Cheesy Grits: A Ralston in New York City: One Question Answered

After we had run out of Soundex-based census searches to be made in Savannah—and we still had no clue about any South Carolina ancestors even though both Granddad George and his mother, Valeria, were born there—we nevertheless had one more fruitful census search: George Ralston in New York in the 1920 federal census. That find brought us to Granddad Ralston in New York City, as well as our first piece of information about Jane's grandmother.

Still working from the old Soundex index cards and the microfilm reader at the National Archives, we started to look first for Valeria Ralston in New York City. Nothing in 1910 or 1920. Where had she gone?



Then we looked for George Ralston. Nothing in the 1910 census, but we turned up a George Ralston living with his wife and daughter in an apartment building at 9-11 W. 99th Street in Manhattan, just south of Harlem's traditional boundary, 110th St. This George was 27 years old, was black, was born in South Carolina(!), his parents were born in South Carolina, and his occupation is listed as a "settlement worker," and was a salaried employee, not an hourly worker. Twenty-seven would be the right age, as the census was taken in January, 1920 and Granddad George's 28th birthday wouldn't have been until August. Hallelujah!  It appeared to be Granddad Ralston.

His occupation, "settlement worker," meant that he worked at a settlement house.  Settlement houses are less well-known today because they have in many areas been replaced by governmental social service agencies. The settlement movement began in the latter part of the XIXth century and was aimed at providing education and other social services to low-income and immigrant neighborhoods. Jane Adams's Hull House in Chicago is probably the most well-known settlement house in the U.S. Originally aimed here in the U.S. at helping European immigrants adapt to and enter mainstream society, the settlement house movement quickly found itself following the patterns of racism that were part of so much of mainstream society: U.S. settlement houses were segregated, with separate facilities and programs for African-Americans.

Since Granddad Ralston's race was recorded as black, the settlement house(s) he worked for were almost certainly for African-American families and especially children. We don't yet know how many settlement house(s) Granddad George worked for, but we did get a good clue many years later when we started looking into the local newspaper coverage of his athletic career.

But back to Granddad George at home on W. 99th Street in Manhattan: his wife's name is given (or rather misspelled) as "Aubrey." "Aubrey" in the census turned out to be "Audrey" in real life and she was born in New York in 1898.

And they have one daughter named "Rebeca," aged 1 1/12 year. Jane's mother's full name as we knew her was Audrey Rebecca Ralston Godfrey and the month of her birth was November. Because the census was taken in January, 1920, her month and year of birth would have been November, 1918. She told us it was 1919, but then, as I said, the details of her stories would vary—not to mention that it wasn't uncommon for women of certain eras to be artfully vague, if not in outright denial, about their ages.

So here the Ralstons are, landed in New York. This is the first record we found of Jane's grandmother, the mere mention of whom brought so much sadness to her mother. And we learned that her grandmother and mother shared a name: Audrey.

At first glance, the errors in the census seem to be so glaring that one wonders how we can be sure it is indeed Jane's mother and her parents. But that is the nature of doing genealogy. The documentation will vary in accuracy, but the more evidence there is pointing in a particular direction, the more likely that the truth is being approached. All public records have mistakes in them, and family historians have to familiarize themselves with the kinds of mistakes that are found in different records.

Ultimately, it's a matter of weighing the evidence and coming to the conclusion that is best supported by the preponderance of evidence. And one must always be ready to revise conclusions when new evidence comes to light. We did in the longer term find more documentation that buttressed our working conclusion that this was indeed the right family of Ralstons.

But it wasn't until much later that we were able to piece together more of Granddad Ralston's career as an athlete and coach in New York, as well as learning that Jane's mother, the young Audrey Ralston, showed considerable promise as a musician. (We knew that she played piano and sometimes mentioned Julliard, but there was never any further corroboration.) We also learned a lot more about Jane's grandmother's surprising family story.

But that was all still to come. With the finding of the young Ralston family in Manhattan in 1920, we were at a standstill. Granddad George's mother was apparently no longer using the name "Ralston," as we could not find her in either the 1910 or 1920 census in New York. And  we found ourselves taking a hiatus simply for want of progress.

The 1930 federal census wasn't released until 2002, and it was soon after that that the family history databases such as Ancestry.com began to come on line. Of course, our inability to make much progress until those things had happened provides some commentary on the relatively low level of our skills in genealogical research, but, there you go.

So back to the shoofly pie side of the family for a while. Even though it's Amish and Amish and Amish, it has some interesting parts.