Census Sunday - 1950 Census - Ethel Ford and Sons

1950 U.S. census, Nueces County, Texas, population schedule, Corpus Christi, enumeration district (ED) 258-81, sheet 20, dwelling 181, Ethel A Ford; digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 9 April 2022).

The 1950 U.S. Census gives us a quick snapshot of my grandmother, Ethel A. Ford, and her two sons, William E. Ford and Clay F. Ford.

One detail that caught my attention is the small box beside William's name that says “Sample Line 29.” This means William was selected for additional questions on the 1950 census. Those questions provide a little more information about his work, education, earnings, and military service.

The family was living at 442 Virginia Street, Apartment #7. Ethel was listed as head of household, 47 years old, widowed, and born in Arkansas. She was not working.

William, age 27, was unmarried and working as a truck driver for a private trucking company. He had completed the fifth grade and had worked every week during the previous year, earning $3,850 in 1949. The census also tells us that he had served in World War II.

Clay, age 15, was unmarried and still living at home. He was born in Texas.

Looking at this census record, I can see a little of what everyday life looked like for my family in 1950. But one record doesn't tell us everything about a person's life. It gives us a snapshot—and sometimes a few clues worth following.

Amanuensis Monday: Letter from Daisy Ford Green 1993

This weekly blog post was inspired by Amanuensis Monday, created by John Newmark of the Transylvanian Dutch blog. The word amanuensis means "A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another."  

Why transcribe? Genealogists transcribe letters, postcards, and documents to focus on slowing down and noticing those hidden details, to create a readable backup for fragile records, and to share the evidence with others.                                                                                 --------------------------------

This is a 2-page letter from my Aunt Daisy (Auntie) to me dated January 29, 1993. She is giving me information on where my great-grandmother is reported to be buried. 

Physical Description
Document Type: Handwritten personal letter (2 pages)
Condition:

• Two handwritten pages written in dark ink.
• Paper is aged with overall yellowing and discoloration consistent with age.
• Numerous creases and fold marks are present.
• Small stain on page 1 about mid-way of the page. Minor staining throughout.
• Page 1 has a folded lower-left corner resulting in obscuring a word.
• Page 2 has a folded lower-right corner resulting in some loss of paper.
• Several words are difficult to read because of handwriting rather than damage.
• Some letters or words have been marked through and illegible and have been marked with [crossed out: illegible].
• Original spelling, capitalization, punctuation, grammar, and line breaks have been preserved.

The transcription:

                1-29-93
     Dear Renita I talked to Lola
and to your daddy today about
were Grand Paws Mother was
buried Clay sad it was in the

one going toward Grinville I thonk it was called the lantom Cemetry I not sure but Lola sad she was out at the some one that Grand Mother Ford and Claton and aunt Lela. just so you well no were I am talking about Lola sad she was eather put on aunt Addie’s and [crossed out: illegible] Uncle Will. Allgood’s lot that is Grand Paws sister Addie that was her first husbon. or on Uncle John Wickliffe lot whoe was Grandpaw’s Brother Clay sad him and Moma went to this other Cemetary while they lived at Quinlon but he sad the graves was hard to find that they were not marked good so I still don’t no for sure [I] belive Aunt Jonnie is buried in that

[Page 2] one Clay was talking about you no she [crossed out: illegible] was Grand Maws sister and her first husbon name was Arnold Joe Arnold you rember [crossed out: illegible] Verda [crossed out: illegible] Nixon that big moma used to talk to that lived in Dallas, well Joe and Jonnie was her Mother ond dad and she has a brother Jessie that lives in Quinlon if he is still living [crossed out: illegible] he lives on out that road were the Cemetry is werer Aunt Lela s’ buried you mite see if he has a phone. and see if he could till you were the Cemetry is that is on between Quinlon ond Grenville I don't no if any of this will help you are not hope it will.   just thought I would rite it down     love you Aunte.

The source citation for this letter is as follows:

Daisy Ruth (Ford) Green (Corpus Christi, Texas) to "Dear Renita" [Renita Ford Collier], letter, 29 January 1993; privately held by Renita Ford Collier, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Terrell, Texas, 1993.

Census Sunday: Arthur Elisha Ford, 1930 Hunt County, Texas

It's Census Sunday - time to look in my digital image files to see what treasures I can find for my family history and genealogy musings.

The census today is the 1930 U.S. Census for my grandparents, Arthur Elisha Ford and Ethel (Wickliffe) Ford, in Quinlan, Hunt County, Texas:

Figure 1: The 1930 U.S. Census page for Hunt County, Texas featuring Elisa [Elisha] Ford and family.

The Arthur Elisha Ford family entry is:

Figure 2: Close-up snippet of the Elisha Ford family census entry on lines 32-35.

The extracted information for this census is:

• Elisa Ford: Head, 33, married (age 24 at first marriage), can read/write, farmer renting farm, born in Arkansas.
• Ethel Ford: Wife, 28, married (age 19 at first marriage), can read/write, keeping house, born in Arkansas, parents born in Missouri.
• Ezra W. Ford: Son, 7, single, in school, born in Texas, parents born in Arkansas.
• Daisy R. Ford: Daughter, 5, single, at home, born in Texas, parents born in Arkansas.

The citation for this census is:

1930 United States Census, Hunt County, Texas, population schedule, Justice Precinct #7, enumeration district (ED) 116-38, sheet 7A, line 32, dwelling 137, family #137, Elisa [Elisha] Ford household; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 08 Aug 2012); citing National Archives Microfilm Publication T626, roll 2360.

Census Sunday: Arthur Elisha Ford, 1940 Hunt County, Texas

It's Census Sunday - time to look in my digital image files to see what treasures I can find for my family history and genealogy musings.

The census today is the 1940 U.S. Census for my grandparents, Arthur Elisha Ford and Ethel (Wickliffe) Ford, in Quinlan, Hunt County, Texas:

Figure 1: The 1940 U.S. Census page for Quinlan, Hunt County, Texas, featuring the Arthur Elisha Ford household.

The Arthur Elisha Ford family entry:

Figure 2: Close-up snippet of the Arthur Elisha Ford family census entry on lines 18–24.

The extracted information from this census record is:

• Line 18: Renting for $4/month, not a farm.
• A. Elisha Ford: Head, 43, married, 4 years education, laborer, PW farm work.
• Ethel Ford: Wife, 36, seamstress for the WPA.
• Ezra Ford: Son, 16, 4 years education, new worker seeking employment.
• Dasie R. Ford: Daughter, 14, 5 years education, keeping house.
• Clay Ford (twin): Son, 5, born in Texas.
• Claton Ford (twin): Son, 5, born in Texas.

It appears that Arthur Elisha Ford gave the information for the census. I have found several errors in the census. Ethel left school in third grade to pick cotton in the fields. This information came from Ethel in an interview in 1985. Elisha and Ethel were both born in Arkansas, not Texas. This evidence comes from other census records found in Arkansas and from the interview with Ethel.

The citation for this census is:

1940 United States Census, Hunt County, Texas, population schedule, Quinlan, Justice Precinct #7, enumeration district (ED) 116-36, sheet 5A, dwelling 98, family #98, A, Eligh [Elisha] Ford household; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 07 Apr 2013); citing National Archives Microfilm Publication T627, Roll 4072.

My Ancestors

             Back row (left to right): Lola Wickliffe, William Ezra Ford, Daisy Ruth Ford

  Front row (left to right): Ethel Wickliffe Ford, Clay Franklin Ford, Arthur Elisha Ford

Arthur Elisha Ford (my grandfather) was born in 1896, the 5th of 6 children. His father, William Preston Ford, died in Arkansas when he was 12 years old. He moved to Quinlan, Texas with his mother, Sarah Elizabeth (Dodd) Ford and younger sister, Mary, when he was about 17 years old. There he met, and fell in love with, Ethel Wickliffe. They married on 14 Mar 1920 in Quinlan, Hunt County, Texas.

Ethel Wickliffe, born in 1903 in Mountain View, Arkansas, was the oldest child of Richard Franklin Wickliffe and Estelle Lynn.  She had 4 younger sisters and a young brother who died when he was about four years old.

Ethel and Elisha had four children. William Ezra (1922-1950), Daisy Ruth (1925-2012), and identical twin boys Clay Franklin (1934-2010) and Clayton Richard (1934-1941). After Clayton died in 1941, Ethel struggled to overcome the depression. She would sit at the cemetery every day and cry. In order to help his wife, Elisha decided to move his family to south Texas to his sisters' ranch. They eventually settled in Corpus Christi, Texas.

As part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), Elisha dug ditches for the government, and Ethel worked in a sewing room. They became members of the Pentecostal Church of God, 501 Cheyenne Street,  in Corpus Christi, Texas. The pastor was C.C. Hurst. Elisha started having numbness in his feet and eventually was paralyzed from the waist down. Ethel would put him in his wheelchair before she left for work, and he would wheel about the house, cooking, sweeping, and cleaning. Many different doctors checked him out, but couldn't come up with a medical diagnosis for him. He died two years later on 19 Oct 1946.

They are all gone now. I miss them all so much. I never knew my grandfather or my uncle, as they died before I was born. My grandmother’s stories about them and her life are what got me interested in doing genealogy.