My Trails into the Past

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: It's  Saturday Night  again - time for some more  Genealogy Fun!! Our mission from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing , is to: 1)  How many people in your country had your four grandparents exact last names at birth in the 1940 U.S. Census?  [Note, if you're playing and not in the U.S., pick an appropriate database in your country.]  What about your spouse's grandparents last names at birth? 2) List each last name at birth and the number of persons in the 1940 U.S. Census using an exact surname match.   3)  Have you performed a "one-name search" for any of those last names and added them to do family tree? Here's mine: My four grandparents are: Hork, Sullivan, Johnston, Lancaster. Hork = 292 Sullivan = 142,354 Johnston = 90,330 Lancaster = 18,212 I was not surprised by the total for HORK, but that is a huge number for SULLIVAN, even more than JOHNSTON. Of course, if the name was JOHNSON, it ...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: It's  Saturday Night  again - Time for some more  Genealogy Fun!!   Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing has our assignment today: Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!): 1) Determine where your ancestral families were on 1 April 1940 - 80 years ago when the U.S. census was taken. 2)  List them, their family members, their birth years, and their residence location (as close as possible).  Do you have a photograph of their residence from about that time, and does the residence still exist? 3) Tell us all about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a Facebook Status post. Here's mine: 1.   My father, William J. Hork , was living with his mother, Anne Hork , and three older sisters, Lorene, Virginia, and June, in San Bernardino County, California. She was renting, paying $20 per month. [1] His father, William C. Hork , ...

In the early days of searching the 1940 census, California was one of the states available on Ancestry.  My husband and I searched through several Sacramento enumeration districts (EDs) for his father, thinking that he was already living in California on April 1, 1940.  He worked at McClellan Airfield before World War II as an aircraft mechanic.  However, we did not find him living with Mrs Hansen at her boarding house. Next we searched the home of his parents, and there we found him. 1940 Federal Census, Jasper Co, Missouri, ED 49-33, sht 11a George is on the right George's father, Joseph N Gorrell can be found on line 10.  The family lived at 502 South Pennsylvania Street in Webb City.   Joseph owned his home, worked as a shopman for the utility company, was married and attended 8 years of school. We found George, age 25, completed 4 years of high school, working at a floorman at garage.  We have a photo of George in front of the service st...

It took a while to find, first waiting for Ancestry to put San Bernardino Co, CA online, but after searching through 35 pages of Cucamonga (ED 36-36), I found my father! Cucamonga, San Bernardino Co, California, ED 36-36, p 472 They were not at the address I expected (278 San Bernardino Ave) but rather at 236 East Foothill Blvd.  Luckily for me, they were still in the same Enumeration District. What did I learn from this census?  My grandmother was working in a cafe as a waitress.  She finished 4 years of college.  The family lived in Ontario, San Bernardino Co, CA in 1935.  She worked 46 hours in the week, worked 52 weeks during the year, and made $650.  Monthly rent was $20.  There is one error:  Anna was not born in California, but rather Montana. My father, William, was 9 years old, and completed grade 4.  I suspect that was the grade he was in at the time of the census.  All of the children were listed as attending school...

It's Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun!! My mission is to: 1) Pick one of the persons from your ancestry who should be in the 1940 United States Census. 2) Using the column headings below (from 1940 United States Census Questions ), predict what the entries will be in each column. 3) Share your predictions on your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a Facebook status or a Google Plus post. I chose my father, William J Hork, who might be living in Rancho Cucamonga, California. this will be my father's first census. He was born Apr 23, 1930, so his mother was very pregnant in the 1930 census. I just missed seeing him by days. * State: California * Populated Place: Rancho Cucamonga * Ward of City: ??? * County: San Bernardino * Township or other division of county: ??? * Block Nos.: ??? * Enumeration District: 36-36 (I hope) 1. Location - street, avenue or road: San Bernardino Ave 2. Location - house num...