It's Women's History Month and I am preparing to do a genealogy presentation at a local public library in May for a Mother's Day celebration. It is about researching the women in our family trees. Often, due to the practice of women changing their surnames when they marry, our mothers' lines can prove to be really challenging. Once one abandons their maiden name, it can be hard to push those lines further back.
The trick to being able to overcome the married name/maiden name obstacle is to research the men who surround that woman in her lifetime. For example, you find some male lodger in the home in a census record, he might be a brother-in-law to the male head of the household, or the wife's cousin of some ilk. Look into that guy.
I have plenty of examples from my own family tree research but I really wanted some more examples from newspapers. Newspapers often reveal a lot about a family. So I opened the website, New York State Historic Newspapers (https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/) and started looking for articles about my male family members.
I threw in my great great grandfather's name, Abram Earle, into a search. I got 2 hits. Neither of which fit my interest. Then I thought, I'll try by his nickname; Abe Earle.
The second of the five hits led to the front page of The Daily Review (Freeport, New York), October 29, 1923. Headline: "Police Break Up Crap Game"
Oh jeez.
Now it's not the first time I have run into a record of a family member having a brush with the law but this is one I didn't expect. And really?? This made the front page??
POLICE BREAK UP CRAP GAME
Freeport, Oct. 29 - - Acting on complaint of an anonymous letter believed to have been written by a woman in which it states that her husband was losing money steadily at crap in an unused barn back of the Himmel Bakery on South Main street, Chief of Police Hartmann, heading a party of officers in plain clothes visited that place Sunday night about 7 p.m., and found seven gathered around a dilapidated pool table in the upstairs portion of the building.
The men gave their names as Gene Breen, 89 Archer street; Thomas Cullen, 3 Railroad avenue; Ray Rogers, Franklin Square; Joe Sousa, Hillside avenue; Larry Temple, Banks avenue, Rockville Centre; Abe Earle of Grenada avenue, Roosevelt and George Rich of South Main street.
The party of officers knocked at a door leading upstairs and when it was opened they went up with drawn guns. A one dollar bill and three dice were found in the room but nobody was playing. Blankets, etc., were hung to shut off the light from the street.
One of the men dove under the pool table but was quickly spotted. The men were taken to police headquarters and served with a summons to appear before Judge Albin N. Johnson Tuesday morning.
Breen stated that he was the one who had hired the building.
One dollar?!?!
Is this that big a secret? How did this make the front page? Must have been quiet times in the Village then.
In any case, I ran it past my dad and his brothers to see if anyone of them had heard about it or suspected Abe of being a gamble. Ooo big stakes.
The event took place years before my grandfather was born. They hadn't heard about it but stories unfolded about my grandfather's childhood and numerous accounts of his family fleeing their rental homes in the night due to their inability to pay the rent. Was it because his father Abe was a gambler? It's rumored his mother Ethel was a spendthrift, though. Could it be Abe wasn't losing money gambling but gambling to make money for other expenses incurred?
To me it's just a reminder that sometimes family doesn't talk about stuff, not because they are hiding it, but simply because it isn't that big a deal.