A little more about Stewart VanVliet

In my last post, I told you about an ancestor on my wife's side.  Well, I couldn't just let it end there, I had to find more.  The man was intriguing to me.  So I went to the Monmouth County Library and looked for an obituary in the Asbury Park Press on microfilm.  Sure enough, I found one:

It's a little blurry, but microfilm is tough.  I believe his father was a newspaper man, wrote some kind of fishing column for a local paper, but the Asbury Park Press can't spell his name right.  The proper spelling is VanVliet.  The obituary was found among  several pages of obits, for local people killed in the same crash.  I can see that he was married to Dorothy Smith VanVliet and has two children, Stewart and Lida.  He remained involved with the Boy Scouts, which is how I came upon him in the first place, and was active in the YMCA.  I also see that he was a veteran of World War II, and a communicant of Christ Church in Shrewsbury.  I found these headstones in the church cemetery:

Top left is his headstone, middle left is his father, and the bottom is his mother.  The one on the right is the stone for the family plot.  His sister and her husband are both buried here too, but I don't see a stone for his wife.  She may be with him, but there is no stone for her.  The picture is an experiment of an app that my kids showed me.  I could never do this myself.  Interesting to note is that both his sister, Ortrude and her husband were WWII veterans - the whole family got into the act.  In case you are wondering the round disk in front of his headstone is a flag holder and the disk is from the Shrewsbury Volunteer Fire Department, I found that a lot of the VanVliets served on the Fire Department.  Pretty community minded group

Anyway, after entering the correct date of death in my database, I checked Ancestry.com for any final info.  I got the census records for 1930 and 1940 (before he married) but then I got another military form:

It is an application for a military headstone or marker.  His widow, her signature is at the bottom right, chose the upright marble headstone.  The application gives some good information: rank 1rst Lt, his unit and company, date of birth and date of death.  I found it interesting that the only address I found anywhere is Sycamore Ave, Shrewsbury - no house number.  Maybe it was the only house on the street back then, I don't know.  I do know that the family was very prominent in the Shrewsbury area.  My wife's 2nd great grandfather was a Major General in the Union Army (he was also Stewart VanVliet - I guess it wasn't just my family that recycled first names).  One day I went into the Shrewsbury Historical Society to see what they had there, and I was met by an older man who volunteered there.  I told him that I was doing a family tree and my wife's family was from Shrewsbury.  He asked what her maiden name was and when I told him VanVliet, I thought he was gonna die. He asked if she was related to the general and when I said yes, I reached some sort of celebrity status.  He showed me a book shelf dedicated to Gen. VanVliet, which included old ledgers and papers.  In a box there were assorted birth and marriage certificates, as well as, old letters.  He let me copy whatever I wanted and was extremely helpful.  So I have to be careful writing about my wife's VanVliet family, cause once I start - I'll have to quit my job and just blog to dedicate the time needed for all the info I can find quickly.  I'm gonna keep looking for a Brady Museum, but I just don't think it's in the cards.

Stewart VanVliet

Yes you read it right - can't complain about the Irish with this one.  Stewart is one of my wife's ancestors who lived in Shrewsbury, NJ and is my father-in-law's (second?) cousin.  I would have to start a whole blog to cover my wife's family - especially on her father's side.  They consist of numerous West Pointers, including at least two generals and three burials in Arlington National Cemetery that I know of.  But this was kind of a local story that I happened upon by accident the other day.  I thought it was interesting - so I'm throwing it into the mix.

On Wednesday, I was working in the Shrewsbury area, and needed to use a rest room.  So I went to the Shrewsbury municipal building to use the facility.  When I walked through the lobby, I noticed two or three plaques on the wall put up by the local Boy Scout Troop.  The plaque had names of Eagle Scouts in the local Troop.  On my way out, I was looking through the names and when I got to the first name on the first plaque, I was surprised to see Stewart VanVliet and the date Aug 16, 1935.  So apparently he was the first Eagle Scout in Troop 50:

It's tough to see, so I took another picture:

There - that's better.  Top left on the plaque.  So I called my wife to tell her about  my find.  She really doesn't get as excited about this kind of stuff as I do - but actually there are very few people that get as excited as I do about this stuff.

When I got home, I went on Ancestry to check and see how old he was, where he lived in Shrewsbury, and who his father was, etc... Turns out that he is a junior, his father is also Stewart. Our Eagle Scout was born in 1920 - so he was only 15 when he made Eagle Scout, which is impressive (I think) maybe it was different back then.  So I checked my family tree program and saw that he died in 1950, and I was actually saddened by that - thinking of the promising future  that he never had.  It was at this point that I vaguely remembered my father-in-law telling me about a relative who was killed in a train wreck.  So my wife gets interested and goes on her ipad and searches for fatal train wrecks in 1950.  The response she gets is a train wreck - which is actually the third worst wreck in the country in terms of lives lost and injuries - in Woodbridge in 1951.  The wreck occurred on 6 Feb 1951, I checked my database again, and I had that Stewart died on 6 Feb 1950.  So I said to her that maybe my info was off by one year, after all that is quite a coincidence.  So I go on my ipad - so now we have dueling ipads going, and I search for the same criteria and I get the same train wreck on a different website.  The website is GenDisasters.com and I find out about this horrific train wreck on 6 Feb 1951 which resulted in 82 deaths and 500 injuries.  I read through the story and at the end is a list of Casualties.  Among the dead is listed Stewart VanVliet, age 30, Sycamore Ave. Shrewsbury, NJ - Holy Cow that's him.  In 2001, New Jersey Transit placed at plaque at the Woodbridge Station:

This is a link to the website and story with some photos and casualty list:  http://www3.gendisasters.com/new-jersey/2163/woodbridge%2C-nj-commuter-train-plunges-trestle%2C-feb-1951

Now for my Paul Harvey imitation: "Now here's the rest of the story"  The day that I found all of this stuff was 6 Feb 2013 - exactly 62 years after his death.  I told the story to my sister, and she asked if I thought it was spooky.  So I told her "No, they call it genealogical serendipity" so she asked if that is really what I would call it.  I told her "No, I call it creepy - but that's what some genealogists would call it."

Arthur J Valleau

I' gonna go back to the Valleaus for this post, I recently got two comments from people searching for Valleaus, so I gonna cast in this pond one more time.

While doing research for my last two blog entries about the Valleaus in my family, I noticed that there was another occupant of the house in Tenafly in the 1920 Census.  Besides Charles and Mary, and their daughter Gertrude, was Charles’ mother Susie, and an Arthur J Valleau, whom I assumed to be their son.  Until I noticed that the entire family was born in New York and New Jersey, except for Arthur.  He was born in Omaha, Nebraska – wow, I didn’t see that coming.  It was then that I noticed his relationship to head of household – Nephew, and he is 10 years old.  In next census, he is listed as – Adopted Son.  So I assumed that he must be the son of a brother of Charles (because they have the same surname, and Arthur is listed as nephew).  But what happened to Arthur’s parents?  Hmmm, there has got to be a blog in here somewhere.  I am always searching for blog fodder, and lately the Valleaus have been a rich source.

A check of the 1900 census in Bayonne, reveals that Charles is living with his family, which includes a brother George P.  After obtaining his brother’s name, I checked the 1910 census for Omaha NE.  This census show George Valleau as 26 years old, employed as a plumber, married for one year to Bessie, age 18, from Iowa, and their five month old son, Arthur.  The census was taken on 28 Apr 1910, which means Arthur was probably born in November 1909.  I should probably mention that spelling counts when searching a census index.  The name was spelled "Vallean", but who ever read it thought the "u" was an "n", probably an easy mistake.  So when I searched ancestry.com I listed the last name as "Vall* "  The * is considered a wild card and the results will show names starting with Vall.  Just thought that may come in handy some time.

My next move was to check Omaha Nebraska newspapers for the time range of about 1908 to 1912, and see if there is any mention of George P. Valleau.  So I went on GenealogyBank and entered the search criteria.  I got back two results which referred to our man.  The first was a small article in the Omaha World Herald, dated 31 Jan 1909 and it listed people applying for marriage licenses in Omaha.  Listed there is George P. Valleau and Bess Hubbard, this is the right time frame, since Arthur is apparently born in November.

The second article was a small paragraph in the Omaha World Herald evening of 15 Aug 1911, saying that the United States Supply Company had attached the stock belonging to George P. Valleau, plumber who has left home suddenly last week and has not returned.  It goes on to say that he runs a plumbing establishment at Fortieth and Cumings Sts and has a wife and baby in Omaha.  It is only a small paragraph, but gives a lot of information.  That was the last that I found of George P. Valleau - so far.

Now is when Arthur shows up in New Jersey with his Uncle Charles and Aunt Mary, as well as, his cousin Gertrude (the subject of a previous blog).  So now, I find an entry in the Social Security Death Index, which says that Arthur was born 11 Nov 1909 (ten months after the marriage license) and died 20 Dec 1999 at age 90, in Flemington, NJ.

Then I found Arthur's obit in the Bergen Record 21 Dec 1999

This is obviously not the obit from the newspaper, but I found it on Genealogybank.  I had read something before about him being a tree expert, but I did not know that he was in the US Army Air Corps during WWII - just like my dad's two brothers.

Next move was to call Barrett Funeral home in Tenafly.  A very nice woman said that she would pull the file and call me back, which she did.  She had his parents listed as George P and Elizabeth Valleau, but she also had a wife listed in the file as Ruth Webb.  The last item that I got from her was that his daughter made the arrangements.  I have recently located a phone number and address for her, and I am debating how to contact her.  I also contacted the cemetery that the funeral home gave me as his place of burial - The Westwood Cemetery on Kenderkamack Rd in, you guessed it, Westwood, NJ in Bergen County.  I got a call back from them and apparently Arthur is buried with his wife in the Webb family plot - No George or Elizabeth Valleau.

The last thing is that I have also been in contact with the Bergen County Surrogates Office in reference to obtaining the adoption file - if there is one.  I would love to see what happened to his parents George and Bess, and how he came to live with Charles and Mary.  I wonder if there was a formal adoption or if Charles and Mary just cared for him as though he was their own son.  Since he is not really a blood relation, I am debating how much time to put into this.  Anyway, I thought it was a good story and I enjoyed investigating it.  That is - after all - the fun part, and there is more to this story to find out.

Susan Metzger Baldwin

In my last post, I told about how I went to the Ocean County Library to look for an obituary for Charles Metzger, who died in Lakewood, NJ.  I did not find one.  While speaking with one of the librarians, I mentioned that I thought that he had lived in Trenton area originally and was a college professor out there.  The Librarian says that they had access to the Historic Trenton Time Newspaper, but it only has access to about 1993, and he died in 1996.  But if you search for his name, you may find other articles.  The Librarian set me up on a computer and I entered Metzger in the search box.  The first search item was this:

Holy mackerel, this is Susan Metzger and in a flash I now know her married name, that she died on 4 Feb 1992, at the age of 54, and where.  Did I say where?  Garland, Maine.  Talk about a shocker, and this is a Trenton newspaper.  I never dreamed that she lived in Maine, and I never would have looked for her obit in the Trenton Times.  I had never met her, but after reading the obit, I wish I had.  Past Secretary of the Maine Trappers Association and 1987 Trapper of the Year.  Sounds like her mother, active in the Garland Recreation Program, mainly Swimming.  It then goes on to say that she is the mother of the late Joseph R Baldwin, Jr.  When I started doing the family tree, my cousin Linda gave me some file cards from an aunt of ours.  On the cards she had written notes about each family group, one card for each brother or sister and their family.  On Susan Metzger's card there was a note that said that she had a son who had committed suicide.  Now I know his name.

After printing the obit, I returned to the search results and my second result was this one:

 Another surprise.  A death in Maine listed in the Trenton Times.  I obviously never knew Joseph Jr., but after reading this he certainly sounds like the All-American Kid.  Born in Princeton, NJ, sophomore at Dexter Regional High School, on the Cross Country Team, the High School Band and Newspaper.  Not only that but he was community minded and served on the Garland Volunteer Junior Fire Department.  Sounds like a college resume, but who knows what was troubling him.  He died 25 Oct 1978, he was 15 years old.  He was buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Garland, ME.

I went to Find A Grave, to search for Evergreen Cemetery and found that Susan Metzger Baldwin, her husband Joseph Robbins Baldwin, Sr. and his parents: Joseph and Myrtle Baldwin are all listed there, but not Joey.  I called the cemetery and found that Joey is buried with the family, but is not listed in Find A Grave.  I tell people about Find A Grave and they look at me like I'm crazy.  I was explaining to the woman at the Evergreen Cemetery that some of the family is listed on Find A Grave, and she sounded shocked that this web site exists.  I just figured that she would have heard of it.  Anyway, Find A Grave says that Joseph R Baldwin Sr, died 13 Oct 2011 at age 74.  I googled the name and found an obituary in the Bangor Daily News. and the same obit on a website called MarineChat.com

This is from the MarineChat.com website, I liked it because it had two pictures of him.  It also says that he remarried after Susan died.  He was also a lifelong trapper, which may be how Susan became involved with trapping.  He had a brother Billy, who had passed away before him and a brother David, who is a Doctor.  I realize that I am not really related to this man, he would officially be the "husband of my second cousin", but I find it interesting to be able to learn this much about a man who I never knew.  I found out more about him in a two to four week period, than I have about some closer relations over the past eight years.

I also heard from the man who had posted the family tree that started these last two blogs.  He actually met my cousin Gertrude Valleau Metzger.  He said that "Gerty" or Aunt Gert was a very proper lady as he remembered and reminded him of Betty Davis.   He also added a few comments about Susan's family: Susan died of Lupus, young Joey committed suicide with a shotgun, and Joe Sr. was a registered Maine Guide and cut grass a cemeteries in the summer.  I have not gotten back to him yet, but will tonight.

There was also more about Charlie Metzger; Charlie Metzger was his great Uncle, and was Vice President of Trenton State at one point.  He also had an older brother George, who was killed in WWI.  One more thing about Charlie Metzger:  I was at work today, and I use Google Earth alot at work.  While on Google Earth, I "flew" to The College of New Jersey, the new name for Trenton State, and while looking down at the campus below, I  saw a street that circled the campus.  The name of the street caught my eye: Metzger Drive.  I wonder if it was named after him.

You can see it at the bottom right, it kind of parallels inside of Route 31.  Pretty cool huh?

Who is Gertrude Valleau?

Allow me to explain.  Gertrude is the daughter of Mary O'Dea -Valleau and Charles Valleau.  Mary O'Dea is a sister of Marguerite O'Dea - Brady, my paternal grandmother.  Therefore, Gertrude Valleau is my first cousin one time removed.  More easily said - she is my father's first cousin.

Gertrude was born in Jersey City somewhere around 1907 or 1908.  In the 1920 and 1930 censuses, the family lives in Tenafly, NJ.  In 1930, Gertrude still lives in Tenafly with the family and her occupation is listed as Physical Training Teacher.  By the 1940 Census she is married to Charles Metzger with two children: Charles and Susan (who is the subject of my next blog).  They live in Ewing Twp and Charles' occupation is college professor, and both Charles and Gertrude's education status is C5, meaning that they completed more than four years of college.

Let me break here to add that I don't know how I started to check into this line, but when I entered Charles Metzger into Ancestry.com, I found that someone else has a family tree on line that has both Charles and Gertrude in the tree.  I have e mailed the tree owner, but have not received a response yet.  Anyway, on that family tree, I found a photo with a caption of Charles and Gertrude Metzger:

What do you think? Wedding picture maybe?  I sent the picture to my cousin Linda - who is my O'Dea expert - but she could not be sure if this was Gertrude.  The other thing I found was a social security death index entry for Charles Metzger.  He died in Lakewood, NJ 23Aug1996.  I tried to find an obit in the Ocean  County Library newspapers on microfilm - but no luck.  But my trip paid off big time for my next post.

So then I checked Gertrude Valleau on Ancestry.com and found the census records that I already had, but then I found school yearbook entries.  No not High School - a College yearbook!!  There were three entries:

Well, that answers the question of who is in the first picture:

Group shot and I have no idea yet which one is Gertrude, but her name is listed so she must be in the picture, and last but not least:

This was a snippet from a class prophecy type page, I don't know if they eloped or not but this is the 1929 Yearbook and in 1930 she is living at home with mom and dad in Tenafly teaching.

So Gertrude and Charles do get married (or elope) and they have two children of their own: Charles and Susan.  I found that Charles lives in Arizona and Susan married and winds up living most of her adult life in Maine, but that is the subject of my next post.

This is my favorite picture.  It is from the Trenton Sunday Times from 29 May 1927 and the caption which I could not easily scan says:  Prospective Teachers enjoy baseball.  Among the most popular sports at the Trenton Normal School are the bi-weekly baseball contests.

Above is Gertrude Valleau about to pitch a wicked curve.

There were other articles that I found along the way.  One from January 1955 says that Gertrude and her mother Mrs Mary Valleau (who had been widowed in 1946) went on a vacation to Mt Dora Florida. The next month in February 1955, there was a second article stating that Gertrude and her mother Mrs Mary Valleau had returned home from a vacation in Mt Dora, Florida.  The next article was Mary's O'Dea Valleau's obituary in the 17 May 1955 Trenton Times.  So at least they had a nice vacation together before Mary died.

I can't end a story about Gertrude without this last piece:

This is my kind of story - lots of pictures.  So Gertrude and Charles end up moving to Lakehurst, NJ - right down the road from me, and on to Lakewood, where Gertrude dies.  This obit is from the Trenton Times 7May1989, and Charles dies seven years later - his is the obit that I went to the library to find, but never did.

One more thing, I remember when I was younger, that Charlie and Gertrude Metzger had a family reunion in Lakehurst and my family went.  I did not go, and I don't remember why - I was either away at college or I had left school and was a cop at the time and had to work, or I just had much better things to do at Kelly's Tavern.   It is amazing what you think is important in your youth.   Either way, when I found all of this stuff and realized that I had a chance to meet them and missed it.  Well let's just say that I am kicking myself.

So in the end, the answer to the question "Who is Gertrude Valleau?" is pretty complex.  She was a daughter, sister, wife, and mother.  She was also a college graduate at a time when most women did not attend college, she was an athlete who taught physical training, and was an American Red Cross Life Examiner - maybe a lifeguard or EMT of her time, on the college hockey team, swim team, and basketball team.  Sounds like she was ahead of her time, and I am sorry that I missed the chance to meet her.

More About the Bergens

I recently took a couple of trips to the NJ State Archives, with a trip to Holy Cross Cemetery in North Arlington in between.  The results of these road trips is alot of new information on my mom's family - the Bergens.

While at the Archives, I started by checking old wills, where I had found Pop Bergen, and I found a will for a Thomas J Bergen.  I knew "Pop" Bergen had a brother Thomas, but there was no info in the will to make a family connection and it was dated as probated in 1933.  So I checked for a death certificate in 1933 but couldn't find one, but I did find a death certificate for Patrick Bergen in 1933 and I know he was their brother (mainly because the same parents are listed on the death certificates).  The other thing about the will was that the person listed on the inventory (it was actually more of an inventory than a will) was Catherine Cavanaugh and I had no clue who she was.  I thought she was a lawyer or so official who inventoried his belongings.  I got a few more items at the Archives and called it a day.

The following week, I went on a great website: rcan.org/deceased,which is a database of people buried in cemeteries run by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark.  I mentioned this once before, but you can search by name (Last name only if you like) and you will find the cemetery, plot number, and date of burial.  When I entered Thomas Bergen, and Patrick Bergen, I found that they were buried with their wives (Margaret and Mary) in Holy Cross Cemetery in North Arlington.  ROAD TRIP

On Sunday, my son Tom and I drove to North Arlington armed with the location of the grave (and others which will be a later post).  After a while, we found the section and finally the headstone in the old section of the cemetery.  Here is the headstone:

Who is Mary V Cannon?  We'll get to that later.  So now I know that Thomas died in 1931 and Margaret in 1930.  I also know that Patrick and Mary Bergen are in there somewhere too.  I also know that Patrick and Mary had a daughter Mary, so I am guessing that she married someone named Cannon and this is her buried with her parents.  So much for the cemetery.

Back to the Archives.  I returned to the Archives to search for Thomas and Margaret's death certificates.  I already had Mary's from a previous trip.  I came across it while looking for someone else.  So here is Thomas's death certificate:

If you can read it, it says parents are Edward Bergen and Mary Malone and his wife is Margaret Carroll, but the thing that caught my attention was his occupation: Deputy Fire Chief - never knew that.  I also noted that at the top of the certificate above his name I think it says Jersey City Coroner, which tells me that his death was sudden and/or suspicious and maybe there was a coroner's inquest.  Next I checked the Jersey Journal on microfilm at the archives for obits, and I found them:

Turns out that Thomas was a Deputy Fire Chief at Laurel Hill AKA Snake Hill, this is where the asylum, hospital, potter's field, etc... was located and it was a county facility.  But the obit gives more info on family, it names brothers William and Patrick, and sisters Catherine Cavanaugh and Mary Kennedy.  So now I know Catherine Cavanaugh from his will is his sister, and I am certain that it is his will.  I checked some more on Catherine Cavanaugh and it turns out that she was married and widowed by the time of the 1910 census.  She lives with her children Charles, Edward, and Mary, and her brother Thomas - but not Margaret.  I am guessing that Margaret was sick and maybe spent alot of time in a hospital or nursing facility - maybe Snake Hill.  Other census records indicated that Edward is a Jersey City Police Officer.  I always like finding ancestors who were Police Officers and Firemen it tends to make me feel even more connected to them.

This two weeks with trips to the archives and cemetery really gave me alot of clues to follow up on.  So the archives, and especially the obit from the Jersey Journal really helped put everything together.   Now I have to check on Mary Kennedy and see what I can find about her and her husband and children.  I may find some live cousins who may know more or even have photos.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

"Aunt" Ruth

Did you ever have a very special person who you were not really related to, but was a big part of the family anyway?  So much so that this person earned the honorary title of "Aunt" or "Uncle".  Well, we only had a couple of them.  One was was dad's friend and co-worker, Bill Jones - somehow he earned the title "Uncle Jones".  But none were as special as "Aunt" Ruth.

"Aunt" Ruth Moss

Ruth Moss was our Aunt Alice's (Eeehee) (don't ask), room mate, and I can't believe that this is the only picture I could find.  It was taken at my brother's wedding.  They both worked in Jersey City for Baldwin Paints and Oils in the office.  I remember going to the office one time and you could see the Statue of Liberty from their window.  Anyway, they worked together and lived together in Jersey City, and they visited us almost every weekend "down the shore".  They lived in an apartment building on Fowler Ave until the night that it exploded while my brother Paul was visiting.  Paul got interviewed on the NY News Channel by Gabe Pressman.  This was in the early 60's, I think Paul said he was about 12 years old when it happened, and several people were killed in the explosion. Well so much for that apartment. Next they lived in Saint John's Apartments on Saint Paul's Ave - no I'm not kidding.  Maybe they thought the names would keep them from exploding, I don't know.  I think Saints are a Catholic thing, and Ruth was Jewish so I don't know about that.

Like I said they visited almost every weekend, birthday and holiday.  They always brought us stuff, like candy and toys.  Sometimes Ruth would drive both of them down, but if only Alice came, she would take the train or the bus (the Red and Tan Lines from Journal Square to Asbury Park).  Whenever they visited it was always fun.

I was thinking about Ruth the other day and how little I really know about her.  I know she died in 1979 in her car (that Alice later gave to me), and she had two brothers, but that was just about it.  I remember my mom saying that Ruth did not even know when her birthday was.  My sister told me recently that her brother Herman found her birth certificate shortly before she died and it turned out that she was actually about 9 or 10 years younger than she thought.  I also remember Mom telling me that Ruth had changed her surname at one point to Moss, Mom thought that it was originally Moskowitz.

You don't have to hit me with a brick - I started checking.  First I googled Ruth Moss and found her in the Social Security Death Index.  It gives her birth date as 28 Oct 1900, and her death in New Jersey in Oct 1979.  I went to the Monmouth County Library to check for an obituary in the Asbury Park Press, but could not find one.  That's when I remembered that when Jews die,  their religion requires that they must be buried before the following sunset (Great idea), so  maybe there was not time for an obit.  Then I went on the NJ State Archives website and they have a searchable database for legal name changes.  So I entered the "New Name" as Ruth Moss and BINGO.  Ruth Moskowitz changed her name to Ruth Moss on 7 Apr 1942 in Essex County NJ.  I was off to the Archives and I was able to obtain a copy of the Court Order from the Essex County Court of Common Pleas.  Not only Ruth changed her name, her two brothers: Herman and George, their wives: Celia and Pearl and Herman's daughter Marlene, and George's children: Rita and Malcolm.  Everyone lived at 140 Lehigh Ave in Newark, except Ruth who lived at 21 Borroughs Way, Maplewood.  Not a whole lot of info, but it did remind me of her family.  I remember her talking about all of them as soon as I read the names it came back to me.

When I got home, I ran Ruth Moskowitz through Ancestry.com to check census records and the only one that I found was 1930.  They are living at 155 Lehigh Av, Newark NJ and they are listed as Moskowitz, George age 21 (Head of house), Moskowitz, Herman age 19, and Moskowitz, Ruth age 24.  On the page the last name is listed first and is kind of faded (it is 82 years old) and then the three first names from top to bottom read George Herman Ruth - that is a famous name.  For you non baseball fans that is the name of the immortal Babe - BABE RUTH.  So I guess Ruth was destined to be a Yankee fan.  As a matter of fact, one of her nephews would later be a part owner of the team - I have an old Yankee Yearbook that has his name listed and a photo of him.  The best part of the census record is that is says  that they were all born in New Jersey.  We all know what that means by now "ROAD TRIP" to the archives for birth certificates.  Well that's enough for now, but I'll be back to "Aunt" Ruth when I find more info.