DIscovered Details

 

For no particular reason I typed my grandfather's name into Duckduckgo.com. Up popped Walter Gordon Sargent from the 1940 federal census. That was two years before I was born.

My family's stories always intrigued me, not because their lives were so fascinating, but because everyone who went before me are part of whom I am.

Informational holes were filled in.

I knew my grandfather was a structural engineer, but I didn't know that he never went to university, graduating only from high school. I knew that he had passed his qualifying exam with a perfect score, although he had been notified he had failed. Only when he demanded to see his exam was the error discovered and corrected.

Listed as head of the house, he was 61 that year and made $2700. He took no holidays in 1939. I will never know why. His birth date is given at abt. 1879. My grandmother's date was not given but she was 58 so her birth date would be about 1892. When I clicked on the link, her relationship to the household head was "wife.". 

Also not shown was that she had two birth dates. One was September 25 that he family celebrated. Her birth certificate,which I never saw, had September 28, registered by her doctor three months later. She always said he forgot the correct day. She never listened to my suggestion we could celebrate twice.

I imagined she looked as she did throughout her long life, wearing her apron, corsets and sensible shoes. She never escaped the Victorian look. She probably never wore a pair of slacks nor cut her hair which was worn in a bun.

The house they owned and where I grew up was worth $5,000. I knew it was set on 14 acres of land with a pine grove in front and two giant rocks dropped by a departing glaciers. I knew my grandfather had a vegetable garden laid out with the precision of his profession. It was surrounded by a Robert Frost type stone wall.

That house was burned down by the fire department, an exercise by the new owners when they bought the then termite-riddled house. The only thing left they told me were the cement stairs to the cellar. Two trucks lost their bumpers when trying to move them, so the new owners made them a feature of their yard.

I knew my grandmother had taken care of her bedridden mother who was the age I am now at the time of the census. What a difference in our conditions as I hop around Europe at will. I had heard her name was Medora, but she is listed as Estelle M. I am guessing the M is for Medora.

Her birth year was about 1860. She had lived before the Civil War. She is listed as a widow, but her husband, Charles Archer Stockbridge, had deserted her. It forced my grandmother to leave high school before finishing. That my grandmother hadn't finished was confirmed by the census.

My Uncle Archer, my grandmother's brother, paid for a nurse to help my grandmother take care of their mother. She was paid $1300 for 1939. Corby, lived in, and was part of the family, according to the stories. My grandmother loaned her to my mother for a week when I was born to teach my mother how to care for a baby. I learned Corby's full name was Ella Corbett and she was 46. I have no idea what happened to her after my great grandmother died.

I learned Corby had finished a year of college and was a widow.

I think my grandfather died when I was four. That would give him six more years of life from the date of the census.

My Uncle Gordon, lived with the family. I'm not sure when he died in his sleep of a cerebral hemorrhage but it was before his father. My only memories of him were stories of his playing golf and being honest in requesting gas during rationing. He did something with insurance and earned $1600 the year before. His German Shepherd Buddy is not listed on the census. 

I wonder what happened to the teddy bear he gave me and I slept with until I left home for college at 19. 

My brother was supposed to have looked like my uncle.

My mother was 22 and would marry in October of 1940. Pearl Harbor and the war was a year away. Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt were strongly disliked. We ate baked beans baked in a pot I still use every Saturday night. I make them infrequently. Clicking on the link it confirmed she made $800 as a clerical worker $500 less than Corby made.

Out of curiosity I checked average incomes for 1940. Combined income for the household was $5,300. By that time there was no mortgage on the house. How expenses were allocated I have no idea. I doubt if I'll ever know.

• White men earned $2,670
• White women earned $1,710

Looking up the various details was almost like reading a family saga, only this was my family, my saga.

Driving by 200 Grove Street on a trip to the states a few years ago, the stone wall is still there. It encircles my past but I live on the other side of the wall where I'm not enclosed.

Walter G Sargent in the 1940 United States Federal Census

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Name:	Walter G Sargent
Respondent:	Yes
Age:	61
Estimated Birth Year:	abt 1879
Gender:	Male
Race:	White
Birthplace:	Massachusetts
Marital Status:	Married
Relation to Head of House:	Head
Home in 1940:	Reading, Middlesex, Massachusetts
Map of Home in 1940:
Street:	Grove Street
House Number:	200
Farm:	No
Inferred Residence in 1935:	Reading, Middlesex, Massachusetts
Residence in 1935:	Reading
Sheet Number:	11B
Number of Household in Order of Visitation:	255
Occupation:	Structeral Eng
House Owned or Rented:	Owned
Value of Home or Monthly Rental if Rented:	5000
Attended School or College:	No
Highest Grade Completed:	High School, 4th year
Hours Worked Week Prior to Census:	42
Class of Worker:	Wage or salary worker in private work
Weeks Worked in 1939:	52
Income:	2700
Income Other Sources:	No
Neighbors:
Household Members (Name) Age Relationship Walter G Sargent 61 Head Florence Sargent 58 Wife Walter G Sargent Jr 29 Son Dorothy Sargent 22 Daughter Estelle M Stockbridge 80 Mother-in-law Ella Corbett 46 Nurse