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Title: Hometown Genealogy
Author: Barbara Krasner-Khait
Publisher: Ancestry Magazine
Date: 9/24/09
I had been researching my family’s roots for ten years when I decided to create a photo essay on my hometown of Kearny, New Jersey. My first introduction to the town’s history came during its centennial year when the town historian entered my fourth grade classroom. I was mesmerized by what the woman told us. I visited the main building of the town’s public library, and spent hours in the Kearny Room, which was named after resident General Philip Kearny, a military hero, who was killed during the Battle of Chantilly in 1862. The interest remained with me over the years and finally, in 1999, I contacted Arcadia Publishing in New Hampshire to pitch my book , Images of America: Kearny, New Jersey.
You might be asking yourself about the relevance of town history to family history. I learned that by researching my town, I was also researching my family’s community. I was adding context to my family’s history.
There were additional benefits as well. As a result of my book’s publication, I had become the de facto town historian. I had spent many months documenting the town’s history: its Dutch beginnings, its participation in civic and national events, its schools, places of recreation, shops, and houses of worship.
I thought I knew it all. But I was very wrong. I could not hold a candle to the senior gentlemen who oversee the town museum. I could not hold a candle to members of local societies and organizations. It was from them that I learned about the local dance marathons in the 1930s; that the town hall once sported a spire that was hit by lightning in 1914, stunning the mayor and town clerk; that General John J. Pershing visited a personal friend in town and served as marshal for a World War I memorial parade in 1922, which was attended by 25,000 people. I learned that the town was once home to Civil War and other veterans in the New Jersey Home for Disabled Soldiers until 1932.
The book sold well and became a best-seller for the publisher. I was invited to visit the grammar schools and present the town’s history to enthusiastic groups of kids, who were fascinated by what their neighborhoods looked like 100 years ago. As I presented, I learned more about Kearny from the teachers. They had lived in different neighborhoods than I, and they had had different experiences. One taught me how to properly pronounce Tantaqua.
I learned that my history was missing a key ingredient: people. As with genealogy, a town’s history is much more than a collection of names, places, and dates. It’s about the social, economic, and even political context in which our famili es lived. I decided it was time to get personal. I was going to tell the story of the people of Kearny.
I began a new book project—a photo essay on Kearny’s immigrant heritage. It was to be a 128-page volume with some 200 photos and captions that would illustrate the town’s Scottish, Irish, Swedish, German, Lithuanian, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Latin American, Japanese, and Jewish roots.
I began new research applying the skills I have learned through genealogy. I accessed the Ancestry.com 1920 and 1930 online census data to get an understanding of how the town’s different ethnic groups lived among each other. I scoured pages across a representative sample of its streets across its nine-mile radius. I included the street I grew up on.
The census was just one of the sources I used to compile the essay. Other sources included numerous interviews with current and former residents as well as visits and calls to local restaurants, churches, shops, and schools. I used the Ellis Island database to help fill information gaps. Several of my contributors had done considerable work on their own family histories, and I consulted with them as well.
My goal was to document an unwritten history. That meant focusing on the people of Kearny and learning how and why their families came to town. Doing so helped me learn my family’s community context. You can do the same. Here’s how.
Get the Big Picture
It’s a good idea to first get a general idea of your hometown’s history. A visit to the local library and the town museum or historical society is a must. During Kearny’s centennial period, the town historian documented a great deal of the town’s history.
I found a book of local landmarks and their histories as well as an 1895 book of photos published to entice commuters to settle in Kearny. I also leafed through a few local chamber of commerce booklets from the 1940s, a boom tim e for the town. In fact, several of the town’s manufacturing and shipbuilding companies were awarded an Army-Navy “E” for Excellence for service to the war effort.
Through the museum, I found local residents whose hobby had become the town history. One of these took me on a tour of the old copper mines and showed me an old stone wall in Arlington Cemetery that dated back to the Revolutionary War. I discovered that several celebrities had visited the town (including HBO’s The Sopranos cast, who filmed there—the next time you see Satriale’s Pork Store or Pizzaland, think Kearny). There was also a common thread of soccer, beginning with the Irish and Scottish immigrants and continuing today. In fact, Kearny was home to three of the eleven U.S. World Cup Soccer Team members in 1990.
I learned that Kearny began as a piece of property known to the local Lenni Lenape people as Mighgecticok. It was sold by Chief Tantaqua to Captain William Sandford of Barbados in 1688. The 9.33-square mile area was wedged between the Pasawack (now Passaic) and Hackensack Rivers. The Schuyler family settled in what is now known as New Barbadoes Neck and built a plantation. One of their slaves allegedly discovered copper and mining began. The town was officially named Kearny in 1867.
In 1958, my family moved from a neighboring area to a thirty-year-old home in the section of town called Fairlawn Manor on the site of the former Schuyler mansion. A volunteer at the town museum gave me a copy of the real estate development promotional flyer for Fairlawn Manor from the mid-20s. I researched my street in the 1920 and 1930 censuses to get a feel for the families who lived there, including the original owners of my family’s home.
Kearny became a bustling town, providing a perfect site for New York City commuters. Further, because it was situated between Jersey City and Newark with access to major roadways, waterways, and railroads, it became an ideal l ocation for industry and commerce. Beginning in the 1870s and 1880s, immigrants from the British Isles arrived to work at the textile and floor covering mills and plants and brought with them a heritage that’s still evident in the town. You may even be familiar with some of the brands: Clark Thread and Congoleum floor coverings.
Kearny was home to other immigrants as well. The first Swedish immigrant, Louis Lindblom, came to town in 1879 and invited friends and family to join him. Eventually, there were three Swedish churches in town. Lithuanians have called Kearny home since at least 1895. Greek immigrants Alexandros Golematis and his sister arrived under the Orphan Law in 1952 and opened the local diner in 1958. Takeji Kusanobu, an importer, came to America in 1894 and was the first Japanese immigrant to settle in Kearny.
When and why did your family settle in your hometown? Who were their neighbors? Where did they worship? Be sure you visit the library and town museum, if they exist. Consult the census, if applicable, and find out who once lived on your street and in your house. Search for photos at the library, museum, and local newspaper office that show your street, your school, your church, as well as where you played, where your family shopped, and where you ate.
Establish Municipal Ties
The mayor’s office and a local chamber of commerce can help you access more information. For instance, you might want to know the current demographics of your town and who the largest employers were. I contacted the mayor’s office to enlist his staff’s assistance. I could not have asked for a more supportive team. They provided me with census and employment data as well as contacts for local ethnic organizations.
The most recent census data I received from the mayor’s office gave the town’s ethnic distribution, which includes Irish, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, German, and Scottish ethnicities, among oth ers. I also received a list of ethnic organizations and houses of worship. Later in the process, when I was having trouble getting content to represent Polish and Latin American heritages, the mayor’s staff sent me some helpful names and contact information.
Reach Out to Alumni
There’s more to alumni than the proverbial reunion. Each person has a story to tell. I began by consulting Kearny High School’s alumni directory and website. On the website, I sorted the database by graduation year, and clicked on any ethnic name I could find, particularly Swedish, German, Italian, and anything Slavic. I sent e-mail after e-mail to request help with my book project. A select few, representing Irish, Swedish, Italian, and Lithuanian heritages, replied and provided me with wonderful photos and stories. I began to learn more about the town I had previously known from a skewed geographic perspective. (I lived on the extreme northwest section of town, bordering another town and county.)
I also tried Classmates.com and met with some success there. Further, I thought about all the kids I went to school with and the ethnicities they represented: Italian, Greek, Portuguese, among others. One classmate and I met at a local restaurant for dinner and she gave me the history of the Greek community in town, including the story of her own emigration. Another cla...
Author: Barbara Krasner-Khait
Publisher: Ancestry Magazine
Date: 9/24/09
I had been researching my family’s roots for ten years when I decided to create a photo essay on my hometown of Kearny, New Jersey. My first introduction to the town’s history came during its centennial year when the town historian entered my fourth grade classroom. I was mesmerized by what the woman told us. I visited the main building of the town’s public library, and spent hours in the Kearny Room, which was named after resident General Philip Kearny, a military hero, who was killed during the Battle of Chantilly in 1862. The interest remained with me over the years and finally, in 1999, I contacted Arcadia Publishing in New Hampshire to pitch my book , Images of America: Kearny, New Jersey.
You might be asking yourself about the relevance of town history to family history. I learned that by researching my town, I was also researching my family’s community. I was adding context to my family’s history.
There were additional benefits as well. As a result of my book’s publication, I had become the de facto town historian. I had spent many months documenting the town’s history: its Dutch beginnings, its participation in civic and national events, its schools, places of recreation, shops, and houses of worship.
I thought I knew it all. But I was very wrong. I could not hold a candle to the senior gentlemen who oversee the town museum. I could not hold a candle to members of local societies and organizations. It was from them that I learned about the local dance marathons in the 1930s; that the town hall once sported a spire that was hit by lightning in 1914, stunning the mayor and town clerk; that General John J. Pershing visited a personal friend in town and served as marshal for a World War I memorial parade in 1922, which was attended by 25,000 people. I learned that the town was once home to Civil War and other veterans in the New Jersey Home for Disabled Soldiers until 1932.
The book sold well and became a best-seller for the publisher. I was invited to visit the grammar schools and present the town’s history to enthusiastic groups of kids, who were fascinated by what their neighborhoods looked like 100 years ago. As I presented, I learned more about Kearny from the teachers. They had lived in different neighborhoods than I, and they had had different experiences. One taught me how to properly pronounce Tantaqua.
I learned that my history was missing a key ingredient: people. As with genealogy, a town’s history is much more than a collection of names, places, and dates. It’s about the social, economic, and even political context in which our famili es lived. I decided it was time to get personal. I was going to tell the story of the people of Kearny.
I began a new book project—a photo essay on Kearny’s immigrant heritage. It was to be a 128-page volume with some 200 photos and captions that would illustrate the town’s Scottish, Irish, Swedish, German, Lithuanian, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Latin American, Japanese, and Jewish roots.
I began new research applying the skills I have learned through genealogy. I accessed the Ancestry.com 1920 and 1930 online census data to get an understanding of how the town’s different ethnic groups lived among each other. I scoured pages across a representative sample of its streets across its nine-mile radius. I included the street I grew up on.
The census was just one of the sources I used to compile the essay. Other sources included numerous interviews with current and former residents as well as visits and calls to local restaurants, churches, shops, and schools. I used the Ellis Island database to help fill information gaps. Several of my contributors had done considerable work on their own family histories, and I consulted with them as well.
My goal was to document an unwritten history. That meant focusing on the people of Kearny and learning how and why their families came to town. Doing so helped me learn my family’s community context. You can do the same. Here’s how.
Get the Big Picture
It’s a good idea to first get a general idea of your hometown’s history. A visit to the local library and the town museum or historical society is a must. During Kearny’s centennial period, the town historian documented a great deal of the town’s history.
I found a book of local landmarks and their histories as well as an 1895 book of photos published to entice commuters to settle in Kearny. I also leafed through a few local chamber of commerce booklets from the 1940s, a boom tim e for the town. In fact, several of the town’s manufacturing and shipbuilding companies were awarded an Army-Navy “E” for Excellence for service to the war effort.
Through the museum, I found local residents whose hobby had become the town history. One of these took me on a tour of the old copper mines and showed me an old stone wall in Arlington Cemetery that dated back to the Revolutionary War. I discovered that several celebrities had visited the town (including HBO’s The Sopranos cast, who filmed there—the next time you see Satriale’s Pork Store or Pizzaland, think Kearny). There was also a common thread of soccer, beginning with the Irish and Scottish immigrants and continuing today. In fact, Kearny was home to three of the eleven U.S. World Cup Soccer Team members in 1990.
I learned that Kearny began as a piece of property known to the local Lenni Lenape people as Mighgecticok. It was sold by Chief Tantaqua to Captain William Sandford of Barbados in 1688. The 9.33-square mile area was wedged between the Pasawack (now Passaic) and Hackensack Rivers. The Schuyler family settled in what is now known as New Barbadoes Neck and built a plantation. One of their slaves allegedly discovered copper and mining began. The town was officially named Kearny in 1867.
In 1958, my family moved from a neighboring area to a thirty-year-old home in the section of town called Fairlawn Manor on the site of the former Schuyler mansion. A volunteer at the town museum gave me a copy of the real estate development promotional flyer for Fairlawn Manor from the mid-20s. I researched my street in the 1920 and 1930 censuses to get a feel for the families who lived there, including the original owners of my family’s home.
Kearny became a bustling town, providing a perfect site for New York City commuters. Further, because it was situated between Jersey City and Newark with access to major roadways, waterways, and railroads, it became an ideal l ocation for industry and commerce. Beginning in the 1870s and 1880s, immigrants from the British Isles arrived to work at the textile and floor covering mills and plants and brought with them a heritage that’s still evident in the town. You may even be familiar with some of the brands: Clark Thread and Congoleum floor coverings.
Kearny was home to other immigrants as well. The first Swedish immigrant, Louis Lindblom, came to town in 1879 and invited friends and family to join him. Eventually, there were three Swedish churches in town. Lithuanians have called Kearny home since at least 1895. Greek immigrants Alexandros Golematis and his sister arrived under the Orphan Law in 1952 and opened the local diner in 1958. Takeji Kusanobu, an importer, came to America in 1894 and was the first Japanese immigrant to settle in Kearny.
When and why did your family settle in your hometown? Who were their neighbors? Where did they worship? Be sure you visit the library and town museum, if they exist. Consult the census, if applicable, and find out who once lived on your street and in your house. Search for photos at the library, museum, and local newspaper office that show your street, your school, your church, as well as where you played, where your family shopped, and where you ate.
Establish Municipal Ties
The mayor’s office and a local chamber of commerce can help you access more information. For instance, you might want to know the current demographics of your town and who the largest employers were. I contacted the mayor’s office to enlist his staff’s assistance. I could not have asked for a more supportive team. They provided me with census and employment data as well as contacts for local ethnic organizations.
The most recent census data I received from the mayor’s office gave the town’s ethnic distribution, which includes Irish, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, German, and Scottish ethnicities, among oth ers. I also received a list of ethnic organizations and houses of worship. Later in the process, when I was having trouble getting content to represent Polish and Latin American heritages, the mayor’s staff sent me some helpful names and contact information.
Reach Out to Alumni
There’s more to alumni than the proverbial reunion. Each person has a story to tell. I began by consulting Kearny High School’s alumni directory and website. On the website, I sorted the database by graduation year, and clicked on any ethnic name I could find, particularly Swedish, German, Italian, and anything Slavic. I sent e-mail after e-mail to request help with my book project. A select few, representing Irish, Swedish, Italian, and Lithuanian heritages, replied and provided me with wonderful photos and stories. I began to learn more about the town I had previously known from a skewed geographic perspective. (I lived on the extreme northwest section of town, bordering another town and county.)
I also tried Classmates.com and met with some success there. Further, I thought about all the kids I went to school with and the ethnicities they represented: Italian, Greek, Portuguese, among others. One classmate and I met at a local restaurant for dinner and she gave me the history of the Greek community in town, including the story of her own emigration. Another cla...
Product Description
Since its 1668 purchase by Captain William Sandford, a nine and three-quarter square mile piece of land
between the Passaic and Hackensack Rivers, known since 1898 as the Township of Kearny, has been at the crossroads of history. Industry, great estates, Scottish culture, and world-famous soccer teams have peppered Kearny with a rich, but little-known history. For the first time, the vast holdings of the Kearny Museum, the AT&T Archives, and personal postcard and photograph collections are assembled in one place: Kearny. This book, developed in conjunction with the Kearny Museum, brings the little-known history of Kearny to life. More than 200 photographs and author Barbara Krasner’s painstaking research beautifully and eloquently detail the story of the town, known at different times in its past as Mighgecticok, New Barbadoes Neck, Lodi, Harrison, and of course, Kearny. These pages offer a wonderful journey through the “City of Opportunity” and its storied past, full of kilts, bagpipes, copper mines, textile mills, war heroes, and World Cup Champions.
between the Passaic and Hackensack Rivers, known since 1898 as the Township of Kearny, has been at the crossroads of history. Industry, great estates, Scottish culture, and world-famous soccer teams have peppered Kearny with a rich, but little-known history. For the first time, the vast holdings of the Kearny Museum, the AT&T Archives, and personal postcard and photograph collections are assembled in one place: Kearny. This book, developed in conjunction with the Kearny Museum, brings the little-known history of Kearny to life. More than 200 photographs and author Barbara Krasner’s painstaking research beautifully and eloquently detail the story of the town, known at different times in its past as Mighgecticok, New Barbadoes Neck, Lodi, Harrison, and of course, Kearny. These pages offer a wonderful journey through the “City of Opportunity” and its storied past, full of kilts, bagpipes, copper mines, textile mills, war heroes, and World Cup Champions.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
COPPER MINING OPENS THE ROAD TO SCHUYLER'S WEALTH. Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Courtesy of the Kearny Museum, Courtesy of Norman Prestup, Kearny Avenue, Midland Avenue, Courtesy of Craig Stewart, Passaic River, Belgrove Drive, Elm Street, Devon Street, Erie Railroad, Lincoln School, Belleville Turnpike, Kearny High School, Old Soldiers Home, West Hudson Park, Passaic Avenue, Quincy Avenue, Washington School, Arent Schuyler, Civil War, Courtesy of George Rogers, Courtesy of Herman Gauch, Davis Avenue, Knox Presbyterian Church, Laurel Hill New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
COPPER MINING OPENS THE ROAD TO SCHUYLER'S WEALTH. Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Courtesy of the Kearny Museum, Courtesy of Norman Prestup, Kearny Avenue, Midland Avenue, Courtesy of Craig Stewart, Passaic River, Belgrove Drive, Elm Street, Devon Street, Erie Railroad, Lincoln School, Belleville Turnpike, Kearny High School, Old Soldiers Home, West Hudson Park, Passaic Avenue, Quincy Avenue, Washington School, Arent Schuyler, Civil War, Courtesy of George Rogers, Courtesy of Herman Gauch, Davis Avenue, Knox Presbyterian Church, Laurel Hill New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 3
books:
- American Football Book by Ken Thomas on page 119
- Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell on page 66
- Keeping the Faith: The Polish Community in Britain by Tim Smith in Front Matter
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