Monday, April 30, 2012

Motivation Monday - 4th Month Goal Update

Speeding bullet?  Powerful locomotive?  Nope, that was just April whizzing by ... really really fast.  I'm a little scared to see how I did ...

1. Obtain the addresses, birth dates, and anniversary dates for all of my first cousins on both sides of my family … and names and birth dates of spouses and children. Oh and all my half siblings’ spouses and kids too.
Yep, still working on this one. 

2. Attend at least five (5) Scanfests (or equivalent) this year - and actually scan stuff.
Hooray!!  I got a Scanfest under my belt finally!  I managed to scan about 65 photos on Sunday.

3. Scan and label at least 15 photos and/or negatives each week, or until they are done, whichever happens first.
See #2 above.  And that, my friends, is the last of the photos from "the box."  I did a little happy dance, there.  Did you see?

4. Attend at least two (2) genealogy conferences.
I already registered and made my hotel reservations for FGS in Birmingham in August.  I'm also planning on attending the Family History Expo in Atlanta in November.

5. Give at least two (2) presentations to my genealogical society.
Still trying to decide on my next topic, but it looks like I will be presenting in October.

6. Index at least 200 records per month at FamilySearch Indexing.
I have officially punched through the 1,000 mark since April 1, and there's still plenty more to index.  So I'm feeling pretty confident about this one.

7. Add at least five (5) individual ancestor stories to my website.
Added one ancestor this month: Christina Ann Huber Slowey.  That makes 2 so far.

8. Blog at least twice per week.
Not including this post, I only have 6 for April.  I guess I slacked off a bit this month.  

9. Finish reading Greenwood's "The Researcher's Guide to American Genealogy."
I read and attended the book club for Chapters 15 and 16 last week.  I've started reading Chapters 17 and 18.  Only 9 more chapters to go!

10. Add at least three (3) website links per week to my online toolbox.
The "pending" folder is completely empty.  I recently added some Irish and Canadian resources from a couple of webinars.

I'm proud of my progress with indexing (I'm no Bill West, but I'll take what I can get), but the rest of the list could certainly use some work.  I admit, I had a bit of a hard time focusing for the past couple of weeks.  I think it was part spring fever and part recuperation from sleep deprivation.  In any case, I plan to will do much better in May!


Do we share any ancestors?
Please email me at lostancestors [at] gmail [dot] com

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Ancestor Spotlight: Christina Ann Huber Slowey 1895-1982


Christina Ann Huber Slowey is my great grandmother.  Her page can be found here.

Christina Ann Huber was born on 30 Sep 1895 in Yankton, Yankton Co., South Dakota.  She was baptized on 20 Oct 1895 at St. Columba Parish in Yankton, Yankton Co., South Dakota.  She is the second of six children born to Joseph E. and Emma T. (Rothmeyer) Huber. In 1914 Anna received her teaching certificate from Yankton College and worked as a Rural Schoolteacher in Yankton, South Dakota.  She continued working as a schoolteacher and lived with her parents and siblings in Yankton Co., South Dakota until 1917 when she married Thomas Patrick Slowey.

Anna and Tom were married on 17 Apr 1917 in Yankton, Yankton, South Dakota.  Tom is the son of John Charles and Theresa (Burns) Slowey. They remained in Yankton Co., South Dakota - in Mayfield until 1932, then Utica until 1944 when they ultimately settled down at 812 Douglas Avenue in Yankton.

The couple had six children: Elinor, Vernon G. ("Bud"), Claire Maxine, Lois, Rita, and Richard Raymond ("Dickie").

Tom passed away in 1963. Anna lived in Yankton until she died from cerebral thrombosis due to cerebral arteriosclerosis on 28 Nov 1982 at the age of 87 at Sacred Heart Hospital.  She is buried at Sigel Cemetery in Yankton.


Do we share any ancestors?
Please email me at lostancestors [at] gmail [dot] com

Sunday, April 08, 2012

The NOTE-orious Enumerators

I thought it was a big deal when someone was able to find an ancestor who was lucky enough to end up on one of the two lines per page on the 1940 census that led to the supplemental questions.  It is a big deal, but the enumerators for EDs 68-18 and 68-19 in South Dakota blew those supplemental questions out of the water.


The enumerator for 68-18 was a note-maker.  It's not uncommon to see random notes in the margins on the census records.  But these take the cake.  It all started out innocently enough on page 1B - something had to be crossed out and then an explanation was required:
Then again on page 2A:
On page 8A, the enumerator was making notes about families who were absent (obviously not wanting to forget to put them on page 61A):
On page 61A, the enumerator even made notes regarding the transients:
This enumerator didn't want to miss anything!


The enumerator for ED 68-19 was even more prolific than the first one - starting with page 2A:

Page 5A includes a sort of treasure map:
And anyone researching the Schleyter surname will be glad to know that this enumerator felt compelled to make a note that the person on line 59 was using a stage name:
There's even a touch of geography:

Even a bit of family history and future-telling:
With a little employment and citizenship history thrown in:
And sometimes had to explain why they didn't get their information face-to-face:

Now, it should come as no surprise that these two enumerators had something in common.  Have you figured out what it is yet?  They were WOMEN.  These two lovely women - Juanita Savage and Geneva Williams - made it possible for us to know just a little bit more about the people in their districts.  Thank you, ladies.


Just remember: always read the notes in the margins of the census pages.  You never know what you might find out about your ancestors!







Do we share any ancestors? 
Please email me at lostancestors [at] gmail [dot] com

Where Were My Grandparents in 1940?

It wasn't easy.  But it wasn't that hard either.  There are so many awesome tools out there specifically designed to help you find your ancestors on the 1940 census without an index that using several of these tools and a little common sense allowed me to find all four of my grandparents by the 4th day after the census was released.


I'll start with my maternal side:


John Joseph Gallagher - He was easy to find, and the first one I found.  He is 15 years old, living with his adoptive parents Walter W. and Ruth (Burrows) Gallagher in Ridgefield, Bergen County, New Jersey.  He was born in New York and has completed one year of high school.  Walter was the Chief of Police in Ridgefield (which made it pretty easy to find the family!).  I emailed a copy of the page to my mom when I found it, and she started telling me about how Jimmy Hulbert (line 3) was my Grampa's best friend, and that Claire Hall (line 5) used to let them play with her old prom dresses when my mom was little - which was a significant period of time after this census.  The Zlotnicks (lines 17-20) ended up merging with our family when the daughter, Gloria, married my maternal grandmother's brother.  There's also a story that Bernard Zlotnick was in the Navy during World War II and was MIA in the Bermuda Triangle.  (Obviously, something I need to follow up on!)  Incidentally, rumor has it that Bernard's mother received the money from his life insurance - somewhere in the neighborhood of $30,000 - and never cashed the check because she always thought he was still alive.
This is a recent photo of 672 Virgil Avenue in Ridgefield, NJ:


Mary Lucile Crowe - She is 14 years old, single (shocker!), living in Indianapolis, Indiana with her parents, Harold John and Lucille (Stiker) Crowe.  She has completed 8 years of school.  Their address is 2133 Madison Avenue, and they paid $20/month in rent (which equates to around $307 today).  Harold is listed as a mechanic in a garage.  I suppose I'll have to do some research on that - I thought he was working as an engine inspector for Allison Division of GM since 1939.  I had quite the time finding them because they were renters.  The last address I had for them was on S. State Street in 1936.  I finally found their 1940 address by looking through the city directories on Ancestry.  Charles Crowe (line 6) is the one who married Gloria Zlotnick above.
Here is the house on Madison Avenue.  I'm pretty sure it's changed a little:


Now for my paternal side:


Edward John Lanctot - I found three generations on this page!  Ed is 18 years old, living with his widowed mother Alice (Schneider) Lanctot and widowed grandmother Mary Alice (Egan) Schneider at 705 Pine Street in Yankton, South Dakota.  He has completed high school and is working as a truck driver for a grocery company.  He worked for 20 weeks and made $120 in 1939.  He worked 77 hours during the week of March 24-30, 1940 - such a go-getter!  His mother worked in a produce house "dressing poultry" for 18 weeks in 1939 and made $191.  His sister, however, worked as a stenographer for Production Credit.  During 1939, she worked 52 weeks and made $1,080.  She worked 54 hours the week of March 24-30.  


Clare Maxine Slowey - She was the hardest to find.  I knew thought I knew she lived in Utica Township, Yankton County, South Dakota in 1939 (she won that beauty contest and it was in the paper), and I know that her father lived in Utica in 1941 (it says so on his SS application).  So where the heck did they go between 1939 and 1940??  I looked in all the EDs for Utica.  I even checked the state hospital for the insane.  You know, just in case.  Nada.  I decided to give my Gramma a call (I'm so totally lucky that I can still do that!).  Unfortunately, she couldn't remember exactly where they lived in 1940, but she was pretty sure it was Utica.  So ... back to the unindexed records I went.  I found an historic map of Yankton County to see the relationship between all the townships.  One by one, I downloaded the appropriate EDs for each area, working outward from Utica to the north, east, south, and west.  I finally located the family in Central Township (T 95, R 56)!


My grandmother is listed with her parents, Thomas Patrick and Christina Anna (Huber) Slowey, and four siblings.  She is shown to be 17 years old and completed 4 years of high school (she graduated in 1939).  The family was living on a farm in a rented house, and it looks like they were paying $6/month in rent.  This is the only census in which my grandmother's youngest brother Richard Raymond "Dickie" Slowey would appear.  He died from leukemia at the age of 6.
Wait.  What's that?  My 21-year-old granduncle, Vernon "Bud" Slowey, is on Line 5 and gets the supplemental questions!  FINALLY!!  Unfortunately, it really doesn't tell me anything I didn't already know.  He is not yet a veteran (but will be in a few years), he is a private worker on a farm (his family's), and he has a social security number.


So far, I've managed to locate 22 of the 37 families on my list.  Not too bad for less than a weeks' work.  Now that I've found my grandparents though, the rest of my day will be spent indexing.




Do we share any ancestors?
Please email me at lostancestors [at] gmail [dot] com

Tuesday, April 03, 2012

The 1940 Census and a Plethora of Twerps

Over the last roughly 48 hours, genealogists and non-genealogists alike have been flooding the Archives.gov website trying to get a glimpse of the 1940 census.  Due to some glitches with the NARA website and the wait time for the images to be ready for indexing on FamilySearch, a lot of folks took to the Twitterverse.  I woke up Tuesday morning and noticed that #1940census was trending!  I was so excited!  Then I started reading some of the tweets ...


It didn't take me long to realize that a lot of young people simply had no idea that there even WAS a 1940 census, much less that it was being released after 72 years.


Here are a few that made me scratch my head (and gives some insight into the minds - or lack thereof - of America's youth):


But some of these folks actually have a sense of humor:


... and it appears some of the might even be aware of current events:


I'm just glad that a genealogy-related topic is finally trending on Twitter!  And I have to say I'm a little troubled at the apparent ignorance of these Twerps, but I am particularly troubled by the language people choose, especially when they are limited to 140 characters.






Do we share any ancestors?
Please email me at lostancestors [at] gmail [dot] com

Monday, April 02, 2012

Who Did I Find First on the 1940 Census?

As I am typing this, it is noon on April 2, 2012.  I thought I would be indexing all day today (and took the day off to be sure I could do just that), but apparently the images won't be available for indexing until later this afternoon.  Instead I decided to utilize the hours of prep work I did to search for some of the people on my list.


I have a total of 37 people/families in 16 different enumeration districts to locate on the 1940 census.  Shouldn't take more than a couple of hours, right?  WRONG!


To be fair, I knew the NARA servers would be overloaded and very slow.  With all the hype, how could it be any other way?  Another reason I took the day off from work.  (It is entirely on principle that I am not doing any searching on Ancestry today).


In the last 3 hours since the census images were officially released, I have managed to download one enumeration district, for Mayfield, Yankton Co., South Dakota.  In that one district, I found 4 people on my list.


The first person I located was my 2nd great grandmother, Theresa (Burns) Slowey, on page 4A, line 19.  


She is listed as a 74-year-old widow with a 5th grade education, living with her son Clarence (also the informant), his wife, and their 5 children.  She was living in the same house in 1935.  Clarence has an 8th grade education and is listed as a farmer.  He is also listed as having been employed in non-emergency government work during the week of March 24-30, and having received more than $50 in income other than wages/salary.  I wonder what that was.


(There is also a Nate B. Slowey listed on line 32, but I have no idea who this person is.  A little mystery I get to solve, I suppose!)


I also found Clarence's brother Clement listed on page 7A, line 22, with his wife and son.  He has an 8th grade education and is listed as a farm laborer.  He is also listed as having been employed in non-emergency government work and receiving more than $50 in incoming other than wages/salary.


Another relative, Peter Slowey, was found on page 6A, line 28.  He only has a 3rd grade education and is listed as a farmer.  His wife, Maud (Cook), is on line 29, which means she gets to answer the supplementary questions.  She's the only one I have found so far who falls into that category.  I know that this is her first marriage and she married at age 34, and her parents were both born in South Dakota.  Unfortunately, that's all these supplemental questions tell me.  I suppose it is much more fortuitous if the persons on lines 14 and 29 are male veterans who are employed.


So I have a few questions to answer: (1) Who is Nate B. Slowey and does he fit into my tree somehow? (2) What is this "other" income of $50+?  (3) What falls into the category of "non-emergency government work?"


Now ... to formulate a proper citation for these records.  That may take the rest of the day.




Do we share any ancestors? Please email me at lostancestors [at] gmail [dot] com

Motivation Monday - 3rd Month Goal Update

So here we are, a quarter of the way into this year.  Let's see how I'm doing on my goals.


1. Obtain the addresses, birth dates, and anniversary dates for all of my first cousins on both sides of my family … and names and birth dates of spouses and children. Oh and all my half siblings’ spouses and kids too.
Still working on this one.  I never realized how hard it is to get people to respond.  I don't get it.

2. Attend at least five (5) Scanfests (or equivalent) this year - and actually scan stuff.
March Scanfest got canceled, so I guess I'll shoot for April.  I will have to go to at least every other month's Scanfest for the rest of the year to meet my goal.  And I know August is already out (see #4).

3. Scan and label at least 15 photos and/or negatives each week, or until they are done, whichever happens first.
I didn't scan one single photo or negative this month.  Oh wait.  I did scan 2 photo postcards for a blog post.

4. Attend at least two (2) genealogy conferences.
I have confirmed that I will be attending FGS in Birmingham this year (woohoo!). Also planning on attending the Family History Expo in Atlanta in November.

5. Give at least two (2) presentations to my genealogical society.
Still trying to decide on my 2nd topic, and when I will present it.

6. Index at least 200 records per month at FamilySearch Indexing.
Well, I indexed 50 records this month.  I fully intend to make up for all of my shortcomings on April 2.
7. Add at least five (5) individual ancestor stories to my website.
Added one ancestor this month: Charles C. Crowe.

8. Blog at least twice per week.
I have a total of 14 blog posts for the month of March.  Goal met!

9. Finish reading Greenwood's "The Researcher's Guide to American Genealogy."
I finished chapter 15 this month, but the SL Book Club won't review that chapter until later in April.

10. Add at least three (3) website links per week to my online toolbox.
I have managed to keep the "pending" folder relatively cleaned out.  I have added links from some webinars I've taken in the past several weeks.  There are a few still in there from a recent webinar, but I expect to get those done this week.

Hmm.  Not exactly noteworthy, but at least it's still forward-moving, right?  I can't make any promises for April because of the 1940 census, but hopefully by the end of the month, I will have found everyone I needed to find and can get back to focusing on my goals.



Do we share any ancestors? 

Please email me at lostancestors [at] gmail [dot] com