WELCOME INTRODUCTION AND INDEX

Welcome to YOUR Nelson family website. This is a history of the Bernhardt Luvig Nelson and Jennie Anderson Nelson lineage that began with their wedding on April 16, 1921 in Brooklyn, NY. (The photo above was taken at Bernie and Jennie's 50th wedding anniversary). It is also a living journal for those of us who are the beneficiaries of their love, either as direct descendants or through marriage, irrespective of how many generations removed we may be. Though life’s experiences may cause the families to be spread far and wide, it is anticipated that this website can close the gap of time and distance to remind us of our common bond as each of us wends our way back home to our ultimate roots with our Creator.

WE NEED FAMILY INPUT!

Click on your name under THE NELSON FAMILY PLAYERS, copy/paste your bio into the "post a comment" box below the post and make any corrections. Add as much information as you wish to share with the rest of the family. This is as much for posterity as it is for the present, so pour it on. Include as many stories as you wish and we will extract them into anecdotes deserving of their own posts. We will also create hyperlinks that will allow you to easily navigate the site.

If you wish to contribute to ANY post, simply add whatever you desire in the "post a comment" box.

We also welcome your input with regard to your recollection of stories about other family members, particularly of those who have passed on.

WE NEED PHOTOS!! LOTS OF PHOTOS TO SHARE!!

Life is a continuously streaming learning laboratory, which makes this website a dynamic enterprise. When we focus on the lessons, we grow. Come grow with your family, add to this website anytime, and BRING ON THE CHOCOLATE!!!

Put this in your faves, keep a "cybervigil," and participate!

Email all information, including photos to: grananels@gmail.com, or simply post it in the "post a comment" box found under the post when you click on it.

INDEX

THE NELSON FAMILY PLAYERS
SOUTH REFORMED CHURCH FAMILY
NOTABLES IN NELSON HISTORY
THE DECADES
NELSONS IN UNIFORM
THE WORKPLACE
PLACES
ANECDOTES

Harry F. Meeker

Name: Harry F. Meeker
Born:
Parents:
Siblings:
Grade School:
High School:
College:
Married: Patti Ann Nelson Meeker (when, where)
Children: Pamela Ann Meeker, Rebecca Lee Meeker

The Transportation Industry

Several Nelsons have been involved with the transportation industry in one form or another. Bernie started his career as a chauffeur, became a truck driver for several construction companies in and around New York City, particularly hauling dirt from the tunnels being excavated for the NYC subway system. He also worked as a civilian at the Brooklyn Army Base Transportation Corps during World War II, and retired from Kenway Metals after a twenty-year career of dispatching trucks loaded with various metal shapes to various industries around the NY-NJ metropolitan area.

After serving in Patton’s Third Army in Europe during World War II, Warren’s first job as a civilian was driving a trolley in Brooklyn. When the city converted to buses, Warren became a bus driver. He tells the story of his experience during the blizzard of 1947 when his trolley was stranded. He himself could not get home, but he was close enough to Mrs. Roi's house (his mother-in-law), and he stayed there three days before he could finally get back home. Years later Bobby also drove a NYC bus for most of his career, retiring from the NYC Transit System in the late nineties.

Bobby’s younger brother Tommy was involved in the transportation industry from a different perspective: he sold locomotives for General Electric. His first territory was Africa – the entire continent. He was so effective at what he did that the company didn’t want him to retire, and they enticed him to stay on for a while longer.

Before he joined the Navy in 1946, Allen worked for the Chrysler Corporation in New York City. He was selected to drive one of the vehicles during a ticker tape parade in the city, a victory parade celebrating the end of World War II. Allen drove the car that followed the open limousine carrying Winston Churchill.

Most of Howie’s career involved transportation. For years he delivered newspapers in and around the northern New Jersey area. His day generally started before sunrise, usually around 3:00 or 4:00 AM, in order to get the morning paper to many suburban homes before folks began their workday. At one point the family classified Howie as the world’s oldest paperboy! Later on he drove an airport limousine, but that was short-lived. He also drove a taxi in Lantana Florida for about a year.

The toughest lesson Gene ever had to learn about the transportation industry was that, in spite of his good driving record, he was not cut out to be a truck driver. In the early seventies he and Anne’s brother, Frank, took a Ryder tractor-trailer driving course in Vineland, New Jersey in preparation for a move to North Carolina. Upon graduation Gene had two consecutive Monday jobs driving a straight truck for Rodeway, and that was all he needed to realize he was a fish out of water. From there he went back into architecture, where he belonged. His last career before retiring was as a design engineer with Aluminum Ladder Company in Florence, SC, where he was given the opportunity of custom designing specialized fall protection and safe access equipment, primarily for the transportation industry.

Chris' tour of duty began in 1998 while the Coast Guard was still under the supervision of the US Department of Transportation. It wasn't until after 911 that the Coast Guard came under the jurisdiction of Homeland Security.

Kathleen Jenna Nelson

Name: Kathleen Jenna Nelson
Name Preference: Katy
Born: October 12, 1991
Parents: William Howard Nelson, Kara Heaney Nelson
Siblings: Victoria Elizabeth Nelson, Rebecca Lynn Nelson
Grade School: Ryerson Middle School
High School: Lakeland Regional High School
College: Soon to be .. Johnson & Wales University
Military Service: n/a
Married: TBD
Children: TBD

Children's Choir Circa 1951-1952

This is the South Reformed Church Children's Choir, circa 1951-1952. Most of the older children with the darker robes in the back were part of the Confirmation Class of 1952.

(Click on the picture to enlarge it).

Don't recall all the names, but here's a best appraisal for now (thanks to additional input from Adina) until we get further input from others so that we can update:

Bottom Row 1: Paulette Behrens, (?), Kenny Kramer, (?), (?), (?) Plumb, (?), Howie Nelson.
Row 2: Judy Plumb, (?), (?), (?), (?) Ellis, Lois Ainsty, (?) Ellis, Connie Beulow, Bobby Peterson.
Row 3: Peggy Love, Cathy Loeb, Beverly Kramer, Helen Brooks, (?), (?).
Row 4: Helen "Button" Queen, Betty Lou Jensen, Pastor Williams (behind Betty Lou), Adina Yonan, Betty Zylemaker, (? behind), Sandra Kennedy, Gene Nelson, Wayne Moritzen, Jack Peterson.

347 56th Street

The '04 Texas Thanksgiving

After his wife Anne passed away in August ’03, Gene worked another year before retiring on sister Marilyn’s 67th birthday, October 29, 2004. He moved to Venice, Florida the day after retirement, and then on a whim made arrangements a few weeks later to pick up 80-year-old brother Warren at a craft show in Georgia and make the long trek to visit Marilyn and her family in Kingwood, Texas for Thanksgiving.

The journey gave both Warren and Gene the opportunity to spend some quality time together that they hadn’t previously spent in many years. It had also been decades since the three remaining children of Bernie and Jennie had been together for a holiday gathering. Marilyn enhanced the setting by serving a delightful Thanksgiving dinner on dinnerware given to her by Jennie forty years earlier. The dinnerware was the very same that Gene bought for Jennie in Germany while serving in the Army during the late fifties. The trip also gave Warren and Gene the opportunity to see first hand the operation of Including Kids, Jennifer's school for autistic children, a successful program that had grown dramatically since its inception a few years earlier, and is still growing as of this writing.

In spite of a demanding schedule with the school, Jennifer took some time to spend with her uncles. Her husband Stephen’s eight-year-old daughter Sarah from a previous marriage was in town for the holiday. A visit to the NASA Space Center in Houston seemed like a good idea for the gang, so off we went for a grand time. Even five-month-old Eric Anthony seemed poised for the venture. While there we elected to succumb to the touristy practice of letting them take a group photo. In hindsight, it was a wonderful move because the significance of that photo was dramatically increased recently with Warren’s passing on January 25th, 2009. The photo is the last one taken that portrays Jennie and Bernie’s three remaining children together, and it is indeed a gem of a picture. We are pleased to share it with the family here. From left to right are Jennifer, Sarah, Gene (standing) and Warren (sitting holding Eric Anthony), and Marilyn.