I looked at the road conditions between King of Prussia and Philadelphia when I woke up. The roads were clear and traffic was flowing, so I decided to drive to Philadelphia and shower there this morning before doing anything else.
Hurricane Debby was expected to bring a lot of rain today, but the weather was still good after my shower, so I decided to do some driving and walking while the weather was still good, before going back to the Philadelphia City Archives. I drove to the addresses my grandfather and his wife gave as their Philadelphia addresses when they immigrated to America, and checked out the neighborhoods.
The address Lizzy gave was 514 N. 31st Street. That house is on the corner of 31st Street and Brandywine Avenue, and has mutiple floors. They didn't have much money, so they likely just rented a room.
The other side of the street on 31st Ave is lined with trees, but beyond the trees is a railroad switching yard with multiple tracks. The railroad tracks are at a lower elevation, separated from the street by a drop off. Below is the view through the trees, looking down from street level.
The West Philadelphia neighborhood where these addresses are located is called Mantua. Below is another photo, taken from a block away, at 31st and Spring Garden street. There is an auto repair shop on the corner, and the 31st Street house is visible in the background.
Spring Garden Street has a concrete bridge that crosses over the railyard, leading back into Philadelphia. In fact, the Philadelphia city Archives is also on Spring Garden Street, in downtown Philadelphia.
Below is the view of downtown from near the bridge.
The immigration address my grandfather gave was 10 blocks away, at 517 N. 41st Street. Below is a photo taken at that address. It is the house with the upstairs red bay window.
To give an idea of the neighborhood, below are the houses across the street.
Both houses are in what is considered the Mantua neighborhood. According to wikipedia, Mantua was mostly comprised of white Lutherans during the early 1900s, but later became predominantly black. It developed a gang problem and had one of the highest crime rates in Philadelphia. The neighborhood is still predominantly black, although I think the crime is not as bad. Some University students have moved into the area because the rent is cheaper than other parts of Philadelphia.
-- Day 2 at the City Archives --
The potential leads I had on Tuesday all ended up to be dead ends For example, when Teresa pulled the birth certificate associated with the card I posted Tuesday on my blog, it turned out that her maiden name wasn't McBride, she was born in Virginia, and the father was born in North Carolina.
The other leads I had produced similar results when the associated certificates were pulled... no matches.
I looked through all the birth and death cards again, this time knowing they had associated certificates that could be pulled. I had Teresa pull a few more potential matches, with similar results.
The death cards list undertaker. In order to pull a death certificate, it is extremely difficult unless you know the name of the undertaker or the burial place. The undertakers submit the death certificates to the city in batches. Each batch of folded certificates is submitted in an envelope with the undertaker's or burial place's name. The envelopes are stored in the archives, and have to be opened to find the individual certificates.
As a last ditch effort, I had Teresa and her colleague bring me the birth and death records for names starting with "M", in case she used her maiden name. We ended up pulling over a dozen certificates, but that effort came up dry, too.
Teresa told me it is estimated that about 1/3 of the births in that time period never got recorded with the city. The parents got the birth certificate but it was not submitted to the archives. It was less common to have undocumented deaths, because deaths require less paperwork than births.
The only other suggestion Teresa had for me was to try searching church records, but I had already tried that and wasn't ready to try any other religious denominations. She commented that I had been very thorough in my searches. I thanked her for her help and wiped my hands of the genealogy search.
-- Philly Cheesesteak --
Before leaving the archives, I asked for suggestions for a good Philly Cheesesteak. The place they suggested wouldn't open until 4 pm, and I didn't want to wait, so did a few Internet searches and found a top rated one.
John's Roast Pork was highly rated and had very good Internet reviews, so I drove there. It was only a few blocks away from where I spent my first night in Philadelphia (the Planet Fitness parking lot). I highly recommend the place!
My Philly Cheesesteak did not disappoint! I ordered the steak sandwich (not pork, which was also an option) with sweet peppers, onions, and mild provalone cheese. It was excellent, as were the fries! I would order the same thing again if I ever come back.
I was eating my meal at an outside table, and got about 3/4 through the sandwich, when the rains from Hurricane Debby hit hard and I had to move into the covered eating area.
My plan for tonight was to drive to Lancaster, spend the night, and continue to Hershey tomorrow. The Walmarts and Costco in Lancaster didn't allow overnight parking, so I continued driving until I reached Hershey.
I called the Walmarts near Hershey before I drove there. The Walmart in Harrisburg, west of Hershey, doesn't allow overnight parking, but the one east of Hershey, in Palmyra, does. So I'm spending the night in Palmyra tonight! (Sometimes it takes a few tries before finding a place to sleep.) The weather is cool, so it should be a good night!
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