Cross Country Thibodeaux Travelers

During a rare free evening earlier this week, I did a little poking around Ancestry.com and my own private family tree there. It's been so long since I've been able to work on my own ancestral lines that there were dozens of "shaky leaves" or hints waiting for me.

Two of the hints were for my great-grandfather, Noel Holly Thibodeaux. Both were for city directories that had been added since I last worked on my own tree. 

The timeline for this man is a work in progress. He moved his wife Josephine (my great-grandmother) and his family back and forth between Louisiana and California several times. This was in the 1920s and 1930s before a national highway system, convenience stores and everything we expect for a road trip.

Circa 1926. One of many road trips between Louisiana and California.

Photo courtesy of my cousin, Eldridge, whose parents were along for the ride.

Though I am still searching city directories in southern California and Louisiana, here is a loose timeline of the many residences of the Noel Holly Thibodeaux family:

between 1914 and 1916 - Noel and Josephine got married. My grandfather says his parents got married in California. However, my great-grandmother was a young lady in an established Louisiana family. Did they elope to California? That would be quite a scandal, though I wouldn't put it past Noel as he looked like he was a handsome charmer. I'm still looking for a marriage record.

1917 - lived in San Bernardino, California with a child on the way.

1920 - Noel, Josephine and 2 children lived in New Orleans, Louisiana.

1922 - lived in "furnished rooms" in San Bernardino, California.

1924 - lived in Los Angeles, California

1926 - at least one trip to Lousiana, as the photo above was on a trip from Louisiana to California.

1928 - lived in Brawley, California. They had 4 kids then.

1930 - lived in Josephine's parents' house in Rayne, Louisiana.

1931 - lived in New Orleans, Louisiana. They had 5 kids.

1937 - lived in El Centro, California. They had 7 kids.

1939 - lived in El Centro, California at a new address.

1940 - lived in El Centro, California at a new address.

1944 - lived in Bell Gardens, California.

1948 - lived in Bell Gardens, California at a different address.

1950 - lived in Downey, California.

1962 - lived in San Jacinto, California, at the time of Noel's death.

I can't imagine moving around that much, especially cross-country with kids, but they did it. Hopefully Josephine had a sense of adventure and it wasn't just a chore. Here is a photo of my great-grandparents and one of the cars that took them there and back and there again:

Josephine Bourgaux and Noel Holly Thibodeaux

On the road again. And again. And again.

Hopefully this summer I'll get some more time to scour the city directories and fill in this Thibodeaux timeline. Until then, those shaky Ancestry.com leaves will continue to tease me.

[Here's a search tip: don't always trust the search box for city directories on Ancestry.com. I've found this family in two separate directories where the search said "not found," but they were there when I manually searched the books page-by-page online. This manual search isn't hard, as the directories are in alphabetical order. Put in the extra time in searching. They payoff is worth it. --A]

Jumping in the 1940 Census Pool

After two days of doing genealogy work for others, I finally found a chance to peek at the 1940 census this evening. I decided to start with my paternal grandparents, since I knew where they were supposed to be then.  My grandparents were living in Los Angeles, near USC. It was in this house, as it is seen in present day:

I used Steve Morse's easy peasy tool to determine the  enumeration district (ED 60-1205). Then I clicked on the link provided and went right to that ED. On page 32 of 33, I found them!

No big surprises here. It's my grandparents and uncle. My dad and his sister would come later. The family was living in a house they owned. I knew this, too, because they had it built. The house was worth $4250. Both of my grandparents had 4 years of college noted in the education column. In 1935, they were single, both living in their respective Oklahoma hometowns. Also not new information to me.

My grandfather's occupation was "feed man." The census says he was the owner of a feed store. I happen to know it was South Vermont Feed & Seed, named for the street it was on in Los Angeles. It's hard to believe this now-crammed (and kinda scary) part of Los Angeles once had a need for feed, but it did. On this census, my grandpa reported working 48 hours a week.

But wait, what is this on the census form I spy with my little eye?

I hit the supplemental questions lottery on my very first ancestor search! For my family, this means every 20th person in the 1940 census was asked a series of supplemental questions. My grandpa was one of those selected. These questions included the birthplaces of his parents, veteran status (no), and possession of a federal social security number (no, not until 1951 or so). Unfortunately no surprises here, either.

So there you go. One family down in the 1940 census, many more to go. Some will have to wait for the index, because they moved a lot and I have no idea where they might have been in 1940.

As for these grandparents, when the 1950 census becomes available, they'll be in Pomona, California. And get ready, dad, because you'll be in that one.

It's a Small Genealogy World After All

This week's prompt in my 52 Weeks of Personal History series is about family homes. I've enjoyed reading all of these posts, and even was surprised by one of them.

In Mary's Musings, blogger Mary Post Warren reflected on her family's homes. She even gave the address of one of them on 118th Street in 1940's Los Angeles. This rang a bell in my head. My dad was born in Los Angeles and his family lived on 117th Street during the same time frame. A comparison of house numbers showed that they lived at the same location on the block, just on different streets. They were neighbors!

Here are some of the neighbor kids during a birthday party at the house on 117th Street:

Here is another photo of a neighborhood party. My grandmother circled herself and her son.

I doubt Mary will recognize any of these people, but it's worth a shot. 

Today, this area of Los Angeles is crammed with homes, but back then, there still was quite a bit of open land. 

If Mary's family and my own lived near each other, it was for a short time. My grandparents pulled up stakes and head east to Pomona in the later 1940's.

Quite a small world, isn't it? Also another example of the magic of genealogy blogs.

Surname Saturday: Turk / Türk

The surname for this Saturday is Turk / Türk.

Albert Turk (1880-1964) was my great-grandfather. I don't know much about him so bear with me. The few documents I have say he was born in Eickel, Herne, Germany. He came to the United States in 1914. He met and married his wife in Pennsylvania. I don't know the exact date of their marriage, but it was likely in Allentown or Bethlehem. They had a daughter in Pennsylvania, then moved to Los Angeles and had 3 more children.

Albert was widowed in 1931. He worked for an electric company and was a carpenter. He is buried with his wife in East Los Angeles.

I know little about Albert Turk's family in Germany and have not crossed the pond to investigate. My grandmother has a German postcard addressed to (brother) Albert from Heinrich. I also have a document that says Albert's father is Albert and his mother is Elisabeth Brauckman.

The few documents I have that were created in the United States say "Turk" but the documents handwritten by Albert say "Türk."

Turk is a somewhat common name, so I'm not interested in casting a wide net. If you have connections to the places I've mentioned above (especially Eickel) I'd love to hear from you.

Another Date with RootsMagic

This weekend I had the house to myself. I used the time to add more to my fantabulous well-documented RootsMagic family tree. If you remember, I recently started building a database from scratch, also taking the time to learn the ins-and-outs of RootsMagic 4. Every bit of information must have a source before it can be added to my new tree. That's the rule.

Given the amount of detail required and the few chunks of free time I get, I haven't made it very far back in my fancy new database. I was born in California and in my tree I'm still there, documenting records from the 1920's thru 1960's.

On Saturday morning, I browsed through some Los Angeles city directories, available online from the Los Angeles Public Library. I didn't realize how much history I had there, including seven surnames to search. I was able to find a source template to use on RootsMagic, so the entry of information was easy. It just took three hours to get through all the books and names.

I love, love, love city directories because they tell me where people lived, what they did for a living and even sometimes when they died. Always check out the city directories in your research areas.

After lunch, I started on California Voter Registrations: 1900-1968, available at Ancestry.com. Depending on the year, these records can tell you the names an addresses of registered voters, occupations, political affiliations and even neighbors if you scan the page. These records also are helping me narrow down a timeline of marriage, divorce and remarriage for one of my ancestors. I had some trouble finding a ready-made source template for this type of record in RootsMagic. I don't quite understand how to make my own, either. I ended up using a template designed for local records that allowed me to include film roll numbers and voter precinct numbers in my citations. Sort of like duct-tape source citations, I just pounded on that square peg until it fit in the round hole.

Getting through Ancestry's index of California Voter Registrations was easy, though through a little browsing, I noticed that the index is far from complete. For example, a search through the index of voter records for John Smith might give results in 1940, 1946 and 1950, but a manual search (page-by-page) shows records in 1942, 1944, and 1948 as well. I got what information I could through the indexes. Now I am going page-by-page looking for ancestors' names. Sometimes it's easy to find them by precinct. Sometimes it is not. This is just another lesson on why we can't rely solely on Ancestry indexes to provide leads to all the information in a given record set.

Anyway, my marathon session went really well. When RootsMagic users add a source to a particular fact, a check mark pops up on a given person's timeline. It makes it easy for users to see which facts have sources and which do not. In my own experience, I find it very rewarding to look at my own ancestors' timelines and see check marks all the way down the list. That's why I'm staying disciplined with this source rule, and that's why I keep turning those digitized California voter records page by page by page.

The devil is in the details, but so is the family history pay off.

Tombstone Tuesday: Let This Be a Lesson to You

In the past 20 years, I've attended dozens of Laker games, Kings games, concerts and even a monster truck rally at the Fabulous Forum. Only within the last 12 months did I discover that my great-great grandmother is buried across the street from the arena.

This, folks, is why you should take the steps to learn your family's history.





[Notes for the family: me > dad > Buster > Gertrude > Marie Magdalena Schmitz Baerecke Hayward Sutherland.]

Frankie and Her Sisters

One of my 2009 resolutions was to build a foundation to research my Chickasaw Colberts. To do so, I had to start with my great-grandmother and her five sisters.

I already have the death certificate for my great grandmother, Frankie Velma Jones (1888-1951).

Today I filled out the applications for death certificates for the sisters. I was surprised that two of the sisters died in California, as did Frankie. Frankie was the eldest and she was born in Texas. All the other sisters were born in Indian Territory/Oklahoma.

Here's my death certificate shopping list:

Mattie Jones Frensley (1890-1979)
Naomi Jones Gable (1894- ? betw. 1920-1926)
Rutha Jones Fuqua (1895-1991)
Vera Jones Cobble (1901-1967)
Mary Elizabeth Jones Bennett (1909-1987)

I also printed applications for Naomi's 2 children, Ruth's husband Nolen (because I don't know his mom's name), and one of Vera's children.

Notes for my family:

1. These sisters are Doris' aunts. Their children are her 1st cousins.

2. The two California sisters (Vera and Mary) lived in the Pasadena/Altadena area. Do you remember visiting anyone out there in the 1940's-1950's?

Short Updates

1. I finished both assginments in Lesson 1 of my NGS course. I'm in the process of reading for Lesson 2. One of the assignments has to do with family traditions. What you think of as a tradition is what NGS calls a custom. Traditions are more like stories handed down. I may reference my grandfather's South Central LA feed store in my assignment.

2. Remember when I sent away for all those Lenertz death certificates from Minnesota? Well, they arrived with more questions than answers. I'll elaborate at a later date. The Lenertz line can never be easy.

3. I am building a family tree from scratch using Family Tree Maker 2009. Up to this point, I've been using a combination of PAF, Ancestry and my brain to store all the names and dates. The Family Tree Maker tree is being done the right way with proper citations. I've been collecting sources all along, I just never made the time to connect it all in the right places. In genealogyland, sources are everything. It didn't happen unless you have a source, and it's not respected unless you have it cited correctly. Also, this FTM2009 software lets me make cool charts. I also can attach pictures and documents to people. It's not much to look at now, but once it gets built up, you (and by you I mean my family) will be impressed.

4. The NGS 2009 conference info is out. I'm a little sad I can't go. I will be at FGS 2009 and the So Cal Jamboree, so I'll just look forward to those.

5. To the family: When I am out in California (Dec 20-29), I'm thinking about taking a field trip into LA. Depending on time, I may want to see the Feed Store location (now a parking lot), the 117th Street house, the 95th Street house (didn't know about that one, did ya?), the graves of Buster's grandmother and Irene's parents, and maybe a visit to Pomona for icing on the cake. Let me know if there are any takers for this excursion. It will either be a weekend or after Christmas.