Thursday, March 23, 2000
I got my first three SS-5s from Social Security today! On Great-Grandpa Horbal’s, he lists the names of his parents, Paul Horbal and Justine Wozny. I didn’t know those names before, so that’s cool. Unfortunately, he gives his place of birth simply as "Poland", which covers a lot of territory and doesn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know. His employer on November 30, 1936, was Chrysler, on Jefferson Ave, and they had kindly filled in that space for him so that he wouldn’t have to. Some efficiency expert probably figured that they could save a million dollars by doing that. :-) His address at the time was 9121 Harper Ave.
On Grandpa Horbal’s application, he gives his mother’s name as Victoria Mazur, so I had that right. Given that the state of Pennsylvania spelled his name wrong on his birth certificate, they probably spelled hers wrong too. It also lists his birth place as Altoona, PA, so I got that right on the Vital Records application too. I hope they’re able to find his birth certificate; the lady who called last week from the PA Vital Records office was having trouble finding it, but said they would have something in the mail for me this week. They cashed my check, so I know they’re working on it. :-) Grandpa’s SS-5 lists his address as 13430 Goddard Ave. in Detroit, and his employer as the Hudson Motor Car Company. They didn’t pre-print the forms, though. Maybe that’s why they don’t exist any more and Chrysler still does (in some form). I wasn’t aware of the Goddard address; the form is from November 25, 1936, about 9 months after he and Grandma married, so presumably that was their first home together. At the bottom of the form, he originally signed it "Theodore Horbal", then that’s crossed out and underneath he signed "Theofil Horbal". At least he didn’t sign it "Joe". I never knew someone who was called by so many different names.
Great Grandma Miller’s form gives her address as 11474 Christy in Detroit, which is right by City Airport, and which Dad pointed out when we drove by it in January when we were there from Grandpa Brandi’s funeral. She’s listed as being unemployed when she applied on January 18, 1943. One interesting thing is that she spelled her name "Eveline", not "Evelyn" as I had thought.
I’ve scanned all three forms:
- Joseph Horbal (great-grandfather)
- Theofil August Horbal (grandfather)
- Eveline Clara (Schmitt) Miller (great-grandmother)
Posted at 9:09:57 PM
