The photo shown here is of my family in 1930. It is taken somewhere in the Rockaways. The small boy in front is my father, Jack. The other boy is his older brother, Joseph. Aren’t his horn rim glasses wonderful? With them are my grandparents, Nathan & Eva Baumwoll. The first thing I began looking for in my genealogical research was my great grandmother and great grandfather on my father’s side, who up until a few months ago I knew very little about. I didn’t even know if they had made it to America. I am named after my great grandmother Bella Baumwoll and my grandfather’s older brother Samuel Baumwoll.
While I was growing up and all through my life, people who knew my my grandfather would say to me, “You know he was a motion picture operator and he put the sound in the Roxy Movie Palace in New York”. It wasn’t until all of this started to come together that it all began to be a story that is so American. A small boy (my grandfather) comes off an ocean liner to meet his father who is waiting for him. The year is 1910. The boy is 13. Within a short period of time this young man is working for the one of the pioneers of the new era of the great movie palaces. His name was J. Fabin of Union Hill, New Jersey.
So this is how my blog has begun. To discover my family’s history in Edgemere of 50 years; of the people they knew on the boardwalk and all the merchants who they did business with and had friendships with.
Edgemere is really all of ours now in our memories. It’s a place that only lives with and through the people who wish to share their times in words and photos for all of us to enjoy. None of these times will ever pass our way again. The America that was Edgemere is long gone.