Alfred Soares SS-5

I received a letter in the mail from the Social Security administration.  At first I thought it was another one of those phony Statement of Benefits for Social Security.  You know the forms that make it look like I am paying into a system and accruing benefits.  They are very misleading but that is beside the point. 

I opened the envelope and was pleasantly surprised to find my FOIA request response was enclosed.  It included a copy of the original application for the Social Security number that I found for Alfred Soares.  I have scanned this copy and have posted it with this entry.

There are a few interesting points to abstract from this document. 

• Alfred Soares filled it out himself and signed it
• It is dated 5-28-47
• He was 28 years old when he filled it out and was living at 1921 19th street in Bakersfield CA 
• He has no middle name
• He was employed at Guso (Gusa?) Cafe of Bakersfield CA
• He was born on 12-8-18 in the Hawaiian Islands (no other details listed)
• His parents were Tony (Dany?) Maranes & Julia Soares
• His full name given at birth was Alfred Soares (interesting fact because his father’s last name was Maranes)

Now this information comes close to and coincides with the information provided by the Cochran Mortuary’s records.  When I was looking over this information it struck me that José and Clara Soares, Alfred’s adopted parents had a daughter named Julia.  She was born about 1892 and did not leave Hawaii with the rest of the family.  Then I wondered if Alfred was the son of Julia and was adopted by his Grandparents.  Julia would have been about 26 year old in 1918 when Alfred was born which makes it a possibility.

It also opens some new questions.  If this is the same Alfred Soares, what is he doing in Bakersfield, CA.  His family was living in Oakland, CA as far as I knew.  This Alfred Soares ended up in Wichita KS where he died without family.  Questions about employment and moving come to mind.

Unfortunately the SS-5 does not shed any light on the mystery of Clara Delae.  There is still a good chance that we have the wrong Alfred Soares.  So right now it is filed under possibility, along with all the related information.

Been too busy

I milhaven’t posted in a while because I have been too busy  with work and other responsibilities to find time to do my family history research.  I am still waiting on the FOIA request with the Social Security Administration.  Nothing has come yet although I have not been expecting the request to be fulfilled yet.

FOIA Request - Alfred Soares

I haven’t posted anything the last few days because I have been busy at work and home, and have not had a chance to do any family history research.  I took a few minutes during my lunch break to make a Freedom of Information Act request. 

Since I have reason to beleive that the Alfred Soares that I found in the Social Security Death Index is a match, I have requested a copy of his Social Security Number Application (Form SS-5).  This is exciting because the SS-5 will include the father’s and mother’s full name.  Hopefully it will list his adopted parents names, and thus helping me to overcome my Clara Delae brickwall.  There is a chance that it will list his birth parents.

A response from Cochran Mortuary about Alfred Soares

So I received an email today from the Cochran Mortuary. Here is the email:

Mr. Silva:

I have found an Alfred Soares. My records don’t show any family surviving. Only a conservator and a friend that stepped forward to take care of him in death. Based on some of the information you have supplied me, I believe this is the same Alfred Soares. Below is the limited information I found.

Alfred J. Soares
Address at death: 2051 S. Kansas, Wichita, KS 67211
Date and Place of Birth: December 8, 1918 in Oahu, Hawaii
Date and Place of Death: April 28, 1986 at home
Place of Burial: Lakeview Cemetery in Wichita, Garden of Gethsemane II, Lot 8, Grave 11
Parents Names: Father: Manuel Monez, Mother: Julia Soares

I don’t know how accurate the names and information is, again, Mr. Soares did not have any family that stepped forward to take care of him in death. Our information came from a conservator and a friend.

I hope this information helps. I am sorry I don’t have any further information for you.

Sincerely,
The Cochran Family
by: Todd A. Phifer

Source Citation: Todd A. Phifer <cochranmc@aol.com>, “Re: Genealogy Research” e-mail to author, sent 22 April 2008.

Very interesting! So he thinks this is a match. The information is not from the most reliable sources, but he thinks it is a match.

So to recap why there is a good chance that this is a match: He was born in Hawaii with an exact match on the birth date. His social security number is from California. Now the names may be his birth parents and not his adopted parents. I think the next step is to send away for his social security application. I’m very excited about this. This might help me solve my brickwall.

Emailed Cochran Mortuary About Alfred Soares

I sent a second email to the Cochran Mortuary for more information on Alfred Soares.  I hope that they respond.  The mortuary need to know my relation to the deceased before releasing any information.  Alfred Soares is my great granduncle.  I hope that although I am not a direct descendant, the mortuary will provide me with some information.  If not I will have to post a cemetery lookup request to the local genealogical society or something like that.  It’s tough being so close.  At the same time, the mortuary is a business and answering these kinds of data requests are understandably not the top priority.  I’ll keep you posted.

Searched for Guilherme da Silva’s Death Date

I spent a little time searching for Guilherme da Silva’s death date.  I know that he arrived in San Francisco, California in 1918 with his wife and children.  One of his sons was living in Oakland in 1930, but wasn’t living with his parents. 

I searched Ancestry.com’s California Death Index, 1940-1997 using his immigrant name of William Silva.  This did not return any matches so I expanded my search to all birth, marriage & death records on Ancestry.com.  This also yielded no results.  A more thorough search needs to occur trying other name variants.

Updated: General Information on Sephardic Jews

Earlier last week I made a post about Sephardic Jews. Sue Lick, the author of Stories Grandmother Never Told, posted a comment to that post giving me permission to quote that section. Therefore quoting from Stories Grandmother Never Told:

Louise married a Jewish man and became fascinated by the Jewish culture and especially by the history of Portuguese and Spanish Jews, sometimes referred to as Sephardic Jews. During the Spanish Inquisition in the fourteenth and fifteen centuries, these Iberian Jews were persecuted by the Catholic Church, which dominated the area. they were forced to flee to other countries to keep practicing their faith. In fact, the first Portuguese settlers in what was to become the United States were Jews who arrived in New Amsterdam in 1654. Those who remained in Portugal were forced to at least pretend to embrace the Catholic faith. These New Christians, as they were called, were baptized, often with new names, and adopted the Christian customs. Some reverted to Judaism when they reached a safe place, while others retained their new religion and passed it down to their descendants.

Source: Lick, Sue Fagalde. Stories Grandma Never Told: Portuguese Women in California. Berkeley: Heyday Books, 1998.

She also informed me that this book is available from Blue Hydrangea Productions. She also said that she has some books more specifically about Sephardic Jews here on her website.

General Information on Sephardic Jews

I came across something interesting while reading a book that I want to pass on.  I offer it as a follow-up to my Concerning the origin of the da Silva surname post, which is the most popular post on this blog by far.  I am currently reading Stories Grandma Never Toldwritten by Sue Fagalde Lick and published by Heyday Books.  The interesting part is found on pages 143 & 144 of the 1998 edition.   Now I would love to type up what is written, but since I have not received written permission from the publisher I will paraphrase what was written:

During the Spanish Inquisition (14th & 15th centuries), Iberian Jews were persecuted by the Catholic Church which dominated the area.  They fled to other countries so they could keep practicing their faith.  The first Portuguese settlers to the United States were Jews who arrived in New Amsterdam in 1654 (it wasn’t the United States at the time of course).  Those who remained in Portugal “were forced to at least pretend to embrace the Catholic faith.”  They were baptized, often with new names, and adopted the Christian customs. Some reverted to Judaism when they reached a safe place, while others remained Catholic and passed it down to their descendants.

Portuguese Immigrants and the World War I Draft

I have previously posted here an examples of Portuguese immigrant who had to register for the draft in World War I.  Now as I previously explained it was a shock to find this draft card because he was not an American citizen.  Ancestry.com explains in their “interesting facts” section under the source for their World War I Draft Card Database that:

Non-citizens were required to register but were not subject to induction into the American military.

So although John Paul Silva registered, he would not have been subject to induction.  I found that to be interesting!

Grave Location of Alfred Soares

I received a reply from the Lakeview Funeral Home Assistant Manager/Funeral Director. See Update: The Continuing Saga of Alfred Soares for more history on this request. She gave me the location of Alfred Soares’ grave in the Lakeview Cemetery in Wichita Kansas. Here’s what he wrote:

Alfred Soares grave location is:
Garden: Gethsemane II
Lot: 8
Space: 11

Source Citation: Sean D. Myers <mylakeviewfuneralhome@stei.com>, “RE: Contact Request Form From Lakeview Funeral Home and Cemetery about Products:” e-mail to author, sent 11 April 2008.