Grandfather

My grandfather was George J. Emery Sr. He was born in 1898 and died in 1950 which was the year before I was born. He married my grandmother Katherine Galvin in 1921. They had five children together and my father George J. Emery Jr. was the eldest.

The family had a small corner grocery store on Tioga Street in North Philadelphia which kept them afloat during the Great Depression. They lived in the building above the store which was about a block away from the busy corner of Broad and Erie avenues. That intersection was a public transportation hub for several trolley lines and the subway system with lots of stores and restaurants near by including a Horn and Hardarts automat. I spent my high school years at that corner every school day but never knew the old family store and home was around the corner.

Running the store was a family business. My grandmother's mother and her aunt also lived in the house and helped with the store. 

My grandmother died a week or so after giving birth to their first daughter in 1932. My grandfather with the help of his mother-in-law and her sister continued with the store and raising the four boys and the new baby girl. The boys were George, Joe, Ed and Jack. The little girl was Kate.

During World War II my father worked at the Navy Ship Yard as a machinist. He was turned down by the draft board because they determined he had TB in his lungs. Later the advance in x-ray technology showed that instead of TB he actually had some tiny metal debris in his lungs from working in the machine shop. Uncle Joe and Uncle Ed served in the Navy during the war. 

My grandfather married Clara Smith in 193x and they had two children. Charles and Dorothy. 

They sold the house and business in the 1940's near the end of the war and relocated the family to the Germantown section of Philadelphia. They bought a house on the corner of Greene and Logan across the street from St. Francis of Assissi Church and school. At that time the convent for the parish was next door. The home had been a doctor's office and later it would be converted into a funeral parlor. The family lived in that house for about eight years along with Granny and Aunt Nellie. Seven kids and four adults.

A couple of years after my grandfather died in 1950 Nana (Clara) sold the house and moved the family down the street to the 4700 block of Greene. That was the house I remember as a child. Nana would live there with Granny, Aunt Nellie and her two children. By this time the older children were married and out of the house.

My father met my mother in the little corner grocery store across the street from the house on the corner of Greene and Logan. My mother was raised about a block away on Seymour Street near Greene.

• My great grandfather was George Walter Emery born 1872 died 1926 age 54. 
• My great grandmother was Teresa Agnes Maguire born 1872 died 1955 age 82. She was Granny and lived down the street from us. Her sister was Aunt Nellie Maguire who I remember very well.
• My great grandfather was Edward Galvin born 1869 in Ireland died 1929 age 59.
• My great grandmother was Katherine Finley born 1872 in Ireland died 1946 age 73.