52 Ancestors - Week 4: Education

Amy Johnson Crow's email last week about "Goals Are Out, Questions Are In" inspired me to make this week's blog post a question ... 

Education?  Where did my Grandmother Emma Collins Francis and my Great Aunt Arabella "Vera" Booksh go to school?

New Orleans School Class Photo, circa 1905

We have this large group photo that was taken about 1905. Great Aunt Vera is fourth from the right in the back row and Grandma Emma is second from the right in the third row. 

Arabella Guinevere Booksh
1889 - 1977

Emma Collins Francis
(1888- 1925)

My Great Aunt, known to us as Noo had several nicknames. She was called Belle, Vera and Roonie. She and her family moved to New Orleans from East Baton Rouge Parish in 1893 when she was about 4 years old. (Estimated from Great Grandpa Samuel Booksh's 1930 obituary "...resident of this city for the past 37 years.") 

They were living at 1311 St. Mary Street in 1910 according to the U. S. Census. The family included Samuel W. Booksh and wife Belle M. Booksh and their four children, Sam Jr., Charles L., Wilton T. and Vera B.  The house is still there and Cousin Janet drove by and took photos of it.

My Grandma Emma Collins Francis's family had lived in New Orleans for several generations. On the 1910 U. S. Census they were living at 1220 Second Street, about four blocks from the Booksh family. The family consisted of Charles Alfred Francis, wife Anna Belle and their four children, Emma, Maude, Ernestine, and John. 

The family story was that Vera and Emma were good frinds and went to school together and that was how Emma and Wilton met. They married in 1912 and in September 1913 my father, Wilton Tisdale Booksh Jr., was born.

I have spent all week trying to find out what school might have been in the neighborhood without any luck, but I plan to continue looking. So for now the question stands ... Where did my Grandma Emma Collins Francis and my Great Aunt Arabella Vera Booksh go to school?

Favorite Name

Arabella Guinevere Booksh, c1910

        Arabella Guinevere Booksh was the name listed in the family bible. I was named for her, my Great Aunt Vera, and her sister-in-law, Armelle Dufilho Booksh. I loved them both like grandmothers and I knew them as Noo and Nan. When I started doing genealogy research, I discovered that Noo had many more names than I realized.  Arabella Guinevere Booksh was just the first.

She was born 13 August 1889 in Grosse Tete, Louisiana, the last of four children. She was named for her mother, Arabella Maria Tisdale. Her father, Samuel Walker Booksh, my Great Grandpa Sam, was raised Catholic and Noo was baptized Arabella Genevieve Booksh. Genevieve was a saints name, necessary for Catholic baptism, and we all know Guinevere was no saint.

In the 1900 census she is listed as Vera "Bevoksh," age 10. The surname appears to have been written as "Bwoksh" by the enumerator and was extremely difficult to find. The family includes Sam, Bell, their children, Sam Jr., Leonard, Wilton and Vera. They are living at 142 Constance Street in New Orleans with Vera's mother Eliza Pratt Tisdale, listed as Liza Tisdale and her son Harry and daughter Lee and grand children May and Ruth Pierce. May and Ruth were the children of Belle's sister, Mary Bernice Tisdale Pierce, who died in 1886.

In the 1910 census she is listed as Vera B. Booksh age 19. The Samuel W. Booksh family is living at 1311 St. Mary Street in New Orleans. The family name is spelled correctly and the household consists of Samuel, Belle, Samuel Jr., Charles L., Wilton and Vera B.

In 1920 she and her husband John P. Ventress are living with her parents, Samuel W. Booksh and Bella Booksh along with her brother Charles L. Booksh and his wife Armelle Booksh and Lea Tisdale at 1831 Bayou Road in New Orleans. All four Booksh siblings, Sam Jr., Leonard, Wilton, and Vera, were married in the same year, 1912.

In 1930 she is listed as Vera Ventress and she and husband Posey, as he was called, are living with Sam and Belle "Brooksh" at 1831 Bayou Road. Living with the family are Charles Leonard and Armelle, Wilton and his children, Wilton, William and Susie.

By 1940 Vera Ventress is Head of Household, living at 3003 Ponce de Leon Street with brother Wilton, his daughter Emma, and sister-in-law Armelle. That is where I remember them as a child.

Besides being known as Vera and Belle she was also called Roonie by her brother Wilton and Noo by his children and grand children. Arabella Guinevere / Vera / Belle / Roonie / Noo died  at age 89 on 10 March 1977.