really started to find a lot.  I’ll never forget one time my mom said to me “Why do you want to dig up skeletons; these people wanted to take to their graves?” I thought that was a strange statement but, I was digging up some fun information.  My GG Grandma, Alma Berninger, had gotten pregnant with my great grandfather (Ellsworth aka Ells) at 17. Her and Willard Loewenstine married but it didn’t last long.  She divorced him and according to the newspaper articles I was finding, it was bitter.  I guess, out of spite, she raised this Jewish Loewenstine son catholic.  The Loewenstine’s still tried to hold onto the keeping him in the Jewish faith; even having a bat mitzvah for him. Sounds like a very difficult childhood.  In 1940, when Willard’s father (Edward) passed away and left his estate to be divided three ways (a third to Willard, a third to Ellsworth and a third to Ellsworth’s son Carl).  Willard sued Ellsworth for all the money.  I couldn’t find any articles as to the ruling of the case but nevertheless, I assume this was the end of that father/son relationship as it appears this was where the relationship cut off; which explains why my dad’s father never spoke of or knew his Loewenstine side.  I’ve asked my dad a lot about his grandpa. He has great memories of him and grandma Berninger but didn’t know anyone on the Loewenstine side beyond his grandpa Ells.  He doesn’t ever remember his dad talking about his grandparents either. 

My research showed the Loewenstine’s arriving in the USA in 1848 via New Orleans but there is nothing else for them until the 1850 census in Cincinnati.  Where were they for two years?  Did they stay in New Orleans? Did they come to Cincinnati right away? What about family back in Germany?  I just couldn’t find anything. Everywhere I tuned it was a brick wall – Nothing.  I wrote a lot of letters to other Loewenstine descendants in the Cincinnati area and some outside of Cincinnati, but nothing.  After several years, I finally decided to do ancestry DNA in 2021 in hopes I would find more answers.  I ordered the kit and sent in my spit.  I had people ask me… aren’t you afraid of what you will find?  To which I replied, I know so much there’s nothing that will surprise me unless my DNA is used to help solve a crime.  I mean, my grandma Loewenstine has a HUGE family, it wasn’t out of the realm of reality and if it solves a crime; so be it!