Enthusiastic—but slippery!—Forteans.
Note that this is an update, revision, and compilation of a series of posts I published several years ago.
There is some confusion about who Garen and Kirk Drussai even were. I can be sure that Garen was born 17 June 1916 in the Bronx: all relevant documents confirm this. But what was her name? According to her death certificate and the birth certificate of her son, Garen’s maiden name was Lewis. A search of the census records, however, fails to find any Garen Lewises—and Garen is an extremely uncommon name. A clue to her identity can be found in her social security application. There she gives her name as Clara Hettler and her parents as Benjamin Hettler and Annie (Besner) Hettler. The 1920 and 1930 census does record a family of Hettlers living in the Bronx, headed by Benjamin and Annie (Besner), with a daughter, Clara, born about 1916.
Clara Hettler filled out her social security application in December 1936. It seems very possible that she changed her name in the late 1930s when Hettler—a variation of Hitler—would have been an inconvenient name to carry. (It is also possible that she married in the 1930s and later divorced.) Further confirmation that she Clara and Garen are indeed the same person come from a 1966 obituary for the eldest of the three Hettler sisters listed on the 1920 census, Estelle. The article lists her parents and her sisters as Gertrude, the middle child, and Garen Drussai, indicating that although the rest of the family did not change its name—except upon marriage—they accepted their youngest daughter’s new name (at this point, Garen had married and divorced Kirk, and came by Drussai that way).
Note that this is an update, revision, and compilation of a series of posts I published several years ago.
There is some confusion about who Garen and Kirk Drussai even were. I can be sure that Garen was born 17 June 1916 in the Bronx: all relevant documents confirm this. But what was her name? According to her death certificate and the birth certificate of her son, Garen’s maiden name was Lewis. A search of the census records, however, fails to find any Garen Lewises—and Garen is an extremely uncommon name. A clue to her identity can be found in her social security application. There she gives her name as Clara Hettler and her parents as Benjamin Hettler and Annie (Besner) Hettler. The 1920 and 1930 census does record a family of Hettlers living in the Bronx, headed by Benjamin and Annie (Besner), with a daughter, Clara, born about 1916.
Clara Hettler filled out her social security application in December 1936. It seems very possible that she changed her name in the late 1930s when Hettler—a variation of Hitler—would have been an inconvenient name to carry. (It is also possible that she married in the 1930s and later divorced.) Further confirmation that she Clara and Garen are indeed the same person come from a 1966 obituary for the eldest of the three Hettler sisters listed on the 1920 census, Estelle. The article lists her parents and her sisters as Gertrude, the middle child, and Garen Drussai, indicating that although the rest of the family did not change its name—except upon marriage—they accepted their youngest daughter’s new name (at this point, Garen had married and divorced Kirk, and came by Drussai that way).