The 1940 Census Results

The 1940s census did provide some surprises in my ancestry research. I got one last name of a child that was living with my grandfather and his new wife in Chicago. That last name gave me his new wife's last name before she married my grandfather and from there I found their marriage certificate using her name that I couldn't find before because it was indexed as Horman instead of Norman in the South Dakota marriage registry. And from there the information just came snowballing in. It looks like there was no children from that marriage and the only child was from the woman's previous marriage. There doesn't seem to be any half siblings to my dad and thus no new aunts or uncles in my family that I didn't know about. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I almost was excited that I may find some new relatives. There are still 4 years between 1940 and my grandfather's death (accidental shooting in a tavern when the bar owner was showing him his new gun in Chicago.) I guess those will be lost years. In 10 years when the 1950 census comes out, he won't be on it and his wife had remarried and moved. It will be hard to trace to see if there are some children with her. But I did find relatives from the ancestry.com message boards about my French Quebec roots that had moved to Bangor, NY and then to Wisconsin. They have photos. Lots of photos from the 1800s. My family had practically no photos. I'm going to meet one of my distant cousins when I take our vacation. We only have one day to visit and that includes the day I wanted to visit all the cemeteries Wahkon, Isle, Cove, Opstead, Princeton, Milaca and Hopkins, MN where my ancestors are buried. We'll be rushed for sure but it will be so great! Here is a photo of my sister and I on the front steps of my grandmother's (Grace Patterson McCuaig) house in Wahkon, MN back in the early 50s. My sister looks cute, I look extra chubby, the curse I fight every day of my life! At least I had shoes on. My mom told me I was a bean kid. I loved pork and beans and couldn't shovel them into my mouth fast enough. She said I'd scream for more as soon as the spoon came out of my mouth when I was a baby. That is all bean fat on that little body. Mothers, don't let your kids eat pork and beans! Maybe beans are the obesity problem in this nation. :-)