Charles Edward Conrad (03 April 1937 – 16 June 1999)

Charles E. Conrad, ca. 1955-58.

Born:

3 April 1937 in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States¹

Married:

24 Oct 1959 at First Presbyterian Church in Pitman, Gloucester, New Jersey, United States to Carol Lucille Garrison²

Died:

16 June 1999 in Bradenton, Manatee, Florida, United States³

Parents:

Edward Charles Conrad (5 August 1905 – 14 July 1981)¹
Susan Lippencott Todd (27 December 1904 – 01 August 1998)¹

Spouse:

Carol Lucille Garrison (18 Jul 1938 – 25 Aug 1999)

Children:

Living

Ancestors
Charles is a descendant of Nicholas Conrad & Catharine Emminger, James Todd & Elizabeth Martin, James Levens & Margaret McElhenny, and Thomas T. Moore & Susan L. Flenard.

Biography
Charles Edward Conrad was born on 3 Apr 1937 in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.¹ He lived at 2069 E Clarence in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States on 1 Apr 1940.⁴ He enlisted in the United States Air Force on 29 Jan 1955 in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States and was honorably discharged on 28 Nov 1958 in Las Vegas, Clark, Nevada, United States.⁵ Carol Lucille Garrison and Charles Edward Conrad were married on 24 Oct 1959 in Pitman, Gloucester, New Jersey, United States.² He died on 16 Jun 1999 at the age of 62 in Bradenton, Manatee, Florida, USA.³

Last updated: 26 July 2013

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Citations

1. Pennsylvania, Department of Health, birth certificate 42158 (1937), Charles E. Conrad; Division of Vital Records, New Castle.
2. Pitman, Gloucester County, New Jersey, marriage certificate (1959), Charles E. Conrad & Carol L. Garrison; Office of Registrar of Vital Statistics, Pitman.
3. Florida, Department of Health, death certificate 99-078031 (1999), Charles E. Conrad; Office of Vital Statistics, Jacksonville.
4. 1940 U.S. Census, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, population schedule, Ward 45, Philadelphia, enumeration district (ED) 51-1884, sheet 4A-B, household 68, Edward Conrad; digital images, FamilySearch.
5. Charles E. Conrad military discharge,  Form DD-214, 28 Nov 1958, Conrad Family Collection, privately held by Alexander Conrad, 1999.

 

My father was color blind. I did not think much about it when I was a child. I thought everyone’s dad had their socks pinned together and labeled with their color: blue, black, brown.

When I was an adult my dad told me this story. He worked for a company in West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, but often had business in Philadelphia. It was on one of these occasions when he was rushing to an early meeting that he discovered he had inadvertently put on one blue shoe and one black shoe. (His socks matched, though, thanks to Mom and her pins & labels.) He stopped at a shoe store, but it was still early and they were not yet open.

He banged on the door. It would not do to show up at this important business meeting with mismatched shoes. Finally, a clerk came to the front, tapping his watch, then pointing to the closed sign and shaking his head. My father pointed down to his shoes.

The clerk looked down and smiled. He let my dad in and sold him a pair of shoes.

Why this story today? It’s National Two Different Color Shoes Day.

Genealogy is intimately tied to death. Most genealogy jokes revolve around the fact that we spend so much time with dead people, or with the records they left behind anyway. I even subtitled my blog “News about dead people.”

Sometimes these dead people are a lot closer to us however, and we cannot joke about their absence. Each record of theirs we hold in our hands brings back memories, a reminder that all of our ancestors were once living, breathing people, as dear to someone as our recently lost are to us.

I have always been careful not to include the living in research I have posted to the internet. I have often extended this to people who have recently passed away. In my mind they are still living, I suppose.  But, I have also had the desire to memorialize the dead, to extend their lives a bit by sharing what I knew of them with other people.

My parents passed away 13 years ago this summer. I have assiduously kept their information off of the internet. Partly out of privacy, partly out of grief, partly because they are just too young to be “dead ancestors.” But, the 1940 census was released this year and they are in it. And, I decided to begin work on the electronic family tree book I always had in mind, and I want to start with them, so I am finally adding their names to my public database.

Charles “Charlie” Conrad was born in 1937 in Philadelphia to Edward C. Conrad and Susan L. Todd. You can see him in the 1940 census in my Todds on Tioga and Conrads around the Corner post. Carol Garrison was born in 1938 in Philadelphia to Orville W. Garrison and Naomi E. Carman. Charlie and Carol were married in 1959 in Pitman, New Jersey. Charlie served in the Air Force in the 1950’s and later worked as an accountant and comptroller. Carol was a registered nurse. They had their own business in the 1980’s. In the 1990’s they moved to Florida where they both passed away in 1999.

They loved each other deeply and saw each other through sickness and health, good times and bad. This site and my research have always been secretly dedicated to them. Now you know.

This is part 2. See part 1.

With enumeration district 51-1884 in hand, I went searching the 1940 census for my Todds. They were easy to find, showing up on the fourth image. Living with John and Olivia Todd were their son, John A. Todd, Jr. and their daughter Elizabeth Campbell, as well as Elizabeth’s daughter, Honor. I still don’t know who Mr. Campbell was. I had guessed she had been married to a Campbell from her SS-5, but have yet to find him. Great Aunt Bessie later married a Mr. Tilsner.

Emboldened by my success, I sat down to figure out where my Conrads might be in 1940. At first I was not sure, but then I remembered I had two documents that could help: my grandfather’s SS-5 from 1937 and his father’s death certificate from 1942. I knew from my father, born in 1937, that he had lived with his grandfather as a young child. I was in luck. Both listed the address of 2069 Clarence Street.

Off to Google maps, where I found something interesting. The Conrads lived right around the corner from the Todds:


View 1940 Census in a larger map

Now this isn’t unusual by any means, but it was interesting that I had not stumbled across this fact until now.

Another family found and I did not even need to figure out the enumeration district. Three images beyond the Todds, were the Conrads: Edward and Susan Conrad (John A. Todd’s son-in-law and daughter), their children Doris and Charles, and Edward’s father, Nicholas.

There are two improvements in my mind in 1940 for the census. One is the legibility factor. While I have still come across some poor handwriting, for the most part the letters are crafted in ways that are decipherable to me. We have finally reached modern style handwriting in full. The second is the x with a circle around it to indicate who answered the questions. This is a big help in determining how much credence we should put in those answers. Neighbor Bob might not be as reliable a source on the Smiths as Mrs. Smith would be.

Still, misinformation appears. My great-grandfather was born in Scotland. This is a well-known fact in the family. I was told this as a young child. Every census prior to this one listed his birthplace as Scotland. Certainly his daughter, who answered the questions according to the notation beside her name, knew this. And yet, this is what was recorded by the census taker:

The census provides loads of information and clues, but is by no means a stopping point in research. Reliability is not its strong suit.