Matrilineal Monday: Where Was Addilee Tennessee Shelton Wolfe Harris in 1940?

These photos are of my maternal great-grandmother, Addilee Tennessee Shelton Wolfe Harris (1890-1977). The first photo is probably from the early 1900s, the second one is after 1922. I think she's wearing the same hat in both photographs.

In 1930, Addilee and her second husband, Charles Burroughs Harris (1887-1959), were living in Pasadena, Texas.  However, they both died in Louisiana, and are both buried in the town where Addilee was born, Sardis in Winn Parish, Louisiana, so I wasn't sure where they would be in 1940.

I asked my mother.  She said that after her grandfather, Addilee's first husband, Louis Henry Wolfe, died in an automobile accident in 1929, her aunt Marie Wolfe, then 17, went to live with Addilee and Charles in Pasadena, Texas.  However, when Marie married in 1933, she was living with her older sister Sara (my grandmother), Sara's husband and father-in-law, Charles Guokas Jr. and Sr., and my mother and her two siblings at 1717 Shearn in Houston.  This was because Addilee and Charles had moved to Louisiana.

Mom also remembers going to Louisiana for the wedding of Jessie or Jessica* in the late 1930s, and recalls that her grandmother was living there.  (*This may be Jessie Mae Shelton, Addilee's niece and the daughter of her brother John Sidney Shelton, as she was born around 1916-1918.)  This wedding stands out in her memory because it was Mom's first experience with outdoor plumbing (an outhouse).

But where in Louisiana was she?  Checking the 1930 US Census, her parents, Levi Marion Shelton (1863-1941) and Sarah Ann Spikes Shelton (1871-1935), and all but one of her seven surviving siblings were living in Grant Parish, Louisiana.  Sarah Ann died in this parish in 1935.  Most of them (including her parents) were living in enumeration district (ED) 22-14 in 1930.

Therefore, in preparation for the upcoming release of the 1940 US Census, I decided to use Stephen P. Morse's 1930/1940 ED Converter utility.  That results in ED 22-11 for the 1940 US Census, so that is where I will start to look for my great-grandmother, Addilee Tennessee Shelton Wolfe Harris, and my great-great-grandfather, her father, Levi Marion Shelton (who died in 1941).

© Amanda Pape - 2012 - click here to e-mail me.