Joseph and Mabel Libby in Barnsdall, Oklahoma – finding them without the index in the 1940 census has made me very happy. So now I’ve found my husband’s grandparents, whom he never knew, in the 1940 Census.
Here’s how I did it: I didn’t have an address or even a location. But I thought perhaps between 1930 and 1940 they’d lost their farm in the Dust Bowl catastrophe, so I looked in the nearest town to their 1930 location, which is Barnsdall, Bigheart Township, Osage, Oklahoma. The Enumeration District was 57-3 and off I went.
On the 39th out of 48 pages, there they are on lines 10 and 11 of Sheet 20-A. Joseph Libby is working as a night watchman at a Cities Service gas station and his wife is at home. In 1935,* they were living in Pawhuska, a bigger town on the other side of their former farm. All of their children had moved out, so I will search for them elsewhere. I’m very happy that I could find someone without a location or an index. YAY! Joseph and Mabel Libby in Barnsdall, Oklahoma, is a big piece of a puzzle for relatives I know little about.
*I can tell already this is going to be my favorite 1940 question!
