1940 Census released and success finding dad
I was very frustrated after going round and round with Tennessee Vital Records and paying for a birth certificate for my father and ending up with nothing. They couldn’t come up with anything at all and gave up.
I didn’t know if there was anywhere to go with the search into his background, and really feared I would never be able to find anything out.
Then I read an article on CNN.com about how the 1940 census records were released on April 2 and how many hits the site is getting. I headed for the site. Campbell county records were in 21 chunks, ranging from a few pages to 50 pages. I downloaded all 21 sections and started unzipping them one by one and reading each of the JPGs. They had taken pictures of every single page of the large census books and, of course, the records were all hand written. I knew dad would have been 20 in 1940, but I didn’t know if he was still living at home, moved out on his own, or gotten married at that point so I wasn’t sure what I was looking for.
A couple hundred pages into it I was getting discouraged but thought it would all be worthwhile if I found something out. I was starting to ponder how I’d feel if I went through all 1000+ pages and came up empty handed when I hit the jackpot on page 508.
Entries from census book:
What the census revealed
He was living at home, his parents’ names were John and Jonie, his younger brothers were Clay and Dave, and they lived at 319 Lick Fork Rd. in Elk Valley, TN where they rented. John, my 19 year old dad, and 15 year old Clay were all listed as coal miners.
The big surprise? My father had never, ever (and I mean never) mentioned a father. Since John was 52 at the time of the census and Jonie 39 and Jonie had my dad when she was 19 I suspect dad was born before their marriage and he ended up taking the name Smith. That would explain why I had no luck finding a birth certificate. It would most likely be in his mother’s maiden name. So I have great clues to go to Tennessee and continue the search.
The census image was hard to read to get the heading and the answers for dad’s family further down the page so I dumped it into a Excel worksheet:
It told me he’d worked 48 weeks as a miner in 1939 and made $400. $400???
Fork Lick?
I found 319 Fork Lick Rd which is no longer in Elk Valley, but now incorporated into Pioneer, TN.
All great information that may make my trip to Tennessee more successful.
Census search for mom’s family
After finding dad I went to look at the census records for my mom. I had been inwardly griping about the difficulty of working with the images for Campbell county and found they were great compared to Mountrail county in North Dakota. Instead of being able to download groups, they’ve posted each image separately. Not sure I’m ready to go through that right now after 6 hours of downloading and opening images. I’ll go back to it another day.
Jan 01, 2013 @ 08:33:15
I was born in bonnie blue in 1951. my grandparents were thompson . I am looking for the gravesite of my grandpa. Iwas around 3or 4 when he died. There was a doctor that my grandma clean and cook for . His name was Gaberial. any information would be appaitce.
Mar 25, 2013 @ 09:56:50
Jim, my mom, her parents and all siblings were born and lived in Bonny Blue -30’s to 50s. Several years ago I was looking on the web and emailed someone who was keeping track of all the people that leved there. I don’t remember his name, can’t help w/ your request but I think I got his name from the newspaper in Pennington Gap (maybe town hall). Most of the families relocated to some of the smaller towns when Bonny Blue closed and it was so small we’re almost related somehow.
Good luck Ron Evans
Sep 16, 2013 @ 00:46:08
I am desperately looking for some pictures of the mining camp houses. My grandprents, Jimmie and Ella Stapleton lived below the store, across the road for the Connley, I think that was their name. My grandmother lived there until her death in the 80’s. Also had an aunt Audrey Stapleton Oaks who moved from there around the time of mamaw’s death. She was married to John Oaks and had a daughter, Dana and a son, Danny. I was born in Bonny Blue and my dad, James “Odie” Stapleton and my mother, Vivian Leigh Stapleton . We lived there until around ’48. I just want to see some familiar places. I am an only child and my parents and grandparents have passed on. Just looking for some of those wonderful memories. Thank you and I really enjoy this site. Barbara
Oct 24, 2013 @ 06:57:47
Barbara — I made a trip up to Bonny Blue and stopped at a couple museums and didn’t find any pictures of Bonny Blue. I hope you are able to find some elsewhere.
Aug 02, 2014 @ 12:55:33
Barbara,
I was born in Bonny Blue in 1941. We moved to Oak Ridge, Tn in 1944, but returned to Bonny Blue for visits. On every visit, we would vist with my parents’ best friends, the Stapletons. I want to say the man’s name was Charlie Stapleton and his wife was Barbara, but I could be wrong. My parents were Charlie and Bessie Miller. I think I remember my older sister, (who would be 86 now,) speak of their son, maybe the name “Jimmy.” Hope we can connect and share.
Ginny Cook
Aug 03, 2014 @ 06:38:34
I wish I had more to share with you. All I know about Bonny Blue is that my dad lived there on the 1930 census so I drove through to see the place he lived at the age of 10. He spent most of his young life in Elk Valley, but I think his family moved some to follow mining jobs. This is all guessing on my part backed up with what little information I found in the census reports. I wish I could find someone who knew him as a child, but since he’d be 94 if he were alive today, I doubt there are many people left.
Jun 22, 2014 @ 15:49:06
My brother and I were born in Bonny Blue, Va. I 1939, deceased bother 1941. Our father William (Bill) Blake was killed in the mines in
1941. I have been searching for info on the mining accident, or any old pictures of that time. Sure would appreciate it if anyone can
help me out. Had relatives living there also, remember the script store, my aunt lived above it on the hill. Have been searching for articles on the mine disaster. Any info I can get.