Auntie, where are you?

Forgive me, gravestoners, because I am compelled to step away from the cemetery long enough to peek at the 1940 census.

Mother and Daddy were not difficult to find, even without an index. They both grew up in the same small town (my hometown!) and I knew exactly which houses they lived in.

No, that enumeration district is too far south. No, that one is too far east. Could be this one—or perhaps it’s that one.

Bingo!

After a few minutes of browsing, which felt like a virtual walk through the neighborhoods of my hometown, I found both of my parents living, as expected, with their parents.

The Mayer home, Franklin, Ohio

I was so excited to have found the images so easily, that it was not until later that I realized something was missing from one of them: Charlotte (“Auntie” to all the children in the family, including me) lived with her married sister and her brother-in-law (my grandparents) after her father’s death in 1926. 

The census lists Southard (who was called Mickey), Elizabeth (who was called Bess), and their three children, Ruth Ann, Jane (my mother), and Charles (Uncle By).

No Charlotte.

Quickly I confirmed that she was listed in the household on the 1930 census. Of course she was. In fact, she lived in that house until her death in 1981.

Where was she in 1940?

Grandmother, Auntie, and Uncle Harry (or Uncle George?)