Sentimental Sunday:  Proud Parent

Last year, our older daughter earned a doctorate in audiology.  Her practice works with military veterans.  She enjoys working with them, and feels comfortable with them probably because her father and I are both veterans.  We are hugely proud of her.

After the graduation ceremonies, we celebrated at a favorite New Orleans-style restaurant.  The hostess and co-owner of the place is wonderfully imaginative, and in honor of our daughter's accomplishment, she made this sign and placed it next to our table:

 

Shopping Saturday:  "Do Day"

My aunt Elizabeth Reed . . .   Wait.  I need to explain something, briefly.  She really was my first cousin once removed.  My mother was an intra-family adoption, and Elizabeth Reed became her adoptive sister.  So my sister and brother and I knew her as our aunt.  We also knew her as "Sissy," because she was our mother's sister.

"Do Day" is what Sissy called Saturday, when she ran all her errands.  During the week, she worked as the Director of Health Information for the State of Florida.  At that time, the 1950s and 1960s, the agency for which she worked was known as the State Board of Health.  These days, it is the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services.  Its headquarters are in Jacksonville, where we lived.

When I was in elementary school in the 1950s, I would ride with Sissy on these errands.  We enjoyed each other's company, having fun with word plays, silly songs, and jokes.  We also sometimes had more serious discussions, and I learned a lot about health and about how Florida was in previous decades, from her experiences as a young nursing student, a public health nurse, and her travels around the state in her job with the Board of Health.

One of those experiences -- one among many -- brings a smile to my lips now, some 60 years later.  She was traveling in central Florida, seeking a small town in which she was to give a presentation on some aspect of public health.  She had a car issued to her by the state.  It was a 1958 Chevrolet, a big and heavy car, as cars were back then.  She stopped at a gas station in a rural area.  In those days, the gas station attendant would come out from the station office and fill the gas tank, check the air pressure in the tires, clean the windshield, and open the hood and check the oil level.  As the scrawny country man was cleaning the windshield, he kept looking at my aunt.  You have to know at this point that she was large, and had been all her life, topping out in adulthood at some 300 pounds.  It was a cross she bore all her life, but she came to terms with it and developed a sense of humor about it.  The gas station attendant finally said, "I notice you're a large woman." 

At that point, Sissy began to bristle.  Bad enough this man had been staring at her; now he's on about her weight.  The attendant continued, "I like large women.  My wife's a large woman."  He paused, then uttered the line that absolutely broke her up, and got bellylaughs whenever she told the tale:  "I always say I never want to have to shake no sheet to find no woman."

When I reached 14, the age when most Florida teenagers began to learn how to drive, Sissy became my driving instructor.  We kids got our "learner's permits," driver's licenses that required a licensed adult to be in the car with us and who taught us how to drive.  Sissy's private car was a 1955 Chevy Bel-Air, and it was a bear to drive.  I developed arm muscles driving that thing!  Once I had mastered the basics and could manage safely, I became Sissy's chauffeur on "Do Day."  It was good experience.  The Southside of Jacksonville had been a separate town called South Jacksonville early in the 20th century, but it eventually got gobbled up by the larger city.  It still had a small-town atmosphere.  

Sissy liked to shop in the San Marco shopping area, a two-block length of two parallel streets with a slew of businesses.  There was Coley-Walker drugs, one of the owners of which lived in the same block my mom and sister and brother and I did, and around the corner from Sissy's house.  There was The Silk Shop, a fabric store, owned by the Barnerts, whose daughter was an elementary-school classmate of mine.  Mims Bakery and Marsh-Kornegay photographers were owned by fellow parishoners at the church Sissy and I attended, All Saints Episcopal Church.  Kinship, friendship, and other links ran all through the area. 

Sissy lived a life of service, and was a great influence that guided me in the same direction.  She had a fulfilling life, but part of that was to soothe the wound her weight was to her.  On the wall in her bedroom was a poem that I memorized; the author remains Anonymous.  It described an outlook that infused her life:

They who have worn the jester's cap, its bells still ringing

Fear not to face their destiny with voices singing.

They will confound a sober world forever after

Who hide their hearts behind a sleeve of laughter.

 

 

 The Hive Mind: Eliminating 1880 as Possible Birth Year of Harold Blaine White

In a comment on my last post, yesterday, Janice M. Sellers suggested that the possible birth year of 1880 might be eliminated from consideration by assuming that Harold White's second wife, Cora Diamond, did not know of his previous marriage to Blanch Stockmyer.  Janice's suggestion works out mathematically, too.  Assuming Cora did not know about Harold's first marriage, we take his age of 43 on the 1930 census and subtract 25, his age at first marriage; the result shows he and Cora had been married 18 years.  1930 minus 18 comes out to 1912, the probable year of their marriage.  This is consistent with his age of 25 at first marriage being in support of an assumption on Cora's part that his marriage to her was his first.  Using Cora's age at first marriage as 18 works out mathematically to the same conclusion: 36, her stated age on the 1930 census, minus her age at first marriage, 18, works out to 18 years of marriage, and again that comes out to 1912.  A marriage date of 1912 is inferred from the fact that their first child was born in 1912.  The baby might have been a little "early."  I now need to seek support for 1912 being their year of marriage in documents such as their marriage license applications (and again, I bless Indiana for taking such thorough information on those documents!) and either a divorce record for Harold and Blanche Stockmyer, or her death certificate.

The enumeration date on the sheet of the 1930 census on which Harold White was counted was 19 April, before his birthday.  Subtracting 25 from 1912 (on Cora's assumption that their marriage was his first) yields 1887 as Harold's year of birth; the same year results from subtracting his age of 43 on that census from the census year of 1930.  But as he was enumerated before his birthday, that makes his age 44 on that birthday in 1930, putting his birth year at 1886.  Now we have three documents that lend some support to 1886 as being Harold's year of birth: the 1930 census (assuming Cora did think his marriage to her was his first), the 1930 census (a simple subtraction of 44 from 1930), and their daughter Maxine's birth certificate.  This still leaves 1885 as the most probable year of his birth, just by the greater number of documents supporting 1885 over the other years.

This also greatly lessens the probability of 1880 being his birth year.  We may even eliminate 1880 from consideration based on the mathematical proof of 1886 being his birth year,  referring to the 1930 census.  However, mathematical proof is not genealogical proof, so 1880 can remain marginally possible, but improbable.

The Hive Mind works!  Thank you, Janice!

 The Many Birth Years of Harold White (1885?-1960)

Harold Blaine White, my maternal grandmother's third husband, though not my grandfather, was born in Indiana.   The intrigue has been in trying to determine in what year he was born.  Sources range from 1880 to 1887.   

I first found Harold White in this investigation in the 1900 census, enumerated at age 15 in his father's household, a farm in Kosciusko County, Indiana.[1]  His birth month and year are given as April 1885.  The enumeration day was 18 June 1900, so his birthday had already passed.  This information is internally consistent. 

Next time Harold White shows up is with a stated age of 21 on 24 November 1905, when he took out a marriage license with 18-year-old Blanch Stockmyer in Kosciusko County. [2]  He gives his birth date as 26 April 1884.  In Indiana at that time, the age for a male to marry without parental consent was 21.  The age for a female to marry without consent was 18.  If Harold White was actually born in 1885 rather than 1884, he would have been 20 years old rather than 21, and would have had to obtain his father's consent.  It is likely that he did not want to, or could not, obtain such consent, so he lied about his age. 

On 13 May 1912, Harold and Cora White (his second wife), were presented with a new son, Eugene, by the noble stork.[3]  Harold's age appears as 25, making his birth year 1887.  The informant is not named on the birth certificate, but it is likely that the informant was the mother, whose age is listed as 18.  She may have been unclear as to her husband's actual age or his birth year.  The reporting of Harold's age on this child's birth certificate in 1912 is in direct conflict with his marriage license application in 1905, on which he gave his birth year as 1884, probably so he could present himself as being 21, of legal age to marry without parental consent.  It also conflicts with the 1930 census, detailed below, on which he is recorded with an age at first marriage of 25, a figure which is at odds with the 1905 marriage information. [See further discussion below, at 1930 census.]

A daughter, Violet, was born to Harold and Cora 13 December 1913.[4]  Harold's age is shown to be 27, which would yield a birth year of 1886.  Cora's age is given as 20.  Again, the mother was probably the informant on this information.

Maxine, the third child of the Whites was born 18 April 1916.[5]  On this registration, Harold's age is 30 and Cora's is 23.  The birth took place before Harold's birthday that year, making him 31 on that birthday, so his birth year comes out to 1885.  Cora may have been the informant.

Harold White did his patriotic duty on 12 September 1918, and registered for the draft.[6]  He gave his age as 33, and his birth date as 26 April 1885.  He would have been asked by the draft board member to answer the questions on the registration, so the information here came from Harold himself.  There is no conflict between the date of the event and Harold's birth year as stated.

Harold White has not yet been found in the 1910 or 1920 censuses.

The information in the 1930 census on Harold White's age and the age given for his first marriage, 25, provides an internal inconsistency, and a conflict with other records, most notably his 1905 marriage license application.[7]  In the 1930 census, Harold's age is given as 43.  The enumeration date was 9 April, before Harold's birthday, so at that birthday, he would have been 44.  This leaves us with 1886 as his birth year.  This is one of only two documents among those so far found that suggest 1886 as his birth year, though neither of them specifically state that it was.  The other document leading to 1886 as Harold's birth year, though not stating it outright, is the birth certificate of the couple's daughter Violet.  This might indicate an informant other than Harold himself.  Likewise, the calculation of his age at first marriage being 25, subtracted from his marriage year of 1905, draw us to 1880 as his birth year.  Compared to all the other documents so far found, this year is an outlier, way out of line with the rest of the information at present known.  This, too, seems to indicate that the informant on this census was someone other than Harold White.

For the 1940 census, enumerators were instructed to place an "X" in a circle next to the name of the informant for a household, if a member of the household was the informant for a particular household or family (as a household could include more than one family).  The enumerator for the section of the census in which Harold White was enumerated in 1940 did not place that mark on any of the households he enumerated.  It would be a stretch to imagine that, for pages and pages of census information, all the informants had been other than household or family members.  Thus, the information recorded by this particular enumerator is no more reliable than that on any other census in any other year.

 Harold's age is recorded on the 1940 census as 54.[8]  The enumeration day was 9 April, before Harold's birthday that year, so he was 55 on that birthday, 26 April.  That would point to 1885 as his birth year.  

On 27 April 1942, Harold White registered for the World War II draft.[9]  This registration date was one day after his birthday, 26 April, and he gave his age as 55.  The resulting calculation yields a birth year of 1887.  

Harold White married my twice-widowed grandmother, Ruth [Nave] Reed Pennington, in  August of 1932.[10]  On the marriage license, he gives his birth date as 26 April 1885.

On the 1950 census, the enumerator failed to record the enumeration date.[11]  However, moving back through the census sheets taken by this enumerator, Nellie Reed, shows her beginning her enumerations on 23 May.  Harold White's age is stated as 65, and as the census was taken on him after his birthday, his birth year comes out to 1885.

Finally, there is his death certificate.[12] Harold died 25 December 1960, in an institutional setting.  No informant is named on his death certificate.  Only his birth year is given: 1885.  He was 75 years old.  

So, in what year was Harold White born?

1880 - Only one document leads by inference to this outlying year.  The 1930 census states his age at first marriage as 25.  Subtracting 25 years from the year of first marriage, 1905, yields 1880.  However, his first marriage took place on 24 November 1905, and he reported his age at that time as 21, though this may have been a falsification to avoid having to ask for his father's permission to marry.  By its direct conflict with the 1905 marriage license and the fact that it is out of the range of the other possible birth years, 1880 does not appear to be a good candidate for Harold's birth year.

1884 - Harold's stated birth date on the 1905 marriage license application is 26 April 1884.  Nowhere else is the year 1884 stated or implied to be his birth year.  This single appearance of that possible birth year and the likelihood that Harold lied about his age in 1905 to get around needing parental permission to marry make it unlikely that Harold was born in 1884.

1885 -  If we go by the old standard of "preponderance of evidence," 1885 wins hands down as Harold's birth year.  This birth year is supported by the 1900 census, the birth certificate of his daughter Maxine, Harold's World War I draft registration, the 1940 census, his application to marry Ruth Pennington, the 1950 census, and his death certificate, though this last document is of highly questionable reliability.  Seven documents out of the twelve so far discovered favor 1885, but that does not yet put the lock on it because the other contenders for Harold's birth year cannot be completely disproven.

1886 - Support for this possible birth year is found in Harold's daughter  Maxine's birth certificate, and the 1930 census.  That is only two of the twelve documents surveyed.  1886 is less likely to be Harold's birth year than is 1885.

1887 - The year 1887 shows up or can be inferred from Harold's son Eugene's birth certificate, and the World War II draft.  1887 is also less likely than 1885 to be Harold's birth year.

So we are left with no more than the strong possibility that Harold was born in 1885 rather than any of the other suggested birth years.  The search continues for more documents, and it is possible that the best we can hope for is to be able to say with a modicum of qualified assurance that Harold White was born in 1885.

There is one consistent element in this whole confusion:  Those documents that make definite birth date statements all agree on one thing:  Harold was born on 26 April of whatever year the documents may mention or suggest.

NOTES:

[1] Census Place: Troy, Whitley, Indiana; Roll: 414; Page: 8; Enumeration District: 0114; FHL microfilm: 1240414.  Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1900. T623, ED 114, Sheet 8, Dwelling 172, Family 174.

[2]  "Indiana Marriages, 1811-2019," database with images, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GPXX-938Z?cc=1410397&wc=Q8SH-5TM%3A962985201%2C963051301 : 5 February 2016), Kosciusko > 1905-1906 Volume N > image 86 of 223; Indiana Commission on Public Records, Indianapolis.  (accessed 15 November 2023.)

[3]  Indiana, Birth Certificates, 1907-1940, Indiana Archives and Records Administration; Indianapolis, Indiana; Birth; Year: 1912; Roll: 002. Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/60871/images/40474_358007-01488?pId=155049355.  (accessed 15 November 2023.)

[4] Indiana, Birth Certificates, 1907-1940, Indiana Archives and Records Administration; Indianapolis, Indiana; Birth; Year: 1913; Roll: 002.  Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/60871/images/40474_357402-02175?pId=2058418. (accessed 15 November 2023.)

[5] Indiana, Birth Certificates, 1907-1940, Indiana Archives and Records Administration; Indianapolis, Indiana; Births; Year: 1916; Roll: 003.  Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/60871/images/40474_357898-00914?pId=3178908. (accessed 15 November 2023.)

[6]  "United States World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:7H1X-W9T2 : 29 December 2021), Harold Blaine White, 1917-1918.

[7]  Ancestry.com, Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2002.Original data - United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1930. T626, ED 9-14, sheet 11B, Dwelling 304, Family 333.  https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/6224/images/4584674_00740?pId=117850519. (accessed 15 November 2023.)

[8]   Ancestry.com, Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.Original data - United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1940. T627, Sheet 4A, Household #78. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2442/images/M-T0627-01030-00378?pId=55811125 (accessed 15 November 2023.)

[9] U.S., World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942. The National Archives At St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; Record Group Title: Records of the Selective Service System; Record Group Number: 147. Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1002/images/2wwii_2371837-4488?pId=8813559.  (accessed 15 November 2023.)

[10]   Newspapers.com - The South Bend Tribune - 14 Aug 1942 - Page 29.  Notice of marriage license application, Harold White and Ruth Pennington.  https://www.newspapers.com/clip/118136363/marriage-of-white-pennln/?xid=637 .  (accessed 15 November 2023).  [Actual marriage record not located yet.]

[11]  Ancestry.com.  United States of America, Bureau of the Census; Washington, D.C.; Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950; Record Group: Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790-2007; Record Group Number: 29; Residence Date: 1950; Home in 1950: Tippecanoe, Kosciusko.  ED 43-24, Sheet 49 (corrected from 121),  Dwelling # 581, Family 156.  https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/62308/images/43290879-Indiana-230908-0051?pId=131170156.  (accessed 15 November 2023.)

[12]  Ancestry.com. Indiana, Death Certificates, 1899-2011, Indiana Archives and Records Administration; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Death Certificates; Year: 1960; Roll: 15.  https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/60716/images/44494_350865-00496?pId=1728451. (accessed 15 November 2023.)

No calculators were harmed in the creation of this blog.  However, one did get a bit testy after the 753rd calculation.