Genealogy as History: New Netherlands

If you are a Knickerbocker then some of your earliest ancestors to the new world were Dutch and lived here in North America in a place that was then called New Netherlands. The first Knickerbocker, Harmon Knickerbocker ( there was no such surname until he started using it), and his wife Lysbet Bogaert were both immigrants from Holland.

A fantastic book about the times and places they lived is: The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America by Russell Shorto.

Mom Migrations

My mother ( Marjorie Ann Knickerbocker) was born in Minnesota but eventually moved to California. Before marrying my father ( Peter Richard Wainer) she lived with her sister Helen, her husband ( John O. Vesterby), and another sister Eleanor Knickerbocker in Los Angeles. When I was very young I remember going to Aunt Helen and Uncle John’s house and being fascinated by their backyard rose garden and the fact that it was a two story house with an easy way to the roof. I remember no one would actually let me up on the roof by myself, but as a young kid, it was pretty intriguing.

In going over some old emails, I ran into one from Shirley that had a picture of the old house with my Aunt Eleanor standing in front of it. I was also able to track the address down from 1960 voter registration rolls in LA County. One of these days I’ll have to hop up that way and take a current picture. The one in Google maps isn’t quite the thing.

Wainer fun with the 1950 Census part 2

Here’s my Aunt Alice Wainer in 1950. At this point in her life she is still going by the first name of Olga and is working as a secretary.