Florence Marie Anderson was born on November 14, 1920 in Elizabeth, NJ. She was the second child and oldest daughter of Anna Louise Paloske and Clarence Anderson. Florence was very petite, 4’11”. She had a beautiful smile. Aunt Florence, “Flo” enjoyed hooking rugs and country dancing. She married Churchill “Buddy” Thompson who was also from Elizabeth. He was the son of Edith Leach...
Clarence Anderson (1894-1953)
The story of Clarence Anderson’s life is filled with holes, gaps, and questions. His parents were both dead before my mom and her brothers and sisters were old enough to ask or remember their stories. A vindictive in-law, Anne Finlan, disliked the Andersens intensely (why?) and destroyed boxes of papers and keepsakes when Karl Andersen died in 1930. Those papers–letters, documents, photos...
Frank Pavlosk
Frank Pavlosk, my great grandfather, was born on October 1, 1871. He immigrated from Marienwerder, West Prussia, in 1887 or thereabouts when he was in his late teens. Marienwerder is now the northern Polish city of Kwidzyn, located about 60 miles from the Baltic Sea. He left with his brothers and sisters, and they never went back. Their mother and father remained in Prussia. The family were...
Mary Paloske
Mary Paloske died or was interred on April 9, 1947. She was 43 (or 49) years old. Easter that year was celebrated on April 6. It was her last holiday. I believe that she died from a stroke, and that her death was unexpected. Her father, Frank Paloske (or Pavlosk) deeply grieved her passing, and spent extravagantly on her funeral. Mary Paloske was born on November 27, 1904. (The 1910 U.S...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...