Mystery Monday: Seeking Philip and Susie Sheppard in the 1940 Census

This past summer, I poked around in my research related to the ancestry of my maternal grandfather, Louis Shepherd, as I prepped to see some of my family at an upcoming reunion. Louis’s father is currently a mystery to the family, but I’ve been learning more and more about his mother, Katherine Shepperd’s, people over the years. Still, it’s not voluminous, and there are lots of holes.

One such hole was a seemingly simple one, regarding Katherine’s paternal uncle, Phillip Sheppard, and his wife Susie (née Blackston/Blackson). I just wanted to find them listed in the 1940 U.S. Census. I had them in 1920 and 1930, and had recently found them in 1950. Why couldn’t I find them in 1940?

1920: Phillip and Susie Sheppard on Fennimore's Bridge Road in New Castle County, DE. 1920 Census. National Archives and Records Administration, via FamilySearch.org.

1930: Phillip and Suse Sheppard at 500 Lord Street, Wilmington, DE. 1930 Census. National Archives and Records Administration, via FamilySearch.org.

1950: Phil and Suzie Shepherd at 312 E. 6th Street, in Wilmington, DE. 1950 Census. National Archives and Records Administration.

At first, I tried creatively searching on Ancestry.com, broadening and tinkering with parameters, as one does, but again and again, no success. So, I decided – rashly, as I didn’t actually want to do this that day – to go page by page through the census to see if I could find them the way the enumerator listed them, creative spellings and incorrect birth locations be darned! I knew exactly where they should have been living, at 312 E. 6^th Street, Wilmington, Delaware – they regularly show up there in other records from 1938 to Phillip’s death in 1955. How hard could it be?

1938: Philip and Susan Shepherd in Wilmington, DE. Polk's Wilmington, New Castle County, DE City Directory, 1938, p. 572. Ancestry.com.

1940: Philip and Susan Shepherd in Wilmington, DE. Polk's Wilmington, New Castle County, DE City Directory, 1940, p. 612. Ancestry.com.

1942: Phillip Sheppard's World War II Draft Registration Card. National Archives and Records Administration via Ancestry.com.

1955: Philip Sheppard's Death Certificate. 

Step 1: Find the correct Enumeration District. This will narrow down the number of pages I need to click through. Cool, go to Steve Morse’s Unified Census ED Finder. Plug in the year, state, county, city/town, and street name. Easy peasy. Yields…twenty-three potential enumeration districts.

Okay, so, narrow down the list of possibilities by entering the cross and back streets that bound the block.

So, Step 2 of Step 1: Find the correct cross streets. First try. Wrong. I go page by page through 26 images. What happened? I guessed the wrong back street. So, I try the one on the other side, assuming the house is actually across the street.

I go through 22 pages. Still wrong. How is that possible? Okay, maybe Google Maps is too contemporary and the blocks have changed a bit since 1940. So, look for the official 1940 enumeration district map. Maybe that will help. But they don’t show street numbering, just street names. And because I’m not actually sure where on East 6^th Street house number 312 is, that’s not helpful.

So, look for Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps for Wilmington, Delaware for the 1930s. Shouldn’t be hard – the Library of Congress has digitized a million of them. Except, the most recent one for Wilmington that is online is from 1901 – 39 years too early. Anything could have changed by then!

I go looking for more recent Sanborn Maps elsewhere, but for either copyright or registration-wall issues, I can’t access any. Look for other 1920s and 1930s maps elsewhere. No luck. So, I return to the 1901 map on the Library of Congress’s website. Use the data to try again on Steve Morse’s website. ED 4-17. The second page puts me on East 6^th in the 200 block. This is promising!

Actual Step 2: Scan page by page until you find the correct address and/or your ancestors’ names. So I did, and a few pages further, there it is, the 300 block of East 6^th Street! And the correct side of the street! 300, 302, 304, two blank rows where 306 should be, 308, and then…four more blank rows. Fine, it’s on the next page. Except…another four blank rows, and then, two houses numbered 316! Tantalizingly, the first number 316 is headed by Benjamin Blackston, Sr. Susie’s maiden name is Blackston/Blackson – perhaps they are related? But still, no 312!

Hmm, so what do the 4 blank rows above the first number 316 mean? Well, there’s a note: “Left blank account Misinformation.” What about the ones at the bottom of the previous page? “These four spaces left for more people than in the family.” You’re supposed to list everybody who lives in a household, not just immediate family members, so not sure what that’s about. And the enumerator does that multiple times. *shrug*

1940 Census: 300 Block of East 6th Street, Wilmington, DE (Sheet 3B). National Archives and Records Administration. 

1940 Census: 300 Block of East 6th Street, Wilmington, DE (Sheet 4A). National Archives and Records Administration. 

Step 3: Continue through the end of the image set. Maybe the enumerator actually followed up, clarified misinformation, and included the residents of 310, 312, and maybe 314 at the end of the image set – sometimes this is where folks who were missed in the first go-round are listed. But, nope! There’s a Hester Blackston who lives at one of the 316s - this isn't a name Susie has ever seemed to go by, but is perhaps a relation (though, note that it lists her as white, which Susie has not previously been listed as) - but nothing else of note. No 312 East 6^th Street in this, the correct enumeration district of their town of Wilmington, Delaware.

1940 Census: 316 East 6th Street, Wilmington, DE (Sheet 61A). National Archives and Records Administration. 

Step 4: Wrap it up, at least for now. Professional genealogists will often say that if you can’t find your family in the census, you probably haven’t looked thoroughly enough. Often, they’re right. I’ve had folks turn up in unexpected places, and/or with unexpected people, and/or with names that were just different enough that they didn’t turn up in basic searches, or that were transcribed incorrectly. But my standard and creative searching has been unsuccessful and a page-by-page review of the enumeration district sheets for the address where they are confirmed to be living based on other records shows that while other homes on their block are enumerated, theirs isn’t.

Now, there’s more work to be done. They’re not in the households of any extended family members that I’ve seen so far, but there are more I haven’t dug deeply into yet (this requires going back to the 1880 census and working my way forward). Maybe I’ll find them with family in some way that evaded my previous search attempts.

But…it might just be that Phillip and Susie Sheppard are one of those families that actually weren’t listed in the 1940 Census.