SNGF -- What Were Your Ancestors Doing 100 Years Ago?

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: 

It's Saturday Night again - 

Time for some more Genealogy Fun!!

Our assignment from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings is to:

1)  Every one of your ancestors was doing "something" in their life in early 1925?  Do you know, or do you have to guess?

Here's mine:

My parents were born yet, so I’ll focus on my grandparents first and then great-grandparents.

Paternal Side

My paternal grandparents, William Cyril Hork and Anna Marie Sullivan, lived at 414 Linnie Canal in Venice, California. He was listed in the 1925 city directory as a laborer.[1]  They had two children, Lorene, who would have been nearly two, and Virginia, a newborn in January. Anna would have her hands full with the two children. Checking Google Maps shows a modern house.[2]  Zillow claims it was built in 2001, so it is certainly not the same place they lived in.[3]  The voter registration the following year shows the same address. Cyril was listed as a salesman and a Republican. Anna was a housewife and a Democrat.[4]  

My paternal great-grandmother, Julia Ann Sievert, widow of Johan Anton Hork, lived at 601 South 5th Street in Anaconda in 1920[5]  and was at the same address at her death.[6]  She was a widow and in 1925, she would have been 71 years old. 

My paternal great-grandfather, John H. Sullivan, a widower of Anna Maria Gleeson, lived in Anaconda at 611 Maple Street with his daughter, Helena “Nellie” Goe, her husband, Harold Goe, and their daughter Elizabeth, and son, Jack. John may have still worked as an electrician. Harold was working as a superintendent at the Anaconda Copper Mining Company. Helena’s aunt, Helena Gleeson, worked as principal of Prescott School, and her sister, Ethel, worked as a clerk at the Brick Department at the Anaconda Copper Mining plant.[7] 

Maternal Side

My maternal grandparents were still living with their parents, so I’ll write about them separately.

Tom Johnston would have been 13 years old, living with his father, Thomas N. Johnston. Perhaps they had already moved to Stephenville, Erath County, Texas, or still lived in Gustine, Comanche County. Rural Texas does not have the records a big city like Los Angeles has. Thomas was the widowed father of five children: Beryl, 16, Mildred, 14, Tom Jr, 13, Hal, 9, and Luther, 7. Thomas worked as a salesman at Higgenbotham Lumber Company.

Pansy Louise Lancaster would have been 12 years old living somewhere in Erath County with her parents George Warren Lancaster and Lela Ann Loveless. Besides, Pansy, a son, Rayburn, who was five, lived with them. When their newborn, who didn’t live many hours was born in 1924, Warren listed his occupation as farmer, so they likely still lived outside of town.[8]  Later, he worked as an auto mechanic. 

Warren’s parents, William Carlton “Carl” Lancaster and Martha J. Coor, were also alive. He was a farmer in 1920 in Erath County[9] and 1930 in Lubbock County.[10] I don’t know when he moved. They came back to Stephenville by 1940, as they were living with Tom and Pansy Johnston.

I have many deed records still to work through from my trip to Erath County last spring to try to work out when these families stopped farming and moved to town.

One last person was still alive in 1925. Carl’s mother, Martha Jane Polly, who divorced his father, George Wilson Lancaster in 1893, lived in Central California, either with her son, Reginald Lancaster (1920 census) or with her son-in-law, Harold White (1930 census). I will need to research both men more closely to determine this. More newspaper search might help.

That’s it. These are my ancestors who were alive in 1925.

1. Santa Monica, Ocean Park, Venice Sawtelle and Westgate Directory City Directory, Los Angeles Directory Co, digital image, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com), 1923, p 303, Cyril W (Anna) Hork. 
2. Google Maps Street View, https://www.google.com/maps/@33.9845066,-118.4659174,3a,75y,322.45h,94.74t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s7TrBlWxyeY4wjsn1Chp5DA!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D-4.738629279978497%26panoid%3D7TrBlWxyeY4wjsn1Chp5DA%26yaw%3D322.4455796773884!7i13312!8i6656?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDIwNS4xIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D. 
3. 414 Linnie Canal, Venice, California, Zillow (https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/414-Linnie-Canal-Venice-CA-90291/20444024_zpid/). 
4. "California Voter Registration 1900-1968," digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com), 1926, roll 19, Los Angeles Co, Los Angeles Precinct no. 1100, William H. Hork. 
5. 1920 U.S. census, Ravalli Co, Montana, Hamilton City, ED 182, sht 12b, dwelling 281, Julia Hork. 
6. Montana Bureau of Vital Statistics, death certificate, RAV 940, Julia Ann Hork, Ravalli Co, 1928.
7. Polk's Anaconda (Deer Lodge County, Mont) City Directory, R.L. Polk & Co., 1925, p 94, Harold H Goe; 1928, p 91, Harold H (Helena M), digital image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/2469).
8. "Texas, Birth Certificates 1903-1932," digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com); citing Texas Department of State Health Services, Erath Co, No. 9758, Carl Lancaster, Jr. 
9. 1920 U.S. census, Erath Co, Texas, Prec. 1, ED 4, sp. 41 (stamped), dwelling 45, William C. Lancaster.
10. 1930 U.S. census, Lubbock Co, Texas, Prec 1, ED 11, sht 8b, dwelling 162, William C. Lancaster. 

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