My Trails into the Past

    The 1940 census will be available for viewing in just over a month.  I have April 2 marked as a day free of any other activities so I can jump in and search for family in the census.  There will not be an index at the start.  FamilySearch.org is organizing many groups to begin indexing as soon as the census is available on Apr 2.  I am signed up and can't wait to do some indexing in Texas & California.     So since there will not be an index on the 2nd, my first list of family to search for will be those who lived in small towns or counties where I can search page by page for them.  Here is a list of a few I will start: My father, William J Hork , his mother Anne Hork , sisters, Lorene , Virginia , and June .  They were living in  Cucamunga, California, according to a 1940 city directory. My grandfather, William C Hork .  He was living in Ontario, CA, according to a 1940 city directory. Stephenville, Erath Co, Tex...

Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing has Saturday Night Genealogy Fun every week and this week he is asking us to focus on one of our ancestors. We start by picking the year our paternal grandfather was born.  My grandfather, William Cyril Hork was born 1899.   Now divide that date by 100 and round up.  So that would make 19.   I now find no. 19 in my pedigree.  That is Susanna Raduntz.   Now I tell three things I know about her. Susanna Raduntz was born around 1832 in Posen, Prussia (which is in present day Poland).  This information is from the marriage record of her daughter, Julia Ann Sievert to Anton Hork at St. John's Catholic Church in Joliet, Ill.  (This record was a gold mine, listing the birth towns of both sets of parents). She married Vincent Sievert on 10 Feb 1950 in Schneidemuhl, Posen, Prussia.  After first son was born, they came to the U.S. and settled in Joliet, Will Co, Illinois  They then had an additional 10 chi...