Hello everybody! I am Jarrett Ross the Geneavlogger and on today's vlog I will be
updating you on the research into the family from the 1911 a trip through New
York City film. Back in January I released a video about identifying the
Lochowicz family in the 1911 film a trip through New York City. Since then
that video has become my most popular video by far and I've done a lot more
research into the Lochowicz family, but first I wanted to respond to some common
comments that I was getting on my video. One of the most common comments that I
was receiving was that the man in the front passenger seat was way too old to
have been Florian, who would have been about 40 at the time of the film. Now I
do somewhat agree with people that he does look pretty old but I discounted
that just because back in 1911 things were a lot harder life was a lot harder
and aging may have been a lot quicker. As well, just even today people don't always
look their age. Different factors and different events in their life can make
someone look a lot older or even a lot younger than they really may be. But with
that said we can't confirm quite yet if that is Florian it could be Constantine,
which a lot of people commented saying that they thought it was Constantine
who is Antoinette's father, annd it very well could be as he was alive in 1911 and
he passed away in the 1920s, so it could be him but until we find another picture
of Florian or a picture of Constantine to compare, we're not going to be able to
confirm or deny that. So I still think that it's likely Florian but it could be
Constantine or it could just be somebody else. The next comment I want to respond
to was one that actually started to come up more along in March and April and May
and that was - since Florian died in 1918 did he die from the Spanish flu? And the
answer to that is no, or at least very very unlikey.
The story that in his obituary is that he had a seizure while his daughter
was driving him home and it even says that his right side went paralyzed and
that he then went into a coma before passing away. Now it's very very unlikely
that this was Spanish flu but with that said I'm not a medical expert so I don't
know if the seizure could have been from the Spanish flu. Maybe... I don't know, but I
don't think it was. Another comment that I was getting a lot was could I identify
the car behind the Lochowicz family, which had the license plate
32974. And while I looked into it and I really tried to find it, I
couldn't find it registered anywhere and I'm not sure if it's because not all
licenses were published publicly or it might also be that not all published
lists were actually digitized and available yet. So it could be either way
but unfortunately I was not able to find anything to tie to that license plate.
The next comment I want to respond to is one that actually brought an interesting
piece of history to light that I didn't know about and that comment was - Why are
the cars in the film all with steering wheels on the right side of the car? In
America today the steering wheel is always on the left side of the car. Well
in looking into it I found out that cars in America until 1908 all had right-side
steering wheels, so you would be driving from the right side and in 1908 when
they came out with the left side drivers there were still a lot of the ones with
the right side driving on it. So by 1911, when this film was made, there were still
a lot of those cars on the road. Now another comment that I was getting a lot
was that I should stop saying that it's a video and that it's a film... and yes, you
are correct, it is a film. But I honestly think that's just being nitpicky. Now
another common one was that I need to fix my sound. Hopefully this video is a
whole lot better, I've been working on my sound trying to improve it.
I was working on my sound when I released that video originally, so I'm
still learning, I'm only human. And the last comment that I want to respond to
is the one that "have I contacted any descendants?" And the answer is yes, and
wait until the end of the video for the interview I did with that descendent. So
now I've responded to a lot of those comments, let's get into the research
that I found on the Lochowicz family and they were a really interesting
family, and throughout the years they had a lot of things that were noted in the
newspapers. Sometimes big stories, sometimes simple things just as them
going on vacation to visit their relatives. And one of the first
interesting pieces I found was an article talking about the houses on 8th
Street being built and that Florian had actually been the second person to buy a
house on that block. Florian bought that house in 1903 for ten thousand two
hundred and fifty dollars. He bought it from a man named William H Reynolds who
was developing all the houses on that block and William H Reynolds himself
was also interesting because he actually was the developer for the third original
Coney Island theme park called Dreamland which opened in 1904. So while he
was building those houses in 1903 it's very likely that he was working on these
plans for dreamland at Coney Island as well. Unfortunately Dreamland burned down
in 1911 and if anyone has seen the recent Dumbo released in 2019 the scene
with the fire is actually based on the fire at Dreamland. A few years after
Florian died, in 1920, there was a really interesting article about any problem
that Antoinette Lochowicz had at their rental home, their vacation home, which
was located at Bradley Beach in New Jersey. What happened was that Antoinette
got into a really crazy legal battle with the owner of the home that she was
renting. A man named James A Hogg, who referred to himself as Hogg the Bugman.
Hogg the Bugman was an exterminator in the area and he had put up a sign on the
property that he was renting to Antoinette advertising his business. The
sign he put up said "Hogg the Bugman Extermination a Specialty
Strictly Kosher". Now the entire story is super long and really crazy and spans
almost the full year of 1920 and this entire thing caused tons of residents in
the area to actually leave. And to sum up the story, basically Antoinette takes
the sign down, Hogg puts the sign back up, Antoinette then gets the police involved
to take the sign down, Hogg gets his lawyers involved to keep the sign up,
then the Ku Klux Klan of the area comes in to take the sign down, then Antoinette
filed a damage suit against Hogg for $500, then Hogg got Antoinette arrested
through a warrant because he said she had committed dire threats against him
and he believed that "there was a plot on foot to exterminate the exterminator".
After that Antoinette got Hogg arrested for malicious mischief and when Hogg was
finally able to get out of jail and go back to his house, the Ku Klux Klan with
a huge mob came to take that sign down and hog and his son had a showdown with
the Klan outside, with the Klan basically ending up taking down the sign and
dragging it away and luckily nothing violent happening then.
But eventually Hogg would lose the damage suit against Antoinette and have to pay
her $500. Florian and Antoinette had a total of six known children, three of
whom we see in the 1911 film. The oldest was Francis who was born in 1896, then
they had another son named Andrew who was born in 1899
but unfortunately died in 1901. In 1903 they had their daughter Emily and in
1904 they had their daughter Elsie, both of
we see in the 1911 video. In 1911 they had Arthur and then in 1918 they had
Paul, their youngest. Paul was born in February of 1918, just months before the
death of his father. Just a few months after Paul was born, and a few months
before Florian died, the oldest son Francis went off to serve in the Navy,
likely getting ready to fight in World War one. But just after Florian died just,
a few weeks, Francis was then discharged and more
than likely it was because that once his father had died, being the oldest he
needed to go back to New York and help take care of the family. Now more than
likely Francis helped his mother run the barber shops and while the censuses
don't indicate that Francis worked as a barber I was able to find a very
interesting article that did. In 1922 Francis was interviewed for an article
called the Inquiring Photographer where a photographer from the newspaper would
go around and ask a question of certain professionals and in this column he was
talking to barbers about whether or not they should singe hair and he just
happened to interview Francis. Now the best part about this is that they
include a photo of Francis. Now looking at the photo I definitely think this
shows that the boy in the car in the 1911 film is Francis. It definitely looks
like him to me but comment down below, let me know what you think. In 1930
Francis would go on to marry a woman named Margaret and that year they would
actually go on their honeymoon to Havana Cuba and I even found the passenger
manifest of them coming back to Florida. Unfortunately less than a year later
Francis would die unexpectedly on January 1st 1931, leaving behind no
children. The next oldest Emily would go on to marry Dr. Edward James Quinn in
1928 and they would then move to Vermont. I was able to find the wedding
announcement for Emily and Edward and even better, there was a picture of Emily
with the article. So now we had a picture of Francis and Emily, and in looking at
the comparison of her to the two girls in the car - because it's still kind of
hard to tell which one is is Emily and which one is Elsie - I think she kind of
looks like both but let me know what you think down in the comments below. Now
from all of my research I couldn't find any children born to Emily and Edward
and she passed away in 1965 with no children being mentioned in her obituary.
For the sister Elsie who was born in 1904, she was single her whole life and
passed away in 1960. I couldn't find any indication that she ever had any
children. Arthur Lochowicz, the second youngest of all the siblings, who was
born in 1911 the same year as the film was also single his whole life and would
pass away in 1963 with no known children either. Paul Lochowicz,
who was born in 1918, was the youngest of all the siblings and was born just
months before Florian's death. Paul would go on to marry a woman in the 1950s but
in 1941 he did have a daughter out of wedlock.
Now this daughter that Paul had and her descendants are the only known living
descendants of Florian and Antoinette, so she's the only known grandchild of
Florian and Antoinette. Her name is Paula and I was able to send her all of
this information that I had found and she was gracious enough to do an
interview with me about that.
*Phone Ringing*
Paula - "Hello" Jarrett - "Hi, is this Paula?"
P - "Yes it is, Jarrett!" J - "Hi, how are you?" P - "I'm good, I'm hanging in there."
J - "It's good to hear, good to hear. I know this is this is some seriously tough
times right now for everybody, so." P - "Oh yes it is, yes it is. I've been staying in. I'm 79 and I
have high blood pressure so I'm not a mess to go out there and die so soon."
J - "Yeah I understand that, I understand that. Well it's wonderful to finally
be able to talk to you." P - "Yes yes. Yeah, Patti gave me you know the rundown on
everything and I appreciate those pictures, I mean it's really something.
1911, seeing my grandfather and my grandmother who I didn't even know I had.
Ya know, but I was very interested in seeing my grandfather, my aunts, my
uncle, you know, that I've never seen before and didn't even know I had until
I was in my twenties." J - "Oh yeah. Now what is the story with you finding out about
your relationship with the Lochowicz side?" P - "Well my name was always Paula Lochowicz,
it's on my birth certificate - Paula Lochowicz. My father's name was Paul Lochowicz and
my mother's name was Madeleine Sullivan. So I had always asked about my father and
she had, my mother, had told me that he died in the war, very conveniently.
And so I didn't question anything further. And so when I got older and then
my my aunt had told me, my mother's sister, and my stepfather Walter told me
that he wasn't dead, that he lived around the corner and that they weren't married
when I was born. J - "Oh wow, were you ever able to meet your
father?" P - "No, no. And he was right around the corner." J - "Were you ever able to..."
P - "He went to the same church and everything else, at St. Saviour's, and I went to
school there. At elementary school." J - "So was this right near the 8th Avenue house
that I talked about in the video?" P - "It was right around the corner, I was on seventh Street he was on he was on
8th Street. Right around the corner." J - "Wow. Well were you ever able to meet anybody else from that side of
your family?" P - "No, I never, never met them. J - "So, that side has always been
basically like a big question mark for you?" P - " Yeah, uh-huh, I know my, my, my father had
had married - I've been looking it up since, you know." J - "Yeah."
P - "And he married in the 50s to a Dorothy Diaz." J - "Yes, yes." P - "I think 52 or something like
that and I didn't even know. This is, I only found out this recently about him,
you know. But I know he was alive but I never... I just didn't contact him, that's
all." J - "But this was the first time you'd ever
seen any of them? You'd never seen pictures or anything?" P - "Yes, yes, really." from that 1911 film. And then I also got the other
stuff that you sent about Florian's death." J - "Right, yeah" P - "And I have aunts -
Aunt Emily and.. and Aunt Elsie and I never even met them. Very interesting, and
that Florian came from Poland! and he really made a life here, my grandfather."
J - "Oh yeah yeah. I mean he..." P - "You know, he belonged to the Elks Club, the American Legion, he
was it active in the community and here I am right around the corner. J - "Yeah, but
again thank you so much for, for uh..." P - "Okay Jarrett, you're welcome hun. J - "Alright, we you have a wonderful rest of your day and
stay safe during all of this." P - "Okay, thanks a lot hun. Bye-bye." J - "Bye"
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