I have to admit, somewhat embarrassed, I haven’t always been interested in history – family, American, or world history.  I sat through my classes in high school, memorized the names and dates that we were told to, and immediately forgot …a lot…of what I (didn’t) learn.

The phrase, “Teach yourself history by doing family history.”, is so insanely true.  My poor husband, who aspired to be a history teacher, still shakes his head and laughs at the memory from early on in my research days, when I asked him questions such as “This American ancestor died in France in 1944 – what was going on then? Why did he die over there?”  (If you know…you know.)

Thankfully, I know better now, and I can say with absolute certainty that it was the SECOND World War that my grandfather fought in and not the first.  (Sorry, grandpa, for aging you prematurely all these years.)  I do, however, tend to forget that World War II affected the entire country, and not just those who enlisted and served in the military.  World War II was more than my grandfather serving in the army overseas.  World War II was also the farmers in rural northwest Ohio.

I’ve added a photo here of a “War Ration” book that was among my grandmother’s things passed on to me by my mother a few years ago.  She thought I’d like to have it with my newly discovered interest in all things historical and family related. 

(Ashamedly) I had no clue as to what it was. 

This book is filled with multiple pages of stamps that my grandparents would tear out as needed for purchasing items such as sugar, coffee, meats & cheese.  In a nutshell, for those who don’t already know – During the war, it became necessary to ration food, gas, and clothing in order to control supply and demand and deal with the shortages of items that were not as readily available.  There were red stamps, blue stamps, red points, blue points…I’m sure it was difficult trying to keep it all straight.  But the sacrifice was necessary.

And while we’re talking about what was going on in the 1940’s, my grandparents had also recently been included on a new federal census.  Do you remember the excitement that came as a prelude to the release of the 1940 census in 2012? At the time, it was referred to as the “largest, most comprehensive, and most recent record set available that records the names of those who were living in the United States at the time the census was taken.” Those who appeared in the 1940 US Census are part of what newsman, Tom Brokaw referred to as “The Greatest Generation”.  They survived the Great Depression, many men fought in the second World War, and their women sacrificed here at home.  These individuals understood hard work, industry, and have seen innovations in technology that we most likely take for granted today.  

This was one of the most exciting events I had yet to experience during my time researching, and I was lucky enough to already know where my family members were in 1940, making it easier than most, I imagine, to locate them in the census with some ease.

On the morning of April 2nd, 2012, the much talked about, much hyped up, much drooled over 1940 census images were finally released to the public eye.  Family historians were poised at computers and by the time I had dragged myself out of bed at 7:30, some of the images were already online, and I was thanking the genealogy gods that I had Hoosier ancestors since Indiana was one of the first states that Ancestry.com had put up.  It was quick, painless, and beautiful when that first census image came up, even when I had to take the time to search through the names without an index available.  I think the process kept us all humble.

Who else appeared in the 1940 census?

  • My great-grandmother and grandmother in Sugar Creek Twp., Clinton Co., Indiana
  • Three sets of great-great grandparents, one of which didn’t make things easy for anyone who was trying to keep track of them.  For whatever reason they didn’t spend a lot of time living together as man and wife.
  • On my maternal side, in Paulding County, Ohio were a set of grandparents, 2 sets of great-grandparents, a set of great-great grandparents, and a great-great grandmother. Those were the easy ones as they didn’t move far, nor often.

Unfortunately on my paternal side it was slightly trickier with a few of them.  My grandparents (all 4 of them, as a divorce and remarriage blessed me with an extra grandfather and grandmother) were a bit more…complex.

I had located my great-grandparents, and they were still married in 1940! (I have no idea when they divorced, although this helped narrow it down a little bit.)  Oh yes, and that teenager living with them…my grandfather, all of 14 years old, and just 5 years before he would enlist in the Army and fall in love with a certain little “blonde angel” (also known as my grandmother).

~C.