Week 37 of the 52 Ancestors Challenge - "Closest to Your Birthday"

​Without divulging my actual birthday, here are some of my relatives with dates of birth near mine, at least ones where I've got photos or something to share about them. I'll add more later when I come across other July events. 

My Great-Aunt FRANCES (DOW) TOTMAN (born 8 July 1892), with her husband John (left), and her brother LAWRENCE (born on her birthday four years later).
See: My Great-Uncle Lawrence

My 5th Great-Grandmother, KEZIAH (AMAZEEN) LEAR, who was born 12 July 1766 in New Castle, NH.
See blog entries: Nathaniel Lear of New Castle, NH and Cemetery 

Wishing all a Happy Mother's Day! 

The following are photos I have of my direct ancestor females, with links to blog pages I have written about them in the past.

Her daughter, Emily Jane Brown (center photo), my 2nd G-Grandmother, married John Kramer of Colchester, CT, but she lived most of her life in Kittery. At right is my Great-Grandmother, Martha (Kramer) Leavitt, Emily's daughter, with myself and siblings.

More about their families here:
Brown - Locke's Cove, Kittery, Maine
Emily Augusta (Waitt) Brown
My Waitt (Waite) Family from Malden, MA
Emily Jane (Brown) Kramer
​

My maternal line continues..

My Great-Grandmother, Annie (Knight) Smith (pictured here on porch with her sister Abbie). Her daughter, Alice (photo on right), is my gram (with me helping her at church bake sale...nice batch of brownies there!)

My paternal line:

My Pridham relatives here, including my grandmother Alice (Pridham) Dow, and her mother, my Great-Grandmother Louise (Condon) Pridham.

More about this family is written here:
​The Pridhams of Puddle Dock (Portsmouth, NH)

EMILY JANE BROWN, my Great Great-Grandmother, was born in Kittery, Maine on 14 June 1864, the daughter of James W. and Emily (Waitt) Brown. Her parents had just married a year prior in Malden, MA, and they returned there after their daughter's birth. It was here that she likely married JOHN KRAMER on 28 Mar 1889 [date in family p.work, rec not yet found]. He was a widower, and had four young children, having moved up to Malden from Colchester, Connecticut, to find work at the Boston Rubber Shoe Co. Following the birth of their first daughter, he and Emily returned to his home town, where they would have five more girls born to them (one would die at birth).

Some time between 1898 and 1900, Emily returned to Kittery with her five daughters, and John remained behind in Colchester. She lived with her parents and sister, May Brown, at Locke's Cove. 

She came down ill in Nov. 1909, according to the local newspaper, and she would die from tuberculosis on 8 Dec 1909 at her parents home in Kittery. She was only 45 years old. She would be buried in Orchard Grove Cemetery.

The above photos were taken at Oak Bank, or Locke's Cove, in Kittery, Maine [note: these pictures were received by me in low resolution, so it is not possible to zoom in and try to identify who is who]. Aunt May Brown is likely one of the adults, and perhaps Emily is the other older female in the boat. 

The children of John and Emily (Brown) Kramer were:
i. Estelle Maude Kramer, born 8 Jan 1890 in Malden, MA
ii. Martha Louise Kramer, b. 9 Jul 1891 in Colchester, CT
iii. (daughter) Kramer, b and d. 20 Aug 1892 in Colchester, CT
iv. Helen Kramer, b. 4 Sept 1893 in Colchester, CT
v. Verna Brown Kramer, b. 31 Oct 1894 in Turnerville (Hebron), CT
​vi. Hazel Irene Kramer, b. 7 Oct 1897 in Colchester, CT

Earlier blog pages:
Brown - Locke's Cove
​The immigration of George Kramer and Mary Fedder (John Kramer's parents)

George Kramer and Mary Anne Fedder were married in the Parish Church at St Botolph (without) Aldersgate, in London, England on 21 October 1838. It is not known when they arrived in England, but they originally came from Prussia. The marriage lists their fathers as Frederick Kramer, a shepherd, and Conrad Fedder, farmer.

The 1841 England census, taken on 6 June 1841, shows a George, Mary Ann, Caroline, and Ann "Creamer", all foreigners (F), in St Albans, Hertfordshire. The enumerators for this census would round down the ages to the nearest 5 years, for those people over 15 yrs of age, so this definitely looks to be the same family. I have no idea who Caroline is, but may be a sister of George.  The "Ind" for occupation stand for "independent means".

George "Creamer", Mary Ann and Ann (perhaps his mother?) arrived in New York City on 16 Oct 1841, from Liverpool, England, on board the vessel Alabamian.

George "Kremer" filed his petition for naturalization in Boston on 15 Oct 1846, and he was sworn in on 21 Apr 1847. It mentions that he first filed his intentions on 4 Apr 1845 in the Marine Court in New York City, but I cannot find that paper yet. His birth place is listed as "Kridlebach", Prussia, but I have not found any references to this location.

From the US Circuit Court in Boston (Vol. 1, pg 53):

He was still living in Boston in Sept 1847 when he bought a house in Colchester, Connecticut. He would live here until his death in 1892. The probate notice called him "George J" - none of the censuses ever showed him with a middle name or initial.

The children of GEORGE and MARY ANN (FEDDER) KRAMER:
i. BERNARD KRAMER, b. 11 Sept 1839 (from George Kramer family bible); not seen with family in ship manifest, or in census reports; may have died in England.
ii. GEORGE KRAMER, b. 20 Apr 1842 in (prob) Boston, MA (obit says Rochester, NY); d. 22 Sept 1925 in Colchester, CT
iii. ANN KRAMER, b. 11 May 1844 in MA; Marr FREDERICK C CRUMM.
iv. JOHN WASHINGTON KRAMER, b. 6 Apr 1846 in Charlestown, MA; d. 5 May 1939 in Colchester.
v. FREDERICK KRAMER, b. 3 June 1848 in Colchester, CT; d. 1852.
vi. MARY LOUISA KRAMER, b. 29 Mar 1850 in Colchester. Marr ABEL R BURNHAM.
vii. WILLIAM KRAMER, b. 18 Feb 1853 in Colchester; d. 4 Nov 1942 in Norwich, CT.
viii. FRANK KRAMER, b. 17 June 1855; d. 20 Nov 1875 in Colchester.
ix. HENRY KRAMER, b. 5 Sept 1857 in Colchester; d. 17 July 1895 in Colchester.

George would remarry, after 1863, to ELIZA FREESTONE, and they had (b. in Colchester):
x. CHARLES AUGUSTUS KRAMER, b. 2 July 1865
xi. ELIZABETH KRAMER, b. 28 Aug 1867
xii. PETER KRAMER, b. b. 28 Aug 1869
xiii. CATHERINE KRAMER, b. 11 Nov 1871
xiv. EDWARD KRAMER, b. 26 May 1874; d. 5 May 1875
xv. EDWARD KRAMER, b. 27 Aug 1876

ADDENDUM:
Below is a christening record for a Bernhardt Kramer, born 22 Sept 1839, and baptized on the 29th, at St George's (German Lutheran) Church on Little Alie St in Whitechapel, London. His parents are listed as Johan Georg and Ana Maria Kramer. This certainly looks like them and their first born child, as seen in the family bible data, though date is 11 days off (there are several entries in the bible that are off - not sure if it was transcription error or original entry error).

Called Oak Bank or Locke's Cove, this inlet near the "back gate" of the Shipyard was the home of the Brown family for several generations. Their home (the yellow house just over the dock in the above postcard) was said to have been built in 1794. I don't have enough information on hand to say when it first came into the Brown family, but the 1872 map of Kittery shows it in the possession of "E Brown", who was Elihu Deering Brown. His son, my 3rd great-grandfather Joseph William Brown, would later own it. In 1900, my great-grandmother and her sisters moved here with their mother, when she was separated from her husband. When Joseph W Brown died in 1923, he willed this property to his daughter May F Brown, who lived there until the 1950's.