So there I was, 1930 Brooklyn, New York: A father who drove a taxi, a mother with no maiden name, a boy who was 2 and a girl named Roberta... What was I to do? I knew, that within the next year or two, the two children would be put into an orphanage somewhere in the state of New York.... But what orphanage? Where was it located? And when were they put there? How could I find this information? So my nightmare continued....
ZING....... Light Bulb Moment: Googlemap the address on the 1930 census.... Yes, there was still a building there, although I don't know if it was the same one standing in 1930. At least I now had a neighborhood I could search, an area to start looking in. What was in the area? Were there any orphanages? Any churches? Any hospitals? Yes, of course there were...... BUT ... Which ones would have been there back in 1930?
Oh, how I wished that there was someone who could answer the questions for me, someone with knowledge of the family. Someone to point me in the right directions ............. Or, at least, confirm that I was going in the right direction.
So where now? And I heard my (elderly) mother, who isn't tech-savvy at all, saying in my head, "Google it, Sweetheart". BINGO!!!! Thanks, Mom, my genealogy mentor and problem-solver extraordinaire. Who'da thought she'd even know what "googling" was? Hmmmmm........
One real possibility did emerge. A Catholic hospital within a mile of them, that was associated with an orphanage within 3 miles of their home. And it existed in the 1930s! Eureka!!! Maybe this was the 'crack' in the silence. Maybe this would solve the puzzle for me.
I contacted the orphanage, but being an 'in-Law' meant I could not get the info myself. Plus my mother-in-law was still living and her interest level at that point was non-existent. Enter my husband's siblings. Would anyone write the letter to get info on their mother? Anyone, anyone at all? Two years later and I was still waiting. What now? Where could I turn....
Then, about a year ago I decided to take a genealogy class that was offered on searching the internet for genealogy. Sounded like something right up my alley. My instructor was a wealth of information on breaking through those proverbial brick walls. You know the ones, the dreaded "DEAD END's" that exist just to tick us off and prevent us from looking REALLY REALLY good to our 'in-laws'.
I decided that with a name like 'Ismay' how hard could it be to do a blind search using only that name and no surname. I mean, how many 'Ismay's' could there be? 'Ismay' is not really what I would call a common name, ya know? Ok, so probably not the best of ideas, after all, do you realize how many ways there are to incorrectly transcribe the name 'Ismay'? LOTS! TONS!
However, one possibility did emerge. One 'Ismay' living in Saratoga, New York in 1920. Saratoga? Wasn't that where a famous race track was located? Wasn't I told that Roberta's father had become a horse jockey? Yes, YES!!!! This had to be them, it just had to be.
I was off to the races.......
No comments:
Post a Comment