When I found the marriage record for Albert Steele and Elizabeth Haitz, I was immediately intrigued by the fact that this is the first of my grandfather's sisters that had a job outside of the home. At the time of her marriage in 1933, Elizabeth was a file clerk, although where she worked was not included on the record.
The Union Township, Brown County, Ohio 1930 census showed that Elizabeth was not living in her parents' house. When I found the census record I thought that she must have been married and was living elsewhere before that census was taken. However, along with the discovery of the marriage record with the date of her marriage and her employment came the question of just where was Elizabeth in 1930?
My first thought was to look in the same census, but broaden the search to all of Brown County; not just Ripley and Union Township just in case she was living with another family. No one by the name of Elizabeth Haitz or any variation of Elizabeth could I find so I broadened the search even more to the whole state of Ohio. I only did that because I felt the name Haitz was uncommon enough that I wouldn't end up with a huge number of names. Had the last name been a fairly common one, I would have started with a more narrow search, perhaps just a county. Though as luck would have it, lo and behold, I found an Elizabeth Haitz in Cincinnati!
1930 United States Federal Census, Hamilton County, Ohio, population schedule, Ward 12, Block 12, Cincinnati, ED 31-126, sheet 26B, 31-126, Haitz Robert J. |
Transcription of the 1930 United States Federal Census Cincinnati, Ohio Robert J, and Elizabeth Haitz Arthur and Hattie Bauman |
This census entry showed an Elizabeth Haitz living at 3234 Bishop Avenue along with a brother, Robert J Haitz, and an Arthur Bauman and his wife, Hattie living at the same address. I was fairly certain this was my Elizabeth since she did have a brother named Robert J and her oldest sister did marry an Arthur Bauman. Also, this Elizabeth was a clerk in a dry goods store which could have been a file clerk. She and her parents had been born in Ohio which also matched what I was looking for. The entry, though, did have problems. The ages for Elizabeth and Robert were no where near the ages that my Elizabeth and Robert would have been in 1930. Robert should have been 25 and Elizabeth 23, yet these two were 40 and 36, respectively. The other problem was that I had never heard Elizabeth's sister, Margaret Haitz Bauman, being called Hattie. I needed more evidence so I went to Ancestry.com's database of City Directories which includes directories of Cincinnati.
While I couldn't locate Robert J Haitz in the Cincinnati City Directories until 1940, I did find some evidence of Elizabeth, Margaret, and Arthur Bauman working and living in Cincinnati during the early 1930's. Clicking on the directory pages will enlarge them so they can be read.
Elizabeth, a stenographer, and Margaret, a seamstress, Haitz living at 2479 Paris 1929-1930 Cincinnati City Directory Ancestry.com |
Betty H Haitz, clerk, working at 1934 Dana Avenue and living at 3234 Bishop 1930-31 Cincinnati City Directory Ancestry.com |
Betty Haitz, bookkeeper, home was 2921 Glendora Avenue 1931-32 Cincinnati City Directory Ancestry.com |
Arthur Bauman, insurance agent, home was 2921 Glendora Avenue 1931-32 Cincinnati City Directory Ancestry.com |
I cannot say with 100% accuracy that Betty is my Elizabeth, but I am pretty sure she is. I wish I could have found Robert in the 1930-31 directory living on Bishop Avenue, but I didn't. I couldn't find Arthur or Margaret living on Bishop either. However, Arthur and, I assume, Margaret were living at the same address as Betty in the 1931-32 directory. Margaret is probably no longer working as a seamstress since she is married and therefore would not be listed in the directory. As for the wrong ages in the census, those could be explained by the fact that the enumerator had visited the house once already before he made this entry. That is why there is a notation in the margin to see sheet 24A Line 30 which is where the rest of Bishop Avenue is enumerated and the "2nd" written next to Elizabeth's name indicates that it was a second visit. It is possible that when he tried the second time to get the information, no one was home once again and so a neighbor gave the information. It is clear that I will need to try and find more evidence of Elizabeth in Cincinnati. I think my next stop will be to locate a marriage announcement for her and Albert Steele in the Ripley Bee, if there is one. It just might have something about her employment and place of residence before her marriage.