Ancestry.com has finally released the indexes to the 1950 Census. A SEARCHABLE index. While the hints haven't shown up yet as of the publishing of this blog post, you can search for your ancestor and then add the census to your tree. Oh, I've been so waiting for this! While I've found the majority of everyone on my list there were still a few family members I had yet to locate. Either because they moved somewhere I wasn't aware of or they traveled a lot and I couldn't track them. There are some of the family members I found and some surprises as well.
James Benjamin Francis Wheeler
J. B. Wheeler is the father of my grandpa, Les Wheeler. I had a few address options for him, but neither had panned out when. He was one of the first names I searched on Ancestry to see if he would pop up. And he did!
Surprisingly, he was living with his oldest living son, James Enoch Wheeler, and his family. They were living in Oakland, Missouri at 961 Big Bend Rd. I hadn't even attempted to look for James E Wheeler when I originally made my list. I figured I would look him up later after the index had come out. I never guessed J. B. Wheeler would be living with his son.
Something exciting I found was J. B. was on the final line of the census, which means not only is he on a sample line, he has extra questions. More than everyone else. I learned a couple things about J. B. I learned he attended school up until past 7th grade. He finished 7th grade but did not go any further. I also learned the last job he held was in construction. One of the questions did ask how long he had been married last and he put 20 years. He also selected "yes" that he had been married more than once. If I didn't know this already, this would have been helpful. But these weren't the most surprising facts I learned by locating this census.
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| 1950 US Federal Census James Wheeler & Family Oakland, St. Louis, Missouri ED: 95-269; Lines 24-30 Ancestry.com |
As I was looking at this census, I had one question: Where was Pearl? Lucy Pearl was J. B. Wheeler's 3rd wife. They were married in 1930. The family was well acquainted as both their children from previous marriages had married. But, where was she? She wasn't living in the household. Then I looked a little to the right and noticed under the "Marriage" column, "Sep" was written, which means separated. Interesting! A quick search for Lucy Pearl Wheeler brought up a census record where she was living as a lodger. She was also listed as "Sep". This shocks me as there was no indication that they had separated in the information I had. J. B. Wheeler died in 1957 and he was listed as still being married. Lucy Pearl Wheeler died in 1967 and she was listed as a widow. Even J. B.'s obituary states, "Wife, Lucy Pearl Wheeler" so they never officially got divorced. It is unclear if they ever moved back in with each other. Almost a year before he passed, he moved into a nursing home where he lived out his life.
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| 1950 US Federal Census Pearl Wheeler St. Louis, Missouri ED 96-599; Line 30 Ancestry.com |
Ruth Kelley
With all the moving around and traveling he did, I knew it would be difficult to find them in this census. I did try using addresses I had for them but wasn't successful. So I was waiting, impatiently, for the index to be released to find them. And I finally DID find them! Although, I was slightly disappointed.
They were living in the area I thought they were, but just at a different address. So it really wasn't as exciting as I thought it was going to be, but I am still glad I found them. Aunt Ruth was working in a cafeteria at a high school which Uncle Howard traveled around. I wonder if her picture would show up in a yearbook from around that time. Hmmm... Anyway, I'm still glad to have found them.
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| 1950 US Federal Census James H Kelley, Ruth H Kelley ED 98-672; Lines 1-2 Indianapolis, Marion, Indiana Ancestry.com |
Those are the two ancestors I was unable to locate by address and ED districts alone. It took the index being finished for me to locate them. I did learn some new information about my family so it was definitely worth locating. I will search for more ancestors later, but these are the more important to me.
Have you tried using the index on Ancestry yet?
Who have you found?
Wild info you found on JB and Pearl!
ReplyDeleteI know right? Just when you think you won't find anything of particular interest, your ancestors surprise you haha!
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