Wednesday, April 11, 2012

1940 Census

According to the Census (which is available online at http://1940census.archives.gov)
the owner of the house in 1940 was Jennie...maybe Svenson? (the handwriting on the paperwork is awful) who was 50 yrs old. She lived here with her son William who was 23 and a packer at a glass factory earning $960/year. The value of the house was $4000!
What is interesting is that there were many other people living here as well:

The D'Amato family paying $18/month rent:
Anthony (father) 41 yrs old, Longshoreman at the NY Docks
Julia (mother) 39 yrs old
Rose (daughter) 18 yrs old, listed as a "new worker"
Ralph (son) 16 yrs old
and Joseph Ruggerio (their nephew) 21 yrs old, auto mechanic

And THEN, there was the Mund family, paying $24/month:
Edward (father) 63 yrs old
Elizabeth (mother) 58 yrs old
John (son) 23 yrs old, clerk
Anna (daughter) 19 yrs old, also a "new worker"

So that means a total of eleven people lived in this house in the year of 1940...ALL AT THE SAME TIME. It makes us wonder if the shack that used to be in back was actually it's own residence...and if there was possibly a causeway between lots in the rear to allow for egress other than going through the house. Even taking tenement living into account, it's still hard to think of so many people squeezed in to this place together.

I'm supposing that the woman in the photo of the house with the Jack Russell terrier is either Jennie Svenson or Elizabeth Mund...but it's impossible to tell.



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