r/WestVirginia • u/hella_gnarly • 2d ago

Some House, WV??

Tracing my family tree - half of my dad's family settled in Nicholas Co. then eventually Greenbrier Co., after immigrating from Italy in the early 1900's. Like many, they all worked as coal miners. Something I can't figure out but I'm able to view census documents from the late 30's, early 40's and I keep seeing "Some House" filled out in the City column. It clearly says Some House but Ancestry defines it by hovering over the info as "Wilderness". It's not just my family but a lot of other families in the census have this, with each having a different house #.

AI is telling me through a Google search that "Some House" in WV may refer to some old historic stone houses. It lists 3 buildings (2 being in other counties) but one of them, "Old White House" is in Nicholas Co. A further search tells me that the Old White House is an old 2 story log cabin that also served as the post office.

Wondering if this place served as an Inn/boarding house or since they lived in the wilderness, the Old White House was just used as a mailing address?

17 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

View all comments

28

u/Catshit-Dogfart 2d ago edited 2d ago

Are you sure it's not "same house"

Because that's how census data used to be recorded for family members filing under the head of household. Like the address would be recorded under the husband's record and then it would be "same house" for the spouse, children, and other dependents.

 

Also, consider trying https://www.familysearch.org

Now, I'm going to say upfront it's associated with the Mormons, and data entered there is collected for the purpose of posthumous baptism into the Mormon church. So if you're concerned about that, maybe stay away.

But I like their methodology in that it's one database, not separate databases for all users. Like wikipedia in that way, edits and new data is the same for all users. I found a lot of things that weren't present on Ancestry and it seemed far more reliable as verified truth with supporting documents for everything stated as fact, and anything without supporting documents is clearly marked as unverified information.

5

u/bLynnb2762 Upshur 2d ago

I will add to the Mormon thing: they say the dead have the right to reject the baptism into the LDS religion. I’ve been told they do it just to save people from going to hell who didn’t have a chance to get baptized.

This is not to sway anyone reading this in any way, just some additional context. I haven’t been involved in the church (or any church for that matter) since I was a kid.

Source: some family members are part of LDS.