Week 7: The Losees, The Henrys, & The Earles, Oh My.

After a recent post, my cousin Tom asked how my great grandmother Ethel Mae Losee-Earle (February 14, 1896 - May 27, 1960) was connected to his grandpa. I frequently reference this photo when explain the connection between the Losee and the Earle families and the event that spurred my love of genealogy.

This is a photo from my grandma's brother Richie's wedding on April 12, 1953. It actually sits in my office. It shows Richie and his wife Jeannette surrounded by all of Richie's five siblings, their spouses, and his mother Anna Marie Sauer-Henry.

From Left to Right (seated): Regina Dorothy "Jean" Henry-Drew, Anna Marie "Anne" Henry-Cramer, Anna Marie Sauer-Henry, Clare Agnes Henry-Earle, Josephine Dolores Doerflinger-Henry. Standing: James Aloysius "Jimmy" Drew, William Charles "Bill" Cramer, Robert Victor "Bobby" Henry, Richard Joseph "Richie" Henry, Jeannette Alice Losee-Henry, Edwin Maynard "Ed" Earle, Charles Aloysius "Charlie" Henry, Jr. 

Uncle Bobby was not yet married to my beautiful great aunt Margaret at this point. Although 6 years older than Richie, Bobby didn't marry until 3 years later in 1956.

How I Got Started in Genealogy Research 

When I was very young, my paternal grandparents, Clare Agnes Henry-Earle and Edwin Maynard Earle, took me to a family reunion for my grandpa Earle’s mother’s side, the Losees. The Losee family has deep roots on Long Island going back to the 1630s. While at the reunion my grandmother’s baby brother, Richie, showed up with his family. I was puzzled. He wasn’t a Losee. He was a Henry. 

My grandmother explained that her brother married my grandfather’s cousin, Jeannette Losee. That only raised more questions. Who had introduced who? I assumed someone had to have made introductions of either my grandparents to each other or Richie to Jeannette. My grandmother laughed and said that, actually, it wasn’t until Richard and Jeannette’s engagement party that my grandpa realized Jeannette was his cousin. “What?” He asked Jeannette her last name. When she answered “Losee,” he was stunned. That was his mother’s maiden name. 

I was stunned. Richard had unknowingly married his brother-in-law’s second cousin. But at the time of the reunion, no one could explain exactly how the two were connected. So I ended up having to draw a family tree just to visualize it. And I have not stopped since.

Left to Right (seated): Anna Marie Sauer-Henry, Clare Agnes Henry-Earle. (Standing): Richard Joseph "Richie" Henry, Jeannette Alice Losee-Henry, Edwin Maynard Earle. 

Above, Anna is the mother of Clare and Richie. Richie's wife Jeannette is second cousins to Ed. Second cousins means that they have the same great grandparents, that their parents (Standford Losee and Ethel Losee-Earle) were first cousins. Stan's father, Oliver Losee was the older brother of Ethel's father John Losee Jr.

I am hoping the little diagram below can help my cousins to see how the Losees connect to the Henrys and the Earles. I have made my best effort to anonymize the living.

Now to make matters more complex John Losee Jr. and Oliver Losee married two Smith sisters, Flora Smith-Losee and Melinda Smith-Losee, respectively. But I won't add to the chaos today.

52 Ancestors Challenge Week 33: "Service" - Three Henrys In Service

I have many ancestors and relatives who have served in the U.S. military - many. They extend back to the American Revolution and served as recently as the war in Afghanistan. 

You may have heard of gold star families. Those are families that have lost immediate family members in service during a time of conflict. Then there are blue star families. Those are families that have an immediate family member on active duty during a time of military conflict. These families often possess and display banners on or in their homes with the appropriate number of stars on them. That's right, sometimes the family has more than one immediate member on active duty, or God-forbid, who have died in service. You may see banners with multiple stars of mixed designations. Maybe they lost a child in the war and have another still actively serving.

My grandparents' generation was dramatically affected by World War II but thankfully none of them lost siblings. Both of my grandfathers served in the U.S. Navy during WWII. Grandma Earle had more than one sibling serving in WWII.

I truly love this article about my Grandma Earle's siblings and their service during WWII. All of them are now passed; Charles Aloysius Henry Jr. (April 24, 1922 - March 22, 1994), Regina Dorothy Henry-Drew (February 6, 1924 - March 7, 2010), Robert Victor Henry (October 21, 1925 - April 30, 2011). The article appeared on page 13 of the Nassau Daily Review-Star on Friday, March 2, 1945.

It reads:

The Three Henrys In Service

Charles A. Henry, Jr.    Regina D. Henry    Robert V. Henry

The Henrys are sons and daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles A. Henry of 15 Fenimore avenue, Hempstead. Miss Henry was not content to sit at home while her brothers were doing their part overseas to win the war. A senior nurse at St. Mary's hospital, Brooklyn, she will graduate in May. Private First Class Robert Henry is with the infantry in France. He trained at Camp Shelby, Miss., and was with the Grumman Aircraft Engineering corporation prior to entering the army. Second Lieutenant Charles Henry is with an antiaircraft artillery unit on Saipan. He was attending Hofstra college when he entered the service. All three are graduates of Hempstead High school. 

The photo of my great uncle Bobby, is much too dark and thus I have included a similar image of him taken during the same time period, if not on the actual same day, so you can check out that handsome Henry face.

Newly Available Records: 1950 Census & NYC Vital Records

Some exciting things have happened in the last 2 weeks. One of course has been the much awaited release of the 1950 U.S. Federal Census. The other came as a great surprise to me, the release of the New York City's historical vital records online.

Yes, that is right. On March 15, 2022, the City of New York released their historic vital records online, for free, searchable from home for download and print - for FREE. https://a860-historicalvitalrecords.nyc.gov/

The index to these records have been available online for a very long time. Compiled by the Italian Genealogy Group and German Genealogy Group, the index is available on their respective websites, in Ancestry.com, and through FamilySearch.org. 

In the past I would rely on the FamilySearch.org index more often than not. For several reasons really. One, it was a more robust index record. It showed much more than just the name of the individual, county, and date of event. The FamilySearch index record showed the name of the individual, the county, the date of event AND often the name of the persons' parents, addresses, etc. depending on the type of record. Secondly, though, if you went to a Family History Center you could view the images of the records for free there, just like you can at home now. There I could view and print the records I wanted without traipsing into Manhattan. One could go to the New York City Municipal Archives at 30 Chambers St. in Manhattan and look at the vital records there. When I started doing that the records were on microfilm. Then they migrated them to digital images. I would scroll through microfilm there for hours though making wonderful discoveries. And I could look for free and transcribe the record by hand for free. In-person though I could also purchase a copy for a reduced price from ordering a record. I believe ordering online most recently had cost me $18.50. In-person it cost me $11, I think. Sometimes it was worth the trip but when you calculate in the cost of taking the train or driving in and parking, sometimes I'd just order the record but it was far too expensive to just guess and order something that was not for your person.

Now, vital records include birth certificates, marriage records, and death certificates. These records vary in date range based on the type of record.

Birth Certificates: 1855-1909

Marriage Certificates: 1866-1937

Death Certificates: 1866-1948

But don't let those start dates deceive you. Record keeping in NY did not really take hold until the 1880s. Those earlier dates reflect records that exist but it wasn't required by law to register birth, marriages, or deaths in New York State until June of 1880 for deaths and sometime in 1881 for for births and marriages. 

Vital records are typically managed by the state. Except in the instance of New York City. They are the only entity in the entire country that manages their own vital records, Sure city and town clerks might also have a register of vital events that occurred in their town but the documentation is handled by the state (except for NYC). 

One has to know where the event took place to know where to order the appropriate certificate from. Just because your relative lived their whole life in NY doesn't mean they couldn't have died on a road trip to New Jersey or while away on vacation in Florida.

So this has been very exciting to browse and download records from the City of New York for my dead people. Most of the documents I had already but not in digital format so I have been finding them online, downloading the records, and then converting them to jpegs and attaching them to my family tree on Ancestry. 

Now the 1950 census release was not a surprise. We have been waiting for that for 72 years. In the U.S. we take a census of the population every 10 years, on the years ending in "0". However, those records are not released to the public for 72 years. The aggregate data is published early on, telling us how many people live in the country breaking it down by locations, age, sex, and race. The actually census records themselves, listing residents by name, does not come out until 72 years after the record was made. That is really a measure of identity projection for the citizenry. 72 is life expectance, although that age is really increasing in our time, but still they figure in 72 year most of the people recorded in a specific census will likely be deceased and if not, they certainly will not be living with the same family set.

I was so jazzed to look for my father in the 1950 census. He was born in 1949 so he should be in there living with his parents who were married in 1948. Well - - I can't find them. 

I have found their block. I have read through every page of their enumeration district and multiple surrounding districts but there is no entry that I can find for their house; not even a note that says "no one was home." Funny as that sounds, "no one was home" is a common entry on the pages of the 1950 census.

In fact, I am offering a reward for anyone who can find my father, his parents, or his paternal grandparents in the 1950 census because I give up. I know, I know, it's only day 2 of having access to the records but I have had so much success finding others that I can't with dad no more.

The first step is to know where your people lived. Easier said then done, I know, but some of our living septuagenarians (those 70 and older, well, 72 in this case) are in these records.

If you have a potential location you can look up the Enumeration District (ED) on a map and see the ED number. My grandparents lived in Merrick, New York, which is in Nassau County. Looking at a map clearly showed their block in ED 30-338.

ED 30-338 is a 46 page document. Once in the correct ED, you can through in a surname and it might take you to the correct page of the census. That is what happened for me and finding my Drew cousins who lived across the street from my grandparents.

But no Earles show up. Either they were somewhere else that we don't know about - but I've looked in other EDs and areas of Nassau - or the census taker skipped that side of their street. As through all of time, mistakes were made, people.

Those images above were taken from https://1950census.archives.gov/ 

Go there. Give it a shot. See if you can find your people.

I have found both of my maternal grandparents (not yet married to one another), Grandpa Earle's brother, 3 out of 5 of my Grandma Earle's siblings, one of Grandma Earle's sister-in-laws, Grandma Earle's mother and grandmother, and a researching friend's family.

Today I plan to find my Grandma Earle's sister Ann, her brother Charlie, Grandma Gardner's sister Ann, and maybe Grandpa Gardner's sister Lois.

52 Ancestors Challenge Week 13: "Sisters" - Jean, Ann, and Clare Henry

My family is female-rich. I have 2 sisters. My father has 2 sisters. My mother has 3 sisters. Grandma Gardner had 3 sisters. Grandma Earle had 2 sisters. Grandpa Gardner had 1 sister. Grandpa Earle only had 1 brother, though, no sisters for him. Plus, I have 4 nieces, no nephews. If I expand my view outward, I also have 9 female first cousins, and only 3 male first cousins. I'm incredibly close to many of my 2nd cousins, many of which are, you guessed it, girls! So, lots of girls running around.

When my mind tries to recall images that depict "sisters" in my family history a few spring to mind but two in particular cry out.

First, this image comes from a newspaper article about my great grandparents, Charles Henry (March 26, 1896 - June 14, 1949) and Anna Sauer-Henry-Stoothoff (July 19, 1899 - May 8, 1986), and their commitment to healthy eating for their kids. (Get it, get it? They are all just kids there. Bwahahaha. Baby goats are called kids. Anyway...) 

It is an article I have reflected on in my blog in the past. "The Hunt for Health Food Started Goat Society," was published in The Eagle on July 30, year unknown. The Eagle must have been a local Long Island newspaper. I have never been able to find the full issue. I just love the image, though, of my grandmother, Clare and her sister Regina, more commonly referred to as Jean. Look at them wrangling in those baby goats. Grandma had to be about 6, Jean about 11. That would place the article in 1935, give or take.

The second image also comes from my shared Henry family photos. When I think about it, that really the only line I have images from. 

This is a photo of my grandmother's two sister, Jean again, the older taller sister on the right, and Ann on the left. 

Ann (age, 9) and Regina "Jean" (13)

This one clearly shows the year it was taken, 1937. Based on other photos obviously taken that same day, they were taken on June 26, 1937. Here are all 6 Henry siblings on the steps including Jean, Ann, my grandmother, and the 3 brothers: Charlie, Bobby, and Richard. The date is in the lower right corner.

These two photos show the other children. The one on the right was taken on that day. The one on the left of Charlie and Bobby looks to be from a different day. They have on different suits, and Charlie looks younger than 15 years old, as he is in the group photo.

Charlie and Bobby

Richie (5) and Clare (8)

All except my grandmother are now deceased.

My grandmother and Aunt Ann were closer in age but all 3 sisters were by all measures close. As married woman, grandma and Aunt Jean lived across the street from one another. All three sisters sent their combine 17 children to the same local Catholic school. There is a funny story about when my grandmother's mother, Anna Marie Sauer-Henry-Stoothoff, married her second husband, Frank Stoothoff (February 21, 1903 - September 17, 1993). They wed in October of 1963 It was long after Ann (the elder) had been widowed and became a grandmother. Her first husband, Charles Henry, died in June of 1949. By 1963 Ann had 35 grandchildren, 10-13 of whom attended Cure of Ars Roman Catholic School at the time. All 3 of Ann's daughters (Clare Earle, Jean Drew, and Ann Cramer) sent letters into school to account for their children's absences. It is not common for someone to take off to go to their grandma's wedding. It is certainly not common for so many kids to take off from the same school on the same day to go to their grandmother's wedding. That got the teacher-sisters (all nuns) talking and that is when they put together that all the Earles, Drews, and Cramers were cousins.

 

REALLY Related to Aunt Jeannette

It is with heavy heart and teary eyes that I share with you the news that my great aunt, Jeannette, passed away on Friday, June 3, 2016 at the age of 83.

My Aunt Jeannette is the reason I got started in genealogy research. Not that she was into family history, she really wasn't. It was her connection to me piqued my interest. Aunt Jeannette was both my great aunt AND my second cousin twice removed.

Oh you know when that removed word get thrown out there that things are complicated. Stay with me...

When I was about 16 I went to a family reunion for my paternal grandfather's mother's side of the family; the Losee Family. My father's side has always been very close. I know most of my father's first cousins (who would be my first cousins once removed because we are one generation apart thus, once removed. Follow?). My father grew up across the street from his mother's sister and her 8 children. He attended grade school with them as well as with other cousins from his mother's side; the Cramers. The Henry sisters, Clare Henry-Earle (my grandma), Great Aunt Jean Henry-Drew, and Aunt Ann Henry-Cramer, were tight.

But if you asked my Grandpa Earle about his family, he would've told you he didn't have any. None. His parents were both dead and his older brother, Allen, died of a heart attack at age 40 and left no children. We were it. His wife, five kids, and 10 grandchildren were Poppy Earle's whole family.

So here we are at the Losee Family Reunion and in walks Grandma Earle's brother Uncle Richie and his wife, Aunt Jeannette. I didn't think it odd at first to see grandma's side of the family at grandpa's family reunion. Earles are pretty infamous for extending the family to friends and distant relations. Every census record I find for this branch of the family has someone else living with them; a cousin, a friend, an in-law, a boarder, what have you.

So in walk Uncle Richie and Aunt Jeannette. At some point I utter something to my grandmother like, "It's nice that your side of the family made it to this."

"Oh no," grandma said. "Aunt Jeannette is grandpa's cousin."

"WHAT!!?!?! I thought she is married to your brother. And hey, grandpa doesn't have any family!" Yet, here we are with close to 100 people gathered around from Poppy's side and yet, he has no family? Confusion and the recognition of misinformation starts to set in. "WAIT, Poppy sure as heck has family. Who are these people? And how is Aunt Jeannette his cousin?"

Grandma tried her best to explain. "Jeannette is his second cousin." At this point I had no idea what the hell a second cousin was. I just had cousins, period.

After a few minutes of coming to terms with the fact that I didn't know what the heck was going on around me, I made the assumption that Grandpa must have introduced his brother-in-law, Richie, to Jeannette.

"Oh no," grandma said, "They didn't figure out that they were related until after Richie and Jeanette were engaged." This was getting more and more confusing by the minute. Grandpa didn't know Jeannette was his cousin. It was then that I had then decided I needed to figure out for myself how Aunt Jeannette was related to my grandpa.

I also learned at this reunion that the Losee Family had long standing roots in Freeport, NY, and so this gathering was followed by a trip to the Freeport Memorial Library with grandma. This was a time before the Internet existed and so the library was the only "go-to." 

Freeport Memorial Library is a public library that was built as a memorial to the 13 men from Freeport, Long Island, NY who died in the Civil War. The original library building is still part of the current, greatly expanded FML. The Memorial Room, as the original library has come to be known is a small yet impressive room covered in plaques commemorating the individuals who have served the community through military and public service. 

Standing beneath one particular plaque, my tiny little grandma pointed upward saying, "Would you look at that!" Among those 13 Civil War soldiers names was a Benjamin F. Losee. And from that point on it has all been one long mission to unpuzzle my family's history. 

Thanks, Aunt Jeannette. 
Although, I did not get to see her much, I already miss her.

By the way, I did ultimately figure out how Jeannette and my grandpa were related. And they were actually double second cousins. :) They had more than one set of great-grandparents in common. Two Losee brothers married two Smith sisters. Grandpa was the grandson of John Losee and Flora Smith-Losee. Jeannette was the granddaughter of Oliver Combs Losee and Melinda Smith-Losee. Their great grandparents were [John Losee (Sr.) and Susan Amelia Combs-Losee] AND [Gersham Smith and Sarah Garvey-Smith].

Plus, she married my grandma's brother.

We were REALLY related, Aunt Jeannette, REALLY related.

The Hunt for Health Food Started Goat Society

This newspaper clipping was in one of my Nanny's big boxes of loose photos. It is about her parents and their founding of a Goat Society in East Hempstead, which is now known as Uniondale, Long Island, New York.

The article below is about my Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Henry and their dedication to feeding their family healthy food long before the hippies came along. In addition to the Goat Society they formed of local farmers raising goats, they also formed a Rabbit Club.

The photo is of my grandmother, left, and her sister Regina Henry-Drew, right, holding on to the new kids in the herd of goats their family kept.

My grandmother and all of her siblings really have very strong bones. My grandmother recently had a fall though, and fractured her hip. She is up and about though sprinting past other 80-somethings with her walker. She took a very hard fall; she slipped on wet grass and fell onto the concrete in front of her house. Because her bones are so strong they opted to do the surgery for her fracture when in most cases they put the person on bed rest to recover from a fracture. Nanny credits her strong bones to having been raised on goats milk.