Family Lore: Justice Samuel Sewall ~ 52 Ancestors #1

The first week's theme for this year's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks (from Amy Johnson Crow) is "Family Lore."

Living in New England, we learned about the Salem Witch Trials in school. We also lived close enough to Salem, Massachusetts, that we visited the various historic sites as children. From a young age, we were told that we descended from Justice Samuel Sewall, one of the well-known judges at some of these witch trials.

This family lore is true; we do descend from Justice Samuel Sewall. He is both my 7th great-grandfather and my 8th great-grandfather. (See the ancestral line below.)

1729 painting by John Smibert

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

Stories From the Census ~ Libby in 1950

My paternal grandmother (born Elizabeth Adsit) was called by her nickname, Libby, even by her grandchildren. I found her under the name Elizabeth A. Rust relatively easily in the 1950 census using the National Archives index.

She and her (second) husband, Edgar C. Rust, lived in Newton, Massachusetts.

Not all their information in the census is accurate, making me wonder who provided the details to the census enumerator. Perhaps Libby provided the information and didn't want to be truthful because she was about 15 years younger than her husband. The census reported that they were five years apart in age.

1950 U.S. census, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Newton, ED 26-89, sheet 8, lines 1-5, household 51 (Edgar C Rust & family); U.S. National Archives, 1950 Census (https://1950census.archives.gov/search/).

Edgar C. Rust, age 65 [actually 67], and Elizabeth A. Rust, age 60 [actually 52], both born in Massachusetts [actually Libby was born in Illinois], lived at 22 Gatehouse Rd. in Newton. (Not quite the right address - more about that below.)

Edgar worked 45 hours the previous week as an Executor in a Banking Firm. Libby is listed as "H" (keeping house). Three maids lived with them: 65-year-old Katherine M. Fannon, a widow, born in Ireland; 50-year-old Theresa Walsh, never married, born in Ireland; and 45-year-old Susan H. MacWhister, never married, born in Scotland. These women worked 60 (!) hours during the previous week as maids for a private family. (Libby's "keeping house" was likely telling the maids what needed to be done.)

The 1950 census included space either at the top or the bottom of each page for the enumerator to write additional notes about the households on that page. Be sure to take a look at any notes on the page.

Stories From the 1950 Census ~ My Great Aunts Were Farmers

I previously shared that my mother remembers walking (quite a distance) to visit her grandmother Marguerite when she was growing up outside of Pittsburgh. She was supposedly her grandmother's favorite grandchild and even spent three months living with her when she was eight years old and recovering from (possibly) rheumatic fever, which left her with a lifetime heart murmur.

My great-grandmother, Marguerite (Lysle) Hunter, was the first ancestor I found in the 1950 census when it became available on April 1 at the National Archives website. No, I didn't find her by searching for Marguerite Hunter (a relatively common first name combined with a very common surname in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania). I searched for her divorced daughter, Mary Gerken.

1950 U.S. census, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Hampton Township, ED 2-366, sheet 7, lines 17-19, household 55 (Marguerite Hunter & daughters); U.S. National Archives, 1950 Census (https://1950census.archives.gov/search/).

Stories from the Census ~ Dad (Again!) in 1950

 Last week, I shared my dad's story from the 1950 census.

A couple of days later, I learned that Ancestry.com has made their 1950 US Census index available for all states and territories, due to confidence in their proprietary artificial intelligence technology that created a separate index than what NARA has (both created by using OCR on handwriting but using their own technology). You do have to set up a free account, but that provides you with access to not only the 1950 US Census, but the 1940 US Census and the 1880 US Census among other free indexes.

You can hear Ancestry's Crista Cowen excitedly explain what Ancestry has done in a YouTube video from last Wednesday.

So to check out this newly-available index, I entered Dad's name into the search boxes. He appeared at the top of the results page... twice! Notice the differences in the column "Home in 1950."

The first result is the one I shared last week. Dad was living at 156 Thornton Road in Brookline, Norfolk County, Massachusetts.

The second result (Jeannette's name was spelled incorrectly in both indexes), shows that he lived at 156 Thornton Road, Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts.