The 1940 Census is a BIG DEAL!

 
If you are a genealogist exploring your American ancestors, you know that census records are your bread-and-butter.  The U.S. census, taken every ten years since 1790, anchors each family in a particular place and time, providing insight into who and what our ancestors were.  Census questions about a person's parents provide clues to the identities of more ancestors, and questions about employment and military service tell us how our ancestors lived their everyday lives.  Using census material as the skeleton, a skilled genealogist can employ cultural and social history to fill in the flesh, creating a real connection between the twentieth-first century genealogist and the times and people of the past.

Aggregate census data is usually released by the Census Bureau not long after the completion of each census.  To see individuals, however, genealogists must wait until 72 years after the census was taken to view the population schedules.  In 2002, I was just a beginner, and I was thrilled when the 1930 census records became available.  Quickly exhausting those records, it has been a long wait for the 1940 census to come along.  Happily, the big day arrived on April 2, 2012.  The National Archives released digital copies of the population schedules, and eager genealogists began pouring over them.  Unfortunately, there are no online indexes as yet, so you need an actual 1940 address and a lot of patience to find your family members.  I used address information from City Directories (the precursor of telephone books) and all of my patience (that being a very limited commodity) to find a few of my family. 

Bart and Lorraine

The 1940 census was the first to show me my paternal grandparents living together with my two-year-old father. 



Rickey E. Dias



The record tells me that Bart V. Dias, his wife, Lorraine M., and their son, Rickey E., were all living at 223 T Street in Sacramento.  They rented their home for the astonishing sum of $25 a month.  Bart is 30 years old, Lorraine only 22, and Rickey is probably a pretty rambunctious 2-year-old.  All three are noted as being born in California.  The record indicates that they were all living in the same house in 1935, but that is something I would question, as Bart and Lorraine were not married in 1935 and, of course, Rickey wasn't born until 1937. 

New to this particular year's census is a question regarding education.  Bart notes that he has finished two years of high school, with Lorraine finishing only one.  Bart is employed as a janitor at a rooming house, while Lorraine tends to the home.  In 1939, Bart's total income was $720, averaging out to $60 per month.  After rent, this would leave Bart and Lorraine with $35 a month to spend on food, clothes, entertainment, etc.  As gasoline was $0.18 per gallon, and a loaf of bread cost $0.11, I imagine Bart and Lorraine could get by but they were definitely not living in luxury.

Annie Lillian Tucker Dias

My great-grandmother, Annie Dias, was living nearby her son, Bart, his wife, and two-year-old. 



Lillian Dias Harrington



Annie is living at 1924 3rd Street in Sacramento.  She advised the census taker that the value of the house was $1,500--pretty impressive considering that most of her neighbors were renters while Annie owned her home.  She is living with her daughter, Lillian P. Harrington, and both Lil and Annie are shown as having been born in California. 

Annie is 70 years old, a widow who only went through the 5th grade in school.  Lil is 40 years old, also shown as a widow, and she went through two years of high school.  Now, I again would question one piece of the accuracy of this record, as I believe Lil's husband was still alive--census records are great but must be taken with a grain of salt as to accuracy.  Neither Lil nor Annie are working; Annie's late husband, Joseph X. Dias., Jr., left Annie with a decent estate that would care for her until her life ended later in 1940.  I would imagine that Lil is living with her mother as a caregiver, as Annie's health was failing by April of 1940.

Peter Paul Ponzo

Lorraine's father, Peter Paul Ponzo, born Pietro Paulo Ponzo in the Piedmont region of Italy, was living in Santa Rosa at the time of the 1940 census.

As with Bart, Lorraine, and Annie, I had an address for Peter Paul before I began looking at the 1940 census records.  I found him at 227 Hewett Street in Santa Rosa, a house he rents for $6 per month (makes Bart and Lorraine's house on T Street seem like a mansion, doesn't it?).  Peter Paul is 47 years old, born in Italy, divorced, and educated through the 8th grade.  He indicates that he worked 60 hours during the week of March 24 through 30, probably not much of an exaggeration as he works as a farmer in a prune orchard.  While researching Peter Paul, who lived as a child in Healdsburg, California, I discovered that Healdsburg is called "the buckle on the prune belt."  Too bad Peter Paul did not go into the wine business as some of his brothers and their descendants did--he might have earned more than the $0 he shows on this census record as having earned in 1939.



227 Hewett Street today



Living with Peter Paul is a 67-year-old widow lady, whose first name appears to be Gaelenetti and whose last name I cannot decipher.  She lists her occupation as Peter Paul's housekeeper, maybe a necessity for a busy prune farmer and his son.  That son, Clarence, is 20 years old, born in California.  Clarence completed two years of high school and works as a farmer on a "farm" (as opposed to his father who works as a farmer in a "prune orchard."). 

There is much more to be gleaned from the 1940 census--and much more to learn about prune farming, Sacramento in the 1940's, and the comings and goings of my fabulous ancestors.  Genealogy is the best hobby EVER.