Today I had the honor to have lunch with a surviving relative from my great great grandfather Maier Z. He is a great grandson; I'm a great great granddaughter. His aunt was my grandmother's cousin. He's older than I and a tad eccentric. He's spent his life in the service of others. Apparently he worked as a dispatcher for Senior Services. He also drove his aunt Regina around to her business appointments.
I brought him a Maier Z book and had lunch (mushroom and clam pizza) at Modern Apizza and he told us all sorts of stories. Fun in a wacky relative way. At the end, he insisted on giving me a shirt from the pizza place. Clearly he wasn't going to leave until he had one.
But I enjoyed myself and I love having this connections as I never had them growing up.
Earlier in the day we me author and historian Colin Caplan. Oh yeah, this guy know a LOT and is interested in the same things as me. Even more so. He has a lot of information on Paul Weil. He knows where everything is. He helped solve the mystery of 41 Cherry Street. Had some possible pictures. He found out (through Ancestry) that Maier moved to the Orange Street in 1870. He's a huge resource,smart. I knew he would be good.
We met in a private library, the Institute Library in downtown New Haven. Another very interesting place. I will write further about it.
It's great; these people, they've heard of Maier Zunder. They know of his leadership in 19th century New Haven. Now, not everybody in New Haven is familiar with him, but some are, some are.
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