Each week on Randy Seaver’s Genea-musings blog he has a post for Saturday night Genealogy fun. Because of the time difference, I have called my series Sunday Afternoon Genealogy Fun. This week’s mission was:
1) Determine where your ancestral families were on 1 April 1940 – 80 years ago when the U.S. census was taken.
2) List them, their family members, their birth years, and their residence location (as close as possible). Do you have a photograph of their residence from about that time, and does the residence still exist?
3) Tell us all about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a Facebook Status post.
1 My father, Ivon Walter Whimpey (1923-2009), was living at 63 Brown Street, Heidelberg, Victoria, Australia with his parents, (my grandparents), John Ernest Whimpey (1884-1960) and Ivy May Harley (1890-1959), and his brothers, Alan Arthur (1917-1990), John Harrie (1919-2002), Keith Harley (1920-2009), and his sister, Dorothy Edna (1927-2019). I don’t have a photo of the residence at the time, and I’m not sure if the house is the same one that exists today.
2 My mother, Edith Jean Marr (1922-1990), was living with her father (my grandfather) Wilfred Palmer Marr (1892-1955), at 58 Lothian Street, North Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Her sister, Margaret Amelia (1924-2009), and brother Aubrey Ronald (1926-1996) were also living there, along with mum’s aunt, Amelia Marr (1885-1954). I do have a photo of this residence, taken at about the time it was built, with my great grandmother Mary Reeves Marr (1864-1951), and her mother Mary Gill Reeves (1829-1903). standing in front of it. The house is not now still standing.
3 My maternal grandmother, Edith Meriden Docwra (1904-1948) may have been living at 63 Hawksburn Road, South Yarra, Victoria, Australia, or with her sister, Anne Eileen Docwra Lade (1909-1997), at Warrandyte Road, Baxter, Victoria, Australia. I don’t have a photo of either of these houses or know whether they are still standing.
4 My paternal great grandmother, Henrietta Louisa Russell (1865-1949) was living on the family farm “Hazel Glen” in Woolamai, Victoria, Australia, with her son Cecil Rupert Harley (1896-1977) and her daughter Dorothy Agnes Harley (1907-1976). I don’t have a photo of the house. The house burnt down in a fire, and a new house has since been built.
5 My maternal great grandparents, Henry Palmer Marr (1859-1944) and Mary Reeves (1864-1951), were living in Baxter, Victoria, Australia. I don’t know the exact location where they were living or if the house still exists.
I also have 9 direct ancestors who were living at this time, 80 years ago. Two parents, 4 grandparents, and 3 great grandparents.
Since my family were from Australia, I have used the closest we have – the 1939 Electoral roll. I haven’t been able to narrow down where my grandmother, Edith Meriden Docwra, was living in 1939, as the last Electoral roll I have been able to find her on was in 1936, when she was with her sister at Baxter. The next record I have for her is her death certificate from 1948, which shows her residence at that time was 63 Hawksburn Road, South Yarra.
I haven’t checked a census but this has been a fun mental exercise. Both of my parents were born in October so I’ve been thinking about them a lot. Tomorrow, my mother would have turned 95. I’m quite sure that on April 1, 1940, they were both living with their respective parents in Detroit, MI. My father’s family lived on a street called Beechdale, my mother’s on Elmira.
LikeLike
I love the photo of 58 Lothian Street. I’ve been lucky enough to visit Australia and the British influence on architecture is quite evident.
LikeLike