The Hoy Family of Brooklyn
I walked into the Long Island Studies Institute at Hofstra University not too long ago to conduct research and you know what they asked me? Is the person famous? Well.... if I was researching someone famous I don't think I had to drive an hour and walk a mile on the Hofstra campus to research in their library, do you? I DO research kind of famous people sometimes. For example, I recently did forensic work for the estate of Sam Pearlman. And let's not forget Theresa Caputo! My 5 minutes of fame. That was pretty cool! But you see, the reason why I love my job as a genealogist is that I get those hard to find, lesser-known families out of the dark and this brings me to the Hoy family of Brooklyn. I also love how each family connects to their own community or neighborhood. This brings me to the Hoy family of Sunset Park.
June Evelyn Hoy
June Evelyn Hoy, daughter of New York native Christian M. Hoy of 74 68th St in Brooklyn, married in 1948, William Christian Drewes Jr. They had 3 children, one of whom would be William Christian Drewes III.
June's father Christian Hoy was born a few days after Christmas in 1894 in Brooklyn to Germany immigrants. Christian was a successful furniture salesman. However, before he married Evelyn Manns, daughter of Charles and Rose Manns of 75th Street in Brooklyn, he was a very active member of the Bay Ridge Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd where he took up theatre including the church production of "Bargain Day at Bloomstein's" in 1931. Christian and Evelyn raised their children Raymond and June at their home on 68th St.
Christian's parents were Christian C. N. Hoy and Maria Agnes Tiehlke. Christian Jr was one of at least 4 children born to the couple including Maria, Willie and Agnes (1898). Christian, born in 1848, was a stonecutter who immigrated to New York in 1894 and settled into a German community in Sunset Park. He became very involved with the St. Jacobi Lutheran Church of Sunset Park (then only 5 years old!) at 54th street and it was there that he lead the church orchestra. I would love to hear a recording. My church growing up only had a choir so the thought of an entire orchestra sounds fascinating! Christian and Agnes enjoyed sharing their German cooking with the church and I'm sure the church members loved it too since at its inception, the church was very German and in fact, was organized by German Immigrants. To that point, in the early years, worship was conducted solely in the German language. St. Jacobi today has members that typically speak Cantonese, Mandarin, and English and is another example of how the immigrant neighborhoods of the New York melting pot have changed through the decades. Sunset Park saw much change post World War II.
