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Author: sallybromley
Surnames: Roewer, Vanderbilt, Groppenbecker, Bromley, Marino, Abbott
Classification: queries
Message Board URL:
http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.indiana.counties...
Message Board Post:
My grandmother was Ruth Margaret Vanderbilt, born September 21, 1901 in Chicago, IL. My
mother is Ruth Margaret's daughter Aurelia Marcella Roewer Bromley. My grandmother
died in Rochester, Michigan in October 1986, she was 85 years old. She is buried next to
her husband Edwin Louis Roewer in Cincinnati, Ohio. Edwin was a veteran of WWI. He
emigrated to the United States with his parents when he was a very young child. His
father was named Groppenbecker (sp). His mother remarried a man named Roewer and Edwin
took his name. Edwin's family was from Germany and spoke German at home. He married
Ruth Margaret Vanderbilt when she was 17 and she gave birth to her first child Ruth Amanda
Roewer when she was 18. She had my mother 18 months later and my uncle Edwin Roewer 8
years after that. Ruth Margaret worked in a shoe factory doing stitching on leather
shoes. Edwin was a train conductor and a chauffer. He often went to bed hungry during
the depression. They lived in !
Madisonville area of Cincinnati Ohio and had a home on Plainville Road. In her later
years, Ruth Margaret lived again on Plainville Road until she was no longer able to live
alone and she came to reside with my mother Aurelia Bromley. Edwin died of complications
from a stroke that he suffered when he was about 59. He lay in the veteran's hospital
in Dayton, Ohio for 13 months, blind, paralyzed and unable to talk. When he was visited
by family members he would mostly cry silent tears. My grandmother Ruth had beautiful
auburn hair as did my aunt Ruth, mother of Larry, Darlene and Debbie Vaske. Ruth Margaret
had one sister who was 18 years older than her. Rumor has it that Ruth Margaret was the
daughter of one of the railroad wealthy Vanderbilt family, but this member was not close
to the fortune and Ruth was poor as a child. she often recalled in her later years that
when she was about 12 years old, at midnight she would rollerskate down to the bakery
where she would b!
uy a loaf of day old bread for a penny and skate back home. I am prou
d to be Ruth Margaret's granddaughter. She was a great lady. She loved her husband
deeply and dearly and they had a truly happy marriage. When he died she was so bereaved
that she couldn't bear to let him go. She reached into his casket and wrapped her
arms around him and lifted up his lifeless body to embrace him one last time while she
cried out, "Don't leave me Ed, please don't leave me!" I heart breaks
for her even now. My mother Aurelia Marcella Roewer Bromley was married to Rowley Herbert
Bromley of Rochester Michigan. They met in New York City in 1944 during WWII when both
were serving in the coast guard. My sister Susan Ann Bromley Marino was born in New York
City. She has been married to Michael Don Marino of Rochester, Michigan since 1965, they
have two children Jennifer Lynn Marino Kraus of Rochester, Michigan. She is married to
John Kraus and they have one child David Michael Kraus. I was born in 1954 in Pontiac
Michigan, Sally Louise Bromley (formerly !
Abbott). I have two children, Christina Jean Abbott, born in 1981 and Jamieson Daniel
Abbott born in 1985, neither are married yet. My brother Jesse Edwin Bromley was born in
Pontiac, Michigan in 1955. He is married, but doesn't have any children. My mother
Aurelia Marcella Roewer is now 88 years old, lives in Rochester, Michigan. My father,
Rowley Herbert Bromley, died at the age of 92 on April 1, 2010 in Pontiac, Michigan. The
Bromley family to which he was born emigrated to the United States from England in 1609 to
Providence Rhode Island, later to Preston Connecticut, then Rutland County (Bromley
Mountain) Vermont in 1765 and finally to Rochester Michigan in 1831.
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