The 1940 US Census

If you are a genealogist, professional or as a hobby, and you don't know that the 1940 US Census was released to the public on April 2, 2012 - just turn in your membership card now.  Every past census that has been released, has been on microfilm and later digitized.  The 1940 Census will be released in digitized format only and easy to find: Just Google 1940 US Census, and you will find several websites that offer the census free of charge.  The thing about this census is that it has not yet been indexed, in other words you cannot search it by name yet.  You can, however, search by place or by ED (Enumeration District not the other ED).

So I did some searching, I found my wife Katrina's mother in Red Bank at 5 years old, Katrina's father in Shrewsbury at 6 years old, my mother Claire in Jersey City at 14 years old, but man are those Bradys elusive.  The first three, Katrina's parents and my mother, were easy because I knew where they lived.  Dad - well I just don't know,  I have ideas, but have not been successful yet.  In all fairness,  Jersey City is a big city to search if you don't have an idea where your people live in Jersey City - at least a street, hopefully a house number.  If you don't know an approximate address, you have to scroll through probably thousands of pages of census to find your people.

Today I was home and on the computer, and I started checking  our first address on Evergreen Ave in Neptune City and I'll tell you why.  I have been thinking alot lately about how a young family in Jersey City in the 1950's would find a house to move to in a small borough like Neptune City, which is about an hour and change south along the Jersey Shore.  I got my answer by talking to my sisters Pat and Joan and asking them if they knew how it happened.  Both of them said that my father's best friend, Jack Specht, had moved down to Neptune City, and my mom and dad had visited with the kids a couple of times.  One time when they visited, Jack told dad that the woman across the street had her house for sale.  Mom and Dad went across the street and saw the house, fell in love with it and the rest is history.

So, I am on the computer and I decided to  "scroll" through Neptune City in 1940.  It turned out to be almost a "stroll" through the town that I would live in eighteen years later.  The first person I came across was Darwin "Bucky" Glover on Laird Ave.  He was 12 years old at the time and lived with his  siblings and his parents, the records list his father as a boatman.  The reason that his name jumped out at me is that he would later become a Police Sergeant in Neptune City and worked with my brother Paul, when Paul was a Policeman in Neptune City.  He was still working when I worked as a Policeman in Neptune Township (the town next door) so I actually worked many a night shift with "Bucky" Glover before he retired.

Another person I strolled past on my way to my old address, was a man named Forest Cottrell.   He was 39 years old and lived on South Wall St. with his wife Carol, and his children Gloria age 11, Catherine age 10, and Richard age 9.  He jumped out at me because his occupation is listed as Policeman.  I happen to know, from living in the town for about 30 years, that he was the Chief of Police, 9 year old Richard would later become the Chief of Police (when my brother worked there) and I went to grammar school and high school with his (Richard's) son Richard (who would also become a Policeman in Neptune City).

I also came across five year old James Dugan living with his family on Sylvania Ave.  He would also become a Police Sergeant in Neptune City who worked with my brother (I also worked many a shift in Neptune when he was still working).

I finally found my way to the area Evergreen Ave and Steiner Ave where I lived in 1958.  The first person that looking familiar was Richard Ruppel, living with his wife Dorothy and daughters Dorothy, Lorraine, and Barbara.  His occupation was listed as Banker, my memory tells me that he was an accountant.  He and  my dad became friendly later, and his daughter Mary was friends with us growing up.  The other thing about Mr. Ruppel is that I remember his wife as being Isabel, because she was friendly with my mom.  Maybe there was a second marriage but I don't know.  I kinda think that he had something to do with the Board of Education, but I could be wrong.

The other day I was talking to my sisters, and Joan remembered a woman named Carrie who was a nurse and lived a few houses down on Steiner Ave and Third Ave.  Well I found her - Carrie Clayton living with her widowed mother, her sister, and an aunt.

I found the Trimbles living next door at 20 Evergreen Ave, Robert and Nettie and their four children: Annette, June, Lois and Robert Jr.  There was also Mr and Mrs Merkel across the street at 25 Evergreen.  They were both born in Germany, he was a painter and she was a presser, I can remember both of them from my time living there.

Last, but not least, I found our house - but it is listed as 24 Evergreen, instead of 22 Evergreen. Fred and Margaret Slater are listed as the owners and Fred's occupation is listed as Gas Station Attendant.

We had many a memorable moment in that house, but looking back the thing that I remember most about the house was that there was a basement.  In the basement under the stairs was a large safe - I don't think it was locked, but it looked like something out of a bank.   I remember it as being very large, but that may be due to my small stature and large imagination.  There was one other thing that my sister Joan pointed out. When we moved from Jersey City, we lived at 422 Bergen Ave.  We moved to Neptune City and lived at 22 Evergreen Ave.  Joan said that she remembers the house number being painted on the house as 22, but there was an 8 in front of it that was not painted over.  She asked mom about it, and my mother said that it was because we lived on the eighth block from the ocean (the first seven of which are in Bradley Beach).  This could be true because I seem to remember that Bradley Beach and Neptune City were part of the same  town at one point in time.  So my stroll through the 1940 census turned into a history lesson of Small Town USA, and the great town that I grew up in.

Bad News and Good News

I'm sure you've heard the old saying: "I've got good news and bad news, which do you want first?"  Well, in genealogy you hear this every other day.  Remember the obit I was waiting for from the Pottsville Republican and the Shenandoah Evening Herald for Anna Bradley, well I got it in the mail this week.  So much for good news.  The bad news - after paying the $10.00 fee, she is not MY Anna Bradley.  The first clue was the title of the obit: Miss Anna Bradley - I wasn't a Detective for ten years for nothing.   Well  back to the drawing board.

Next good news:  I got a letter from the Hoboken Cemetery in the mail today.  Bad news:  They have no records of Jack (John) Brady - the younger brother of my father who died at about two months old.  They also have no record of Mary Ann Sullivan - which does not surprise me because I know her last name was not Sullivan, but I don't know what it was because she married before her death and I don't know her married name.  Actually there is more good news in this letter - they did not request a genealogy fee.

Now I have some good news with no bad news to counter it.  I was listening to a podcast - The Genealogy Guys - and they go over news and answer e mail questions.  One of the news items was that Pennsylvania Births and Deaths between 1904 and 1961 are now public records and stored in the PA State Archives.  They are indexed on line on the PA Archives site by year.  Once you get the year, they are indexed in one of two way: either alphabetical or in the Russell system.  The Russell system is a combination of key letters and numbers used to find the page on which your name is listed in the ledger book.  They include  instructions with the on line index, but I find it difficult to understand sometimes.  I have never used it by myself,  I usually have someone there to help.  So this exercise should at least help me understand it better.

When you look up the name, it will give you a date of death, and the place, and a state file number (which is the important thing).  Well, actually it is all important. I find the place of death is a great clue.  If I had looked up Anna Bradley in the index, I would have seen that she died in Philadelphia, but I knew she lived with her daughter in Pottsville for at least ten years (1910 census and 1920 census, and the family is still there in 1930, but she is not). So if I were a betting man, my money for place of death would have been Pottsville not Philadelphia and I could have saved a few bucks.  Are you picking up the underlying theme here - all of the $10.00 and $20.00 fees that I don't like paying - so a free one here and there helps keeps you going, cause this can get expensive.  So anyway, I looked up Ann Bradley starting in 1929 and working backwards to 1920, and I found her.  She died 27 Dec 1928 - Merry Christmas, in Pottsville, PA (don't forget the important part) State File #124066.  So now you download the form on line to order a Non-Certified Death certificate and the best part - $3.00 each.  I have ordered death certificates before and they were $20.00 to $25.00 each, so this is really good news - Break out the party hats and blow up some balloons YAHOO.  The form does not give you a turn around time, but it has to be quicker.  The last one I sent for took about four months.

Just in case you're new at this and don't know why I am so happy about finding death certificates, I'm going to tell you.  Death certificates help you big time in genealogy.  They are usually filed within a couple of days of death, which means it is fresh information.  The person getting the information writes it down right away, so there is a smaller window for memory to screw up, and secondly it helps you go back further because it usually lists the names of the deceased person's parents (including mother's maiden name) and their place of birth, it usually gives the birth date and place of birth for the deceased, if your ancestor is a married female, you also get her maiden name (and her mother's maiden name).  The last tidbit that you get is the name of the informant.  That is the person who gave any personal information to the doctor - like birth date, parents names, etc (obviously the deceased didn't spill his guts before he checked out).  So you might find a name you know, or someone else to look up.  For example when I got our Great Grandfather, "Pop" Bergen's death certificate, the informant was our mother Claire Bergen.  It was actually kind of sad to see her name there.  It was 1943 and both of her parents had died, her two brothers were off to war and she was living with her mother's family, and giving information to a doctor on the last of her father's family.  It may have made it easier because she was in Nursing School at the time and becoming more used to seeing people dying, (this is no reflection on my mother's nursing skills - just a fact of life) but this was a man that she had grown up living with.  I don't care if she was an undertaker - that had to be tough.

When our Great Grandfather, James E Brady, died in Gordon, PA, his death certificate coughed up some info that I had been trying to find for awhile.  The informant was his sister, Mary G Brady of Scranton, PA.  She informed the doctor that their parents: Thomas A Brady and Bridget Convey were both born in Ireland - but she added a place in Ireland - Swinford.  I don't know how she let that slip out, apparently her parents must have thought that if anyone knew the town that they were born in they could break the DaVinci Code with it.  Well, maybe not - but no one had ever mentioned where in Ireland they came from - now I know Swinford, County Mayo. Ah the joys of death certificates.