Hattie Kesner

Today would have been Hattie Kesner's 135th birthday. Hattie was born on September 4, 1878 in New York. She would become the oldest of six children born to George Ralph Kesner and Jessie Davis. The Kesner's second child, a son named Harry George, would eventually marry Estelle Byk becoming my paternal great-grandparents. That makes Hattie my "great grandaunt."




On June 20, 1918 Hattie married Samuel B. Sonnenfeld. To the best of my knowledge they never had children.

The clipping at left is from the Wedding Announcements in the June 24 NY Times.

Note the different spelling of "KESSNER". Also interesting is that her husband's name is listed as "SIMON". Interesting- will need to put that on the "to-do list" for further investigation.

Hattie died at her home (921 Washington Ave, Brooklyn, NY) on June 23, 1932. She was only 53 years old. Another item for the "to-do list" : what caused her early demise?

 According to her obituary, she is buried in Union Field Cemetery. If I decide to spend the $18, I'll subscribe to Jewishdata and post a picture of headstone here.

The clippings to the right are photocopies of Hattie's obituaries, originally printed in the NY Times. Are you wondering why it looks like there is scotch tape all over them? These are actually photocopies of photocopies!!

The original clippings were taped into a scrapbook that was created by Hattie's sister-in-law, Estelle Byk Kesner. The scrapbook was passed down to her daughter, Hortense (my paternal grand-
mother). Hortense added to the scrapbook after her mother's death. The scrapbook was then passed to Hortense's son, Alan (my father.)

Photocopy of Estelle's Scrabook

A few years before he died, Alan made photocopies of the scrapbook for his children (who number quite a few....be sure to revisit this blog around July 24  for more on that!!!) Now that I am writing this, I suspect the wealth of material in this album may have had a bit to do with sparking my interest in genealogy - Thanks, Dad!!