Week 36: Road Trips. Describe a family road trip from your childhood. Where did you go and why? Who was in the car? How did you pass the time?

My New Glasses (1986)

The biggest road trips of my youth were to Walt Disney World in Florida in 1987 and then the infamous trip “Out West” in 1989 with Grandma and Grandpa, aka Duane and Florence Cole. During both trips I was along for the ride with my cousin Christopher in Grandpa’s Winnebago RV.  In 1994 DaD, Kathleen, Ashley and I went to Washington D. C. for a few days.

Other than that, our family spent a lot of time driving between our home in Bridgeport, Michigan and Valparaiso, Indiana where my DaD’s side of the Cole family still lives today. The journey took about 5 1/2 hours at the time, before parts of I-69 and I-94 were built when we had to take smaller state highways.

Kathleen and I would pass the time by playing The Alphabet Game in the back seat.  She always won.  In fact, I was endlessly frustrated that she always won.  Eventually my Mom picked up on the fact that I couldn’t see crap, and took me in for an eye exam when I was 8 years old.  After I got glasses, I was able to properly compete with Kathleen in the back seat.  By then, my Mom had moved out and the trips to Indiana started to slow down.

If it weren’t for those road trips, it might have taken my parents a lot longer to figure out I was practically blind.  How was I supposed to know?  It seemed normal to me.

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Death Notice for Elizabeth Humes in The Saginaw Weekly Enterprise, 13 Oct 1864

This is the death notice for Elizabeth Humes, published in The Saginaw Weekly Enterprise on October 13, 1964.  Elizabeth is listed in the second column, third from the bottom.  Her name is highlighted in a red box.

Elizabeth Humes is the 5th great-grandmother of my half-brother, Noah, on his maternal side.  I don’ t know her maiden name, or much about where she came from.  The family believes she may have been born in Scotland.  She was married to William Humes, born about 1801 in Scotland.  My half brother is descended from their son, Alexander D Humes (1832 – 1896).

Since this death notice simply states Elizabeth Humes died within the year, we are unsure of her exact death date.  I do not believe there was an actual obituary published for her in Saginaw.

As of this writing, the 1940 Census has been public for exactly 72 hours. So far, I am very pleased with what I’ve been able to find.

I did immense amounts of prep work over the past few months, locating exact addresses for family members and their siblings in city directories, World War II registration documents, marriage records, birth certificates and more.  All that hard work has really paid off!

Here are the families I have found since the launch:

Cole/Fitzgerald side:

May Fisher – my great-great-grandmother
Newton “Leroy” Cole – my great-great-grandparents
Lyal Newton Cole – my great-grandparents
George Maywood Fitzgerald – my great-great-grandparents
Vondall “Von” Euart Fitzgerald – my great-grandparents
Leslie Barkley
Milton Barkley
Richard Barkley
Valentine Rue Cole
Howard Glenn Cole
Joseph “Dock” Austin Jarrell
Earl Fisher
Mac “Vernon” Fitzgerald
“A C” Augustus Carlton Sheets

Dreffs/Stroik side:

Mary Karpuk – my grandmother
Walter Anthony Dreffs – my grandfather
Robert Nathaniel Kane – my step-father
Tony Norchyk
Joanna Mielke
Veronica Remyszewski
Andrew Dreffs
Francis Dreffs
Martin S Dreffs
Vincent J Dreffs
Paul Dreffs
Anthony Merkiel
Mary Merkiel
Josephine Juszkiewicz

Green/Fox side:

Fred Ozro Green – my husband’s great-grandparents
Robert “Bob” Green
Stephen Green
Wilma (Green) Wait
Virginia (Green) Stech
Betty (Green) Leversee

Fox side (my brother-in-law’s family):

Ray Gordon Fox
Ferdinand DeSoto Fox
Anna Elizabeth (Doty) Head

Zimmer side (my step-mother’s family):

Peter Joseph Zimmer

I’ll be posting some featured finds in the coming weeks to share the interesting facts on these census entries.  There are some crazy things going on behind the scenes of some of these facts that should be captured for future generations, such as children who were born already but not indexed, children who died days after the census, and even proof that some children never existed!  And that’s just scratching the surface.

I’ve also contributed to the indexing for Delaware and Kansas at FamilySearch.org – the first two state projects.  It’s easy to index, and it feels great to give back to the community!

Here are the entries I’m still searching for:

Joseph Dreffs
Andrew Dominik
Marion Forbes
Max Earl Green
Archie “Arch” Leland Bostic
John “Charles” Barkley
Helen Hayes
Ernest Otto Buchinger
Leopold “Leo” J. Fisher / Fizer
James Henry Head
Joseph M Karasiewicz
Ivan John Henry Pochyly
Maitland Robert Schaar

More to come soon!

Taken in the restaurant inside K-Mart in Saginaw, Michigan.

Meeting the Easter Bunny (1981)

Week #35 – Songs. What was the #1 song during the week of your birth?

On the day of my birth, the #1 song in the USA was Best of my Love by The Emotions.  On the day Andrew and I got married, it was U Got It Bad by Usher.  My favorite coincidence was the #1 song when my brother Noah was born, which was Baby Boy by Beyonce.

Fitzgerald Family, circa 1939 in Lake County, Indiana

Today, I would like to wish a very Happy 78th Birthday to my dear grandmother, Florence Mae (Fitzgerald) Cole!

Tomorrow morning, the 1940 US Federal Census will be released.  I am so excited to be able to search for my grandmother in this census, who turned 6 years old the week the census takers visited her home.

When I asked my grandmother recently where she was living on her 6th birthday, she replied, “We were living a few miles from where I was born. I’m pretty sure it was still in Lake County.”

We should see her parents Vondall & Jennie Fitzgerald along with her siblings Kenny, Lenny, Dorothy, Donald, Lewis, Katherine, Richard and Robert.  Her younger siblings Delmar, David, Charles, Roy, Thomas and Bruce were not born yet as of April 1, 1940.

The picture here shows Florence’s grandmother May (Richards) Fisher standing in the back right with the dark dress, then her mother Jennie Mae (Fisher) Fitzgerald seated holding the baby.  The children along the front are believed to be Dorothy, Robert, Florence (in the checker pattern dress), Katherine and Richard.  I am not sure who the woman standing behind Jennie is in the white dress.  I think it might be Vondall’s mother, Emily (Jarrell) Fitzgerald.

Good luck to all of you beginning your search tomorrow in the 1940 Census!

Children in the tenement district, Brockton, Mass

Do you know what your grandmother’s home or neighborhood looked like in 1940?

The Library of Congress has a photostream on Flickr featuring more than 41,000 historical photographs, many of them in astounding original color.

Did you know?  More than 1,800 of the photos posted were taken in 1940 all across the country.

One such example is shown here, titled simply as Children in the tenement district, Brockton, Massachusetts.  Looking through them gives us a taste of what it might have been like to go door to door, enumerating the 1940 Census.

Oh, the stories those enumerators must have heard!  It’s too bad they weren’t equipped with tape recorders or cameras.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a voice sample or a photograph of each individual included with their Census entry?

Another fun thing to do is to check out what your ancestor’s address looks like today using Google Street View.  If you’re lucky, you just might be rewarded with some new clues to your family puzzle.

Good luck searching for your family in the 1940 Census!

Trenton Evening Times

According to Wikipedia, propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position.  Propaganda is usually repeated and dispersed over a wide variety of media in order to create the desired result in audience attitudes.

A writer for the Trenton Evening Times in Trenton, New Jersey had his doubts about the privacy of information divulged during the 1940 Census.

This article, published on Monday, April 1, 1940 encouraged the public to withhold information from local enumerators. If only they knew just how long we’ve had to wait to see their answers, they may have given the truth and nothing but the truth!

THE CONTROVERSIAL CENSUS

On the eve of the 1940 census, it is gratifying to have the following assurance from Governor Moore:

Everyone can rest assured such information will be kept confidential and will not be used to the detriment of any individual.  The answers are for census purposes only, and may not be examined by other agencies of the Government.

That no doubt represents the sincere intent of the Census Bureau.  However, what bothers a great many citizens is the fact that various potentially embarrassing points of information, including personal income and the past marital status of women, will be given to politically-appointed census takers who may, in specific instances, be neighbors or acquaintances of the persons being questioned.

Moreover, it has not always been true that information handed Government bureaus has been treated in a scrupulously confidential manner.  There have been leaks with respect to income tax reports even when, under the law, such data was supposedly kept beyond reach of the curious.

Regardless of the popular reaction during the next few weeks, Congress may well reconsider the whole problem of census policy and work out a less controversial program for adoption 10 years hence.  Information on unemployment, for example, could probably be procured without resort to the provocative queries printed on the 1940 census sheets.

As a result of Senator Tobey’s agitation, many people probably will show considerable reluctance about answering questions that seem to come within the category of bureaucratic snooping.  Even though answers are finally given because of a fear of jail sentences and fines, the national lawmaking body should regard the present protest movement as a sufficient reason for the rearing of future safeguards against unnecessary invasions of the traditionally American right to privacy.

If that’s not propaganda, I don’t know what is! Here’s hoping your ancestor decided to believe Senator Tobey instead of the writer of this article.

To get all these juicy, embarrassing details about Aunt Betty out into the open public as fast as possible, I urge you to volunteer as an 1940 Census indexer. Check out the1940census.com for more information on how you can volunteer.

Check out genealogybank.com for more historical newspapers with cool articles like this.

Do you ever wonder how long it took the enumerators to capture all of the information about your ancestor’s household during the 1940 Census?

No matter how long it took enumerators to jot it all down, I am glad they faced the challenge with pens at the ready and a smile on their faces.

Some snarky citizens around the country took jabs at the number of questions on this 16th decennial census through editorial blurbs in the local newspapers like this one, published in The Cleveland Plain Dealer in Cleveland Ohio on April 1, 1940, page 7:

We'll Probably Have To

Main Street Meditations by Eleanor Clarage
We’ll Probably Have To

“The questions to be asked by census takers are so numerous,” writes S. J. Redford, “that I’m wondering if the householder will be expected to invite them to stay for lunch?”

When I have visitors to my house, I always offer a bit of hospitality in the form of a drink.  If it’s close to a meal time, an offer of food is not out of the question.  I wonder how many 1940 Census enumerators were invited to stay for lunch or dinner in 1940?  That’s a number I’d like to see indexed!

If you’ve got a few minutes to spare, head over to the1940census.com to find out how you can volunteer as a 1940 Census Indexer.  You can even index on the go with your mobile phone or tablet!

Taking of Census to Start Tuesday

Did your great-grandmother serve as a Census enumerator?  You might check the local newspaper in her area to find out.

The Springfield Daily Republican in Springfield, Massachusetts was one of many small towns throughout America that published the names of its local enumerators. This article can be found in the April 1, 1940 edition on page 8.

TAKING OF CENSUS TO START TUESDAY

Thompsonville, Ct., March 31 – The enumerators appointed to take the federal census in all sections of the town of Enfield have been notified to begin their duties Tuesday morning, and it is expected the work will be completed in about two weeks.  All people are advised that it will assist the enumerators to answer questions without resorting to argument whether some of the questions are annoying or not.  All the enumerators ask is a little cooperation on the part of the people in order that a perfect census may result.  Among the enumerators selected for the job are, Clarence Mitchell, Stanley Yesukiewicz, Maurice A. Kane, Miss Ethel Byron, Alec Denby, Mrs. Josephine Gorman, Louis J. Ragno, John Smith, William J. Malley, Miss Mary F. O’Brien, Mrs. Ethel Cote, John Tharz and Stanley Kawn.

These enumerators sure had their work cut out for them to convince the public that the questions were necessary and important. The controversy was strong around inquiries of income, divorce and unemployment – all important questions which provided critical data to the political and business leaders of our nation throughout the 1940′s and World War II.

If you’d like to make sure the work of these enumerators is digitized and searchable, go to the1940census.com to learn how you can volunteer as a 1940 Census indexer. Together, we can give back to researchers around the world. It only takes a few minutes of your time.