A Tribute to Sister Ethel

I have been meaning to write this post for some time. My paternal half of the family is Jewish in tradition, culture, and religion. My mother's side is a mix of a number of different Christian faiths. There were a couple of pastors in the 1800s and I believe that there is somewhere a working reverend today.

But I think that there has been only one nun - Sister Ethel Mary Tinnemann. And she was quite a person. A graduate of the University of California in the late 1930s, she received her doctorate in modern European history in 1960 - also from UC Berkeley - a university that I attended during the very interesting and turbulent times of 1966 and 1967 - but that's an entirely different story.

Sister Ethel took her vows in 1943 and was a professor at Holy Names University from 1960 through 1997. She was an avid registrar of voters - signing up thousands of new voters in Oakland's toughest neighborhoods. That success enabled her to be inducted as a member of the California Voter's Hall of Fame in 1999.

I only was able to communicate with her but just once - a letter that I wrote to her in 2004 while doing research on my great grandmother, who was the sister of Ethel's grandmother - which makes us second cousins once removed. She did write me back once but unfortunately that was the only communication that we had. Sister Ethel passed in 2008 after living and serving for over 91 years.

But the thing that ties this story together with all of my family is that Sister Ethel lectured and wrote of the Catholic Church's timidity during the Nazi extermination of the Jews (of those who were killed in concentration camps - at least three are documented ancestors of mine). Her much cited articles appeared in the scholarly journals Western Political Quarterly and the Holocaust Studies Annual.

So a much deserved - but unfortunately late tribute to Sister Ethel - another of my relatives that I would loved to have met.

Below are two pictures of her - one later in life and one as a UC Berkeley student in the 1930s (where she was a tennis champ in her Junior year).

(Click to enlarge)

Kreymborg, Kreyenborg - Who Can Spell Kreimberg?

My great grandmother on my Mother's side was named Carolena Edwardina Kreymborg - her sister was Bertha Kreymborg. They both immigrated to America between 1868 and 1874. They hailed from Vechta, Oldenburg, Germany according to their death certificates. The problem in researching their immigration information is the spelling of their last name!

In Lena's case (sometimes spelled Lina), her death certificate is spelled Kreymborg, her marriage certificate is spelled Kreyenborg, and for two of her daughters the last name of their mother was spelled Krymborg or Krynborg.

Lena as she was known, has her closest immigration record as Lina Kreinberg who came to America, specifically Baltimore, Maryland on June 13, 1874 - from Oldenburg aged twenty. Although her death certificate lists her birth as June 7, 1857, I believe that this is indeed my great grandmother. Lena married John Diedrich Lutgens in 1881, after her first child Mabel Lutgens was born - two years in fact. I don't know if that was rare or common back then, but so be it. She and John had seven children, two boys and five girls. Unusual for the time - all seven grew to adulthood. One of course was my grandmother, Dora Lutgens. Lena died in 1913, while her husband survived for another 31 years.


Bertha, Lena's sister, immigrated to America - also from Vechta, Oldenburg, Germany. Her immigration record, which is much more certain, has her immigrating to Baltimore, Maryland on July 31, 1868, aged 17. This jives much more exactly with her birth date from other records of November 12, 1857. She married Ludwig Tinnemann, most likely in San Francisco. Ludwig had come to New York in 1868, but his immigration record states that his final destination was San Francisco. The 1900 census has them married for 25 years, which translates to a wedding date of 1875. His first occurrence in the San Francisco City Directory was 1869 - hence the deduction of the San Francisco locale for their wedding. They had one son, Otto Tinnemann, born in 1884.

As yet, I have not found Lena in the 1880 census. Bertha is there, with her husband Ludwig - but no luck yet with Lena. I have not been successful as yet finding how long there stay was in Baltimore either. More research to do!