Robert F. Gibney was born on July 10, 1883 in New Jersey. He married Ruth B. Ranson on December 19, 1901. Ruth was born in Canada around 1884 and her family immigrated to the United States in 1889. According to the 1910 U.S. Census Robert lived in Brooklyn with his wife and their daughter Ruth M. who was born around 1902 and his father-in-law James F. Ransom. By the 1920 Census they were renting a home in Maywood in Bergen County, New Jersey where Robert was a foreman in a spark plug factory. It is my belief that his first wife Ruth died during the 1920’s and Robert moved to Long Island prior to 1930. According to the 1930 Census, Robert choose to live with his sister-in-law, Ruth M. Freund, in Brentwood. Ruth Freund was 28 at the time and raising a son on her own, Robert C. Freund . Robert Gibney’s  cousin Julia A. Gibney was living in Brentwood between 1910 to 1930 with her mother, Catherine and sister, Kathleen. It is believed that Robert choose to settle near family after his wife’s death.

Genevieve Wittborg was born on June 24, 1900 and grew-up in Brentwood where she lived with her mother Harriet M. and father, Oliva in Brentwood.  She married Robert F. Gibney on December 20, 1944. Robert continued to work in NYC for the Waterman Pen Company and served on the Board of Education, Red Cross and other charitable committees.

The Gibney house was located on Brentwood Road next to the Academy of St. Joseph. This fine historic estate was originally owned by John L. Watson., grandfather of Genevieve.  He left it to his daughter, Harriet Wittborg upon his death in 1910 who gave it to her daughter Genevieve.

—M. Koferl, Local History Room Newsletter, January 2009.