A little while back, my mother gave me several pins which had belonged to her mother. One of them was a badge for the American Women’s Voluntary Services (AWVS), an organization established in 1940 that provided aid and assistance to the American armed forces and civilians. By the time Pearl Harbor was attacked, the AWVS had more than 18,000 members offering assistance ranging from food services to driving ambulances and administering first aid. [i]
Where was my grandmother living while a member of AWVS? I knew that she and my grandfather married in Manhattan in 1931, and according to the 1931 Manhattan and Bronx city directory, they resided in the Bronx. I, of course, first looked at the 1940 U.S. Federal Census to locate her and her family, but I could not find them.
I called my mom. “Where were you guys living in 1940? I can’t find you!” My mother was only four years old then, but she remembered living in Belle Harbor, in Rockaway, Queens, just down from the beach; however, she did not know when they moved there. Later in our conversation, she recalled that in 1944 they had moved to Long Island sometime before Thanksgiving. She knew this because she remembered a damaging hurricane that occurred prior to their move. They had begun packing, and those boxes were stored in the basement; unfortunately, those packed belongings were damaged when the house flooded.
A quick internet search pointed to the “Great Atlantic Hurricane of 1944.” Further research revealed that the hurricane hit the area on 15 September 1944.[ii] As we talked, my mother mentioned that they lived near an army base. She recalled seeing my grandmother in a uniform; she also remembered going to the base with her and seeing women like my grandmother on an assembly line, making sandwiches and coffee.
Since the AWVS began in 1940, and I knew my grandparents were still living in Queens in 1944, I turned to the Queens Telephone Directory, New York Telephone Company, 1939-40; I found my grandfather in the directory, at the address my mother recollected. I accessed this directory via Direct Me New York City, a New York Public Library website. This website enables one to use 1940 residential street addresses from the five boroughs of New York City and convert them into census enumeration districts using search tools based on Stephen Morse and Joel Weintraub’s “1-Step” search engine.[iii]
Clicking on my grandfather’s name yielded two enumeration districts. I searched the census records from the first enumeration district and found his name, along with my grandmother’s and mother’s names. Even better, I was also able to view a map of this district, and right down the beach was Fort Tilden, the army base where my grandmother most likely went to as a volunteer in the AWVS.
Notes
[i] Alice Throckmorton McLean. (2014). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/355045/Alice-Throckmorton-McLean.
[ii] http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/outreach/history/#great.
[iii] http://directme.nypl.org/.
Nancy, very interesting post!
So rewarding when family remembrances and research come together in a wonderful family story.
Nice tracking! Stephen Morse and Joel Weintraub’s “1-Step” search engine is a most excellent tool.
Sweet story. I love how your mom’s memories gave you clues. Good for you for paying attention. I am trying to fit the early pieces of my family history together, but I am looking forward to coming back and really filling in the stories attached to the generations just before me before they are lost. I am the last repository for many of the stories told by my parents and grandparents. Your mom and I are about the same age! I am also researching a married-in aunt’s family. At age 97, she is the last in her line and has never known much about her family. Each time I talk to her, I glean another little bit of information to use in my research. I hope to be able to at least get all her grandparents to give her before she dies. She’s my treasure.
Nancy, Great story. Sometimes we get so focused on the past, we by-pass the history we are living with. Good luck on finding the grandparents of your aunt.
I recently traveled to Rockaway with my mother and a cousin to visit the Belle Harbor Yacht Club where my great grandfather was a member. My mother was able to track it down via an old photo of a Launch they sailed there. My cousin still has a Cup that was awarded years ago when they won a race there. We were welcomed with open arms and it was terrific to see where my relatives had been and relaxed.