An Address With a Story

I’ve adapted Amy Johnson Crow’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge.
Each week I follow my children’s ahnentafel numbering to select the featured ancestor, ensuring no one through the mid–sixth generation is left behind.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: 2026 Week 12: An Address With a Story

Introduction

My assigned Week 12 ancestor is my paternal grandfather, Edward Anderson (1912–1985).

I’ve only ever known Grandpa to live at 60 Hillview Street, in Naugatuck, Connecticut. Of course, that wasn’t always the case – and it wasn’t even the plan.

Discussion

Grandpa was orphaned just days before his twelfth birthday. He and his two sisters were separated, each sent to different places. Grandma told me he lived with Uncle Jim and Aunt Lena for a time, but he seemed to spend much of his youth in “a home” – likely an orphanage, possibly St. Michael’s Home in Staten Island, New York.

By 1930, I found him as a young man rooming with two other young men, perhaps also without family support. He was working for a “rubber house,” where I believe he remained for the rest of his career.

By the next federal census, he had married, and he and his bride were living in Manhattan. They were still there in 1950.

Not long after, they moved to Staten Island, where I believe they purchased their first home.

At some point, Grandpa’s employer wanted to relocate him, but they chose not to go. The next time the company asked, Grandma told me, they felt they couldn’t refuse – they would be risking the household’s only income.

That decision brought them to Naugatuck, Connecticut, home of the United States Rubber Company. They bought what they considered a starter home: two bedrooms, one bath, and no expectation that it would be permanent.

Yet something about the house suited them. They made it their own. Grandpa lived the remaining 20 years of his life there, and Grandma stayed another 24 after that.

What they thought would be temporary became their forever home.

When my younger cousin once asked me for memories of Grandpa (she had been only a preschooler when he died) I told her about the walks he would take me on through that neighborhood. They knew their neighbors. Family settled nearby. It felt like a place where they had finally found peace.

I believe they were happy in that home.

Figure 1 Image from realtor.com

Challenge

What address has a special connection for you?

AI Disclosure

This post was created by me with the help of AI tools. While AI helps organize research, the storytelling and discoveries are my own.

Next Week’s Topic: A Family Pattern