John A. Lafler was born in October 1814 in Gorham, New York to Peter Lafler (1787 - 1864) and Fanny Hurd (1794 - 1866). He married Caroline Smith Mixer (1818 - 1881) and they had five children: Francis “Frank” A. (b.1848), Charles S. (b.1853), William (1854 - 1913), Eva (b.1858), and Lilly F. (b.1861).
Caroline Smith Mixer was born in Jefferson County, New York and the mother of seven children, only five of whom had survived to 1865. In 1850 John was working as a farmer and living in Newfane, New York, and by 1865 he had moved to Gaines, New York. The 1865 federal census lists John A. Lafler as a 50-year-old brick maker who was born in Ontario County, New York and twice married.
According to the 1870 census, John was working as a brick and tile manufacturer living in Gaines, New York with his wife Caroline who kept house; also in the home were their children Frank A., Charles, William, Lilly, as well as a domestic servant Kate Arnold and her daughter Mary J., and a Day Laborer Joseph Parker.
William A. Lafler was born on March 4, 1854 in Gaines, Orleans County, New York to John Addison Lafler (1814-1883) and Caroline Smith Mixer (1818-1881). The 1880 census lists William as head of household living with his wife Ida (b.1850) and their two-year-old son Henry A. Lafler (b.1878), and seven-month-old son Arthur W. (b. abt.1879).
According to the 1910 federal census, William was working as a farmer living in Gaines, New York where the married 56-year-old had been married for thirty-four years, and owned a mortgaged house. William A. Lafler died October 4, 1913 in Rochester, New York and was buried in Mt. Albion Cemetery.
Ida Anderson was born September 1859, and lived at home until marrying William Lafler at age sixteen. Both of Ida’s parents were born in New York. When recorded in the 1900 census, Ida was a forty-year-old mother to three children, of whom two had survived: Henry A (b.1878) and William A., Jr. (b.1880). Also living with William and Ida’s home were three servants, Alfred J. Garrett (b.1881), Fay Maxin (b.1878), and Albert Baley (b.1880).
By 1910, Ida and William were living at 4A Barin Road south of Ridge Road in Gaines, NY. The couple had been married thirty-four years with four children; three of whom were living. Also, recorded in the home was one maid, Martha Green age nineteen. The 1930 census lists 70-year-old Ida as the married head of house living on 51 Colgate Street in Rochester, New York. The home’s value was given as $8,500 (about $158,000 in 2023 dollars) and it had no radio. Also living in the home was Ida’s mother, Harriet Hall (age 90), daughter-in-law Virginia Lafler (age thirty-three), granddaughter Lois U. Lafler (age ten), and a servant Cora Holcombe (age 53).
At the time of the 1940 census, Ida A. Lafler was an 80-year-old widow living on Lisk Avenue in Canadaigua, New York. Ida was listed as a boarder in the house owned by Charles Henry Johnson (age thirty-seven) and Virginia Johnson (age forty-three) and their four children -– no known relationship is known between Mrs. Lafler and the Johnson family. The census notes that Ida completed high school and was retired. She had previously lived in West Orange, New Jersey in 1935.
Ida Anderson Lafler died February 11, 1943 at age 83. She was buried in Mount Albion Cemetery in New York.
Herbert A. Lafler was born on April 20, 1902 in Gaines New York to William Arthur Lafler and Ida Anderson, and his father died when Herbert was only eleven-years-old. Upon graduating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1926, Herbert joined New Jersey Bell Telephone as a student engineer. Over the next thirty-one years he worked in both the plant and engineering departments before becoming district superintendent in Jersey City and Camden and then superintendent of the Northern New Jersey Division.
When Herbert was twenty-seven he married Hazel Ellen Kenerson in Saugus, Massachusetts and in 1929 the couple moved to 300 West 7th Street in Plainfield, New Jersey where they lived until moving sometime around 1935 to Milburn, New Jersey. The 1940 census lists Herbert and Hazel as living at 267 Wayne Avenue in Haddonfield, New Jersey. By this time, he was working as a district plant supervisor for the telephone company.
When registering for selective service in 1942, his draft card notes he was 5’ 10” and weighed approximately 170 lbs with grey eyes, brown hair. His address was 31 Burnett Terrace in Maplewood, New Jersey and he worked at New Jersey Bell Telephone Company at 540 Broad Street in Newark, New Jersey.
According to the 1950 census, Herbert was living at 31 Burnett Terrace in Maplewood, New Jersey where he lived with wife Hazel Kenerson and daughter Nancy. He was employed as a general manager for the telephone company.
Herbert Lafler died at home of a heart attack on March 17, 1957, he was 55-years-old. According to his obituary, Herbert was born in Gaines, Orleans County, New York and had been a resident of Maplewood for fourteen years prior to moving to Madison a year prior in 1956.
Lafler was active with the Prospect Presbyterian Church in Maplewood and a trustee of the Newark Safety Council. He was also a member of the Newark Athletic Club, the New Jersey Historical Society, and the New York Biographical and Genealogical Societies. Herbert was survived by his wife, Hazel Kenerson Lafler and their daughter Nancy.
Hazel Kenerson was born on February 6, 1903 in Lynn Massachusetts to Joseph Edward Kenerson (1869-1950) and Jennie Estelle Gray (1876-1959). Hazel grew up with five siblings: Viola Gertrude (1899-1983), Homer Dwight (1901-1977), Elsie Dean (1905-1966), Forrest Tillman (1906-1963), and Byron Joseph (1909-1997).
At the time of his October 25, 1898 marriage, twenty-nine-year-old Joseph E. Kenerson was working as a toolmaker and living at 28 Houghton Street in Lynn, Massachusetts. He was born in Fayville to Woodbury and Ellen (Shaw) Kenerson. Jean Gray was twenty-two-years-old when she married; she previously lived at 6 Saratoga Street in Lynn with her parents, George and Annie (Nichols) Gray. After marriage, Jean stayed home and raised the couple’s six children.
Joseph Kenerson was working as machine shop foreman by the time the 1910 census was taken, then as a superintendent of a die shop in 1920, and by 1930 was a mechanical superintendent in a machine factory. By the time Joseph appeared in the 1940 census the family had moved to Saugus where the 70-year-old was employed as a salesman. Joseph Kenerson died at age 80 on January 6, 1950.
According to the 1910 census, seven-year-old Hazel was living at 27A Linwood Street in Saugus, Massachusetts with her parents and five brothers and sisters, and she continued living in town with her family through 1920, although by the time the 1930 census was taken she had married and moved with Herbert to Plainfield, New Jersey.
According to the 1940 census, Hazel had completed college and was not employed outside of her duties keeping house. Hazel Kenerson Lafler died at age 98 on January 6, 2002 having outlived all five of her siblings.
This collection includes a small group of genealogical materials describing the descendants of Thomas Coleman, William Arthur Lafler, Matthew Anderson and Alva B. Anderson as transcribed from family bibles that date from 1770 to 1855. Among these records are correspondence from Hazel Kenerson Lafler to the Connecticut State Library regarding the donation of the 1770 Coleman Family Bible, which listed dates of family members who were not in her husband’s line.
The bulk of the collection consists of photographic portraits depicting several members of the Lafler and Kenerson families dating from ca.1904 to 1951. Many of the photographs are of Hazel Kenerson’s immediate family, although several are also of various Lafler Family members. These include group portraits taken on occasion of Jean Gray and Joseph Edward Kenerson’s Golden Wedding Anniversary in 1948, in which the couple and their adult children are pictured.
The papers are divided into two series, I: Genealogy Notes and II: Photographic Portraits. Folders are arranged chronologically by series. Materials are largely presented in the same order as they arrived with only minor changes to the organization, and photographs are labeled based upon captions asigned by family members.
This collection is open for research under the conditions set forth in the North Jersey History and Genealogy Center archives access policy. All archival material should be handled with care and kept in its original order; notes may only be taken in pencil or with a computer, and food and drink are prohibited in the Reading Room. Records may be copied for scholarly or personal research using the edge scanner or a digital camera without flash; however, researchers must obtain copyright permission prior to publishing material from the collection.
The papers were donated in 2020 by Nancy Lafler Basford.
Upon receipt, the records were evaluated and found to have been affected by mildew. The Archivist conducted a thorough examination but detected no signs of active or prior mold damage. Out of an abundance of caution he conducted multiple rounds of mold remediation and deodorization treatments between May 2021 and May 2024.
The collection is kept in a controlled storage environment where the relative humidity is not to exceed 45% and temperature does not exceed 68 degrees. Users sensitive to mold and mildew are, nevertheless, advised to take the collection's history into consideration prior to requesting access.
Kenerson-Lafler Family Collection, 1770 - 1948, North Jersey History and Genealogy Center, Morristown and Morris Township Library.
Processed, described and encoded by Jeffrey V. Moy, Archivist, May 2024.