Mrs. Martha J. Peck, clerk, Halle Bros Co. residence 1982 W 93rd St, Cleveland, Ohio
Such a little thing. But it felt like a tiny miracle. This is a such an incredible clue for figuring out a long-standing mystery about my own parents. A mystery about a series of things I should have asked them about, long before they were gone. But that didn't happen. Mea culpa.
In the 1937 directory (complied in 1936) both Lewis Robert Peck and Martha Jane Hoover were living with their parents. In May of 1937, they married. I had searched the 1938 directory (compiled in 1937) before. Cataloging all the related people. And could not find Lewis. I somehow overlooked this one entry for Martha..... [Thanks, Genealogy Do-Over].
I had assumed I would find them together. Not so.
Everything I had found before was that they married in 1937, and then vanished.....
I knew that Lewis worked in the WPA at some point. Didn't know if was a more local project or a more distant one.
I knew that Martha worked at Halle Bros. (a big department store) as a file clerk. Earned $5 a week, a really good wage for the time. That she had one work dress, and each evening, she would wash out her dress in the sink and iron it for the next day.
In the 'people' portion of the directory, she was listed at that address. When I went back to the 'street address' portion of the directory, there were two people listed at that address, neither of them her. And I have searched through everyone on that street. Nothing. So I feel safe to assume that she was boarding, or renting a room, rather than living in an apartment.
This also tells me that Lewis' WPA project was not local. Whether his work was in a different part of the same state, of somewhere else in the country, they were not together.
Within months of their marriage, they were separated because of the Depression....
But they were still together, for decades, and are just as 'disappeared' in 1940 and after.
One breadcrumb at a time is just fine!
Moving on....
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