Exploring History Through Genealogy

Family Socialization in the 1930s

The Great Depression had a great impact on most of the United States, not easing up until the start of the second World War. In this little expo, I will be focusing on my ancestors in Seneca County, Ohio and how they bound together to weather the storm.

While I could not find how this time period affected Seneca County itself, Ohio's farmer's were affected like any other state's. The prices for their crops had already been dropping so that they were struggling, but by 1930, they had dropped so low, that farmers wouldn't produce enough to make enough money to pay their debts, thus leading to the foreclosures. In the Midwest, the Dust Bowl only made it worse in that their crops were devastated and they didn't have anything to sell at all. To ease their burden, the government passed the Agricultural Adjustment Acct of 1933. It limited how many crops and herds farmers could produced and gave a subsidy to the farmers that agreed.

I do not know if The Millers signed up for this program, but considering most of them got through the Depression with their homes intact, I assume so. Daniel Miller was the head of a small, but thriving family in Adams Township, Ohio. As there have been no stories passed down that I know of, about this era, the information I have, I derived from combing census records and newspapers. Daniel and four of his sons, got through the 1930s without losing their farms, although his son, Roscoe, did add a trucking business to his farm in order make ends meet. He is also listed as a farmer and trucker on his World War II Draft Card. The only son which had problems was Alton Roy, my ancestor.

In 1930, Alton and his family were in Detroit Michigan, having left home sometime after 1922 to run an Apartment house in the State of his wife's birth. Detroit was hit hard during the great depression, demonstrations were already hitting the streets in 1930 as car production dropped almost immediately after the stock market crash. Unemployment nose dived after that and I imagine it was hard to make a living if their tenants could not make the rent. I have not been able to pinpoint a precise time they moved back to Ohio, but I estimate it to be by 1932 as they were attending the family social events with the rest of the Millers. By 1935, they were living in Tiffin and he was working as a carpenter, stating that he was working a 40 hour work week by the 1940 census.

This brings us to the phenomenon of family socialization during these tough times. Looking through newpapers, you will find that social gatherings were recorded, especially celebrations for marriages, birthdays and anniversaries. The family would take turns hosting the gatherings, with lots of Sunday dinners. Daniel, as the patriarch, attended many of them, but his sons and their familes would also attend them without him. In 1931, I was able to find two articles, one in July with only the children of Daniel Miller, but in November a Sunday was spent at his grandson's. The most recordings occur in 1932 and 1933, mostly Sunday dinners but also birthdays. In 1934 they had a huge Reunion of the Robenalt family, which is Daniel's late wife's family. About 75 people attended.

As was the norm, the bigger gatherings were potlucks so that the burden did not fall on only one family's shoulders. It is a shame that this tradition of get togethers has fallen aside. Of course, it is possible that this was a normal occurrence for the family even before the Depression and that the newspapers only decided to record them to emphasize happiness and take away from the dreary realities of their lives.

Today, families live too far apart and their lives are so busy, that it is difficult to get together, once a year if you are lucky. On one hand, seeing your family so seldom makes you relish the time you do spend together and look forward to the next. During the Great Depression, the meals were for socialization, but I imagine they were also a way to share food and necessities to those less fortunate in their families without it being a big production and everyone pitching in. Today, no matter how bad it gets, we will always have a roof over our head and food in our mouths. For that, I thank God from my whole heart.