This is an in-progress research note regarding my efforts to find Josef & Antonia Nevole in the 1910 census of New York.
-- by Wesley Johnston (first posted 9 Nov 2011 - last updated 19 Mar 2012 after obtaining Josef & Antonie's marriage record)
Contents
What is known
1905 - Josef at 330 East 71st Street
Josef gives this address, on his 12 Jun 1905 arrival in New York ( http://search.ancestry.com/Browse/view.aspx?dbid=7488&path=1905.06.12.Moltke.45 ), as the address of his mother Barbara ?Blechowa? (not sure of handwriting) - I suspect this is the same Barbara Blecha who appears in the 1905 NY State census ( https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1-159385-66513-18?cc=1463113 ) at 327 East 71st Street, which is across the street from 330.
1908 - infant Josie at 332 East 72nd Street
This is the address at which 6-month-old Josie Nevole died in July 1908, per the Linden Hill Methodist Episcopal Cemetery interrment card ( http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/15071894/person/18043769781/media/2?pgnum=1&pg=0&pgpl=pid%7cpgNum ) and also the cemetery burial permit (that came down in Aloisie (Nevole) Reis' family -- http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/15071894/person/18043769781/media/1?pgnum=1&pg=0&pgpl=pid%7cpgNum ). Since Josef and Antonie did not marry until 21 Aug 1910, Josie was not their child, and the marriage record states that this was Josef's first marriage, so that Josie could not have been his child in a prior marriage. There are no other known Nevole families in the area at that time, but that does not mean that there were none. There is no Manhattan borough death record for Josie (nor a birth record), so that the cemetery burial record is the only way we know of Josie. So either there was another Nevole family in New York in 1908 -- apparently briefly since there is none in the 1910 census -- or else Josie was the acknowledged illegitimate daughter of Josef.
21 Aug 1910 - Josef & Antonia married
The 1930 census, in which Josef was 44 and Antonia (as Antonette) was 46, shows that they married when they were 24 and 26. This calculates to them having married in 1910. Since they were not yet married at the time of the 1910 census, this would explain some of the difficulty in finding them in the 1910 census,since they were probably living separately at the time of the census.
1910 - Aloisie (Nevole) Reis Family at 334 East 73rd Street
It is not known how Aloisie Nevole and Josef Nevole were related, but it seems likely that they were cousins. See more in the section below on Josef Nevole. In the 1910 census, Aloisie and her family are living at 334 East 73rd Street ( http://search.ancestry.com/iexec?htx=View&r=an&dbid=7884&iid=4449357_00799 ) and are enumerated in District 1063 in Manhattan Ward 19.
1912 - Josef & Antonia at 1356 Avenue A
When Antonia returned from Europe with 4-year-old US-born Rudolf Varicka, who was probably her nephew, she gave her address as 1356 Avenue A ( http://search.ancestry.com/iexec?htx=View&r=an&dbid=7488&iid=NYT715_1948-0071 ). Avenue A parallels First Avenue. The northern section is now apparently called York Avenue instead of Avenue A. (The Sotheby's auction house is now located at 1334 York Avenue.
1916 - Josef & Antonia at 1355 Avenue A
The 1916 New York City Directory ( http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/15071894/person/5037021800/media/1?pgnum=1&pg=0&pgpl=pid%7cpgNum ) shows him as a "skinsorter" living at 1355 Avenue A, which is across the street from 1356 Avenue A (where they were in 1912).
1917 - Josef & Antonia at 429 East 73rd Street
Josef's World War I Draft Registration ( http://search.ancestry.com/iexec?htx=View&r=an&dbid=6482&iid=NY-1766400-5805 ) places them at 429 East 73rd Street. He is shown as a leather worker.
1920 - Josef & Antonia at 425 East 73rd Street
The 1920 census shows them at 425 East 73rd Street ( http://search.ancestry.com/iexec?htx=View&r=an&dbid=6061&iid=4313934-00474 ).
Working Hypothesis
Josef and Antonia lived in the neighborhood both before and after 1910. And his apparent cousin Aloisie's family lived there in 1910. So it is almost certain that Josef and Antonia lived there in 1910. It is certainly possible that the census taker missed them. They do not show up in any indexes of the 1910 census with any variant spellings that I have been able to figure out. So it seems that a page by page reading of the 1910 census for this neighborhood may find them and is worth doing. And it also seems that they may not yet have been married, so that they lived separately at the time of the census. Thus it may be possible to find one but not the other.
Districts Involved
The question then becomes which 1910 census districts to search.
Clearly District 1063, where Aloisie's family lived, is the starting point. That district contains no Nevole family:
- odd numbers of the 300 Block of East 72nd Street
- even numbers of the 300 Block of East 73rd Street
- odd numbers of the 1300 Block of First Avenue
- even numbers of the 1400 Block of Second Avenue
So the districts with 332 East 72nd Street (where Josie died in 1908) and the 1300 Block of Avenue A (their address in 1912 and 1916) are what we want to find.
District 1064 has 332 East 72nd Street (where Josie died in 1908) ( http://search.ancestry.com/Browse/view.aspx?dbid=7884&path=New+York.New+York.Manhattan+Ward+19.1064.6 ), but there is no Nevole family at that address. The district has 48 pages, which cover the following:
- even numbers of 300 Block of East 72nd Street
-
District 1015 ( http://search.ancestry.com/Browse/view.aspx?dbid=7884&iid=4449356_00007 ) contains 35 pages, with no Nevole family (although there is a Frank Nevolka, policeman):
- odd numbers at and below 55 of the 1300 Block of Avenue A - starts with 1355 (their address in 1916) but does not show the Nevole family
- even numbers of the 400 block of East 73rd Street [odds are in District 1118]
District 1118 ( http://search.ancestry.com/Browse/View.aspx?dbid=7884&path=New+York.New+York.Manhattan+Ward+19.1118.17 ) contains 29 pages with no one named Nevole:
- odd numbers of the 400 Block of East 73rd Street [evens are in District 1015] which includes 425 East 73rd Street (their 1920 census address) and 429 East 73rd Street (their 1917 address).
The BILEK family (mother Katherine, son Vaclav, and daughter Antonia) were all living at 425 East 73rd Street, the same address where Josef and Antonia NEVOLE were living in 1920. I believe that this Antonis is in fact the same one who married Josef NEVOLE later that same year (1910). See more on this below.
- even numbers of 1300 block of First Avenue from 1372 to 1382
District 1016 contains 40 pages (not yet searched):
- odd numbers from 1379 up of the 1300 Block of Avenue A
- even number of 400 Block of East 74th Street
Antonia Bilek
This research effort led me to the conclusion that the Antonia Bilek living with her mother Katerina and brother Vaclav. This section gives the basis for that conclusion.
It is known, through the 1912 passenger lists of the return to the US of Antonia (listed as Antonia Nevole) and her nephew (explicitly stated) Rudloph Vericka (surname spelling uncertain), that (1) Antonia's mother was named Katerina Vinuka who was then living in Gutenberg, Kutna Hora, Bohemia and (2) that 4-year-old Rudolph was born in the United States. A search of the 1910 census finds Rudolph with his father and mother, who is named Katerina. So presumably the younger Katerina and Antonia were sisters, the daughters of the elder Katerina.
The three members of the Bilek family living in 1910 at 425 East 73rd Street (which in 1920 would be the address of Josef and Antonia) were mother Katerina, son Vaclav, and daughter Antonia. This Antonia's age matches the age Josef's wife would have been in 1910. The mother's name Katerina also matches the mother's name Antonia gave in 1912.
A further search for the ship passenger list in which these three arrived found them arriving 20 May 1903. Their passage was paid by the mother Katerina's daughter and sister of Vaclav and Antonia, Mary ?Masapnat? (326 East 73rd Street). They were however fetched by another daughter named Kata (69 East 93rd Street) which is a nickname for Katerina, to whom they were discharged at 4:30 PM that day. The ages of these passengers match the 1910 family. And the presence of a daughter/sister named Katerina further matches what was known from the 1912 arrival and subsequent finding of Rudolph and his mother Katerina in the 1910 census.
Everything fits, with one exception: the 1912 passenger list shows the mother Katerina living in Gutenberg in the district of Kutna Hora in Bohemia, which would seem to conflict with the mother Katerina residing in New York in the 1910 census. However, it seems quite likely that the reason that Antonia was returning to the US in 1912 was because her mother Katerina had decided to return to Bohemia, so that Antonia and Rudolph went to Bohemia to take Katerina back and then returned to the US. BUT then mother Katerina again shows up in New York in the 1920 census, living with the remarried Mary (now wife of Joseph Jahoda). And I cannot find any arrival between 1912 and 1920 for her. So did she really go back to Bohemia and then return to the US? Or did she not accompany Antonia and Rudolph on the 1912 voyage and never did return to Bohemia -- and if so then why did Antonia take her 4-year-old nephew to Bohemia for a visit, which would have been quite expensive?
I am not recording mother Katerina's maiden name as Vinuka, despite the 1912 record. This is because Vinuka and Bileka spoken by a Czech speaker are close enough in sound to a non-Czech ear that it could be that Antonia said "Bileka" (the feminine form of Bilek) and the writer wrote it down as "Vinuka".
Josef Nevole
Unfortunately, none of the searches undertaken thus far have found Josef Nevole in the 1910 census. There are still districts to be searched at this time (9 Nov 2011), so that it may be that he will be found.
My best guess is that Josef had married in New York after arriving in June 1905 and that the 6-month-old infant Josie Nevole who was buried in 1908 was a child of that marriage and that his first wife probably died before 1910, when he married Antonia. But until any solid information is found, this is only a conjecture.
As to the parents of Josef and his relation to Aloisie Nevole, Aloisie Nevole was born 14 Oct 1884 at Čáslav to Josef & Josephine Nevole. She married Josef Reis and lived at Krchleby, just SW of Čáslav. Josef Nevole was born 17 Nov 1886 at Štrampouch, which is just SSW of Čáslav and a bit SE of Krchleby and Sounov, from which Josef emigrated. In his 1904 arrival, he gives his mother as Barbara. So clearly they are not siblings and yet it does seem that they were related. In fact, the record of ownership of the infant Josie's grave in New York has passed down through Aloisie's descendants. So Josef was probably a cousin of Aloisie. But more research is needed to determine the specifics of their relationship.