SherlockJr
Member
As far as the Polk Directories, I've been able to get information by just calling the San Francisco Public Library. You usually get a nice person who will look them up if they are not busy.
Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
I will have to reconstruct my info about the "other" Brody who lived in SF and was married to a Margaret. Off hand, I recall that he was living in Yuba City, Ca at the same time our Brody was living in Oakland. (This was from Voter registration records on Ancestry.com.)
I think that this barber's union link will provide us with many missing pieces of the puzzle. I cannot find that Local 134 still exists. The AFL (American Federation of Labor) merged with the CIO in ther 1960's (I believe) to become the AFL-CIO. Certain locals may have also merged or been given different numbers during the consolidation.
Just found something else - I know the 1940 census won't be released until 2012.. but I did see something on the national archives website saying you can fill out a request form if you need information on a deceased person from the 1940 census! Wouldn't it be awesome if he was on there?? It should list birthplace, etc...
http://www.archives.gov/genealogy/census/1940/general-info.html
I don't think any "wrong brody" info would matter for this trip unless there is a wrong Brody in Oakland/Berkeley. This library wont have any info on San Francisco residents...
I found what I was looking for - it was actually from voter registrations and we were not sure if this was our George but here it is... then further down on that page, was one city directory listing for George at one of the addresses we already had.
Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community - View Single Post - Who was George Brody?
I also have a suggestion for someone who has an ancestry.com subscription - i tried to do this with what little info a non-subscriber can see, but I think there is a lot more that I can't see.
It seems the addresses where the Oakland Brody lived are also hotels.
1936 - 483 9th St, Oakland
1938-1940 - 534 12th St, Oakland
1944 - 2329 San Pablo Ave
On the search screen, instead of typing a name you can type the address in quotes as a keyword ("483 9th") and it will give you the people who lived at that address. I am wondering if there might be another person who lived at 483 9th in 1936 and at 534 12th in 1938-1940, indicating that he mooched off of someone else before meeting Margaret.
ETA: I am referring to the voter subscriptions database btw...
Great! I wonder if we would need a copy of Brody's death certificate and if we have one. I know Annasmom has a copy of GW's but I don't know if she or Doogie have a copy of GB's. I think they do IIRC.
I'll get it out of the files and post it tonight. It might also be with Doogie's pictures.Good question. I had kind of assumed that since he was born in 1905, they wouldn't need proof that he's deceased... but with our luck, they would.
I will have to reconstruct my info about the "other" Brody who lived in SF and was married to a Margaret. Off hand, I recall that he was living in Yuba City, Ca at the same time our Brody was living in Oakland. (This was from Voter registration records on Ancestry.com.)
I think that this barber's union link will provide us with many missing pieces of the puzzle. I cannot find that Local 134 still exists. The AFL (American Federation of Labor) merged with the CIO in ther 1960's (I believe) to become the AFL-CIO. Certain locals may have also merged or been given different numbers during the consolidation.
I don't know. His hair was completely white when I first met him in 1967. It's hard to believe he was only 62 at that time because he looked so much older.The article you found indicated the slap took place on August 5, 1941. I don't recall what was found to confirm earlier dates.
Also interesting is the red hair. I don't know if Brody was a red head or had any reddish tones to his hair prior to greying.
Annasmom, what color natural hair would you think GB had prior to grey?
TIA
I am and have been thinking George Brody is his real name too.
I'm still a little intrigued by this Lydia "Dodie" Valencia from SF. I can't get too far though without the Ancestry membership. There is some kind if inquisition to see if she was poisoned? born 1879 died in 1948. So she would be the right age for a birth mother to GB. Though, her grave is marked Baird and some other guy James Dunphy is also listed as a husband...( James Dunphy has another interesting criminal history- but it looks like he was in prison( based on ripping off a bank he managed for about 145 grand or something) in 1940. The date he turned himself in to the cops was prior to the Aug 5, 1941 of the incident where George Brody slapped that guy. I didn't get far enough to see what happened after Dunphy turned himself in and if and for how long he was in prison. Interestingly the picture on "Dodie's" stone at her grave looks like it was for two persons, and the left half was never filled in so I am unsure if anyone is buried next to her or not.
There is also some directory of some kind, Berkeley College or Library that has boxes of microfiched negatives from a lot of old early 1900 photos.
As you know we just have bits and pieces of a time line right now. We can work on one.
Another direction..... When I looked up the Polk Directories I did so not online, but at the Joliet IL Library in Will County...... I do remember they had almost all the years and I just flipped through the pages for last names, found addresses years and names so went that route- when researching my family from that area. If Brody is listed in any of the local Polk directories, it may show others with those same addresses, possibly relatives of his. We could always find out what is available at the Berkeley Library prior to going there and put together a list or idea of what we want to look for.
As for the union, it may have changed names or combined with another union. We might be able to do some digging by calling union halls, or just digging around. I'd imagine they would have a list of union laborers somewhere, just where.
Also, I don't know if the barbers and hair dressers in SF or in California are still part of a union. They are not in IL... but each state is different.
with Brody's being into the hotels, perhaps earlier in life as a younger man he might have worked as a barber in one of the finer hotels? Then got in some trouble or couldn't get along with people and started living off the grid? Just a thought
Again, probably another useless bit here but I was searching articles containing the word "barbers" in Berkeley and this popped up and gave me the chills...
Doogie and Sherlock, can you help me on this one? The possible career as a barber is the first solid evidence we have found on any profession of George Brody correct?
The article you found indicated the slap took place on August 5, 1941. I don't recall what was found to confirm earlier dates.
TIA
And of course he may well have lied about his age to the newspaper reporter who did the story about the picket line.I don't know. His hair was completely white when I first met him in 1967. It's hard to believe he was only 62 at that time because he looked so much older.