(going) The Extra Yad: Bronx

Showing posts with label Bronx. Show all posts

14 May 2012

1940 U.S. Census: What's that about probability?

I've indexed 137 pages of 1940 U.S. Census records from New York State and now the unthinkable has happened: I found a relative while indexing.

Last evening I electronically requested a batch to index. I selected New York State and waited a few seconds until the page popped up on my screen: Bronx ED 3-956, page 8B. As sometimes happens, the first record only indicated a first name with neither surname nor household number: Sandra. As I have so many times since early April when I first started indexing, I looked at the prior census page to see the information from Sandra's family so I could enter her information correctly. Household 136. Max, Fanny, and Anita Buchman. [gulp!] My great aunt and uncle and their daughters (my first cousins once removed).

Fanny Garber Buchman was my grandfather's youngest sister. We knew her as Aunt Feigah.

The Buchman family lived at 1262 Boynton Avenue, Bronx, New York. The rented their apartment for $37 per month. The circle with the X next to her name indicates that Fannie was the informant for the Census enumerator.

Max and Fannie (she spelled her name as "Fannie" on most documents in my possession) were 38 and 36 years old, respectively. Max is recorded as having studied 7 years in school and Fannie, I think, 1.

They both emigrated from the Russian Empire and Max had become a citizen. He, in fact, was naturalized on 6 June 1927.[1] Fanny didn't naturalize until 1952 when she still lived at this address.[2]

Columns 26-32 indicate that Max worked 44 hours during the week of March 24-30, 1940 as a salesman in the retail dress business. For this he earned $2080 per year. Fannie worked at home.


1262 Boynton Ave, Bronx, NY in 2012 (from Google Maps)

Anita was 11 and Sandra 4 on April 1, 1940. Anita had completed sixth grade and Sandra had yet to attend school.

I had actually already located the Buchman family record several weeks ago in 1940 U.S. Census independent of this surprise. I'd determined their likely address, their possible EDs and then browsed the appropriate ED pages and located the Buchmans on these pages. But, it's still pretty amazing that they popped up when least expected as I was indexing.

When batches load for indexing, the program sometimes indicates that the page one is receiving may have been partially indexed. When this occurs, it is my understanding that someone may have not completed their indexing of the page within the allotted time and the program, therefore, turned the batch over to someone else. This was one of those cases. Makes me feel like this one was seeking me out.

Considering that there were 132 million people in the United States in 1940 and in New York, the most populous state, there were 13.5 million, this is pretty amazing.

Notes
1. "Petition for Naturalization from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, 1897-1944," digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 13 May 2012), Petition for Naturalization No. 98373, Max Buchman, 6 June 1927; citing National Archives and records Administration microfilm publication M1972.
2. "Index to Petitions for Naturalization filed in New York City, 1792-1989," U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, database on-line, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 123 May 2012), Card No. 6997117, Petition No. 608951, Fannie Buchman, 16 June 1952; citing National Archives and Records Administration, Northeast Region.

13 May 2012

1940 U.S. Census: Mind Games

So, I've been indexing in the Bronx for well more than a month now and I'm starting to notice and imagine patterns that would be a ever so much better. I'm heavy into Italian, Jewish and Irish families and it's astounding how many multi-generational and collateral families are recorded in the 1940 Bronx EDs.

Perhaps this is a function of the immigrant status of so many of these people: helping family members economically until they, too, can stand on their own. There are the usual widowed parents living with their children's family. It seems like more parents living with daughters than sons, but I really haven't been counting. There are the few divorced or widowed children coming back to live with mom and dad (or mama and papa). But there are also siblings' families living together (or on the same street).

It's frustrating seeing so many single, divorced or widowed adults living next door to each other. Concetta, meet Morris. Louis, meet Philomena. Can't we all just get together here!

Many times, I've seen families consisting of parents, their children, one or more of the parents' parents, and the parents' siblings all in one home. It must have made for a vibrant household and I can't help thinking about the family Woody Allen presented in Radio Days: lots of noise, yelling, angst, humor and love. I haven't figured out if any of these families live under (or on) a roller coaster.

Of course, this is the Bronx, not Woody's 1940's Rockaway. But, if I were enumerating, I'd record it as "Same Place."

02 April 2012

1940 U.S. Census: First find!

We'll I awoke at 5:00 A.M. ready to be online for the 1940 U.S. Census opening ceremony at the National Archives and Records Administration. I thought they did a nice job keeping the speakers to a minimum of speechifying and a maximum of interest and information - particularly with regard to genealogy and history. Of course, their opportunity to strut the stuff of the online images fizzled with a technological difficulty: they couldn't get their own site to load in a timely manner. Thank goodness they anticipated just such an exigency and had some illustrative slides at the ready. Unfortunately, that did not have quite the cachet of a live demonstration. ["Dear Myrtle" was in the audience and noted that people in Israel and Sweden were having no problem loading and viewing the images. I was once fond of Myrt.]

Anyway, then it was my turn to try. I'd decided that in my heart of hearts the very first image I wanted to locate was for 31 Colin Place, Brooklyn, NY where my mother, her parents and brother and several of her aunts and uncles should have been residing. On the NARA site, there are about three or four screens one must navigate before seeing the images. The first one got me to a second that seemed to want the same information I'd just entered on the previous page. Over about 60 minutes I managed to get through about three of the pages, but never the fourth where an image might deign to load.

I left for an appointment, returned home, ate a good breakfast (one must keep up one's energy), and then sat down to try again. No luck. The last screen just sat there with a twirling spiral and never loaded the census images for ED 24-1839. I left it for about ten minutes and then decided to give up for now.

Never to be thwarted in my genealogical quest, I decided to try the old standby: Ancestry. I knew they would not have all the images loaded on their system yet (they'd only been allowed to do so for a few hours), but I thought it would interesting to see what they'd accomplished thus far. Probably because I'm accustomed to their search function, I found their search less onerous than the NARA one. I clicked on "State" and New York was among the choices (great! they'd been loading NY as one of their first batches!). The next pull-down menu showed they'd loaded Albany and Bronx Counties. OK, 31 Colin Place is not in the Bronx, but I should have other relatives in the Bronx in 1940.

The pull-down menu for the Bronx showed that they'd not quite finished loading all the Enumeration Districts. So, I selected a low number ED from my ED stash and hit pay dirt. Yetta G. Myers [sorry Peter], widow of Louis Myers who'd passed away in 1938, still lived at 1605 Walton Avenue, Bronx, NY. Within ED 3-132A, I paged through 17 pages of 38 and found her on Census Population Schedule page 9B.

She was living with Regina Adelstein, identified as a cousin, and a maid, Isabel Novack, who'd been with the family for at least five years. Yetta was a widow listed as 44 years old. Her naturalization papers in 1925 listed her birthday as 15 July 1892. So, she may have shaved a few years off her age. [1]

Of interest is the name Adelstein. Yetta and Louis' daughter, Renee, had married Howard Adelstein on 12 February 1940 in Montreal. [2]

Well, if ya ain't in Brooklyn, yeh no wheah! I'll try again, later.

Notes

1. "Petition for Naturalization of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, 1897-1944," digital images, Fold3.com (http://www.fold3.com : accessed 2 April 2012), Petition for Naturalization No. 53575, Yetta Gladys Myers, 25 June 1924; citing National Archives and records Administration microfilm publication M1972, RG 21.
2. "Quebec, Vital Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967," digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 2 April 2012), Renee Myers and Howard M. Adelstein, 12 February 1940, Shearith Israel Congregation, Montreal, Quebec.

01 April 2012

1940 U.S. Census: Searching for the Myers Family

David and Ida (Chaye Sarah) Malzmann came to the United States in 1913 from Lubin, Russian Empire (today Ukraine) after all their sons and daughters had emigrated the New York City and changed the family name to Myers. David's brother, Zachary, followed in 1921 after his two sons, Israel and Jacob, were established in New York, as well.

By 1940, the older generation had passed and some of the children had also. Myer, the first to emigrate to the USA in 1902, died in 1936 (in Monticello, NY where he'd retired to the Catskills), Louis in 1938 (in the Bronx), and Rebecca Myers Sotskess in January 1940 (in Manhattan). Eldest daughter, Sarah Myers Morris was discussed in a previous blog post with her Morris Family - so she won't be discussed here.

Click to enlarge

For family history purposes, the following addresses are those closest in time to and most likely to yield hits in the 1940 U.S. Census. 1940 Enumeration Districts are indicated in blue.

Abraham & (Rebecca Myers) Sotskess 

 1940 236 W. 10th Street, NY, NY [1]               31-48  

                                                or 31-49

 1942 102 Christopher Street, NY, NY [2]           31-50

(Louis) & Yetta G. Myers

 1938 1605 Walton Avenue, Bronx, NY [3]            3-132A

Joseph & Rose Myers

 1942 212 East 39th Street, NY, NY [4]             31-1041

Harry & Mollie Myers

 1942 578 Williams Avenue, Brooklyn, NY [5]        24-85

Israel & Eva Myers

 1940 1820 Morris Avenue, Bronx, NY [6]            3-127B 

                                                or 3-1497 

Jacob & Bertha Myers

1942 636 Dahill Road, Brooklyn, NY [7] 24-2546B

Notes

1. New York, New York, Certificate and Record of Death no. 2120 (24 January 1940), Rebecca Sotskess, New York City Municipal Archives, New York.

2. "U.S. World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942," digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 1 April 2012), Abraham Sotskess, card no. U1124, New York, NY.

3. Bronx County, New York, Certificate and Record of Death no. 9710 (8 November 1938), Louis Myers, New York City Municipal Archives, New York.

4. "U.S. World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942," digital images, Ancestry.com, Joseph Myers, card no. U2235, New York, NY.

5. "U.S. World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942," digital images, Ancestry.com, Harry Myers, card no. U3362, Brooklyn, NY.

6. Bronx County, New York, Certificate and Record of Death no. 4981 (20 May 1940), Israel Myers, New York City Municipal Archives, New York.

7. "U.S. World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942," digital images, Ancestry.com, Jacob Myers, no. U253, Brooklyn, NY.

1940 U.S. Census: Seeking the Morris Family

Isidore Morris had been a glazier in New York City and, like many glaziers of the time, suffered a variety of maladies that may have been associated with his profession. Sometime after the 1930 U.S. Census Isidore and Sarah Myers Morris (my great grandparents) moved to a small farm in Perrineville, Monmouth County, New Jersey.

They'd followed their eldest son, Max Morris, who had married and become a glazier in Red Bank, Monmouth County, NJ. Perrineville had grown into a hotbed of Eastern European Farmers.[1] For Isidore and Sarah this was a respite from their adult lifetimes in the New York City tenements. They had a small farm and farm house. My father used to talk about milking his grandparents' cow when he went to visit - something quite unusual for a boy from Brooklyn. I have not found any records yet for my great grandparents' farm, but I do know its address courtesy of my cousin Hal Blatt.

Sometime before 1947 when Isidore passed away, he and his wife moved back to the City and to the Bronx.