The Clock is Ticking

It is pretty well known that women – if they could make it into adolescence and through the birth of their children – historically tended to live more than men. This certainly seems to be born out in looking in the Northen family tree. Below is a sample of the ages of the women, beginning with my mother on her side of the tree.

While there is definitely a spread in the ages, of my mother’s five most immediate women ancestor, three of them made it into their nineties.
By contrast, my father’s side of the family, outlining the life span of the males in the family tells a complete different story.

Aside from my father’s father, M.C. Northen who died in his early forties of what would probably be considered cancer today, every one of them died in their seventies. (Average 75.8 with an S. E. of about 2). As someone approaching 69, such consistency isn’t all that reassuring.

The differences are clear and it is interesting to speculate why. Catherine Streich’s obituary characterized her as coming from “solid German stock”) and perhaps that’s a factor. No doubt the fact most of the Northen men appeared to be smokers and heavy drinkers probably did not help their cause any. In any case, my sister Judy and her daughters appear to be the winners with the good mitochondrial DNA; those of us with the y chromosome – not so much.

A Wilkins Family Curiousity

Those who have been following this family blog, know a little bit about my mother’s wide of the family – the Wilkins. That part of the family tree looks something like this.

Edward Wilkins + Catherine Sitzman
↓
Victor Wilkins + LaVerna Ryman
↓
Elvera Wilkins (Mom)

So Ed Wilkins and Catherine Sitzman are my maternal great grandparents. Ed and Katie (as Catherine was known had five children Victor (my grandfather), Odelia, Raymond, Marie, and Florence. Here is where the mystery comes in. In the 1920 census, Katie appears twice.
In the 1920 Federal Census, she is living in the town of Athol in Spink County, South Dakota. She lives with her husband Ed, who is the owner of a dry goods and grocery store; and her son Raymond who is 22, single and also works in a dry goods store, presumably his fathers. Also living with her are her daughters Marie (18 years old) and Florence (15 years old).
In another 1920 Federal census she is listed as living in Long Beach in Los Angeles County, California. While her first name is misspelled as Catherin, it is clear that this is the same person because she has two daughters , Marie (18 years old) and Florence (15 years old). Moreover, in both places her age is the same and her birthplace is listed as Wisconsin while those of her parents are listed as Germany. In the Long Beach census, she is listed as married, but neither her husband nor a son Raymond are listed.

The 1920 census was also the first census in which it asked not just if you rented or owned property but if the property was owned or mortgaged. The 1920 census says that she owned her house and that the property was not mortgaged. In other words, it was paid for. Ed’s home in South Dakota, by contrast was listed as mortgage. One other question that the census asks is if the person has been in school since Sept. 1 of 1919. The answer for Marie is “No” in both cases; not much of a surprise since she was 18. For Florence, the Long Beach census puts, “Yes”; the South Dakota census originally has “Yes” but then it has been erased with just enough smudge left to detect the original answer.

So what is going on? One thing we know is that in the prior census of 1910 they were living with five children in Garfield Township, Lincoln County, Iowa. This makes sense because my grandfather Victor, the oldest and born in Iowa is listed as 17 years old and is not yet married. When you look for Kate and Ed in the 1930 census, though, things look are interesting. Kate is still living in the same house In Long Beach, which she still owns, but she is now living by herself. She now lists herself as divorced. Ed Wilkins only turns up in one census and guess where he is living…Long Beach. He still lists himself as married, but he is living in address as a lodger with two widows who also list themselves as lodgers.

Now Ed Wilkins is a pretty common name, so the first reaction is that this is not the same person, and that is quite possible. He lists himself as born in Iowa and for the birthplace of both of his parents he lists United States. That is exactly what he listed for his parents birthplaces in the 1920 South Dakota census and it is a very unusual listing, so maybe this is our ancestor and maybe not.

What is interesting to me is that Katie lists herself as divorced. Anyone who knows anything about Catholicism knows that, except in extreme circumstances, Catholics did not get divorced in 1930 because divorce meant ex-communication. Even legal divorce was difficult in those times. There is a short gap in time between the 1920 South Dakota census and the 1920 California census. The first was conducted January 8-9; the second from January 19-20. While it is theoretically possible that Katie moved with her two daughters in that ten day gap between the two censuses, could she have also become a property owner in such a short length of time. It seems highly unlikely. Perhaps more likely is that whoever was giving the census data to the South Dakota census taker simply recorded Katie and the girls as being there when, in fact they had been long gone.

Sometime around 1934 my grandfather, Victor moved from South Dakota to Santa Ana, California. He was Katie’s oldest son and the 1940 census show her as living next door to him and his family of nine children, that included my mother. I’d be curious to know what happened to my great-grandmother in those years surrounding 1920. It must be quite a story.

I’m going to add a short anecdote as an addendum, to show just how in accurate some census records can be, especially when they go through others for interpretation. In the 1920 census there is a place to list your native language. In the South Dakota census, whoever took it only listed English for those who were actually born in England. For everyone born in the United states, he listed their language as “American.” Since Ed Wilkins was born in the United States, he was listed as speaking American. Obviously, someone a bit later on recognized that (despite some opinions to the contrary) there is no such language as “American.” They crossed out all of the places where it read American, but apparently, the handwriting of the original recorder was difficult to read so Ed’s native language comes up as “Armenian.” The funny thing is that he is probably the only family member of that generation on my mother’s side whose first language actually was English!