Brooklyn Family History

February 28, 2013 9:08 AM

Of Ministers and Merchants, Sinners and Saints. The writer moved from Manhattan to same street in Brooklyn where his grandmother grew up. This prompts him to delve into his family history, where he discovers a cast of characters that includes Ulpianus Van Sinderen, a Dutch Reformed Minister who came to Brooklyn in 1747, prosperous merchants, tenant housing reformer Alfred Tredway White, and an embezzler. Brief appearances by Jacob Riis and Truman Capote.
posted by marxchivist (3 comments total)

I recently visited another of Alfred’s housing projects, the Workingmen’s Cottages on Warren Place, a leafy mew with two rows of tiny, dollhouse-like cottages that make up what is without doubt the most adorable street in Brooklyn.

I always wondered about those.

Something neat for PBS to do would be the history of various building in New York, with a focus on residential buildings.

That area is filled with mews containing old carriage houses, adorable townhomes with old slate sidewalks with boot scrapers by the stoops. It is the quiet tree lined streets of Huxtable Brooklyn.
posted by Ad hominem at 10:36 AM on February 28, 2013

Always thought it was ironic how I, at one point, paid an exorbitant rent to live a couple blocks from Delancey street, whereas my ancestors worked and scraped all their lives to move away from there.

Good link -- thanks!
posted by Afroblanco at 10:47 AM on February 28, 2013

He's lucky. My ancestral connection to Brooklyn was a lawyer who got a write up in the local papers for (allegedly, allegedly!) trying to rip off a feisty little old lady client.

He was also a proud member of the American Anti-Vaccination League.

We are talking the 1890's.
posted by BWA at 11:35 AM on February 28, 2013