Finding the Neighbors

I've been wondering why I had not been able to find the 1940 census record for my great-grandparents. Their names were Richard (Dirk) and Hattie Loots and they lived in Chicago in 1930 (I found the 1930 census) and in 1943 when my great-grandfather Dirk died. I could never find a 1940 census though, and it's meaningful to me because my grandma (Joan) was born in 1932 and it would have been the one census on which she appeared. I tried every spelling I could think of, but nada.

Finally, it occurred to me to look for their neighbors. In 1930 there were 2 families named Nalikowsky who lived on their street, so I decided to search for Nalikowsky on the 1940 census in Chicago, and sure enough - there they were. When I went the census image, I was thrilled to see that my great-grandparents still lived 2 houses over with my little 7-year-old grandma. :-) Thanks to the blurry image, the name 'Loots' ended up 'Leota' - NOT one of the alternate spellings I tried.

I suppose there are 2 tips here: the first is to look for known or suspected neighbors when you can't find an ancestor, and the second is to expand your universe of alternate spellings. I was limiting my self to 'sounds like' alternatives, not substituting letters that may look similar but not sound similar, like the cursive 's' and 'a' that confounded my search here.

 

Happy hunting.