Some advice I like to give in my genealogy classes is to dig a little deeper. Each document that we find on genealogy websites tells us more than what is on the surface. Yeah, that 1900 census gives us the names of everyone in the household along with their birth month and year and their occupation. There are twenty-eight columns plus the information written at the top of the page.
About Their Address
For example, my great-grandparents are listed on the Anaconda,
Deer Lodge County, Montana 1900 census page as living at 709 West Commercial
Avenue.[1]
What can I do with that information? I can start by using a Google Map and see
what that address is today.[2]
I can search in newspaper databases for the address, as I have done here. This is a notice from an 1896 newspaper about a lost or stolen sorrel mare with a complete description.[3] I am not sure if the owners are my Sullivans, as there is no name attached to the notice.
Number of Children
Let’s dig deeper into this same census. John’s wife, Anna’s
column for the number of children born is six, while the number of living
children is 5. She and John have been married for eighteen years. Let us analyze
if the children are hers. The oldest child listed is seventeen, so that fits
that Anna likely gave birth to her. The rest of the children do a total of five.
But one is missing who is deceased. Who might he or she have been? There is a
larger gap between Cyril who was born in 1887 and Ethel who was born in 1891.
That might be a period to seek. The death could have occurred after Ethel’s
birth between 1893 and 1900. Where might it have happened? Cyril was born in
Dakota and Ethel in Montana, so both places might be searched. Do Montana or
the Dakotas have death records before 1900? Is there a cemetery record? Is
there a funeral or death notice in the newspaper? This is a tough time period
and I might not be able to find anything.
About His Occupation
John is listed as an electrician. I want to research what an electrician did in
1900. Was there electricity in everyone’s home in Anaconda in 1900? Or did he
work at a place that had electricity? What was the major industry in Anaconda?
How many other electricians were there in the town? There is another on this
same page.
About Their Home
The last columns on the page asked out their home. This census indicates that
he owned a home and it was mortgaged. To learn more about the property, I need
to seek out deed records and possibly mortgage records if they are kept
separately. I did find a purchase of land by “John Sullivan” on 13 June 1896
for the south 37.5 feet of lot 3 in block 119.[4]
To see if this lot is the same as 709 Commercial Ave, I sought out a Sanborn map from the Library of Congress.[5] Here we see that no building had been constructed yet when the map was created. Perhaps John Sullivan purchased an empty lot and then built the house. In 1903, the map shows buildings in that block.[6]
1896 Sanborn Map of Anaconda, Montana
 |
| 1903 Sanborn Map of Anaconda, Montana |
However, this map does not show the block numbers. The deed refers to a plat map filed with the county recorder, so I would contact the county recorder asking for a copy of this plat map. A Google search did not turn up any plat maps.
Why Dig Deeper?
This exercise has not answered all the questions I could ask from the information in the 1900 census. But it is a good start. In summary, digging deeper into any document we find about
our ancestors brings out more clues to research further and by doing so deepens
our understanding of the lives our ancestors lived. Who knows, you might find
something cool that you did not know before!
#52 Ancestors: Week 43: Dig a Little Deeper
This is my sixth year working on this year-long prompt,
hosted by Amy Johnson Crow (https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/)
at Generations Cafe. I write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or My Trails into the Past.
I have enjoyed writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways.
[1]
1900 U.S. census, Deer Lodge Co, Montana, pop. sched, Anaconda, ED 15, p. 59b
(stamped), family 24, John H Sullivan; NARA T623, roll 911. I had to advance to p. 60 to discover the name of the street.
[2] Google
Maps (https://www.google.com/maps?authuser=0),
searched on “709 W Commercial Ave, Anaconda, MT.”
[3] “Lost-Found,”
Anaconda Standard, 24 July 1896, p. 11, col. 5.
[4] Deer
Lodge Co, Montana, deed index, C-T, 1896-1988, browsed for John Sullivan, FamilySearch
(https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C37F-VKQD);
citing film 008580689, images 1717-1718. Deed would be found in v. 29, p. 304.
[5]
Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, Anaconda, Montana, image 3, Library of Congress
(https://www.loc.gov/resource/g4254am.g4254am_g049251896/?sp=3&r=0.198,0.788,0.332,0.192,0);
Sanborn Map Company, 1896.
[6]
Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, Anaconda, Montana, image 12, Library of Congress
(https://www.loc.gov/resource/g4254am.g4254am_g049251903/?sp=12&r=0.082,0.008,0.688,0.397,0);
Sanborn Map Company, 1903.
I ran into this on a branch of my tree with very few people and even less info. But one man was a college educated dentist in the late 1890s and I deep dived into that and found fascinating facts - they didn't just pull teeth, they had drills that you pumped with your feet and gold fillings. Maybe they gave you a shot (drinking kind) of whiskey before. i hadn't thought to track down their house etc. I'll try to add those to the story.
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