Stories From the Census ~ Bubbie Lena in 1950

I have not had any luck finding my late father-in-law, Harry Handler, in the 1950 census. It is believed that he had moved from his hometown of Akron, Ohio, to live in the Atlantic City, New Jersey, area where his oldest brother, Arthur had moved in the late 1930s. But I can't find Uncle Arthur and his family either.

In 1940, Harry was living with his parents and other siblings in Akron, and Arthur, his wife, and two daughters, were living in Ventnor, New Jersey.

I thought perhaps Harry had returned to Akron, and I easily found Harry's mother, known to my husband as Bubbie Lena, living, as expected, at 557 Rhodes Avenue, in Akron. Harry was not living with her.

1950 U.S. census, Summit County, Ohio, Akron, ED 89-141, sheet 8, line 3, household 76 (Lena Handler); U.S. National Archives, 1950 Census (https://1950census.archives.gov/search/).

Lena lived in apartment 2 in this building. She was a 59-year-old Hungarian-born widow and a naturalized citizen. The "H" in column 15, asking what she did in the past week, indicated that she was keeping house.

She was one of five on the page asked the supplemental questions, which in her case, provided some interesting information.

She was living in the same house the year before and both her parents were born in Hungary. The highest grade of school was "S5" - fifth grade. Although she didn't earn any money from an occupation, she made $1,840 in the previous year "from interest, dividends, pensions, rents or other income." My guess is that all of this income was from rent paid by her tenants.

Exploring Summit County, Ohio, deeds showed that Lena owned both 553 Rhodes Avenue and 557 Rhodes Avenue, both with five apartments each. Not bad for a widowed immigrant with a fifth grade education.

Additionally, apartment 3 was the home of the Cohen family. 18-year-old daughter Natalie married a Handler cousin of my father-in-law, Harry, who, I believe, introduced them.

Apartment 1, which has the note "No one at Home" directs me to sheet 72, line 22, where the Dorman family is listed. Lena's younger daughter, Belle Dorman, married Milton Dorman in 1948 and they lived in the apartment next door with their one-year-old son, Jeffrey.