P is For Pribyl

P is for Josef Pribyl (1839-1911)

Josef Pribyl is another brick wall of mine. His daughter Marie married John Benert #3. He's not a brick wall in the real sense, just one I haven't pursued back to Bohemia.

Josef was probably 39 years when he immigrated to the United States with his wife Frantiska Vana or Frances as she was known here. At first they lived on East 38th street, near the cigar factories. At the time a cigar manufacturer would rent tenement rooms to his workers where they would make cigars under deplorable conditions. The following is an excerpt from How the Other Half Lives, Studies Among the Tenements of New York by Jacob A Riis (1890). The photo also appeared in the book.

"The manufacturer who owns, say, from three or four to a dozen or more tenements contiguous to his shop, fills them up with these people, charging them outrageous rents, and demanding often even a preliminary deposit of five dollars “key money;” deals them out tobacco by the week, and devotes the rest of his energies to the paring down of wages to within a peg or two of the point where the tenant rebels in desperation."

By 1900 the family had managed to save enough money to move to  East 97th street, still in a Bohemian neighborhood, still making cigars. Josef had retired by 1910 and his sons had found work in the building trades. Son Joseph was a carpenter, and later joined the police force, retiring as a lieutenant. Both Fred and Stanley were plumbers.  Daughter Marie was still working as a cigarmaker but then again, I'm sure the thinking was she was a just a girl and would marry one day. She did just that in 1913. The beginnings of an American success story. 

Frances died in March 1911 and Josef followed in December of the same year. They are buried in St Michael's Cemetery in Queens, New York. Click here for the Find A Grave page.

M is for The Mais Family

M is for the Mais family

When I first caught the genealogy bug I asked my mother-in-law about her family. She had a few vague memories but she always came back to "Willie Mace." She remembered visiting him in Scranton, Pennsylvania when she was a child. But she didn't know who he was. Years later, I sat down with an old address book that had been in her house. I know, rule # 1, start with what you have. And look who jumped off the page. Mr John Mais, 632 Willow St, Scranton, PA. Mais not Mace.

Address book of Margaretha Bender Benert

I had them. John Mais, his wife Elizabeth, daughter Emma and son William. Willie Mace, finally. After that it was easy enough to fill in the blanks.

John was a stationery engineer and worked for several breweries in the city of Scranton. This drawing of John appeared in the Scranton Republican newspaper, Jan 27, 1891.

John Mais

Elisabeth was a sister of Margaretha Bender, the wife of John Benert #2. And I found this in Margaretha's photo album. This is a a photo postcard that Elisabeth had sent to Margaret in 1911.

Elisabeth Bender Mais

John and Elisabeth had five children, John, Emma, Louisa, Minnie, and William. Only two lived to adulthood, Emma who married Jacob Barke and William. William was an accomplished violinist and music teacher in Scranton.  As far as I can tell, he never married. John died in 1943 and Elisabeth in 1944. Both are buried in Pittston Avenue Cemetery in Scranton. You can see a photo of the plot here on Find A Grave.

I is for Ida Benert (1863-?)

There's a lot in a name.

Ida Bennett

Ida Benert was the daughter of John Benert #1 and Barbara Horn and it seems, a very practical person. When she was a teenager she changed her name from Benert to Bennett. She told the family that no one ever got her name right, always calling her Bennett, so she might as well be a Bennett. Thanks a lot, Ida. Benert is such a unique name. Bennett; not so much.

After her mother's second marriage, Ida lived with one Horn relative after another in Brooklyn, Philadelphia, and New York. She never married and supported herself by working as a seamstress or as she reported in the 1920 census, a modiste. 

I don't know when she was born. The 1880 census says she was 17 (born about 1863), the 1900 census reports she was 31 (born about 1869) and by 1920 she had lost another 5 years and claimed she was 46 (born about 1874). She must have been getting a bit forgetful because in 1930 she said she was born about 1870 and was 60 years old.

All of those censuses give her name as Bennett. But she is listed as Ida Benert in 1897 when she was witness to a cousin's marriage.

And that's all I know. I can't find her in the newspapers or in the city directories. No obituaries, no cemetery information, not even a date of death. 

I do know she was very much loved by her nephew John Benert #3. He named his daughter, Grace Ida.

It was Grace Ida who left me this lovely pitcher and bowl that Ida used for washing.

G is for Geisler

I found this wedding invitation back in 1984 when we were cleaning out Grandpa's (John Benert #3) house after his death. No one in the family knew who Mr and Mrs Joseph Geisler were. At the time I wasn't involved in genealogy but I'm not one to throw away something that had been saved for so long. So, into the file of neat stuff it went.

Fast forward about twenty years later. I was hot on the trail of anyone who could be remotely connected to OUR FAMILY. And I started searching for John Benert #2. He was a bit difficult. I had my handy dandy index of the 1880 census and I knew exactly where to find him. There was only one problem. The index linked to the wrong page. Every single index I found linked to the wrong page. But, the index said he was living with Mr and Mrs Joseph Geisler. Happy day. And I still didn't know who they were. So, I put him back into the "I'll look again another day" pile.

And then I discovered Internet Archives. And their census images. Using the indexed location I slogged through the pages and finally found him.  The brother-in-law of Joseph Geisler. Happy, happy day.

Mystery solved. Well, after a lot more digging it was. I discovered that Dora Geisler and John Benert # 3 were 1st cousins. Now John #3 was only 6 years old at the time of the wedding. I think it must have been John's mother, Margaret Bender Benert, that saved the invitation.

A few years ago, I "met" a Krikawa cousin on line. Her family had a copy of the wedding invitation as well. Small world.

B is For Benert

B is For Benert

John Benert to be exact. 

Margaretha Bender Benert, John Louis Benert, & John Benert (#2)

Now, there were three John Benerts. I know a lot about John Louis Benert, # 3. He was my grandfather-in-law. A dear sweet man who told me I was his granddaughter the moment we met. John Louis was an elevator repairman in New York City. He married Marie Pribyl, raised two children and lived to the age of 94.

Marie Pribyl & John Louis Benert

I know a little about his father, John Benert, # 2. I have photos, information about his business, even a copy of his baptism at the age of 10. I know he was born in Virginia and lived most of his life in New York City. He married Margaretha Bender and worked as a milkman most of his life. He was also partners in the White House Cafe in Queens in 1916 and 1917. John Louis was their only child.

John Benert and Margaretha Bender

I know that the original John Benert, # 1, operated a tavern in New York City until at least 1859. 

What I don't know and will probably never figure out is why this first John Benert, a German immigrant with an apparently successful business, took himself and his family to Richmond, Virginia in time for John # 2 to be born in Virginia in June of 1866. 

And decided to disappear from the census. And every directory I've been able to put my hands on except one, the one published in 1869 in Richmond, VA. He died the next year in New York City and is buried in Lutheran Cemetery in Queens, NY. I suspect we could call him a carpetbagger but there must be a bigger paper trail somewhere wouldn't you think? 

Any suggestions?