Heritage and Memory: a Public Historian's Family History: My first find: Isadore (Robert) Silverman

Because the 1940 census is being released online first, before going to microfilm, there is not an index yet. That means you can't just search for names like you can with other censuses on Ancestry.com (or similar sites). The only search fields are for State, County, City and Enumeration Districts. So you need to know addresses.

I was determined to be a super-slueth and find at least one of the Silverman family members the super hard way. I decided to start with California, and as luck would have it, that was ones of the first states ready to look at today. Last week I scoured City Directories for all the Silvermans who moved out to California, and I found quite a few good matches. But for Robert/Isadore, I found one for San Mateo, CA in both 1939 and 1940. Today I found the San Mateo Enumeration Map and paged through lots of tiny font and curvy roads until I found the street that had been listed in the city directory (Bellevue). Then I went to the 1940 Census and searched by the enumeration district. Easy enough, but I still had to find the family. It's not exactly clear how the enumerators scoured their neighborhoods, but I eventually figured out their rhythm (one side of the street, cross streets, and then the other side of the street). I had to scroll through 38 pages (only had a minor heart-attack about even-odd numbered houses), but I finally found the listing for 1429 Bellevue, the home and work place of Isadore, Anna and one of their sons, Albert (lines 6-8). You can not begin to imagine my excitement! Not only that I found their record, but that I found it the old-fashioned way! Woohoo for the technological age making us do grunt work for a change.

Here are two images to remind you who we're talking about. Isadore (Robert) is my maternal grandmother's uncle. Click here for more details about the family.