Sepia Saturday 617. Second in a series about family history discoveries in the recently released 1950 U.S. census.
In 1992, I went with my mom, Peg (Laurence) Charboneau, on a summer genealogy road trip to her Gloversville, N.Y., hometown. The plan was for Mom to show me around, then we would interview relatives, photograph ancestral homes and do some local research.
I had a list of family census addresses — so we drove from house to house around Gloversville snapping photos. At some point we drove past a large home on Grand St. ,and Mom surprised me with the casual remark, “That’s where you spent your first Christmas.”
A 45 Grand St. surprise
Wait, what? This was news to me. So we parked the car and walked around to get a better view of the 45 Grand Street building.
“We lived with your grandparents then,” she said, referring to her parents Tony and Elizabeth (Stoutner) Laurence. “It was before we all moved to the farm. The Christmas tree was up there in that circular window.”
We stood on the sidewalk staring up at the turret windows, then I took a few photos — and that’s the home where I was enumerated in the 1950 US census!
Road trip immortalizes 45 Grand St.
Regular readers of Molly’s Canopy know that I am enthusiastic about genealogy road trips. Repositories and records confirm our family lines, but there is nothing like visiting the towns and homes that are part of our family history.
I could not have imagined that when I took photos in 1992 of 45 Grand St., I would discover that I lived there during my first census. Nor did I expect that a recent Internet search for 45 Grand St. would turn up an empty lot where the building once stood.
Thank goodness Mom and I made that genealogy road trip so I have these photos of where I lived during the 1950 census!
Sanborn map fills the gap
One thing puzzled me, though. This seemed like an awfully big house for my grandparents to be living in. So I turned to a 1912 Sanborn map of Gloversville (shown below) to see if I could learn more.
According to this map, the large building contained a number of flats. My grandparents’ household — in Apt. 137 in the 1950 census — may have actually been on the 45 1/2 Grand St. side of the building if our Christmas tree was in the round turret.
Extended family in transition
Why were my grandparents living in a flat instead of a house? Because the 1950 U.S. census caught my extended family in transition.
My parents had been living out of state, but wanted to be closer to family when I was born. My mom’s younger sister, Aunt Rita, was studying blood bank technology with an eye toward leaving the northeast for parts unknown. And my grandparents, no doubt detecting a manufacturing downturn in once prosperous Gloversville, were also considering a move.
So a rental flat at 45 Grand St. was the perfect temporary solution —while my parents and maternal grandparents looked for a large extended-family home closer to the Albany-Schenectady area and my aunt finished her studies.
As for me, I am just happy that I made it into the 1950 census, and that I have photos of where I lived during my first year — including the one above with my first Christmas balloon.
Up next, the Laurence-Charboneau household in 1950. Meanwhile, please visit the blogs of this week’s other Sepia Saturday participants.
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