Monday, May 29, 2000
I’ve been doing some Census work over the past week. Last Tuesday, I went down to the Family History Center to look at the Soundex index for 1900 (LDS film number 1244952). I found Ralph A Brandi listed, with the actual Census referred to at Enumeration District 43, Sheet 6, Line 68. The index lists his birthdate at September, 1871, which I already knew, and said he was naturalized already by 1900. The address given is 627 North Franklin in Saginaw. His wife Helen is listed as being born in Germany in August, 1874. I’m not sure what the "NR" under Naturalization means. And the three children are shown with birth months, too. Melvina M was born in August, 1893 and was 6 years old; the 1910 index had her as 11 years old, but in light of the other transcription errors in the entry, I disregard that. Vincent J was born in February, 1895, making him 5 at the time of the Census, and James was born in March, 1897, making him 3.
I also found Vincent and Mary Brandi listed, who I suspect were my great-great-grandparents, although I don’t have proof of that yet. The actual Census listing for them (once I get it) is at Enumeration District 42, Sheet 12, Line 88. Vincent was born in August, 1845, making him 54 at the time of the Census in 1900, was born in Italy, and was naturalized by 1900. His wife Mary is listed as being born in May, with the year given first as 1843, then the 3 crossed out and replaced with a 5; her age is given as 55, and citizenship as "NR" just like Helen above. They lived at 235 Dwight in Saginaw, a few blocks away from Ralph and Helen and family.
The only other Brandi I found on this film (which started with the letter "M" for the Soundex B-653, which means I have to check another film later) is young Raymond Brandi, age 3 and born in April, 1897, living at 1308 North Sixth, apparently right around the corner from Vincent and Mary, with Zoa Godboo (Enumeration District 42, Sheet 5, Line 23). His relationship to Zoa is listed as "Gd-Son", which could be either God-son or grandson, hard to tell. I have no idea if he’s related or not; I didn’t see him in the 1910 Soundex.
Then on Saturday, when we got home from Pennsylvania there was a package here from Heritage Quest that contained my CD-ROM of the 1910 Census for Saginaw. I found Ralph and Helen and family (James was enumerated at the top of the next page), and Vincent and Mary. I haven’t found Michael and his family yet, though; the page where their information is supposed to be appears to be half blank. Very strange. I may have been looking at the wrong page, so I’ll go back over it, but first appearance is that he’s not on the film. Also, I haven’t found Aunt Yola yet. She should be in there somewhere as a 1 month old baby, as she was born on March 6, 1910.
The entry for Ralph has him as 39 years old and "Hellen" 36, having been married for 20 years, so that would put their marriage sometime between April, 1889 and April, 1890. Melvina is 17, Vincent 15, and James 13. Incidentally, the family is split across two pages, with James appearing at the top of the next page all by himself. Ralph is listed as being born in Italy, as were both his parents, and Helen was born in Germany, as were both her parents. The children were all born in Michigan. In the column for "when immigrated", the enumerator here puts instead the number of years Ralph has been in the U.S., 27, making his immigration year roughly 1883. There’s no date listed for Helen, so when she came over is still a mystery. Ralph is listed as naturalized; no indication is given for Helen. For "language spoken at home", all are listed as speaking English, except for Helen, who is listed as speaking "English-Ger". Perhaps that’s an indication that she spoke with an accent, or that she came to America relatively late (although she must have been here by age 16, because that’s when she got married). Ralph is listed as a merchant in the Tailor profession, working on his own account rather than for someone else. He and Helen could both read and write, but neither are shown as having attended school at all. All of the children attended school. They rented the house at 627 North Franklin, where they had also been living for the 1900 Census.
Vincent (spelled "Vicent") and Mary were still living at 235 Dwight in 1910, as well. They’re both listed as 64 years old, putting their birthdates in 1845-6 (which matches what they’re listed as in the 1900 Soundex). They had been married for 40 years in 1910, so they got married in roughly 1869-70. Mary had had three children, two of whom were still living at that time. Both were born in Italy to Italian parents, and came to America in 1883, which squares with the information for Ralph. Vincent is listed as being a naturalized citizen. They spoke English at home, and Vincent worked as a switchman for the railroad ("R R" is how it’s listed in the Census), while Mary stayed home. Both could read and write, and Vincent is listed as having attended school.
You can find some interesting stuff in the Census....
Posted at 5:18:50 PM
