Dear Peter,

I am so new to the internet that I haven't even set up my own account yet, so I am sending this to you through my daughter-in-law's account. My name is Hazel Betty Pixton Dingess. I go by Betty. My grandfather was Joseph Panholzer. He was born in 1871 in Vienna, Austria. His father was John J. Panholzer, and his mother was named Aloysia, I believe. I have some pictures. My mother was Josephine, the next to the youngest child, the youngest being Uncle Bernie who died in 1997 in St. Louis. My grandmother was Lillian Martin who was born in Baltimore, Md. It is my understanding that when she married my grandfather her family disowned her. I believe that her father owned a box factory.

My grandfather was a shoemaker and had a shop near the Marine Barracks in Washington, D. C. I have been told by older cousins that he used to "jam" with John Philip Sousa. He went to work for the government and made orthopedic shoes. I have a copy of the notification he received telling him that he had placed #1 after taking a test to work for the government. He took the test shortly before his wife died, and the letter was dated after she died. After Lillian died some of the children, including my mother and Tommy's father, were cared for by others. I don't fully understand the situation, but I can only conclude that times were very different then. She died in 1924.

Thomas C. Panholzer is a cousin of mine with whom I played chess. It has been a long time since I have seen him so I was surprised and pleased to read his letters to you.

Joseph died I believe in 1944. I was too young to remember him, but Sonny, (Andrew J.) is four years older than I, so it is very possible that he would remember him.

This has not been a good year. Uncle Bernie died in 1997, as well as our cousin Jack Frazier, a son of Lillian, the oldest child of Joseph. Jack O'Brien, the husband of Eileen, a daughter of Raymond, the next child of Joseph, died. Tfhe hardest for me was the fact that my husband, Norman, died in Nov 1997. The only bright spot was the birth of Emily Catherine Dingess, our granddaughter in April 1997.

Thanks for the Panholzer information. I have enjoyed reading all of it.