Stories From the 1950 Census ~ Census Number 10 For Aunt Claude

My second great grand aunt, Anna Claudine Freeland, lived long enough to be enumerated in ten federal censuses!

I have previously written about Great Aunt Claudine Freeland. I have also shared her brief obituary. (She outlived her four siblings by several decades.)

Sadly, as genealogists know, the 1890 federal census didn't survive a fire in 1921, with most of the damage coming from water used to put out the fire. Following is a summary of what I have found for "Aunt Claude" in all the other federal census records.

Year      Name                                Age      Occupation            Head of Household                  
1860     Hannah E. Freeland             5            -                         her parents, James and Nancy
1870     Clara Freeland                   15         at school               her widowed mother, Nancy
1880     Claude A. Freeland            25        School Teacher     her widowed mother, Nancy
1900     Anna C. Freeland               43        School Teacher     her widowed mother, Nancy
1910     Claudie Freeland                41        School Teacher     her (unmarried) brother, William
1920     Glaudine Freeland              50        School Teacher     lodger living in a boarding house
1930     Anna Claudine Freeland    75        None                      roomer living in Orlando, Florida
1940     Claudine Freeland              85        None                     lodger living in a boarding house

Yes, in 1910 and 1920 she lied about her age - rather substantially! After retirement, she seemed more comfortable with providing her accurate age.

Great Aunt Claude (as my mother remembers her), lived in Pittsburgh most of her life, except when I found her in Florida in the 1930 census. I wonder if she was simply on vacation, though I cannot find her in city directories in either Orlando or Pittsburgh in the years around 1930.

In 1950, she was living in a lodging house in Pittsburgh. (The handwriting is so bad that I found her by knowing her address and searching the enumeration district page by page.)

1950 U.S. census, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, ED 77-198, sheet 20, line 26, household 64 (Claudine Freeland); U.S. National Archives, 1950 Census (https://1950census.archives.gov/search/).

Claudine Freeland was a lodger in a boarding house at 4716 Bayard Street run by an Englishwoman named Anna Campbell. There were 11 residents in this house, including the manager of the boarding house. Four appeared to be retired and of the remaining residents, occupations included teacher, chemical engineer, chemist, librarian, and insurance company clerk. The residents included several widows, several who never married, and one married couple.

She was living at a different boarding house in 1940.

Claudine was by far the oldest resident at the age of 95. Ages of the other residents ranged from 31 to 75 with most in their 60s and 70s. All but the house manager were born in Pennsylvania.

Claudine was one of six on the page who was asked the supplemental questions. She reported three years of college education and $1,200 in income from interest, dividends, or pensions.

This is what the row house looks like today.

4716 Bayard Street, Pittsburgh, courtesy Google Maps

These residents must have each lived in one room. I wonder if the other residents helped take care of Claudine or if she was self-sufficient?

On June 5, 1952, she suffered a fall at home and fractured her hip. She died on June 14, 1952, of "Hypostatic Pneumonia due to fracture of right hip caused by fall to floor." I shared her death certificate at Great Aunt Claudine Freeland.