The Diary of Queen Mothy |
The Search for Ancestor X continues... written @ 7:48 PM on January 02, 2003 I succeeded in locating my genealogically meddlesome great-grandfather in the 1910 Census. While always a great victory to find a needle in the haystack that is, after all, the U.S. Federal Census, it did not yield the results I had wanted, meaning I still don't know why David Francis Reno was living with the McCabe family of Hazelwood, Pittsburgh. What I did find out, interestingly enough, is that he worked as a laborer in the steel mill before working on the B&O Railroad, as revealed in the 1920 Census. Another interesting thing to note is that his brother (at least, I'm presuming it's his brother but I'm still searching for proof) Frank Lapier Reno was not living with the McCabe family. Frank ended up marrying one of the McCabe daughters in 1896-ish, as the 1920 Census dictates, but I did not know he was not living with the McCabes in 1910, as David Francis was. Hmm-hmm-hmm! The first thing I do when I die is I'm going to walk past the pearly gates and say to the Lord, "Bring me to my great-grandfather, so I can ring his neck for giving me hell during life." My only real hope is to either a) find David Francis's death certificate, but I do not know the date he died so it's a stab in the dark, or b) find him in the 1900 Census. It's a 50/50 shot for either option, but some rather dangerous assumptions will be made. I would have to assume that David Francis lived with the McCabes in 1900, which I somehow doubt but I have no choice, and I would have to assume that they lived somewhere between Hazelwood Avenue, Lafayette, Tecumseh Street, and the B&O Railroad line, like they did in the 1910 Census. The good news is that most people, laborers like my ancestors, were reluctant to move around, so it's safe to assume that they lived somewhere on that monstrous stretch of road that is Hazelwood Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA. And it is a known fact that a couple of generations of my family have lived in that eastern part of Pittsburgh. Hell, I was partly raised on those streets myself and remember much of it, even though I haven't been back in years. Even better is that many descendents from other branches of my family still live there, like the Kaucics, the Komans, the Blatnicas, etc, even though I know more than them at this point. Aunt Bobbie is struggling to catch up with me, though, the dear woman. The problem with searching cities in the Census though, without any clue as to where your ancestors are, is that-- good God-- they're cities with millions of people! And at the turn of the century, with all those immigrants coming in, it becomes quite difficult to locate the simplest of surnames, like Reno or McCabe, in the masses of Schbatskies, Oblonskies, Lukenshargens-- and don't even get me started on the old Czech names! No, I'd just as soon as go cross-eyed, I do declare. So that's what's kinda keepin' me back from searchin' the ol' 1900 Census. I did find some old historical maps of Pittsburgh from 1904 online, and I heisted those and printed them via Adobe Photoshop. I love the idea of maps; it really puts your ancestry in perspective. I'd love to go to Pittsburgh this summer and do some serious genealogy work, but I don't think I'll be able to, what with summer jobs and possibly taking some college courses to clear some credits out of the way. Maybe spring break, but good luck convincing the parental units to let their baby bird travel aw-by-herse'f to the big city. I think I'm going to pledge this week's paycheck to go toward one of those ten-year ancestry searches the state of Pennsylvania offers for death certificates. And you know something? I probably should have written all this in my genealogy journal, but I keep misplacing it. *** Work was a bitch today, because Deborah is once again making me fold 250 of those flyer thingies to put on the tables in the food court. "I want every table to have one," she said, and then she banished me to the stock room to fold and fold and fold and fold and tape and fold and tape and tape and... My fingers are so worn out that I don't think I have any identifying fingertip grooves anymore. Suffice to say, Deborah and Gwyn have nicknamed me the stock room leper and Cinderella. I'm tired of work. I just want to committ myself to youthful sloth for the rest of my vacation before second semester starts. Ah, well, such is life. Money is money.
A Bit of History ~ And Onward! L'Amour Toujours! - August 08, 2005 |
Latest Entry | Archives | Diaryland |
Profile | Diaryrings | |
Guestbook | E-mail Me | Leave a note |
Art Work (Coming Soon) | Genealogy (Coming Soon) | The-Last-Unicorn.net |