IDENTIFICATION ON PHOTO: Roma Meinecke
PHOTO TAKEN: Unknown Studio, most likely Brooklyn NY, 1909
PHOTO ACQUIRED: Feb 2024 Palm Beach County Fairground Antiques Show
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| Roma Meinecke, 1909 |
Roma Meinecke was born in Brooklyn on Jan 14, of either 1903, and thus was around 6 years old in the 1909 photo above. Her parents were Edward A. Meinecke (1873-1902) and Marie Hacker (1874-1931, sister to
Louise Hacker in the previous post. ) Roma bears a strong resemblance to her aunt Louise.
She never knew her father as he died of tuberculosis before she was born.
After her father's death, Roma's mother Marie married George H. Greenhalgh, who was born in 1882 in Manchester England. He was a son of Frederick Greenhalgh and Elizabeth Barns.
Roma married Robert John Becker, but that marriage did not last long, and dissolved sometime after Roma gave birth to Marie "Peggy" Becker in 1928, and Roma moved back into her parent's home.
On March 22 of 1931 Marie died in Montclair New Jersey where the family now resided, leaving widower George living with single-mother/step-daughter Roma and her daughter Peggy.
Between 1935 and 1937, George and his step-daughter Roma were married. I believe this was not entirely uncommon for the time, and still occurs to this day. I am not willing to make any judgments upon the couple because I do not know their situation. I know Roma's first husband was not a compatible spouse, and she may have developed romantic feelings for George, having lived with him for such a long time.
Daughter Peggy later went by the name Peggy Greenhalgh, so she may have been adopted by George when he married Peggy's mother.
On September 1, 1937, George and Roma's son George Edward Greenhalgh was born, but Roma did not live long afterward. She died September 5 of that year.
I found an Ancestry Family Tree which includes this exact photo of Roma which I recently acquired. Not just a copy of the same photo, but the very same photo. The scratches, stains and tears on the image are identical. The family tree was managed by a woman named Peggy who identified Marie Meinecke-Greenhalgh as her grandmother. I also discovered that both Peggy and her half-brother George Jr died in 2016. Peggy had been a longtime resident of Boca Raton FL, where she worked as a nurse.
Because of this, I am convinced that the photos I acquired of Roma and her aunt Louise at the Palm Beach Co. Fairgrounds Antiques Show had been originally sourced from the estate of Peggy.
