I finally found a rich relative among my mottley crew of ancestors. . .sort of . . .
Most of my ancestors were poorer than dirt . . .and few made it past elementary school.
My sister, who shares my interest in genealogy, and I are trying to find another Revolutionary Patriot. We are obviously in D.A.R. We’ve been researching Margaret Brinkerhoff. She was the daughter of Hendrick Brinkerhoff and Annetje Vreeland. Margaret was born in New Jersey in approximately 1787. She somehow met and ran off with William Wallace and they were married in Trinity Church, an Episcopalian Parish, in 1801. Her family were all members of the Dutch Reformed Church and this may have caused a family rift. If you have visited the site of the World Trade Center Towers or visited the Wall Street area, that is the church they were married in.
Trinity Church Parish
This old postcard is not of the original church. The original church was destroyed in a fire, which started in the Fighting Cocks Tavern and destroyed nearly 500 buildings and houses and left thousands of New Yorkers homeless. Six days later, most of the city’s volunteer firemen followed General Washington north.
But back to my relatives. When you hit a brick wall in genealogy, you go back and try researching lesser players, i.e., children of the people you are researching and their relatives. I was searching obituaries today on genealogybank.com to see if I could find out more about Margaret Brinkerhoff and William Wallace.
One of their daughters, Mary Wallace, married Isaac Lewis. Mary Wallace was born in 1810 in New York City and Isaac Lewis was born in 1807 in Stratford, Connecticut. Mary died on 17 Nov 1891. Isaac Lewis died on 2 Feb 1892.
But, wow! When I started reading his obituary and finding newspaper articles about him, I saw that he was an extremely wealthy man. OK. . .OK, I confess, he isn’t exactly a relative, but he was the husband of my third great aunt on the Wallace side. So I actually still have struck out on having any wealthy ancestors and only have inebriates, coal miners and the slightly deranged. Sigh.
Obituary of Isaac Lewis, printed in the New York Tribune on Friday, February 5, 1892.
Obituary from The New York Times
Below is what can be found now at 107 East 13th Street, NY, NY. This address was printed in his obituary.
What is Now at 107 East 13th Street, NY, NY
After I found the obituary for Isaac, I found a notice of the sale of his real estate. “The following private sale is reported: Ascher Weinstein has bought nos. 105 and 107 East Fifteenth St. between Union Square and Irving Place. . . .This is part of the estate of Isaac Lewis”
Real Estate, Business at the Exchanges. Printed in the New York Tribune on Tuesday, November 22, 1892.
This area is now part of New York University (NYU), and 107 East 15th Street is where the The Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute is located. And all of this is near my very favorite book store in the entire world — The Strand, which is located at 828 East 12th Street, NYC. No visit to NYC is complete without a trip to The Strand.
105 East 15th Street, NY, NY
107 East 15th Street, NY, NY
But it gets better. Isaac Lewis was a big investor in the “L”. It isn’t the “L” subway line that we know now, but a road to Brooklyn. My daughter and her husband bought their condo in Brooklyn precisely to be close to the “L” subway. The L subway is a straight shot into Manhattan. It is so much faster and easier than a car or a cab. And, voila!, you can get off right in Union Square (where Isaac Lewis lived) and visit The Strand. And, even better, by living in Brooklyn, they get a tiny bit of outdoor space. Which is a rare commodity in NYC and Brooklyn.
It kind of makes you wonder about DNA and retained genetic knowledge. I have loved The Strand since I first set foot in it. And my daughter loves the L so much that she moved close to a station in Brooklyn. Strange!
I am going to attach three parts of different articles detailing Isaac Lewis’ interest in the L and the bridges to Brooklyn. Please note that another gentleman named was Senator McCarren. He has a park named for him close to where my daughter and her family lives.
Contentions Resulting from the death of Isaac Lewis
Information about the History of the L
Description of Isaac Lewis’s Investment
Francis Woodruff Family
I remember trying to find family information before the internet, but it was a slow and arduous job. Now, with the internet, fast computers and the plethora of online documents — it is so pleasurable that it can become an addiction. I “met” the author of the blog titled “Chips Off the Old Block” online because we share many common ancestors. My Dickinson ancestors married into the Woodruff family (or vice versa). The Dickinson family is my link to the Mayflower. Rather than rewriting “Chips” blog post about Francis and Mary Jane Woodruff’s family, I am going to reblog it. Their daughter Emma married John W. Dickinson. I’ve written about John being a dentist in Brooklyn, NY, in an earlier post. And his father was a coroner in Williamsburgh (Williamsburg), NY. (please see earlier posts)
Posts About Dead Relatives 