Who Do You Need To Find?

The 1940 US Census will be released to the public in about a month. Who are you hoping to find? I’ve got a few names.

Besides the obvious of those already found in the 1930 census who survived the decade, I have a few mysteries to work on that I hope this census will help with.

A cousin who is now deceased told me about some possible cousins. They were, at the least, good friends of the family. But she gave me their Yiddish names, making it even more difficult to find them.

For starters, Basya and Isya Greenfield could have a variety of Americanized names. They will probably be the hardest to find, as I’ve searched for Greenfield before and there are a lot.

Jan and Celia Kaminsky and son Julian should be easier. I almost found them in the 1930 census, but the son was listed as Lucian. My cousin could have been wrong, but I’m going to check in 1940 for a better match before I put in a lot of effort into researching the wrong family. If I can’t find a better match than the 1930 find, then that’s who I will look for.

Another mystery is the Smith family. That’s right, I’ve got Jewish Smiths in New York: Abram and Florry Smith, though I’m not sure if that’s his wife or daughter. A postcard sent to my grandmother from Florry was probably sent in the 1930s, given the address. I haven’t been able to find a likely match in 1930, so hopefully 1940 will help. I know Abram was in the US before 1933, but I have no dates on any of the photos.

I had a few arrivals in the 1930s including Fanny Rosenthal. I’m also curious if I’ll find anything about her mysterious husband. She probably only married to move to the US, but I wonder if they were legally divorced. Not that the census will tell me, but it will tell me where she lived. Was she working at Grossinger’s yet? Probably not. Yesterday was the anniversary of her death there in 1954.

Sam Feldstein died in 1933, but his wife Clara and their many descendents should be in there too. Maybe I’ll find enough information to find a living descendent. The right clue could lead to figuring out if we’re really related to that family.

I haven’t even tried to look up addresses or EDs. I plan to help index. Then we’ll all be able to search by name sooner.

Do you have some mystery people that are begging to be found in this census?

The URL of this post is http://idogenealogy.com/blog/2012/02/29/who-do-you-need-to-find/.

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