Finding neighbors and friends of my ancestors is always fun. Alice Leeuwenhoek received two postcards from girls who posted them from Portland, Oregon. Luckily, one girl, Eva Maul, signed her entire name so it was easy to look them up.
As Eva’s July 28, 1909, postcard states, the Maul family moved from Kalamazoo to Portland, Oregon.
On the 1910 census they are living in Portland:
Peter and Jennie Maul, with their children: Henry, Gertrude, Maurice, Eva, Jeannette, Garrett, and John. Eva was fourteen, so when she wrote the postcard, she was about thirteen. Gertrude was 17. She wrote the other postcard in 1912, when she was 19.
Notice she complains Alice hasn’t been writing, which makes me wonder how many friends the Maul girls made in their new home.
“Lovingly” seems to indicate that Gertrude and Alice had been very good friends. Alice was born in 1897, so in 1912 she would have been 15, so she was actually closer in age to Eva–even a bit younger.
I started to wonder if these girls had been neighbors of Alice and could be found in my old photographs. So I did another search. Well well well. In the 1906 Kalamazoo City Directory Peter Maul was a butcher who lived at 112 Balch Street, right next door to Alice’s family! Uncle Lou was a grocer who lived at 110 Balch Street with his family. Alice’s mother’s name was Jennie–and so was the mother of Eva and Gertrude. I guess they all had a lot in common.
But why would Eva have to send Alice a postcard saying that they had moved when they lived next door? How odd.
Although I couldn’t spend too much time on this, a naturalization document popped up from decades later for father Peter Maul in Portland. His history is convoluted. He listed his race as Dutch, but his nationality as British. He emigrated from Calgary, Canada, but was born in Zeeland, Michigan, in 1866. WHAT? It makes no sense. By 1933 he was married to a woman named Blanche who hailed from the western part of the country. Before you think it’s a different Peter, the document lists all his children as well as an additional child.
This would be a fascinating thread to follow, but alas, there is so much to be done in my own branches, I have to stop here for now. For those of you who follow this blog and have been in contact over family branches–and posts you have not seen–I plan to spend a little more time in 2017 on genealogy and share some of the information I’ve been blessed with from all of you!
Very interesting. It is so easy to get sidetracked on to other interesting things. Thanks for sharing this.
Haha, so true!
Nice piece and something so many people overlook when they work on the family tree. Neighbors and friends could fill in the holes to the life story of uncle Harry or aunt Beatrice. You should create a family tree called “Friends of Alice Leeuwenhoek” and on it have her mother and father and siblings along with all her friends. It would be a tree that would hold photo copies/screen prints of all the items she received from her friends. I’ve create many such trees and can help you set it up.
Thanks for another wonderful post.
Thanks for the idea! I am wondering about setting up a tree for all these neighbors. I would like to recreate neighborhood, at least in my mind, around 1900-1920. Who was in each house, etc.
I did chuckle at how you went off on this side trip—I do it all the time. Looking at the first postcard, I was reminded of postcards I’d write at about that age—signing my full name as if the recipient didn’t know who I was otherwise. And I don’t think she was informing Alice that she’d moved (Alice had to know that), but rather that they had arrived. Kids weren’t any more sophisticated back then than they are today! I guess Alice lost interest, but the Maul girls probably missed their hometown and so tried harder to stay in touch. Moving as a teenager is very difficult.
You are probably right about that last name touch haha. So hard to move for teenagers, and I can’t imagine it wasn’t the same in those days. I think I get your point about the wording: her use of the word “moved” was misused. She really meant “arrived.” Right?
That’s what I think!
I thought de secund postcard wuz de bestest! Don’t we all go off on side trips more often than we should?
LOL! I like in that second one how she mentions “your folks” because that is an expression I grew up with, and I never hear people say that any more. Yes, but I think Jose is right that the side trips can be invaluable to piecing together information.
I love old postcards and trying to connect them back to the senders/receivers. Great article. Chasing rabbits right along with you!
It’s so much fun!!!
You’ve compiled a lot in intriguing bits of information about Alice’s family. Some families have complicated histories.
Yes, they do. Some a lot more than others 😉. Thanks so much, Sheryl!