I learned here that Amanda lived in Yonkers, N.Y. at 59 Livingston Ave. and was buried “in the family plot” at Schenectady, N.Y.

There are (at least) two errors in this obituary.  Henry P. died in 1896 not 1894 and was president of Bowery National Bank not Bowery Savings Bank. These two banks were completely separate businesses.  Bowery National Bank was also known as Bowery Bank of New York or simply, Bowery Bank.

The following is an excerpt from An Institutional History of Banks Operating in New York State ( http://www.banking.state.ny.us/histb.txt ) which distinguishes the two banks as separate businesses.

Bowery National Bank of New York
         1865 Established Bowery National Bank of New York
  

Bowery Savings Bank (5/1834-10/1985)
   05/01/1834 NYS Chartered Bowery Savings Bank (5/1834-10/1985)
  

The Bowery Savings Bank has a Wikipedia article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowery_Savings_Bank  .

More proof distinguishing these two banks apart is seen in the book, The Miracle of Mutual Savings:  As illustrated by one hundred years of The Bowery Saving Bank (not available online).  This book was published by The Bowery Savings Bank in 1934.  It includes a list of the past presidents of Bowery Savings Bank; there is no mention of Henry P. De Graaf.  We know Henry P. De Graaf was president of Bowery National Bank in the 1870s until his death in 1896 according to published biographies and New York City directories from that time period (more about this source in a future blog post).

UPDATE:  08/24/2011 – I wonder who the heck wrote this obituary?  I noticed another mistake.  A major mistake.  Amanda’s daughter, Elizabeth, was not married to Henry D. Cochrane.  Henry DeGraaf Cochrane was one of Elizabeth’s sons.  Amanda was married to James Cochrane.  Source:  I first found this marriage years ago in the old letters and family tree written by Henry DeGraaf Cochrane which my family owns.  To confirm Henry Cochrane knew who his parents were,  Elizabeth and James Cochrane are listed as married in the 1910 and 1920 US federal census records (accessed at Ancestry.com).

http://www.archive.org/stream/sketchesofmenofp01part#page/n797/mode/2u Sketches of men of progress.                                                                                            Published in 1870 by New York and Hartford publishing company: Cincinnati, Greer & company in [New York] .                                                                                                                       pages 682-683                                                                                                                                 Note:  The article in this archive is incomplete.  For the full article see http://startingroots.com/2009/08/06/tell-thursday/

http://www.archive.org/stream/cu31924028835234#page/314/mode/2up                  Westchester County, New York biographical                                                                                                                             compiled by W. W. Spooner                                                                                                           Published in 1900 by New York History Co. in New York                                                      pages 315-317

http://books.google.com/books?id=X5wMAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA173                                                                                                                                            America’s successful men of affairs: An encyclopedia of contemporaneous biography by Henry Hall                                                                                                                                         The New York tribune, 1895                                                                                                                  pages 173-174

http://books.google.com/books?id=nbwTAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA94                                          Year book of the Holland Society of New York                                                                     Holland Society of New York, 1897                                                                                             pages 94-95

obituary in NYTIMES: July 14, 1896                                                    http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F20717FF395F1B738DDDAD0994DF405B8685F0D3

- Article about DeGraaf & Taylor Furniture:                                                   http://books.google.com/books?id=d6ieSXFM2kIC&pg=PA92                                                New York’s great industries:   Exchange and commercial review, embracing also historical and descriptive sketch of the city, its leading merchants and manufacturers by Richard Edwards                                                                                                                            Historical Publishing Co., 1884                                                                                                            page 92

Note:  The biographies state that H.P. was president of the Bowery Bank or Bowery National Bank.  This is not the Bowery Savings Bank which has an article at Wikipedia.org.

Blanche (Bangs) Franke also descends from Kenelm Winslow and Josiah Winslow according to the document “Winslow Genealogy In Descent to Isabelle Winslow Franke” – a compiled genealogy.  Kenelm and Josiah were brothers with Edward Winslow.  Edward Winslow is famous for being a Mayflower passenger and a Govern0r of Plymouth Colony.  Neither Kenelm nor Josiah are listed on the Mayflower Compact – the document which passengers of the Mayflower signed after reaching Plymouth Colony.  However, Kenelm and Josiah were early settlers of Plymouth Colony.

compiled by William B. Bragdon (circa mid 1900s)

1. Blanche Isabelle (Bangs) Franke birthday is stated as 09 Dec 1882.  Information from the document Winslow Genealogy states 09 Dec 1883.
2. Henry Cleveland Franke’s complete name is written as “Henry Edward Cleveland Franke”.  The 1900 US census does list his name as “Henry E C Franke”.  Henry’s WWI and WWII draft cards have his name written as “Henry Cleveland Franke“.
3. The name of Henry E. C. Franke’s father is Henry.  He was born in the year 1841 in Muenster, Germany.

I have a new URL for the family-tree hosted at Rootsweb.  It can now be found by clicking HERE.  I recently updated the tree to include Leland DeGraaf Sr.’s parents and grandparents; I wrote about William Henry DeGraaf and Henry Peek DeGraaf in previous posts.  Also updated Blanche (Bangs) Franke’s lineage back to Kenelm Winslow (d. 1607).

Married to: Henry Cleveland Franke

Two Ancestry.com Hints appeared after entering Blanche’s name and birth-date in my Ancestry.com Tree:

Overview page after merging two Hints to Blanche’s profile:

The next screen-capture is the Overview page for Blanche after transcribing the information stated on the two document-images provided by Ancestry.com Hints.  Also added the the birth-place of Providence, Rhode Island which is stated on the document Winslow Genealogy:

A document image provided by Ancestry.com:

click on image for full size

The ancestral line of my paternal grandmother’s mother traces back to both Kenelm and Josiah Winslow of Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts.   I have not done the genealogy research to confirm this yet. I do have in my possession a copy of a compiled genealogy that lists the descendant line(s) beginning with Kenelm Winslow and Josiah Winslow and ends nine generations later with Blanche Bangs. (Yes, there was a case of distant cousins marrying there somewhere.)

compiled by William B. Bragdon

I transcribed more facts from the Ancestry.com Hints for Henry Franke.  The updated Overview is shown below.

• mother, Eunice R. Franke

1. born July 1853
2. born in the state of New York
3. widowed
4. had 9 children, 4 living at time of census
5. Eunice’s father born in Holland
6. Eunice’s mother born in the state of New York

• sister, Fannie A. Franke, born in October 1874
• brother, George A. Franke, born in July 1883

1. Henry, Fannie, and George were all born in the state of New York
2. Henry, Fannie, and George’s mother (Eunice) was born in the state of New York (as stated above)
3. Henry, Fannie, and George’s father was born in Germany

merging Henry Franke's Ancestry Hint for the 1900 US census and automatically adding his mother and siblings

• Married to:  Blanche Isabelle Bangs

I initially received two Ancestry Hints for Henry.  I merged the two hints with Henry then received an additional hint. After merging that hint, two more hints appeared.  Strange how that works.   The five hints were for the following sources.

Henry’s Overview page after completing Hint merge:

I will next manually edit the Facts to include the information that Ancestry.com did not automatically merge. For example, the dates for Departure and Residence are missing as seen in the above image.  This can be done by viewing the scanned images for the original documents provided by Ancestry.com and transcribing the necessary data.  I will share the updated Overview page in a future post.

• Married to:  Leland Hugh DeGraaf

A letter to great-grandfather Leland Hugh DeGraf from his cousin, Henry DeGraaf Cochrane, states Great-Grandmother’s full maiden name being Marie Coryell Huckins.  I received 3 Ancestry Hints after entering this name and an estimated birth year of 1886 on Marie’s profile at my Ancestry.com member tree.  The birth year, 1886,  is an estimate from the 1920 and 1930 US census. I found Marie on these census records while searching for her husband, Leland.  In these census records Marie’s name is documented as Marie H. DeGraaf.

Letter from Henry DeGraaf Chochrane to his cousin, Lelaland Hugh DeGraaf -click image for large view-