The "Fridays" were always a close-knit family as is evident by the
proximities of their homes. Generally, they all lived within a few city blocks of
one another for over 100 years. The area they settled in was made up of primarily
German immigrants. This area of Rochester, NY is known as "Dutchtown".
The oldest descendant of the Friday family that I could find records of
having lived in the "Dutchtown" area was Nicholas Freitag's wife, Magdalena (Hey).
Though she was the oldest, she was not the first Friday ancestor to arrive in America.
Her sons, Jacob and Peter, arrived in Castle Garden (New York City) aboard the ship
" Burgundy" from France on June 1, 1839. Magdalena and her other children ( Eva, Lena,
and Jean) arrived on the ship "Robert Kelly" on October 21, 1850.
In the 1875 Monroe County Census records I found a 60 year old widow, named Barbara
Friday, listed as living with George & Christina Hensler on Jay St., directly across the street
from Magdalena Freitag. Because of this, and her age, I assumed that she may be the widow
of Peter Freitag.
Many of the very old church and census documents are unreadable and therefore I can not be
100% certain of the accuracy of a few individuals. I also found out that it is not uncommon to
find errors in both given names and surnames in these old records. In fact, the Friday name is
spelled with several variations including Freitag, Frietag, Freydag, and Freytag.
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