For those with US ancestors…
Have you looked at the amount of schooling your relatives indicated they had in the 1940 census? Just to see if my thoughts were correct, I looked up the claimed educational level of all my living ancestors at the time of the 1940 census. Anna Habben’s 4th grade education coincides closely with the family’s immigration to the United States from Germany. The others were about where I thought they would be based upon family tradition. All of mine were living in Hancock County, Illinois, in 1940.
- Charles Neill (great-grandfather-St. Albans Twp.)–8th grade.
- Fannie Neill (great-grandmother-St. Albans Twp.)–8th grade.
- Fred Ufkes (great-grandfather-Bear Creek Twp.)-8th grade.
- Tena Ufkes (great-grandmother-Bear Creek Twp.)-6th grade.
- John Ufkes (grandfather-Bear Creek Twp.)-4 years of high school.
- Mimka Habben (great-grandfather, Prairie Twp.)-8th grade.
- Tjode Habben (great-grandmother, Prairie Twp.)-8th grade.
- Dorothy Habben (grandmother, Prairie Twp.) 3 years of high school (she graduated the 4th year the next year).
- Cecil Neill (grandfather, Prairie Twp.)-8th grade.
- Ida Neill (grandmother, Prairie Twp.)-8th grade.
- Anna Habben (great-great-grandmother, village of Elvaston, Prairie Twp)-4th grade
4 Responses
I know, I am finding grade similarities because many of my relatives were expected to go to college. And did with many bevoking famous scholars.
You might also want to check into what constituted high school at that time. My mother was a member of the first class at her high school to graduate as a 12th grader in 1938. Prior to that year, high school in Louisiana was 9th-11th grade.
That’s a good point. At that approximate time period, the number of years that constituted being a high school graduate was somewhat in flux. There were many small, rural high schools in that rough time period (in Illinois) that only had three years of high school and kids had to go to a larger school to get their 4th year in. Both my grandparents (who graduated in 1933 and 1941) took their first three years of high school in the small schools near them, but had to go to the county seat high school to get in their fourth year.
I’m pretty sure I read an article about the reminiscences of a woman who lived in the same area and time as my father. She said only the kids whose parents could afford to pay for train fare got to go to high school. The others continued to attend school but at the local grade school.