Mam-ma's Southern Family

Last week I took care of making a list of addresses and enumeration districts (EDs) for my paternal family. This week, I'm focusing on the maternal side. The 1950 federal census records will be released on April 1, but there will be no indexes yet. I need to know the address of each person in order to locate them in specific enumeration districts, where I will browse for their households. To find their address, I used city directories, voter registrations, newspaper articles, and other records that give addresses. To find their enumeration district, I used the One-Step Unified Census ED Finder at Stevemorse.org. These are the direct ancestors who I expect to find on my mother’s side of the family. Pleasant Hill, California Tom J. and Pansy Johnston were living at 307 Nancy Lane . [1] Tom would be 37 and Pansy 36. I don’t know what his job was. He could be working at the pool hall. She may have been working as a seamstress for a dress or clothing store. Their daughter, Lela Ne...

These themes are sometimes difficult to formulate a specific story about someone in the family. I often search for the word in my genealogy software and see what comes up. It is hit and miss whether that works. Today, I searched for “branch.” I found two people who have deed descriptions that mention “branch.” Land Description Knowing the name of a branch of a creek or river, can be helpful in place a piece of property that is only described as “north ten degrees west forty-three rods to an oak” etc. Having the name of a branch, creek, river, or other watershed type can help place that property, if not exactly, at least close to where it was located. To place it more precisely, locating the deed descriptions of all of his neighbors could be all that is needed. For example, Arthur Core of North Carolina received a patent from the Royal Governor, William Tryon on 4 May 1769 for 54 acres. [1] The description in the land patent book stated: “54 acres Dobbs the north side of Nuce [N...