Raymond Lucas 1910 Census for Census Sunday

My Lucas line has been one of my most elusive lines to discover so I’m going to reanalyze all the information I have on them and post my findings here on my blog. I have already mentioned a couple of their records in these posts; Death Certificate - Raymond Lucas, Collateral Damage Can be a Good Thing, Census Sunday - Who is Frank Goodman and I will continue today with their record in the 1910 census.

Finding them in the 1910 census was not easy as their name is spelled differently and the actual image of the census is quite faded. However, using the search variants in Ancestry landed me their record. They are lines 42 – 47.

The surname looks to be spelled Lookec but it could very well be Lookes or Lookis. It still sounds the same just not spelled as we would spell it. Anyway, here is the information from the census.

General and address information: They lived in the town of Northbridge, Worcester County, Massachusetts and this was enumerated on 21 April 1910. The only indication of a road name is an X in that block so I am assuming this is a rural area with no road names or addresses as the address block is blank. The dwelling number is 41 and visitation number is 44.

Individuals:

1. Raymond Lookec, head of household, 28 year old white male currently married 1 time for 6 years. He was born in Aust-Poland as was his mother and father. He immigrated in 1902(?) and is an alien. He speaks English. His occupation seems to be some kind of laborer at the woolen mill. He was working on 15 April 1910 and was not out of work in 1909. He can read and write. They are renting a house.

2. Katherine, wife, 32 year old white female currently married 1 time for 6 years. She has had 4 children and three still survive. She was born in Aust-Polish as was her mother and father. She immigrated in 1902 or 3? She speaks Polish, does not list whether naturalized or alien and lists no occupation. She can read and write.

3. Mary, daughter, 3 year old white single female. She was born in Massachusetts.

4. Joseph, son, 2 year old white single male. He was born in Massachusetts.

5. Raymond, son, 6 month old single male. He was born in Massachusetts.

6. John Pots?vek or Pods?bek, boarder, 32 year old white male. He is married one time for 7 years. He was born in Aust-Poland as was his mother and father. He is an alien and immigrated in 1909. He speaks Polish. His occupation is unreadable and works in the cotton ?? industry. He was not out of work on 15 April or anytime in 1909. It is unreadable whether he can read or write.

Here is some of my analysis from this census:

1. Raymond and Katherine immigrated in 1902/3 and have only been married for 6 years. I can assume they were married sometime in 1903/4. From this I can make a guess that they met and married in Massachusetts. Looking at all the other names and nationalities that lived around them in the census, they are very much like many immigrants of the day; they lived and worked around people very similar to them.

2. There is no street address given for them, just a dwelling number. Looking at the other people on the census, the two families enumerated before them share the same dwelling number. The other two families say that they are renting. The first family enumerated says that this is a home just like my great grandparents; the second family says this is a farm on farm schedule 13, however, no one in that household or anywhere else on the census lists an occupation as farmer or working in the farming industry. Seems odd to me as I thought that the same dwelling numbers meant that they would live in the same house, apartment building, or some other type of attached housing.

3. Raymond lists his occupation as a laborer in what looks like woolen mill. The occupations of the other families around them all list occupations relating to the mills and textile factories.

4. Katherine is listed as having 4 children but only 3 still survive; this is information I did not know before.

5. The children, Mary and Joseph, match what I already know about them with Joseph being my grandfather.

6. Raymond does not match what I’ve been told of the family. I believe this could be who they called Edward. Maybe one is a middle name?

Additional Searches from this record:

1. Marriage record between Raymond and Katherine sometime in 1903/4.

2. Continue immigration record search in 1902/3 for both of them.

3. The type of home living in seems odd. Need to try and do some research on how dwelling numbers were enumerated. My wife mentioned that maybe the mills had some kind of housing for the workers?

4. Search of the woolen and textile mills in the area – maybe they have some employment records in which I can find Raymond. Or, at the very least, I’ll get a sense of the kind of work he did.

5. Do a comparison of the records I have which shows Edward as a son and see if they match with the information on the census – are Raymond and Edward the same child?

6. See if I can decipher the boarder’s name. It seems to be similar to what I have as variants of Katherine’s last name, Podrushack, Pascrumba. Is it possible that this is her brother? His immigration record could prove vital in finding their home village!

That is what I have for the 1910 census of my great grandparents, Raymond and Katherine Lucas. Am I missing something or did I overlook an obvious piece of information?

Thanks for reading and keep diggin’ for that family.

© 2014 Copyright, Christopher Shaw, All Rights Reserved.

Collateral Damage can be a Good Thing–Tuesday’s Tip

I’ve spent a lot of my research time focused on direct ancestors. This is only natural because those are the ones that we want to know about and finding one leads to another. However, what do you do when you get stuck? You seem to have tried every possible route to find some missing information, like a birthdate, birthplace, or in my case, the home village back in Europe.

So here is the tip for this week, in case you don’t want to read the rest of the post, check the collateral lines of your direct ancestors. Brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, even cousins may lead you to some information about your direct ancestor that you just cannot find while staying true to your line. I have done that with my maternal grandfather, Joseph Lucas. Here is how it has helped me so far.

My Lucas line has proven to be a very tough nut to crack. My grandfather was killed in Germany just after the end of World War II, when my mother was just 9 years old. So, there are not many memories of him or of his family. His father, Raymond Lucas, died in 1921 as I have recently found and wrote about in this post, Death Certificate: Raymond Lucas. His mother, Katie Lucas, remarried after his death to a Frank Goodman but apparently he died or left at some point before my mother came along because she does not remember him. She had very faint memories of her grandmother; remembering that she spoke Polish a lot and lived in the same building when my mother was very small. She believes she died about the time that World War II began.

I can put my great grandparents, Raymond and Katie, in Massachusetts starting about 1906. The census records and birth indexes have helped me do this. Their first known child, Marvella, according to the census, was born in Massachusetts about 1906. Their second child, Joseph (my grandfather), and their third, Edward are also listed as being born in Massachusetts, about 1907 and 1909. I have tried to confirm the exact birth date of my grandfather for years, but it still eludes me. I have lots of information on him with a couple different dates, all in December of 1907, so at least I can be pretty confident of the month and year. However, I am digressing and the search for his birth is for a different post.

One of my research goals is to identify where Raymond and Katie were born and their home village in Europe. From the census and other documents I have been able to conclude that their nationality and language was polish and they were born in Russia. If you study a little about the changing Polish borders and areas in Europe, being Polish and Russian is a very real possibility. The census also tells me that they immigrated about 1901. However, the search for any immigration records, either arrival, departures, or naturalizations have been fruitless. It is almost like they just appeared out of thin year, which I am sure, many of you have encountered with your at least one of your ancestors.

I was at a dead end trying to find Raymond and Katie and additional information about my grandfather. So, I took some advice that I heard, and the same advice that I am giving today, check the collateral lines. I decided to see what I could find out about my grandfather’s brothers; Edward, Teddy, and Anthony. My mother said that Edward and Teddy never married, at least not that she was aware of. However, Anthony was known in the family, he was Uncle Tony. I remember talk of him as a small child. My mother remembers him and his family well. So, Anthony was my next search.

From the census records I knew that he was born in Detroit, Michigan so that is where I started. I searched the normal birth and death records first. I was successful and found his birth record and death record but neither provided any new information about his parents. Along with my own search, my mother was in touch with her cousin, Anthony’s daughter, and asked if she had anything about her father. I wasn’t expecting the information I received.

She had the baptism certificate for her father, but it wasn’t for Anthony Lucas, it was for Anthony Luksys! The parents were Roman Luksys and Catherine Paskruba. Everything but the surname Luksys matched the birth record of Anthony. I was a little surprised and excited, maybe this is the breakthrough I needed.

I have yet to make a certain breakthrough with this information but it has led me to more clues which I would not have without the name Luksys. I knew my grandfather and his brother were born in Massachusetts but not quite sure where. With the new information I can search for a new surname and I was able to find a record of Edward Luksis born to Raymond and Katie Pascrumba in Northbridge, Massachusetts on 14 August 1909. I have also found a record for my grandfather from the church records in Whitinsville, Massachusetts, part of Northbridge.

Although I have yet to find any arrival information for Raymond and Katie, the name Luksys is in the same area of Massachusetts at the same time. I have found naturalization and other records for a Samuel Luksys and although I cannot make a connection between the families there are too many similarities that I cannot ignore. Samuel lived in Upton, Massachusetts, right next door to Northbridge and he worked in Whitinsville, part of Northbridge. These are the same places where my grandfather and his brother were born. Samuel worked at the Whitins Machine Works and Raymond (great grandfather) is listed as a machinist in the birth record of his son, Edward.

Even though I have not achieved the breakthrough I am looking for, the moral of this story is that if I had not gone to my collateral lines, I would not have the additional clues to follow which I am confident will lead me to that breakthrough.

Do you have any collateral line success stories? Share those on your own blog or in the comments section here.

Thanks for reading and keep diggin’ for that family.

Chris

Photo Courtesy of: Leigh Marriner.

© 2014 Copyright, Christopher Shaw, All Rights Reserved.

Death Certificate–Raymond Lucas

About a week ago I read a post over on the Michigan Family Trails blog about photo duplication requests from Family Search. I got a two-for-one deal for reading that post.

1. I didn't know about this service from FamilySearch.org.
2. I don't know how I missed this in the past, and honestly, I haven't searched for my Lucas ancestors in a long while, but I haven't looked online for the Michigan Death Certificates, 1921 - 1952, let alone knowing that Family Search had the index.

So, immediately after reading her post I went to FamilySearch.org and searched for my Great Grandfather, Raymond Lucas, to see if his death certificate was among those. I found one that could be him, so I followed Michigan Family Trails advice and requested a photo duplication of that record.

Today, in my email, I was pleasantly surprised to find the record I requested, the Death Certificate of Raymond Lucas (below).

I need to do some analysis of this record and compare to the information I have about my Great Grandfather to be sure that this is him. But I am excited because my initial look at the record is telling me that this is him.

• I estimated his death about 1922, the record date of death is 13 December 1921.
• His wife's name was Catherine, but was called Katie - the wife and informant on the record is Katie.
• He had said he was from Russia and/or Poland on other documents, the death cert says he was born in Russia.
• I had estimated his birth abt 1880, the death cert says 1879.
• On the 1920 Census he was a farmer, the death cert says he was a farmer.
• They lived in Exeter Township for 7 months at the time of his death - Katie is found in Exeter township in the 1930 Census.

That's a lot of information that I've scanned over pretty quick, but with all the similarities, my confidence and excitement is high that I'll be able to say that this is the death cert of my Great Grandfather. But, I have a lot of analysis and some further research to do before I can be sure.

1. I need to compare the information with the little information I do have on Raymond and see if I can match anything.
2. I want to research the cemetery, Stoney Creek Cemetery, and see if I can get any records that may help.
3. I want to check local papers for an obituary which may mention his kids and other information.

One last thing that really struck me in this record is that starvation is a contributing factor of his death. I wonder if the Tuberculosis had something to do with that? He had four kids along with his wife at home and I wonder if making sure they were fed was part of the cause - he was sick, so let them eat more. Plus, the rest of the family was fine and lasted at least until 1940. This, if it is him, is my Mom's Grandfather and she always said that the family was really poor. This fits into that story. These are my first thoughts on seeing the information, I'll probably never know the real story.

That is enough for this record for now but I will be back to revisit after I do some more research and a lot of analysis.

Does anyone have any suggestions on something I may have missed so far?

Thanks for reading and keep diggin for that family.

Chris

PS: I want to thank Diane over at the Michigan Family Trails blog for the great post which led to my potential find.

This Day in History–14 Sept

1935 - Joseph Lucas married Teresa Barbara Pakledinaz. These are my maternal grandparents.

More about them and their lines in these posts:

• Surname Saturday - Lucas and Luksys
• Surname Saturday - Hinterhauser (Teresa's Maternal line)
• Surname Saturday - Pakledinaz Pakledinac
• Wordless Wednesday - Joseph and Elizabeth
• Military Monday - Memorial Day - Pfc Joseph Lucas

1962 – Happy Birthday to my Big Brother, Bill, veteran of the US Navy (although he has put a few pounds on since this picture was taken).

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for reading and keep diggin’ for that family.

Chris

Surname Saturday–Lucas and Luksys

As far as our maternal side, this surname has been the biggest brick wall.

My Grandfather, Joseph Lucas, whom I have written about in a previous post, is the son of Roman Luksys and Catherine Paskruba.

Roman Luksys can also be found as Raymon or Raymond. He was born approximately 1880 in Poland and listed his native tongue as Polish. He immigrated about 1904. He said, in the 1920 census that he put in his first papers for naturalization. I have not found them. Their first stop in the states was Worcester, Massachusetts where their first three kids were born, Marvella (1906), Joseph (1907), and Edward (1909). Then they moved to Detroit, Michigan where their next two kids were born, Anthony (1912) and Theodore (1915).  They changed their name to Lucas sometime between 1912 and 1920.

Catherine can also be found as Katie or Katherine. I did write a little bit about her in this Census Sunday Post. She was born about 1883 in Poland and she listed her native tongue as Polish. Catherine’s maiden name is Paskruba and she married Roman about 1900. She immigrated with him in 1904 or maybe followed the year after.

That is it, that is all I have been able to come up with for this family. I have followed every clue at least once and did write about them in my Ancestor Appreciation Day Post. I will not stop until I find their origins in Poland.

Do you maybe have a connection to this family?

Thanks or reading and keep diggin’ up that family.

Chris

Technorati Tags: Family History,Surname Saturday,Genealogy

Census Sunday–1930 Who is Frank Goodman?

That was the first question that popped into my mind (after I picked my jaw up off the ground) when I searched and found my Lucas line in the 1930 census. Then I wondered, “Why is Great grandma Lucas living with him?”, Oh Wait!  Because she is married to him? WHAT?!? What happened to Great Grandpa Lucas?? Ok, is this the right family? – YES, there is Grandpa Joe Lucas and his brothers, all listed as sons.

So, after calming down somewhat and scanning the census again just to make sure I read things correctly, I called my mom. She knew nothing of a Frank Goodman and she also never knew her Grandpa Lucas as she was told he died before she was born.
This census has brought a few questions, obviously. What happened to Great Grandpa Lucas? Was he already dead at this time or did they divorce?
Who is this Frank Goodman and why didn’t the family know about him?
All of this occurred before the 1940 census came out and I have been at a standstill about answering these questions (mainly due to a lack of research time). Once the 1940 census hit I found Great Grandma Lucas again but not under the name Goodman as in 1930. She is now listed as Katherine Lucas, head of household and widowed. That answers the question of why the family doesn’t know or remember Frank Goodman; he wasn’t around for very long. However, it presents many other questions about him and the relationship with Great Grandma Lucas, which will be explored in another post.
The questions concerning Great Grandpa Lucas still remain also. I do not know what happened to their marriage or what happened to him. These are the mystery’s that keep our search interesting and fun.
Census records, as we all know, are great sources for our family search. They can answer many questions but they can also present many more questions and mysteries for us to follow up on, just as this 1930 census has for my Lucas ancestors.
What surprising information did you uncover from a census? Was it known to family?
Thanks for reading and keep diggin’ for that family.
Chris

Technorati Tags: Family History,Genealogy,Census,Census Records

Ancestor Appreciation Day: My Immigrant Ancestors

Today is Ancestor Appreciation Day and I knew right away which ancestors I wanted to show my appreciation for, I only wish I could do it in person. I would most like to show my appreciation for the immigrant ancestors in my family for without them, me and my family would not be enjoying the American dream.

When I started this family history journey many years ago I had no idea where I came from, just like most of you probably. I was an American and assumed my ancestors were also. Boy, was I every mistaken.

The biggest surprise, so far, in this quest is finding out that my family did not exist in the United States before 1900. All of my immigrant ancestors emigrated from their homes between 1904 and 1926. Even more surprising to me was that these ancestors aren’t even that distant; they are my grandparents and great-grandparents and one set of 2nd-great-grandparents.

Let me introduce to you those ancestors that I most appreciate; my immigrant ancestors.

Shaw's

• Edward Barker Shaw and Hannah Shirt – My 2nd great grandparents. Edward emigrated to Canada about 1882 from Lynby, Nottingham, England. Hannah joined him about a year later with their children, one of which was my great-grandfather, George Edward Shaw. George’s son, my grandfather, is another immigrant ancestor.

 

• George Howard Shaw – My Grandfather. George emigrated from Toronto Canada to Detroit in 1926. This is where he met and married my grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Jane Canter (Cantelo) in 1930.

 

 

Canters (Cantelo)

• William Cantelo and Selina Ann John – My great-grandparents. William and Selina emigrated from Caerphilly, Wales in 1910 and my grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Jane Canter (Cantelo) was with them; she was only 3 years old at the time.

Lucas (Luksys)

• Roman Luksys and Catherine Paskruba – My great-grandparents. Roman and Catherine emigrated from Poland about 1904 and settled in Massachusetts, where my grandfather Joseph Lucas was born. They then moved on to Michigan about 1912 and somewhere along the way they also changed their name from Luksys to Lucas. (I do not have a picture of them but hope to someday link up with some family on this side who may have a photo to share with me.)

Pakledinaz (Pakledinac)

• John Michael Pakledinaz – My great-grandfather. John was born in Tompojevci, Croatia-Slavonia, Austria-Hungary on 16 Mar 1885. He emigrated from there to Youngstown, Ohio in 1905 where he joined his cousin, Jakob Pakledinac. This is where he met and married my great-grandmother, Anna Hinterhauser.

Hinterhauser

• Anna Maria Hinterhauser – my great-grandmother. She is probably the ancestor I look up to the most as she made the immigration journey alone when she was only 19 years old. Anna was born in the small village of Milititsch, Austria-Hungary in 1890. She packed up everything and left for the United States in 1909. She ended up in Youngstown, Ohio and married John (above) less than a year later. They moved to the Detroit area sometime in 1912/13.

I will never know the true reasons why each of them decided to make the long voyage across the ocean in such horrid conditions. However, I would guess it was to give themselves and their families a better life, living the American Dream.

I wish each of them were here today so I could thank them for their sacrifices so many years ago. For if it were not for their spirit and determination then I would not be living the American Dream with my family. Nothing I can say or write can truly express the gratitude and admiration I have for each of them. So, Grandma and Grandpa Shaw, Canter,  Lucas, and Pakledinaz – Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for giving this to me.

What ancestors are you most appreciative of? Leave your thoughts in the comments or make a post of your own.

Thanks for reading and keep diggin’ up that family.

Chris

Thank you to Thomas MacEntee and his Genealogy Blog Editorial Calendar for making me aware of this day.

Technorati Tags: Family History,Genealogy,Ancestry,Immigrants,Immigration,Emigration