Whenever we talk about my dad’s aunts, “the sisters,” we
usually mean Lillie, Mae, and Helen. But
there was another sister: Margaret Mary
Killeen Sprott. I have no memory of her. I’m sure I must have seen her at some point
in my childhood, but if she ever came to a family gathering during my teen or
adult years, I don’t know it. The only picture of her that I’m aware of is one
in Helen Parker’s scrapbook.
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| captioned "Miss Margaret" from Helen Parker's scrapbook |
So I was especially glad to find her in the 1940
census. It wasn’t easy. I couldn’t find her at all on Ancestry, but
found her right away using the FamilySearch index. I studied the handwriting to try to figure
out how some Ancestry indexer might have misinterpreted it.
The spelling looks obvious to me. However, after many attempts using weird spellings, I found her listed as SprAtt. That’s so funny because her husband Otto was known by his nickname Jack, Jack Sprott. But “Jack Spratt” just slips off the tongue, doesn’t it?
The spelling looks obvious to me. However, after many attempts using weird spellings, I found her listed as SprAtt. That’s so funny because her husband Otto was known by his nickname Jack, Jack Sprott. But “Jack Spratt” just slips off the tongue, doesn’t it?
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| Click to enlarge |
In 1940, Jack (42) and Margaret (39) owned their home
worth $4000 on Sixth Street in the Kempsville area of Princess Anne County in
Virginia. This is the same house they
lived in in 1935. Judging by the 1930 census, they bought the house sometime
between 1930 and 1935 because they had been renting a house on Atlans Avenue in
Norfolk. Jack was from South Carolina
and had completed one year of college.
He worked as a traffic manager for a trucking firm, earning $2700 in
1939, which equates to roughly $44,575 today. Margaret completed two years of
high school and was busy as a homemaker and mother to two boys.
Their son William J. “Billy” at age 9 had completed three
years of school while his younger brother Joseph Barry was in his first year of
school at age 6.
When the Sprotts lived in Kempsville, it was an
unincorporated town. It didn't become part of the city of Virginia Beach until 1963. I
don’t know if the Sprotts’ home on Sixth Street is the same street that leads
to the oceanfront today, if it goes by some other name, or if it’s a street that no longer exists. However, Daddy often
spoke about summers as a boy, riding the cable car to the beach to visit with his Sprott
cousins.
©2014, Wendy
Mathias. All rights reserved.
I'm always amazed by the numbers from back then: the cost of houses, the salaries...
ReplyDeleteI know. Everyone sounds more poor than they really were.
DeleteAre documents still handwritten today or are they all digitised so there will be less spelling or interpretation of words mistakes? Well done for finding your aunt.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how today's census forms will appear in the future. In 2010 we received a typed form in the mail which I filled in by hand, so I assume some day someone will be interpreting my handwriting. But I don't know. In the census records we can see, errors are a combination of mistakes by informants, mistakes by enumerators, and mistakes by indexers. Then those of us reading them add our own mistakes.
DeleteHaven't the 1940 Census been a revelation? That is if the spelling is correct and the handwriting legible. Which in most cases of the ones I've accessed have been. Good job reading between the lines to figure out where and when things happened between 1930 and 1940. I've discovered some very interesting facts that way as well. Thanks for visiting CITexas Gal. I hope I'm on the way back to My Family Tree and History. Your doing a great job with yours.
ReplyDeleteMost of the records I indexed had fairly good handwriting, but I did read a couple doozies - those enumerators should never have been allowed!
DeleteThis is the aunt that Daddy called "Aunt Morgie" the Sprotts were at Aunt Helen's when Joann Holland married and when Cliff married. She had dark hair and wasn't as tall as the rest of sisters. Maybe you were away at college?? Glad you found her picture. I didn't think we had any!
ReplyDeleteI don't recall attending any wedding, so I must have been away.
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