Maternal Censuses - Elizabeth (Suderman) Fast 1940

I have focused much of my family research on my paternal lines. But I thought I would track my maternal lines back through census records to see what I would find. So I'll start with my paternal grandmother Elizabeth (Suderman) Fast in the most recent census in which she appears.

Source: U.S. Census of 1940, Texas County, Oklahoma, Nabisco Township, e.d. 70-14, sheets 2B-3A, family #38, household of David D. Fast, lines 74-80 and 1, accessed online at ancestry.com, 20 October 2012.

The first census to look at is the 1940 US census for Hardesty Township, Texas County, Oklahoma. She and her husband David D. Fast lived in a leased house for which they paid $5 a month in rent, what the family called the Rock House, since it had been built of soft chalk rock in 1881 by David Donaldson. Although there were two other families that rented for $5 a month, the Fasts were clearly living in one of the poorest houses in the neighborhood. (I believe this was the rent for the house, not the rent for the ranch land.) 

Location of Fast ranch in 1940.

Elisabeth was 47 years old, having been born in 1892 but not yet having had her September birthday in 1940.

David and Elizabeth had six children: Viola E. (14 years old), Rose E. (13), David E. (10), Harold E. (8), Mildred B. (7), and Jacob S. (6). The census records that Elizabeth had had six children and that all six were living at the census date. The census record can prompt interesting questions if we look carefully at the information. For example, why do the first four children have the initial "E"? I happen to know from my dad that each one was given a middle name starting with "E" in honor of his mother: Viola Elizabeth, Rose Ethel, David Ernest, and Harold Eugene in that order. But I don't know why that pattern changed for Mildred and Jake.

Elizabeth and her family.

The census also records the birthplace of each family member. Elizabeth had been born in Kansas and was now living in Oklahoma, but she made a lot of moves in between that this census does not record. Also, notice that the children were born in different states. And there is a story with each one. Viola was born at home, on the farm southeast of Hooker, Okla. But Elizabeth decided she wanted to have hospital births after that, so Rose was born across the state line in Liberal, Kans. The plan was for David to be born in Liberal as well, but he came too quickly, so he was born at the farm near Hooker, Okla. Then Harold, my dad, and Mildred were born in Liberal, Kans., both according to plan. By 1936, the Depression was hitting very hard, and babies were dying of dust pneumonia; so the Fasts made a move to California that turned out to be temporary, which is why Jake was born there. But they were back near Hardesty by the time of the 1940 census.

Next we see a question about where the family was living in 1935 - it turns out to be the same house. If we look at the neighbors, we see that most of them were also living in the same house. It's possible people were moving away because of the Dust Bowl, but they certainly weren't moving to the area. In fact, based on family stories, I think most of these people had lived here for years, so it was a stable neighborhood with close-knit relationships. These were tough people who by 1940 had stayed through a decade of the worst that the Dust Bowl and Depression could deal out.

Finally, we should look at the neighbors, and there are many whose names I have heard: Jim and Anna Beasley, Fred Mayer, Jake Neff and his son Boss, George Oiler, Jula Wood, and Willard and Alta Mae Jones. But notice that there are no Mennonite names on the two pages where the Fasts appear - when the Fast family lost its farm near Hooker and had to move to a leased ranch near Hardesty, they moved far from their church community and into an "English" one. While David and Elizabeth remained staunch Mennonite Brethren church members all their lives, it took an effort to do so. And their children were the only Mennonites in the Hardesty school. They no longer did business in Hooker, Tyrone, and Liberal where their fellow Mennonites did business - instead they did business in Hardesty and Guymon where their "English" neighbors went. Their daily social ties were with "English" neighbors.

It is amazing the amount of information that can be pulled out of a census record, especially when there are family stories with which it can be correlated.

Grandpa's Trouble with Debt

My grandfather David D. Fast #112876 (1884-1974) learned a hard lesson about debt in the Great Depression.  About a year ago, I wrote a post about my courthouse research on his mortgages.  Shortly after that, Adam from Niceville, Fla., in an act that truly represented the name of his town, contacted me to say that he was cleaning up his grandfather's stuff and had found some documents related to my grandfather's mortgages.  He was kind enough to Fedex them to me, postage-paid.

The documents were seven interest coupons on a mortgage that my grandfather made with C. H. Bailey on 28 February 1921.  My grandfather owed $350 interest every six months, and he apparently sent it in with an interest coupon that he cut from a sheet of coupons.  Here's the first coupon in the series:

 I was glad to get the coupons, but they weren't that exciting until I compared the due dates with the dates of payment stamped or written on the front.   The first one, shown above, was paid on time, as was the second one.  But the third one was paid five months late, the next six months late, against six months late, and then seventh one (due on 28 August 1924) was on time again.

Interestingly, my grandfather married on 10 June 1924, and my grandmother, Elisabeth Suderman #55577 (1892-1981), came from a moderately well-to-do farming family.  She had owned land before she married, and I have the impression that they did not tolerate being late in payments.  Since the next payment due after they were married was the seventh one (the first time Grandpa had been on time on for a couple years), I wonder if it was under her influence that he caught up on payments.

In any case, it didn't matter in the end.  Grandpa continued rolling over the principal because he couldn't repay it and finally lost his farm on 4 August 1931 as the falling wheat prices of the Great Depression took their toll.  But read my post linked at the beginning for the happy ending to the story.

BTW, both Adam and I wondered how these items wound up in his grandfather's possession.  He also found documents from other unrelated people in the Midwest in the same stack.  He said that his grandfather was a flea market seller, so I've wondered if perhaps the interest coupons were in an item of furniture that was sold at some point.  But it's all speculation.  In any case, I'm extremely grateful that he contacted me and gave me the interest coupons.

Going to the Courthouse - Other Records

There are many more minor groups of records in courthouses that can still be of great interest to genealogists.  You may not be able to find all of these in all counties, but they are all worth pursuing.

Cemetery Records.  Most courthouses have a list of cemeteries in the county, including small and private cemeteries and single burials, most commonly in the county clerk's office.  Don't miss the chance to find your ancestor's grave.

School Records.  As recently as half a century ago, counties were blanketed with rural school districts.  The county clerk may have records from these school districts, including censuses of school-age children, board meeting minutes, and even children's grades, although many have been lost or destroyed.  Was your ancestor on the school board?  You'll need to find a map of school districts for the county to figure out which school your ancestor attended.  Here is an example I found when my grandmother Elisabeth (Suderman) Fast was listed among the school-age children of Paris School District #23 in Harvey County, Kansas, in 1898.

Census of School Population, 30 July 1898, Paris School District #23, Harvey County, Kansas, Register of Deeds, Courthouse, Newton.

This school census showed that the Suderman family was still living in Kansas in the middle of 1898, even though their father had bought land in south Texas in December 1897.

Criminal and Civil Court Records.  I suspect that far more of our ancestors were involved in criminal and civil cases than we realize today.  Occasionally these records are indexed, but far more often they are unindexed and located in dusty volumes in a vault.  If there is an index, I always check it for my ancestors.  On the rare occasion that I know that they were involved in a case, I will search for it, but this is usually a hard set of documents to search.

Vital Records.  Sometimes counties kept vital records of births, marriages, and deaths before the official state-mandated recording began; so these may be the only official source for these events.  For example, I found the marriage license for my great-grandparents Heinrich F. Reimer #317342 (1856-1923) and Katharina Barkman #317343 (1856-1943), who were married on 5 February 1880.  Nebraska did not keep state marriage records until 1909, but Jefferson County started in 1864.

Marriage license of Heinrich Reimer and Catharina Barkmann, 5 February 1880, Jefferson County, Nebraska, No. 473437, County Clerk's Office, Courthouse, Fairbury.

This document gave me the date and place of their marriage, their parents, the witnesses, and the minister who performed the wedding.  And it was issued by the county a full twenty-nine years before the state required them to do so.  Writing to Lincoln would not have produced this gem.

While you are in town, make sure to visit the genealogy room at the city or county library and the local historical museum.  They may have city directories, farm directories, newspaper clippings, town and county histories, family histories, collections of local letters and diaries, photographs, and much, much more.  Go to the church where your ancestor worshiped to look at their records.  If you still have relatives, even distant cousins, in the county, connect with them as they may have valuable records and stories that need to be written down as well.

By now you should have at least a week's worth of research to do in any county where your ancestor lived.  Good luck and happy hunting!