Back In the Saddle Again

The itch to write has been bugging me for too, too long. So here I am once again blogging about my family history research after a break of over 3 years.. Plus it's my 200th post, so why not? 

The biggest news recently is that my WikiTree profile of my great-grandfather William Frederick Ogden (mapapa) was awarded "Gold Standard: Genealogically Complete and Peer Reviewed." Yay for me! His profile was one that I did for the Profile Improvement Project in WikiTree. (A great and rewarding experience. Highly recommend.) I chose him for that project because I didn't feel I had enough info on him. Now I obviously have more than enough. 

I still have profiles for my paternal grandparents and my other 7 great-grandparents that are ready for Gold Standard review. I've gotten some feedback on a couple of them. It appears that the best thing for me to do is join the monthly "Go for Gold" challenge on WikiTree, submit one for the month, and see if I can get one profile accepted each month. 

Here the other family history projects I have on my plate right now:

• Application for Certificate of Canadian Citizenship. My great-grandfather William Ogden (see above) was born in Ontario. His parents were born in New Brunswick and Ontario. His paternal grandparents were born in New Brunswick. His other ancestors were born in Scotland or were Loyalists who moved to New Brunswick after the revolution. I think 5 ancestors born in Canada should be enough to qualify me.

•  Everard Huigen's (papapapa) military records. I recently discovered a Dutch military record for my 2xgreat-grandfather. I had no idea he had served. This opens up a whole new chapter in his life for me. I posted the record to the Dutch Genealogy Facebook Group and was rewarded with 2 more military records of his and some explanation of what they say in Dutch. He was drafted and served from 1846 to 1851 in the Artillery and Horse Artillery. I think I will need to hire someone to transcribe and translate the records for me. I also want to find out if there are more military records for him.
• Resolve duplicate WikiTree profiles. During the last WikiTree Connect-a-Thon, I came across duplicate profiles for a pair of my 3xgreat-grandparents in WikiTree: Johann Toemmes and Maria Schmitt (papapamapa and papapamama). I need to determine all the sources for these two from my records and from the duplicate profiles and merge them into a single, well sourced pair of profiles.
•  Photos. After my brother's death two years ago, I took possession of his photo collection and my parents' collection, which he had.There is a lot to do on thousands of these photos. Some are duplicates, triplicates, and beyond, Some I have already scanned and processed. Some have when, who, and where on them; others do not. It is very overwhelming and hard to figure out an efficient process for working through them.

If all that seems like a lot, I agree. Overwhelming at times.

I also have many stories to share about my ancestors and I created this blog for that purpose. Here are some of those that I'd like to get around to posting:

•  My great-grandfather who was hit over the head with a bottle at a 4th of July party
• The same great-grandfather whose house burnt down
• My Dutch 3xg-grandfather who served in  the French National Guard during the Napoleonic Wars
•  My 2xg-grandfather who fell to his death off of a bridge down to the river 30' below
• My 11xg-grandfather who lived in Haworth, Yorkshire, England 300 years before the Bronte family
•  The Orphan Train adoption of my dad's Uncle Charlie
• My parents' first date

Please let me know if any of those stories sound like something you'd like to know more about.  

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 14 "Begins with a vowel"

 Emery and Esther Ogden were my maternal grandparents. Two given names and a shared surname that all begin with a vowel. That seems like a good choice for this prompt.

Emery Ogden about 1929

Emery was born 9 September 1896 in Union County, South Dakota, probably in Spink Township. That's where his parents were living when they got married on 25 January of that year. (and yes, I've done the math and know what that means.) He grew up on his parents' farms in Charles Mix County, South Dakota. On 27 August 1918 he enlisted in the Army. He served as a Cook in Camp Funston in Kansas. After less than four months of service, he was discharged after the end of World War I and returned home to South Dakota. He worked at various job in various places in southern South Dakota. By 1929 he had a car dealership in Rushville, Sheridan County, Nebraska. That was where he met Esther Johnson. 

Esther (Johnson) Ogden about 1920

Esther was born 23 February 1902 in Milan, Rock Island County, Illinois. Her parents moved first to Wayne County in north-east Nebraska and then to Sheridan County. Just before her final year of high school they moved their family to Henning, Otter Tail County, Minnesota. It was on a trip back to Sheridan County to visit cousins that she met Emery. 

They were married on 19 March 1929 at Morse Methodist Church in Rushville by the Reverend Robert L. Embree. After the wedding they lived in Gordon, Sheridan County, Nebraska. 

Over the course of  their marriage they lived in various places in northwest Nebraska and southwest South Dakota, including Rushville, Gordon, White Clay, Pine Ridge, and Martin. Emery ran stores, had a dairy farm for a while; he did whatever he could to support the family through the Great Depression. 

Altogether they had eight children:

1. Ardis Ogden (1930-1930)
2. Shirley Ogden (1931-2014) (my mom)
3. Living Ogden
4. Living Ogden
5. William Johnson Ogden (1938-1988)
6. Living Ogden
7. Living Ogden
8. Living Ogden

 In the summer of 1974, Esther had severe problems with anxiety and Emery had a small stroke that went undiagnosed during the confusion. They spent the next ten years in various nursing homes and elder care facilities in Rapid City, SD, where their oldest daughter, my mom lived. 

Esther died on 24 March 1984 in Rapid. Emery died two weeks later on 8 April 1984 in Martin, SD. They were 82 and 87 when they died. They are buried in Fairview Cemetery, Rushville, NE. 

Grave marker for Esther and Emery Ogden.

If you'd like to know more about them, you can check out their Wikitree profiles at Ogden-5084 and Johnson-111916.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 13 "Light a Candle"

Both my paternal and maternal grandparents lost their first child only two days after they were born. With this blog post, I am lighting two candles in memory of my aunt and uncle.

Paul Joseph Huigens

My Uncle Paul was born in 1914 in Knox County, Nebraska, most likely on his parent's farm in Logan Township. 

He is not forgotten.

Ardis Rosemary Ogden

My Aunt Ardis was born in 1930 in Sheridan County, Nebraska, most likely at her parent's home in Rushville. 

She is not forgotten.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 11 "Lucky"

 When I think of  "Lucky," I think of my parents' marriage of sixty-two years. You cannot get any luckier than to find someone to love who also loves you for that long.

Joseph A. Huigens, Jr. and Shirley Ann Ogden were married on 7 September 1950 at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Rushville, Nebraska. They met when they were both working at a hardware store in Rushville.

Shirley Ogden and Joe Huigens 
7 September 1950

My dad probably proposed to my mom sometime in the fall of 1949. According to my mom's sister, Marge, my mom's dad was angry and worried because my mom was Protestant and my dad's family were Roman Catholic. At Christmas in 1949 my grandfather packed his family into the car and drove to my grandmother's parents home in Minnesota. He may have thought that separating my parents for a while would give him a chance to talk my mom out of it. According to Aunt Marge, he got even madder when he found out my mom had been making secret long-distance phone calls from Minnesota to Nebraska to talk to my dad. That's what a teen-ager in love will do.

I am sure there were rough patches that only they ever new about and still, despite all that life threw at them, they saw it through together. 

Here they are on their 50th Wedding Anniversary.

Joe and Shirley Huigens
September 2000

Here they are in December 2010 after 60 years of marriage.

My dad died in May of 2013 after spending six years in a nursing home following a stroke. My mother died suddenly and unexpectedly eleven months later in April 2014. 

My brother, Ross, tells the story of the time a nurse at the nursing home told my mom that my dad had a beautiful smile. Ross says that my mom's face took on the look of that teen-age girl in love as she replied "I know."

If you are lucky in love like my parents, be sure to let that person know it.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 8 "I Can Identify"

I have had my Ogden relations on my mind recently. First I wrote about Jonathan Ogden for Week 7. Next the Relative at Roots Tech site showed me 6099 people attending Roots Tech this week who were purportedly related to me. As I checked them out, I discovered that on the FamilySearch tree someone had made my colonial American ancestor John Ogden of Rye the son of John Ogden the Pilgrim. Now I know that in the past there had been speculation that they were cousins, but no one had ever suggested that they were father and son. <big eye roll>. I did not look closely, but I'm betting that the family tree extending far into the past for John the Pilgrim included the false information from the Wheeler book. (I wrote about that in Week 5.)

I give up on the FamilySearch Tree. It is too hard to fight off the false genealogies that show up there.

On the other hand, I decided to go look and see what was on WikiTree for my John Ogden. The global tree there is far more reliable. I knew that there had been further research on him published in The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record. It's been on my To Do List to get down to the Newberry Library and read the articles for quite a while. I was hoping that the WikiTree entry for John Ogden of Rye had been updated with the new information. AND IT HAD!!

John Ogden of Rye is now listed as the nephew of John Ogden the Pilgrim. My John Ogden's WikiTree biography now includes a great discussion and overview of all the research on him. He is the brother of NY colonial Richard Ogden. They are the sons of Richard Ogden, brother of The Pilgrim, and Ellen Lupton. Ellen is a brand new person on my tree and Lupton is a brand new surname. Welcome!

It is still an open question as to whether the elder Richard Ogden came to the colonies with his sons or stayed in England. There seems to be evidence of two Richard Ogden's, father and son, in the colonial NY records. You can read more about it in their WikiTree biographies.

Richard, Ellen, and their sons are from...wait for it...Yorkshire! West Yorkshire to be current and specific. Ellen is from Keighley and Richard from Bingley, as are John and Richard. Now I have a location in England for my Ogden line. Last summer my wife and I spent a week with my stepson and his children in York. I was only 32 miles from the places where my Ogden ancestors came from! Damn! If only I had known!

And it doesn't end there. The Ogden tree on WikiTree goes all the way back to my 11th great-grandfather John Ogden who was born about 1524 in Haworth, Yorkshire and died there in 1576. He is buried in the churchyard of St. Michael and All Angels. 

I can identify my Ogden ancestors back 500 years to an 11th great-grandfather. As far as I can tell that is now the farthest back I can trace any line on my tree.

A trivial aside: Haworth is where the Bronte sisters lived three hundred years after my ancestor. The church where he is buried is where their father was the parson. Possibly one of the sisters wandered through the churchyard and saw my ancestor's headstone. You never know.

I spent some time this week adding my 2nd great-grandfather, James Robert Ogden, to WikiTree and linking him to the existing profile for his father Robert Ogden. That takes my Ogden line on WikiTree across thirteen generations from my late mother to my 11th great-grandfather. I added my only living Ogden uncle to WikiTree in the hopes that I could add the Y-DNA test I had him take several years ago. However, WikiTree only lets you add DNA tests to your own profile. Still it is amazing that his Y-DNA and his son's and their sons and their sons (and the son of my mom's older brother who died many years ago) goes back 500 years to a man who lived in Yorkshire at the time of Shakespeare.

Bonus trivia: now that my tree is connected back to all the Ogden related lines, I can verify that I am a 9th cousin of Humphrey Bogart. The Budd sisters Jane and Judith of Sussex and colonial NY are our 7th great-grandmothers.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 7 "Outcast"

When I think of outcasts in my ancestry, I think of my Loyalist ancestors, cast out of New York to New Brunswick after the American Revolution. My research has focused mainly on Michael Ogden and his son Jonathan Ogden, but my Clark and Morrell ancestors in New Brunswick were probably also outcasts.

Jonathan probably deserved his fate, since he did serve in the Loyal American Regiment (more about the LAR here) and fought against the colonial army. He was probably aboard either the Ann or the Apollo when  they sailed from New York to New Brunswick in the fall of 1783, after the formal end of the war, removing Loyalist soldiers from the new country that they had opposed. His father joined him in New Brunswick probably at a later date.

Michael and Jonathan were granted land in Long Island, Queens County, New Brunswick in July of 1786. 

I need to do much more proper analysis of Jonathan's service and the petitions and land grants for the Ogdens, Clarks, and Morrells. I could also see if any Clark or Morell ancestors served in any British provincial units. 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 5 "Oops!"

This "oops!" goes out to all of the family trees out there (and there are many of them) that include the false information from the Wheeler book on the Ogden family (Wheeler William Ogden Lawrence Van Alstyne and Charles Burr Ogden. 1907. The Ogden Family in America Elizabethtown Branch and Their English Ancestry; John Ogden the Pilgrim and His Descendants 1640-1906. Philadelphia: Printed for private circulation by J.B. Lippincott Company.) It's available on the Internet Archive here.

Quite a bit of information in the book is accurate. The "Oops!" is the part that traces the line back to England. For that William Wheeler relied on an genealogist named Gustave Anjou. Mr. Anjou is now recognized as a genealogical con man. You can read about good old Gustave on Wikipedia here.

I have to admit that early in my research I found this book and fell for the con. Luckily I discovered the truth and was able to prune my family tree of the false pedigrees. That is one of my many, known "Oops!" moments. I sure hope that my tree does not have very many yet unknown ones. 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 4 "Education"

Esther Louise Johnson in about 1920

 On the 1940 US Census, they asked for each person's Highest Grade of School Completed. For my maternal grandmother, Esther Louise (Johnson) Ogden (1902-1984) the entry is "H3" meaning that she only completed three years of high school. You might wonder why she did not finish high school with only one year to go. Luckily I don't have to wonder because my mother shared her mother's story with me.

In the summer of 1920, after Esther's junior year of high school in Gordon, Sheridan County, Nebraska, her parents, Swedish immigrant Gustav Johnson (1867-1941) and Rosabell (Strayer) Johnson (1872-1955), decided to move their family from Gordon to Henning, Otter Tail County, Minnesota. When my grandmother went to register for high school in Henning, she was told that she would have to complete two years of high school there rather than just the one. Something about a difference in education standards between where she came from and Henning. My grandmother said nuts to that and never enrolled in her new high school.

Several years later she went back to Sheridan County to visit her cousins. A young man there named Emery Ogden was dating one of her cousins. After meeting Esther and getting to know her, he dropped the cousin and began courting Esther. There were married in Rushville, Sheridan County, Nebraska on 19 March 1929. 

Their first daughter Ardis Rosemary Ogden was born in Sheridan County on 20 September 1930. She died only two days later. My grandmother was so frightened by that experience that when it came time for my mom, Shirley Ann Ogden (1931-2014) to be born, Esther went to back to Henning to be with her mother for the birth. That is why my mother was born in Minnesota and not Nebraska where her parents were living. 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 2 "Favorite Photo"

This week is easy. I use my favorite genealogy photo as my Mastodon banner.

I came across this photo several years ago when I was browsing through a copy of a book called "Bon Homme County [South Dakota] History" (Hoover Herbert T, Carol Goss Hoover, Dottee Blaha, and Bon Homme County Historical Society. 1994. Bon Homme County History. Tyndall SD, Vermillion SD: Bon Homme County Historical Society ; H.T. Hoover.)

I knew I had ancestors in that county and I was hoping to find a mention of them. I found something even better--a photo of them!

The caption said something like "William Ogden visiting his grandparents John and Isabella Gibbon outside their sod house near Scotland, SD." (I don't have a copy of the exact wording, but that's pretty close.) I thought "Hey! I know those people!" A genealogy happy dance ensued.

William Fredrick Ogden (1871-1951) was my mom's paternal grandfather. (My mapapa using my shorthand notation. See the "Ma and Pa" tab on this blog.) He is visiting his maternal grandparents (my 3xgreat-grandparents) John Gibbon (1803-1899) and Isabella Davidson (1811-1890). These are my mapapamapa and mapapamasma. The "s" in there is because Isabella was John's second wife--a step-mother to my 2xgreat-grandmother Hannah Gibbon (1837-1927), who married James Robert Ogden (1836-1910).

My Gibbon line were originally from Aberdeenshire in Scotland. They went first to Ontario, Canada in 1835. Some time in the 1870s they made their way south to the Dakota Territory where they settled in Bon Homme County outside of the town of--wait for it--Scotland. 

The quality of the photo is not very good, but who cares? I have a photo of my ancestors from around 1880 and that is truly wonderful.

 

Was William F. Ogden a US Citizen?

Now that I am retired all of my time is now 100% my time. (Well, some of it does belong to my wife, I suppose.) I need to find interesting ways to fill up all that time. Especially with the pandemic keeping us isolated at home. 

I like doing research, which is why I took to genealogy and family history. I have more time for that now.  I also recently realized that I like stories. I like reading them. I like making them up. I like writing them down. That is why I am returning to my family history blog. Here I can share the stories of my ancestors and distant relatives. I can also share the stories of how I discovered those family history stories. Some of these stories will be mysteries, both solved and unsolved. There are lots of unsolved ones unfortunately.

One of the unsolved mysteries has to do with my great-grandfather, William Frederick Ogden, and his citizenship status. He was born in Walkerton, Ontario in 1871. In about 1879, at the age of 8, his father moved the family to Hutchison County in the Dakota Territory  A few years ago I came across his 1945 Petition for Naturalization in the Ancestry collection "California, Federal Naturalization Records, 1843-1999." He filed on 8 February 1945.

There is a lot of information here: birth date, birth place, when he came to the US and where, info on his second marriage, info on his children. But this also brings up some new questions. 

I had previously found his first papers in a SD Archives on-line index and then the digitized image on-line in Family Search. He filed his intention on 29 October 1892, shortly after turning 21. I was never ever to find his second papers. I was able to find JR Ogden, his father's first (26 June 1889)  and second papers (6 April 1894) though. 

What happened to William's second papers? I have a couple theories: they were not indexed or digitized; he thought he became a citizen when his father did. I think he filed for the papers in California in 1945 because he needed security clearance for a job in the war-time shipyards. That's just a guess. 

What is interesting is that he appears not to have followed up on the application. At the bottom of the second page it states "Petition denied dis [sic] List No. List 1968 Oct 22-1945 Lack of presentation." It looks like he didn't show up to take the oath and become a citizen almost nine months later.

What else is interesting is that in the 1900 US Census his birthplace is Canada but there is no Naturalization info. In 1910 it says he arrived in 1879 and is Naturalized! In 1920 it says he came in 1884 and is Naturalized. In 1930 it says he arrived in 1879 and is Naturalized. In 1940 it also says he is Naturalized. If was naturalized, why did he need to file in 1945? If he wasn't naturalized, why did he keep saying he was?

So many possibilities; so many questions! Maybe he couldn't prove he was naturalized in 1945, filed the application and then found the proof. If he found the proof, where is it and why can't I find it? Maybe something happened with the job and he didn't need to go through with becoming a citizen and had been lying all those years. 

So much more research to do. Is he listed on any voting records over the years? Where else might he have filed before or after the 1945 filing? It's a real head-scratcher.

Ogdens and Tooles

I recently received an email about a DNA match from someone looking for information on Tooles in New Brunswick. I have Tooles in my family tree, but only as potential half-brothers to my 3rd great-grandfather Robert Ogden. I could not understand how we could share DNA.

Then the lightbulb finally lit. Our common ancestor is not a Toole, but is probably Mary Clark who was married to James Edward Toole, with whom she had four sons, and then Jonathan Ogden. The only evidence that Jonathan and Mary were Robert's parents was a book on New Brunswick Loyalists that listed him as a probable son. The book cited no sources for evidence of that relationship. Several online family trees list them as his parents, but none of them cite any evidence either.

I have been looking for evidence for some time now. All I had so far was Robert's Ontario obituary that said he came from a New Brunswick Loyalist family (Jonathan was a Loyalist) and a land sale between Robert and one of his potential half-brothers.

With the DNA evidence possibly tying the Tooles and Ogdens together through Mary Clark, I am now more certain of Robert's parentage. This means we are Ogdens descended from John Ogden of Rye, NY, an early settler from England in the colony of Connecticut and then Westchester Co., New York.

Time for a genealogy happy dance!

NE/SD Family History Road Trip (part 4)

Day 6, Thursday, Oct. 24

Thursday we headed east for Geddes, SD passing through Yankton and Bon Homme County on our way there. Our first stop was the cemetery. It did not take us long to find the graves of another set of great-grandparents, William and Mary (Herren) Ogden. We also found the graves of Mary’s parents, my great-great-grandparents John and Julia (Adelbush) Herren.

After the cemetery, we headed out to find the farms of my ancestors in Charles Mix County. I had located the descriptions of the farms and maps of their locations at the General Land Office website of the Bureau of Land Management. I was able to use Google Maps to find them and figure out how to get there. The first one was a doozy. It was the farm of John Frederick Herren, who owned the northwest quarter of section 29 and the northeast quarter of the northeast quarter of section 30 in Jackson Township. I had expected we’d be on some unpaved back roads, but the “Minimal Maintenance” sign we passed made me question the wisdom of our quest. It was worth the effort though--his land was high on a bluff from which you can see the Missouri River to the south. Very picturesque. He farmed there from about 1895 to 1910. It was his second farm in SD, the first being somewhere in Union County.

John Herren's farm in Jackson Twp., Charles Mix Co., SD

The next two farms were easier to find. James Robert Ogden’s was northeast of Geddes in Moore Township, as was his son’s William Ogden’s. JR farmed there from about 1882 to 1895, when he headed farther west to Rapid City, where he and his wife are buried. William was on his farm from sometime in the late 1890s to between 1906 and 1910.

James Robert Ogden's farm in Moore Twp., Charles Mix Co., SD

William F. Ogden's farm in Moore Twp., Charles Mix Co., SD

After visiting all of the sites in Charles Mix County, it was on to Mitchell, SD for the night. We of course had to visit the Corn Palace. There is not much else to see or do in Mitchell. 

Heading back to our hotel room after a dip in the indoor swimming pool, we met a group of pheasant hunters who like us were from the Chicago suburbs, Frankfort, Bourbonnais and a third one that I cannot recall. 

(to be continued)

Census Sunday: Emery Ogden Family in 1940 US Census

Here is my transcription of the census entry for my mother's family from the 1940 US Census.

State: SD
County: Shannon
Township, or other division of county: Unorganized T35 + 36, R43+44
S. D. No. 2
E.D. No. 57-2

Location
1. Street, avenue, road, etc.
2. House number (in cities and towns)

Household Data
3. Number of Household: 301
4. Home owned or rented: R
5. Value of home (if owned) or monthly rental (if rented): 5
6. Does this household live on a farm? Yes

7. Name of person:	Emery Ogden	Esther Ogden	Shirley Ogden	Donald Ogden	Rosaline Ogden	William Ogden
8. Relationship of this person to head of household:	Head	Wife	Daughter	Son	Daughter	Son
9. Sex:	M	F	F	M	F	M
10. Color or Race:	W	W	W	W	W	W
11. Age at last birthday:	43	38	8	6	4	1
12. Marital Status:	M	M	S	S	S	S
13. Attended school or college any time since March 1, 1940:	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No
14. Highest grade of school completed:	6	H3	2	0	0	0
15. Place of birth:	South Dakota	Illinois	Minnesota	Nebraska	South Dakota	Nebraska
16. Citizenship of foreign born:
17. Residence on 1 April, 1935 - City or town:	R	R	R	R
18. Residence on 1 April, 1935 - County:	Shannon	Shannon	Shannon	Shannon
19. Residence on 1 April, 1935 - State or foreign country:	South Dakota	South Dakota	South Dakota	South Dakota
20. On a farm?	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
21. Was this person AT WORK for pay or profit in private or nonemergency Gov't. work during week of March 24-30? (Yes or No):	Yes	No
22. If not, was he at work on, or assigned to, public EMERGENCY WORK (WPA, NYA, CCC, etc.) during -week of March 24-30? (Yes or No):	-	No
23. If neither at work nor assigned to public emergency work. ("No" in Cols. 21 and 22), Was this person SEEKING WORK?(Yes or No):	-	No
24. If not seeking work, did he HAVE A JOB, business, etc.? (Yes or No):	-	No
25. Indicate whether engaged in home house-work (H), in school (S), unable to work (U), or other (Ot):	-	H
26. Number of hours worked during week of March 24-30, 1940:	70
27. Duration of unemployment up to March 30, 1940 - in weeks:
28. Occupation: Trade, profession, or particular kind of work, as frame spinner, salesman, rivet heater ,music teacher:	Farmer
29. Industry: Industry or business, as cotton mill, retail grocery, farm, shipyard, public school:	Farm
30. Class of worker:	OA
31. Number of weeks worked in 1939 (Equivalent full-time weeks):	52	0
32, Income in 1939 (12 months ended December 31, 1939): Amount of money wages or salary received (including commissions):	0	0
33. Did this person receive income of $50 or more from sources other than money wages or salary (Yes or No):	Yes	Yes
34. Number of farm schedule:	46

Source citation: 

1940 U.S. census, Shannon County, South Dakota,  Unorganized T35 + 36, R43+44 , population schedule, enumeration district (ED) 57-2, Sheet No. 18A, household 301, line 1, Emery Ogden; digital image, Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census (Beta) [database on-line, accessed 5-Aug-2012]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1940. T627, 4,643 rolls.

According to my mother, this farm north of Pine Ridge, SD was a dairy farm. My grandfather, with a 6th grade education, was working 70 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, paying $5 a month in rent, all to keep a roof over his family's head, clothes on their backs and food on the table. I'd love to be able to see the Farm Schedule. It seems these were probably destroyed after the summary data were compiled. Damn. I have 19th century farm schedules for some of my US and Canadian ancestors and they are full of information about turnips and honeybees. I wish I had this same level of detailed info for my 20th century ancestors.

More 1940 US Census Finds

I found my mother's family. They have a page all to themselves in Shannon Co., SD, ED 57-2.

And here in Mission, Todd Co., SD ED 61-,1, is my great-grandfather, William F. Ogden with his second wife. Nearby is a Charbonneau family which may be his in-laws. I also found his daughter Ethel with her husband John Kilber. These are my mom's Aunt Ethel and Uncle John.

That's four out of the five households I wanted to find. I've been through Henning, Otter Tail Co., MN several times looking for my last set of great-grandparents. I've found over a dozen Johnson families in this smal town, but not my Gust and Rose. I guess it's time to look into other EDs near Henning.

Census Sunday: 1940 US Census

I've identified the eleven ancestors that I want to look up on Tuesday.
2. Joseph A. Huigens, Jr
3. Shirley A, Ogden
4. Joseph A. Huigens
5. Julia Huigens
6. Emery J. Ogden
7. Esther L. Ogden
8. John Huigens
9. Mary Huigens
12. William F. Ogden
14. Gustaf A. Johnson
15. Rose Johnson

That's a lot of people. More than I thought I'd find. My dad's other grandparents died in the early 1930's. My mom's grandmother died in 1938.

Fortunately I can reduce this to five households.
1. Joseph A., Julia and Joseph A. Huigens
2. Emery J., Esther L. and Shirley A. Ogden
3. John and Mary Huigens
4. William F. Ogden
5. Gustaf A. and Rose Johnson

Next comes determining where they lived in 1940 and then the Enumeration District (ED). For four of these households, this is a piece of cake. They lived in the same place they did in 1930. So all I have to do is find the ED for 1930 and use Stephen Morse and Joel Weintraub's 1940 ED Finder to convert them. Here's the results.

1. Joe and Julia Huigens family in Sheridan CO., NE 1930: 81-27 1940: 81-7, 81-12, 81-18, 81-26
2. Emery and Esther Ogden family near Pine Ridge, Shannon Co., SD
3. John and Mary Huigens in Creighton, NE 1930: 54-6 1940: 54-6
4. William Ogden in Mission, SD 1930: 61-40 1940: 61-1, 61-26
5. Gust and Rose Johnson in Henning, MN 1930: 56-45 1940: 56-46

So that's a little more complicated than I thought. Only two are a direct one-for-one. Still it won't be too bad. These are rural, sparsely populated areas, so I won't have too many pages to look through. By reading the ED descriptions, I can make some educated guesses which EDs to start with.

According to my mom, her family was living on a dairy farm near Pine Ridge, SD when her sister Margie was born in Nov. 1940. That's not where they were in 1930, 1935 or 1945. There are only 8 EDs for Shannon Co., SD: 57-1 through 57-8. Again, these are areas with low populations so it won't take long to scan through them.

It looks like I'm all set for Tues. The harder part will be trying to find various generations of aunts, uncles and cousins. That's a whole other ballgame.

SNGF: Guess Your Ancestor's 1940 Census Data

Here's tonight's topic from Randy Seaver:
Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Guess Your Ancestor's 1940 Census Data

Hey genea-census-holics... it's Saturday Night, time for more Genealogy Fun!!

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (come on, you know that you want to!), is to:

1) Pick one of the persons from your ancestry who should be in the 1940 United States Census.

2) Using the column headings below (from 1940 United States Census Questions), predict what the entries will be in each column.

3) Share your predictions on your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a Facebook status or a Google Plus post.

Like Randy, I'm going to do my mother. She was bummed out 10 years ago that my dad was in the 1930 US Census and she wasn't. Well, time has passed and on Tuesday, she will appear. Here's what I think I'll find. It's hard to know where her family was in 1940 because my grandfather moved them back and forth between Shannon Co. SD and Sheridan Co. NE often during these years. My mom claims she had 5 different teachers in 5th grade because of all the moves.

*  State:  Hard to say, she may be in South Dakota or Nebraska
*  Populated Place: White Clay, Sheridan Co., NE or Pine Ridge, Shannon Co., SD
*  Ward of City:  I don't think either of these places is big enough to have had wards
*  County:  Sheridan Co., NE or Shannon Co. SD
*  Township or other division of county:  No idea
*  Block Nos.:  ???
*  Enumeration District:  I still need to look these up

1.  Location - street, avenue or road:  ??? (Luckily these are sparsely populated areas)
2.  Location - house number:  ???

3.  Number of household:  ???
4.  Home owned or rented:  R
5.  Value of home (if owned) or monthly rental (if rented):  $100
6.  Does this household live on a farm?  Maybe
7.  Name of person:  Shirley A. Ogden
8.  Relationship of this person to head of household:  Daughter

9.  Sex:  F[emale]
10.  Color or Race:  W[hite]
11.  Age at last birthday:  8
12.  Marital Status:  S[ingle]

13.  Attended school or college any time since March 1, 1940:  Yes
14.  Highest grade of school completed:  C-2

15.  Place of birth:  Minnesota
16.  Citizenship of foreign born: [blank]

17.  Residence on 1 April, 1935 - City or town:  Batesland
18.  Residence on 1 April, 1935 - County: Shannon
19.  Residence on 1 April, 1935 - State or foreign country: SD (Thank you, 1935 SD Census!)
20.  On a farm?  Yes

21.  Was this person AT WORK for pay or profit in private or nonemergency Gov't. work during week of March 24-30? (Yes or No): No
22:  If not, was he at work on, or assigned to, public EMERGENCY WORK (WPA, NYA, CCC, etc.) during week of March 24-30? (Yes or No): No
23. If neither at work nor assigned to public emergency work. ("No" in Cols. 21 and 22), Was this person SEEKING WORK (Yes or No):  No
24. If not seeking work, did he HAVE A JOB, business, etc.? (Yes or No):  No
25. Indicate whether engaged in home house-work (H), in school (S), unable to work (U), or other (Ot): S
26. Number of hours worked during week of March 24-30, 1940: 0
27. If seeking work or assigned to public emergency work. ("Yes" in Col. 22 or 23); Duration of unemployment up to March 30, 1940 - in weeks:  0

28.  Occupation: Trade, profession, or particular kind of work, as frame spinner, salesman, rivet heater ,music teacher:  [blank]
29. Industry: Industry or business, as cotton mill, retail grocery, farm, shipyard, public school:[blank]
30. Class of worker: [blank]
31. Number of weeks worked in 1939 (Equivalent full-time weeks): 0

32.  Income in 1939 (12 months ended December 31, 1939): Amount of money wages or salary received (including commissions):  0
33. Did this person receive income of $50 or more from sources other than money wages or salary (Yes or No): No
34.  Number of farm schedule: [blank]