Father's Day - 1940 Census

My father passed away in January, 2000. The next summer, I attended the family reunion of my mother's side of the family. While there, I spoke with my uncle, Al Dohman. He was the husband of my mother's sister. He wanted to be sure that I knew that he and my father were good friends. I thanked him for his kind words and said that I hadn't realized how good of friends they were. He mentioned that they were friends for a very long time.

Al passed away in 2011.

In 2012, the 1940 US Federal Census was released. I searched through it to find my parents, grandparents and all my various aunts and uncles. During my search, I found my father, living with his parents, Leo and Julia Miller, at 1545 Avenue L, Fort Madison, Lee County, Iowa.

A bit more searching and I found my uncle, Al Dohman, living with his parents, Aloysius and Marie Dohman at 1235 Avenue D, Fort Madison, Lee County, Iowa.

Remembering Uncle Al's comments about the two of them being good friends for a long time and finding them in the same town at the age of 10 and 11 years old, I thought I'd bring them up on a Google Earth. I imagined I was a 10 or 11 year old boy, wanting to ride my bike to my friend's house.
 

A bike ride from my dad's house to Al Dohman's house would be just under a 1 mile ride, taking about 5 minutes. And that's only because of the way the streets are laid out. As the crow flies, it's a much shorter distance.

Be sure to look up your parents in the 1940 census and see the world through the eyes of the child they were at the time.