The Theodora "Dora" Starr Story

The Theodora Starr Story
Theodora was either the first or second child, but only daughter, of Theodore Burr and Caroline Margaret Morris Starr. She was born on July 11, 1866 in Kings County, New York – Brooklyn. Her father was a jeweler working in Manhattan and her mother kept house on Congress Street in Brooklyn.
In the 1875 New York census, the family is living in a brownstone at 149 Congress Street, Brooklyn, claimed to be valued at $17,000. The house was across the street from Cobble Hill Park. One can assume that Dora played with her siblings and maybe even cousins in that park. The family of 6 had at least two servants living and working with them. Dora was the eldest of 4 children; her siblings were Louis Morris, 6, Theodore, 4, and Howard White 2. They were living on the same block with her paternal grandmother, Harriet Howard White Starr, who was living with her younger brother’s family, Joseph Theodore White. Another sister, Amelia E. White, was living within that household, as well. It appears that perhaps Amelia (or Elizabeth) never married.
Dora’s brother Theodore died sometime before the 1880 census. (There may have been a first child, also called Theodore, but records are hard to decipher.)
In 1878, Dora’s father moved his business from 22 John Street to 206 5th Avenue. Perhaps this indicates that his business was growing and the family was enjoying additional wealth.
By 1880 the small family moved from Cobble Hill to 112 East 39th Street in Manhattan. They still have two servants from Ireland living with them.
Theodora seems to have spent summers in Ridgefield, Connecticut. It is there, during June, that her engagement to Harry L. Bloomfield is announced. Tragically, only a month later, on July 16th, Theodora dies of pneumonia. Her parents did what they could for their beloved daughter, bringing the family physician to Ridgefield from his home on Long Island. The reports of the day claim that “social gayeties here during the past few days have been at a standstill, owing to the sudden death of Miss Theodora Starr, daughter of Mr. & Mrs. Theodore B. Starr, of New York, whose summer home is here,…”
Nothing is known about Theodora’s daily life, except for the tragedy of losing two of her brothers. She died on July 16, 1894 just after having reached her 28th birthday.
Theodora was the first of her family to be buried in Section 4 of the Ridgefield, Connecticut Cemetery.

Discussions of War and a request for more magazines and tobacco

See below for what I found on the History Channel web site about this time in 1918. it also seems that Ferdinand Foch became the supreme Allied commander at this time, too.

Herb is still in Bouvancourt, Marne, France.

April 4th (1918)
Dear Mother,
I skipped my regular letter day this time because we’ve been cast off from mail communication through some mix up – I don’t know just what. Now the mail goes out but none comes in. so I haven’t had your letter telling of Tom’s accident nor my package of tobacco. However I expect the mail will come any day now.

There has been little or no activity on our front. Every energy has been excited on the main battle of which you have read. It certainly must have been terrific. Let us hope that it may be decisive.

A few days ago the French anti-aircraft guns brought down a German plane which was attacking a French observation balloon. “Sausages” the French call those balloons because that’s what they look like. The German plane was completely wrecked and the driver was killed, of course. It all happened fairly near here but of course I was all over in a few minutes. No one felt sorry for the Boche because on Good Friday one of the German long range guns dropped a shell on a church in Paris during services inflicting frightful damage.

As for myself, I am as usual, well and still getting fat, I guess. We’re getting really good food, fresh vegetables and everything. The government makes us a good allowance and we can buy whatever sort of food we like – and can get.

I wish you’d send me a supply of tobacco about every five or six weeks. It’s practically impossible to smoke the French article and entirely impossible to buy any American variety. As for reading matter, I can use all the magazines you can send.

Love to all,
Herb

I took this from the History Channel's web site about March 30th, 1918:

On March 30, 1918, British, Australian and Canadian troops mount a successful counter-attack against the German offensive at Moreuil Wood, recapturing most of the area and forcing a turn in the tide of the battle in favor of the Allies.

After launching the first stage of a major spring offensive on March 21, 1918--masterminded by Erich Ludendorff, chief of the German general staff--the German army swiftly pushed through the British 5th Army along the Somme, crossing the river on March 24. Their attacks were less successful to the north, however, around the crucially important Vimy Ridge, where Britain's 3rd Army successfully held its positions. Determined to push on toward Paris, Ludendorff threw his troops against the town of Amiens. To Ludendorff's distress, although they came within 11 miles of the city, the Germans had great difficulty capturing Amiens and its railway junction, which the British and French were told to hold at all costs. Lacking sufficient cavalry, the Germans also had problems delivering artillery and supplies to their front-line troops; those troops also received no relief, and were expected to sustain the momentum of the attack all on their own.

By the morning of March 30, the Germans had occupied Moreuil Wood, some 20 kilometers south of Amiens. On that day, an Allied force including British and Canadian cavalry and air brigades confronted the Germans head-on. By the end of the day, the Allies had managed to halt the German advance at Moreuil Wood, despite suffering heavy casualties.

The events at Moreuil Wood broke the momentum of the German attacks. While the operation had technically been successful, resulting in a gain of almost 40 miles of territory and inflicting heavy losses on the Allies; 177,739 British troops died or were taken prisoner during the battle, at a daily rate of 11,000 men, while the French lost nearly 80,000; German troops had also lost over a quarter of a million men to injury or death. The casualties included Ludendorff's own stepson, a German pilot shot down over the battlefield during the attacks. Ludendorff called off the attacks on April 5; the next stage of the offensive would begin just four days later.

By early April 1918, both the Allies and the Central Powers had entered a crucial period of reckoning. A major German victory on the Western Front would mean the end of the war, in their favor. As British Prime Minister David Lloyd George told the leaders of the British Dominions in a speech on March 31: "The last man may count." The Allies, at least, could count on fresh infusions from the United States, which increased its troops in France to more than 300,000 by the end of that month. For their part, the Germans were prepared to wager everything they had on this spring offensive—the last they would undertake in World War I.

On the actual day Herb was writing his letter home and missing his mail, the History Channel claims this was occurring:

On this day in 1918, German forces in the throes of a major spring offensive on the Western Front launch a renewed attack on Allied positions between the Somme and Avre Rivers.

The first stage of the German offensive, dubbed "Operation Michael," began March 21, 1918; by the first days of April it had resulted in a gain of almost 40 miles of territory for the Germans, the largest advance in the west for either side since 1914. After initial panic, the Allies had managed to stabilize and strengthen their defense, stopping the Germans at Moreau Wood on March 30 and continuing their hardy defense of the crucial railroad junction and town of Amiens, France, just south of the Somme.

With a bombardment by more than 1,200 guns and a total of 15 divisions sent against only seven of the enemy's, the Germans attacked in force at Villers-Bretonneux on April 4. Again, British and Australian troops reacted with panic in the face of such an onslaught, but soon rallied to drive back their attackers. At the same time, French divisions made their own advances along the front running between the towns of Castel and Cantigny, to the south of Villers-Bretonneux.

Also on April 4, German military officials announced that their attacks in the Somme region had claimed a total of 90,000 Allied prisoners since March 21. The following day, Erich Ludendorff, chief of the German general staff, formally closed down the Michael offensive; the second phase of the attacks, "Georgette," would begin four days later in Flanders.

Blaue Gans Restaurant - A Review

I took advantage of my Tribeca location and walked to Blaue Gans two blocks north of my hotel at 139 Duane Street. I am surrounded by plenty of places to eat, but this restaurant was listed on Open Table - and they have schnitzel, so I had to go. I was very happy that I decided to do this, as it got me away from Ancestry.com and Family Tree Maker. Perhaps there was a convergence given I was entering some information about the German side of my family.

I started with the white asparagus and south Tyrolian ham and then had the weiner schnitzel with the potato and cucumber salad. The asparagus and ham was a nice, cold combination of crunch and saltiness. The potato salad had nice mustard and dill flavors and good texture. The schnitzel was a large portion that I could not finish.

I didn't catch the name of my server, but she was attentive yet wasn't fussing over me. The gentleman in charge of the floor did come over and ask how everything was. I brought my book and also had a very good view of the open, tall dining room with it's forty + tables, so I was very content and entertained.

Looks like Blaue Gans is a part of a restaurant group. I would sit again at Kurt Gutenbrunner's table.

Oliver Tree Lee's Story

Oliver was born the second son after the end of the Civil War on December 9, 1866 in New York City in an apartment at 137 East 22nd Street to parents Martha Tree and James Lee and older brother Charles. Both parents had also been born in New York City. James was working as a piano maker at the time of Oliver’s birth.

By 1870, his family had moved slightly uptown to East 28th Street in to a building with the Trees as their neighbors. These might have been his grandparents, Robert and Eliza Tree. His neighbors were of both German or English descent and worked as coachmen, photographers, painters, machinists, moulders or along with his father in the piano making business.

In June 1872 there was a fire in the building where Oliver’s father worked, destroying his piano string business. James was only insured for two thirds of the $1,500 value he claimed was destroyed in the fire.

Something drastic must have happened to the family, because in 1880 Oliver and his father James have sought work in Milo, New York, a community of farmers, laborers or servants. Fourteen year old Oliver and his father are lodging near one another, but in separate houses along the banks of Seneca Lake in Milo, NY. Oliver is listed as a hired man in the industry of laborer. His father is listed as a servant. Oliver is living with Ruben Thayer’s family while James is living in a house worthy of depiction in the 1876 Atlas of New York Counties, the Isaac Hewitt house.

In the 1889 New York City Directory we find Oliver and Horace living with their father at 2256 Second Avenue. Oliver is already listed as a letter carrier at this time. We can’t know when Oliver got the job with the Post Office, nor can we know how he came to be in Troy, New York.

Oliver’s marriage to Nellie Jane Kirkpatrick is announced in the Lansingburgh Times on September 8th, 1894 . There is no way to know how they met, but we can perhaps imagine that Oliver delivered mail to their home or perhaps they attended the same church. Nellie Jane is seven years younger than Oliver. They were married at her parent’s home by Reverend George Fairlee from the Westminster Presbyterian Church.

Oliver and Nellie Janes’ first child, Charles Herbert Lee, is born in July 1896 in New York City, not Troy, NY. Perhaps the young couple went to New York City to have the baby and introduce Nellie Jane to Oliver’s family.

By 1900, Oliver has two sons, Charles and Horace. He is working as a letter carrier for the post office and renting an apartment in his father-in-law’s home at 246 2nd Avenue in Troy.

Perhaps because his family is growing, Oliver moves his family out of his father-in-law’s home in 1901, moving to 125 6th Avenue. Three years later in 1904 his third child, Olive, is born. With the family still growing, by 1910, he has moved again, down the street to 93 6th Avenue where Margaret is born in 1911.
Nellie Jane’s parents die within a day of one another in January 1912.

By 1915, Oliver is still living at 93 6th Avenue, but his oldest son has started college at Syracuse University. Herbert attending college is a source of pride for the Lee family, as he is the first in the Lee family to ‘attend’ college. Herb’s period as a college student ends, however, as he serves in World War I in France as an ambulance driver. Not being a veteran himself, Oliver was probably very proud of his eldest son.

In 1920, Oliver continues to reside at 93 6th Avenue with his wife and three younger children. Horace, or Harry, is working as a salesman for a drug company.
In 1925, Oliver and Nellie have moved back with their three younger children to Nellie’s parent’s former house at 246 2nd Avenue.

At age 62 in 1930, Oliver continues to work with the post office coming home to his stenographer daughters and wife who keeps house. The family owns the house at this point, valued at $4,000. One can imagine Oliver returning home at the end of a day delivering mail and listening to the radio as his wife and older daughter fuss over him and his younger daughter commutes home from her job in Albany. This same scene may recur in 1935 as the four Lees remain in the same house and everyone working in the same professions.

According to the 1940 census, Oliver is retired, presumably with a pension from the Federal Government after his service in the Post Office, as he indicates that he received money from a source other than wages. Olive continues to live with her parents, working as a secretary in a collar factory for $1,500/year.

In 1947, Olive is living with her parents at the same address.

At some point between 1947 and 1953, the three Lees move from Troy, New York to Yonkers, New York. The three of them live together at 1428 Midland Avenue, Bronxville, New York.

In Bronxville, New York, at the Lawrence Hospital, Oliver dies of Uremia and complications from hypertensive cardio vascular renal disease. Olive, his older daughter, reports Oliver’s death on January 13, 1953. This must have been a very difficult time for the Lee family for just a few months before Herb’s wife and Oliver’s daughter in law, Florence Maher had passed. Oliver was 86 when he died.

Oliver is taken back to downtown Troy, New York to be buried in the Kirkpatrick family plot in Oakwood Cemetery. He joined his wife’s family in Plot 242 in Section D-3.

Separated siblings

I read a fabulous blurb in the April 18th edition of The Week Magazine:

After 18 years apart, two long lost sisters have reunited through social media. Nia Edwards, 23, has been searching for her scattered siblings for years. She scoured Facebook, My Space, and Twitter without any luck. In one last effort to reconnect, she downloaded Instagram and was immediately successful. Brenda Edwards has been looking for her sibs as well. "She had followed so many people names Nia Edwards, hoping that one was me," said an overjoyed Nia. "I was so happy that I called my local news station."

What a wonderful story; the internet and social media has been so helpful for genealogy, too. Being Facebook friends with cousins I can add their joyful events to my Family Tree Maker software without having to pester them. (Or, I can easily pester them for the details, and I can copy some of the photographs they post.) I have also 'friended' cousins who I have connected through this genealogical research, so I can have an idea about the lives of third cousins who live many miles away.