Saturday, October 15, 2016

Notes on my great grandfather, Max Paul Schulz, in words and images



My dad’s mum’s dad was named Max Paul Schulz. He was born in Germany, by various accounts in Berlin (as per my Aunt Sara Ady) or in Chemnitz (as per his U.S. naturalization documentation)

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in 1878. He arrived in Newport News Virginia from Liverpool, England in 1902, aboard the Kanawha,

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a 471 ton steam powered yacht built for and owned by super-wealthy industrialist and robber-baron Henry Huttleston Rogers, on which, rumour has it, he stowed away! He was 5 feet four inches tall, of medium build, and had blue eyes and black hair (as per 1914 Naturalization Declaration) or brown hair (as per WWI and WWWII draft registration cards).

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He completed 8th grade in school, and had a very neat cursive script. Max met Ella Marie Schultz (born 1883),

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also a young immigrant from Germany, and the two married in June, 1906.


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Together they had 7 children, one of whom died in infancy. My grandmother was sixth of the seven. They went like this: 1. Frieda (1906-1974) 2. Gretchen (1908-1975) 3. Unknown Baby Shulz (Approximately 1910-1910) 4. Walter Paul (1913-1947) 5. Gertrude Edith (1915-1977) 6. Florence Louise (1919-1996) 7. Karl Max (1921-2011) I grouped them like that because I rather imagine they ended up in pairs like that, to some extent, based on their birth years. Max was at various time a waiter, (1907-1918) including at Saratoga Hotel in Baltimore, which was at the SW corner of Howard and Saratoga,

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proprietor of a seafood business (1920-1922), prorietor of a restaurant (1928), and bartender at Oxford Tavern in Baltimore (1940). The tavern is still there.

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Max and Ella were separated, but never divorced, at some point in the 1920s and remained separated for many years. But years later, when they were older, and their oldest daughter had moved back in with Ella to care for her, and Max also became unwell, he moved back in and she cared for both of them. The two died within a month of each other and are buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland.

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I have a few stories about their children, but zero about either of their parents or any of their siblings. My lovely Aunt Sara indicated that Max forbad Ella from teaching the children to speak German, and possibly had some political beliefs which led him to want to cut off from their former lives in Germany. So I’ve been unable to learn much of anything about Max Paul’s familial history. Leslie Schulz Auvenshine Greta Mavronis Missy Groff- Toth Megan Ann Jones Ady Eowyn Megan Ady Cosette Josephine Ady