Going home

My great-grandmother Katarina was born in Transylvania and then left behind with her grandmother at the age of 4, while her parents sailed for America. It is unclear what the exact plan was, but as it turned out, Katarina grew up in her small, ethnically German village and came to Ohio on her own as a young woman in 1920. Meanwhile, her parents had raised 8 more children, all Americans and fully part of the family. My great-grandmother was never able to experience anything akin to siblingship with them, but always felt like more of an aunt. And she never stopped trying to win them over, even as a wife and mother in her own right, clearing out the cabinets to come bearing armfuls of food.

After the 1940 Census is finally indexed, I hope that I will glean a little bit more about what happened with my family during the Great Depression, a period that, in my imagination, has been largely a shadowy area, populated by Dorothea Lange photographs and John Steinbeck imagery. From other records, I know some things: when my ancestors immigrated, when they were born, where they lived in 1930, just shy of five months before Katarina's father - suffering from illness and lack of employment - tied a noose around his neck in the family barn and left his family to fend for themselves throughout the interminable depression and all that would come later. I don't know, however, what happened to them after this defining event, just after the last available Census. In a matter of months, much may be illuminated for me in this respect.

From family history interviews, I know how Katarina struggled to find a place in a new country with a family she'd never known, even through marriage to an upstanding, gregarious man and raising her own children. And I know how her daughter, my grandmother, came of age during World War II, meeting a firm yet gentle Army man who knew when to put his foot down and when to laugh about the trials and tribulations of family life. But I don't yet know the effects of the Great Depression on my grandmother as a young woman or on my grandfather who would enlist. As with any research in records, the genealogist plays the lottery, without knowing whether they will hit the informational jackpot or confirm what they already knew.

I suspect, however, knowing what I know of my family but also of the turbulence of the 1930s, that there will be so much to discover. As time marches on, it only gets harder to learn about our ancestors' lives, as paper and memory alike deteriorate with passing years. Eagerly awaiting the 1940 release, I temper my anticipation with workaday responsibilities and squeezing in some indexing of other records - and I do my best to spread the word and get others involved. Work in eager anticipation with me at http://the1940census.com.