Who was George Brody?

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I have another question on Brody...In the unclaimed acct he left, it is specific that the address he lived at was the San Pablo Ave address, has this been researched at all, or is anyone familiar with it, or talked to neighbors etc, or people who knew he lived there? THis address is Oakland, and not San Fran.
 
I have another question on Brody...In the unclaimed acct he left, it is specific that the address he lived at was the San Pablo Ave address, has this been researched at all, or is anyone familiar with it, or talked to neighbors etc, or people who knew he lived there? THis address is Oakland, and not San Fran.

The San Pablo Ave. address was the location of the bank, not his address. This is unusual to be listed this way - I suspect that he did not list an address for himself out of paranoia.
 
Brody
  • Hungarian (Bródy), Slavic, and Jewish (Ashkenazic): habitational name for someone from any of the many towns and cities in central and eastern Europe named with Slavic brod ‘fort’.
  • Variant spelling of Scottish Brodie.

I think Brody could very well be of Jewish (Ashkenazic) and (Akashic record references,) and Hungarian descent, Both.

I am very very familiar with the Bay Area Hungarian families, and have very close ties to the community, and also to friends that are in Hungary. I am not Hungarian, but they are a large bay area community, and very close knit for certain. If things lead towards this direction, I will be able to access information about the communities etc, as needed. I may even be able to access info directly from Hungary, as I have friends there at this time.
 
A couple of more clues as to the ethnicity of Brody: Kukoda is a Hungarian name, and the woman who Brody briefly attempted to draw into his little cult, Seka, was from Yugoslavia. So both women that had any level of involvement at all with Brody fit your description, which may be telling.
 
Can they do skip tracing that far back? My thought was finding a neighbor who might still be around and remember anything. Of course, it would probably have to be a very young neighbor...
 
The two Georges were so secretive (not only to others, but with each other also) that it is very doubtful that any neighbors would know anything of value. Joe Ford observed in the late 1970's that they lived in the tenemant hotel specifically because of the isolation and lack of "prying eyes" that this type of dwelling offered.

Even Waters's coworkers knew little about him - I spoke to his supervisor at the Mission Neighborhood Health Clinic and she recalled very little about him, even though he had been a major troublemaker and was fired for gross insubordination.

These two covered their tracks very well.
 
Any things I post are just hypotheses. In downloading census, ship manifests and military records, I believe that George Brody was Hungarian/Austrian. Interestingly, one George Brody had an attorney brother named Albert A. Brody with whom he lived briefly in NY. (thinking of the baby selling) His wife was Margaret Kukoda who may have been the nurse charged in CA with doing abortions. Her mother's name was Esther. A common Jewish nickname for Esther is "Eifee." Also of interest, although perhaps far fetched was an Aug 1911 ship manifest for an Eifee J. Waters from Cherbourg ( a common departure point for Eastern European Jews at the turn of the century). Sometimes individuals would take on the last name of a relative to get approval to arrive in the US. Also there was a George Brody in the 1930's Illinois census living with a Mary Hungo(?) as a boarder. She lived with a daughter Elizabeth and one named Anna, a brother named Peter Wanks(?) and half brother George Polacek(?). This George Brody was born about 1896. Just hunting for leads....
 
NJShrink, Don't worry about finding erroneos info, we all follow strange leads all the time...Can you copy and paste the info on George, Albert and Margaret? It sounds like a very promising lead, especially the 1896 date...you may be onto something...As for the Waters lead, this family has a known history, and the Waters family would have nothing to do with the missing child, but the Brody connections are important. The Waters are good and respectible folks that are still in contact with the family, so we are researching the Brody, with or without Waters lead, as a direction. Great work on what you found! Can you share what it is exactly?
 
NJShrink, Don't worry about finding erroneos info, we all follow strange leads all the time...Can you copy and paste the info on George, Albert and Margaret? It sounds like a very promising lead, especially the 1896 date...you may be onto something...As for the Waters lead, this family has a known history, and the Waters family would have nothing to do with the missing child, but the Brody connections are important. The Waters are good and respectible folks that are still in contact with the family, so we are researching the Brody, with or without Waters lead, as a direction. Great work on what you found! Can you share what it is exactly?
Someone in touch with the Forum through MySpace has come up with a George Brody born in 1889. The name was on a genealogical site listing orphanages in Pennsylvania. This could well account for the difficulty in tracing Brody's origins. If no WebSleuths members are already members of this site, I'll join and see what I can find out, since only part of the information is available to non-members.
 
In light of some interesting new developements, (The BFH & contact with MK's family), I thought I would repost some info I posted in April. IF the info is correct that Brody & Kukoda could have both previously married, (To other spouces) this George Brody could still be in the running for THE GB. This guy was married to a Margaret who is NOT MK.



I was looking around on Ancestry.com and did see some census records for a George Brody that I don't recall seeing discussed here.

There is a George and Margaret Brody listed on the 1920 census living in Philadelphia PA. The problem is it says George was born in 1890, making him 91 when he died. (Though my Father in law is that old and doesn't look a day over 70..LOL)

Anyway, this same couple is then listed in the 1930 Census as living in San Francisco, CA. I'm positive it's the same people, for all of the info is the same such as ages, birth place, mother & fathers birth place ect. In 1920 This George was a plumber in a shipyard, and Margaret worked in a chocolate factory. In 1930 George was a merchant at a Hardware store, (no job listed for wife). Their address was listed as 20th Avenue SF CA.

I can not find death records for either of them. Maybe they divorced & or she changed her last name...I think I found this Margarets record before they where married & her last name might have been Murphy, though I can't find any thing prior for George with the same birth year. I doubt this Margret is Kukoda because her birth year is 1895 and according to that newspaper pic of Kudoda, she looks too young to be 50 yrs old in that picture. Also interesting to note Margaret Brody was 35 in 1930 and there where no children listed for them.
 
Does anyone have an approx. date Margaret K went to CA? I've been looking at a "Russell" of interest who was living in Durham, PA near the location and at the same time frame Margaret was living there. He was a farm hand, ( MK's parents where farmers). He also happened to have a cousin by the name of George who was married to a woman named Effie. (I know, different spelling than Anna's Eifee) This George fellow was b. 12-12-98 and his reported date of death was 8-15-56. Some members of this particular family line where very wealthy.

I really need MK's approx year of leaving PA to determine if these guys could actually be GB and his cousin Russell. Russell lived to be a ripe old age and married and had several kids.

My line of thinking is, maybe this cousin George, went with Russell and Margaret to CA. George & Margaret started a relationship together and Russell, feeling betrayed, went back home to PA. George, leaving a wife and children behind decided to eventually fake his death to his family. He then used his faked date of death (8-15) with his new "rebirth".
 
This sounds as plausible as any other theory at this point - certainly worth following up on. Margaret went to SF during WWII - I believe that she started working at Letterman in 1943.
 
Some thoughts on Brody and why he did what he did...

It is entirely possible that George Brody never had a SS#...he could have not been a naturalized citizen, or he could have been a criminal, and not want to apply, and give fingerprints, or they would catch him.

After all, he needed GW's money to support him, possibly because he did not have SS like everyone else. This supports the theory again, that he is from elsewhere, possibly and likely Hungary.
 
Some thoughts on Brody and why he did what he did...

It is entirely possible that George Brody never had a SS#...he could have not been a naturalized citizen, or he could have been a criminal, and not want to apply, and give fingerprints, or they would catch him.

After all, he needed GW's money to support him, possibly because he did not have SS like everyone else. This supports the theory again, that he is from elsewhere, possibly and likely Hungary.
He would have had to come here as a child if that were the case, since he had no trace of a foreign accent.
 
The EIFEE name

Please ignore if this has been covered. There was a family with last name Eifee I found in the 1930 Federal Census MT (that's the abrev. for Montana, right?). I just wanted to mention it since the name Eifee given to Anna was thought to be a nonsense word that added up in Brody's mind. (correct me of I am wrong). Could George Brody have been from this Eifee family? Or had connections to them? Or just a wild coincidence.

http://www.us-census.org/pub-ftp/mt/stillwater/1930/ed52-brief.txt
 
Good work laini,

For the last 6 months i worked that angle from the census, but to this date, I cannot find any family links that they stayed here, or that they had any offspring...it is possible, I just havent found any links yet...keep us posted if you can find something closer to living.
 
I joined a genealogy site to get information on a George Brody, 1898, listed in papers from a Pennsylvania orphanage. It looked interesting, but this Brody turned out to be the second vice president of Lodge 125 of the Odd Fellows Orphans' Home of Central Pennsylvania (not an orphan) in 1898, which would make him too old to be "our" Brody. SherlockJr and I also checked out an "Anna Banana" who looked promising (and all kinds of fun, with her polka band, accordion playing and handmade quilts), but who was way too young to be our Anna. So you can strike these two off your list, in case they turn up in your research.
 
Anna Anna ba-bo-bana be-bi-bo-bana Anna.

What next, the Hand Jive? :crazy: :)
 
Too lazy to look for this at the moment...

Doogie or Annasmom, what is the exact spelling of the name Brody added to Anna's....Eiffee?

Thanks!!
 
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