Robert "Robbie" Roberts was born in Wales, in March of 1860. He arrived
in the United States in 1875 or 1880 or 1883. Robbie didn't take the census enumerators questions
too seriously. 1883 cannot be correct for his first child was born here in June of that year. In any event
he wasted no time starting a family in his
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Left to right, seated; Joan Lindquist Stanley, Mary Holloran Roberts, standing;
Grace Roberts Kirsch, Helen Kirsch Lindquist.
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adopted native land. In 1881 he married Mary A. Holloran and in June of 1883 they were the proud
new parents of Grace Mary Roberts, my grandmother.
Mary Holloran Roberts was born in Buffalo, October 15th, 1862, the
daughter of Thomas Holloran and Mary Quillinan.
By 1900, Mary Roberts would have given birth to six children, all of them
surviving and living with their parents in a rented house at 94 Rano Street in Buffalo. Rano
Street is on Buffalo's West Side. It runs east from Tonawanda Street a couple of blocks north of
Hertel Ave. The neighborhood was called "Riverside".
Robbie was employed as a teamster - he drove
a team of horses attached to a commercial wagon. It had been a good year for Robbie - he had been
steadily employed for the past twelve months. Everyone in the family except for the five-year-old
William W. (who I knew as Uncle "Woolie") and his two-year-old sister Loretta R., could read and write.
Edith C., fourteen, Janette L. ("Jennie"), twelve, and nine-year-old Anna had attended school in the
past year. Grace Mary, now sixteen was out of school, helping out at home.
1910 found Robbie's family living in a rented home at 37 Heward Ave.,
just a few blocks
from Rano Street and still in "Riverside". Robbie was working as a teamster for a plumbing
company. Grace Mary had married Casper Kirsch in 1903, but the rest of the Roberts' brood was still
at home. Edith, 24, worked as a cashier in a drug store. Her twenty-two-year-old sister Jennie
clerked in a confectionary store, and Willie, 15, worked as a mail boy in a factory. Only Anna, 19,
and twelve-year-old Loretta had attended school in the past year.
By 1920 the Roberts family were back in the house at 94 Rano Street.
They owned the home and it was mortgaged. Edith had married and left home, but four of her siblings
were still living with their parents. They ranged in age from Jennie, 32 to Loretta at 21. All
except Anna were employed in factories - Robbie worked as a laborer.
Jennie,
Anne, and William would never marry and would live together until they died. William was devoted to
his sisters. In the 1950's Grace Kirsch lived with my family and I remember "Uncle Woolie" dropping in
regularly on Sundays after Mass to visit his sister and her family.
Mary Holloran Roberts died July 13st, 1948 in her eighty-sixth year.
She was then living at 29 Mayer Ave in Buffalo.
William W. Roberts
