When at first you don't succeed, try, try again

As I said in my previous post, I was excited to look for my ancestors in the 1930 census when it was released in 2002. I first looked for my dad, who would have been five and a half years old, with his parents, Charles and Elizabeth Pyle. Charles and Elizabeth were married in 1919 and were listed in New York City in the 1920 census (under Charles Pyles). Now, I wasn't sure if they would be in New York City or in Morris County, New Jersey in 1930, so I had a bit of looking to do. I did find them in a Morris County directory in 1929, so began to focus there. I searched on and off for several years, but couldn't find them. At one point, I was working my way through the 1930 Morris County, New Jersey census, enumeration district by enumeration district, page by page, on the microfilm machine, but I didn't find them, as I never got all the way through the many townships in the area.

A couple of years ago, I went to my local public library and explored both Ancestry.com and HeritageQuest in search of this family in 1930. I tried various searching tricks to see how they might have been mis-indexed, and sure enough, by searching for Elizabeth [no last name], born in 1897 (+/- 1 year), in Morris County, New Jersey, I had success. The individuals were indexed incorrectly, as Ryle, Charles McAlpin (head), McAlpin, Elizabeth (wife), and Ryle, Chaeles McAlpin (son).

1930 U.S. Federal Census, Harding, Morris, New Jersey; Roll: 1373: Page: 8A; Enumeration District: 25; Ancestry.com image: 740.0. Record for Ryle Chaeles McAlpin [sic: Charles McAlpin Pyle].

Lines 11-16 show my grandparents' household. They were on New Mendham Road in Harding Township and owned their own home, valued at $75,000. They owned a radio and had three servants (two Irish, one Scottish) living with them, a cook, a waitress, and a (child's) nurse. I remember my grandmother, who died in 1983, and I believe she had a hired cook her entire life, as she never learned to cook herself. Charles, age 37, was born in New Jersey, and both of his parents were born in New York. His occupation is "broker" in the industry "stocks". Elizabeth, age 31 (actually she was 32) is listed as being born in Illinois with both of her parents being born in Illinois, however, I know that her mother (my great-grandmother) was born in Kentucky (hence the Kentucky in the name of my blog). My father, Charles, is listed as five years old. (He would turn six in just a couple of months) and was born in New York.

This is a photograph of young Charles (Charlie) Pyle, taken in the mid 1920's, most likely in New Jersey. There is certainly family resemblance to be found in his five children and his six grandsons.


This photograph was made into a post card, and on the back of the post card is written:
 

Charles P- Jr. from his doting Grandmother

I recognize the handwriting as that of Frances Adelaide McAlpin Pyle (Charles Pyle Sr.'s mother) from several letters that she wrote during the 1920's and 1930's.





I know this is getting long, but one more photo of young Charlie:

on the back reads: C McA. P Jr. 1928