January 8, 2021 is the 10th anniversary of my mother’s death. Helen Louise Anderson Doherty was born at home in Elizabeth, New Jersey on September 10, 1923. She spent most of her life in New Jersey, and her later years in Vermont and Florida. Mom was the third child and second daughter of Anna Pavlosk and Clarence Anderson. She was probably the least liked of her siblings since she was selfish...
The Chinese Wife
My mother told me that Dad, Eugene Nason Doherty, married a woman when he lived in China. Her father sold her to him, and he married her in a “Chinese ceremony.” She was about 13 or 14. Dad was stationed near Peiping, (Beijing) China in 1945-1946. He left the young woman in China when he was shipped backed to the United States. He went home to his wife, Helen Anderson Doherty, who he married...
Grandmother’s Hair
This lock of hair is from my grandmother, Anna Pavloske Anderson. She died in 1937 and is buried in Rosehill Cemetery in Linden, New Jersey. At that time, wakes were held in homes. She lived at 13 Atlantic Street in Elizabeth, NJ. My mother was 14 years old when her mother died. She told me that she went downstairs during the night and held her dead mother’s hand until she was chased back...
Buffalo Bill
I know of very few personal belongings of my great-grandfather, Karl Andersen. He was born in Grimstad, Norway in the 1850s, a second or third son of the family. Karl became a ship’s carpenter and ended up in Elizabeth, New Jersey in the 1870s or 1880s. My mother, Helen Anderson Doherty, told me about his beautifully carved sea chest, his massive canopied oak bed, and his Buffalo Bill photo. ...