Relics: Genealogy, family stories, history & other curiosities.

  Today is Father's Day and it's the first Father's Day I can't drive to the cemetery and visit my father.  I couldn't on his birthday this year or Christmas.  I know I promised I was done writing about the storm and that this blog was genealogy full steam ahead. So this may be considered genealogy adjacent.   My dad's ashes were left behind in Florida. I wanted to break him out and bring him with me but it would cost me about $4000. So I had to be practical. I needed every dime I had to move.  I will get him soon. I stopped to say goodbye and make sure the neighbor's flag wasn't blocking his name one last time right before I got on the road. I know lots of people don't like cemeteries. I know people who bury their loved ones and never go back. Those people think I am strange.  I love to visit cemeteries.  I always have.  When I was young, once or twice a year my dad, would take my nana to the cemetery to plant geraniums. She would tell me ab...

I have many favorite family and historic photos so it was hard to choose one. This photo of the Haverstraw Baseball team was in a box of my Great Uncle Harry's belongings. I was going through the box with his son and we were happy to come across some newly discovered and some long forgotten treasures.   In this photo my Uncle is second from the left in the bottom row. Next to him on the end is my grandfather, Tuck. I never met Tuck and thrills me that they were friends as well as brothers and did things together like this.   Almost immediately,  we wanted to identify the rest of the team. My dad took some guesses and then suggested I take the photo to the local senior citizens center. The members there had a great time trying to guess who was who and it generated lots of conversations. We narrowed down who might be who and several members were certain they identified family members. One senior suggested I take the photo to the local hometown newspaper (this was ...

  I have been focusing some of my time lately on my paternal grandmother's maternal family.  Mainly the Bell and Brown families of Haverstraw and Garnerville, NY.   Mary, or in some documents, Barbara Brown was born about 1833 or 1834.  She married William Brown. They had nine children over the course of 16 years, at least seven surviving to adulthood.  I know so little about Mary/ Barbara. Her first name seems to interchange in each record I find. Her maiden name, while I have several clues, it remains a mystery for now. I was able to find a small death notice for William, who died in 1883, but until recently I had no death information for Mary.  According to the 1870 Census, William and two of his oldest sons work at the Calico Factory, a major part of the economy of the Garnerville area in the 1800's in a building that still stands today.   Two doors down from the Browns, live the Bells. In 1888, Henry Bell marries a daughter of William an...

I have learned to look for genealogy, family history and local history in interesting and unusual places.  I have been rather successful in searching E-Bay for the towns and names I research.   A few weeks before Christmas I searched Haverstraw, NY in E-bay and came across this nugget!  It is a poster advertising an event at Haverstraw High School on December 16, 1929-- Donkey Basketball. I believe it is the the police dept. vs. the fire depts.  The poster is in good condition, its a bit faded but it is ninety years old! This seller did an awesome job packing it safely.   Donkey basketball? I had never heard of such a thing!  From what I can tell it seemed to be a popular fundraising activity ages ago in more rural areas.  I can't imagine riding a donkey, let alone doing it while trying to play basketball. Let's face it, I can't imagine playing basketball, let alone on a donkey.    What I love most about this little gem is ...

Harry Schuler, my second great grandfather was born on this day in 1842 in Paris, France.  I refer to him as Harry from France to differientiate him from the other Harrys in my family, of which there are many and because he is my Schuler, who got on a boat, from France and came to America.  Harry did not come alone, he was about 2 years old and travelled with his mother, the elusive Catharina Blick and his older sister Leonie.  Catharina was 25 and Leonie was 4.  They reunited with Louis Schuler and settled for several years in New Orleans, where Louis and Catherine had seven more children.   There is a lot more research to be done (isn't there always?) but I am confident in saying that all but three of their children reached adulthood and all but one, stayed in New Orleans, while all the others moved north to New York.  Harry's first New York address is Clinton Street, where he lived with his brother Louis and his wife Ellen.  Soon Harry ...