Today’s episode is a special one, dedicated in memory of my cousin "George," (not his real name) and intertwined with an exploration of genetic genealogy.
Episode Highlights
A Tribute to "George" Sharing the story of my cousin George, set against the backdrop of the 1930s in a coal mining town in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. His life story reflects the resilience and challenges of our family during those tough times.
Genetic Genealogy Deep Dive: Recounting my journey into the world of genetic genealogy, beginning with my first DNA test in 2016, which unveiled a host of unknown relatives and led to surprising discoveries about our lineage.
The Power and Responsibility of Genealogy: Exploring one's heritage carries both profound insights and inherent responsibilities.
Key Insights:
Resilience in Adversity: My family's strength and defiance during the Great Depression, despite severe societal judgments and personal losses, highlight a persistent theme of tenacity in our history
The Science of Connection: Genetic genealogy not only connects us with our past but, in my case, rekindled a love for science.
Emotional Journeys: Uncovering one’s ancestry--anyone's ancestry-- is an emotional odyssey, often leading to transformative revelations that reshape personal identities. Yet, sometimes it yields more questions than answers.
Today’s episode is a special one, dedicated in memory of my cousin "George," (not his real name) and intertwined with an exploration of genetic genealogy.
Episode Highlights
A Tribute to "George" Sharing the story of my cousin George, set against the backdrop of the 1930s in a coal mining town in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. His life story reflects the resilience and challenges of our family during those tough times.
Genetic Genealogy Deep Dive: Recounting my journey into the world of genetic genealogy, beginning with my first DNA test in 2016, which unveiled a host of unknown relatives and led to surprising discoveries about our lineage.
The Power and Responsibility of Genealogy: Exploring one's heritage carries both profound insights and inherent responsibilities.
Key Insights:
Resilience in Adversity: My family's strength and defiance during the Great Depression, despite severe societal judgments and personal losses, highlight a persistent theme of tenacity in our history
The Science of Connection: Genetic genealogy not only connects us with our past but, in my case, rekindled a love for science.
Emotional Journeys: Uncovering one’s ancestry--anyone's ancestry-- is an emotional odyssey, often leading to transformative revelations that reshape personal identities. Yet, sometimes it yields more questions than answers.
Hello, I'm Natalie Zett and welcome to Flower in the River. This podcast, inspired by my book of the same name, explores the 1915 Eastland disaster in Chicago and its enduring impact, particularly on my family's history. We'll explore the intertwining narratives of others impacted by this tragedy as well, and we'll dive into writing and genealogy and uncover the surprising supernatural elements that surface in family history research. Come along with me on this journey of discovery. Hello and welcome to episode 57 of Flower in the River podcast, and this episode is going to be even more different than the other ones are, which, I realize, are different each week. Our family recently lost a couple of significant folks and I wanted to dedicate an episode to one of them. The reason? Well, not only do I miss these folks, but this particular story dovetails into the world of genetic genealogy, which I've not discussed, at least not very much. During the last year or so, I have focused almost exclusively on publicly available records and newspapers for constructing my Eastland Chronicles series. And now I'm going to introduce you to another branch of my family, not the Pfeiffer branch, who were involved in the Eastland disaster and who are part of my maternal line, but this branch, my paternal branch, the branch on my dad's side. They do figure into this story and, don't worry, the Pfeiffers will return just a bit later in this episode. So I dedicate this episode in memory of my cousin, who I'm calling George, to respect his and his family's privacy during this time.
Natalie Zett:
The setting for this story is in Johnstown, pennsylvania, a coal mining town in western Pennsylvania, my cousin George. He came into the world in a hard way at a difficult time. In the 1930s, one of my dad's sisters, at the age of 21 and unmarried, welcomed a child into the world, my cousin George. The timing was less than ideal, though. The family was still reeling from the loss of their main provider, their father, my grandfather, who was a coal miner and had passed away just four years earlier, leaving them nearly destitute. Leaving them nearly destitute. Additionally, the circumstances of George's birth brought a profound stigma within the family, reflecting the stringent social norms of the time. Remember, this was the 1930s, it's not now. And also back then, the social safety nets that we rely on today simply didn't exist, while other relatives pitched in where they could.
Natalie Zett:
My grandfather's passing left the family in dire straits. Who was left to hold down the fort? Well, my grandmother in her 50s and her father, a resilient octogenarian and a retired coal miner. They were both immigrants from Slovakia. My great-grandfather had left the mines with many injuries, a testament to his hard life and labor, but he was still able to live a long time. And besides those two, at home they still had six children under their roof, ages ranging from 24 to just six. The older children contributed by working, and even the younger ones, including my dad at the tender age of 13, had to leave school and start working and start working. It's worth noting too that they all squeezed into a very small house, warmed only by a coal stove, with no central heating or indoor plumbing. To speak of, dad recounted a poignant story from those early hard times. Shortly after his father's death, a priest came to their house seeking donations. In a defiant act of frustration, dad and his other teenage brother did not just refuse, they physically escorted the priest out, sent him rolling down the hill outside of their home as they watched a mixture of anger and bitter amusement in their laughter.
Natalie Zett:
There's more to this story, since my grandfather had taken his own life. This very priest from their Byzantine Catholic church. And, for those not familiar, most Rusyns which my grandfather was were members of this church, which is part of the Eastern Catholic Church. Well, this church refused to allow him burial in their cemetery. At least that's the story. It was my grandmother's Roman Catholic Church that stepped in to provide a final resting place, and I can attest to that.
Natalie Zett:
This story could reflect the desperation of the era as well. The church also was in bad shape. It needed funds to operate and assist the community, and there were a lot of controversies too going on in that church. And yet approaching a family in crisis in a way that was well, let's just say less than sensitive yikes, that was well, let's just say less than sensitive Yikes. But it also shows the grit and protective instincts of my family, willing to stand up for themselves even in the face of authority figures. I would say I inherited a bit of that as well. There's also a hint of rebellion and resilience in my teenage dad's and uncle's responses. It's a powerful reminder of how people navigate societal expectations and personal hardships, often in ways that blend humor, defiance and solidarity.
Natalie Zett:
And, for the record, I hold no ill will toward the Byzantine Catholic Church. It too was grappling with its own turmoil in post-Depression era and was desperate in its own ways. As a Carpatho-Rusyn. This was my grandfather's church, a community much larger than the actions of a single priest, of a single priest. And also my office is filled with Byzantine icons, and I wear a Byzantine cross to honor my grandfather's heritage, not because I'm religious, but I want to honor him and the faith that made him. These symbols remind me of the deep roots and the complex history that shaped his life and, by extension, mine.
Natalie Zett:
So that's the world that this little boy, my cousin George, was born into in the late 1930s. Do you have a picture of it? So, a few years later, my aunt, my dad's sister and little George's mother tied the knot with a man who wasn't the biological father of George. Time zipped by and this little boy, that would be little George, grew into a remarkable man, accomplished and just an overall nice guy and just an overall nice guy. And, to add to his good fortune, he found his wonderful soulmate and they built a loving family with a couple of kids and, for all intents and purposes, had a very good life. The kids grew up, they married and they've also become pillars of their community, truly and truly making a difference in the world around them.
Natalie Zett:
But, jumping ahead to 2016, that was a big year for me in the world of genealogy, which I first got into in the late 1990s, when I started exploring my mom's side of the family and their deep roots in Chicago, including their unfortunate connection to the Eastland disaster. I created this massive manuscript out of all of that research, but I couldn't figure out what to do with it, so I put it to one side for a number of years because life intervened in ways that I I too didn't expect. But 2016 was my own great awakening. It was a game changer because I went into genetic genealogy and took my first DNA test. While the ethnicity bits were pretty much what I expected, the real shock was seeing this huge list of DNA relatives that I never knew I had. I thought I knew my family tree pretty well, especially since I was able to fill in the gaps from my maternal grandmother's line. But yi, I was in for a big surprise Once I got a handle on the shared matches feature in Ancestry.
Natalie Zett:
It was like stumbling over a treasure chest of family history. Here's the scoop on this, if you don't know. So you take a DNA test and you pick a DNA match and then you hit a feature called shared matches and boom, if you're lucky, you will see all the people that you and your match share DNA with. And if you recognize some names, you're even more lucky because you can figure out which side of the family that they came from Are they from your mom's side or your dad's side and you can start piecing things together. That's the simple way. A lot of times you don't have shared matches and that's another story for another time but I'm just talking about the ideal situation, and I had a lot of those actually, and digging into this was a total blast and surprisingly, it rekindled an appreciation for science, a subject I never really liked in high school.
Natalie Zett:
Back then, despite my preference for literature and writing, I unexpectedly scored the highest in the science section of the ACT tests. So the ACT is a standardized test used primarily in the United States for college admissions that assesses a high school student's readiness for college-level work in English, math, reading, science and sometimes writing. I used to wonder how you could have the highest aptitude in something you're not interested in, right? It's intriguing how these things turned out, but anyway, diving into genetic genealogy felt like combining detective work with a science lab, and it was totally thrilling and I fell in love with science, maybe for the first time. It was time, I think, to own that aptitude right.
Natalie Zett:
So taking that DNA test also reignited my interest in family history. As I mentioned earlier, I had completed a version of the manuscript that eventually became Flower in the River, but the timing it just wasn't right back then. But the timing it just wasn't right back then. However, diving into DNA testing helped me fill in a lot of missing pieces. Back in 2016, I also created my very first extensive family tree, and I did not realize just how valuable this tool would become. This family tree wasn't just a collection of names. It became a vibrant hub where I could create individual profiles for each ancestor, adding records, photos and, more importantly, it allowed me to cross-check and correct information.
Natalie Zett:
As I've often said and I will show you again shortly genealogy is often about constant course correction. Each new discovery can reshape a narrative, bringing new highlights and connections that were once hidden. But let's get back to Cousin George, or rather Cousin George's wife, who I will call Anne. I don't remember how Anne and I got talking about all this back then, but she is super smart and has intellectual curiosity and is still one of the best collaborators I've ever worked with, and she was new to genetic genealogy as well. So we began learning together and as my cousin George's health began to decline, anne felt a growing urgency to help him find a piece of his past, the identity of his biological father. She believed that uncovering this missing link could offer him the closure that she thought he needed. So George was a great sport about all this and he took a DNA test several, as I recall, and I was administering one of them.
Natalie Zett:
As I learned more about this DNA matching thing, I began to see a surname that was repeating on George's paternal side of things. Here's the kicker this was not the surname that George's mother told him when he asked about the identity of his birth father. So that added to the intrigue and to a lot of head scratching. So now let's dive into a bit of serendipity. As an administrator of one of George's DNA kits, I was contacted by a surprising match. She said I think my parent is closely related to George. That was an understatement. We had just discovered George's younger half-sibling.
Natalie Zett:
So navigating this new terrain took all of us several months, partly because Anne and I were both newbies in the world of genetic genealogy and we wanted to be sure of what we were doing, but despite the learning curve, we managed to uncover the identity of George's biological father. Of course, considering George's age, he was in his late 70s then. We assumed correctly too, that his birth father might no longer be living. However, we hadn't anticipated being contacted by another close DNA match on George's paternal side, which, as it turned out, was a blessing. George and his half-sibling actually had the opportunity to meet, and from all reports it went beautifully. Playing a part in their reunion was incredibly rewarding. But I have to say, witnessing the bond between Ann and George, ann's determination to bring closure and restore this branch of their family tree well, that was really heartwarming and strengthening.
Natalie Zett:
George's recent passing was bittersweet. It wasn't unexpected but it was still very sad, and it underscored the profound impact of genetic and traditional genealogy, how it can change lives. But caveat time coming. As Uncle Ben said in the Spider-Man movie, with great power comes great responsibility. This journey is powerful, it's life-altering and it's delicate, as can be Now. In our family we've mostly had good luck with new family ties that genealogy has brought us, though it hasn't all been smooth and I would not want to idealize it either.
Natalie Zett:
Here's the thing Every tool, from the printing press to the internet and now AI artificial intelligence has its ups and downs. Just like those tools, genealogy is not immune to misuse by the wrong hands the proverbial bad actors. It's taught us to stay alert and remember that even the coolest tools need careful handling. I recommend for anybody who's getting into genetic genealogy or any type of genealogy to read Libby Copeland's the Lost Family how DNA Testing is Upending who we Are, and there's another book. It's by Bill Griffith and it's called the Stranger in my Genes. That would be G-E-N-E-S. They're really good books.
Natalie Zett:
So back in 2016, 2017, I cut my teeth on doing that research on behalf of George's family, and what I loved besides the ongoing detective work and taking additional classes and reworking my theories my most favorite thing and my most favorite thing now is the collaboration that took place with Anne and how we were able to work so well together. That set the bar very high, and I want to keep it at that level too, because it really is important that people collaborate and don't compete when they're doing this type of work. So, after unraveling the mystery of George's long lost father, of course, my journey didn't stop. In some ways, it was just beginning, and I was able to transform my knack for science, my aptitude for science, into a deeper, intentional interest, finding ways to use it to help other people along with myself. The greatest gift for me, though, was being able to reconstruct my mother's missing history, and even before publishing Flower in the River, which is all about my missing maternal lines, I had already filled in that blank slate that was my mom's maternal mother's history, and I gave my mom her own book of life. Yes, I was able to channel my inner Henry Louis Gates. Her reaction, as they say it, was priceless, and by the time she left this earth in January 2022, and by the time she left this earth in January 2022, she knew who her people were. She knew who she descended from.
Natalie Zett:
Speaking of Henry Louis Gates, I just finished the latest episode of Finding your Roots, where he solved family mysteries for three non-celebrities. I love the celebrity stories, but these were fascinating as well, and these three women could not have had stories that were more different from one another, but their reactions were what we usually see, celebrities or not. They say things like now I know who I am, now I know who I came from, and they often start crying, and understandably so, because it is very, very emotional. Fast forward again. I titled this part of the podcast Poland Calling because I had another chance to apply those genetic genealogy skills I'd been honing since 2016. As mentioned on my podcast, as I've researched quote unquote other families besides mine who were involved in the Eastland disaster, I was seeing that some of these others also seemed to be people that I was related to and, believe me, that has been another shock. Now, I already knew that other people related to my Pfeiffer relatives had immigrated to Chicago, but given the name changes you know when women get married, it's been tough to track some of these characters, and so it's like so close, yet so far I'm in the midst of this research, but I want you to see what this process is like as well. So it's not exhaustive research yet, but it's getting there.
Natalie Zett:
And how I approach my own theories with any kind of genealogy that puzzles me. I get a theory and I immediately try to disprove it as opposed to proving it in order to avoid confirmation bias. And, frankly, I want to trick my own mind because I know I can often find things that seem to match and they really don't. So I try to disprove my pet theories right out the gate, so I don't get too attached to them and hopefully that they lead me to the truth. So in early 2024, I connected with two different family members who are living in Poland. They don't know one another, but we are all related on that same line as the Pfeiffer relatives in Chicago, oh, and I lucked out because they're both extraordinary genealogists.
Natalie Zett:
The first relative took a look at my tree and told me, point blank you're wrong about the identities of your third great grandparents. Here's who they are. And he provided the detailed chart that looked like an engineer's schematic drawing. Not the first time I've been wrong about relatives from way back in Poland and Slovakia, because I too made a lot of newbie mistakes. But here's the other thing that I've learned Just because someone is confident and sure of themselves, you should still test out their assertions as well. So I began testing the new surnames that he provided against my DNA matches on ancestry as well as on my heritage, and, sure enough, this man was right. His tree was spot on.
Natalie Zett:
I was kind of sad to have to remove and say goodbye to the people that I thought were this set of third great grandparents, but I had to do it. The process of adding all of these new people took a lot of time In fact, I'm still in the middle of it and those Polish surnames with all the different spellings and there are a lot of different spellings for these. It's also made this a lot of fun and very challenging. But, wow, am I learning as I go along with this and having the correct information, though? That's always a good thing, right, but this gave me a gem. As genealogist, lisa Louise Cook would likely say, I learned that my newfound third great-grandmother's sister immigrated to Milwaukee in 1858. Immigrated to Milwaukee in 1858. Why that's significant? So far, this is the first person from any line of my family who immigrated to the United States. Maybe I'll find something else out in the future, but for now she is the earliest immigrant. Finding that kind of information makes genealogists very happy and somewhat verklempt.
Natalie Zett:
As I explored my Polish cousin's family tree schematic I also noticed something. There was a pattern in that family line that my Pfeiffer relatives descend from. There were several cousin marriages, in other words, cousins were marrying cousins, and not just once, but many times. Now this seems to be an example of endogamy. I'll say that again endogamy, endogamy. I'll say that again, endogamy. This is where people within a specific community marry one another, often leading to many, many shared genetic connections over generations. And since many in this group immigrated to Chicago, this could also explain some of the DNA results I'm seeing as I've been doing this Eastland Chronicles series. Needless to say, I just signed up for a four-week intensive class on endogamy, which I hope will give me a handle on some of this, and I will keep you posted. The other relative, the other Polish relative that I met this year, is also an awesome genealogist who supplied additional records that helped me fill in some other gaps. Again, genealogists will find this story interesting and others just hang in there, because you too might run into this type of thing. So here's what I found and here's what helped fill in some of the gaps.
Natalie Zett:
So, to add to the complexity of the Pfeiffer relatives, the grandparents of my maternal grandmother that would be Annie Pfeiffer and her sister Martha Pfeiffer, who died on the Eastland the grandparents for them are a couple named August Pfeiffer and Carolina Bussler, or Bussler auf Deutsch. Ja, they would be my second great grandparents. If you're counting, let's start with Carolina Bussler. Before she married August Pfeiffer, she was married to a guy whose surname was Pufall, and they had seven children, that's right, seven. After Mr Pufall's death she married my second great-grandfather, august, and had at least six children with him. And had at least six children with him, that's right. Carolina had at least 13 children, most of whom survived into adulthood.
Natalie Zett:
Although they didn't all immigrate to the United States, many of their children did, and many of these children ended up in Chicago. Poor Carolina ended up in Chicago, poor Carolina. She died at age 42 in 1872. And amazingly, it was from smallpox and not in childbirth. But we're not done yet. Hold on. My second great-grandfather, august Pfeiffer. After Carolina died, he got married and had at least three kids. That's what we found so far. So we're talking about roughly 16 or more children in that Pfeiffer line. Many who made it to adulthood went on to have equally large families themselves. That was the time right.
Natalie Zett:
Why so many ended up in Chicago around the turn of the 20th century? Well, I'm not sure, not yet, but considering that they were ethnic Germans and they lived in the same areas in Chicago and were all Lutheran, it's no surprise that many of their timelines overlap with the Eastland disaster. That's a bit of a clue about what I'm probably uncovering as I dig into these other family stories. And so these so-called other family people might be a lot closer to me genetically than I'm realizing, and I can tell you this. All the skills I've picked up and the ones I'm about to learn in genetic genealogy will help me unravel this broader mystery. Plus, I've made a lot of knowledgeable friends along the way and I'm going to do my work and do as much as I can. The best advice I can give is be prepared as possible if you're going to ask somebody to help you, and by the going to ask somebody to help you and by the time I ask somebody to help me, I will have done as much work as I can do and hopefully they'll be able to step in and fill the gaps with their knowledge. And I have my cousin George to thank for all of this. If it weren't for that family mystery of his missing birth father that we tackled those years ago, I wouldn't have these skills that I have now.
Natalie Zett:
And I want to close again in memory of all of my dear ones who've passed away long ago and recently. You were a blessing and you are a blessing to us, and we are honored and grateful that you are in our DNA. Have a good week and take a look at that family tree of yours, because you don't know who or what is waiting for you. Talk to you next week. Hey, that's it for this episode and thanks for coming along for the ride. Please subscribe or follow so you can keep up with all the episodes, and for more information, please go to my website. That's wwwflowerintherivercom. Flowerintherivercom. I hope you'll consider buying my book, available as audiobook, ebook, paperback and hardcover, because I still owe people money and that's my running joke. But the one thing I'm serious about is that this podcast and my book are dedicated to the memory of all who experienced the Eastland disaster of 1915. Goodbye for now.