Today my mother received the SS5 form for her aunt Ethel. It’s been two months in the waiting, but we were happy to get it. We learned from it that apparently, Ethel was born in North Carolina, and not New York as we’d thought. I now have to try and see if it is possible she had a birth certificate (though this is before NC started birth certificates).
Then, inspired by this, I decided to search for my grandfather’s family in the 1930 census. I had not been able to find them with previous searching. And I found them! I tried a different searching strategy and good thing – the family is listed as Robertson instead of Robinson. Also, my great-grandmother is listed as Lucille instead of her name of Lucinda. But, it’s the right family. Her husband had died by now and she was raising the kids on her own. My grandfather Herman was 4 years old.
I’m so glad I found them! From this record, we learned a few extra details as well. It seems one of my grandfather’s brothers, John, was given their father’s name as his middle name, so he was John Louis Robinson. I don’t know much about John Louis except that family tradition has it he died as a teenager and was in the Navy. His job as listed on the census is “Advertiser” – wonder what that means?