The Sacramento Public Library has a pretty slick website for Library Card holders which has census records, City Directories, etc.
I looked up one of the Surveyors I have followed a lot in Mendocino County, F E Lermond.?ÿ Lermond perpetuated a lot of original government corners with concrete monuments in the 1930s.?ÿ The 1940 Census says he worked zero weeks and made zero dollars in 1939.?ÿ The computer version listed his occupation as "Sand Sweater." I thought maybe it's a joke by an old smart alek Land Surveyor (his town of residence, Fort Bragg, is on the California Coast). But I looked on the image of the actual handwritten page, it says Land Surveyor in script, a little hard to read except I know what it says.
Pretty hard to ignore the tail on the y in surveyor.
When reading old handwriting, I try to compare the letters in the words that are hard to read versus similar letters in words with less ambiguity to see which the are.?ÿ You'd think someone transcribing old records would get familiar with the writing.?ÿ I doubt that could be automated.
I had to correct familysearch.com because in the 1910 census they interpreted my grandmothers 1st name as Saura, rather than Laura.?ÿ I've never heard of a person named Saura....but apparently the Mormon's software had...
Mr. K,
I sure hope that there was no ill will or even a negative connotation to the use of the term sand sweater, being a sand sweater for 47 plus years, my damn sweaty self.
JA, PLS SoCal
"he worked zero weeks and made zero dollars in 1939"... my father said he was hungry also. He said he "fruit tramped" (itinerant fruit picker) because he could eat some spoiled fruit and maybe share a few coins with his siblings back home.
?ÿ
PS: Ft. Bragg is full of smart aleks
I had to correct familysearch.com because in the 1910 census they interpreted my grandmothers 1st name as Saura, rather than Laura.?ÿ I've never heard of a person named Saura....but apparently the Mormon's software had...
My grandfather had a brother with the first name of "Tenny".?ÿ This was apparently because he was born in Tennessee.?ÿ I had always thought it was just a nickname, but it was his real given name.
Anyway, that "Utah" software you mentioned messes up his name every time.?ÿ Jenny, Fanny, Lanny, Benny or Renny are the most common.?ÿ
I've been trying to figure out the words in the column to the right of Land Surveyor...I'm pretty sure it is "Own Office."
One of his neighbors, a Carpenter, works in "Own Shop" it looks like.
I found my Mother's parents in the 1943 St. Louis, MO City directory...that didn't come up in the search, I had to leaf through the book to find them.
The row below is easy: Nursing General Hospital.
That's his wife
Another good one from genealogy research. ?ÿA neighbor had a brother who I met a couple of times when I was a youngster. ?ÿHis name was Lex. ?ÿHe shows up in census records from 1930 as Sex.
Did you check what column that is under, it may be "Occupation". Censuses always yield a few jokers and dreamers.
Another census oddity. ?ÿYoung wives were frequently reported to be significantly older than their true age. ?ÿIn future census records they would only age 7 or 8 years per decade. ?ÿThe husbands nearly always aged 10 years per decade.
Another census oddity. ?ÿYoung wives were frequently reported to be significantly older than their true age. ?ÿIn future census records they would only age 7 or 8 years per decade. ?ÿThe husbands nearly always aged 10 years per decade.
if true, why would that be?
Probably to mask the age disparity, men had to be established and women had to married off early to get them off the family dime, just guessing, though.
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I noticed that a lot of people had a lodger, it was very common.?ÿ Cheap housing for the lodger, extra income for the family.
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My Father's Uncle Otto had children more or less our contemporaries.?ÿ In 1940 he was 33 and living in San Jose as a lodger.?ÿ His occupation was mechanic.?ÿ I assume he couldn't get established until after the Great Depression whereas my Grandparents (he was my Father's Mother's little brother) got established in the early 1920s so were able to have children earlier.
Another census oddity. ?ÿYoung wives were frequently reported to be significantly older than their true age. ?ÿIn future census records they would only age 7 or 8 years per decade. ?ÿThe husbands nearly always aged 10 years per decade.
if true, why would that be?
I've seen similar instances.?ÿ Birth dates derived from census seem to be a bit 'loose' sometimes, especially with female spouses that are a good deal younger than their male partners.?ÿ I guess women have been lying about their age longer than I had imagined. ??ÿ
My g-grandfather was five years younger than my g-grandmother.?ÿ For some reason on most everything that was recorded he felt compelled to state his birth year as that of his wife's.?ÿ I guess there was some social significance with that back then...who knows?
