Ancestry – Page 2 – It's All About Family

Mary Posluszny

Mary Posluszny was the 10th born and 6th living adult child of Carolina Straub and Joseph Posluszny. Of those 10, she was the second daughter. She was born on January 21, 1893, in Dzikowiec in the Galicia region of Poland. She was named Maria as was her deceased sister, but we knew her as Mary. More specifically, Aunt Mary Biega.

In mid-November of 1906 just short of her 14th birthday, Mary departed for the United States from Hamburg, Germany on the Pretoria. The trip took 2 weeks. The manifest said she was a farmhand. I know the Posluszny family had a farm but she was the first with that occupation listed.

I found her first on the ship’s Record of Detained Aliens list. The manifest said she didn’t have a ticket to her final destination and the Detainee List said the cause of detention was “brother”. Joseph is listed as her relative on the manifest and John is the relative on the Detainee List. She was detained for one day and received 3 meals. I wonder, how easy, or difficult, would it have been to contact a family member to let them know you’ve arrived and were being detained at Ellis Island in 1906? Can you imagine sending your 14 year old daughter on a trip across the ocean by herself?

Following her arrival, her brother Frank, who was 4 years older, followed in February of 1907, and the last group, her mother, stepfather, sister, and half brother arrived in July of 1907.

Mary is front row center holding flowers. I am amazed when I look at this picture how much my cousin Ann, resembled Mary Posluszny.

Because she was the first female to arrive and not married, I am guessing that once the rest of her family arrived in the United States in early July of 1907, she lived with them in Perth Amboy New Jersey where they settled.

*Mary, seated right in 1909 for Frank and Josephine’s wedding*

Three years later in 1910, Mary married Victor Joseph Biega. She was 17 years old and he was 22 years old.

Victor was born on March 3rd 1888 in Mrzyglód Poland to Stanley and Marianna Ryniak Biega He had a brother Walter, born in 1883, and a brother, John, born in 1893. Victor arrived in the United States on February 1 1909. I determined through a newspaper article that Victor was living in Perth Amboy in 1909. Through superficial research, I found Walter and John lived their lives in Perth Amboy. Walter had a family but John never married.

I do not want to go down a rabbit hole with Walter and John but in the 1940 Census, John was a music teacher for a WPA Recreation Project. Walter had a bar in Perth Amboy called, Biega’s Tavern. Another fun fact, Walter’s daughter Helen married John Burghardt, uncle of our 3rd cousin, David.

While living in Perth Amboy, Mary and Victor’s daughter Mary E. was born in 1911 followed by Carolyn A. in 1913 and Joseph Edward in 1914.

In 1916 they were living in Wallingford and Mary gave birth to Clara who did not survive past a year. In 1918, Mary gave birth to her son Stanley G, in 1920 she had Victor John, and in 1922 she had her son John E. Unfortunately, John died in 1925.

*Headstone for Clara and John Biega / St. Casimer’s Cemetery Wallingford CT*

Victor held a variety of jobs. In 1917, he’s listed as a laborer in Wallingford and they’re living at 14 West Street. In 1920, he’s an employee at Wallace Silversmith and they’re listed as living at 30 Geneva Avenue, which was the home of her mother Caroline, but the 1920 census doesn’t list them there.

That is because they were living in South Norwalk! I discovered this from their son Victor’s 1993 obituary which said he was born in South Norwalk. They popped up in the 1923 Norwalk directory where Victor, the dad, was working as a hatter and they were living at 1 Van Buren Avenue. Her brother Charles and his wife Mary were living at #7.

But 1924 brought them back to Wallingford where they moved into 105 Ward Street and they became the owners of a grocery store on the corner of Ward Street. This occupation and address carried on through the 1950 census. His daughter Mary and son-in-law took over the grocery store and he and Aunt Mary moved to 3 East Street where Victor passed away on December 19, 1963. Fun fact – our friend Chris Heilman’s son Andrew bought that house in the early 2010s and lived there with his family for several years.

Mary and Victor’s five living children all remained in the Wallingford area.

Mary and her husband Otto Steinke bought the market at 105 Ward Street and named it Steinke’s Market. Mary died in 1972 at the age of 59. Otto died just 9 months after her. She and Otto had two daughters, who at the time of her death lived in New York City and West Burlington New York.

*Otto and Mary (Biega) Steinke’s headstone / St. Casimer’s cemetery, Wallingford*

Carolyn was a teacher in Wallingford and married Robert O’Neill in 1952. Her death appeared to be sudden at the age of 52 in December of 1965. I found no obituary but the funeral information says, “A delegation of teacher from Robert Earley Junior High School was an honor guard at the church and at the cemetery”. Mrs. Schipke and Mr. Paris, teachers we would have at Lyman Hall during the 1970s, were pall bearers.

*Victor, Carolyn, and Mary Biega July 31, 1952*

Joseph established Biega Funeral Home in Middletown in 1939 and ran it until his retirement in 1982. It is still run by his son Joseph. He was very involved in his church and community. He died in Florida in 2009 at the age of 95. In addition to Joseph, he had a son, Robert.

Stanley was a dentist in Wallingford for many years. He and his wife Roberta and their three children lived on the other side of the horseshoe from our house. He died in 1988 at the age of 70. One of his three children, Lee (short for Stanley), married a neighborhood girl and they live a block or two away from us today. Their son is a year or two older than my son who is turning 35 this year.

Victor, who was not a junior as he had a different middle name, also lived in Wallingford. He served in World War II in the Army Airborne Division. Well, he trained with the Airborne infantry in Georgia and South Dakota but when his outfit was still not scheduled for overseas, he “traded his parachute for a rifle and went over seas with the 30th Division, joining the third army in France. He was injured shortly after arriving. When he recovered he went back out to fight. It was while battling on the plains near Cologne that he received injuries resulting in the loss of his leg. He came home in 1945 and received the Purple Heart. He married in 1947 and died in 1993 at the age of 73. He had one son, Victor Jr, and two daughters, Susan and Robin along with five grandchildren at the time of his death.

Victor and his wife Florence had a cottage at Pickerel Lake in Colchester near my Aunt Judy and Uncle Mal and Auntie Irene and Uncle Lou. On occasion some of the 4th of July partiers would head down to their cottage to visit. That was the extent of my knowing him!

*Aunt Mary Biega (year unknown but likely her 80s or 90s)*

My third cousin David Burghardt remembers Mary Biega because he grew up on Simpson Avenue in one of two houses his family owned on the property. Aunt Mary would go to their house to play cards. David’s grandmother was Julianna Straub Burghardt and her father, Albert, was my great-grandmother Carolina’s brother. He also recalls visiting her at her home on East Street.

I relayed the story in one of my Aunt Judy posts of how my grandmother Julianna and Aunt Mary would be a part of plays that were performed at St. Casimer’s Church. My grandmother acted and Aunt Mary directed.

Although I was 35 when Aunt Mary died, we didn’t visit her or know her very well through my growing up years. We would see her at the Fourth of July parties held at Pickerel Lake. Her half brother, Walter Bonk and his wife Beatrice would bring her with them. This led me to think that Aunt Mary was his mother! In my older teen years, I understood who she was and I was impressed that she was my grandfather’s sister.

After her husband Victor’s death, Mary continued to live at 3 East Street before she moved into senior housing at 11 McKenna Court, the site of the former Washington Street School. Mary lived there until her death on May 1, 1995 at the age of 102 years old! She outlived her husband, her 7 full siblings, and all but one of her 7 children.

*Victor and Mary Biega headstone / St. Casimer’s Cemetery Wallingford CT*

Charles John Posluszny

Charles John Posluzny was the 7th born and 4th living adult child of Caroline Straub and Joseph Posluszny. He was born on September 18, 1887, in Dzikowiec in the Galicia region of Poland.

Charles immigrated to the United States in 1905, according to the 1910 census. He must have arrived at the end of 1904 or January of 1905 because he is in the wedding photo of his brother Joseph, who was married in February of 1905. I can’t find an actual record of his arriving. He’s front row left in the wedding photo.

He met Maria Julia Straub some time after his arrival and married her on February 3, 1910, when he was 22 years old. My cousin says that Maria is in the first wedding photo, sitting behind him. That is the only photo I have of her.

Searching the 1905 New York State census, I found her working as a servant for the McCoy family. Husband, wife, 6 children, Mr. McCoy’s brother, and a boarder! She was probably happy to leave there!

Charles is standing 3rd from left in the family picture below taken likely early 1907.

Their marriage in early 1910 created a record of them in the 1910 US Census. They were living at 78 Jefferson Street in Yonkers, New York. Recorded with Charles and Maria is a boarder by the name of John Straub, 23 years old, who is Maria’s brother. He would eventually get married to Caroline Hammer in 1913.

Edited original to add: I’d be remiss if I didn’t include this picture of Charles. I don’t know when it was taken but the hair style is similar in Frank and Josephine’s wedding photo.

Charles spent his life in the hat industry. In 1910, he was a finisher in a hat shop. The Waring Hat Manufacturing Company was in Yonkers NY so perhaps this is where he worked.

By 1918, he, Maria and their two daughters are living in Norwalk, Connecticut. Charles is working for the American Hat Manufacturing Company located at 25 Grand Street in Norwalk. It was originally the Joseph Loth Company. The building is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Here is a picture of the building as a factory and a couple of the hat making process.

No amount of searching gives me a 1920 census listing, but by 1923, he and Marie own their home at 7 Van Buren Avenue in Norwalk and they are now known as Charles and Marie Post. They, like Joseph and Anna, have whacked off the end of their given surname!

The 1930 census page he is on lists employees for a number of factories including hats, shirts, dresses, staples, and shoes. A lot of factory workers!

By 1940, still working in the Hatting industry, he has moved on to Hat Corporation of America located at Van Zandt Street in East Norwalk and is working as a finisher. This company was a merger of three hat companies: Crofut and Knapp, Cavanagh Hats, and the Knox Hat Company. This building still stands, although with updates over the years.

The 1950 census says he was “unable to work” and he passed away on April 30, 1952 at the age of 64 after suffering from stomach cancer for 6 months (likely longer).

Maria would live for another 18 years before passing away on December 31, 1970 at the age of 82 in Waterbury Connecticut.

Charles and Maria had two daughters, Matilda Caroline and Josephine Gertrude. Caroline is in honor of Charles’ mother (my great grandmother) and Gertrude in honor of Maria’s mother.

Matilda was born in 1916 in Yonkers, New York. She married Donald J. Trager in October of 1939 and they had two children, Sharon in 1942 and Richard in 1946. There is incredibly little information about either daughter online. Matilda and Donald were divorced in 1972. Matilda died in Waterbury in November of 1985 and there is no record of an obituary.

At the time of Donald’s death in 1987, their daughter Sharon was married and had one child and was living in New Jersey. I was able to track down an address and sent a letter addressed to Sharon and her son, Darrell, but so far no response! Their son, Richard, lives in Portland Maine and I haven’t had an opportunity to reach out to him.

Josephine was born in 1917 in Yonkers, New York. She married Edwin Guy Newman in April of 1939. They had two children, Ellen in 1947 and Susan in 1950. Ellen was married in 1967 and there the trail goes cold.

Edwin died in 1999 at 85 years old and Josephine in 2010 at 93 years old after living in Westport for their married life.

After such great success finding Frank’s great granddaughter and having her actually remember him, and provide me with new photos of him, I was confident I would be able to connect with someone in Charles’s family as well. I will keep searching and give an update if I come in contact with anyone in his family.

Have Patience!

I am working on the next sibling, Charles, in the Posluszny family stories but it’s going really slow! A lot of facts, no stories, and a few grandchildren with not much information of their own. I got spoiled working on my previous stories, digging up still living family, and I’m hoping to have one for Charles by the time I’m done.

His wife Maria’s maiden name is Straub, same as Charles’ mother and I’m working to find out if she is connected through Caroline’s line or through the Straub line that Joseph’s wife Anna comes from.

In case you’ve forgotten who Charles is, he’s the one with the crazy hair.

Frank Posluszny

Frank Posluszny was one of my grand-uncles and the 8th born child of my great-grandparents, Caroline Straub and Joseph Posluszny. He was the fifth to survive to adulthood.

He was born on September 1, 1889, in Wildenthal. I like finding the birth records for confirmation.

He immigrated to the United States in 1905, according to the 1910 census. There is a Hamburg Passenger list dated 1907 for a Frank Posluszny who matches age and departure village; however, without locating a ship manifest from Ellis Island, I can’t confirm which date is fact.

He followed his brother John to New Jersey where he met and married Josephine Huth on August 1, 1909, in Newark, New Jersey. Josephine was born was born on December 24, 1892 according to her citizenship paperwork. He was 20 and she was 17 when they got married. In the photo below, Frank’s brother Charles is standing left, stepdad John Bonk 3rd from left, Caroline, his mother, seated left, and Mary, his sister, seated right.

*Frank and Josephine Posluszny’s wedding party*

In 1910, Frank and Josephine were living in Newark on Belmont Avenue, and in the next three years welcome Josephine, Frank, and Stephania. According to the census, Frank was working as a hatmaker in a hat factory. There are several others on his street working there, and they could have been at the Thimble Hat Company in Orange, or the Hudson Hat Company in Newark. There were 5 hat forming mills and over 20 hat manufacturers in the Newark area in the late 1800s to early 1900s.

Frank and Josephine remain in the Newark / Irvington area, a few blocks away from his brother John and family up until 1927.

Searching through city directories for 1927 and 1929, I found Josephine listed in Newark, but no mention of Frank. I found a record of employment for her as a Hatter/Finisher for Snyder & Co at 133 W. 21st Street in New York in 1928 which I would like would be quite a trek every day in 1927.

In the 1930 census, Josephine is in Newark on 19th street with Josephine, 18, Frank Jr., 17, and Stephania, 16. Everyone can read and write, but none of the children have been in school since September 1, 1929, and all three of them have jobs. Where’s Frank? I found Frank as a resident at Cedar Grove. Also known as Essex County Hospital for the Insane. He must have been admitted between 1927 and 1929. As I’ve written, there were mental health issues in the Posluszny Family.

In the 1940 census, Josephine had moved again. She is living with her son, Frank, and with Stephania, now known as Mildred, her husband, and their daughter, Mildred. Josephine is listed as “widowed”. But I know that is not true. Frank is still on the census records of Cedar Grove.

Let’s talk about the children now –

Josephine, born in 1911, was the oldest child of Frank and Josephine. She was known as “Tootsie” because she liked to eat tootsie rolls! It found it surprising that we had two “Tootsie”s in the family!

She married George Rittersbacher in 1939. They did not have any children. George, unfortunately, died on the dance floor at his niece Mildred’s wedding reception in 1962. Josephine lived in Irvington, New Jersey, until her passing in 1987.

Frank Jr., was born in 1912, and enlisted as a private in the Army in 1942. I don’t know what he did or where he served. He moved out to California at some time in his life and was living in Laguna Woods when he died in 2010. It doesn’t appear he ever married or had children, and I can’t find any obituary or records.

Stephania, born in 1913, was married in 1936 in Pennsylvania to Hugh Christian McNicol. He was 29 and a chauffeur. Stephania was 23 and a hosiery worker. She signed the marriage license, Steffie Elsie Poslushny. She seemed to be trying out new names! In 1938, they were living in Newark on 19th Street and she is now “Mildred S”.

In addition to their daughter, Mildred, Mildred (Stephania) and Hugh had a son, Bobby, born in 1942.

*Frank and Josephine’s daughter and grandchildren abt. 1942*

Hugh was a truck driver for a brewery in Orange until he and Mildred moved down to St. Petersburg, Florida, in 1982. He died in 1997 at the age of 89. Mildred (Stephania) died in 2009 at the age of 95. Their daughter Mildred, who also lived in Florida, married and had 2 daughters. Mildred passed away in Florida at the age of 70 in 2006. From Mildred’s obituary, I did some sleuthing and sent an email to a woman I thought might be her daughter. Turns out I was right! Debbie, Frank and Josephine’s great-granddaughter, responded to my email, and we exchanged some information, and she confirmed that Josephine and Frank were her great-grandparents by the pictures I sent. She in turn shared information and pictures with me.

My new cousin, Debbie, who was born in 1963, knew both Josephine, whom they called Grossy because they couldn’t pronounce Grandmother in German, and Frank, who was called PopPop. What this means is after all those years, he was released from the institution!

Eventually Josephine and Frank owned this home at 225 Sunset Avenue in Newark. I recognized the address from Judy Behme’s wedding invitation list. It was a home with four apartments – upstairs and downstairs on the left and right. First, in the 1950 census, Josephine lived there with Frank Jr, in one apartment, Mildred and Hugh lived in another with their two children and the other two apartments were rented out. Josephine is now listed as “separated”.

Frank came home from the institution sometime after 1950 and here they are with their granddaughter Mildred McNicol at her 1962 wedding.

*Josephine, Frank, and Mildred Poslushny*

I asked Debbie about his being institutionalized. She knew that he had been, and unfortunately, he was committed again when Debbie was older. “Things went south when he taught me to roll his cigarettes for him” when she was 13 years old in 1976. She remembered him as “kind but quiet”.

Josephine died in 1990 at the age of 98 in Florida. When I asked Debbie about this she told me that “Grossy” moved down to Florida after her daughter Josephine Rittersbacher passed away in 1987. Grossy lived with Debbie and her family and “then they sent her down to Stephanie and Hugh McNicol to continue the care”. After that, she was admitted to a nursing home where she passed away.

But what became of Frank? I’m not sure. Debbie remembers “someone on this side” buried in Potter’s field and it might be Frank. She doesn’t remember any ceremony or funeral or even a funeral card. I have found a listing in New Jersey death records for a Frank Post’s death in July of 1979 at the age of 89 which would match my Frank. I hope I will be able to get a definitive answer soon.

I’m happy to have untangled the life of another one of Caroline’s children and like John’s, had a few surprises and produced more family!

Angel Antonia

She died in the early morning hours of April 2, 1927. Alone in her hospital room while her husband and five children slept in their nearby apartment.

She knew something was wrong the previous afternoon. She sent her 12 year old son for the midwife and then went to the hospital.

“She’ll be fine” is what they told her husband when he left the hospital that evening, only to be alerted by the grocer with the neighborhood telephone.

Her obituary said, “She was very well and favorably known to a large circle of friends among the Polish residents of the town”. Small comfort for her family.

She was buried in St. Thomas Cemetery in Southington on April 4th. Her husband carved a wooden cross for her grave and mourned her death until his in 1935.

Years later, her son, Edward, who, at her request, stayed home from school that day, had a headstone made for his mother.

*St. Thomas Cemetery, Southington CT, Section 12*

Her husband was never the same. Two of the younger children went to an uncle in Massachusetts and the youngest, to his godmother in town. When he and his older sons found a permanent place to live in Wallingford, he brought everyone back together. But how many months had gone by suddenly without a mother and then a father?

I try to imagine what their lives, and ours, would have been like if she lived long enough to watch her children grow up and to know her grandchildren. Would we call her Babcia? Would she teach us to speak Polish? Would we tease her about being so short and would my boy cousins rest their arms on the top of her head trying to be funny. Who would be her favorite child? Who would be her favorite grandchild?

We’ll never know.

Time and Memory

Reflections on the anniversary of my father’s passing

Friday, March 28th, marked the 15th anniversary of my dad’s death in 2010. In February of that year, after a month of turmoil for us all, he was finally settled into the nursing home after leaving his assisted living with a short stay in the hospital. He’d begun attending the events and, as always, enjoyed the music. My sister Gail said she’d had a nice visit with him, taking him for a walk around the grounds and spending time sitting and talking outside.

It was a Sunday, when I received the call from the nursing home to tell me he had passed away. He was sitting in bed eating breakfast when someone walked by, and when they walked by again, he was slumped over. Just like that. Gail and I contacted the funeral home then headed there and sat with him for a while. It was Palm Sunday and the home left a frond in his room that I took and have in a box with my parents personal belongings.

I’ve written more than once about my mother’s eight week journey from diagnosis to death with Glioblastoma. My dad’s death occurred one week prior to the 23rd anniversary of my mother’s death.

After my mother died, my father carried on. He was 63 and still working in the facilities department at Gaylord Hospital in town. He really loved that job! He was such a people person, he was an awesome painter and wall-paperer, my sister Gail worked there, and the Farms Country Club was next door so he’d look for golf balls during lunch or hit some balls.

He loved “his girls”, his grandkids, golfing, and riding his bike. During my 8 years in California, he visited both with my sisters and by himself and I never had to entertain him. He’d take off for the day on my bike or head to the golf course in town.

I won’t go through the litany of health ailments starting with his 1996 knee replacement, but they were enough to slow him down and significant enough that he was not able to live on his own after 2000. After that, it felt like from late January until April, he, and we, were dealing with one health issue or another.

During this week every year, I think about that. I’ve written about my dad’s childhood, how his mother died when he was turning 3 and his father died the month before his 11th birthday. He and his older siblings were then raised by his 12 years older brother.

What do I think about? I think that he didn’t want to leave his girls alone. I think that he wanted to be with us, to be our dad for as long as he could even if that meant fighting through whatever pain he had. I may sound crazy, but I think after 22 years and 51 weeks my mother said, “Honey, they’re going to be fine, come home” and with that, he went home.

Caroline’s Children

I always return to this picture because it is the only picture of Caroline and all her children. Her LIVING children.

As I’ve searched the parish records for birth records, I’ve encountered additional children of Caroline and Joseph. Upon examination of the 1910 Federal Census, she lists 14 children born with eight living! Here they are:

*Phillip – born on March 1, 1879. Died on May 1, 1883 of smallpox
John – born on March 5, 1880. Died on February 1, 1942
*Francis – born March/April 1881. Died August 23, 1881, of Dysentery
*Maria – born on March 18, 1883. Died on May 15, 1883 of smallpox
Joseph – born on August 9, 1884. Died on November 9, 1974
Konrad – born on May 3, 1886. Died on December 28, 1944
Charles – born on September 18, 1887. Died on April 30, 1952
Francis – born on September 1, 1889. Date of death unknown
*Stanislaus – born on August 14, 1891. Died on August 14, 1891, at birth
Mary – born on January 21, 1893. Died on Mary 1, 1995
Elizabeth – born on September 24, 1896. Date of death unknown
*Baby Girl Bonk – born June 28, 1899. Died on June 28, 1899, at birth
Walter Bonk – born on August 29, 1903. Died on August 3, 1998

I’m missing the 14th birth, but I’m still reviewing the records. Caroline and Joseph were married in 1876 so I checked 9 months from their wedding to 9 months before Phillip was born with no success. Next up will be the gaps between the other births!

Joseph Posluszny

Joseph Posluszny, born August 9, 1884, was my grand-uncle. He was the fourth child of Joseph and Caroline (Straub) Posluszny. Like his brother John, he was born in Lipnica, part of the district of Dzikowiec in southeast Poland. I’ve found a discrepancy in his date of birth in his WWI enlistment record but his birth record from the Lipnica archives shows he was born in 1884.

*Joseph’s birth record* – *August 9 birth, 10th baptism, house number 248*

Birth records list their father’s occupation as Colonista, which indicates they were German settlers who migrated to the region in the 18th century as part of a colonization effort by the Austrian Empire. With that migration came land, and family stories say they had a farm.

At 17, he departed for the United States on November 24, 1901, and arrived in New York Harbor on December 1st. His ship, Pennsylvania, departed from Hamburg, Germany, with stops at Boulogne-sur-Mer, France, and Plymouth, England, before arriving at its final destination of New York harbor. He was in Zwischendeck, better known as Steerage. Two weeks door to door, I wonder what he was thinking as he traveled. There is no person on his manifest page coming from Wildenthal so it appears he traveled alone.

He was heading to his brother, John Posluszny, who immigrated in 1900. The address for John on the manifest says 57 Jefferson Street in Yonkers. Although there isn’t a census listing for John in 1900, which I mentioned in my story about him, I found their uncle, Michael Straub, his wife Elizabeth, son Michael, and son John at that address.

*Ship’s manifest from Joseph’s arrival Line 23*

Joseph settled in as a hatter, just like his siblings, and continued to live on Jefferson Street at number 41 in the 1905 census.

His future wife, Anna Straub, was born in Wildenthal (now Dzikowicz) on December 25, 1887, to Joannes Straub and his wife Elizabetha. Elizabetha’s maiden name, and married name, were Straub, so there may be a familial connection to Joseph’s mother.

*Anna’s birth record – December 25 birth, 26th baptism, house number 19*

Anna departed Hamburg Germany on the Blücher and arrived in the United States on December 17, 1902. She headed to the home of her sister, Eva Straub, in Brooklyn, NY, with $12 in her pocket.

*Ship’s manifest from Anna’s arrival Line 25*

There’s no New York census record for Anna in 1905. But, they met, and Joseph and Anna were married on February 11, 1906, in St. Stanislaus Koskta Roman Catholic Church, Greenpoint (Brooklyn), NY. The church was only 2 years old when they were married.

Wedding party – brother, Charles is floor left, and John floor right. Brother, Konrad (other records say brother, Frank) standing second left. Back right, Ann’s brother, Adam Straub and wife, Margaret. Seated right, Anna’s brother, Lawrence Straub, *wife Josie, top left. Unsure if Julianna is woman 3rd from left.*

Joseph and Anna’s first child, a daughter Margaret, was born on December 1, 1906, in Yonkers, New York. Margaret is the baby in the front row of the Posluzny Family photo, held by Anna, and Joseph is standing at her right side.

Joseph and Anna moved to Newark, where he worked as a finisher in a hat shop. According to the 1910 Federal Census for New Jersey, Eva, her husband Walter Ingram, and Anna and Eva’s sister Lizzie, 18, lived with them.

The 1920 Federal Census finds them living in Norwalk, Connecticut, in a home they own. Joseph is working as a hatter in a factory. I talked about their hatter profession last year. Joseph worked for the Hat Corporation of America in Norwalk until he retired.

1930 is the first time Joseph is listed as Joseph POST, not POSLUSZNY or POSLUSHNY. Joseph and his brother Charles, who also ended up in Norwalk, were the only two who used Post exclusively as their last name. Aunt Judy said that she wished her father, Konrad, had done the same because she got tired of it being mispronounced. I always used it in response to someone talking about my maiden name Jakiela. I’d say, “You think that’s bad? My mother’s maiden name was Posluszny!”

They had 3 more children: Charles in 1910, Ann in 1915, Joseph in 1917, and Elizabeth in 1922.

*Joseph, Margaret (back)*
*Charles, Joseph, Anna and Ann (seated) abt. 1919*

I didn’t know Joseph and Anna and their family. The ages of their children fell in line with my mother’s family and my mother and their youngest daughter, also named Elizabeth, were both born in 1922.

Interestingly, Joseph, Jr., was born in Wallingford in 1917 and in my early searches I found Joseph his father in the 1915 town directory as a farmer in Yalesville. I never knew if it was really him, and that was the only year. I don’t know why there was the break in location or occupation. Sometime between the 1910 census and 1920 census, his mother and step father came to Wallingford, possibly at the same time from New Jersey.

The next generation, Joe and Anna’s grandchildren, were people I have met in the past. Ann married Walter (Wally) Regan and they had eight children. Margaret married Paul Wupperfeld and they had four children. Charles and his wife Mayre, were childless, Joseph Jr, and his wife, Dorothy had 2 children, and Elizabeth and her husband, Courtland (Court), had four children. The Regans and the Wupperfelds attended the Fourth of July picnics at Pickerel Lake, hosted by two aunts and uncles. Joseph and Anna possibly were there as well. In my head, I hear Aunt Judy calling them “the Fairfield Posts”, and “Uncle Joe”. We also attended a party at Crystal Lake in Ellington hosted by one of the Wupperfeld children when I was about 10 or 11. I have a connection with one of Joe and Anna’s great-grandchildren, Jennie, through Ancestry and her family tree contains at least 25 grandchildren and many great-grandchildren. Like my relative through John Posluszny, I appreciate that connection to the past.

Joseph died at 90 years old on November 9, 1974, in Norwalk. Eleven months later, Anna died on October 20, 1975, at 87 years old.

Fanny Hall’s 1817 Sampler

When my father was cleaning out the paint store he worked at, and eventually owned, he discovered a cross stitch sampler among the remnants in the attic.

*Cross Stitch Sampler information transcribed*

He had it stored between pieces of cardboard, and he must have left it with me after he moved from our home somewhere around 1998. We must have talked about it before then, but Ancestry was new to me and the information wasn’t as abundant as it is now, so I wasn’t able to find much information. Or else, I didn’t really try that hard!

In 2017, I made inquiries to 2 antique stores I found online who worked with samplers. After sending pictures, one wanted me to send it to them to appraise and both were not thrilled with the condition of it and said it would sell better if it was mounted and framed which could cost in the area of $1,500. Since my father was a picture framer, I was not shocked by that cost. So, I dropped the idea and continued to hang on to it.

Present day 2025, I was organizing my ancestry notebooks and pictures and came across the sampler again beneath old photo albums.

I recalled a conversation, maybe on an Ancestry forum, when I was told “Chatham” was not the one in Massachusetts as we originally thought, but it was an early town in Middlesex County, Connecticut and now part of present day Portland Connecticut.

So I contacted the Portland Historical Society and offered them the sampler and they happily agreed to accept it! They are open the 2nd Sunday of every month and today is that day. If they are open after this “big storm”, I’ll bring it there today.

Let me tell you about Fanny Hall the 12 year old cross stitcher.

Fanny was born in Chatham, Connecticut on April 27, 1802 to Samuel Hall and Ruth Bates Hall. A record says “Middletown Upper Houses:577”. Fanny was one of 10 children born to Samuel and Ruth.

*From Middletown Upper Houses by Charles Collard Adams, M.A., published 1908*

Fanny married James Wells White of Chatham on January 20, 1825. Of note, her sister Hannah, born October 29, 1803 married Wanton Ransom of Hartford on that same day.

*Hall Family marriages in the Chatham Vital Records*

Fanny and James’ married life was short lived. Fanny died on November 8, 1825 in Portland Connecticut at the age of 20. I ran across an article in the National Library of Medicine about an article written by Dr. Thomas Miner concerning an epidemic in 1823 in Middletown of “Typhus Syncopalis”, Sinking Typhus, or New England Spotted Fever. Perhaps that is how she died?

The abstract:
“In 1825 Dr. Thomas Miner wrote about an epidemic that occurred in Middletown, Connecticut in 1823. He called this disease “Typhus syncopalis,” sinking typhus, or New England spotted fever. Differences in the understanding of disease processes in the early 19th century preclude a definitive modern equivalent fortyphus syncopalis. In addition, there are disagreements among Dr. Miners’ contemporaries with regard to fever classification systems. Examination of the symptoms and physical findings as described by Dr. Miner suggest the presence of encephalitis or meningitis as well as a syndrome resembling a shock-like state. Based on symptom comparisons, this paper suggests that typhus syncopalis was likely meningococcemia caused by Neisseria meningiditis”.

James went on to marry Margaret B. Lewis on December 24, 1827 and they had four children. Their first child was a daughter, born in 1829, whom they named Fanny Hall White.

Back to the original Fanny Hall! Both Fanny’s father, Samuel, and her mother, Ruth Bates were from families of early settlers in New England. Very briefly, I had traced Ruth Bates Hall’s family back to an early 1600s voyage to “The New World”.

Samuel’s earliest recorded ancestor and Fanny’s 5x great grandfather, John Hall, was one of the earliest settlers in Middletown. He was born on June 5, 1584 (my father’s birthday!), in Canterbury England. He died on May 26, 1673 and is buried in the Riverside Cemetery in Middletown Connecticut.

Riverside Cemetery, Middletown CT It’s location is sad, because it’s such a historic cemetery, squashed by the entrance to a highway. Both sites I linked will give you some different information on the cemetery. Compared to the love and attention our Center Street Cemetery in Wallingford receives, it makes me sad.

Samuel was born in November of 1777 to Joel and Hannah Ranney Hall in Chatham, Connecticut and lived there throughout his life until his death in October of 1849. He and family members are buried in Trinity Cemetery in Portland with other family members.

This was an interesting search for Fanny Hall and her ancestors. I look forward to handing off her 208 year old sampler to the Portland Historical Society where it belongs.

If you’re interested, here is a link to the history of Portland Connecticut. Like my hometown of Wallingford, it broke off into the different towns we know of today.

January 31st

January 31st. 38 years ago, on January 31st, 1987, my mother was diagnosed with brain cancer. Glioblastoma Multiform. It was not a question of IF she would die, but WHEN. It was so invasive throughout her brain, there was nothing they could do for her.

I’ve written about our journey with her illness here and here. Boy, did it suck. Her decline was so rapid, it was like she let out a sigh of relief from getting found out. I felt so fecking helpless. Maybe that’s why I always cajole my family members with a “you’re fine, you’re fine!” Like I can will their pain or illness out of them because I couldn’t do it for her.

So many years later, I see myself standing at the copier at work hearing my name as I’m paged for a phone call. I hear Gail saying, “I’ll always think of this when I pay my taxes”. I see me sitting with my sisters in the hospital cafeteria discussing what she’ll wear for her funeral. Weeks later, trying to force her to eat because the visiting nurse said when she stops, the end will only be a few weeks (it was). I went out that afternoon for the St. Patricks Day parade in New Haven and tied.one.on. We knew it wouldn’t be long.

She died 8 weeks after her diagnosis. Every year between January 31st and April 4th, I remember what it felt like to see her slip away.