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) The life of every person has events and decisions that have a risk factor that can significantly affect their life.
2) Describe a risk that one of your ancestors made that affected their life. How did it all turn out?
Here's mine:
When I think about people who take a big risk, I think of
those who either moved away from family to make a new life, or quit their job
to start a new career.
My grandfather, William Cyril Hork, who was known familiarly as Cyril, moved his family to Los Angeles from Montana sometime after his marriage to Anna Marie Sullivan on 30 November 1922.[1] Their first daughter, Lorene, was born on 3 August 1923 in Santa Monica, Los Angeles County, California, just about nine months later.[2]
I don’t know much about his occupations. He tended to work as a laborer. However, I can guess why he left Hamilton, Montana, and came to Southern California. After joining the Navy in 1918, he had training at the Naval Training Camp in San Diego for five months. Then he trained for about two months at the training camp at Mare Island, California, before serving aboard ship out of Mare Island until September. Lastly, he served at the Submarine Base at San Pedro, California, serving on the submarine tender, USS Alert, until his discharge.[3]
Perhaps he enjoyed the mild weather. Perhaps he saw all the industry being created in support of the war. Los Angeles grew in population from about 300,000 in 1910 to over 575,000 in 1920. He was not the only person who thought life could be better in Southern California.[4]
How did it turn out? They tended to move a lot and he worked most of the time as a laborer. By 1940, Anna and their four children left for Napa, and they remained separated until death. He worked for the WPA for a while, but ended up living in a Veteran’s Home due to alcoholism until his death, though he died of emphysema. Anna and the children thrived in Napa, marrying and having children. She returned to teaching and lived a long life.
[1] Silver
Bow County, Montana, Marriage License, no. A-14551, Cyril W. Hork & Anne M.
Sullivan, 29 Nov 1922; Clerk of the District Court, Butte.
[2] Los
Angeles Co, California, Certificate of birth, no. 8349, Ethel Lorene Hork,
1923; imaged, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G9SF-D7DD
: accessed 6 Jun 2026), IGN 005585091, image 1526 of 3147.
[3] Cyril
Willis Hork, Statement of Service (Library Bureau 25-1533), service no. 1736455;
World War I: Enlisted Personnel, 1885-1951, U.S. Navy; National Personnel
Records Center, St. Louis, Missouri.
[4] “Historical
General Population: City & County of Los Angeles, 1850-2020,” Los
Angeles Almanac (https://www.laalmanac.com/population/po02.php
: accessed 6 Jun 2026).
California was the land of dreams from the Gold Rush onward. Everyone seemed to think life would be better there. My husband's family left OK for So. Cal. just as WWII began.
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