I shared this bit of family history with my wife's sister yesterday and she found it interesting. I thought perhaps you might too. You know when you are a kid how you just don't put relationships together ? What I mean is understanding who is whom. Well there was this lady, I called her Aunt Minnie but in reality she was my fathers aunt. Her given name was Mildred and my sister had been named after her. She lived in a long brick home uptown somewhere. I had the impression that she was wealthy. Well she was by my standard anyway. When we went to visit her she would allow us children to eat shrimp and take whole bottles of soda from her refrigerator. At Christmas we always got a card with money in it. They were always those cards you got at the bank with the hole cut out so you could see the president. It was in one of those that I first viewed a Franklin ! Yes, she was wealthy alright. Her husband, Uncle Mark was a carpenter or cabinetmaker something like that. I don't recall seeing much of him. I do remember he was a soft spoken man, kinda kept to himself a lot.
Anyway, it wasn't until I started working on the family tree that certain things came to light. The first thing should have been obvious to me but being a kid it wasn't. Aunt Minnie, my great aunt, was sister to my grandfather. Say what ? Grandfather Reichart, my Dads dad passed away when he was only 32 and so I never knew him. Why I didn't know that Aunt Minnie was his sister I can only blame on adolescence. Like I said, when you are a kid this stuff doesn't occur to you. This lady knew my grandfather ! More than knew him, she was his sister. Later on, I found more relatives that I had known as a child that were relatives of these " old " people in my family tree.
As I climbed around in the family tree studying records I discovered that Uncle Mark was not her first husband. Aunt Minnie had met and married a man named Harry Goldberg. Harry Goldberg was a prominent business owner in Chicago. He was wealthy enough that he maintained a yacht. As it turned out Uncle Mark was the captain of that yacht ! Born in Sweden he had immigrated as a child and gained citizenship in 1937. Now, none of this was ever talked about, at least not to my knowledge so I had no idea. Aunt Minnie had run off with the Captain ! I wonder if this is where her source of wealth came from. Harry Goldberg was certainly a very wealthy man but I'm not so certain about a immigrant ships captain. Then again, you never know do you. There is much that is lost over time. But there is a paper trail if one wishes to follow it. Today we follow a digital trail to achieve the same results.
You could say that working on the family tree is akin to gossiping in the past tense. I have uncovered certain facts that I am certain were fodder for that sort of thing, especially so in the old days. I'm certain just having been divorced was a rather scandalous thing back then. I mean, she ran off with the hired help ! It must have been embarrassing to Harry Goldberg. I don't know for sure but the name sounds Jewish and Aunt Minnie certainly wasn't. I wonder had she converted, then converted back ? Well, that is if he was Jewish in the first place. I wonder what his family thought of all this. I really haven't researched all of that, it is just speculation on my part. Aunt Minnie never had children. I wonder whether that was by choice. I was 29 when Uncle Mark and Aunt Minnie passed away. He passed in April and she followed in December. I was in the Navy at the time, away from home and don't remember even being informed of that. What became of her estate I have no clue. Did she have an estate left to even be worried about ?
I just don't know the answers. But I have found there are so many branches in the tree that you just can't climb out to the end of every one of them. There are some good stories out there however. Sometimes the branches intermingle in unexpected ways. Uncle Mark was from Sweden. My grandmother Bennett was from Sweden. Both lived in East Hampton. Just how or why Aunt Minnie moved to East Hampton is a mystery, her family was from Greenport. Grandmother Bennett worked for a wealthy family and was brought to East Hampton in that capacity. She didn't marry the boss though, she married my grandfather. Grandfather Bennett was a fisherman and a bit of a cad from all accounts. Two Swedes with different destiny's in America. Like I said, lots of stories to be told, lots of gossip.
Anyway, it wasn't until I started working on the family tree that certain things came to light. The first thing should have been obvious to me but being a kid it wasn't. Aunt Minnie, my great aunt, was sister to my grandfather. Say what ? Grandfather Reichart, my Dads dad passed away when he was only 32 and so I never knew him. Why I didn't know that Aunt Minnie was his sister I can only blame on adolescence. Like I said, when you are a kid this stuff doesn't occur to you. This lady knew my grandfather ! More than knew him, she was his sister. Later on, I found more relatives that I had known as a child that were relatives of these " old " people in my family tree.
As I climbed around in the family tree studying records I discovered that Uncle Mark was not her first husband. Aunt Minnie had met and married a man named Harry Goldberg. Harry Goldberg was a prominent business owner in Chicago. He was wealthy enough that he maintained a yacht. As it turned out Uncle Mark was the captain of that yacht ! Born in Sweden he had immigrated as a child and gained citizenship in 1937. Now, none of this was ever talked about, at least not to my knowledge so I had no idea. Aunt Minnie had run off with the Captain ! I wonder if this is where her source of wealth came from. Harry Goldberg was certainly a very wealthy man but I'm not so certain about a immigrant ships captain. Then again, you never know do you. There is much that is lost over time. But there is a paper trail if one wishes to follow it. Today we follow a digital trail to achieve the same results.
You could say that working on the family tree is akin to gossiping in the past tense. I have uncovered certain facts that I am certain were fodder for that sort of thing, especially so in the old days. I'm certain just having been divorced was a rather scandalous thing back then. I mean, she ran off with the hired help ! It must have been embarrassing to Harry Goldberg. I don't know for sure but the name sounds Jewish and Aunt Minnie certainly wasn't. I wonder had she converted, then converted back ? Well, that is if he was Jewish in the first place. I wonder what his family thought of all this. I really haven't researched all of that, it is just speculation on my part. Aunt Minnie never had children. I wonder whether that was by choice. I was 29 when Uncle Mark and Aunt Minnie passed away. He passed in April and she followed in December. I was in the Navy at the time, away from home and don't remember even being informed of that. What became of her estate I have no clue. Did she have an estate left to even be worried about ?
I just don't know the answers. But I have found there are so many branches in the tree that you just can't climb out to the end of every one of them. There are some good stories out there however. Sometimes the branches intermingle in unexpected ways. Uncle Mark was from Sweden. My grandmother Bennett was from Sweden. Both lived in East Hampton. Just how or why Aunt Minnie moved to East Hampton is a mystery, her family was from Greenport. Grandmother Bennett worked for a wealthy family and was brought to East Hampton in that capacity. She didn't marry the boss though, she married my grandfather. Grandfather Bennett was a fisherman and a bit of a cad from all accounts. Two Swedes with different destiny's in America. Like I said, lots of stories to be told, lots of gossip.
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