Who was George Brody?

[InterestedNHelping]

This GB listed himself as a "Jr Research Assistant"..which IMO, loosely translates to the possibility, that he worked on a campaign or initiative staff, doing research in the political arena. This was a hotbed time, politically speaking. In this time era, it was post depression, and any job was a good job. Oakland, SF and Alameda all had organized groups of financial assistance for the impoverished, whom just happened to be mostly single white males, unemployed. (This from SF bay area statistical articles I researched)
Perhaps he stocked up all that money he collected on assistance too?

I think his glorified political career, was in fact, a staffer in political movement, in a small office somewhere in the east bay.

 

[InterestedNHelping]

What was his party affiliation under his voter registration? We may be able to track his whereabouts, due to his ideals politically

 

[InterestedNHelping]

Another thought here...I am from this county, and my family history is of the pioneers of this area. My aunt who is 99, still sits on historical commitees and the likes, and has historical connections to lots of folks. She may be able to guide me to where we can find info, if we can track down an area or interest that Brody had.

 

[iNTERESTEDWOMAN]

What was his party affiliation under his voter registration? We may be able to track his whereabouts, due to his ideals politically

He claimed to be a Democrat. Records are all from the FDR era

 

[Dr. Doogie]

I found another reference to a George Brody that may put him in the Bay Area as early as 1927:

Oakland Tribune July 18, 1927

“Run down by an automobile driven by George Brody, 325 Divisadero Street, San Francisco, Miss Lena Kruse, 1457 Hyde Street, San Francisco, received concussion of the brain, a fractured leg, cuts and bruises.”

The other George Brody is listed on voter rolls as living also in San Francisco during 1927, but at a different address. If this is our Brody who was in the accident, then that means he was an adult and of driving age in 1927. Assuming that this means that he was at least 18 years old, then that pushes his birth year back to 1909 at the latest.

 

[Annasmom]

I found another reference to a George Brody that may put him in the Bay Area as early as 1927:

Oakland Tribune July 18, 1927

“Run down by an automobile driven by George Brody, 325 Divisadero Street, San Francisco, Miss Lena Kruse, 1457 Hyde Street, San Francisco, received concussion of the brain, a fractured leg, cuts and bruises.”

The other George Brody is listed on voter rolls as living also in San Francisco during 1927, but at a different address. If this is our Brody who was in the accident, then that means he was an adult and of driving age in 1927. Assuming that this means that he was at least 18 years old, then that pushes his birth year back to 1909 at the latest.

That might also explain why he didn't drive later on. He must have been at least 70 when I met him in 1967, so the 1909 birthdate is very conservative. I wonder if Miss Lena Kruse is still around.

 

[smile22]

i am excited all this new info i wonder if we could track down house records from where he was living at the time he was registered to vote. they might list rental information such as date of birth age ss number and so forth

 

[iNTERESTEDWOMAN]

I found another reference to a George Brody that may put him in the Bay Area as early as 1927:

Oakland Tribune July 18, 1927

“Run down by an automobile driven by George Brody, 325 Divisadero Street, San Francisco, Miss Lena Kruse, 1457 Hyde Street, San Francisco, received concussion of the brain, a fractured leg, cuts and bruises.”

The other George Brody is listed on voter rolls as living also in San Francisco during 1927, but at a different address. If this is our Brody who was in the accident, then that means he was an adult and of driving age in 1927. Assuming that this means that he was at least 18 years old, then that pushes his birth year back to 1909 at the latest.

What a strange coincident. In the 1938 Voter registration for SF George N. Brody was listed as living at 430 Divisadero Street. Just odd.

 

[iNTERESTEDWOMAN]

That might also explain why he didn't drive later on. He must have been at least 70 when I met him in 1967, so the 1909 birthdate is very conservative. I wonder if Miss Lena Kruse is still around.

I wouldn't think so, I can't find a death record for her, but that is pretty common for women of that era, but if she is the same Miss Lena Kruse listed on Hyde Street in the 1930 SFCA census, she was born in 1869. She was an older lady when Brody run her over...poor thing.

 

[InterestedNHelping]

WOW, WoW WOW! This is amazing info, and perhaps Brody got sued thus the storage of money? ANother theory of course...perhaps the Oakland library archives would help us

 

[Mischa]

Is there a possibility to find out if Brody had any criminal record? I don’t think of violent crimes but of something like embezzlement, fraud or larceny. He lived as a kind of parasite for the last decade of his life and so I can’t image him as a law-abiding and hard working citizen in the years before
Now we know that he used the name Brody at least for 54 years perhaps he also was convicted as George Brody.

 

[InterestedNHelping]

I found a Kruse family that is all buried in SF national cemetery, but we need to find Miss Lena's children, (go forward, not backward, lol)perhaps she has photos of accident car? or story passed down, and perhaps George gave her a serious head injury, by the sound of that report.

 

[InterestedNHelping]

Interesting tidbit, most likely irrelevant but maybe she was from a prominent family, thus the press about her accident

"The Kruse building at 112 Matheson Street was designed by San Franciscan architect, A. J. Barnett. The first owner, Frederick Kruse, along with his brothers James and August, were agents for Wells Fargo and Company here."

 

[iNTERESTEDWOMAN]

I found a Kruse family that is all buried in SF national cemetery, but we need to find Miss Lena's children, (go forward, not backward, lol)perhaps she has photos of accident car? or story passed down, and perhaps George gave her a serious head injury, by the sound of that report.

From what I can tell, "Miss" Lena was a...well...uh...humm, what you would call an old spinster. She was listed as "S" for Single on the 1930 census records. It would have had a "W" for widow, a "D" for divorced or an "M" for married, but still, in all the other cases she would then be considered a "Mrs.". She was listed as the "head" of a boarding house, with a dress maker as her occupation. She was 59 at the time of the accident. She could have had children outside a marriage I suppose...

 

[Annasmom]

From what I can tell, "Miss" Lena was a...well...uh...humm, what you would call an old spinster. She was listed as "S" for Single on the 1930 census records. It would have had a "W" for widow, a "D" for divorced or an "M" for married, but still, in all the other cases she would then be considered a "Mrs.". She was listed as the "head" of a boarding house, with a dress maker as her occupation. She was 59 at the time of the accident. She could have had children outside a marriage I suppose...

There was an Emmy Margaret Andersen who died in 2006 in northern California who had an unmarried sister named Lena Kruse who predeceased her. This woman had family living in Sacramento including a niece, Paula Castles (Mrs. Donald)... many women named Lena Kruse come up on a search, but this seems to be the only family connection in the right part of the country. Would a niece remember anything about the traffic accident such a long time ago? Seems unlikely.

 

[InterestedNHelping]

I still think that though she is relatively irrelavant, the find of George Brody sure is gold...having the name that far back, means what I thought possibly all along, that he had family in san francisco. When I ran a check into Brodys from SF in the birth index, there are 2 women that date back that far, born in SF, and I kept their names in my files from the birth index, and just maybe somewhere along the lines these will match to him, as I have a mothers maiden name for the Brody births. I have ALOT of files, so as names pop up with association, I will keep crossreferencing...here is what I found in the archives

[Sep 17, 1953][SIZE=-1] ESTATE OF KRUSE, 120 Cal.App.2d 254 (1953) 260 P.2d 969 Estate of LENA KRUSE, Deceased.[/SIZE]
From California Courts of Appeal Reports - ESTATE OF... - [SIZE=-1]California Courts of Appeal Reports ($$) [/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]Related stories[/SIZE] - [SIZE=-1]Related web pages[/SIZE]

 

[iNTERESTEDWOMAN]

There was an Emmy Margaret Andersen who died in 2006 in northern California who had an unmarried sister named Lena Kruse who predeceased her. This woman had family living in Sacramento including a niece, Paula Castles (Mrs. Donald)... many women named Lena Kruse come up on a search, but this seems to be the only family connection in the right part of the country. Would a niece remember anything about the traffic accident such a long time ago? Seems unlikely.

That might work. I was also thinking about all the names on the voter registration forms. For each listing of George Brody, it also lists all his neighbors living within his precinct. For example, his last address, (which I assume was an apartment) had 6 or seven other people living at the same address. We might have some luck locating any living neighbors in the later years..1936 to 40ish.

 

[iNTERESTEDWOMAN]

My time is limited today, so I was hoping someone could help me out. Was it said that the Georges had more than 1 hotel room when Anna disappeared? I was thinking there where 3...is that right? Two rooms in one hotel, and another room in a different hotel? If there where more than one hotel/apt. how far apart where they? Sorry for the redundant question. I'm trying to figure out how common it was for Brody to have more than one resident at a time. I remember Annasmom saying she had compiled a list of addresses from Joe Ford notes covering a 20 year period for GB &MK. Is there a way to view that?

 

[Dr. Doogie]

We may be getting "off track" by looking at Lena Kruse. The importance of the article is in that it may place Brody living in the San Francisco area in 1927 and narrows his birth year to earlier than what had been claimed by him. Trying to locate Lena's descendants seems time-consuming and unlikely to yeild any value to us.

The fact that the "other Brody" lived at an address very near where this Brody lived causes me to have some doubts that the "accident Brody" is our guy. I am still confident that the GB listed in Oakland in 1936 is our man.

 

[Annasmom]

My time is limited today, so I was hoping someone could help me out. Was it said that the Georges had more than 1 hotel room when Anna disappeared? I was thinking there where 3...is that right? Two rooms in one hotel, and another room in a different hotel? If there where more than one hotel/apt. how far apart where they? Sorry for the redundant question. I'm trying to figure out how common it was for Brody to have more than one resident at a time. I remember Annasmom saying she had compiled a list of addresses from Joe Ford notes covering a 20 year period for GB &MK. Is there a way to view that?

I'll look for them. My memory was that SherlockJr found these addresses, and she is not at home right now. The fact that there was more than one person with the name GB complicates things, of course.