What is the best approach when census searches don't initially retrieve the records you expect should be there.
I tried to look up the 1940 census information for Margit Friedmann/Weiss but couldn't find her. It is most likely she would have been in New York. Her ship crossing document in 1936 lists sister Irene living at Sutter Avenue as the known contact in New York. By 1940 I guess she would have moved to her own place but it didn't come up on my search.
It seems like Sutter Avenue was the original address for the family in New York. In the 1925 Census Margit's sister Irene and husband Herman Mantel were at number 938 Sutter Avenue with all 5 of their children (Hugo, Elizabeth, Jeanette, Louis and Renee). They were also all at home there still in the 1930 Census. in 1940 Herman and Irene were still at Sutter Avenue but may have moved to number 918 which they owned, although this could be a typing error. Louis was the only child at home with them at that point (aged 25), as was Irene's father Isaac who came over in 1938 after the death of his wife in Vienna, aged 81.
I also couldn't find one of Louis' sisters, Elizabeth, in the 1940 census. She married Daniel von Kameniczky in 1937 but doesn't seem to show up on an initial search for 1940.
There is also an uncle who is proving difficult to find in the census records. Irene's brother Kalman Friedmann came to New York in May 1935 listing Herman at 938 Sutter Ave as his known relative. But again, he doesn't show up in the 1940 census from an initial look. During the war his draft registration document shows he was living in Pittsburgh, he was a photographer working at the Bachrach studio there; and then another address in Washington, North Carolina. But I don't know where he went after that.
I would be so appreciative of any help in finding these records, and also knowing the other routes for pinning down a census record if it doesn't show up by a normal search.
Thank you so very much
Colee
