Alfred Brooks

Source Citation:

National Archives and Records Administration; Washington, DC; NAI Title: Index to Petitions for Naturalizations Filed in Federal, State, and Local Courts in New York City, 1792-1906; NAI Number: 5700802; Record Group Title: Records of District Courts of the United States, 1685-2009; Record Group Number: RG 21

New York City Department of Records & Information Services; New York City, New York; New York City Birth Certificates; Borough: Manhattan; Year: 1899

Year: 1900; Census Place: Brooklyn Ward 9, Kings, New York; Page: 19; Enumeration District: 0115; FHL microfilm: 1241048

Year: 1910; Census Place: Brooklyn Ward 28, Kings, New York; Roll: T624_980; Page: 9A; Enumeration District: 0860; FHL microfilm: 1374993

New Jersey State Archive; Trenton, NJ, USA; State Census of New Jersey, 1915; Reference Number: L-12; Film Number: 19

Year: 1920; Census Place: Bronx Assembly District 5, Bronx, New York; Roll: T625_1138; Page: 2B; Enumeration District: 302

New York, New York, Extracted Death Index, 1862-1948 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014.

Year: 1928; Arrival: New York, New York, USA; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Line: 18; Page Number: 192

Year: 1930; Census Place: Manhattan, New York, New York; Page: 1B; Enumeration District: 0528; FHL microfilm: 2341295

Archivo de Registro Civil de Distrito Federal (Civil Registry Archives); Federal District, Mexico

Year: 1940; Census Place: New York, New York, New York; Roll: m-t0627-02651; Page: 11A; Enumeration District: 31-1154

The National Archives and Records Administration; Washington D.C.; Manifests of Aliens Granted Temporary Admission at Laredo, Texas, December 1, 1929 - April 8, 1955; NAI: 2843448; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004.; Record Group Number: 85; Microfilm Roll Number: 25

Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA

     Alfred Joseph Brooks was born on the 14th of March 1899 in New York to parents, Samuel Boox and Mollie (Malie) Rabinowitz Boox.  Alfred had one sibling, a sister named Bertha who was born in 1897.

Alfred's parents were Russian immigrants who married in New York City in 1896.  His maternal grandparents were Joseph Rabinowitz and Etie Cohen Rabinowitz.  His paternal grandparents were Abraham Boox and Braina Katzap Boox.

At home, Alfred was known as Abraham and this was the name listed on several U.S. Census Returns.  The family moved frequently while Alfred was growing up: moving from Brooklyn to Manhattan to New Jersey where Alfred and Bertha attended East Side High in Newark, New Jersey, and then to the Bronx by 1920.  The family residence may have changed, but father, Samuel always found work in either a neighborhood cigar or candy store.  Samuel died in 1926 and is buried in Riverside Cemetery, Saddlebrook, New Jersey.

Alfred left the United States in 1925 returning in 1928 aboard the S.S. Mauretania with a port of departure of Cherbourg, France.  According to the ship's manifest, Alfred was traveling with Austrian wife, Anna, and son, Robin, aged 11 months, who had been born in the Soviet Union. In 1930, the Brooks' family lived in Manhattan and Alfred was employed as a teacher in a public school.  Another child, Elizabeth, was born in New York in 1936.

In 1939, Alfred traveled to Mexico where he married for a second time to school teacher, Elsie Kent Friedson.  In 1942, the Brooks family traveled again to Mexico returning in December of 1943.

On his WWII Draft Registration card of 1942, Alfred is described as being  5 feet 7 inches tall, with brown eyes, brown hair, and a sallow complexion

Son, Robin Brooks served in the United States Army, was a Fullbright Scholar, and became a professor of history at Cal State.  He died in California in 2002.  

Alfred J. Brooks died on the 30th of December 1978 and was buried on Hart Island on the 8th of April 1981.