I Couldn't Resist!

Was browsing through blog posts this morning in an effort to warm up for the day's work of looking for the family of Jane Williams in the Utica and Troy areas of upstate NY, when, after checking Gennabloggers at http://www.geneabloggers.com/ to find that it was Grab Some Nuts Day, I spotted something that tickled my fancy. Dick Eastman posted to Eastman Online Genealogy Newsletter at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/ that the 1940 US Census was done and Ancestry.com had all states available to look at. Whoop!! I had to go take a minute.

Right off the bat I looked for Mom, who was living at home in Frostburg Maryland with her parents in 1940. There's a lot of information at hand in this census. And the interface is easy and extremely helpful. Whereas on the older census records I'd have to remember what the columns were about, here when you mouse over a helpful box pops up to reveal the heading on the column! I like that.

There's Grandma and Grandpa Williams, Emma and Cambria. They are both 41 years old. Mom is 21 and her sister Dorothy is 19 while her brother is 15. But wait! It says that Mom is single!! And she had married Dad on 31 Aug 1939. Did they keep it secret? I do remember offhand that Mom said that after they were married they each lived with their parents so they could save money for an apartment. Have to ask Mom if it was a secret.

I also notice every one's education level and see that my Aunt Dot was in her first year at college. She'd become a teacher. Uncle Camey was in his first year of high school. I also notice that Grandpa Williams was working as a salesman for a wholesaler. Yeah, that's what he did for all his working life. I also take note that he earned $1300 in the previous year and the most of anyone on that page of the census.

Mom was "looking for work"... and as she readily admits, looking more than finding;) A friend's boyfriend was manager at the 5 and 10 cent store and was pressured into giving Mom a job. I think she said she took advantage of the situation by giving friends stuff from the store or some silliness like that, so she got fired:) Ha!

Wow! That was fun. I'll look up Dad later, but now back to work tracking down those elusive ancestors: the Williams family from Wales, moved to upstate New York, with too many other Williams people... and all using the same given names: William, James, Jane, Elizabeth, Thomas and so on. You know my misery, I know you do!


Picture of the day from my Archive:

Mom, sitting on Dad's parents front porch,

Her birthday, 1942.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2012/08/i-couldnt-resist.html