Ocean County , NJ History

Brookville Residents, 1930 This is, or was, a small community in Ocean Township, Ocean County, New Jersey, near Waretown I don't know much about the place or its history, but below I have transcribed the 1930 Census along with notes on the families who lived there at that time. In 1930, there were only fifteen occupied residences in Brookville. About 44 people made up the entire village. (Compare this with 1920: there were 14 homes, and 45 people). According to the 1930 census, only two of the families (Joseph Spiska and Charles Gynakovic) did not own a radio set at the time. Federal Census For Brookville, 1930 "Main Road" - the streets apparently were not named in Brookville in 1930. BACHMAN FAMILY I can't make out the first name of the head of house for this home, but the last name definitely looks like "Bachman". It's hard to be sure though, as the writing is very sloppy on this entry. At any rate, this house had five residents in ...

JOSEPH SPISKA FAMILY I have had no luck tracking this family down on any census prior to the time they showed up in Brookville, in 1930. According to the census entry, Joseph Spiska came to this country from his native Hungary in 1905, and his wife Elizabeth in 1907, but they do not show up anywhere (so far) that I have looked in 1910 or 1920. At any rate, JOseph was 63 in 1930, and his wife, Elizabeth 59. They had a 17 year old daughter, Mary, who had been born in New Jersey. Joseph and Elizabeth were ages 25 and 21 when they married, indicating they had been married for about 38 years, so presumably they were married in Hungary before moving here. Their marriage would have been about 1892. As of 1930, neither of them were citizens and listed 'Magyar' as their primary language. Joseph was employed doing 'odd jobs' at the time