Old Apartments

I did, finally, get a couple hours to check on the old addresses of the Leitners and O'Neils while in NYC this week. I went for a run around Central Park from our Midtown East hotel and stopped along the way at the addresses I had found at the library. I went around counter-clockwise, so I stopped at 2 West 104th Street (the O'Neils residence) first.

It was right on the corner of 104th and Central Park West - a really incredible location! - but I quickly discovered that the area had been through some difficult times. Many of the lots on the block had been demolished! Building #2, where the O'Neils lived, was no longer there. There were a few (quite nice) community gardens along the way, in place of the old vacant lots.

Community garden just beyond 4 West 104th Street.

I knew immediately what this meant. We had just been through a gentrification tour in Lower Manhattan with our students and had stopped at a community garden to explain how they'd been established through a long process of decline, dereliction, and regeneration. Slum lords in New York would do little upkeep on their buildings and eventually they'd become uninhabitable. Many were condemned and demolished. A lot of the properties were abandoned by their landlords, and the lots were squatted on. Then things went in one of two ways: a new wave of investment redeveloped (usually high rent) apartment buildings, driving up rents and driving out working class residents (who had been using the lots as gardens); or ownership couldn't be resolved and the city (reluctantly) took control of the gardens and offered arrangements for community management (ironically this often made the surrounding areas quite appealing to the middle-class, which drove up rents, and drove out all but those few who have been able to hold on to rent controlled properties).

The building on the left is where I believe #2 stood. The second
building is currently #4. And the space to the right of that is one
 of the community gardens.

When I arrived at West 104th Street, there was an elderly lady gardening in one of the lots up the street, so I asked what history she knew of the area. She said it was in the 60s or 80s that many of the buildings had been demolished. I actually have vague recollection of Dampa telling me that he had visited there with Nama (in the 90s?) only find her home had been demolished. But maybe that's just a false memory affirming what I now know to be true.

Later on I went back to the library to find out what I might be able to learn about the properties that used to be there. There are some great resources that I will need to dig into, one of which is an archive of photographs of every NYC lot from 1939. It was apparently a Public Works project after the depression, but a great resource for today! It should have an image of their building, since I know they were there in the 40s. The records are kept at the Municipal Archives (31 Chambers Street).

Another resource is the NY Public Library Map Warper, which has historical maps online, so I can see how things changed over time and, perhaps, find out when the building was demolished. The librarian showed me one map that showed building #2 stood on block 1839, lot 36. A contemporary map shows something different, so the change will likely date back to the demolition. He also said the Municipal Archives should have records like Notices to Build and New Building Applications. The main resource is web guide called "Who Lived in a House Like This?" that gives an overview of all this.

I continued my run round Central Park and just a short way away, I came to West 95th Street. This is where Dampa lived, with his mother, when he came to New York to take up a research post at the Courant Institute. I think he was only there for a brief period. Once he married Nama, they all moved to Queens (188 71st Crescent, Fresh Meadows). Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get out there to have a look.

Number 20 was the shabbiest on the street. In his story Dampa described it as
"an awful first apartment"; "so ridiculously modest that you could wash the
dishes while sitting on the toilet".

The street is really nice. I'd love to live there!

Before going out on my run, I had paid a quick visit back to the library to check the post-1951 directories for Lona's address on 72nd Street, where she stayed after Nama and Dampa moved to Michigan. I found that she was at 175 West 72nd and made this my final visit for the day. The neighborhood had a much busier feel to it, as it's on the corner with Broadway. Also a short distance from Central Park. A fantastic spot!!

I can't be certain the building is original - not sure how to read the architecture - but it looks like it could be at least 65 years old, so I think it's the one she lived in. Today it's called "The Verdi".

NYC Residences

While in NYC, I decided that I would also try to identify where Nama and Dampa had lived in the late 1940s. My mom didn't know precisely, so I went to the venerable New York Public Library to check on their city directories. It didn't take long to locate some records.

NYPL Stephen A. Schwarzman Building

According to the stories that Dampa wrote,

Mother worked as a practical baby nurse in wealthy New York homes. At first, in 1947, when I got an interesting research assistant's job at New York University, we lived in a very little apartment on the West Side (not far from where Marteece O'Neil lived ... !)

Elsewhere he said,

My mother and I found an awful "first" apartment on 95th Street near Central Park West...

I found confirmation of this at the library. The November 1948 directory showed Lona living at 20 West 95th Street.

(the directory also shows a Fred Leitner at 82 Avenue C
in the East Village, but I suspect this isn't him given what
he wrote in the stories)

Another thing he wrote about the 95th Street apartment was that,

Its principal advantage was that it was close to the apartment where the O'Neils lived, at Central Park West and 103rd Street

His memory wasn't all that bad 53 years later. Despite his frequent claims of being senile, he'd only mis-remembered by one street! They were at 2 West 104th Street.

Of course he married my grandmother, Marzia / Marteece O'Neil:

The wedding took place Thanksgiving Eve 1948, and the three of us, Marteece, my mother and I, moved into a new apartment development called "Fresh Meadows" in Flushing - a part of Queens, NY.

188-1 71st Crescent, Fresh Meadows still exists!
https://goo.gl/maps/5GBV4JNeMgT2

He went on:

It wasn't easy for my mother, it wasn't easy for Marteece, but we survived. Our Kathy was born in Flushing Hospital, and when she was a year old, us young ones moved to Michigan State in the fall of 1951. I helped my mother move into an apartment in the region of 72nd Street and Broadway, where many other Viennese refugees lived - as I have described before.

I will need to go back to the library to check on Lona's address after 1951, and hopefully I will find an afternoon to visit some of these places.

Lile's Stories

This morning I had a really nice visit with Lile (Elvira) Oslapas, former sister-in-law to my močiute. I am in New York City for work and I took the opportunity to take the train up to Old Greenwich for a few hours to hear more about her experiences as a child fleeing from the second Soviet invasion of Lithuania. I met her a couple years back at the Apanavičuis family reunion. My močiute was married to her older brother Vytautas, who died from a stroke during WWII.

Tete Lile and me

She was able to fill in many details about my grandmother and her time in Displaced Persons Camps after the War. It was so incredible to hear the stories. I had heard pieces of them before, but never in such detail and never in such clear English. In the later years, močiute's memory was very foggy and her English had declined. I was able to record Lile's stories and will hopefully be able to recount some of them here. We were only able to scratch the surface. I really must make a return visit and record more. And I must do the same to record her surviving brother and sister's stories too. Maybe later this year...

Leitners in CA

It has been absolutely ages since I've done anything with this blog at all. The main reason is that I started a new job. It's been a busy time, which has meant no time to write here. Right now, though, I'm Los Angeles, California ahead of a conference in San Francisco next week.

I stopped here on the way to meet one of the last remaining first-cousins of my grandfather, Alfred Leitner. I wrote last July that I had the fortunate happenstance of being contacted out of the blue by a genealogist working to reconstruct the Leitner family tree. The person who was behind the whole thing was Herbert Leitner. That's who I'm here to see. He's a fantastically vibrant person and just full of knowledge about the old family. He knew my grandfather when they were kids!! He's 89 now, so slightly younger than my grandfather was, but remembers everything quite clearly. He went to the same school as my grandfather and has echoed everything everyone's ever said about him: he was quite the bookworm and student.

Herbert and me

I also got to meet Herb's immediate family, who have all been exceptionally kind and welcoming. We've barely spent a day and a half together, but it's as if we've always known each other. Yesterday we spent the day at Herb's beautiful home overlooking the San Fernando valley and just recalling old stories. I recorded a few, but I'll have to get back to them later before I can post them here.

Herbert and his two daughters, Yvonne and Susanne

The Leitner Clan

Herb was kind enough to even give me these three photos of my grandfather and great-grandfather. The third one, you'd never guess, is also my grandfather Alfred! Herb insisted on it (and I can actually see the resemblance). He was dressed up for Purim.

Philipp Leitner, my great-grandfather

Alfred Leitner, my grandfather

Alfred, my grandfather dressed up for Purim

I also snapped this photo of an old envelop which Herb said was addressed to the office where Leitners ran the paper business: 4 Aspernbruckengasse, in Vienna's second district. He was also able to tell me the address of the Leitner summer villas in Sauerbrunn, they were on Bahnhofstrasse (number 11, 15, or 17??). That's where this photo was taken. I'm really excited to know that. Someday I'll go visit.

Address of the offices of the Leitner family business.

That's about all I'm able to write at the moment. Unfortunately, this posting massively understates the pleasure of getting to meet this bunch.

Apanavičius Family Reunion

From the Apanavičius family reunion last weekend. I met the three surviving siblings of my grandmother's first husband, nearly 71 years after he passed away, and a whole slew of their descendants!

18 July 2015

Old Leitners

Among the things I got from Eddy in London was this photograph, which according to him is Moritz, Adolf, and Osher Leitner, three generations at the Leitner family villa near Vienna. That's my great-grandfather's brother, 2x great-grandfather, and 3x great-grandfather!

Moritz, Adolf, and Osher

Recent Developments

I've had a couple of pretty incredible breakthroughs on the genealogy and family history fronts, but absolutely no time to write about them. The first is that I was contacted by a professional genealogist who was hired by a distant relative to reconstruct the Leitner family tree. And she put me in contact with members of the family! There's been a flurry of emails introducing ourselves, and I even met a distant third-cousin, Eddy, who lives in London, while I was passing through a few weeks back!! It's been quite the discovery, especially since the Leitner branch is the one I've not yet started working on myself. Now, it seems, most of that's been done for me. I've even been sent a document written by Moritz Leitner (1881-1961) and translated by Herb Leitner that covers the family history going WAY back. It's long, and I've been so busy that I've not been able to look at it in detail, but that should be taken as no indication of my enthusiasm to get to it eventually.

The other thing is that I met a relative of Vytautas Apanavičius while I was in Lithuania in June. She showed my around Panemunė (a neighborhood in Kaunas), where the Apanavičius family lived -- including the exact location where one of močiute's photos was taken.

1930s / 2015
(I believe, now, the photo was actually taken from the other end)

Apanavičius House in Panemunė

In addition to this, I will be going this weekend to the Apanavičius family reunion in Ohio! The way we initially made contact is actually pretty incredible. I didn't realize it at the time that I was writing before, but the two of us decided to make contact with each other *independently* within the span of a couple days. Way back in February, I sent a letter to Raymond/Raimundas "Romas" Apanavičius (the youngest brother of Vytautas) using an address that I found in močiute's address book. I explained who I was and that my grandmother remembered his brother with great affection, even decades after he'd passed away. I believe it was a Tuesday when I sent the letter. The very next day, or perhaps two, I got a Facebook message from Raymond's daughter, Rima, and I thought: wow, that was quick. As it turned out, the letter didn't arrive until a couple days later. We both independently reached out to the other within the span of a couple days, some 70 years after Vytautas had passed away! What are the chances of that?! Anyhow, I look forward to meeting them all this weekend, and especially hearing stories from Romas about their time in the German DP camps.

One other thing that I should record in this hodge-podge post (even if I do so inadequately) is that, while in London, I paid a visit to the British Library and finally listened to the archived BBC Radio Scotland program on Lithuanians in Larnarkshire. It was expertly produced (of course) and quite moving at parts. For example, what one elderly first-generation-Scottish woman speaking about being raised in a Lithuanian-Scottish family had to say. I transcribed her words because they resonated so strongly with my own experience:

These stories mum and dad used to tell us about Lithuania -- I always felt that if I ever got to Lithuania, I'd recognize it and know it. We're very proud of our Scottish nationality, but also our Lithuanian and you can't forget that. You always feel that little bit different.

My grandparents stories were the same for me. We always felt "that little bit different", and I know from my first visit to Lithuania, especially, there was something familiar about it. It *did* feel like home, and it did feel like I belonged.

In addition, there were a couple of interesting points that could help in further research -- notably, the deportees under the Anglo-Russian Military Convention were apparently sent to Archangel from Liverpool. I'd tried to find records of this previously, so that I could verify that my great-grandfather Kazimiras was among them, but couldn't find anything. Knowing that they left from Liverpool may help. I really wish they would have allowed me to make a digital copy of the recording and post it here, but they have strict copyright protections.

Anyway, no time for more just now.