William Hanford Allee Jr (1872 - 1927)

Born 15 Mar 1872 in Brooklyn, Kings, New York, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Laura (Curie) Allee — married about 1896 in Paterson, Passaic, New Jersey, United States

Died 21 Apr 1927 at age 55 in Ridgefield, Fairfield, Connecticut, United States

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Walter Allee [send private message]

work in progress

Biography

Born in Brooklyn, New York of French Huguenot and English Ancestry

Dr. William Hanford Allee Jr was born 15 March 1872 in Brooklyn, Kings, New York, United States. He was the son of William Hanford Allee and Harriet Hurlbut. William's ancestor Jean Allé was a French Huguenot who settled in New York by 1725, his name appears on a monument honoring these early settlers in Hudson Park, New Rochelle, Westchester, NY. [1] His mother is of English ancestry, the original name Hurlburt meaning "bold heart" or "bright keeper".

Siblings

William Jr's parents, William Hanford Allee Sr and Harriet Hurlbut had 3 children:

• Joseph B. Allee (1868-1953) married Hilda J. Johnson, a Swede who had been a servant in his family’s household when he was young. Joseph was a real estate agent.
• Dr William Hanford Allee Jr (this profile)
• Mary Paulina Allee (1875-1923), single, lived in Brooklyn, NY then Wilton CT

Education

Dr. Willam Hanford Allee Jr attended Brooklyn Polytechnic (where his father and grandfather had been active in attending lectures and presentations on new technologies and advancements), as well as Columbia Medical School in NYC.

Physical Description

Dr. William Hanford Allee Jr was handsome, and according to a military questionnaire of 1917 he was 5'8" height, 170lbs weight.

Marriage to Laura Curie

Dr William Hanford Allee Jr married Laura Curie in 1896, in New Jersey. Laura was the daughter of lawyer Charles Frederick Curie and Jennie Andrews of Patterson, Passaic, NJ. Her father was originally from Montbeliard, Doubs, Franche-Comte, France.

Occupation & Civic Work

Dr. William Hanford Allee Jr was a medical doctor. In 1900, he was a physician at Bloomingdale Institute in White Plains, Westchester, NY but by 1905 had moved to Wilton,CT; then in 1906 to Ridgefield, Fairfield, Connecticut.

He was very active in civic work, particularly for education (including acquiring land for several schools, funding for free textbooks) and women's voting rights. He was a dedicated school board member, known as the "Father of Ridgefield" according to the Ridgefield Press. Read articles on his efforts on his FamilySearch.org profile at https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/L2D4-LQY

Children

Dr. William Hanford Allee Jr and Laurie Curie had two children:

• Private Allee1, m1 Shope, m2 Dawson; moved to Auckland, New Zealand

Image Request: This family was said to be in possession of a portrait, oil on wood of ancestor "John Allee" [which is likely John Allee III 1731-1781] according to mother Laura Curie Allee Shields in her memoir "Memories". If anyone has access to this image please post it to this profile thus noted to share with other descendants.

• PrivateAllee2, m. Detzer, lived in Connecticut

Passing

Dr. William Hanford Allee Jr passed young at age 55 on 21 April 1927 in Ridgefield, Fairfield, CT; and buried at Cedar Lawn Cemetery in Patterson, Passaic, New Jersey due to his wife's family being in that area.

His wife later remarried to James Van Allen Shields, a patent attorney working in the music industry. They lived in Connecticut, where she passed at the age of 97.

Wife Laura Curie Allee Shields' autobiography "Memories"

Wife Laura Curie Allee Shields wrote a fascinating autobiography, self-published first in 1940, with a later reprint. She and her husband were very active in their community with voting rights for women, education, and other civic concerns.

She also wrote about Dr. William Hanford Allee Jr's heritage but misnames his great-grandfather, it was instead Jeremiah Allee (1777-1846) who married 3 Darrow sisters and settled in Moravia, Cayuga, New York. She also stated the Allees had been in York before the Colonies but she may have meant New York as it was referred to as York state in the early day by the old timers, and she was living in Connecticut. Either way, the Allees were not long from France as the immigrant Jean Allé ll still used an accent in signing his name, and lived in a Huguenot community (New Rochelle, Westchester, NY) where the dominant language and records remained in French for several decades. Additionally, family tradition said Jean Allé the immigrant was born on "an island off France", and his father in France.

Photo and Oil Portrait Request

Does anyone have a photo of Dr. William Hanford and/or his family, ancestors, etc. that can be posted to this profile? His family was also in possession of an oil portrait painted on wood of ancestor John Allee, last known to be in New Zealand with the Allee/Dawson family. Please post a copy of this image if you have access. Thank you for your help.

Heritage

William Hanford Allee Jr's paternal line of descent is: William Hanford Allee Sr & Harriet Hurlbut / Joseph Bishop Allee & Mary Jane Forbes/ Jeremiah Allee & Elizabeth Darrow / John Allee III & Jeanne Jane Secor/ Jean John Allee II & Susanne Das/(Jean Alle I)

Allee Surname

The Allee surname was recorded in Paris as early as the 1200s [Uckelman: 5], and available throughout France in church records by the 1500s. Allee was often spelled with an accent aigu (to the right, Allé ), meaning it would be pronounced as Allay, although the sound in French is more clipped than English. [ In my own family we were always told the original pronunciation was "Allay" but most of us used Allee (long e sound) when younger as that is how Americans outside the family tended to pronounce it even when told otherwise, some of us reverted to saying "Allay" by our teens, and many of us used both.]

Spelling was fluid in this time, and other surnames documented on vital records in France which were included alongside Allee family members were Allé, Ale, Allez, Allay, Ally, Aulay, Aulie, Allie, Alie, Aly, Aulaye, Allais (placename), Allier (placename in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region ), etc., as well as similar spellings beginning with a (silent) H; or a D or L (Halay, d'Ally, Lally, Lallie) or ending with a silent t or z (Allet, Allez). And the very same family might have records with 5 different versions of the surname. There was a noble line of de L'Allee de Songy, seated in Saint-Sylvestre, Haute-Savoie, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes France. Jacques de L'Allee, d. 1503 was one of their earliest ancestors https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/GLLL-G88.

Some Allee researchers have thought our original surname was d'Ailly, a placename from the communes near Amiens, (Ailly sur Somme, Ailly sur Noy) in the Artois/Picardy/Hauts de France region of northern France; with d'Ailly le Haut Clocher (from "Ailly of the High Bell Tower") being the noble family once residing there. Jehan I d'Ailly-le-Haut-Clocher, b 945, was one of the earliest known ancestors https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/G6DZ-JKF.

A New Netherland immigrant, Nicholas d'Ailly (b abt 1650, m. Ann Tybout), settled in Hackensack, New Jersey. His descendants who stayed in that region and Canada (Loyalists) used the surname Alyea, Elyea, Elye, others Allee, and Alley. Many settled in Delware (where The Allee House in Bombay Hook is located) and primarily used Allee. It is unknown if they are related to the Allees of New Rochelle. Alyea/d'Ailly researcher, William Heidgerd of the New Jersey Huguenot Society, wrote that: "Jean Allie of New Rochelle ...is in no way related to Jean Aliee [Alyea of d'Ailly line] of Hackensack." [Please note: Nicholas d'Ailly's son John Alyea is NOT Jean Allee of New Rochelle--they both were married to different women and had children with them concurrently in separate places.]

Allee/Alley Genealogy Sites

Here are links to Allee Family genealogy sites, please note the information does not always agree and that the families are not related to each other unless proven:

"Allee Family genealogy"-compilation by Tom Welch at Rootsweb https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~alleefamilies/family/index.html Topics: The New Jersey Family (Nicholas d'Ailly and Madame Ann Tybout); The New Rochelle, New York family (Jean Allee, Huguenot, and Elizabeth Perdineau); and The Henrico County, Virginia Family (Nicholas Allee and Ann Stephens [Powhattan?]/Mary Dennis).

"Allee/Alyea Genealogy Vol 1, Vol 2" by Dr. W. Arthur Allee" (William Arthur Allee Jr., 1914-2008, Nicholas d'Ailly line) at familysearch.org includes early New York and New Jersey Allee/Alley/Alyea families (group sheets). [https://www.familysearch.org/library/books/records/item/88546-allee-alyea-genealogy-vol-1?offset=4

https://www.familysearch.org/library/books/records/item/87823-allee-alyea-genealogy-vol-2?offset=3]

"The Allee Family and their Landholdings in Delaware" (Nicholas Allee/d'Ailly) by Robert W. Mayer at Friendsofbombayhook.org. [4] https://www.friendsofbombayhook.org/pdf/AlleeHouse/alleefamilylandholdings.pdf

Raymond Allee (1890-1976) also did extensive research on the Nicholas d'Ailly line, "Allee Genealogical Study" compiled about 1932, and some researchers include his narratives on their family trees. Some of his family group sheets appear in the W. Arthur Allee genealogy on familysearch.org (listed above).

Edward Stoddard Alley (1869-1952) did extensive research on the Jean Allee, Huguenot, line of New Rochelle, NY. He compiled mostly between 1894 through the mid 1920s. He had access to family bibles and direct contact with family members born in the 1800s. Charlotte Meyer made additions. I do not know if this work was ever officially published but has been shared amongst researchers.

Other Colonial Allee/Alley Families NOT thought to be related

Other early Allee / Alley families in the NY/CT/ New England region thought NOT to be related are:

Saul Alley (1778-1852) a prominent NYC merchant, banker, director of railway, commissioner, and owner of the Saul Alley mansion at 6 Washington Square, NYC https://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2019/02/the-1833-saul-alley-mansion-6.html. He was born in Maryland.

Hugh Alley Sr. (1608-1673) born in Stepney, Middlex, England and settled in Lynn, Essex, Colony of Massachusetts, British Colonial America, wife Mary Graves. Arrived in 1635 on the ship "Abigail." His descendants remained in the Lynn, Essex, MA area for many generations.

Benjamin Alley II (1731-1775, m Hannah Stacy), his son Joseph Alley (1793-1829, m Esther Bradley) and William Alley (m Elizabeth Stacy?), of New Haven, CT. Benjamin was born in Lynn, Essex, MA. He and the Alleys of New Haven, CT are from the Hugh Alley Sr. line of Stepney, Middlesex, England (see above).

-work in progress by walterallee1796

Sources

• Birth of William Hanford Allee Jr, "New York, New York City Births, 1846-1909," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2WDD-8MP : 11 February 2018), William H. Jr. Allee, 15 Mar 1872; citing Manhattan, New York, New York, United States, reference 980 New York Municipal Archives, New York; FHL microfilm 1,324,350.

• Christening of William Hanford Allee Jr: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2WDD-8M5 "New York, New York City Births, 1846-1909," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2WDD-8M5 : 11 February 2018), William H. Allee Jr., 15 Mar 1872; citing Manhattan, New York, New York, United States, reference 988 New York Municipal Archives, New York; FHL microfilm 1,324,350.

• "United States Census, 1880", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MZD3-Z1N : Fri Oct 06 16:03:44 UTC 2023), Entry for Joseph Allee and William Allee, 1880. [in grandfather's household with family, Brooklyn, NY]

• "United States Census, 1910", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MKKV-QKJ : Wed Oct 04 04:50:42 UTC 2023), Entry for William H Allee and Laura C Allee, 1910, [Ridgefield, Fairfield, Connecticut]

• "Connecticut, Military Census Questionnaires, 1917", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:ZNGM-BK6Z : Thu Oct 05 14:20:52 UTC 2023), Entry for William H Allee, 1917.

• "United States Census, 1920", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MCFX-LR9 : Fri Dec 22 09:57:36 UTC 2023), Entry for William H Allee and Laura Allee, 1920 [Ridgefield, Fairfield, CT]

• "United States Deceased Physician File (AMA), 1864-1968", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:W4DS-YCZM : Thu Nov 16 23:18:11 UTC 2023), Entry for William Hanford Allee, 21 Apr 1927.

• "Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVGL-F445 : 11 August 2023), William H Allee, ; Burial, Paterson, Passaic, New Jersey, United States of America, Cedar Lawn Cemetery; citing record ID 125090941, Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com.