Over the weekend, I was searching page by page, ED by ED through the 1940 Census. Specifically, Raleigh County, WV. That is where my maternal family is from and I still need to find my grandparents. Since, I was not having any luck locating either grandparent with their families. I decided I should look for my grandfather’s grandparents, or my great-great grandparents. My logic was that my grandfathers family should be someplace close by. My great-great grandfather had a large parcel of land tha the split amongst his children. So I knew that there would be many Richmond families in the same vicinity.
What I found, made me question what I knew about the family and it made me call me mother to see what she knew as well. According to what I found, my Richmond family, John and Nettie lived with all their children, even the married ones. Yet, there is no mention of spouses of grandchildren. At first glance, I only notice my great-grandfather was there without his family. So, I placed a call to my mom and asked her if she ever heard her father talk about living someplace without his father. Mom was pretty sure he had never told her that. While she was telling me this. I started really looking at this record and saw many of the Hunter’s (my great-grandfather) siblings were marked as married and living at home. Very odd.
Roy Richmond Family and John E Richmond Family, 1940 US Federal Census, Town, Raleigh Co, West Virginia.
John Richmond Family (balance), 1940 US Federal Census, Town, Raleigh Co, West Virginia.
I understand that times were hard, so it is not inconceivable that some children might have had to move home in order to be able to afford to live. Heck, how many young adults have done that in our economic conditions.
But, what really made me start looking at what this record was telling me, is when I noticed that Roy was living there as well. I went to my database to verify who his spouse was, (this is a large family and I had never really spent a lot of time researching or even face to face with relatives on this line). Roy’s wife was Lily (last name currently unknown). Interesting, just above John E and Nettie Richmond are Roy and Lily Richmond and they are the same age. With this coincidence, I decided I needed to check one more family. Hunter and Roy had a sister, Mae, she married French Meadows and I know that I had already downloaded their page of the 1940 Census. I pulled it up and then went back to the page with John and Nettie to see if Mae was listed in their home as well. Guess what, she was. It seems that Nettie, supplied the enumerator with information on all her children.
French Meadows Family, 1940 US Federal Census, Town, Raleigh Co., West Virginia.
With this information, I know that I still need to search for Hunter Richmond with his wife Edith and their family. It also gives me a list of children for John and Nettie, now I can double-check and see if I am missing anyone from my research.
Finding Our Ancestors 