Samuel Isaacs in the 1870 US Census

Third time's the charm. The first time I tried to add the image, I was directed instead to a fresh, new, post, and the post I was working on was gone (thank goodness for autosave). The second time, I experienced a hard crash and had to hold the power button down, turn off and then restart. Maybe the combination of a fresh post and a fresh restart were what I needed. What a bloody nuisance.

Another prize in the MMFROG

MMORPG: Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (such as Everquest or Worlds of Warcraft)

MMFROG: Massively Multiplayer Family Research Online Game

I found g-g-grandfather Samuel Isaacs for certain in the 1870 US Census. He was living in Cinncinnati with his sister-in-law Maria Myers Tobias' family. I found him when I did a search for Maria's Daughter Josephine Tobias Lederer in the hopes of finding Maria's husband, who had died by the 1880 Census. [I wanted to post the image, and I may eventually figure out how to convince my new computer (which forces me to use Internet Explorer instead of the Firefox I prefer) to do it. I've had numerous difficulties with this Toshiba-Vista combo, and I may try going back to my old Toshiba with XP for my genealogical work. I chiefly need a faster computer for graphics manipulation.]

1870 US Census
Name Home in 1870 Est. Birth Year Birthplace Race Sex
Henry Tobias Cincinnati Ward 6, Hamilton, OH abt 1820 Prussia White Male
Maria Tobias Cincinnati Ward 6, Hamilton, OH abt 1828 England White Female
Sarah Tobias Cincinnati Ward 6, Hamilton, OH abt 1853 New York White Female
Charles Tobias Cincinnati Ward 6, Hamilton, OH abt 1854 Pennsylvania White Male
Pauline Tobias Cincinnati Ward 6, Hamilton, OH abt 1857 Ohio White Female
Morris Tobias Cincinnati Ward 6, Hamilton, OH abt 1859 Ohio White Male
Josephine Tobias Cincinnati Ward 6, Hamilton, OH abt 1863 Ohio White Female
Ida Tobias Cincinnati Ward 6, Hamilton, OH abt 1866 Ohio White Female
Samuel Isaacs Cincinnati Ward 6, Hamilton, OH abt 1838 England White Male

At any rate, his presence in Cincinnati before the rest of the family arrived in New York tells me that the family probably traveled immediately to Ohio and took up residence there in 1870. Martha Myers Isaacs and the children didn't arrive in the United States until July 1870, the month after the 1870 Census was taken, and they left England nearly a year before the 1871 UK Census, so they will not appear in any census for that decade.

Further, Sam's appearance in the June census strengthens the case for an April arrival aboard the Inman Line's ship City of Brooklyn. One thing that doesn't match is occupation. The Samuel Isaacks aboard the ship was listed as a miner, while the Samuel Isaacs in Ohio gave his occupation as "Rag Dealer" with a personal property value of $300. This difference may not mean much, since Samuel's line in the 1880 Census was "Peddler." According to the Trinidad [Colorado] City Directory he had gone into real estate in 1888, and by 1891 had become a hotel proprietor. The age difference doesn't mean much either. Even verified sources don't agree on Samuel's date of birth, so I figure a birth year of 1835 +/-5 years is close enough.

Unfilial Grousing & Status Report on the Old Folks

My mother is still hanging on to life, even though her nurses thought she was going to go late last month. Hospice took her off 24-hour care a week ago, since even when she is agitated, she is now physically incapable of getting out of bed by herself. My dad complains about the amount of pain medication she is receiving, but when she isn't medicated so heavily she sleeps virtually all the time, she's not in her right mind anyway. Her communication skills have improved somewhat but are still such that it can take her awhile to get across to us the idea that she is uncomfortable. My dad and I spent an hour trying to figure out why her stockings were horrible, horrible, horrible (she wasn't wearing any, not even socks) until it occurred to me that her legs hurt.

My dad thinks that the care center is responsible for the increased frequency of pain medication (to keep her doped up and less demanding), but I must confess. I spoke to the Hospice nurse, Deborah, and we decided that a dosing schedule of every four hours was inadequate to keep the pain under control. Mother has completely forgotten how to use the nurse's call button (she wasn't terribly good with it when she first got there in April), and my dad's not very good about reading the signs even when he's there. Actually, I discussed an increased dosing schedule with Deborah while my father was in the room, but he has forgotten.

Daddy is forgetting way too much, and I don’t know how much of it’s stress. I’m concerned he may have Alzheimer’s. There’s a history of it in his family – his maternal grandmother had it, as did a maternal uncle who died recently. It could also be thyroid, which is how I’m trying to sell a trip to the doctor to him. He tells me most of his forgetfulness is a show, but that’s baloney. He forgets important stuff, although he tends to remember that better than the trivial. He also assures me he has things well in hand, but I expect he doesn’t want to do anything until after my mother is gone, buried and memorialized.

She is … was … of the opinion that neither of them would long survive the other. I was pretty sure she wouldn’t outlast him by much, but I had hoped my dad wouldn’t be quite so interdependent with her. Now I have my doubts.