From roots-in@roots-l.rootsweb.com Thu Jul 13 14:07:58 2006 Received: from mail.rootsweb.com (mail.rootsweb.com [192.168.65.34]) by admin.rootsweb.com (8.12.8/8.12.8) with ESMTP id k6DK7wjb022090; Thu, 13 Jul 2006 14:07:58 -0600 Received: from roots-l.rootsweb.com (roots-l.rootsweb.com [66.43.16.22]) by mail.rootsweb.com (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id k6DK7tDX005809 for ; Thu, 13 Jul 2006 14:07:55 -0600 Received: from roots-l.rootsweb.com (roots-l [127.0.0.1]) by roots-l.rootsweb.com (8.12.10/8.12.10) with ESMTP id k6DHUDFI006083 for ; Thu, 13 Jul 2006 13:30:13 -0400 Received: (from roots-in@localhost) by roots-l.rootsweb.com (8.12.10/8.12.8/Submit) id k6DHUDix006082 for roots-approved@rootsweb.com; Thu, 13 Jul 2006 13:30:13 -0400 Received: from lists5.rootsweb.com (lists5.rootsweb.com [66.43.27.41]) by roots-l.rootsweb.com (8.12.10/8.12.10) with SMTP id k6DFQQFI005795 for ; Thu, 13 Jul 2006 11:26:26 -0400 Received: (from slist@localhost) by lists5.rootsweb.com (8.12.8/8.12.8) id k6DI3vAj017695 for roots-in@roots-l.rootsweb.com; Thu, 13 Jul 2006 12:03:57 -0600 X-Envelope-From: denchief@earthlink.net Thu Jul 13 12:03:57 2006 Received: from mail.rootsweb.com (mail.rootsweb.com [192.168.65.34]) by admin.rootsweb.com (8.12.8/8.12.8) with ESMTP id k6DI3vjb017686 for ; Thu, 13 Jul 2006 12:03:57 -0600 Received: from pop-savannah.atl.sa.earthlink.net (pop-savannah.atl.sa.earthlink.net [207.69.195.69]) by mail.rootsweb.com (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id k6DI3qUL012621 for ; Thu, 13 Jul 2006 12:03:52 -0600 Received: from dialup-4.236.153.245.dial1.newyork1.level3.net ([4.236.153.245] helo=earthlink.net) by pop-savannah.atl.sa.earthlink.net with smtp (Exim 3.36 #10) id 1G15XT-0003iE-00 for ROOTS-L@rootsweb.com; Thu, 13 Jul 2006 14:03:52 -0400 Message-ID: <412006741318344953@earthlink.net> X-EM-Version: 5, 0, 0, 0 X-EM-Registration: #3003520714B31D032830 X-Priority: Reply-To: denchief@earthlink.net X-Mailer: EarthLink MailBox 5.0.7.9 (Windows) From: "P. Theresa Pawlowski" To: ROOTS-L@rootsweb.com Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2006 14:3:44 -0400 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII X-Spam-Score: 2.902 (**) BAYES_00,FORGED_RCVD_HELO,INVALID_DATE X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.52 on 192.168.65.34 X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.52 on 192.168.65.34 Sender: roots-in@roots-l.rootsweb.com Subject: [ROOTS-L] John R Avery in Brooklyn /Pennsylvania Circa 1900 I am searching for my Great Grandfather, whom I have nicknamed "Difficult Avery." That was not his name, but it is what he is to me! The documentary evidence I have about him is very scant. He appears on my great-uncle's baptismal record in 1904 as John R. Avery. In the 1910 census, my Great-Grandmother is listed as a widow with a private income living in a home she owned on Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, NY. My Grandfather and his brother are listed as having a father who was born in Pennsylvania. If my Great-Grandmother was a widow, I presume it was not my Great-Grandfather who was giving the information, and I do not know if he was born in Pennsylvania or not. My Great Grandmother is buried with her son and daughter-in-law in a single plot and I have no reason to believe he is even in the same cemetery, which I am not sure was even open in 1910. I have not found a grave. On the census, his sons are named as "John S. Avery" and "Clifford Benedict Avery" but John was called Robert by everyone in his adulthood and is buried under that name. Clifford was called Duke by the family. One of the two was called "Donald" as a child. I don't know if these were family names, but the fact that John seems to have had R as a middle initial and that his son was called Robert leads me to wonder if he was, indeed, "John Robert" and even to wonder if "Robert" was perhaps what people called him. Everything else I "Know" about him could be classified as either oral history or rumor, depending on how you want to look at it. The family scuttlebutt is that: He may not have been born John R. Avery--he may have changed his name because his family disapproved of his marriage. If he did change his name, that he changed it from a short name beginning with a "B." His family was Scottish, from Glasgow. (There is no mention of when...) He owned stone yards in "Philadelphia and Brooklyn." I would assume this means that he had something to do with building supplies in either the Metropolitan NY area, or the Philadelphia area, or both. His family was in banking on Long Island. The Williamsburg or the Dime Savings Bank has been mentioned. He died as a result of an accident in one of his stone yards. (However, I have another relative of the same vintage who died of a similar accident and I wonder if there was only one accident and it got spread around, so to speak.) He was an "Older Man" to my Great Grandmother, who was in her 20's when her sons were born in 1903 and 1904. They were on the Social Register. As you can see, some of these claims seem to contradict each other or the census record. I have not found anyone on any earlier census who seems to be him, although I have looked carefully, and may be wrong. I did find one John Avery, living with relatives, but he seemed to be too young. I find it difficult to believe that a person who was supposedly born before the 1880 census, and probably well before it, was never ever picked up, especially since his name was not as obscure as many and was less likely (well, at least in my mind)to be misspelled every single time for four or five enumerations. I know that I can go to the courthouse in Brooklyn and look up the land records, but I have had no opportunity to do so. I have tried searches in the Historical NY Times, to no apparent avail. I have searched the Register on the Brooklyn List Website and found a Robert, but no John R. I have looked at the death index for NYC on the Italian Gen/German Gen websites, and not found him. I have also searched the marriage registers, and not found him or my Great Grandmother under her maiden name as a bride. If anyone out there has a John R. AVery who disappears mysteriously around 1901 or 1902, perhaps he is my man. It seems to me that if the family was really as mad as him as my grandmother was told, that they may have spoken of his as dead after his marriage. If anyone has a spare John Avery out there, I'd love to hear about it. Theresa Pawlowski