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[personal profile] libertango
Jarda:

There's an outfit called Footnote.com that's allowing free access to the set of 1930 census records for the month of August. I've taken advantage of that, and have been able to find a pair of relevant pages, and upload them to my Flickr account:

John O'Brien: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hal_seattle/3815112430/

Pius MacIsaac: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hal_seattle/3814331517/

On the "John O'Brien" page, there's an entry for 9 Elmore St, Boston. Your mom is on line 43, as "J. Myrtle." But the interesting thing, to me, is that John O'Brien, our great-grandfather, is listed as Head of Household, with his son Harold (Harry) and his family under the same roof. They rent the house, for $35/month. John and our great-grandmother Agnes say they were 19 and 14 respectively when they got married. Both John and Agnes say they were born in Canada, and John says his father (our great-great-grandfather, unamed) was born in Northern Ireland. John and Agnes came to the US in 1885, but were not naturalized, and so were not US citizens. John's occupation is "Gateman" for the "Elevated," which matches up with the uniform in his picture. (Picture is here if you've forgotten: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hal_seattle/3214630974/ )

Pius MacIsaac, our great-grandfather, and Teressa MacIsaac, our great-aunt is on the other page. Teressa is the sister of Marjorie, Harry O'Brien's wife, and our grandmother. Just like John the elder, I have a picture of Pius from you:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hal_seattle/3788508223/in/set-72157594358566771/

They lived at 2554 Washington St in Boston, just a few blocks from the other household. Pius is listed as a 59-year-old widower, and Teressa is just 14. An entry says Pius entered the country (presumably with our great-grandmother, Janet Ellen Enman MacIsaac) in 1892, and was never naturalized, thus, never a citizen. It says his occupation was being a teamster for an ice cream wagon. (!)

I hope this sheds a bit of light on our common family from that time.

-- Hal

*^*^*

UPDATED TO ADD: Another interesting thing I've realized as a part of this is, I'm genuinely surprised how little time both sides of my family have been in the US. All four of my great-grandparents on my father's side immigrated in from Canada. At least 3 out of 4 on my mother's side came from the UK, and 2 went back. That's 7 out of 8. It's only my grandparents' generation that's native born to the US. I was just reading about the naming of this among folks of Japanese heritage -- one could say I'm a Canadian-British analogue to the Yonsei.

Date: 2009-08-13 12:17 am (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
I just signed up thanks to your recommendation. Neat! I just wish my Mom were around to see it - after years of poring over old photos and such with her, she would have got a real kick out of it.

Could I ask how you got all the additional information though? Did you pay for the records individually, or am I missing something? For example, I found my Mom's family (Mom, her parents, her dad's mom) listed, but when I try to click to see more than just the initial listing of the names and birthdates, I get an invitation to sign up for a Premium account, or to buy the individual record. I must be missing something?

Thanks again for posting about this.

Date: 2009-08-13 12:43 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] hal-obrien.livejournal.com
All the information in this entry is on those Census pages. They're just very densely packed, and you have to keep going up to the top of the page to see what the columns mean. That's why I wrote it all out -- in case you (or anyone else reading) wasn't able to readily decipher the page. :)

The direct link to the John O'Brien page is:

http://www.footnote.com/image/159462698/

You can save your own copy for free by using the Save icon. I made a quick screen capture to show you where it is (look for the bright red ellipse):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hal_seattle/3815674623/

Once you click on it, choose "Select Entire Image" next, so you can get the entries for the page, and also be able to see those column headings at the top.

The Pius MacIsaac page is at:

http://www.footnote.com/image/162585058/

Pius and Teressa are the first two lines, which makes it a lot easier to use the column headings for them.

Date: 2009-08-13 12:56 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] hal-obrien.livejournal.com
OK, that's annoying. Those are the correct direct links, but Footnote isn't letting people access the pages that way. You have to do a search, and then drill down.

Bugger.

Yeah... I'd recommended saving those .JPGs. Or just use mine from Flickr. :)
Edited Date: 2009-08-13 12:57 am (UTC)

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