Frank Burton Doherty was born on March 5, 1886 in South Boardman, Kalkaska County, Michigan. He was the son of Albert Burton Doherty and Rosetta May Rossman. He was the grandson of Alexander Andre Doherty, the immigrant from Ireland who settled in northern Michigan in the 1840s. Frank Doherty grew up on a farm near Fife Lake, Michigan. He was the oldest child and son. His brothers...
Ruth Ann Anderson Barry
Ruth Anderson was born on March 13, 1928. She was the fourth child of Clarence Anderson and Anna Pavlosk. Aunt Ruth, (“Annie Ruth” my toddler version) was my godmother, and my favorite aunt growing up. I saw her every couple of months when my parents made trips to Elizabeth for shopping and visits. Those trips always included a stop to her apartment in 331 Elmora Avenue, in the Elmora section...
Grace Monica Anderson Townsend
Grace Anderson was born on November 23, 1935. She was the younger twin. Her older sister was Gertrude Emily Anderson. Gertrude died on April 15, 1936 of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Aunt Grace said that she missed her twin all her life. Grace Anderson was the youngest child of Clarence Anderson and Anna Pavlosk. When she was born, her parents lived at 13 Atlantic Avenue, Elizabeth, New...
Clara Marion Anderson Abbott
My aunt, Clara Abbott, turned 88 a few days ago. She was born on February 25, 1933, during the depth of the Great Depression. She was a teenager and young woman in 1940s and 1950s America. Those years were dominated by World War II, McCarthyism, post-war conformity, and social mobility. They also seeded change in the decades to follow by the exodus of families from cities to the suburbs, and...
Alexander Andre Doherty
Alexander Andre Doherty came to America from Londonderry, Ireland in 1830. He was born on February 18, 1812. He married Mary Elizabeth Van Buren. Their children included Joseph Alex Andre; Nancy Ann, Alice Cornelia, Louisa Jane, Albert Burton, George Brinton McClellan, Thomas Francis Meager, Evelyn (died at the age of three or four). His children had numerous children. I am descended...
Mina Tran Irwin
Mina Tran was born in Perth, Australia on February 14, 1985. Valentine’s Day could not be a better symbol for her loving heart and kind nature. Her parents were born in Vietnam and immigrated to Australia in the aftermath of the “American” or “Vietnam” war. Eventually they made their home in Sydney and were successful entrepreneurs. A boy I went out with in high school, Brian Orr, was killed in...
Anna M. Pavlosk
The Elizabeth Daily Journal published a story about Anna Pavlosk’s sudden death on page 8 of the February 9, 1912 edition. The headline read: “Heart Attack Fatal in Downtown Woman.” “Mrs. Ann M. Pavlosk, of 246 Fulton street, while on her way to a store last night shortly before 8 o’clock, was stricken with heart failure in Third street near Marshall street. She was carried into the...
John F. Paloske
John Francis Paloske was born on February 6, 1902 in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He was the first son and second child of Frank Pavlosk and Annie Pitoff Pavlosk. John Paloske was a first generation American; his father was born in Prussia and his mother in Germany. The family name has been spelled in various ways: Pavlosk, Pavloske, Pavlosky, and Paloske. John had three siblings. Anna...
Fred Nason, Florence Curtis, and the Anniversary of the Monarch Slide
On this day 114 years ago, Fred Nason and Florence Curtis were killed in the Monarch Slide near Garfield, Colorado. All their children, including my grandmother, Edna Nason, survived the disaster. Read about the Monarch Slide here.
I discovered this sketch with my mother’s papers. I believe it is of the young Fred Nason.
Clarence Anderson
Clarence Anderson was a complex and wounded person. He was capable of great charm, and savage emotional and physical violence. He told my mother, “Always remember we are descended from kings.” Researching his life is like walking on dead end streets and dark alleys. Clarence’s life took a downturn after his father, Carl Anderson, died in Elizabeth General Hospital on September 16, 1930 of a...