Part 2 - SECTION IV

ROSES OF AMERICA.

ROCHESTER

The reason we decided to visit Rochester in New York in the year 2000 started from a small idea.

Rona had found some distant cousins in and near to Boston Mass. And we thought it would be a good idea to try and see them on our trip to the U.S. (We were to visit my fathers cousins in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Chicago).

My original plan was to fly from Sydney to Los Angeles then visit Las Vegas and then Chicago and then fly back to Australia. When we decided to go further and visit Boston, a side trip to Niagara Falls seemed to be a good idea and I looked at using the train from Boston to Niagara and on back to Chicago where we would fly on to Las Vegas etc.It was whilst I was looking at a map of the U.S. and realising how close Rochester was to Niagara that I felt it would be interesting to try and visit Rochester for perhaps a day and see where my aunts (my mothers sisters) were buried. Three of my mothers sisters - Florence, Minnie and Ethel ROSE all went to Rochester in the early 1900's

It also crossed my mind that we would be travelling all the way across the U.S. and then back track to come home. By changing our ticketing we were able to fly from Australia via Singapore and pay a short visit to see my sister Kathleen in England and have a week side trip to Ireland for Rona to do some research in Co. Clare. We were then able to fly to Boston and make our way across the U.S. to the other places we wanted to stop without back tracking. Whilst the train seemed a good idea to start with and would have been interesting, the departure times were not very convenient and I changed this.

After deciding to have perhaps a one day visit to Rochester I was left with a blank page of not knowing where any of my aunts were buried. I wrote a letter to the Rochester Police Department looking for information about the husband of my Aunt Florrie. Her husbands name was William (Bill) Schmidt and of German origin and had been a policeman in the Rochester Police Dept, New York State U.S.A..

My mother had corresponded with her, both in England and after we had come to Australia, and on a couple of occasions I had written to her as well and she sent me some U.S. stamps including the first day of issue of the Eastman Kodak stamp. (Kodak film factory is in Rochester). I still have this and also one of her letters, which I will include in the appendix. In one of her letters I remember her writing to Mum that she was glad Mum had her children around.

In her letters Aunt Florrie kept saying that Bill was very sick, and this seemed to go on for a number of years and it must have been a strain on her. Whilst they probably had a police pension, in a period of inflation and no State welfare, I think that they might have had a struggle to survive. A few years before we lost contact with them they moved from their old address and I got the impression it was because the new one was cheaper and they could not afford to stay where they were.

They lived at 25 Lux Street and 1496 East Main Street, ROCHESTER and we believed that both William and Florrie both must have died about the same time as Mum in c.1972. My sister Elsie wrote to East Main Street to tell Florrie about Mum's death and did not get any reply.

The only other thing we knew about my other aunts were their names - Minnie and Ethel. One small nugget of information, which Elsie remembered, was that we received a photograph - probably from Florrie - showing a young woman in a graduation dress and a mortar-board. She remembered that her name was Florence Johnson and that probably the photograph was given to my brother John and has been lost for many years. This Florence was not a daughter of Florrie but of my aunt Minnie, which meant the Minnie had married a Mr. Johnson. This was all we knew.

Knowing that Aunt Florries husband was a policeman and named William Schmidt, I wrote to the Rochester Police Department setting out what I knew in the hope that they would have some record of him at least before he retired, presumably before the Second World War. I did receive a very courteous letter from an officer advising that they could not find any trace of him and I was back to square one. My next approach was to search on the Internet to find out if there was a genealogical society in Rochester and if they were able to carry out any research and how much it would cost. Got a quick reply and they advised they did not do research but were able to give me the names of some local researchers and their email addresses. I picked one and sent him the details of what I knew and asked could he help and how much. Within a few days he replied 'yes' he could find out the details of when my Aunt Florrie died and that it would take 2 to 3 hours at $20 per hour. This sounded very reasonable and I ask him to go ahead and asked if he would want the money first. He replied no. Within a couple of weeks he sent me an email to say that he had found the details I wanted and that it took 3 hours and that the full details were in the mail to me. The preliminary information was that I was way out in thinking Aunt Florie had died in about 1972. In fact she did not die until 1988 at the age of 106.

The package he sent me included newspapers cuttings of 1985 when my aunt was 103 and when she had flown in a small aeroplane for the first time in her life. The flight had been arranged by a friend who knew her. This was Marlene and her son Bob Green. The cutting confirmed that her late husband Bill had been a policeman and that Florrie had come from England. Two other important pieces of information were also in the cutting. It referred to a niece named Florence Johnson and this confirmed the memory about the photograph. The name of the researcher was Kevin Monaghan and he said that he had checked the local directories and had found the address of Florence Johnson for 1988 and had checked the current directory. The address shown in 1988 was still there but the persons name had changed to a Pearson Johnson. I could only guess that Florence may have died and that either a son or a grandson had inherited to property. In the hope that this relative might be interested I wrote a lettter to Mr Pearson Johnson.in November 1999.

Two days before Christmas Day in 1999 at about 6 o'clock in the morning the phone rang and a lady with an American accent announced to me that I was her cousin and that she was Florence Johnson and that she was overwhelmed to have heard from me. She was 85 years old.

She sent me a long letter and a lot of photographs as well as information about her family. From then onwards my planning definitely included a visit to Rochester not just for a day but for a full week.

My wife Rona and I had a very interesting and rewarding visit to Rochester in September 2000. Even though Florence was 85 , she and her daughter Pattie showed us a lot of Rochester and took us to see the Niagara Falls which was magnificent. We were able to visit the cemetaries where my Aunt Flora and her husband Bill Schmidt were buried as well as Florence's mother, my aunt Minnie. Although I had previously asked Florence if she could recall any information about my third aunt, Ethel, it was understandable that at the age of 85 she was not able to do so then. However, whilst we were getting information in one of the cemetery's office she casually remarked that she wondered if Ethel might also be buried here. I said unless she had not married and her name would still be Rose we did not know her name and we would not be able to find her. Almost casually, her memory must have jumped and she recalled that she seemed to remember meeting her aunt Ethel in about the 1920's. That she was married to a William Emblow or Embling (she was not quite sure about the spelling) and that she had adopted two young boys. It was only three months later after I had settled down after my return home that I did a bit of browsing on the Internet/web and checked the Rochester Telephone and found three names. There was one Emblow and two Embling names. I thought I would send a letter to each of them to see if there might be any connection. I was so very pleased to receive an email from Ruth Emblow via her friend Polly telling me that she was my second cousin and that her mother -Emma -was my mothers first cousin. Emma's father was John Rose the brother of my mothers father and my Grandfather - Henry Rose.

Further information gathered from Ruth Emblow and sent to me by her sister Evalyn and also a friend MattiePossino expanded my knowlegde a little further. Ruth had recalled that her grandfather John Rose must have gone to America earlier than my three aunts. Ruth recalled that John Rose made a trip back to England and saw his brothers Bill ? and Henry (this would have been my grandfather) She said that "the girls" meaning my aunts Florrie, Minnie and Ethel, the daughters of Henry and Fanny Rose were interested in America and the U.S.A. He helped them to get to the U.S.A. and also to get jobs. One working at the Blind Institute.

From the Ellis Island Data Base of migrants passing through New York I have located Ethel and Minnie arriving in America. They both sailed together on the Cunard ship Campania from Liverpool in August 1903 and arrived in New York on 15^th. August 1903. Their ages are shown as 18 for Minnie and 13 for Ethel and is confirmed by their birth dates. I have not yet been able to locate when Florence went but must assume it was probably just before or after her sisters. The year of 1903 confirms a previous supposition that they went not very long after their mother Fanny had died in 1902. In 1903 my mother Elsie Rose would have only been 9 years old and would not have remembered much about her sisters Minnie and Ethel although she did correspond with Florence in America from England and Australia.

From the same Ellis Island Data Base there is a John Rose, shown as a U.S. citizen arriving to New York from Liverpool on the 'Adriatic' on 27^th April 1895. His age is shown as 50. The brother of my grandfather Henry Rose - John Rose was born in 1895 and this could have been the uncle of the three girls uncle returning to the U.S. after a visit to England to see his brothers. Minnie would have been only 10 and Ethel even younger and it seems unlikly they would have shown an interest in America then. Perhaps they may have exchanged letters with him when they were older.

Whilst in Rochester, in addition to meeting my cousin Florence Johnson and her family, we were also privileged to also meet up with Marlene Green and her family and also Florence and Tom McCarty who had known my Aunt Flora whilst she was in the Nursing Home. They had quite a few memories which they related to me and for which I was very grateful. A son of Florence Mcarty had paintd a portrait of my Aunt Ethel when she was 100 years old for his college art project. I was overwhelmed when he gave it to me as a gift. I have now a photograph of it to include in my Rose Family History book.

In revisiting my Rose family records of the family in Ramsey I was able to make a better connectio with my grandfathers brother John Rose. I have details of a number of censuses starting in 1841 which shows that John and my gandfathers father - John Rose lived in Berrigge's Yard in Ramsey. This states he was 20 years old in 1841 and therefore born in 1821. This was incorrect as he was born in 1812 and was 29 when he married in 1838. Similarly, his wife Ann's age is also incorrect making her younger than she actually was. The cnsus that in 1841 they had 3 children - Willima aged 3, Charles aged 2 and Mary Ann aged 6 months. Ten years later their ages seem now to be more accurate John being 38 and his wife 36. William now aged 13 seems to have gone. And they have another son John aged 6,a daughter Martha aged 4 and Jane aged 3. beebeing . The Joh aged 6 was the brother of my grandfather Henry who was not born until after the 1851 census. The John aged 6 was the John Rose who went to America and help my aunts to also move there later.

In the 1851 census they lived in Muck Hill, Ramsey. In theb1861 Census they lived in Maltings Yard and up to the 1881 census. By 1881 Only John now aged 70 and his wife Ann aged 67 now lived there in Maltings yard. Unless they lived to a very long age they may have died before the end of the century.

LAYOUT OF THE ROSE FAMILY TREE AS FAR BACK AS WE KNOW.

WILLIAM ROSE (ROASE)

FATHER OF GABRIEL B 16??

GABRIEL ROSE B c.1700 D c. 1770

m.28.08.1737.

his 2nd. wife) ?? CHECK MONTH

HANNAH GILL B D 1743

JOHN ROSE BAP. 02.05.1739 D c. 1807

m.

ELIZABETH GREEN B D

WILLIAM ROSE BAP. 21.03.1784 D 1851>1861

m.

SARAH ? B D

JOHN ROSE B 26.07.1812 D alive in 1879

m. 05.02.1838

ANN ELLINGTON B 28.05.1815 D

HENRY ROSE B 03.03.1850 D 08.07.1925

m. 8.08.1879

FANNY WILLIAMS B 20.06.1860 D 09.12.1902

ELSIE MAUDE ROSE B 23.06.1894 D 10.06.1972

m. 28.08.1918

JOHN MCDONNELL B 05.08.1879 D 30.09.1950

MICHAEL KEVIN MCDONNELL B 13.01.1933

m. 15.05.1971

RONA ELLEN HUPPATZ B 07.09.1944

ANDREW MICHAEL MCDONNELL B 21.03.1973

m. 8.04.2000

ROSEMARY LEE MCPEAKE B 28.07.1975

SON ZACHARY SEAN MCDONNELL B 28.02.2001

MARK DAMIAN MCDONNELL B 28.02.1975

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