Bubbie's Bubbie in the 1940 US Census

My mother-in-law's family was in Woodbine, Cape May County, New Jersey, for decades. I already wrote about finding her and her family in the 1940 Census here. Across the street (Jackson Avenue) was my mother-in-law's grandmother, Goldie Levitt.

Detail from 1940 U.S. Census, Woodbine, Cape May, New Jersey, Roll T627_2324, E. D. 5-48,
page 1B, line 74, household of Goldie Levitt

The 1940 U.S. Census tells me the following about "Bubbie's Bubbie": Goldie owned her home, and it was valued at $2,000. She is the only one listed in her household. The next columns indicate that she is female, white, 62 years old, and widowed. (Her husband died in 1935.) Actually, I believe she was at least 70 or 71 years old based on other records.

"No" in the next column indicates that she did not attend school during the previous year and the following column reports that the highest grade of school completed was 0 (zero). I have noted before that this "highest grade of school completed" for immigrants is quite low and I wonder if it was hard to determine an equivalent of their schooling in the U.S. education system, or perhaps some immigrants truly had very little in the way of formal schooling.

1940 Census ~ Uncle Art is in New Jersey

My father-in-law's oldest brother, Arthur, was not living with the rest of the Handler family in Akron, Ohio in the 1940 US Census. In looking for Uncle Art in the 1940 US Census, I found the use of city directories invaluable, as there are no name indexes for the 1940 US Census yet. I used Ancestry.com's U.S. City Directories 1821-1989 (Beta) and Summit County, Ohio Online Historical Directories. If you don't find your city in ancestry.com or you don't have an ancestry.com subscription, use your favorite search engine to see if a city directory for a certain year has been digitized. You never know what might be available online.

Summit County, Ohio Online Historical Directories
1937 Akron City Directory, p. 778

The 1937 Akron city directory is the last year that I find oldest brother, Arthur A. living at Rhodes Avenue. (He married Josephine in 1934.) They are in apt. 4 and the rest of the family is in apt. 1.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Joseph Handler and his truck

Joseph Handler (1884 - 1947)

The pickup truck in the background is Joseph's. My father-in-law remembers learning how to drive in that truck, which would have been in the late 1930's.

I am deeply indebted to my husband's cousin (on the Handler side) who, upon the death of their aunt Margaret in February, asked that Aunt Margaret's photographs be given to me, as she knows of my interest in sharing family history via this blog. In addition to a number of more recent photographs, this collection includes informal snapshots from when the Handler family was all in Akron, Ohio, in the 1930's and 1940's.

Wordless Wednesday is a daily blogging prompt from Geneabloggers, the genealogy community's resource for blogging. It is used by many genealogy bloggers to help them tell stories of their ancestors.

1940 Census ~ Goldstein Family in Woodbine

With the 1940 US Census having been released last week without a name index, one family I was able to find relatively quickly was my mother-in-law with her older brother and parents in the Borough of Woodbine, New Jersey, as Woodbine was a relatively small community; the entire community is in one Enumeration District (E.D. 5-48).

1940 U.S. Census, Woodbine, Cape May, New Jersey, Roll T627_2324, E.D. 5-48,
page 3A, lines 8-12, household of Morris Goldstein

The Goldstein family lived on Jackson Avenue, and the houses were not numbered.

1940 Census ~ Handler Family in Akron, Ohio

On Monday, April 2, 2012, the 1940 US Census was released with all images made public at the National Archives 1940 Census site. However, there were millions of genealogists trying to access the site and very few were able to retrieve any census images that morning. (NARA reported 22.5 million "hits" in the first three hours!) The folks working on the NARA website worked through the day and night to bring on more computer servers in order to handle the demand. Even though on Tuesday, the site had even more "hits," it was ready and I was able to access images for Akron, Summit County, Ohio. I had to know the E.D. (enumeration district) of 89-70 in order to find Rhodes Avenue where I knew the Handler family lived. 23 images in, I found them!

1940 U.S. Census, Akron, Summit, Ohio, Roll T627_3175, E.D. 89-70,
page 12A, lines 5-11, household of Joe Handler

Members of the Handler family lived at 553 and/or 557 Rhodes Avenue in Akron, Ohio, for decades. Now, the 1930 US Census for the Handler Family indicates that Joe Handler owned his home at 553 Rhodes Avenue, but this census record indicates that he rented, and paid $22 monthly in rent. (Not sure of the accuracy here, though it's believed that he had always owned his house.)