Leier Family Chart
Leier Family History
Children of Charles
& Louise Nowasky
Children of Lawrence
& Amelia Leier
Cemeteries
Causes of Death
Photos
Documents
Brooklyn Map
Email Me
Children of Charles & Louise Nowasky
Emilie (Amelia), Bertha, Friedrich, Hulda, Jacob, and Carl (Charles) Jr.
Friedrich, Hulda and Jacob died as infants in Germany.
AMELIA NOWASKY
Amelia Nowasky was born as Emilie Bertha Pubanz in Cekzin, Germany on February 18, 1865 and immigrated to New York City with her family on November 8, 1882. At the time of her birth, Amelia's mother, Louise Pubanz, appears to have been unwed. That is, there is no name for the father on the birth record. Eventually, Louise married Carl Nowatzke in Cekzin and he would be Amelia's father from then on.
The earliest American document that I have is the certificate of Amelia's marriage to Longinus Leier , dated September 9, 1883. They were married in St. John s German Evangelical Lutheran Church, located on Prospect Avenue in Brooklyn. Her name on the certificate is Emilie Nowacka and her father s name is Carl Nowatzki. I'm not sure why Nowatzke is now Nowatzki, but, based on information I received from several sources, Nowatzki is the German spelling of the Polish Nowacki. I have been told by those same informed sources that Nowacki is a very common surname in present-day Poland and it was the custom for an unmarried female with that surname to spell her name with an (a) at the end (Nowacka).
In any case, Emilie s place of birth on the certificate is entered as Germany." She and Longinus were living in Gravesend, Long Island at the time and one of the witnesses to the marriage was her 16-year-old sister, Bertha Nowacka.
Eventually, Emilie changed her name to Amelia and Longinus changed his to Lawrence. Carl Nowatzke/Nowatzki changed his name to Charles Nowasky.
For more information on Amelia and Lawrence, click on the "Leier Family History" in the panel on the left.
BERTHA NOWASKY
Bertha Rosalie Nowasky was born as Bertha Rosalie Krzyan in Cekzin, Germany on September 8, 1867. The reason for her unusual surname is still unclear. Her birth record lists her mother as Louise Krzyan, whose maiden name should be Pubanz. Like her sister Emilie's record, there is no father listed, but Louise would eventually marry Carl Nowatzke and he would become Emilie and Bertha's father.
On November 8, 1882, Bertha arrived in New York City with her family. The second-oldest American document that I have is Bertha s marriage certificate. She was barely 17 years old when she married 24-year-old Albert Kuntze on February 15, 1885, in the same church as her sister, St. John's German Evangelical Lutheran Church in Brooklyn. Curiously, her name is spelled Nowazky on the certificate and the name of her father is written as Carl Nowazky. Furthermore, one of the witnesses is Carl Nowazky, which could be Bertha s father or her 15-year-old brother. The other witness is Longinus Leier.
The most important piece of information on the certificate, however, is the entry for Bertha s place of birth, which is Ceckin Germany . Although the spelling is a little different, this matches the records that I received from Tom Peters showing the Nowaskys came from Cekzin. As I stated previously, Cekzin was actually a small village in West Prussia, which at the time was part of the vast German Empire. Today, that same village is in Poland, and is known by the Polish name of Cekcyn. All of the documents I have for the Nowaskys indicate they considered themselves, German, not Polish.
Bertha and Albert Kuntze had 5 children that I know of. The first was a female whose name I have yet to learn. She was born April 29, 1886 and died before the second child was born in September 1887. The other children were William, Albert, Edwin, and Ada.
William Kuntze was born on September 25, 1887, in the South Greenfield section of Gravesend. According to his birth certificate, William was Bertha and Albert's second child and the first child was no longer living. Ten months later on July 28, 1888, Bertha prematurely gave birth to their third child, Albert Kuntze Jr., who died within hours. Cause of death is listed as asthenia due to premature birth. Asthenia generally means "weakness" but may have been a euphemism for pulmonary tuberculosis.
While Bertha and Albert were trying to deal with the heartbreaking loss of their second child within two years, 10-month-old William died barely 2 days after Albert Jr., on July 31,1888, from dysentery convulsions. Dysentary is an infection of the digestive system that results in severe diarrhea containing mucus and blood in the feces and is typically the result of unsanitary water and food. He was buried in Gravesend Cemetery.
Less than a year later, on May 20, 1889, their fourth child was born. His name was Edwin Kuntze. On September 8, 1890, their fifth child, Ada Kuntze was born. Although I have been unable to find any other documents for Edwin, Ada's birth certificate indicates that she was the only living child. By the time Ada was born, Bertha was only 22 years old, and she and Albert had already lost 4 babies.
Somehow, against all odds, Ada was able to survive into adulthood, barely. For some unknown reason, she changed her name from Ada to Edith. On the 1910 census, she is listed as living with her Aunt Amelia Leier and her children at 941 Newkirk Avenue. In February 1912, she was 21 years old and unmarried when she prematurely gave birth to a baby girl named Katherine. The father of baby Katherine was a man named John J. Sullivan. There is no evidence that Edith ever married. She contracted Erysipelas Fasciitis, a flesh-eating skin infection, while she was pregnant. Mother and daughter lingered several weeks in Kings County Hospital until Katherine died from malnutrition on March 23. Basically, she starved to death because her mother was not able to offer her sustenance. Edith died the next day on March 24. They were buried together in the same unmarked plot at Evergreens Cemetery with Edith's grandmother Louise Pubanz Nowasky and where her mother Bertha would go when she died in 1923.
Albert Kuntze died on January 22, 1897 at Newkirk Avenue near Coney Island Road. He was 35 years old. According to his death certificate, he was born in Germany, he came to the U.S. around 1882, and his occupation is listed as a laborer. Cause of death: Pleura Pneumonia (inflammation of the lungs and lining of the thorax). He was buried in Gravesend Cemetery on January 24, 1897.
Exactly 26 years to the day after Albert's death, Bertha died, on January 22, 1923 at her home at 239 Central Avenue in Brooklyn. She was 55 years old. She was suffering from Chronic Interstitial Nephritis, an inflammation of her kidneys, for a year and a half before she succumbed. She was buried at Evergreens Cemetery on January 24, 1923, in the same unmarked plot as her mother Louise and daughter Ada. Her name listed on the death certificate is Bertha Wilson. I can only guess that she remarried after Albert s death in 1897, but I have no evidence of that.
CHARLES NOWASKY JR.
Charles Nowasky Jr. was born as Carl Nowatzke in Cekzin, Germany in February of 1874, and immigrated to New York City with his family on November 8, 1882. They were living in the Parkville section of Flatbush, Brooklyn when Charles, who was working as a laborer in a lumberyard, married Barbara Kellner on June 7, 1896. They had three children that I know of: Charles, Frederick and Marie.
Charles and Barbara's first child, the third Charles Nowasky, was born on January 13, 1898. On September 12, 1918, he registered for the draft, as he was required to do by law. He was 20 years old at the time and living at Avenue L & 17th Street with his mother and brother, Frederick. He worked for the Bush Company running a freight elevator. He was 5' 5" tall, weighed about 135 pounds, with blue eyes and brown hair. Later in life, he suffered from impaired vision and worked for the Industrial Home For The Blind in Brooklyn in the early 1940's.
Although he was suffering from impaired vision, he finally found love at the age of 44 when he married a widow named Gladys Donahue on November 28, 1943. Gladys was born Gladys Alice Riedel around 1898. She was the same age as Charles. Her parents were Julius Riedel and Isabelle Irwin. Gladys had been previously married to Hugh Donahue in 1922, but he died in 1929.
Charles was working as a handyman at Kings County Hospital when he died there on March 12, 1954 at the age of 56 of natural causes. He was living with his mother and brother Frederick at 683 Coney Island Avenue in Brooklyn at the time. His death certificate indicates he was a widower, but I have no record of the death of Gladys. Charles is buried at Evergreens Cemetery.
Frederick Valentine Nowasky was born October 27, 1900. On September 12, 1918, he registered for the draft, as he was required to do by law. He was 18 years old and living with his mother at Avenue L & 17th Street in Brooklyn, and worked as a machinist helper at the Eisenmann Magnets Company. Fred served one year in the military from April 1920 to April 1921. He was 5' 8" tall and weighed about 150 pounds. He had blue eyes, light brown hair and a light complexion. He was nearly 25 years old in August of 1925 when he married 18-year-old Alberta Klinger. Alberta was born Albertina Mary Klingler in the Bronx on February 1, 1908, the daughter of druggist Henry A. Klingler and Mary C. Schellhammer. Fred and Alberta had one son that I know of, Frederick Nowasky, Jr. By 1942, Fred was working for the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company in the Bronx. At some point he and Alberta divorced.
In 1955, Fred was living with his mother at 683 Coney Island Avenue in Brooklyn and working as a butcher when he died at home on January 9, 1955, of natural causes. He was 54 years old. This was only ten months after the death of his brother Charles. His death certificate states his son Fred Jr. was the informant. He is buried with his brother at Evergreens.
Marie Nowasky was born on December 10, 1904. Thanks to cousins Barbara Crowell and Josie Cook, I know a lot more about Marie than I did before. Barbara and Josie are Marie's granddaughters.
Marie was only 13 years old when her father died March 26, 1918 from bronchial pneumonia and the year-long chronic effects of arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries). He was only 44 years old. He was buried at Evergreens Cemetery with his father. This left his wife Barbara a relatively young (41) widow with three children, Charles (20), Frederick (17) and Marie (13).
In 1924, Marie and her mother Barbara were living in a small apartment at 1043 Crawford Avenue in the Sheepshead Bay section of Brooklyn, just east of Gravesend. During this time, Marie met Elisha Snow Crowell. Elisha was born in Brooklyn on July 27, 1907. He courted Marie for several weeks, telling her and Barbara that his father was connected with a bank in Manhattan. Marie and her mother importuned him to present Marie to his relatives, or to have them call at Marie's house, but he declined, giving the explanation, it is alleged, that his father was a member of the Ku-Klux Klan and opposed to Catholics. Marie and Barbara were Catholic.
On May 14, 1924, Marie and Elisha were married. He had convinced them that he was 21 years old and was employed as an "operator". He also somehow convinced Barbara to pay for the marriage license and wedding ring. In fact, he was only 16 years old, unemployed, and attended the prestigious Boys High School in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. Less than a week after the wedding, Elisha's parents found him and forcibly took him back to their home. By then, however, Marie was already pregnant. Elisha's father had him committed to a sanitarium, suffering from alcoholism and mental derangement.
According to Elisha's parents, James Lane Crowell and Mabel (Meade) Crowell, Marie's mother operated a "drinking place" in their apartment, and it was there that young Elisha became an alcoholic. His father, who declared he was not a member of the Klan, had the marriage annulled. As it turns out, he was indeed connected to a bank, as a teller.
Elisha eventually found his way to California where he married another Marie, this one Marie Magdalena Schaffer, a native of Mexico. He died in Stockton, California on October 2, 1969 at the age of 62. He was buried at Cherokee Memorial Park in Lodi, California.
On January 12, 1925, Marie gave birth to her and Elisha's daughter. She named the baby Marie Crowell. By 1930, Marie, baby Marie, and Barbara were all still living in Sheepshead Bay but at 1304 Avenue U. Marie's brother Charles was living there as well. Marie worked as a machine operator in a pencil factory.
According to Barbara and Josie, little Marie was raised by her grandmother, Barbara Nowasky. Marie would later adopt the name Barbara because of her close relationship with her grandmother. She told her daughters that Barbara spoke English with a heavy accent, reflecting her Hungarian birth.
A few days before Christmas of 1931, when little Marie was seven years old, she was standing with her grandmother Barbara on the train platform at the Newkirk Avenue Station when the arriving train crashed into the platform injuring several people including Barbara and little Marie. In fact, Marie may have sustained a broken leg and taken to the hospital. They both recovered from their injuries. To read the newspaper account, click here.
One day, little Marie was taken to Coney Island by her uncles, Charlie and Freddy Nowasky, and they rode on the Cyclone roller coaster. She related to her daughters years later that she was terrified and hated the experience.
Sometime prior to 1935, Marie the mother moved in with Richard Ward Bolton, an elevator operator who worked at Kings County Hospital. He was born in West Virginia on June 15, 1901, the son of Waitman B. WIlley Bolton and Effie Ward. Richard was 5' 11" tall, weighed about 150 pounds, with grey eyes and a light complexion. One week after he turned 21, he enlisted with the United States Marines and served for exactly three years, from 1922 to 1925. He earned the rank of sergeant. Upon his honorable discharge, he worked as a guard for the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation.
Marie and Richard rented an apartment at 608 Coney Island Avenue in Brooklyn for $35 per month ($665 in today's dollars). This was only a few blocks away from 941 Newkirk Avenue where Amelia Leier and her children had previously lived. On December 26, 1936, Elizabeth Marie Crowell was born. She lived for only two months, dying March 4, 1937 from bronchial pneumonia. Why was the baby named Crowell? Her death certificate states her mother was Marie Nowasky and her father Richard Crowell, not Bolton. Why they did this is a mystery, but it may have been because they may not have been married. In October of 1937, seven months after the death of baby Elizabeth, they applied for a marriage license, but no record of an actual marriage can be found. The 1940 Federal Census lists them as married.
Richard and Marie had three more children, all sons. They were Richard J. Bolton, born May of 1940; William W. Bolton, May of 1943; and Ward R. Bolton, in 1946. Son Richard may have suffered from some type of medical problem where he had trouble holding his head up.
In 1940, Barbara and her son Charles were living at 683 Coney Island Avenue, barely one block away from Richard and Marie. By this time, daughter Marie was 15 years old. They soon moved 2 blocks away to 44 Turner Place, then another block to 1023 Church Avenue.
It was in 1942 that daughter Marie somehow ended up in Alabama. On June 6, 1942, when she was 17 years old, she married Charles Kaplan. Charles was born in New York on February 11, 1919, the son of Jewish immigrants from Russia Theodore Kaplan and Rena Levine. At the time of the marriage, Charles was a soldier based at Fort Benning in Georgia, which is just a few miles across the border (the Chattahoochee River) from the location of the marriage in Phenix City, Alabama. Although she was only 17 years old at the time, the marriage certificate says she was 19. Perhaps she needed to be older than 18 to get married in Alabama without her parents' consent.
Charles was 5' 5" tall, weighed 150 pounds, with blonde hair, hazel eyes and a ruddy complexion. During her marriage to Charles, Marie gave birth to two sons, Norman Kaplan in 1943 and Robert Honore Kaplan in 1948.
When Marie (the mother) and Richard Bolton had their son Ward R. Bolton on August 3, 1946 they were living at 1023 Church Avenue, barely two blocks from 44 Turner Place. Baby Ward died a year later on December 16, 1947. It was another tragic event in Marie's life, and right before Christmas. The cause of death for this baby was recorded as "natural causes", the newly adopted practice at that time of avoiding the high number of erroneous entries made on death certificates. They had his body cremated.
By 1950, Charles Kaplan and his little son Norman went to live with Charles' parents in Hempstead, Long Island. Charles was listed as separated from Marie and working as a "construction examiner". His father was a superintendent for the same company. Marie and baby Robert Kaplan moved back with her grandmother Barbara and her uncles, Charles and Fred Nowasky at 683 Coney Island Avenue in Brooklyn. Charles died in 1954, and Fred in January 1955, leaving Barbara and Marie living alone.
Marie's mother, Marie Bolton, was now living at 8119 Glenwood Road in the Canarsie section of Brooklyn. On September 4, 1955, Barbara suffered an attack of some undefined illness. She went to live with Marie in Canarsie.
On September 12, 1955 daughter Marie, who was now going by the name Barbara, married Joseph Guarino. Although they both lived and worked in New York, the marriage took place at the Evangelical United Brethren Church in Arlington, Virginia. Marie changed her name to Barbara partly because she and her mother Marie did not get along, and because her grandmother Barbara was the one who actually raised her. Plus, her mother Marie and Richard Bolton both suffered from alcoholism. According to one story, Richard was a big baseball fan and was watching the game on TV when step-daughter Marie was making too much noise. He threw a beer glass at her which shattered and cut her in the face and left a nasty scar above her eyebrow. As a result, Marie never liked baseball and often told this story.
Several months later, grandmother Barbara died at the home in Canarsie on January 24, 1956. She was 79 years old. She died a year after her son Fred. She is buried in Evergreens Cemetery with her two sons. Their grave has the only headstone for the Leiers and Nowaskys in the cemetery.
Barbara's granddaughter, now known as Barbara Guarino, was very distraught over the loss of her grandmother, who was the one that raised her. But she was also upset that her grandmother did not live to see her great-granddaughter, also named Barbara, born just two months later. Ironically, this was nearly the same time that Richard Bolton died, on March 24, 1956. He was only 54 years old. As a veteran, he was buried at the National Cemetery in Farmingdale, Long Island.
Daughter Marie, now married to Joe Guarino and going by the name Barbara, was an opera singer for the New Jersey State Opera Company. She and Joe had two children, Barbara Guarino born in March of 1956, and Josephine (Josie) Guarino in 1962.
After Richard Bolton's death in 1956, Barbara lost track of her mother Marie and her two half-brothers Richard and William Bolton. At some later time, she and Joe went looking for them and ended up finding them somewhere in New York living under extremely poor conditions. The two brothers were selling Christmas trees out of a pop-up trailer. Marie and Joe ended up getting all of them an apartment near the hospital in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Joe paid the rent and supplied them with furniture, and other household things such as a television, beds, blankets, and food. He also got the two brothers jobs at the hospital.
Marie never worked and by this time she was in pretty bad shape due to her alcohol addiction. She was also a heavy smoker. One day she told Joe to go downstairs and buy her a carton of cigarettes. Joe refused and said he was paying for everything and you want me to go buy you cigarettes, too? A major argument resulted, and Barbara lost touch with her mother, again. Just before Barbara and Joe's second daughter Josie was born in 1962, Barbara found her again, in the hospital supposably suffering from tuberculosis. Barbara went to see her but since she was pregnant with Josie, Joe didn’t think it was a good idea and that was the last chance she had of seeing her mother.
Marie died on January 24, 1966. She was 62 years old. She was buried next to Richard at Long Island National Cemetery. Marie (Barbara) Guarino died on June 24, 2016, at the age of 91.
