James Monroe High School (Bronx, NY) Class of 1937 Committee Chairmen

I was browsing through my blog page views this morning and noticed a large number for the James Monroe High School Swim Team. Looking through my dad's copy of the 1937 Monrovian I noted there are not many group photos; none of the sports teams. Maybe that is why the picture of the swim team garnered so much interest. 

From 1937 Monrovian yearbook

There are a few photos of "Activities" and this is a picture of the "Committee Chairmen." What their duties entailed is a mystery. Maybe someone out there can clarity. 

Seine Pocket Farm

Revolutionary War soldier John England b: abt 1755 served as a private in the Virginia Colony Army under Captain Mason Pilcher and Colonel William Garrand.  Mr. England was a farmer, locating in Stafford County from Bucks County, PA.  His farm was located along the Rappahannock River and named Seine Pocket Farm for the river’s rock formations that trapped fish as the tides changed.

Mr. England at age 95 in 1850 lived with his son Patrick H. England, wife, Emma, and their five children in Stafford County.  I am still looking for his burial.

In 1990, Mr. England’s descendant, Anne Brooks Brauer, wrote a short bio of her Revolutionary War ancestor from which this write-up was taken. In the two page bio she states: “To this date of July 1990, there have been no families other than Englands living on the property since John England owned it. Seine Pocket was sold out of the England-Brooks family in the late 1940s. The farm now overgrown and sitting in the path of developers would be a terrible loss to the local people.”

My interest in John England is because I believe his farm is just a short walk from our new home in the dreaded new development that Anne refers to.  If further research proves the England farm was so near, then it is only right that we do something, like placing a marker at the site to honor the homestead of John England.

Thanks, Anne, for your family history.  

Kate and Carl Preiss

Kate Nunn was born 21 December 1893, the fifth child of Joseph and Catherina Kurtz Nunn. The family lived at 2030 First Avenue in New York City.   Kate was 6-1/2 when the city’s Outdoor Poor arrived to take her and her siblings upstate to St. Joseph’s Home in Peekskill, New York.  The home was paid $2.00 a week for her keep.

I have it on good authority that Kate married Carl Preiss. I don’t know when.  I also learned that Kate died at a young age in childbirth, or possibly a miscarriage.  Kate and Carl lived in the Bronx.

So far I have been unable to find this couple on a census or any other database.  I would love to connect with any Preiss family that might have further information on this couple.

Funeral Card Friday - Robert L. Tompkins - Newfield, NY

Funeral Card Friday - Homer A. Tompkins - Newfield, NY

Funeral Card Friday - Fred W. Knapp - Newfield, NY

Matrilineal Monday - Elizabeth Nunn and Louis Siebert Wedding Photo

Elizabeth "Lizzy" Nunn and Louis Siebert - June 25, 1905

With many thanks to my new found second cousin, Marion, I know have this lovely photo of my grandfather's sister Elizabeth and her husband Louis Siebert.  Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would ever see a photo of Elizabeth, and now I have two!

Elizabeth at age 13 cared for her six younger siblings and took care of her father's affairs upon his death in June 1900.  Their mother was institutionalized following the birth of her tenth child. Upon the father's death, the City of New York Outdoor Poor arrived and took the children, with the exception of Elizabeth, to St. Joseph's Home in Peekskill, NY.  Elizabeth had a strong feeling of family, and as soon as she married, she began bringing her siblings back under her roof. 

Louis was born in 1881 to John and Barbara Sieberbental of Germany.  Louis earned his living driving an ice wagon in New York.  The horse pulling the wagon kicked Louis in the head and he died shortly thereafter of a spontaneous cerebral hemorrhage, on 22 April 1916, just three weeks shy of his 35th birthday.

Elizabeth was left with two young daughters. Thankfully the sisters and brother living with her had work.   

My cousin told me Louis was a bit of a "hot head." Elizabeth was tolerant of his outbursts, but one time she had had enough and when he complained about the dinner she had prepared, she dumped the bowl of macaroni upside down over his head!  Way to go Lizzy!!