Census Archives - Page 6 of 7 - Ramblin' with Roger

The Unresolved Father Lineage Stuff

What I REALLY want to know is who was my father’s biological father.

The item I wanted to check the most is where my father lived, and just as important, how he is listed. This is the listing for my paternal grandmother’s household in the 1930 Census:

Samuel E Walker, 56, janitor in a public building (my great grandfather, who I remember from my childhood)
Eugene M Walker, 52 [Mary Eugean Patterson Walker, from other sources] – deceased by the time I was born
Agatha H Walker, 27, housekeeper, private family (my grandmother, who died in the mid 1960s)
Earl S Walker, 25, caterer, hotels
Stanley E Walker, 20
Vera C Walker, 17
Melissa C Walker, 15
Jessie G Walker, 13
Morris S Walker, 11
Wesley H Walker, 3 [3 6/12]

Samuel is listed as head of household, Eugene as his wife. Everyone else is listed as his sons or daughters. The oddity is the Wesley Walker record. From the time frame, that is clearly my father, Agatha’s son, but I knew him as Leslie H Green. This begs the obvious questions.

I’m looking to see when the guy I knew as my grandfather, McKinley Green, entered the picture. From the 1938 Binghamton city directory, I can tell my grandmother’s last name was Green, but she appeared to be living at 339 Court Street, whereas McKinley was at 135 Susquehanna Street. The 1940 Census continues to show the Walker clan together, but my grandmother as Agatha Greene (enumerator error) and my father as Leslie Greene. McKinley lived in a boarding house.

What I REALLY want to know is who was my father’s biological father. Rumor had it that my grandmother got pregnant by some minister. Of course, I never asked my father about this. Whatever info I got was from my mother, who got the info secondhand, and from his cousins, all of whom were younger than my father, and thus not present either.

My sisters have mused that, in retrospect, we should have brought this up to my father, but that wasn’t going to happen. NONE of the info I know, or think I know, originated from him, so it would have been mighty difficult to casually slide it into the conversation.

In the picture is my father (center) with his mother, Agatha (right). I have no idea who the others are, though the boy sure looks like a Walker.

Yes, there was a real Vidal Sassoon

The elimination of the ACS would mean the loss of all the data Census used to collect on the long form. A voluntary ACS would actually cost MORE to operate than it does presently.

I was on Facebook recently, and someone, who I believe considers herself a bit of a fashionista, wrote: “Did you have ANY idea Vidal Sassoon was a real person? I did not.” She must be even younger than I thought because that means she never saw this commercial and others like it. This made me feel rather old but also puzzled. I found this list of companies named after people, and Sassoon was not on it; maybe it seemed too obvious.

At a conference last week, I was talking to some folks about movies. I mentioned how cinematic offerings so often come from another source, such as The Avengers (a couple of no-spoiler reviews here and here, BTW) I said I didn’t know why they bothered to slap the name Dark Shadows on it, since it has such a different feel than the TV show. Both of them expressed shock. I said, “Look it up!” at which point one pulled out his smartphone. “Go to IMBD.com,” I directed. He exclaimed, “Dark Shadows 1966-1971, 30-minute gothic soap opera. I didn’t know they had goth back then!” I just walked away. They must have missed Jonathan Frid’s obit; he originated the character Barnabas Collins in 1967 that Johnny Depp will play in the film.

All the obits for Maurice Sendak mentioned first Where The Wild Things Are; I don’t think I’ve ever read it! Yet I immediately recognize the artwork. I DID watch Really Rosie and saw some of his other work, such as in The New Yorker.

A guy who’s my sister’s friend, and my Facebook friend and real-life acquaintance, lives in the San Diego area. He wrote of Junior Seau, the San Diego Chargers linebacker who committed suicide: “There’s an outpouring of sadness in this city. He was much more than an athlete: his charitable contributions were well-respected. We won’t know what demons were in his life; we’d rather remember the goodness that he radiated, at least in public.” What Jaquandor said, I would echo.
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From the Association of Public Data Users:
“The U.S. House of Representatives voted on May 9th to eliminate the American Community Survey. This amendment to the FY2013 Commerce, Justice, Science appropriations bill passed by a vote of 232 to 190. Right before this vote, the House passed the Webster amendment, approved by voice vote and sponsored by Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX), to make a response to the ACS voluntary by prohibiting both the Census Bureau and the Justice Department from using funds to enforce penalties in the Census Act that make survey response mandatory. (The amendment had to be written as a limit on the expenditure of funds in order for it to be ruled “in order” on an appropriations bill.) The outcome of this vote demonstrates the importance of proactivity among data users in conveying their support for the ACS and other surveys to all members of the House and Senate. The Senate is expected to take up the FY2013 Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations bill next week.”

The elimination of the ACS, for those who don’t deal with Census data, would mean the loss of all the data Census used to collect on the long-form, discontinued after Census 2000 to make way for the ACS, at Congress’ urging! The ACS has provided data more regularly. A voluntary ACS, because it would involve contacting more households, would actually cost MORE to operate than it does presently, and because of participant bias – i.e., people who like to fill out surveys – would lose its statistical validity. Governments, businesses, and individuals use these data daily, I know from experience.
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Evanier notes that on a recent trip how much of it was made possible by technology that didn’t exist a decade or two ago.

I am interviewed in the NYADP Journal, and other things

New York Public Library is making it easier for folks who had relatives in New York City in 1940 to use the 1940 Census information.

In one or more of my blogs at some point, I had written about murderabilia, the collection of items associated with murder. Somehow the folks at New Yorkers for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, of which I am a member, saw the pieces and decided to interview me, much to my surprise. Well, the Winter 2012 NYADP Journal [PDF] is out and I’m in there on page 10 (PDF page 12), where I talk about my anti-death penalty journey. Check out also the journal homepage.

As you may know, records from the 1940 Census are being released on April 2. But accessing them in a useful way may be difficult unless you know the street addresses of the folks you’re looking for; it’ll take private companies such as Ancestry.com to transcribe the records into their database. The New York Public Library is making it easier for folks who had relatives in New York City in 1940; this is quite exciting to me.

On the other hand, I’m totally weirded out. I’m my office’s representative to the New York State Data Center program. I discovered that the head of the program, who I’ve known for over a dozen years, had been arrested this week on child pornography charges. Once someone had sent me the news item, I forwarded it to others on the State Data Center listserv, who were universally stunned; at least one person thought I was perpetrating a bad joke. Of course, one is innocent until proven guilty in American jurisprudence, but the arrest is not only shocking, but a major blow to the program in the near term. I spent the better part of Friday afternoon talking about the ramifications of this.

That’s really all I’ve got today. since I’ve written blog posts for the next four days, more content is guaranteed, or double your money back.

G is for Gerrymander

The US Supreme Court ruled that Congressional and state legislative districts had to be roughly equal in population, consistent with the “one man (later, one person), one vote” doctrine.

Gerrymandering is a word that means “a practice that attempts to establish [in the process of setting electoral districts] a political advantage for a particular party or group by manipulating geographic boundaries to create partisan, incumbent-protected districts. Gerrymandering may be used to achieve desired electoral results for a particular party, or may be used to help or hinder a particular demographic, such as a political, racial, linguistic, religious or class group.”

The term was created way back in the early 19th century concerning the redrawing of the “Massachusetts state senate election districts under the then-governor Elbridge Gerry…to benefit his Democratic-Republican Party. When mapped, one of the contorted districts in the Boston area was said to resemble the shape of a salamander.”

Thus GERRY+SALAMANDER=GERYYMANDER. Oddly, though, the first syllable in gerrymander sounds like JERRY, Gerry’s name sounds like Gary. Gerry, incidentally was the second Vice President of the US to die in office, after George Clinton, both under James Madison.

The US Supreme Court ruled, in Baker v. Carr (1962) and Reynolds v. Sims (1964), that Congressional and state legislative districts had to be roughly equal in population, consistent with the “one man (later, one person), one vote” doctrine. This was a good thing: some districts had 10 or 14 times as many people as other districts. Invariably, though, the lines drawn shortly after each decennial Census become fraught with controversy.

The 2012 tentative New York State Senate redistricting was described as being in its gerrymandered glory. The Los Angeles Redistricting Commission released its proposed boundary lines for 15 City Council seats in 2012, which led one councilman to call it an “outrageous case of gerrymandering” against his coastal district.

Not all gerrymandering is done with nefarious intent, to keep a political party safe. Some was done to try to create fairness. For decades, concentrations of black voters were parceled into various predominately white districts to minimize the possibility of a “majority-minority district”. That behavior too has been deemed unconstitutional as well.

But sometimes the solution is as bad as the disease. Look at North Carolina congressional district 12 (in purple), which is long and narrow and practically bisects the state. I’m sure that it was designed to give a better chance for a black candidate to win. But it runs along the interstate without any sort of community cohesiveness. Similar maps have been struck down for that very reason.

Another big issue in New York is so-called prison-based gerrymandering. Most prisons are in upstate New York; many prisoners are from downstate New York. Critics say the census should count prisoners in the district where they lived BEFORE they were incarcerated, which would lessen the power of the most rural districts where prisons tend to be situated.

There has been a move toward “non-partisan” reapportionment. For most places, though, that is easier said than done.

ABC Wednesday – Round 10

This week, and next

I should note, first of all: Today is Cinco de Mayo—or the fifth of May, which “commemorates the Mexican army’s 1862 victory over France at the Battle of Puebla during the French-Mexican War. It is not Mexico’s independence day, as is commonly believed.” [Emphasis mine.] “In the United States, Cinco de Mayo has evolved into a celebration of Mexican culture and heritage, particularly in areas with large Mexican-American populations.”

This means, unfortunately, yet another opportunity for some people to consume alcohol stupidly, even in areas without a large Mexican-American population. Guess I’ll put out a good thought to the cosmos for some sort of personal restraint. Sorry to sound so cranky about this, but past behavior on these seemingly designated drinking days (see also: St. Patrick’s Day) warrants it.

Yesterday, I went to the dentist, then donated blood (time #142) in downtown Albany. Even on a cold, rainy day, I miss downtown.

Saturday is a VERY busy day. Our household has a couple of chores to tend to. Yet I want to go to both the Tulip Festival AND Free Comic Book Day. This is the tenth year for FCBD and I always end up buying SOMETHING, which, of course, is the point. I need to get something that will fit in my backpack, because, weather permitting, I’ll probably ride the bike. I suppose that leaves out getting one of those long white comic boxes, even though I could actually use one.

Sunday, of course, is Mother’s Day, which, as usual, I spend with my mother-in-law and her family. More on that holiday on Sunday itself.

As people who work in my office know, I tend to play a lot of music of artists around their respective birthdays. For the seven day-period from May 8 through 14, there is the greatest number of artists for which I have a lot of their albums:
May 9 – Billy Joel (quite a few)
May 10 – Donovan (a couple)
May 10 – Bono (a lot of U2)
May 11 – Eric Burdon (a couple Animals’ albums)
May 11 – Butch Trucks (at least one solo)
May 12 – Steve Winwood (quite a few, mostly with Traffic)
May 13 – Stevie Wonder (a LOT)
May 14 – Bobby Darin (one)
May 14 – David Byrne (quite a few, both solo and with Talking Heads)

Oh, and Burdon’s turning 70. I always had affection for We Gotta Get Out Of This Place, It’s My Life, and Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood. I used to quote the latter: “Oh Lord, please don’t let me be misunderstood.”

Know who would have been 70 on May 13? Ritchie Valens, of La Bamba fame. Of course, he died in that plane crash on 3 February 1959 with the Big Bopper and Buddy Holly, thus remaining forever young in our minds.

I won’t be playing much music at work next week because I’ll be out of the office 2.5 days at a workshop learning more about, among other things, American Factfinder 2 on the Census page, necessary because I’m giving a podcast about it in mid-June. Yikes.