Working on Wednesday: Hill Freeman Warren (1896 - 1956), MD

We've been searching for my grandfather James Chappell Warren Jr.'s older brother "Henry H." for a long time.

[Year: 1900; Census Place: Justice Precinct 1, Johnson, Texas; Roll: 1649; Page: 6A; Enumeration District: 0053; FHL microfilm: 1241649. Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900. Washington, D.C.]

As Christine wrote in a post focusing on their father James Chappell Warren Sr. in January of 2015:

"His son Henry was not on the 1910 Census but Nannie counted him as still living.  I am unsure of Henry's fate as I don't find him after the 1900 Census."

As you can see in the 1910 U.S. Census, although only two were still living at home, Nannie stated she had three surviving children at the time.

[Year: 1910; Census Place: Justice Precinct 1, Johnson, Texas; Roll: T624_1569; Page: 17B; Enumeration District: 0042; FHL microfilm: 1375582. Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006. Original data: Thirteenth Census of the United States, Washington, D.C.]

His maternal grandfather was Henry Hill Freeman so we assumed that Henry's middle name was probably Hill too but never found a trace of that name in subsequent censuses, military or school records, or Texas death records. In our family tree Henry's profile ended in 1900. What happened to him?

Last Sunday night, since I planned to write about my great great grandmother Nannie Freeman Warren in my Monday Is for Mothers post, it seemed a good idea to take another look for her oldest son. I knew from experience that trying to locate a Henry H. Warren had proved fruitless so I decided to see what an Ancestry.com search for an H. Warren would turn up.

[Ancestry.com]

Well, the age was right and we thought there was a "Hill" in his name but Connecticut? However the next record, from Social Security Applications and Claims, 1936-2007 database, was dispositive:

[Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA:

Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.]

I had found my missing great uncle!

We still haven't found Hill Freeman Warren* in the 1910 U.S. Census but we know where he was in 1915--studying medicine at Vanderbilt University. We even have a portrait of him.

[Ancestry.com. U.S., School Yearbooks, 1880-2012 (database on-line).]

[Detail of above yearbook page]

Hill was active in college sports. How good was he? A student representative speaking for Vanderbilt's Medical Department at a Faculty-Senior Dinner on April 16, 1915, said in part:

[Vanderbilt University Quarterly, Volume 15. page 114.

Source: Google Books]

From records published during World War II listing retired naval officers we learn than Hill enlisted as an assistant surgeon in the U.S. Navy on August 20, 1917, was ranked a lieutenant on June 6, 1920 and left the service on October 22, 1923.

[Ancestry.com. U.S., Select Military Registers, 1862-1985 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013. This collection was indexed by Ancestry World Archives Project contributors. Original data: United States Military Registers, 1902–1985. Salem, Oregon: Oregon State Library.]

From the 1920 U.S. Census we learn that Hill was then living in Newport, Rhode Island, with his Connecticut-born wife Grace (Morris) Warren.

[Year: 1920; Census Place: Newport Ward 5, Newport, Rhode Island; Roll: T625_1670; Page: 1B; Enumeration District: 59; Image: 1095. Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920. (NARA microfilm publication T625, 2076 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

The couple's firstborn, Morris Hill Warren. was born in 1921 and their second child, Elizabeth, came into the world on May 20, 1923, only three weeks after my father Tracy Stuart Warren's birth in Texas.

By the 1930 U.S. Census, Hill, Grace and their family were settled in New London, Connecticut, and he was a general practitioner. His mother-in-law Grace (Morley) Morris was living with them. (They owned their house but didn't have a radio.)

[Year: 1930; Census Place: New London, New London, Connecticut; Roll: 282; Page: 6B; Enumeration District: 0026; Image: 317.0; FHL microfilm: 2340017. Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Washington, D.C.]

All five of  them were still living together in New London in the 1940 U.S. Census and Hill was now calling himself "Physician & Surgeon."

[Year: 1940; Census Place: New London, New London, Connecticut; Roll: T627_524; Page: 10B; Enumeration District: 6-44. Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940. Washington, D.C.]

And the Warrens are listed in the 1945 New London City Directory.**

[Ancestry.com - U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995]

As i knew from the first post-1900 record I found, my "lost" great uncle died on October 13, 1956 in Hartford, Connecticut. So far I haven't located his obituary or place of burial.




*He appears never to have used his first name as an adult.
**Checking the listings, Grace Morris was still living with them.



© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Gone for Soldiers: James Robert Slater (1919 - 1984), U.S. Navy

Uncle Jim, my birth mother's other brother, has consistently been overlooked in favor of his younger, more-favored sibling Jack and it's time for that to change.

Jim was a student at the University of Colorado in Boulder when he registered for the military draft under the Selective Service and Training Act, which required all male citizens between the ages of 21 and 35 to register for the military draft, beginning on October 16, 1940. This Act, the first peace-time draft in U.S. history, had been passed by Congress on September 6, 1940 and signed into law by President Franklin Franklin Roosevelt 10 days later. Jim was one of twenty million men who were required to register immediately.*

[James R. Slater 1940 draft registration, Fold3.com]

Jim didn't wait for his number to be called and enlisted in the U.S. Navy on June 15, 1942. He received a commission as a lieutenant j.g. and served aboard the aircraft carrier Yorktown (CV-10)**which was where he learned of his younger brother's death early in 1945.

[James Slater in uniform, courtesy of Olive Slater-Kennedy]

[James Slater, dress whites, courtesy of Olive Slater-Kennedy]

[James Slater in front of house in Niwot, courtesy of Olive Slater-Kennedy]

[Jim Slater in uniform, April 1945, courtesy of Olive Slater-Kennedy]

Jim was released from the Navy on March 22, 1946, but that wasn't the end of his military career. He re-einlisted on September 13, 1950, less than three months after the beginning of the Korean War. So far I haven't been able to find any information about this period of his service.

[James Slater U.S.N. i.d. card issued in 1950, courtesy of Olive Slater-Kennedy]

He left the Navy with the rank of Lieutenant Commander on July 5, 1953, about 3 weeks before the official end of the war.



*For an explanation of how the process worked, here's a link.
**There's a film (directed by William Wyler) that describes itself as "A Newsdrama of the Pacific" and was mostly shot aboard the Yorktown. It's available to watch in full here.


© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.