Illinois, maybe Cook County, Oldest boy of 12 kids left home at the age of 12, about 100 years ago.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by GeneJ on August 3, 2009 at 8:51am

Shari:
Thank you for supporting Most Wanted.
Is your grandfather is the man recorded in the SSDI as "Alf Anderson," born 24 Jun 1893, died Dec 1978; last residence reported postal code, 94043 Mountain View, Santa Clara, California?

If this is your ancestor, then do you know where he died? Do you have his death certificate? His obituary? The obituary is probably still subject to copyright, but you could provide us with details that it reported (ditto, the publication name, location and date). If he died in California, have you found an entry for him in the California Death index and, if so, can you provide us the names and the location under which that record became indexed?

You wrote, "..name does not show up on any census until he was about 30." It sounds like you have found him in the 1920 and/or 1930 census. Hope you will help us by identifying the specific census record(s) where he has been found. If you viewed the image at Heritage Quest, perhaps share that with us and provide the name under which his record was indexed, the state/county/township. If you have page and/or sheet number, great. If you have the U.S. census image, you can attach it to a comment. Ditto, if you viewed the image at Ancestroy, provide us the information about his indexed name state/county/township, etc. Perhaps you viewed a transcribed record. If you let us know where you found the record, it will help us. Census can contain much information, some of which might be right or wrong ... it's still helpful for us to be able to view those records.

You wrote, "He said he came from Cook County in , Illinois (maybe Chicago?)." Is there a place where that birth location was noted? Perhpas it is family tradition?

Box jumpy ... more in separate note. --GJ

P.S. In the U.S., some families do place much value on privacy. On the other hand, not finding the name in a census index might not reflect your grandfather's intentions. In the census of 1900, he was only about 7. Remember, too, that census indexes are, by definition, a third party's transcription of the notes a census taker took in the course of, in 1900, a verbal interivew with _someone_. Whether that someone was even a member of the household, spoke English, etc., isn't known. Whether the census taker spoke the same languarge or otherwise understood the record "someone" was trying to give them also isn't known. There are so many reasons why finding some records in the census can be a challenge.
A little final note ... remember that we still enjoy the freedom to select "nicknames" (or for others to select them for us)...none of us remember our own births; most also haven't figure out a way to edit the death certificates that become filed about us!

Permalink Reply by GeneJ on August 3, 2009 at 9:09am

Oops... great grandfather ....

Permalink Reply by GeneJ on August 3, 2009 at 9:25am

Figuring out the names by which someone was known can be a big challenge. Sometimes names change over time and they can be different in different towns/places (especially if a well known person by the same name lived at that place). In both cases, developing a little timeline of notes and evidence about the name can help you find other records that might have been created in that time period and/or at that place.

As a little aside, when I began to find records about my father under his birth name, I was surprised--to the best or my knowledge, he'd always been known by his intials or a long standing nickname. To this day, during his lifetime, I' don't recall hearing anyone call him by his given/birth name. Imagine how much fun our descendants will have figuring out our "user names" and our "email addresses!"

Permalink Reply by Shari McLaws on August 3, 2009 at 5:55pm

Yes, that SSDI is my Great Grandpa Alf Anderson. I never met him but my Aunt asked lots of questions from the right people to even get this much "maybe" information. We have him in the 1930 Census in Idaho. He was married and had 5 children who lived to adulthood. None of the children or his wife ever met any of his siblings or his parents. Its been accepted that most of the given information is false. I've had a close friend search everything she could find on Ancestry.com I do not have the individual census or obituary, I've got a few pictures of him. THe different spellings of his mothers name were off of his IGI, Index cards, and other church items he filled out. I'll add more as I find it.

Permalink Reply by Holly Hartrick Childs on August 8, 2009 at 11:20am

It is possible to get a copy of a (deceased) person's application for Social Security. That application is supposed to contain the names of the applicant's parents, including his mother's maiden name. The name you have for her (Ann Skowranske) is certainly distinctive (however it is spelled!). I assume you have tried to find her and/or a marriage record for her? She might have been born around 1870, if Alf was about the oldest and born in 1893.

Permalink Reply by Shari McLaws on August 8, 2009 at 11:29am

How do you request a copy of a SS application? I've never heard of that before.

Permalink Reply by GeneJ on August 3, 2009 at 9:00am

Hi Shari, and thank you again for supporting Most Wanted. .
Comments continue from the message posted just earlier.

Did your great grandfather marry? Might you have that marriage record (or those marriage records) and be able to share facts from the record(s) with us?

You wrote:
We believe he was an older or oldest of about 12 children.
We listed possible siblings names of Mike, Benson, Patricia, and/or Joe
We believe at least one of those siblings may have moved to California and had a Political job
He may have been in Canada between 1918-1921 working as a Tailor (maybe gold mining area).

Sounds like your family has done a fair amount of research, hoping to learn about your great grandfather. If you have located your ancestor or any of his possible brothers in the WWI draft registration records, will you let us know the details about those records?

Thanks again for supporting Most Wanted. --GJ

Permalink Reply by GeneJ on August 3, 2009 at 9:02pm

Hi Shari:
As above, according to the SSDI, your great grandfather, Alf Anderson was born 24 Jun 1893, died Dec 1978. At the time of his death, his social security checks were being mailed to an address at 94043 Mountain View, Santa Clara, California.

You indicate that at 1930, he was living at Idaho, There is an Alf Anderson at Oneida County, Idaho that census year. I have attached the census image for that Alf. In that census, he reportedly owns his home, is a 36/7 year old tailor; has his own shop; he was first married at ae 28 (so 9 years earlier). The census indicates Alf served in WWI. His wife is Eva, she is ae 33, married first at ae 36, b. ENG/ENG/ENG. The date of her immigration isn’t known. There are five children in the household; eldest is ae 7,

Might his wife, Eva, be the Eva Anderson in the SSDI, born 16 Jan 1897, died Oct 1986, whose social security checks were being mailed to the same general location as Alf’s, 94043 Mountain View, Santa Clara, California?

This Eva and your Alf’s social security numbers were issued at Utah before 1951.

If this Eva was Alf’s wife, perhaps someone in the family knows where they both died. Using the birth and death dates from their SSDI entries, I wasn’t able to find either of them in the California Death index. You may want to double check me, sometimes it seems my eyes have a mind of their own. --GJ

If my assumptions are correct, then perhaps one or more family members lived at Santa Clara, and Alf and Eva’s checks were sent there. If you aren’t sure where they died, perhaps inquire about volunteers at Random Acts of Kindness or DJ’s Look Up Angels to see if someone can check one of the local papers for obituaries about the time of Alf and Eva’s deaths. These deaths are a little early, but you could also check RootsWeb’s Obituary Daily Times.

Hope this helps. --GJ

Attachments:

• Anderson Alf 1930 Oneida County Idaho.pdf, 819 KB

Permalink Reply by Shari McLaws on August 4, 2009 at 2:09am

Thank you for the copy of the census. Yes Eva Anderson is his wife. I have her emigration story all written by her sister. Julia on the Census is my Grandmother she passed just 5 years ago. 2 daughters are still alive but have altimers (spelling?) and I am unable to get any other information from them. I will ask for copies of their obituaries, death certs, and or marriage certificates, if they are available, if that will help.

Permalink Reply by Unknown Ancestor on August 4, 2009 at 12:12am

Could you post some of your research log, especially the areas of easily available Chicago and Cook County birth indexes that include 1893, military records, border crossings, 1978 civil deaths, 1900 Chicago census, 1922 Salt Lake marriages, 15 Dec 1978 burial in Cache County, UT etc.? He interacted with the government and other organizations frequently.

If your goal is living relatives, what did you learn from Margene Anderson (Pedigree Resource File) and Jolene Anderson (Ancestral File) and other descendants? Since he had 2 children die within the past 5 years, his grandchildren should be available.

Permalink Reply by Shari McLaws on August 4, 2009 at 2:27am

I am in contact with most of his direct descendants, but do not know anything about his parents or siblings. Jolene Anderson is my Aunt who I've been getting all of my information though, beside what I've researched myself and with friends. I don't have the actual documents of anything yet.

Permalink Reply by GeneJ on August 5, 2009 at 7:59am

If you haven't begun a research log, ala, Unknown Ancestor's tip, hope you'll consider how much help they can be, especially when you collaborate with others in your family. Sometimes it can be overwhelming to keep track of who told you what, and both where clues were found and where they weren't found.

We live in an age when every day record groups become more accessible--books are written about records, more records are indexed, more are digitized, some digitization is enhances, more library catalogs go online--knowing the "date" a check was made is important.

Some think about writing "research reports," and genealogical narratives, but those important items I tend to write _after_ I've gathered facts and feel I have something important about which to write.

There are some good articles about Research Logs at FamilySearch Wiki:

Research Logs
Keeping a Research Log

Have attached a couple things, also.

Attachments:

• clips from my original genealogy research log.pdf, 222 KB
• Another form of Research Log.docx, 22 KB
• Another form of Research Log.pdf, 52 KB

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