genealogy

I had never especially been interested in genealogy until a few years ago, when I did a story about blacks tracing their ancestry using the Freedman’s Bank records. Two years ago I briefly joined Ancestry.com, and within moments I was looking at 1920 and 1930 census data for my grandparents. It was amazing.

I learned that my father’s father’s father, Manuel Rose of New Bedford, Mass.:

• worked as a “slubber tender” in a cotton mill
• paid $12 in monthly rent
• did not have a radio
• came to the U.S. in 1901 from Cape Verde
• married at age 28. (In 1930, he was 44 and my grandfather, Mario Rose, was 14)

And about my father’s mother’s parents, also of New Bedford:

• Michael Gomes, 43, was born in the Azores, came to the U.S. in 1902 and worked as a salesman in a furniture store.
• His wife, Sophia Gomes, 36, was born in Germany, came to the U.S. in 1895, and was a “ring spinner” in a cotton mill.
• They didn’t have a radio, either, and paid $22 in monthly rent.
• Their 16-year-old son, Michael Jr., was a “back boy” in a cotton mill, while my grandmother, 15-year-old Evelina, didn’t work at the time.

Michael and Sophia had third child, Raymond, listed on the 1920 census. (The form calls him a “daughter,” which I assume is a error, especially since his sex is listed as male). I can’t quite make how old he was, but I assume he was younger than 5, my grandmother’s age at the time.

Raymond is not listed on the 1930 census, so I assume he didn’t make it. Life expectancies were short back then, I guess.

Incidentally, Raymond is my father’s name.

If for some reason you’re interested in my family history, or just want to see what one of these census forms look like … you can download them!

• My paternal grandfather, Mario Rose, in the 1930 census. He’s listed below “Rose, Manuel” about halfway down the page. 770KB high-res jpg file.
• My paternal grandmother, Evelina Gomes, in the 1930 census. Toward the bottom of the page. 830 KB high-res jpg file
• Evelina Gomes in the 1920 census. This is three image files digitally stitched together, that’s why it looks a trifle uneven. 429 KB image file.
• Mario Rose in the 1920 census. 110KB low-res image file. This file was also stitched together and lacks header information, but you can find a blank 1920 census form here.

A note about census data. To protect people’s privacy, each census is not released until 72 years after it is taken. You can get it for free, but it’s much more efficient to just pay for it online. (Ancestry.com offers a free trial; I think I paid for one month at $24.95). You actually get the digital picture files of the actual census … so long as you know your grandparents names and where they lived in 1920 or 1930, it’s easy to find them.

(Incidentally, my grandfather took some of the first-ever film footage of Cape Verde in 1937.)