#52 Ancestors – No. 18 – Kasper Gaber

This post is number 18 in the series of the #52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge where a group of us blog about a different ancestor for each week of the year.  To learn more about the 52 Ancestor Challenge visit Amy’s website.

It’s been a rainy day here on the west coast of Florida.  Perfect time to do some genealogy research and add a post to my blog. I chose to blog about my mother’s first husband’s family, the Gaber’s.

Kasper GABER is the grandfather to my mother’s first husband.  Kasper is sometimes spelled Casper.  Born in 1866, he immigrated from the Austrian Poland Partition around 1885.  He settled in Shenandoah, Schuylkill, Pennsylvania.

The Gaber family names varies in records.  Variants both written and probably spoken pronunciation, include Gober or Gobrich/Gabrich.  They are diminutives of the Polish name.

The earliest record for him may be the 1890 Census Directory Listing.  There is a Casper Gabel listed at 360 S. West Street in Shenandoah.  The record at PA USGenWeb site is typewritten and not an original copy.

Kasper marries Rozalia GRIACJKA (Gressiak) in June 1891.  They have 12 children of which nine survive infancy. For the next 35 plus years they reside at 356 S West Street. Just a few doors down from the 1890 Directory. The 1910 Census has them residing at 356 1/2 West Street.

There are a total of 16 people living in one house. The Gaber family with their five children and four boarders are living in one section of the house.  They rent out part of the house to the Ptascosky family and their boarder who either live upstairs or downstairs at 356 West Street.

Below is a current image of the house address captured from Google Maps: http://goo.gl/maps/4iuZa.  The length of the house is long and looks like it had a basement entrance at one time, which looks scary to me. The house is owned by Kasper. The dwelling becomes a single family house by the 1920’s and only the Gaber’s live there.

Gaber Residence from 1900-1930.

House at 356 South West St, Shenandoah, PA

Kasper passes away in 1934.  I have not located Rosie Gaber in the 1940 Census.  Some members of the family, including my “step” grandfather, Stanley Gaber, move to Michigan after 1935.

Kasper Gaber Gravestone

Kasper Gaber Gravestone

Kasper is buried at Saint George’s Cemetary, West Mahanoy, Schuylkill, Pennsylvania, United States. The Polish Gravestone translation on his tombstone reads, Prosi o modlitwę (“Asking for a prayer” or “Please say a prayer for him”)

Sources
Google Maps
http://files.usgwarchives.net/pa/schuylkill/census/1890/shenandoah4.txt
http://www.pgsa.org/PDFs/CrashCourseInPolish.pdf
NARA Census Records
“BillionGraves Index,” index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/27MJ-YCJ : accessed 03 May 2014), Kasper Gaber, 1934; citing Saint Georges Cemetery, West Mahanoy, Pennsylvania.

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