Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission: Impossible! music), is:
(1) Where were your ancestors in the year 1900? Make a list with their ages and locations (with street addresses if you know them).
(2) Share your information in your own blog post, in a comment on this post, or on Facebook or Google+. Please leave a link to your post in a comment to this post.
Here's my list. I'm still shy on specific addresses for a lot of my ancestors. When I have them, I'm listing birth years of my ancestors in parentheses.
My 2nd-great-grandfather Joel Armstrong (1849) was living in Burlington County, New Jersey. I have not been able to determine which Joel he is among the three or four of about the same age in the county.
My great-grandmother Laura May Armstrong (1882) and her mother, Sarah Deacon Lippincott (1860), were living with Sarah's uncle and aunt Amos and Rebecca Lippincott at 343 Broad Street, Mount Holly, Burlington County, New Jersey.
My great-grandfather Cornelius Elmer Sellers (1874) was living in Mount Holly, Burlington County, New Jersey with his mother, Catherine Fox Owen, and stepfather, George W. Moore.
My 2nd-great-grandmother Amelia (Gibson) Gauntt (1831) was living in Burlington County, New Jersey, almost definitely with one of her children.
My great-grandparents Thomas Kirkland Gauntt (1870) and Jane (Dunstan) Gauntt (1871) were living in Mount Laurel, Burlington County, New Jersey. Living with them were their surviving chidlren Frederick Cleworth, my grandmother Anna (1893), Carrie Florence, and Mary Louise.
My 2nd-great-grandparents Simcha Dovid (unknown birth year) and Bela (unknown maiden name) Mekler (unknown birth year) might have been alive. I know Simcha died by about 1904 and Bela by about 1924. If they were alive, they were probably living in the area of Kamenets Litovsk, Russian Empire (now Kameniec, Belarus). Living with them would have been their daughter Sora; they might have had additional children, but I don't know of any.
My 2nd-great-grandparents Gershon Itzhak Nowicki (about 1858) and Dora (Yelsky) Nowicki (about 1858) were probably in Porozowo, Russian Empire (now Porozovo, Belarus). Chldren living with them would have included Zlate (Jennie here in the U.S.), Schmuel (Sam), Louis, Chaim, Harry, and Mirke.
My great-grandparents Moishe (Morris) Meckler (about 1882) and Mushe (Minnie) Zelda (Nowicki) Meckler (about 1880) might have been married already. The only date I have seen for their marriage is October 3, 1900, but I have no European documents to substantiate that, so it could have been a year or two before or after (although after is less likely). It's possible that their oldest child, Sarah, was already born and was living with them. If they were not married yet, they probably would have each been living with their respective parents.
It's possible that my 3rd-great-grandfather Gersh Wolf Gorodetsky (unknown dates) was still alive in 1900, because I have not found any descendants named after him. On the other hand, maybe his children didn't like him and that's why they didn't name anyone after him.
My 2nd-great-grandparents Isaac/Victor Gorodetsky (about 1866) and Esther Leah Schneiderman (between 1868–1874)) were living in Kishinev, Bessarabia, Russian Empire (now Chișinău, Moldova) with their children Etta, Joine (Joe, my great-grandfather; about 1892), Sure (Sarah), Dovid (David), and Chaim (Hyman).
My 2nd-great-grandparents Mendel Hertz (Morris) Brainin (about 1861) and Ruchel Dwojre (Rose Dorothy) (Jaffe) Brainin (about 1868) were living in the Russian Empire, possibly in or in the area of Kreuzburg (now Krustpils, Latvia). Living with them were their children Nachman (Max), Chase Leah (Lena), my great-grandmother Sure Leibe (Sarah Libby), Dovid (David), Velvel (William), Pesche (Bessie), and Benjamin. Benjamin had a twin sister, but she is said to have died about 1898.
There's also a possibility that my 3rd-great-grandfather Solomon Brainin (died before 1909) was alive. The first child I know of and whom I am pretty sure was named for him was born in 1909. If Solomon (not really his name, but I don't know what his Jewish name was) was alive, he would also probably have been living in the area of Kreuzburg.
I know that none of my 3X's made it to 1900, but most of the 2X great grandparents did. For my family in Europe, the villages where they lived were so small that there were no street addresses. It might be the same for your family.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, many of the towns probably didn't have street addresses, but they often had maps that identified who lived where. Of course, whether any of those survive for any of my towns is a separate question!
DeleteI don't have street addresses for my ancestors either--they were farmers.
ReplyDeleteNot all of us lived in big cities, right?
DeleteI keep hoping someone has a location overlap. None here :-( Like you my European ancestors are hard to document exact dates.
ReplyDeleteI keep hoping for a financial windfall so I can pay someone to do European archival research.
DeleteLisa is correct - we did do this one in 2018. Your ancestors were split between Europe and the eastern U.S. like mine were.
ReplyDeleteAnd those European ancestors are the ones about which I have the least concrete information, especially the ones in what is now Belarus.
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