There was so much excitement in the genealogy community about the release of the 1950 census in April of 2022. Initially, it I wasn’t super excited about it thinking that I knew where all of the family members I was interested in were living at that point in time.
Then it came to me. My Great Grandfather Robert Munter had a brother Paul. Paul took off from Nebraska in about 1922 over a believed dispute over the land distribution and never came back. He was only heard from once when Paul sent a letter to his brother John asking for $50 and his birth certificate. Those were sent to Paul and the letter to go with it was initially forgotten. When the letter was sent it was returned “address unknown”.
When Paul’s father Gottlieb passed there was a notice in the paper that Paul and his heirs had a portion of the estate, and I’m assuming that he was not found and didn’t pick up his portion.
With some research years ago I had a copy of Paul’s Social Security Number application that placed him in Detroit, Michigan. I had also found his death certificate and grave in Ruskin, Florida. But I hadn’t yet located Paul in the 1930 or 1940 census and wasn’t sure if he stayed in Michigan, or where he went.
Thanks to the 1950 census, I know that Paul was in Warren, Macomb, Michigan. He was unmarried, and owned a garden nursery. With that I was able to find some land records and corporation information showing that Paul purchased land in the mid 1940’s and that his Corporation was Paul’s Nursery.
It’s so much fun to solve some of the family mysteries and answer some old questions. All thanks to the 1950 Census I wasn’t initially too excited about – grin.
It looks like Paul never had a family, so we don’t have any new family members to learn about, but at least we have put together some pieces of his story.
Cory and Nicole Family History 