Harold Lewis Cresta

1920-1984 · Dover NJ

Born 1920, Dover, Morris County, New Jersey

Died 1984

Father: Louis Michael Cresta

Mother: Florence Myrtle Snyder

Harold Lewis Cresta was born on 12 June 1920 in Morris County, New Jersey. His father, Louis Michael Cresta, had been born in Massachusetts to Italian parents and orphaned young. His mother, Florence Myrtle Snyder, came from Virginia. Two older sisters had died as babies, Florence Helen in 1918 and Hazel Evelyn in 1920, the year Harold was born. His sister Dorothy Theresa came in 1922.

He grew up at Rockaway, a few miles from Dover. In 1930 he was 9, living there with his parents and Dorothy. In 1940 he was 19 and single, still at home in the Mount Hope section of Rockaway Township. His mother died the next year, in 1941.

On 12 January 1942, five weeks after Pearl Harbor, Harold enlisted in the Army at Fort Dix as a selectee. He signed on for the duration of the war plus six months. He was single, had three years of high school, and gave his civilian work as a filer, grinder, buffer and polisher of metal. His serial number was 32189961. He went in as a private and came out a sergeant. A portrait taken in uniform shows the sergeant's stripes on his sleeve and a row of ribbons over his pocket.

In April 1950 Harold, 29, was living at Mount Arlington, Morris County, with his wife Doris, 28, who had been born in Pennsylvania, and her son Barry J. Stewart, 6. Doris Watkins Cresta died in 1982 and is buried at Beaver Meadows, Pennsylvania.

Harold later married Barbara Marie Trowbridge, a Dover woman born in 1940. Their daughter, Joy Marie Cresta, was born on 18 March 1964. When Joy married at Danville, Virginia, in July 1988, her marriage certificate named Harold Lewis Cresta as her father.

Harold died on 11 September 1984, aged 64. He was buried in Pleasant Hill Cemetery at Randolph, where his father and mother lie in unmarked graves. His own flat government stone reads: "Harold L. Cresta, Sgt, US Army, World War II."

Parents

Florence Myrtle Snyder (1896-1941)

Louis Michael Cresta 1890-1956

Sources

Find a Grave, memorial 9928495, photograph added by Trowbridges NJ, 20 July 2007.

Find a Grave, memorial 9928495, photograph added by Trowbridges NJ, 25 September 2007.

Virginia, Marriage Certificates, 1936-1989, certificate 88-031833, Danville, 22 July 1988. FamilySearch, ark:/61903/1:1:QK98-GY37.

New Jersey, Reclaim the Records, Geographic Birth Index, 1901-1929, Morris County. FamilySearch, ark:/61903/1:1:6NMK-W7JQ.

United States census 1930, Rockaway, Morris County, New Jersey, sheet 17B, line 80, NARA T626 roll 1374. FamilySearch, ark:/61903/1:1:X4F4-RQW.

United States census 1940, Rockaway Township (Mount Hope), Morris County, New Jersey, ED 14-100, sheet 6B, line 62, NARA T627. FamilySearch, ark:/61903/1:1:K4T2-F73.

United States, World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946, serial 32189961, NARA Electronic Army Serial Number Merged File. FamilySearch, ark:/61903/1:1:K8RC-SML.

United States census 1950, Mount Arlington, Morris County, New Jersey, ED 14-135, sheet image 72. National Archives, 1950census.archives.gov; FamilySearch, ark:/61903/1:1:6F9Y-41R9.

Find a Grave, memorial 9928495, photograph added by Trowbridges NJ, 29 October 2007.

New Jersey birth, Morris County, 12 June 1920 (FamilySearch ark 61903/1:1:6NMK-W7JQ); United States census 1930, Rockaway (ark 61903/1:1:X4F4-RQW); 1940, Rockaway Township, ED 14-100, sheet 6B, line 62 (ark 61903/1:1:K4T2-F73); World War II Army enlistment, serial 32189961 (ark 61903/1:1:K8RC-SML); United States census 1950, Mount Arlington, ED 14-135 (ark 61903/1:1:6F9Y-41R9); Virginia marriage certificate 88-031833, Danville, 1988 (ark 61903/1:1:QK98-GY37); Find a Grave memorial 9928495 (death, burial, stone and photographs)

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Cite: Heirology, "Harold Lewis Cresta (1920-1984)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/harold-lewis-cresta-1920-1984-a76250.