Cedar Grove – It's All About Family

Yesterday, I took a trip down memory lane of the people I researched and wrote about this past year. I’m proud of the information I found, stories I wrote, and living relatives I uncovered during my search. Here’s a review month by month….

January

I started the year with a couple of posts from the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge by Amy Johnson Crow. The first topic was “In the Beginning,” and I chose to write about my parents’ courtship and wedding. I had fun going through old photos of them from their wedding and trips with my aunt and uncle. Ancestry provided the high school yearbook pages and my mom’s collection of postcards showed us the sweetness in their relationship.

The second post was “Favorite Photo.” My favorite photo will always be the Posluszny Family photo that started this crazy research journey! I think it is in every post I wrote about the family this year. It’s probably time to frame it and put it on a wall.

The third post in January told the story of my great-uncle John Posluszny. At the end of December 2024, I wrote about solving the “mystery” of his death in 1942, so I really wanted to start my Posluszny series with his story. I connected with his granddaughter, Janine, in 2012, and she shared the photos of her father, Stanley with me. I enjoyed finding and sharing the newspaper articles with her. I currently have a message out to a great-granddaughter of John and hope I hear from her to make another family connection.

February

On the 1st of February, I wrote about my mother’s diagnosis of brain cancer. Even 38 years later, memories were fresh.

Next up was a little break from family with a post about a sampler completed in 1817 and found by my father in the attic of his paint store in the early 1980s. He held on to it always curious about where it came from. Unfortunately, I didn’t think about researching it until after he passed away in 2010. I still haven’t delivered it to the Portland Historical Society!

Another great uncle, Joseph Posluszny, was my next subject. I can hear to this day my Aunt Judy saying, “Uncle Joe Post”. I’ve worked with his great granddaughter on Ancestry for many years and the majority of pictures I have came from her. In September, I was contacted by one of Joseph’s granddaughters who lives in Connecticut about 45 minutes away. I look forward to getting to know her better and hearing her stories!

This post was born during my Posluszny research when I noticed, after 15 years of research, that my great grandmother, Caroline Straub is listed on the 1910 census as having given birth to 14 children with 8 of them at the time still living! I headed over to the amazing Geneteka website, started searching, and managed to find the records for five children who died either at birth or a very young age.

March

Early in March we said goodbye to our sweet chihuahua, Wally and late in March was the anniversary of my dad’s passing.

April

The 98th anniversary of my grandmother’s passing was in early April and if you don’t know her story, you can read it here.

I wrote about my great uncle Frank Posluszny. He was a tough one over the years to find anything about because he was in a mental institution from the 1930 federal census to the 1940 census. I had very little information on the family and wasn’t sure where to look. But as the years go by, more information becomes available and I was able to find his great-granddaughter! We emailed back and forth and she actually knew him! She sent pictures which I included in his story.

*Josephine, Frank, and Mildred Poslushny*

May

I spent May working on my great uncle Charles Posluszny’s story. I posted once to check in to say I was working on him and at the end of the month, completed it. Once again, there are grandchildren and great grandchildren alive, but in this case, I don’t have a way to contact them.

June

June was busy with visiting relatives and a trip to Chicago so there were no posts in June.

July

In July I wrote about the sisters in the Posluszny family, Mary Posluszny Biega, and Elizabeth Posluszny Laçź. One who was well known and the other who disappeared without a trace.

August

I finally made it to the last of the Posluszny children, Walter Bonk, son of Caroline Straub and her second husband John Bonk. I knew all of his children and his grandchildren.

My second post was the result of a stranger’s request on Ancestry looking for “living relatives of Alfred Donroe”. He was my cousin in law’s father and he died in World War II. This person in France is working with citizens of Gouesnou France to create a permanent memorial to the soldiers and civilians who died there. I received a comment on there from my younger cousin, and we had a nice email conversation. He and his wife plan to go to France to see the monument.

September

The last quarter of the year I focused on my maternal grandfather and his family. Their lives were so entwined for many so years, that the first story takes you from Jacob and Katherine’s arrival in the United States through 1916. This was Part 1.

October

Engram Family Part 2 took place from 1916 through the 1930s. I became acquainted with a second cousin a few years ago and he sent a slew of family pictures. I also began searching on Newspapers(dot)com using family member’s names where I found Kitty and Louise playing basketball!

Later in the month, I wrote about Theresa, Katherine, and Louise from the 1930s through their lives. My half aunt Joanne shared photos with me as well as few letters Katherine wrote to Theresa’s daughter Irene. I’m grateful to Joanne for the information and the years of emails back and forth. I saved them all and finally printed them out and put them in order. I was overwhelmed by the amount of information that suddenly made sense!

November

Five posts in November! First up was the lives of Elizabeth and Hannah. Elizabeth had an interesting situation which deserved a post to explain it. It’s amazing what a person can find when they look hard enough, and have help from strangers on Ancestry! Thanks to Newspaper(dot)com again, I discovered a third cousin living about 20 minutes away!

In time for Veterans Day, I shared a post from June 2024 called The Effects of War about my grandfathers in World War I, and uncles in World War II.

Then it was back to the Engram Family with Jacob Sr.’s story. I wish I knew more about him!

My cousin, Brian, messaged me pictures of a letter Jacob Jr. wrote to his sister Theresa. The war was over and he was waiting to go home. When Brian and I got together during Thanksgiving week, we sifted through all the Engram pictures and letters and there were more letters from Jacob to his sisters. They were very interesting to read.

December

I wrapped the year up with a re-post of December 7, 1941, the story of my Uncle Walt during the attack on Pearl Harbor.

I rounded out the Engram family with the final story of my grandfather Jacob Jr. I learned so much about him from my Aunt Joanne’s emails that again, didn’t make sense until it was time to write his story.

And here we are – the end of the year! I’ve signed up again for the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge and I will be looking through my family tree for new ancestors to tell you about!

Happy New Year!

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.

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!

Tag: Cedar Grove

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