The 1940 Census – Part 1

The genealogy community is buzzing. There’s only 1 year left before we’ll have access to the 1940 United States Federal Census. Like everyone else, I’m already trying to think about where my ancestors were at the time the census was taken.

MOORE SIDE

William L Moore & Llewellyn Thorward-Moore: These two should be at their house on Park Avenue in Caldwell NJ. This census year will be the first that my Grandpa shows up on.

Robert J Moore Jr: I expect him to be at the Moore household on Myrtle Avenue in Caldwell NJ. I don’t know if his aunt, Mary J Moore is still alive at the time of the census. According to the notes I have, she died in 1940. He was living with her on Myrtle Avenue in 1930. This census will also be crucial for me because I’m unaware of the year Robert J Moore Jr married his wife. It will be interesting to see if I can find a marriage record when I’m in New Jersey, or if I’ll finally fill that blank spot when the census is released.

Marion S Moore: Robert and William’s sister was still living in Brooklyn in 1930. According to the SSDI, her last known residence was in Suffolk County, New York. Without an index, this one might be waiting for a long, holiday weekend! There is no doubt in my mind Marion’s family was living on Long Island.

William H Moore Jr: William was last living in Essex County, NJ with his wife and three daughters. The daughters are of marriagable age by 1940, so I’m going to guess I’ll be looking for marriage records for them before I find them on the census.

John R Moore: John was living in Brooklyn in 1930 with his wife and daughter. So I’ll be looking for them on the same long weekend as Marion Moore-Schroeder.

Note: William H Moore Jr and John R Moore are the siblings of Mary J Moore and Robert James Moore Sr. Mary died in 1940 and Robert in 1925. I don’t have death dates for either brother. It’s possible they had already passed away. I just don’t know yet.


THORWARD SIDE

Lewis and Jennie Thorward: Lewis and Jennie Thorward will be living at 75 Westville Avenue in Caldwell NJ. I know his because that was their home for their whole marriage. Lewis didn’t die until 1946, after which Jennie lived above the meat market before living with her daughter Llewellyn. [1. Grandpa Moore for the first part, Dad for the second] In 1949 she is in the city directory and listed as living at the same address as the business.

George W Thorward: Llewellyn’s brother will be in Caldwell somewhere. I do know he lived on Overlook Rd from Grandpa and the 1949 city directory. So I’ll try there first.

Frank Thorward: Frank will be found living on Washburn Place. He is listed at the same address in 1949 that I found him at in 1930.

Robert M Thorward: The great grandfather of my distant cousin Brent! He married his wife in 1939, so I will find him with his new wife Laura Alice Whitehorne.

Raymond Thorward: I don’t have much information on Raymond. I know he married from his tombstone, but I don’t know the year. It will be interesting to see where he turns up in 1940.

Note: Neither Robert or Raymond are found in the 1949 Caldwell city directory. I’ll have to check for them in a surrounding city.

Dora Thorward-Plume: Most likely I will find Dora and her husband, Leslie, living on Slocum Avenue in Englewood NJ. They are living at the same address since the 1910 Census. Leslie was a plumber by trade. They ran their business out of their home from what I can tell.

Vivian Plume-Westervelt: Vivian is the daughter of Dora and Leslie. She had been married for close to 10 years already in 1930, so I don’t know if much will change for her and her husband. They were living near her parents in Bergen County, NJ. Charles VanBuskirk Westervelt was the owner of a Garage and she was the secretary.

George and Josephine Thorward: Sadly this is the last census for both George and his wife. Actually, 1930 might have been the last one for George. I only have death years for this couple, which bothers me! Their death records are #1 on my to do list when I am in New Jersey. I know George died in 1940 and Josephine in 1942.

This was great fun and stay tuned for the rest as the time ticks down!

Mysterious Ancestors

I’ve been so disorganized in the last few weeks. I recognize now that’s why I don’t feel like I’ve gotten anything accomplished. However, I have many hours of television on my DVR to catch up on and a few hours to spare. So I’m taking that time to sit down and look over some of my current mysteries. I’m on a Mays family hiatus, in case you were wondering. That two death certificates thing just through me completely off my game.

George Yohn / George Thorward

Okay, he’s my biggest mystery. I’ve discussed him with myself and others many times since I had my latest breakthrough. Here are the facts about George Thorward.

  1. He is most definitely George Thorward through my Great-Great Grandfather’s life. I don’t have Lewis’ birth or death records but as our family is most notably Thorward, I’ve got to assume we’re Thorwards.
  2. In the 1900 and 1910 censuses they ask for year of Immigration. George answered 1865[1. 1910 United States Census; Caldwell, Essex, New Jersey; ED 156; Dwelling: 38, Family: 39;] and 1867[1. 1900 United States Census; Caldwell, Essex, New Jersey; ED 215; Dwelling: 133, Family: 145;].
  3. There was no George Thorward in 1870 Caldwell, New Jersey.
  4. There was a George Yohn living next door to Josephine Doremus in 1870. George Thorward’s wife, whom he married in 1871.
  5. I found a marriage record for George Yohn and Josephine Doremus on the New Jersey Archives website.
  6. George Thorward was in the tobacco business his whole life. George Yohn is listed as a cigar maker’s apprentice in 1870.[3. 1870 United States Census; Caldwell, Essex, New Jersey; Dwelling: 118, Family: 134;]

The things I’m doing to resolve this problem:

  1. I sent away for the marriage record between George Yohn and Josephine Doremus to see what it says.
  2. I’m making a list of the dates of all these Caldwell/Essex County events so that if I get a chance in July, I’ll be ready to go to the local library in New Jersey.

William H Moore

William Moore runs a very close second to George Thorward when it comes to mysteries. Here’s what I know about him:

  1. He first shows up in 1870 census in Chicago with his wife and oldest three children[4. 1870 United States Census; Chicago Ward 9, Cook, Illinois; Dwelling: 1570, Family 2102;]. My Great-Great Grandfather isn’t born until 1871.
  2. Through city directories I know that William lived in Chicago from 1866 to 1870. This might explain why Cook County didn’t have a record of Robert’s birth in 1871.
  3. He immigrated to the United States in either 1858 or 1859[5. 1900 United States Census; Brooklyn Ward 25, Kings, New York; ED 441; Dwelling: 115, Family 252;] [6. 1910 United States Census; Brooklyn Ward 25, Kings, New York; ED 696; Dwelling: 241, Family: 461;]
  4. In 1920, William and his daughter Mary are living at 7 Myrtle Ave in Caldwell, New Jersey.[7. 1920 United States Census; Caldwell, Essex, New Jersey; ED 22; Dwelling: 366, Family: 382;]
  5. I found dates of death penciled onto the back of the Brooklyn Cemetery deed. William’s is given as July 28, 1928.
  6. Caldwell, New Jersey, July 28, 1928 did not return a record when I sent away for it.
  7. I don’t know if his wife immigrated at the same time as him or if they married after. She died in 1896, before the immigration question on the census.

What I need to do to solve his mysteries?

  1. I need to fill the gaps between his estimated birth of 1836 and 1870. His daughter Mary was born in 1865 in New York. His next child was born in 1868 in Chicago.
  2. When I go to look up things in New Jersey, I have to check myself to see if he did in fact die in Caldwell or some other part of Essex County.
  3. I want to find an obituary for him to see if it mentions anything about his early life.
  4. I should look in New York and see if there is a marriage record for him and his wife, Mary.
  5. I should also look and see if there is a naturalization record for him. In 1910, he says he is a naturalized citizen. There should be a record of it somewhere. I just don’t know if his very generic name will be a road block.

Sources

Verification is Wonderful

Ever since I started this journey into genealogy, I’ve learned something new everyday. It’s wonderful to learn so many different things. Whether it be a technique to searching the census or what exactly a Sawyer is. One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned in genealogy is to verify, verify, verify. I’m still learning all the different types of sources you can use to learn millions of different facts.

Awhile back, I found my William H Moore in a Chicago city directory. In fact, I found him in Chicago directories for the years 1866 through 1870.

Above is William‘s household in the 1870 US Census [1. 1870 United State Census, Chicago Ward 9, Cook County, Illinois; p. 248, family 1570, dwelling 2102, lines 25-29; July 7, 1850; National Archives Microfilm M593 , Roll 204.] It wasn’t until today that I had the idea to use the city directory on Footnote.com to verify that the William in this census is the same William in the city directory. Without some kind of verification, how would I ever be sure that my William was in fact living at 56 Foster all those years ago.

I’m happy to report that he is![2. J.H. and C.M Goodsell, Publishers, Printers & Stationers (1869), City Directory – Chicago, page 55 & 629.] I checked the neighbor right above, and the neighbor right below. In fact, the neighbor right below is also listed at 56 Foster. A little strange since the dwelling number goes up between their households. Maybe this was an apartment or duplex? I tried going for more neighbors but their surnames are a little harder to interpret then the Atzel and Pullver families were. I’ll try again later though!

Now I wonder what I can figure out now that I know his address!

Tech Tuesday: Slide Updates

I hope everyone reading this had a very, merry Christmas! I’ve been enjoying a few new gadgets. The first gadget I got was a slide viewer that I mentioned earlier this month. I found a few slides that I really wish I could get prints of. They were of my Aunt Diane and some of their family photos. The problem was, I didn’t know what to do. So I went to Google and it brought me up a few options. One of them didn’t cost me a penny!

It turned out that my mother’s scanner has a slide scanner template built into the top. All I had to do was slide the placeholder off and slide my slides in. Then hit the button for film scan. This method will also work for negatives! So if you have a scanner, take a second to study the inside of it’s lid. You might have this feature too! Pressing the film scan button brought up the software that came with the scanner where I could choose between a negative or positive/slide.

Now I can share these photos with my family on Facebook, and I can print them out and frame them for individuals!

I really can’t wait to dig in and see what other treasures I find. It’s really difficult to find pictures of my aunts and dad when they were younger. It’s even more difficult to find pictures of their brother Stevie, who is no longer with us.

By the way, for my regular readers, the house Dad’s family is posing in is in fact the Park Avenue house. There are a bunch of inside shots among the slides!

Those Places Thursday: Park Avenue House

One of the places that I often think about is the house on Park Avenue. Anytime we have a family get together, this house always comes up. Everyone on my dad’s side of the family has memories of this house. Whether it be the layout of the house, the renovations done, or the way the porch was screened in during the winter. Unfortunately, I don’t have any memories of the house. So I soak up any information that people give to me about the house. Now I just have to remember to type it all up and keep it in my files for later.

Park Avenue house, October 2010.

We even drove by the house when we were in Caldwell in October for my cousin’s wedding. Though it looks different, I can recognize much of the original house just by looking at it. (Thanks to my sister for getting the picture!)

Park Avenue house.

Even when people contact me about the family tree, they ask me about this house. I don’t think people love this house because of it’s floor plan or windows. I think people loved the people who lived in this house.

Park Avenue house.

The more I research William and Llewellyn, the more I see that they were well loved by everyone around them. When I first started researching genealogy, I was just soaking up the facts and collecting dates. It’s different now. Now I’m learning about the people. I’m seeing the full scope of things. I’m learning why I am the way I am. Not only that, but I’m learning why my ancestors where the way they were.

July 1931, Park Avenue house.

I have a lot of pictures and documents that pertain to this house. Including all the documents from when William and Llewellyn bought the house. I’ll share those with you another day though.

Park Avenue house.

Would it be weird to knock on the door and ask to come in for a looksie?

Those Places Thursday is a blogging theme being used by GeneaBloggers, it was originally started by Cheryl Palmer at Heritage Happens!

Wednesday Fun!

Thanks for your opinions on my dilemma yesterday! Both on twitter and in the comments. 🙂 I decided to have a little fun today before I got started on work and last minute wrapping for Christmas.

I’ve been catching up on The Generations Project. I’ve been recording it on my DVR for the last few weeks and I’ve finally found some time to catch up. While I was watching, I realized I’d like to see if there were previous episodes available to view online (there is!). While I was there, I decided to do some of the fun activities they have on their site. I usually skip by those things but for some reason I decided to do them this time. As a website designer I really want to make more of an effort to view bells and whistles on other websites so I can learn more!

Make Your Own Family Pedigree

The first activity was to make your own family photo tree! This was really fun for me. The only thing I wanted was one more generation because I actually have photos that far back! Very fun, In fact, I might even try printing this out at some point and framing it for my wall! Why not, right?

Make your Family Crest.

The second activity was to make your own family crest. I chose the cell phone and book as our symbols because that’s what we usually talk about. Books and gadgets! The rest were picked as personal preferences by me. 🙂

There was also a lookalike activity that I did not do. I have phobias about people looking at my picture and judging it. You should try it if you don’t have that phobia though! The activities were definitely fun to play with though! Try it yourself at The Generations Project on byu.tv.

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with BYU or The Generations Project. I was just wanting to play with stuff and their stuff was there for the taking. I don’t own any of the images except my own personal family photos.

Treasure Chest Thursday: 44 Years of Kodak

Note: I don’t mean to show a bias towards Kodak. It is strictly coincidence that I found this after my Tech Tuesday post. Except I don’t believe in coincidences, so it’s really one of those crazy freaky things that follows me around. Again, I am not being compensated by Kodak for this post.

I had photos on the brain yesterday. I was actually sorting through some of my scanned photos trying to decide if I was going to rescan the last batch at a higher DPI. That’s when I remembered this box in the spare room. It’s there with a suitcase full of sympathy cards that were sent to Llewellyn after William‘s death.

I remember opening this up before but I think I was too busy pouring over documents. I probably saw that these were negatives of some sort and decided to check later if they were negatives of pictures I already had. I should have been tipped off to the fact that these were kept separately.

So yesterday, I started going through the box. It was then I realized these were slides and not negatives. Or are they negatives that are mounted as slides? Is that the same thing. This shows you how much I know about these things. Obviously I need to do a bit more research.

On this box I noticed a name that I found on the back of a photo. Gladys Walker. I’m almost certain that Gladys Walker is a relation who lived in the Detroit area. This all feels more likely to me because I found Detroit written on the back of some photos and Ralph Leonard even spent a few years there. If there was family there, then Ralph’s brief time there is better explained.

It was when I stuck one of the slides into this that I realized I could possibly have more pictures than I thought.

I’ve got a lot of pictures. There is one big batch of a trip to Florida. So I’m thinking these slides could be from William and Llewellyn’s travels. My father says they traveled around a bit. Unfortunately, the light is broken in the viewer that I found in the box. I’m putting a new one on my Christmas wish list and I’m hoping that my slides will fit into a new one.

If that’s the case, I have a lot of slides to go through.

This box says Moore and 86 Park Avenue. So I’m now positive these slides are William and Llewellyn’s. The date of 1966 gives me a time frame that pretty much matches the photos I have of Llewellyn and William in Florida.

There’s a lot of Kodak in that box. I’ve used Kodak for 10 years myself. It was my first digital camera. It’s kind of comforting when I find these things in my family tree. I’ve grown up without a lot of family around me. So I never really felt a lot of connections to the past. Which is probably why I am a literal sponge when my grandma gave me that family tree. I remember distinctly being amazed that you could actually know your family back that far.

Now that I know my Dad’s side of the family, it’s amazing all the different things I find that link me to things. Just finding a box full of Kodak slides made me giddy. Like I had yet another connection to these people I’m learning were a lot like me. So that’s at least 44 years of Kodak history in our family, it’s kind of a nice feeling.

Home Again

We made it back from our weekend trip to Jersey. It was touch and go for a little bit, but we made it a little after midnight. I’ve been to very few weddings in my lifetime. It comes from living all by ourselves down here in Maryland. So I walked into this with my mind wide open.

View outside my hotel room.

Then I wondered if it was fate or my cousin was just being the smart alec he’s always been. The hotel where wedding guests were staying was right next to a huge cemetery. It might have freaked a few people out but I couldn’t help but wonder what the oldest date in the cemetery was.

The wedding didn’t start until 2pm on Sunday. That left us with some extra time. We decided to take a small road trip to Dad’s hometown, Caldwell. We drove around seeing all the old houses. Then we decided to go to the cemetery.

Lindsley plot. Prospect Hill Cemetery.

I have only been to Prospect Hill Cemetery once before. I didn’t have a camera at the time. So I never got pictures of the graves myself. Luckily, I’ve had a lot of people that have sent me numerous pictures over the years. It never tops actually going yourself though. Especially because I’m going to use Google Earth to map out where the separate plots were in the cemetery. I didn’t expect them to be so spread out from each other!

Leonard plot. Prospect Hill Cemetery.

Walking around the cemetery, I could definitely see that I’ll have to go back in jeans and sneakers. I only walked about half the cemetery but I did find a Love ancestor I didn’t previously have. Grace Love-Leonard. After walking around a bit, we got in the car and headed to the wedding. My sister summed it up perfectly when she posted to her Facebook while I was walking around the cemetery. “We’re dressed for a wedding and end up walking around a cemetery. Only our family.” My sister had one part wrong though, it’s not only our family! It’s just a genealogy thing!

Things I’ve Learned

I am halfway through a 7 day free trial with Footnote.com. I’m trying to make the most of the collections that aren’t free since I can’t afford right now to have a second subscription website. These are the things I’ve learned so far:

City Directories aka The reason I get up early every morning this week.

  • William Wallace Love was not still living in Newark at the time of his wife’s death in 1890. They had to have moved to Roseland at the time.
  • I have listings for William W Love, grocer, for 1875 through 1884.
  • Some years there is a listing for Love Bros grocery. There was never an ad, but that would have been interesting!
  • William H Moore was not listed in Brooklyn in 1865. His daughter is born in New York in 1865, so they must have lived in another borough before their move to Chicago.
  • William H Moore has always been very consistent with the use of his middle initial. This is made funnier because I know how insistent my Dad is on using his. They wouldn’t have to do that if they’d stop naming their boys William! 🙂
  • William H Moore lived at 56 Foster for the majority of his time in Chicago, which was from 1866 to 1870.
  • I couldn’t find a listing for him in 1871 Chicago. This could be why Cook County couldn’t find a birth record for Robert James Moore in 1871. Maybe they moved out of the city? I’m going to try lining up his location with the Chicago fire and see if he would have been effected, though now I see he might have already left Chicago.
William H Moore, 1869. Chicago.

Military Records

  • I was able to find out what happened to Marguerite Wambough’s husband, Lt. Frank A Greene. I found a newspaper article on him and talk about it in this post.
  • I was able to get a much clearer copy of Bartholomew Taylor’s Revolutionary War Pension Request, which I transcribed here.
1st Lt Arnold Mullins account of Lt Frank A Greene being shot down
Batholomew Taylor Rev War Pension Request

Oh well, We all get them

I knew I was tempting fate. Did that stop me? Of course not. It was so simple the first time, surely the second time would prove just as simple, right?

I know where I went wrong. I didn’t find this record in any index before sending away for it. I was hoping a scribbled date on the back of a cemetery deed was enough. I assumed he died in Brooklyn since he lived there for over 30 years. That’s where assuming things get you! I’ll just file this one in my paper records right next to the one from Chicago. That one let me know they didn’t have a record of his birth in Cook County for Robert. They checked 1870-1872 and found nothing. These are the breaks, I’ll keep looking! If he didn’t die in Brooklyn, he must have died in New Jersey. I’ll have to check directories and other things to see if there is any record of him in Caldwell between 1920 and 1925.