Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Where are the "Westchester Waltons" in the 1940 U. S. Federal Census?

The "Westchester Waltons"...sounds rather ritzy, doesn't it? But, that is, after all, who we are descended from. This title is technically incorrect because many of George and Constance Walton’s children where either not born in Westchester or didn’t continue to reside there as adults. This is simply an easy way to distinguish the generation of Waltons we’re focused on for this article  from the “Packington Waltons”, the “Appleby Waltons “ or the “Cheddleton Waltons”. After all, the majority of George's family were clustered around Westchester in the first half of the twentieth century, although we're scattered to the winds today!

The 1940 census population schedules will be available for research on April 2, 2012, at 9:00 AM EST.

I spent time over the last couple of weeks searching for clues about the “Westchester Waltons” in the 1930s to better prepare us in finding them when they release the 1940 Census documents on April 2, 2012.
Where is Frank?

Do you know where your direct linear Walton ancestors where in 1930? If you don't, in most cases I can probably help you start locating them.

To start my own search, I located the 1930 census for the youngest child, Fred, my grandfather. I actually already had these in my records. My father, Fred, was born in 1930 but not in time to be counted on the census. They lived near Tarrytown, which seems to be the nucleus of the Walton family residences. I talked to my Dad and by 1940, his family was living in White Plains. 

The next record I looked for in my archives was my great-grandparents. I knew that George had died in 1910 (and now permanently resides in North Tarrytown, or Sleepy Hollow, as it is known today). His wife, Constance Wilhelmina, was living in nearby White Plains with their daughter Lillian. Both Lillian's daughter, Connie, and her mother,Wilhelmina are listed in her household. Bachelor brother John lived here too.

What about the rest of the brother and sisters? I decided to start at the top and work my way through the remaining children. I had previously stumbled across the census records for a few of them. The rest I had to look up on Ancestry.com or Fold3.Com. 

I was able to find almost all the records. Some were easy, a few were a little challenging, but one has me totally stumped. Sorry cousins...I can not find Frank Walton and his family. I tried all sorts of  combinations of their names, the names of each family member, even their dog and came up blank. OK I made up the part about the dog, but if I had it, I'd try using it! There is probably a simple explanation for not finding them, but right now I don't seem to have one. It's like he was out of town during the census. I am pretty sure he lived in Tarrytown...or maybe Irvington? Direct descendants, I'm gonna need help on this one.

The rest of the family has been entered into a table on a separate page which can be accessed here: http://staffordshirewaltons.blogspot.com/p/waltons-of-westchester-1940-census.html

I hope you will find this information useful. Please let me know if you find any errors or have additional information to add. Also if you know of any other cousins, please let me know, especially cousins for the lines we don't have names for yet.

And remember, next time you're at a fancy cocktail party, if it comes up, stand up proudly, look down your nose and in a bored and condescending voice say, "me?, why we're the "Westchester Waltons", of course!"
 

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