In 1940 my 75 year old great grandmother, Jennie Virginia Turner, lived with her daughters at 4536 Harding, Detroit, Michigan. She lived about 10 minutes by car (not that they had a car) from her oldest daughter, Fannie Graham and her family on Theodore. Her nephew, James Edward McCall, lived about half way between the two with his family on Parker. She was listed as a widow and retired with 6 years of schooling. Everyone in the house is identified as “Negro”. Jennie gave the enumerator the information.
Aunt Daisy was 48 years old, single, with 4 years of high school. She was the only one in the house working outside of the home. She is listed as a stock girl at a retail fur company. It had been my understanding that Daisy was a seamstress but she was also listed as head stock girl at a fur store in the 1930 census so I guess she wasn’t sewing. My mother told me years ago that Daisy also collected numbers at Annis to supplement the family income. When she lived in Montgomery, AL, Daisy was a teacher for several years and worked in her Uncle Victor Tulane’s grocery store as a clerk.
Aunt Alice was 32 years old, single and had completed 9 years of school. This answered a question I had about Alice, did she finish high school after she moved to Detroit at age 15. I don’t think she did. If she started school at 6, she probably stopped when she moved to Detroit.
It’s always so difficult to figure things out when the census documents don’t quite match family stories–though it’s pretty compelling that Daisy wasn’t primarily employed as a seamstress when she was listed in both the 1930 and 1940 census as a stock girl. Sometimes I think that relatives just don’t have a very clear understanding of other relatives jobs. They probably generally talked about things other than work at family gatherings.
My mother did write that Daisy, Alice and Grandmother Turner all worked as seamstresses at Annis Furs. I now think she was wrong and Daisy and Alice weren’t sewing. I know my mother said that her mother never was taught to sew so why would the younger ones have been taught? Not to sew professionally at any rate. Now I have to go back and change those titles of photos from “Seamstresses at Annis Furs” to “They Worked at Annis Furs”.