Monday, March 21, 2011

Interesting indexing from Lindsey G



"Walter S. Gifford is the president of some (company, i'm assuming) that i can't read. He is divorced with two sons and lives on East 65th Street in New York City in a house valued at $100,000. He has a governess, a cook, a laundress, a butler, whose name is David A. Arvidson--quite a combination--and the butler's wife, Ebba C. Arvidson, who is also the maid. They only just got married, apparently, since they are still the ages they were at their first marriage.
--i looked him up (on Google, of course). i'm pretty sure this has to be the same guy. Walter S. Gifford He was president of AT&T 1925-1948.
Anyway, it's kind of cool to find someone when you index and then be able to find something out about him.
His neighbor, stockbroker Benson B. Sloan, whose house is valued at $200,000, has a foot man who just came over from Scotland, and his name is Joseph Smith.
Harry B. Goldsmith is not a goldsmith, but I'm hard put to tell what he is. A manager of silks? A mudger of silks? A mayor of silks? something to do with silks. He lives on the same street, his house is valued at $100,000 and he has two cooks, a governess, two waitresses, two chambermaids, a parlormaid, a lady's maid and two kitchen maids, and they come from all over Europe--Finland, Sweden, Norway, Czechoslovakia, Luxembourg, Germany, Scotland, England and Ireland. They problem have some serious issues with name confusion--Bertha Caro, Karin Osners, Ewa Kari, and Kare Nelson, all in the same house.
Wilbur Ward is fairly well off, even for a doctor--the occupation field says "physician". His house is valued at $165,000, but they only have two servants, a cook and a butler, both from Japan.

On the other end of town, where the rent runs between $58 and $110, there are two Hazel Browns on the same street, apparently no relation. There are also several men who work in a "loft building"--I'm assuming that's a skyscraper. Two of them are elevator operators. There is also a family, the Guy family, with two sons, Dennis and Harold, and four daughters named Lilliam, Violet, Daisy and Rosetta. I'm assuming the next girl will be Petunia. Or perhaps Marigold."

Awesome, Lindsey. This made me much happy. (She's a LAUREL!)


1 comment:

  1. Now that if that isn't the Spirit of Elijah working on a Young Woman, I don't know what is. Why else would a 16 or 17 year-old girl spend enough time with an old, hand-written document to figure out all this amazingly interesting information?

    I think it is AWE-SOME too! Thanks for sharing, I loved reading this.

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