View Larger Map

1883 and nothing to wear

It was October 23rd, 1883 and William Ronsheim and his brothers Henry and Louis had, according to this bill of sale, just sold $522 worth of children's clothing to Leser & Co.

Descendants of Mollie and Ben Ronsheim are related to Wm., Henry and Louis, but you have to go back four generations (from Ben) to find where the family trees join. The common ancestor was "Papa" Ronsheim, born in Abterode, Germany around 1750. At least three of "Papa's" children moved to (or had children who moved to) America.

Wm. Ronsheim and Brothers was located at 70 W. Pearl Street; Pearl was parallel to and midway between 3rd and 2nd St., and 70 W. Pearl would have been between Vine and Race. Pearl Street, however, vanished sometime in the late 1950's when everything south of 3rd Street was removed to make way for what is now I-71.

Though not one of its better moments, here is a photograph of this section of West Pearl Street as it looked during the flood of 1937. It was taken by Nelson Ronsheim from Vine Street, which at the time, was the approach ramp for the Suspension Bridge.

1953 and pregnant

I'm in this picture, but you can't see me because my mom is just two months pregnant.

Back in 1953, only a lab test using a live rabbit could confirm pregnancy. "The rabbit died" was a slang way of saying the test was positive. In truth, the rabbit always died since discovering the test result required an autopsy of the hapless hare.

But I digress. This photo was taken in front of the house in St. Bernard in which my mom and dad lived after they were married in 1952. My dad's father helped them purchase the $15,000 home by giving them money for a down-payment as a wedding gift.

In this photo are my Aunt Susan, my mom (and me), my dad, my grandpa Nelson, grandmother Jeanette and my Aunt Judy. This picture was taken in June of 1953 under my grandpa's supervision--he's in the picture, so he must have pressed a neighbor into service to actually snap the photo.