Sunday, August 19, 2012

Census Sunday: Theresa Walsh Crews

My paternal grandmother Julia Walsh Slade
and Tate Walsh
It was captioned "Just us -- Julia and Tate"

Theresa “Tate” Walsh Crews (later Murray) was the baby of the family born to Mary Theresa Sheehan Killeen Walsh and John Fleming Walsh in March 1913.  I never met her, but I would have liked to have that chance.  As far as I know, she stayed away after having a child out of wedlock although her sisters heard from her from time to time.  She married twice, but I don’t think she had anymore children.

I was glad to find her in the 1940 census in Washington DC.  Ancestry indexed her as Theresa M. CrewE, but FamilySearch got it right indexing her as Theresa M. CrewS. 

Click to enlarge

Tate was 26, married to James G. “Jimmy” Crews (28) of North Carolina.  She had completed three years of high school and Jimmy, two.  It appears they had not been married very long as Tate was still in Portsmouth in 1935 while Jimmy was in Quantico, Virginia.  Could he have been a marine?

Tate and Jimmy lived in the house on the left.
from Google Maps
In 1940 they were renting at 206 17th St NE in Washington DC for $30 a month.  Harry and Irene Ernest had the same address and were listed as owners of the property.  Several of the neighboring addresses had two families listed as well.  Judging by the roofline of surrounding row houses, they might have had attic apartments, but I can’t say conclusively. 

Jimmy was a car operator for public utilities earning $1862 for fifty-one weeks of work in 1939.  That equates to about $43,160 today.  Tate was a beautician in a local beauty parlor.  She must have been new at the job as she had not worked or earned an income at all in 1939.  Another beautician lived just two doors away.  I wonder if they worked together.

I also wonder if Tate is the one who dyed her sister Catherine Walsh Barany’s hair red.  They lived close to one another.

Cat lived at "A" and Tate at "B"
from Google Maps




©2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

5 comments:

  1. You amaze me at what you can find out about your own family by doing a bit of Internet research.

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  2. I agree with Paula: I'm amazed by how much information you find. :)

    (Happy anniversary!)

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  3. You're the best. I'm still trying to get the hang of posting a picture!:)

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  4. I agree with Paula and Dana...you are really good at gleaning info from the 1940 Census and applying it come up with a very credible scenario...if not totally accurate. What a great photo to get you started. I haven't gotten back into the Family Gleaning Mode yet. It's coming soon...I hope.

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  5. Or maybe Jimmy was training to be an FBI agent. Probably would have needed more education for that, but maybe the standards were lower. Could be a fun fiction story in there somewhere.


    Lee
    Tossing It Out

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