July 4, 2009
Photographs and Memories
In this section, you'll meet some of the dozens of people who sent us letters, photographs, sketches, heirlooms, old advertisements, farm deeds and marriage records.
They're your neighbors, your friends, your co-workers. Their stories are alternately familiar and foreign, ancient and evolving.
| History lives in many places -- a textbook, a telegram, a journal or a faded newspaper. Or between the covers of a family album. |
History also happens when ordinary people do ordinary deeds. Edward P. Hunting, an ancestor of Ben Foster of Hampton Bays, was one of countless Long Islanders who sailed the seas as a whaler in the 19th Century. His detailed journal, unremarkable then, has become a treasured family heirloom that breathes life into a forgotten time.
The Tray family of Levittown made modern history. When Bernard and Mildred Tray abandoned their cramped New York quarters in 1949 for the comfort of suburbia, they were one of thousands of families who made the same move. That mass movement -- a collection of ordinary, individual actions -- transformed Long Island.
Today, new immigrants such as Juan and Martha Moreno, C.M. and Sheeba Abraham, and Nanying Wu and Gang Lin, are making history by infusing our communities with new languages, traditions, religions and holidays. The Morenos fled El Salvador after he was jailed for union organizing, and have remade their home in Westbury. The Abrahams, who left India a decade ago, chose Jericho as the place to raise their three daughters. Nanying Wu and Gang Lin left comfortable jobs in China for the better economic opportunity and political freedom of the United States. Their story may have begun thousands of miles away, but it ends with a firm foot on local soil.
Family albums attempt to convert elusive memories into tangible mementos -- a snapshot may catch an aunt's trademark smirk, but it won't record the joke that prompted it. Family trees can give us birth dates, marriages and deaths, but they tell us little about our ancestors' aspirations, heartaches, gifts or flaws.
But they're our treasures. Within these pages lie cherished artifacts that evoke the past -- while none of them can tell the whole story, all of them record a portion of Long Island's history. ABOUT THIS SECTION
What follows is "Our Family Album."
Katie Thomas is a freelance writer.
Voices From The Past
Much of Long Island's history is written in the memories of people who lived it, waiting to be told to anyone who is there to listen. In this section of ``Long Island: Our Story,'' voices from the past speak to the present. The story is told through oral histories of five people who represent a cross section of Long Island: a kitchen worker at a Gold Coast estate, a Flushing shoeshine man, an Amagansett fisherman, a farmer. The excerpts are edited by George DeWan.
About 'Our Family Album'
The family stories on these pages emerged from readers' letters and interviews with writer Katie Thomas. Though the accounts were edited for clarity and to fit the format of "Our Family Album," our goal throughout was to present them in the voices of the Long Islanders you will meet in this section. The families, old pictures and documents in "Our Family Album" were photographed by Tom Ferrara, with additional photography by Bill Davis, John H. Cornell Jr. and Viorel Florescu.
The Abraham Family
C.M. Abraham has lived in Jericho for two years but says it already feels like home. He is one of hundreds of new immigrants who, like their European predecessors half a century ago, are migrating to the suburbs.
The Bannon Family
Five generations of the Bannon family still live on Long Island. Madeline, 94, the family matriarch, has lived in Flushing since the early '20s, and reared three children. Her daughter, Dorothy, 75, married her high school sweetheart and has lived in Bayside since 1947. Jacqueline Clarke, 51, Dorothy's daughter, moved to Levittown in 1966 and runs an expediting business in Manhattan. Her daughter, Jamie O'Mara, 29, grew up in Levittown and Bethpage; she now lives in West Hills with her husband and daughter, Kelly, who is 6.
The Bohack Family
IN THEIR heyday in the '30s and '40s, Bohacks grocery stores blanketed Long Island, Brooklyn and Queens. The last store may have closed in 1977, but the Bohack family is still here. At least 25 family members live in Queens and Long Island, and a few still remember the chain's legendary founder, H.C. Bohack. As the family story goes, Bohack left his native Germany in 1883 at the age of 17, and upon arriving in America became an apprentice at a grocery store in Brooklyn. He saved every nickel of his meager wages, and in 1887 opened his own store.
The Bunn Family
Ralph Bunn Jr., 44, is a retired cook living in Wheatley Heights. Bunn began researching his family story after high school, when he discovered he needed proof of his American Indian heritage to qualify for government scholarships.
The Cunningham Family
Dave Cunningham, 74, of Dix Hills, saw five of his brothers -- and then himself -- go off to war. When he returned, Cunningham became a television technician, and retired 14 years ago. He and his wife, Ruth, 71, have two children and six grandchildren.
The DiGilio Family
Grumman continues to play a role in Joan DiGilio's family life -- her husband, James, is a past president of the Grumman retirees club in Palm Coast, Fla., where they now live. James' son, Victor, works for the company.
The Ellison Family
Since James Ellison moved to Wyandanch in the 1950s, his family has been an active force in local political and community life. Here, the Rev. Michele Ellison, 43, talks about the impact her family has had on her own life. She lives in Brooklyn.
The Fleischer Family
A VAST WOOD floor with sawdust on it. White, tiled walls. A white enamel display case for the meat. The walk-in freezer that frightened us children. Crates of live chickens on the pickup truck in the lot behind the shop.
The Flower Family
Edward Flower is an office manager for a customs-house broker at Kennedy International Airport and lives in West Hempstead. His interest in tracing the Flower genealogy led to a family reunion that he believes was 200 years overdue.
The Foster Family
Ben Foster, 62, a retired teacher living in Hampton Bays, has a trove of family artifacts. His collection includes powder horns and shot pouches dating back to the Revolutionary War. One of his most prized heirlooms is the diary of his great-grandfather, Edward P. Huntting, who was born in the house on Main Street in Southampton where Foster grew up.
'The Gerardi Family
Joan Gerardi, 33, is an actress living in Ronkonkoma. Her interest in documenting the family history intensified in 1996, when she lost a favorite cousin to cancer. "I realized how precious my family is to me," she writes.
The Hicks Family
Fred Hicks' father, Edward Walter Hicks, moved to Long Island from Connecticut about 1905 and began working at a livery stable for a wealthy Freeport family. Fred Hicks, a retired maintenance worker, raised three daughters in Freeport, where the family had to deal with intense racial bias.
The Kinney Family
Joyce Kinney, 52, is an educational assistant for the Port Washington school district. She hopes that one of her two sons will someday raise his children in the family home.
The Looney Family
Dan Looney, 42, continues his family's legacy in law enforcement as an assistant district attorney for Nassau County. He lives in Farmingdale.
The McCowan Family
Dorothea and June McCowan, sisters who live in Lindenhurst, like to tell Revolutionary War stories about two of their ancestors. Recently, the New York City Parks Department promised them a plaque marking the existence of a 17th Century family gravesite in Ozone Park.
The Poro Family
Kay Erwood, 61, of Islip, is a library teaching assistant in the Islip schools, and is active in many community organizations. Here, she remembers her father, who witnessed the birth of the motion picture industry.
The Raynor Family
For Jeanne and Bob Raynor of Merrick, documenting family history is nearly a full-time affair. Bob traces his ancestry back to Edward Raynor, the founding father of Freeport. His wife, Jeanne, recounts the tale of Capt. Raynor Rock Smith.
The Rothermel Family
Ruth Rothermel, 75, of Setauket, has spent the past two and a half years writing a 300-page family history for her five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. She is the ninth generation of her family on Long Island.
The Segui Family
Charles Segui, 68, is an investment manager living in Huntington. He has three grown daughters.
Bert Smith's Legacy
BERT SMITH left Roanes, Va., to escape his father's oyster boat, Constance Jarrett recalls. "The boat was so cold that his fingers used to freeze and crack open,'' she said. In Miller Place, Smith found work as a farm manager. In 1917, he met Revisa Taylor at the A.M.E. Zion Church in Setauket. She had arrived from Richmond, Va., at about the same time as he, and was a domestic cook for the Strong family of Strongs Neck. They were married a year later. The Smiths were one of the first black families to live in Miller Place. Although the couple are no longer alive, their heritage lives on -- five of their children are alive, as are 31 grandchildren and 57 great-grandchildren.
The Speight Family
Betty Speight, a nurse's aide from Freeport, has two grown children. Five years ago, she said she found a "rarity" -- a good husband. When they married, Speight says her husband, Ned, became like a father to her children.
The Sternemann Family
When Phyllis Sternemann, 38, of Manhasset began researching her family tree, she found a single snapshot of a striking young woman, whom she had never seen before. That woman was Sophie Kuzniewska, her grandfather Roman's sister, but the details of her life remained a mystery. Here is her story.
The Tray Family
Bernard Tray, 76, and his wife, Marsha, 73, raised their three sons in the Levitt home they've lived in for nearly half a century. Their sons now live in Connecticut and California. Their only granddaughter lives in Brooklyn. Here, Bernard remembers the fateful phone call that led him to Levittown.
The Wanderer
ON A RECENT sun-soaked Saturday, Michael Higgins wended his way through a backyard filled with family in Uniondale, loading up on cards, kisses and congratulations for his new master's degree. He walked about happily, chatting with relatives gathered in from Brooklyn, Queens and Nassau.
The Wu-Lin Family
Nanying Wu, 44, her husband, Gang Lin, 44, and their daughter, Gai Lin, 11, moved to Fresh Meadows in 1995. Nanying writes occasional articles for the Chinese-language newspaper the China Press, in which she dispenses practical advice to new arrivals.
Our Towns
This special online section combines community profiles with historical snapshots and maps from the turn of the century. Clicking through the section reveals just how much Long Island and Queens have changed over 100 years.
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