Forgotten Neighborhood Found

Most genealogists are aware that in exactly one month the 1950 U.S. Federal Census will be released to the public (April 1, 2022). Per the Census Bureau, each census is released 72 years after it was taken. Not only is it fun to find family members in the census, there are usually amazing nuggets of information waiting to be uncovered.

Last week my local genealogy society, Marin County Genealogical Society, was lucky to have Stephen Morse present “Getting Ready for the 1950 Census: Searching with and without a Name Index”. It was an excellent presentation. You can view a video of the presentation under the Recorded Lectures page at the One-Step Webpages by Stephen P. Morse site.

As Steve Morse explains in the video, in order to browse the 1950 Census images when they are released, we will need to know where our family lived and the Enumeration District (ED) that address belongs to. The One Step website is the place to go once you have an address. It has an amazing tool that decodes the Enumeration District number. There are several other tools including the ED descriptions and ED maps.

The ED Maps helped me to find a forgotten neighborhood!

I know my grandparents were married a couple of months after the 1950 Census was taken. My grandmother told me the story of how she was set up on a blind date with my grandfather while they were both living in Wichita, Kansas. This story helped me to find City Directory entries for both of my grandparents in 1949 in Wichita.

Polk’s Wichita (Sedgwick County, Kansas) City Directory 1949
Polk’s Wichita (Sedgwick County, Kansas) City Directory 1949

My Grandma’s address worked like a charm in the One Step ED Finder page. It gave me three possible ED numbers. Using the ED descriptions, I was able to narrow this down to the correct Enumeration District.

My Grandpa’s address was a little tricky and led to the discovery of a lost neighborhood. 303 Beechwood Drive does not exist today in Wichita, Kansas. I tried to use street name change websites to identify the street. Bust! My next step was to google the address. Bingo! I found an article and audio file from KMUW89.1 (Wichita Public Radio) titled “Wichita’s Forgotten Neighborhoods“. Time to learn some local Wichita history!

During WWII, temporary housing was created in Wichita to house the many workers at the aircraft factories in the city. Two of the three neighborhoods still exist. The third neighborhood was Beechwood. Five hundred housing units were created. There were approximately 1000 people living in the neighborhood at the time my grandfather lived there. It was dismantled in 1951 and turned into a “grassy area”. Google Maps indicates there is now a YMCA and office buildings in the former neighborhood. There seems to still be large grassy areas between the buildings.

Once I had this new information, I used the description of Beechwood’s location in the news article and matched it up to the Enumeration Maps. The first map I pulled up was for the city of Wichita. I was excited to see the name Beechwood in the area I was looking for. It is marked with a yellow arrow below.

Since Beechwood fell outside of city lines, I next pulled up the Enumeration Map for the county of Sedgwick, Kanas

Beechwood falls into the yellow box to the East of Wichita. This reads 87-40 to 87-43 (ED numbers) See Urban Fringe Map For Detail. This led me to the map that identifies the Enumeration District I need to find my grandfather in the 1950 census.

Wichita is still heavily involved with the aviation industry. Textron, Learjet, Airbus, Boeing, the US Airforce and Beechcraft all have a presence in Wichita today. There are 3 airports within today’s city limits. The Beechcraft Airport in the above image is now called the Beech Factory Airport, honoring its roots as several aviation companies are located there.

It was so much fun to find more information about my family, the places they lived, and the forgotten neighborhood of Beechwood as I was prepping for the 1950 Census. I am excited to find the 1950 Census entry for my Grandpa. Browsing the images will hopefully paint a better picture of who was living in the neighborhood and what their lives were like.

A huge THANK YOU to Stephen Morse and Joel Weintraub for all the work they do at the One Step webpages. I would not have been able to find all of this without the amazing tools they have created.

{Treasure Chest} Elizabeth Nagy Death Certificate

It is twisted but digitizing the documents I have is so fun.  I have items I to be excited about a second time.  In late 2014 I ordered a round of documents to try to identify where in Hungary my Mother-in-law’s family immigrated from.

One of the documents I received is the Death Certificate for Elizabeth Nagy.  Unfortunately, there was no specific town in Hungary listed but the certificate does include some previously unknown information.  The biggest being Elizabeth’s non-Americanized name (Erzi) is listed on the certificate.  The certificate also lists a cause of death.  And another variation of the maiden name show up too.  I now have three variations: Viro, Varro, and Verro.  My last observation is that my younger daughter shares the same birthday as her great-great-great-grandmother.

Since this Death Certificate, I have used other records including marriage and baptism records from Hungary to identify Teresztyne, Abauj-Torna, Hungary as the birthplace of Erzsébet Varró.

 

View from above of Teresztyne, Abauj-Torna, Hungary. Image uploaded to Google Maps by David Toth – 2017.

Indiana State Board of Health

Bureau of Vital Statistics

Certificate of Death

Local No. 23
Registered No. 24051
  1. Place of Death: County: Lake, City: Whiting, Street Address: 1535 Steiber Street, Stay in community: 54 years
  2. Usual Residence of Deceased: State: Indiana, County: Lake, City: Whiting, Street No. 1535 Steiber Street
  3. Full Name: Erzi (Elizabeth) Nagy
  4. Sex: Female
  5. Color: White
  6. Single, Married, Widowed: Widowed, Name of husband or wife: John Nagy
  7. Birth Date of deceased: May, 15, 1870
  8. Age: 75 years, 3 months, 2 days
  9. Birthplace: Austria-Hungary
  10. Usual occupation: Housework
  11. Industry: Own Home
  12. Father’s name: Joseph Varro
  13. Father’s birthplace: Austria-Hungary
  14. Mother’s name: Unknown
  15. Mother’s birthplace: Austria-Hungary
  16. Informant: Mrs. Brice Voight – daughter, address: 1535 Steiber St., Whiting, Ind.
  17. Burial on 8/20/45 at ElmwoodCemetery, Hammond, Indiana
  18. Funeral Director: Irene Baran, 1231 119th St., Whiting, Ind.
  19. Filed 8-20, 1945 JA McDarthy
  20. Date of Death: August 17, 1945 at 10:30am
  21. I certify that death occurred on the date above stated; that I attended deceased from Feb 10, 1945 to Aug 17, 1945 and that I last saw her alive on Aug 16, 1945.  Immediate cause of death: carcinoma of liver, duration 2 years, no operation, no autopsy
  22. Violence: no accident, homicide, or suicide
  23. Signature: Michael E Rafatz MD, address: Whiting Ind, date signed: Aug 20/45

{Treasure} Handwritten Notes Part 1

I was lucky enough to have two years with my husband’s grandmother before she passed. Shirley (Gingg) Pope was a loving and caring woman. But don’t be fooled, she had a well of strength in her bones. We shared the love of genealogy. Shirley gets all the credit for doing her research via mail. She wrote numerous letters to people and repositories.

Shirley left a treasure trove of family history documents. After my husband’s grandfather left us to reunite with Shirley, we found even more amazing treasures. These included physical items such as fraternal order pins, military medals, and handwritten notes.

After going through so many pieces of paper research, I believe I found some of Grandma Shirley’s first handwritten notes. There are two sets. The first is one page of notes regarding Grandpa John’s ancestors. The second is 10 pages (some have notes on back) of the summary of what Shirley knew at the time. The 10 pages are on notepaper approximately 4″ wide and 6″ tall. They are held together by 2 staples.

I find it incredible to have Grandma Shirley’s handwritten notes. Her handwriting feels like a hug.

I have digitized the notes as part of my emergency preparedness push. I am including the first page in today’s post. All of the information has been added to both my personal research and online trees (FamilySearch and Ancestry). The only item that is inaccurate on this note is the father of Anna Hink. Further research completed by Shirley found Anna’s parents to be Johann Hink and Anna (Last Name Unknown).

Note* The children are listed as birth events. Elfrieda Johanna and Claus Alfred were twins.

Notes written by Shirley Pope.
Notes written by Shirley Pope.

John Pope m. Catherine Offerman

Pope side

  1. Anna Louise Pope Robinson

b  Nov 29, 1895 (?)

d  June 1961

2. John Rudolph Pope                        died 19 yrs.

Flu epidemic in S.F.

3. Elfrieda Johann Pope Fancher    Sept 19, 1901

Claus Alfred Pope                           Sept 19, 1901 – June 23, 1971

There was a baby born (the (1st one) who died early

and his name was John.

Poppe side – Sandbostal, Germany

Offerman side – Hechthausen, Germany

Catherine Offerman

Claus Henry Offerman                   Anna Hink

                                                            Adolf Hink           ?

{Treaasure Box} Amner Caroline (Ramsey) Flock Death Certificate

Amner Caroline (Ramsey) Flock (1840-1933) is my 3rd great grandmother.   She passed away in Enid, Oklahoma while living with her daughter, Adeline Martha (Flock) Tharp.  I have written about the final resting place of Amner and her husband John Flock.  You can read about it here.

After I transcribed the death certificate, I noticed two items that needed further analysis.  The first was the birth date for Amner Caroline.  It was listed 1841 on the death certificate.  This did not match with the date of 1840 I have in my software.  The next box on the death certificate listed that she would have been 92 years, 3 months, 4 days old at death.  I also noticed that my genealogy software said Amner Caroline would have been 92 years old with a death date in 1933.  I found an online date calculator and input the death date and subtracted the 92 years, 3 months, and 4 days.  Sure enough, the answer it calculated was 1840.  The person who filled out the death certificate made an error in the birth year.

Also, the informant is listed as Addie Thorp. The name Addie is a nickname for Adeline Martha Flock. A closer look proved her last name was misspelled.  Addie Flock married Frank Tharp in 1897 in Oregon.  All records in Oregon use the Tharp spelling. Addie had followed some of her siblings to Oregon before her marriage.  After her husband left her a widow, Addie moved into the same home as her mother in Enid, Oklahoma.

Amner Caroline (Ramsey) Flock Death Certificate

Amner Caroline Flock Death Certificate, 4 March 1933, registration district no. 24250, Primary Dist. no, 2401, Enid, Garfield, Oklahoma.  Bureau of Vital Statistics, Oklahoma State Board of Health, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

{Treasure Box} Barbara (Frick) Gamble Obituary

Barbara Frick is my 4th great grandmother.  I have written a previous blog post with a transcription of her obituary.  You can read it here.   I have also written a blog post about her burial with her husband, John Gamble.  You can read it here.

Here is a copy of the newspaper obituary I received from the Butler Area Public Library. There are some interesting details. It sounds like she may have suffered a stroke.

If you have any ancestors in Butler County, Pennsylvania, I would highly recommend checking out their Obituary Index.

Barbara Frick Gamble obituary

{Treasure Box} Daniel Wise Newspaper Clippings

Daniel Wise (1812-1892) is my 4th great grandfather.  We was born and lived in Western Pennsylvania.  A few years ago, I found the Butler County Public Library had an online obituary index.  You could then contact the library for the original newspaper article.  I was surprised to find that Daniel Wise had multiple listings in the index.  I was lucky that two references to a lunacy declaration was also included in the index.

The following articles relate to Daniel being judged a lunatic and his hospitalization at Dixmont.  Dixmont was the first mental health hospital in Pennsylvania.  It was a branch of the West Penn Hospital. Daniel passed away two years later in the hospital.  I have sent some emails to try to locate the original court records regarding the lunacy case.

There are some discrepancies in Daniel’s date of death.  The article below states it occurred 9 February 1892.  His probate papers state he died 18 January 1892.  I am hoping that a trip to the Pennsylvania State Archives might include records from Dixmont. Adding another genealogy trip to the list!

Daniel Wise lunacy case

Butler Citizen Newspaper, 16 August 1889, page 3, col 4. Butler Area Public Library, Obituary Index, microfilm 14.

Daniel Wise Lunacy Judgement

Butler Citizen, 24 January 1890, Page 3, column 6. Butler Area Public Library, Obituary Index, microfilm 015.

Daniel Wise death notice

Butler Citizen, 19 February 1892, page 2.  Butler Area Pulblic Library, Obituary Index, microfilm 015.

{Treasure Box} Burial Site of Agnes Mattson

Agnes Mattson (1909-1982) is my husband’s great grandmother.  She has an interesting burial story.  You can read about Agnes’ many husbands here.  You can also read a previous blog post about her grave site here.

Agnes was married to her 7th husband, Pat O’Malley, at the time of her death.  Pat was a widow at the time of his marriage to Agnes.  The couple had agreed during their marriage on a burial plan.  Pat would be buried with is deceased wife.  Agnes would be buried with her favorite husband, Donald Frazier.

This past summer the kids and I were driving past Colma, California and decided to make a spur of the moment decision to visit Agnes.  Olivet Memorial Park is another very large cemetery.  Although we have stopped by before, I could not remember where Agnes was buried.  We stopped by the office and received the following maps.  The pink area I have highlighted is where Agnes and Don are together.

Map of Olivet Memorial Park

Map of Section I, Olivet, Memorial Park

Agnes Mattson burial site, Section I, Number 178-3, Olivet Memorial Park, Colma, California.

{Treasure Box} Burial Site of William J Dempsey

William J Dempsey (1923-1998) is the brother of my grandmother, Mary Dempsey.  His remains were interred at the Riverside National Cemetery.

My grandparents, Mary and Jay Capelli, are interred at the same cemetery. After burying my grandmother last year, we stopped at the kiosks at the administration building.  The kiosks are to available to look up and locate the burial site of your family member.  These are extremely helpful as this is a very large cemetery.  The kiosk will print a map and burial site information for you.

Unfortunately, we were unable to visit Uncle Bill.  The columbarium were his ashes are interred was closed to the public as they were doing construction on a new building.

If you are preparing to visit the cemetery (or any military cemetery) the information is also available online at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs website.

Burial Site of Bill Dempsey

Dempsey, Bill Burial Site, Section AH, Row G, Site 23, Riverside National Cemetery, Riverside, California.

{Treasure Box} Burial Site Of My Paternal Grandparents

Last year my grandmother, Mary Dempsey (1921-2017) passed away.  She was buried with my grandfather, Celio “Jay” Capelli (1914-2009) at the Riverside National Cemetery.  While at the cemetery we stopped at the administration building.  Outside of the building, there are kiosks available to look up and locate the burial site of your family member.  These are extremely helpful as this is a very large cemetery.  The kiosk will print a map and burial site information for you.

If you are preparing to visit the cemetery (or any military cemetery) the information is also available online at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs website.

Burial Site of Mary and Jay Capelli

Website results for Mary and Jay Capelli

Capelli, Jay and Dempsey, Mary burial site, Section 58A, Site 2692, Riverside National Cemetery, Riverside, California.  U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Gravesite Locator website,  https://gravelocator.cem.va.gov/, accessed 22 November 2018.