some time now because I had some questions that needed answers on
my Mom's side of the family. As I've written here before, her parents had
divorced when she was quite young and there pretty much was no contact
with her father or his family afterward. I've since made contact with my
half-uncle, his son by his second marriage, but knew very little about the
lives of my grandfather's siblings. I didn't even know the dates of his
parents' deaths. So I hoped the 1940 Census would fill in some blanks on
the family tree.
According to the 1930 Census, my great grandparents Edward J White and
Pauline(Offinger)White were living at 172 Florence St in Boston, Ma. Living
with them were their youngest daughter Esther, 16years old, and their 20
year old daughter Ruth (White) Fitzgerald with her husband Albert and their
daughter Ruth. My great grandfather was 56 and working as a teamster for
the city of Boston. Alfred was a housepainter by trade.
I used the ED number from 1930 to find Florence St on the 1940 Census but
when I did, there had been changes. My great grandparents were no longer
living there, and my grandaunt's family(now with four children) were
living at a different building on Florence St. So I turned to the Boston City
Directories. I tried the one for 1940 first and couldn't find my greatgrandfather.
But I did find Pauline listed as a widow renting on Wood Avenue in the
Mattapan neighborhood of Boston. Using that information I was able to
locate her on the 1940 Census. She was listed as "mother-in-law" living
with another daughter, Elizabeth, who had married a Boston policeman
named Guido Biaggi. There were three granddaughters, Elizabeth, Doris,
and Paula, ages 16, 14, and 6 respectively. I hadn't known about the Biaggi
family at all before now. Pauline was now widowed, but I couldn't find any
record of my great grandfather's death.
Ironically, when I did find it, I was trying to locate my grandfather in the 1940
directory. My grandfather was Edward F. White; my great grandfather was
Edward J. White. I found them both on page 2270. My grandfather was living
at 51 Burrell St in the Roxbury neighborhood, but the entry for Edward J White
said he'd died on 2Sep 1939.
So I've found more White family relations. I still haven't found my grandfather
on the new Census and there are more siblings to track down, but it's a start!
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