Broida Family (Click for Family Tree)

Yesterday’s “Mystery Monday: Leonard Broida Artwork” post told some of the story of Leonard and his family, and his beautiful architectural drawings that have recently come back to the family. Today, we are going to share what might be Leonard’s most enduring legacy to family: the Broida Family Tree.

Leonard was very active in the Broida Family and their reunions through the 30s, 40s, and 50s, and served as family historian.

He also served as President, and his wife Anita (Meyer) Broida was the Broida Newsletter editor.

He spent an unbelievable number of hours and years interviewing and contacting people- in the days before cheap phone calls and the internet- to develop the incredible Broida Family Tree. I wonder how many SASEs he sent out over those years??

We are so thankful that Leonard was so dedicated, as he had known the earlier generations, who were children and grandchildren of the earliest documented; they held the memories passed down through the years. So much would have been lost to time without the work of Leonard Broida.

The last iteration we have of Leonard’s tree is from 1954, 62 years ago. Two-three more generations have been born since then!

We have learned in these days of online records that some of the tree is not quite accurate, and there are some confusing spots that need a bit of work to sort out.

It doesn’t matter- what a labor of love! Mitch Gooze is the current keeper of the Broida tree, and though his is electronic and thus not quite as decorative, the tree is now up to date as far as we know. I hope that this blog is also a way of keeping the family history alive- how I wish we had recorded interviews and the letters from Leonard’s correspondence! We have so many people who have contributed so much to the knowledge of the Broida family ancestors, and hope that trough the blog, social media, websites like Ancestry.com and Find A grave, we will learn much more.

I think that Leonard would be proud that the family has carried on his work, and so honored our ancestors.

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1. SASE= self-addressed, stamped envelope. For our younger generations, old-time genealogy consisted of writing a note with pen and paper or typing it on a manual or electric typewriter, then sending that note in an actual paper envelope. One always included a SASE, since asking for the favor of a reply with information. One would not burden the letter recipient with having to buy an envelope or stamp, nor take the time to address an envelope.
2. “Mystery Monday: Leonard Broida Artwork“-   http://heritageramblings.net/2016/04/04/mystery-monday-leonard-broida-artwork/

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Original content copyright 2013-2016 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Broida Family (Click for Family Tree)

Incredible resources spring up on a daily basis, whether they are just becoming available online or whether they are just now showing up in my search results. A  recent find is the University of Denver’s “Digital DU.”

Some of our Broida family went to Denver around 1900 (John and Gitel Broida, and their sons Joseph Broida and Harold Broida), then returned to Pittsburgh after Gitel died; Pittsburgh was where many of the family had settled earlier. (See previous posts, including this one about the Broidas in Denver.) A son who had stayed in Pennsylvania with family while his mother was ill, Theodore “Dave” Broida, married in Aurora, CO, in 1916, then lived in the Denver area and raised a family. It was puzzling why Dave moved to Denver, of all places, but the recent repository find gives us some clues. So do recent serendipitous comments when talking with the generations that were closer to the time and people.

One dear cousin who is an incredible, deep well of Broida information told me this week that Gerald Broida told her years ago that young Jewish boys used to ride the trains west, selling candy to passengers; his father, Dave Broida, was one of them. One day Dave got off the train in Denver, fell in love with the place, and decided to move there. Gerald had also commented that the 1916 wedding of Dave Broida and Lucy Shatzke was the first Jewish wedding in Arapahoe County, Colorado.

A second conversation that same night with a different family member revived her memories of Dave Broida sending the three sisters a box of 100 pieces of Double Bubble Bubble Gum from Denver occasionally during the war years, when food and candy was rationed. Bubble gum used latex rubber for its chewiness, but rubber and manufacturing facilities were needed more for tires for jeeps and military trucks, gaskets, seals, inflatable vests, etc., so bubble gum was hard to come by in the mid 1940s. The young girls rationed out their sweet treasure of bubble gum from their great-uncle, and no doubt were envied by friends. “Dave and Lucy [Broida] were in the candy business” she said also, and the light bulb went on. Here was more information to corroborate that Dave had been one of the young boys selling candy on a train as they were off to see the world. A rest stop in Denver with the clean air (compared to polluted Pittsburgh) and beautiful mountains even higher than those of Pennsylvania may have made him realize he had found the home for his heart. He would have had knowledge of candy wholesalers to buy his wares for the train, so getting into the candy business later would have been logical.

In the 1920 US Federal Census, however, Dave was mistranscribed as being a ‘machinist’ but is actually a ‘merchant’ in the furniture business.

The next US census, in 1930,  lists Theodore D. Broida as a salesman for novelty goods. That could be candy and all those impulse items at the register. A 1940 census entry has not yet been found for the family, but would be very useful. City directories or newspapers might have more information to verify Dave’s occupation, so a Google search was next. The search found The West End Press article above. While about G. Broida being in a wrestling tourney at a weight of 145 pounds (he was 17 then), Gerald Broida was Dave and Lucy’s son. The link led to “Digital DU.”

There are 633 hits on The West End Press at “Digital DU” but “Broida” does not have any hits, so either the search engine does not go into pages of the newspaper, or else I haven’t figured out how to use the website. (There is an advanced search and even a how-to, but still no Broida results though we know there is at least one mention in the newspaper.) A note to the digital librarian may help, so that is on the agenda. Looking through other areas of the site, however, showed more interesting areas to peruse. There is a “Special Collections and Archives” section that provided more clues to our family story. Apparently Denver, as suspected, was a location that a lot of people with ‘consumption’ (tuberculosis), such as Gitel Broida, moved to, looking for a cure for their disease. It became a problem for Denver to grow so fast, and more sanitariums were founded to serve those who needed medical care. The Digital DU website lists the “Jewish Consumptives Relief Society Records” from the organization founded by Eastern European Jewish men in 1904 (so too late for Broida records), many of whom had the disease themselves. (See image of Patients Undergoing Heliotherapy– likely Gitel Broida underwent the same treatment years earlier.) The Jewish population of Denver was growing and thriving as well, and the Special Collections and Archives contain Jewish artifacts as well as documents.

This website appears to be worth investigating further, especially how to navigate and search more effectively.

Searching nearby universities and their digital libraries is a great resource for family historians- otherwise, how would we have known that Gerald Broida weighed 145 lbs. in 1945 and wrestled in a Jewish league?

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1) 1930 US Federal Census for Joseph Shatzke, head of household- Year: 1920; Census Place: Aurora, Adams, Colorado; Roll: T625_155; Page: 18B; Enumeration District: 8; Image: 207. Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.

2) 1930 US Federal Census for Theodore Broida, head of household- Year: 1930; Census Place: Denver, Denver, Colorado; Roll: 232; Page: 2B; Enumeration District: 0220; Image: 1045.0; FHL microfilm: 2339967. Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002.

3) Jewish Consumptives Relief Society Records – http://digitaldu.coalliance.org/fedora/repository/codu:32554

Patients undergoing heliotherapy- http://digitaldu.coalliance.org/fedora/repository/codu:60066

4) Special Collections and Archives- http://digitaldu.coalliance.org/fedora/repository/codu%3A17451

5) The West End Press article- http://digitaldu.coalliance.org/fedora/repository/codu%3A55006/B121.02.0010.0006.00016_access.pdf/access

6) Denver University’s Digital DU– http://digitaldu.coalliance.org

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Original content copyright 2013-2015 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

➡ Broida Family

A previous post, entitled Samuel Broida- An Unknown Son of John Zelig Broida and Gitel Frank? posed the question of the parents of a young Samuel who is buried in the family plot. At the time of writing that post, I did not go to each of the US Federal Censuses, but should have at least looked at the 1900 census for the family. In that census, Gitel was still alive (she died in 1901) but the census asks “Mother of how many children?” and then “Number of these children living?” While looking for some other information this past week on that census, I noticed that Gitel’s entry states that she was the mother of ten children, with only seven still living. This helps to explain some of the gaps in childbearing.

The 1900 census states that John and Gitel had been married 19 years, so that would put their marriage in 1881. Son Joseph Broida was then born in 1882, Louis Broida in 1884, and Max Broida in 1886. Phillip E. Broida was born in 1887, and Samuel Broida, who likely was their child, in 1889. There was then a gap before Theodore “Dave” Broida’s birth in 1893, and another gap before Morris Broida was born in 1896. Their last son, Harold, was born in 1897, when Gitel was 38 years old. Thus there may have been children born about 1891 and 1894-5, but they didn’t survive. We will need to search for burial information in Beth Hamedrash Hagodol-Beth Jacob Cemetery, McKees Rocks (Allegheny County), Pennsylvania for these dear little ones.

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1) Previous post about young Samuel Broida: http://heritageramblings.net/2013/11/20/samuel-broida-an-unknown-son-of-john-zelig-broida-and-gitel-frank/

2) 1900 US Federal Census for John Broida, Head of Household, in Denver, Colorado: Year: 1900; Census Place: Denver, Arapahoe, Colorado; Roll: 120; Page: 5B; Enumeration District: 0126; FHL microfilm: 1240122

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Copyright 2013-2015 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

One of our readers, and an excellent Broida researcher, asks a question about who the Rogow family is, and how they are related to the Broidas we are researching. Following is an engagement announcement he found in the 27 Jun 1924 issue of The Jewish Criterion from Pittsburgh, PA:

Krieger—Rogow

Mrs. Goldie Krieger, of Shermaiv Avenue, North Side, announces the engagement of her daughter, Eva, to I. Rogow, of New Kensington, Pa.

Also, the 30 Sep 1927 issue of The Jewish Criterion states that they have a son named Bernard.

Anyone know more about this family and their connection to the Broidas?

Notes, Sources, and References:

1) Family oral history.

2) A special thanks to Jim Whitener for his conversations with Gertrude (Broida) Cooper asking her to identify many of these old photos, and for writing it down and sharing.

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Copyright 2013 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Thanksgiving was not a holiday when our ancestors took photos- at least, not until small personal cameras were readily available and film and developing it inexpensive. So despite having a large family photo collection, I have no Thanksgiving photos from days long past. This photo, originally thought to be a family reunion, is like a Thanksgiving get-together: lots of loved ones, lots of food, lots of fun, lots of laughter.  Stories are exchanged, children run and play with cousins, and all feel the same fullness of belly and soul after a big day together. Family reunions, like holiday get-togethers, help us to know our place within the family tree, and within time and place.

Notes, Sources, and References:

1) Frank & Seder picnic in the Frank’s yard. Frank & Seder was a clothing store in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, plus they had branches in other cities. Many Broidas worked at the Pittsburgh store, and Mr. Seder was a cousin, so their get-togethers had some hints of a family reunion. The man standing in the back in the suit, looking at the camera is John Broida. His oldest son Joseph Broida is on his right, with Joseph’s elbow resting on his brother Philip Broida’s shoulder. The second woman to John’s left, in the dark dress, is Bess Dorothy (Green) Broida (Philip’s wife). Fanny Broida is on Bessie’s left- we think she is John’s second wife, but there are a lot of women named Fanny in the family. The time period may have been the late 1920s or early 1930s.

2) Frank & Seder store information, plus photographs: Seder Family Photographs, c. 1900-1940, PSS#31, Rauh Jewish Archives, Library and Archives Division, Senator John Heinz History Center. http://digital.library.pitt.edu/images/pittsburgh/seder.html. Accessed 11-27-2013.

3) Family oral and written history notes.

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Copyright 2013-2015 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.