This past week I continued to browse through the recently released 1940 census on Ancestry.com. This time I was looking for my husband’s side of the family.
I found Joe’s mother Louise with her family right away. I knew they were probably living in Celina, Jefferson Township, Mercer County, Ohio, but I did not know which ward. I chose a section of town west of Livingston Street and luckily made the right choice.
The Edward Roesner family was right there on line 33, the page 1A, Ward 3, enumeration district (ED) 54-18. They lived at 217 Echo Avenue and owned their home which was valued at $5000. The family consisted of Edward, head, 44; Helen, wife, 34; Frederick, son, 17; and Louise, daughter, 17, all born in Ohio. They lived in the same house in 1935. Ed’s occupation was watchman for a steam railroad and he was employed 52 weeks during 1939, and earned $1300.
I also located Joe’s grandfather Vermont H. Bennett and his family. They were living in Yorkshire, Patterson Township, Darke County, Ohio, ED 19-39, sheet 2B, line 44. They owned their home which was valued at $700. The family consisted of Vermont H., head, 53; M. Evelyn, wife, 50; and Helen, daughter, 13. Vermont and Helen were both born in Ohio and living in the same house in 1935. His wife Evelyn was born in Nebraska and living in Grand Junction, Mesa, Colorado, in 1935. Vermont’s first wife, Lura (Monroe), died in 1935 and he had remarried Mattie Evelyn (Yeaton) Bennett. Evelyn was the widow of Vermont’s brother Delaware. Vermont’s occupation was postmaster of a rural post office. He worked 52 weeks during 1939 and earned $690.
Joe’s father Dwight, Vermont’s son, was not listed in the Vermont Bennett household and I do not know where to look for him.
Joe had two great-grandmothers living in 1940, Sarah (Cain) Monroe and Aretha (Green) Lee.
Sarah (Cain) Monroe, the widow of James Francis Monroe, was living in the Roy Grunden household, Franklin Township, Mercer County, ED 54-8, sheet 1A, line 11. The household consisted of Roy Grunden, head, 53; Stella, wife, 42; Jimmie, son, 17; Virginia, daughter, 12; Gail, son, 2; Sarah Monroe, mother-in-law, 80, widow, born in Indiana. The rest of the family members were born in Ohio. Roy was an assembler in an agricultural implement factory, worked 26 weeks in 1939 and made $350.
I looked through several areas of Paulding County, northern Van Wert County, and the Monroeville, Indiana, area, but I could not locate Aretha Lee. I’ll probably just have to wait until the 1940 census is indexed to find Dwight and Aretha.
Some thoughts and comments while looking through 1940 census pages: Good penmanship must not have been a requirement for the position of census taker. Why did the Census Bureau furnish some enumerators with pens that left ink blotches in the middle of a name? One enumerator left blank lines at the bottom of most sheets so the next household could be started on a new sheet. Nice for indexing, but they probably weren’t supposed to do that. Another census taker started out writing the surname of every single person on every line. That lasted for about two sheets.
This past week I also indexed 7 batches of the 1940 census, sheets from Kansas and Franklin County, Ohio. Yes, Ohio is now up for indexing. It would be fun to index Mercer and Van Wert Counties.