117th Carnival of Genealogy, 1940! Fibbin' Fun

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

1940 !  Census that is.

Jasia at Creative Gene is graciously hosting this month's Carnival of Genealogy, where she has challenged us to chat about our finds in the 1940 census.  Now, you will all recall that the 1940 is not indexed in full just yet. By the way, the project at the1940census.com is coming along so wonderfully, thanks to all that are indexing.

Anyway, this challenge reads:   "1940! Have you found a family member in the newly released 1940 U.S. Census? If so, what have you learned about them? No family member in the 1940 Census? No problem. Write what you know of your family back in 1940 anyway. Let's take the COG back to 1940 and create a history lesson that brings our families to life!"

So, as some of you know, Man and I have been traveling a lot since April 2 when the 1940 census went LIVE on the internet.  Truth, I have not had a lot of time to search for our ancestors on the 1940.  So, what limited time I have had, I decided to look for direct line ancestors only.  Looking at our pedigree or ancestor charts I quickly determined that I would need to search for our parents, grand parents, and our great- grandparents, no further.  SOOO, if you chart it out and start counting, that is 14 ancestors (male and female) for each of us.  Truth here, I have had very little time to study the information I have found.

So, for the 117th COG, I am sharing how many of the 28 ancestors I have found, a few tidbits about my finds, focusing for the most part on the fibs I found, or did not find.  I even have a few theories about the fibs. SOOOO, here is how I did, noting the fibbers and those that fibbed a little more.  Not exactly history, although Man's and my family histories are full of fibbers!

Man, out of his 14, 8 of those ancestors either did not live in the United States or had passed, or both.  So, I needed to look for 6 that should be enumerated.

Man's father is still a MIA, he was most likely living with his first wife, and to be honest, I have no idea where, have some suspicions, but, this search will wait for indexing to be complete.  No fibbin' going on here, yet.

Found Man's paternal grandparents, his grandmother was the informant, she fibbed about a LOT of stuff, no surprise there, she is a renown fibber.  Yep, our resident fibber.  She fibbed most about her information.  The grandfather was working as a plasterer in an automobile plant, no surprise, no fibbing, just verification, we like verification.  The great grandparents of this direct line, have all passed or live elsewhere, no searching required.

Man's maternal grandparents, found.  There was a bit of  fibbing here as well.  The fibbing/stretching in this case had to do with ethnic heritage and the after effects of the World War I.   Again, the great grandparents of this direct line had all passed by 1940, no searching required.

On my lineages, I need to search 11 of the 14 ancestors.  My father and his parents are MIA.  I had a few addresses, one as late as 1937, but, alas, they are not enumerated at that address.  They will remain MIA until the indexes become available (and hopefully not AFTER that, LOL)

My father's paternal grandparents have been found, only one small inconsistency in their report, his age was off by a few years.  He was retired.  Nothing much new here.  One of the most accurate findings.

My dad's maternal grandparents, well, he died in 1904, so I went looking for her, you may recognize the name, Lorena.  And, I was successful at finding her, see:

I did learn from Lorena's entry in the 1940 that her hubby was working as a night watchman in a fertilizer plant (first employment information I have on J.C., new data!  Woot!).  Lorena told the truth, no fibbing here.

My mother and her parents were found quite easily, and fast,  they were on the first page in the enumeration district.  The fun find, was that in the houses nearby, were names I recognized, you see, next to my grandparents home was what we called, "the Hoover house".  Guess who lived in the Hoover house in 1940, well, YAAA, the Hoovers!  I know I will be playing with that information again.  My grandfather reported the information and he fibbed too, he got the birth places correct and the age of his children correct.  Grampa's fibs were about, age, a continuing issue with him.  The age fibbin' issues followed him to the grave, even the birth year on his headstone is incorrect.  SIGH

My grandfather's folks had already passed and no search was required.  My grandmother's folks, on the other hand, lived until 1963 and 1965, and should be enumerated. So far, they are MIA.  I know where I believe them to be living, in fact, I was stomping around the farm just last week.  (See the photo below, yes, there is the farm, and just a mile or so west of here, is the West Virginia/Virginia state line.)

I pulled what I believe was the correct enumeration district for the farm, but, they are not there, or I skipped over them.  I looked twice at the pages.  I will revisit them again, but of course, but, think that I may have to wait for the indexing to be complete.   See the thing is, somehow they were not enumerated in Rockingham County Virginia on the 1910 census. They were found in the 1920 and 1930 census enumerations.  Will they eventually be found in the 1940?  I have my doubts, am hopeful, but, have my doubts.

So, there you have it, the fibs, big and small and everywhere in between.

Next up, really studying each and every one of the reports I have pulled, extract the other interesting facts that were enumerated and see if there are any surprises.  I am sure there will be.

For now, with the very little time I have had to play in the 1940 census, there are no major surprises, those that have been known to be fibbers, were fibbin' in 40.  I find it interesting that they stuck to the fibs for years and years.

Who and what did you find in the 1940??  Do you have any fibbin' going on ??




.