Rachel Mary Jaques

Birth: She was born in 1912 in California.  

Family Information: Daughter of Albert and Rachel Jaques.

Sister of Eleanor, Alice, Albert Jr., Frank, Chester and Ida Jaques.

Description:  

Pre-Colony History: In 1920 she was living in California with her parents and siblings.

The family came from California to the colony in October 1921. Her father had been paying on their membership for several years, so they were paid in full when they arrived.  

Home in Colony: The family lived in the main colony at Newllano for at least two years, as there are several mentions of the family at the Montessori school, in theater productions, helping out at the hotel, etc.

They later lived at the colony Rice Ranch. 

Job in Colony: In April of 1922 she was part of a group of students who worked in the cafeteria -- shelling peanuts, setting tables, getting dinner together and washing dishes -- along with Albert Kapotsy, Alice Jaques, John Dougherty, Beulah Gaddis, Ruby Synoground, Laura Merrill, Laura Synoground, Margaret Seelye, Emma Kapotsy, Vinita Thurman, Nellie Kemp, Margaret Kapotsy and Dora Cryer.

She told her grandchildren how she and her siblings were responsible for picking the snakes out of the rice paddies when they lived at the Rice Ranch.

Other Info:  

Post-Colony History: The family left for unknown reasons sometime before 1926, moving first to Kinder, Louisiana then to the Senator Odom Pecan Farm at some point before her father and brother's death.

According to family sources, her mother was asked to leave the farm following Albert's death, so she and her five surviving  children drove across the United States in either a Model A or Model T Ford, over questionable roads and alone. On the trip, Rachel supported her family by working as a housekeeper and seamstress.

In 1930 she was living with her mother and several siblings in California.

In 1935 she married Frank Zirwes at Los Angeles, California. In 1940 she was living with her husband, their daughter Mary, and her mother-in-law in California. Frank worked as a timekeeper at a rubber factory and Rachel Mary worked as a social worker for the county welfare office.

Death: She died in 1997 at San Diego, California.  

Sources: Family Information: Photos and information by Deborah Lovel Bryner (All Rights Reserved: Published here with permission); California Birth Index; US Census: 1920, 1930, 1940; "Vernon Parish Democrat": October 6, 1921; "Llano Colonist": April 22, 1922; California County Birth, Marriage, and Death Records; California Death Index