Fay Jordeans

Fay R. Jordaens

July 27, 1929 – February 4, 2019

Fay passed away Monday evening.  Fay and I were 4th cousins.  Sharing Philipp Putz as a great great grandfather.  Fay was extremely instrumental in the search for the Putz family history.  She was an active member of the Bukovina Association. Fay was a Native City Islander (Bronx, NY). Fay was born in Bronx, NY. She grew up on a houseboat the daughter of the late Frederick and the late Ruth (Frombach) Schmahl. Some of her life’s accomplishments were serving on the planning board committee of both The Bronx, NY and Netcong, NJ. Fay, along with her late friend Ruth Cronk, was the driving force in the creation of the National Barbie Doll Convention. She authored four self-published books, one of which was about the history of City Island.

Fay also wrote numerous articles for The Island Current, as well as other publications. One of which told of her exploits as a deck canoe sailor which is how she met her late husband Frank.

I first met Fay when she called me and said: “Look Richard you don’t know me, but we are cousins.” And that was the beginning of our friendship and teaming up on our genealogy search for our relatives. Fay was wonderful, a very sharing person and we both shared the same political philosophy, and she would say to me that was because of our “good genes.”

The Journey: The beginning

Back in 2006 at the urging of my Wife Therese (Terry), I ventured into the world of genealogy. At first to see, how much of the Putz family I could trace back to and tie together. Spending most of my professional life working in the world of technology, I said to myself “How difficult can this be in this age of technology? It has to be easy.” Well I was about to learn how difficult it could be.  I dabbled here and there using ancestry.com, discovered many records of our family and thought this was cool. At the time, I was not aware of the all the cousins in North Dakota, Canada, California, Utah, Arizona, Michigan, Washington, Ohio and in Texas, who knows where else, let alone today, in what we call, Romania. Little did I realize what was about to happen over the next several years in search of “who do I think I am?” Little did I know how difficult the search would become for others and me?

I gathered as much information as I could from my father Clarence W. Putz who passed away in 2007. By this time, Clarence’s siblings were all deceased. Clarence was the baby of his family. He had nephews who were born before he was. When his mother Bronislawa was pregnant with Clarence, her oldest daughter Stephanie was also pregnant for the third time. Clarence was indeed the baby of the family. On reflection, I really wished I could go back in time and talk with my aunts and grandparents to learn what was evolving in their lives at the turn of the century and the early 1900s. I was now experiencing the frustration many know when searching for ancestors, especially when you play by the rules, which means documenting, and verifying the information you discover and the hearsay you stumble upon in your search.

By 2010, I was really hooked on this ancestral search for “who do you think you are” and I was becoming frustrated with hitting “dead ends” but becoming more passionate about the search. I first came to know of Barry, Will, Gordon, Katherine and Clare in 2010. Katherine was as interested in discovering “roots” as much as I was. Katherine’s parents were Victor and Rosa Putz. Victor was my grandfather’s brother.

The “dead ends” caused me to retreat. I spent some time talking to people at the Bukovina Society and search sites provided by the society to see where the records of the old country would lead me. Fay Jordean sent me a book called “German Emigration from Bukovina to the Americas.”  edited by Willia Keel and Jurt Rein. A very helpful book with much information about Philipp Putz and others.   In this search I discovered people like Jeanne Spiess, Lori Rose and Fay Jordean who all were insisting at one point or another,  “we are all related.”  Katherine Reid and I were skeptical at first pass. Things just did not make sense at first.  How did all these connections come about?  Why do some relatives say they never heard of this person or that person.   Even my father told me his father had a missing sister and no one remembers her name?  I was stunned.  Next, I discovered John Putz whose grandfather was Josef, one of the brothers of Karl, Victor, Rudolph, Anton, and Helen. These were the brothers and sisters I heard my father and my aunts talk about.  The missing sister, was Wilhelmina.   John Putz was in search of the same “roots,” and we started to collaborate. This was now starting to feel more like patchwork quilt making, one patch and one stitch at a time, and the desire to discover grew. Now after my father passed away, and going through his stored away treasures, we came across many items of my grandfather, Karl. The address book was a key discovery. Handwritten names, addresses, scratch-outs and rewrites, the address book was about to become a key resource. At first, this address book contributed to the confusion of who is who and are all these people related too? Still keeping with the original premise Katherine and I formulated, that these people must be of a different “Putz” family, with the same name and same friends, we started to piece the personalities together. We could not understand who all these people were and why they were in the address book, but because they were there, I accepted the fact they were important to Karl and therefore should be important to me in my search for whom I am. Discovering photos that my grandfather kept without any dates or names on the back led to many questions, so we began scanning the photos and creating JPEGs, which enabled us to exchange photo with as many people as possible asking if anybody looked familiar. Between Lori, Jeanne and Katherine, John and others, the great photo swap began. By the end of 2012, Katherine and I were content thinking we had reached the end of the road. We began to speculate that all was lost in the old country and all was left behind, and only to remain a memory for those who ventured to new lands. One thing we all realized was we should have started this quest when more people were still alive to provide some insights. We believed only a few Putzes in Martin, ND and a few of the Putzes in Regina Saskatchewan were actually connected. All the other Putzes in North Dakota and Saskatchewan were there by random luck, so we thought…only to find out the connection to the “new world” was more planned than just luck. I went back to reading the history of the immigration of the People from Bukovina to Canada, Illinois, Texas, North Dakota, and Pennsylvania along with Kansas in hopes of discovering a clue. Reading the materials from the Bukovina Society located in Kansas. I began to realize how well planned the migration was at that time.

Near the end of 2013 and early 2014, my wife had the DNA sample done for herself, and an entirely new avenue opened up for her in her search for the McMahon’s. Terry convinced me to take the DNA sample, and when I looked at possible 3rd to 6th cousins that were popping up and their ages, the information would suggest we are all sharing some great grandfather or great great grandfather. What I discovered was, Lori, Jeanne, Fay was correct. We are all related! I saw people who took the DNA sample and now were listed as 3 to 6 cousins of myself and therefore Katherine and all of you and your relatives.

The people in Karl’s address book are more than interconnected they were relatives. DNA does not lie. That in itself raised even more questions because there was just too many twists and turns that by today’s worldview of life that didn’t make sense, but back in the 1800s and early 1900s, it all made sense.

One thing I had come to learn and was very oblivious too when I started, was the naming conventions of family members. There is actually a pattern to this, and once you grasp the trends from generation to generation, you are able to speed up your search and make your searches more focused. Naming conventions in our modern day world have patterns entirely different than the late 1800 and 1900. LOL

So let me lay out what we have so far. Yes, we have roughly 95% of the documentation to support and or verified by records we have collected, shared with each other and or verified with professionals in this field the people in our family.

So let us begin:

(Where there are multiple different people with the same name, I will number them)

Now, as we move forward, keep a few names in the back of your mind that will contribute to the who’s who and what added to the confusion for us doing the research. Keep in Mind the names: Mantz, Manz, Mang, Filler, Seidel, Wagner, Monk, Siebold, Frombach and Pisula. All names in Karl’s address book and somehow all related.

Johann Adam Butz married Anna Maria Butz on November 1, 1784, in Traben-Trarbach, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. They had one child during their marriage. Philipp Heinrich Butz was born in 1790, in Austria.  And this is where the story begins.

Philipp Putz(1) was born 22 April, 1790, (there are some records saying he was born in February on the 11th but we are not sure) Stadio Bukovina of the Austrian Hungarian Empire. Died in 1869 in Satulmare. The records show their names with two spelling side by side (Putz and Butz) The historians claim the names were often interchangeable back then.

Philipp marries Katharina Elisabetha Brunner who lived from 1791 to 1866.

Philipp and Katharina had seven children:

Philipp Putz(2) 1811-1866 in Moldavia, Romania

Konrad, 1813-1888

Katharina Margaretha, 1814-1850

Maria Katharina Elisabeth, 1915-1872

Margretha, 1822-1867

Katharina 1825-1862

Carolina 1832 and we cannot find the death records.

Philipp Putz (2) born 24 February 1811 in Bukovina Austria marries Anna Maria Hollerbaum who was born on 08 September 1811 in Alt-Fratautz Bukovina and died 06 May 1838.

So far, we know Philipp(2), and Anna Maria had nine children.

Ludwina (daughter) born 10 September 1853 in Satulmare Bukovina

Wilhelm (son) born 5 Nov 1842 marries in Moldavia to Margaret Manz first wife – Karolina second wife

Wilhelm and Margaret have a son by the name of Anton Putz. Half-brother to Karl, Victor, Josef, Rudolph and Helen, and Wilhelmina.

Philipp(3) born 24 October 1832 in Bukovina and died 10 May 1914 in Martin ND.

Philipp(3) married to Theresia Mang b. Dec, 14. 1835 —- Their children

Franz b. 1860 married to Rosina Bohnet
Karoline b. Dec. 12, 1862
Elisabeth b. 1868 MD to Paul Wagner
John b. 1867 married to Katherine Seibold Dobruja, Romania
Friedrich b. Feb. 23, 1873, Dobruja married d to Christina Stu ber Fred DOD Dec.6, 1957 USA.
Margaret b 1870 Cataloi, Dobruja married a Seibold first then her second marriage was to Anton Putz. died in ND USA
Maria b. 1878 Dobruja, – died 1196 in Edenwold, Sask, Canada Maria married. Peter Frombach Oct 25, 1896
Katharina 1832 to?
Dorothea 16 May 1835 in Bukovina died 30 July 1902
Johann born 17 October 1840 to?
Anna born 06 January 1847 in Radutz Bukovina and died 07 February 1923 in Martin ND
Now for my connection to the Putz’s let’s zero in on Wilhelm. Third Oldest son of Phillip(2) and yes we are struggling to find all the records.

Wilhelm and Margaret have a son by the name of Anton Putz, and possibily a sister. Half-brother to Karl, Victor, Josef, Rudolph and Helen, and Wilhelmina are the two sisters. Anton and Karl are just a year apart in age. Karl is the oldest of the children from Karolina Seidel. Karolina Seidel was born in 1869 and died in 1936 and is buried in Regina Saskatchewan Canada.

(More to come)