Continental Army Depot and Burial Ground
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The Geneline The Monthly Newsletter of the Amelia Island Genealogical Society October 2014 AIGS August General Meeting Tuesday, October 21, 2014 at 7:00 PM The Community Room, Fernandina Beach Police Station, 1525 Lime St, Fernandina Beach, FL October Program Urban Research - Pick a Church, Not Just Any Church In our upcoming program you will learn how to use city directories, ward maps, and various other resources to pinpoint the location of your ancestor's church. A case study will be used to provide a detailed example. Our guest speaker will be Amy Larner Giroux, PHD, CG, CGL. Ms. Larner Giroux is a researcher, lecturer and writer with geographic specializations including New York City, the Lower Hudson Valley of New York and Pensacola, Florida. She is an award- winning author with articles published in the National Genealogical Society Quarterly, the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society Record, and The Genealogist (American Society of Genealogists). Her research interests include burial iconography and ethnic studies. REPORT FROM THE AIGS BOARD NOMINATING COMMITTEE As prescribed by the AIGS by-laws, the AIGS Nominating Committee met to propose a slate of officers and board members for 2015 AIGS Board. Nominees from the current board who expressed an interest in serving for another year were retained. There were three open slots for which the committee personally contacted nominees to determine if they would like their name placed in consideration. They agreed to serve if elected. As a result of the search, the AIGS Nominating Committee recommends the following slate of candidates for your 2015 Officers and Directors: President – Jean Mann Member-at-Large – Bob Keane (Programs) Vice President – Tonia Quartermain Member-at-Large – Larry Conte (Membership) Secretary – Member-at-Large – Susan Anstead (Geneline) Treasurer – Marcia Pertuz Member-at-Large – Lori Miranda (Publicity) Past President – Gus Reinwald We have been unable to find a nominee for the Board position of Secretary. Any member of the AIGS who is interested in this position is urged to contact Gus Reinwald or one of the other officers to place their name in nomination for the Secretary’s position. The Secretary is a voting member of the AIGS Board and keeps a record of the board meetings. In addition, the following members have volunteered to assist with the Program Committee for 2015: Marie Santry, Gloria Toomey, and Janet Loveless. We have a strong slate of nominees for the AIGS Board and Program Committee, and the AIGS should be off to a very good start in 2015. 1 October 2014 MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT By Gus Reinwald 2014 AIGS There are a couple of families in both my wife’s ancestry line and my BOARD MEMBERS ancestry line where, for a couple of generations, the father was not the Royce “Gus” Reinwald breadwinner or died at a fairly young age, leaving the mother or other President family members to provide for and raise the children. This is Charles Finnigan probably true for many families and is not that uncommon in Vice President genealogy research. I want to focus on two such families in my Bebe Granger research that show two different means of coping with the departure Secretary of the breadwinner. Marcia Pertuz The first story comes from my wife’s genealogy and is of a family Treasurer living in rural Pennsylvania that came from a farming and Michael Toomey blacksmithing background. Samuel, the father, died at age 40 and left Past President his wife Sophie with two sons age 10 and 8. Sophie didn’t have Larry Conte, family in the area to help her with the children but she managed to Director/Membership find work as a housekeeper in the hotel where she and the sons lived, Chairperson according to the 1880 census records. The 1910 census shows that Bob Keane she was still working as a servant/housekeeper but in a private home. Director She died in 1912 and her obituary stated that she was employed at the Hotel Clinton and was ill but a short time. It said that no relatives Susan Anstead survive and that her two sons also preceded her to the grave. Charles, Director her second son, died at age 37 leaving wife Bertha and their two sons Lori Miranda age 7 and 5. Bertha did have family in a nearby town, and that is Director where she was able to raise her two sons, after moving into her COMMITTEE CHAIRS father’s home and later a home shared by her unmarried brother and & EDITORS sister. Bertha fed her family by working for many years as a weaver Michael Toomey in a silk mill. Bertha died at age 68 but lived long enough to see both AIGS Website her sons marry and enjoy her two grandchildren. Bob Keane The second story comes from my mother’s genealogy and is about a Program family living in the “big city” since about 1850. The earliest census Lori Miranda I’ve found on this family is June 1870 showing Maria, age 43 having Publicity 5 children ages 10 to 18. Maria is a sewing machine operator, 18 year Teen Peterson old daughter is a school teacher and 14 year old son Chris is “boy in Librarian Lawyer’s office”. No father is listed and so Maria, daughter and son Kathy Nemaric are the breadwinners. The family must have moved shortly after this Research Coordinator because in December they are again listed in the 1870 census at a Susan Anstead different District, living on Cornelia Street. All the data is the same Editor Geneline except son Chris is “Insurance Clerk”. In 1880 the family is now at West 28th Street, Maria is the housekeeper and widowed; only 4 Jean Mann children, two daughters are school teachers, Chris is working in a Editor of Nassau County Genealogist Cigar Factory and his brother is a book keeper. The next account is about son Chris’s family. Chris wasn’t a young man when he died at age 59, but evidently he didn’t work much after his marriage. Chris 2 and wife Minnie had one son and 5 daughters. The son never married and died at age 33. The 5 daughters were all quite different, but it was they who were the breadwinners for the family. The first daughter married and had her own family. The second daughter was a telephone operator earning a wage. The fourth daughter unfortunately was blind but earned money playing the piano. The fifth daughter became a Dominican Nun named Sister Mary Reparata at Holy Spirit Convent. But the real breadwinner for the family was the third daughter. She became a successful artist and photographer's model that eventually married and lived in Paris with her wealthy husband. Their mother, Minnie, was the homemaker for the family, which says a lot since according to the NY census they lived in the Bronx on Mansion Street in 1900, in Manhattan on 129th Street in 1910, on Nicholas Avenue in 1915, and on Wadsworth Avenue from 1918 to 1920. All these moves must have been a lot of work for Minnie and the family. I don’t think that Chris was much help in all this moving. My grandfather, talking about this family, once said that he “held in contempt any father who didn't do his best to support his family. Evidently Chris didn't mind having his daughters work to support the family." I guess my message in all this is that by researching census data and putting it together with family stories and related facts one can get a pretty good picture of what life was like for a particular family. The picture may not be 100% accurate, but it is still good to visualize. Coincidently, I was able to find pictures of some of these residences on the New York City Department of Records Photo gallery which has pictures of every building in all boroughs taken in 1940 and again in 1980. They did this for their tax appraisals. The NYC website is at http://www.nyc.gov/html/records/html/gallery/home.shtml 3 News You Can Use! This new corner of the Geneline will highlight news each month that we hope interests you. It will contain descriptions of new books added to our library, volunteer opportunities, openings on the board, upcoming local speakers, Nassau County Library updates, and much, much more. We hope you enjoy it and find it helpful. Volunteer Opportunities Do you have a little extra time to help others? Then we have a job for you! There are lots of volunteer opportunities and there may be one that’s just right for you. You will find lots of volunteer opportunities right here at the Amelia Genealogical Society. For more information you can contact the AIGS President: Gus Reinwald at [email protected] Writers needed! Do you like to write? Do you have a story to tell? Do you have genealogy research information you’d like to share? We have an entire readership waiting to hear from you! We are always looking for articles for the monthly AIGS Geneline. It covers a broad spectrum of topics from research hints to personal family histories to research tool analyses and anything else we think may be of interest to our readers. If you have a topic or information you would like to share, we can help you organize it too! Amelia Island Museum of History upcoming Brown Bag Lunch Wednesday, October 1st at Noon – Brown Bag Lunch with Bill Birdsong Join us for our next Brown Bag Lunch on Wednesday, October 1st, at noon Special guest Bill Birdsong will deliver a lecture entitled “Images of our Greenway”.