ANCESTOR NUMBER 1: JAMES JOSEPH KIRNER

I’ve decided to make a new start on this blog. I’ve decided to go through the ancestors in Ahnentafel table order, a numbering scheme widely used in genealogy software.

And in order to speed up the writing process, I’ve decided to forego using footnotes, since this blog is mainly just for our family. I'm hoping to go through the ancestors, doing one a week. We'll see!

My first ancestor was James Joseph Kirner, who I barely knew. So, I am using publicly available records and a private photo to describe him for you.

He was born on 15 March 1931 at a hospital in Summit, New Jersey, the youngest son of Leo/Lee Kirner and his wife, nee Agnes Fennessey. This was during the Depression, but Lee and Agnes lived in Chatham, New Jersey, a well-to-do suburb of New York City. Many women still gave birth at home instead of in a hospital. Jimmy had only one sister, Mary, who was about ten years older than him.

Jim lived in Chatham all during childhood, graduating from Chatham High School. His father was extremely active in civic life, and his mother did not have to work outside the home. The family was Roman Catholic, with many relatives nearby. Jim was an Eagle Scout. My mother told me that when Jim was in high school, he had a part time job as a magician’s assistant. I remember him making coins magically appear from behind my ears when I was little.

In 1950 he was rooming with a Hungarian family in New Brunswick while he attended Rutgers College. During those years he was in several clubs and the Alpha Chi Rho fraternity. He graduated with a BA in June 1952, and since he was in the ROTC for four years, he entered the Air Force as a second lieutenant.

A year later, he married Suzanne Bruguiere Downs, on 2 May 1953, at Bainbridge Air Base in Georgia.

The parents of the bride and groom drove from New Jersey to Georgia for the ceremony; few civilians flew back then. The couple was only 22 years old. The U.S. had entered the Korean War, and Jim was posted to an air force base in Lubbock, Texas, then in Sacramento, California, and finally to Travis Air Force Base near Fairfield, California. The last transfer occurred as Suzanne went into labor. Due to the state of medicine at that time and the frequent moves, the couple did not know that twins were expected. Their son was stillborn, but their daughter was small but healthy. Almost two years later, they had a son. Jim’s job was to fly a hospital plane to and from a military hospital in Hawaii to the hospital at Travis AFB, which he did until he was grounded due to an eye infection called uveitis, which ended his career as a pilot.

After discharge, Jim entered Hastings Law School at the University of California at San Francisco. The family lived in an apartment at 949 Fell Street. Jim graduated in June 1959 and was licensed to practice law a year later. The family moved to San Jose, Sacramento, and Carmichael between 1959 and 1963. In November 1963, Suzanne left Jim for the second time, taking the children with her to New Jersey.

Jim did not see his children after that. He sued for divorce, and the decree was finalized on 3 March 1964. As a referee, Jim worked for the state of California, handling workmen’s compensation cases. He was in Orange County by then.

In 1966, he married Judith (Judi) A. Salzman. They divorced in 1969 but reconciled. They had a son a few years later, and then a daughter. They lived in Laguna Beach, in a house at the top of a hill. From the living room, they had a dazzling view of the Pacific Ocean.

Jim died in 2022. He did not want a funeral or an obituary.

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