Census Sunday: Julia Coursault

Julia Coursault is my husband's maternal grandmother. She lived 1885 to 1945. Her parents were Charles and Apolina (several spellings found) Coursault.

In 1900, the 14 year old Julia is shown living in Philadelphia on Green Street with her parents and six of her seven siblings. The Census reveals her birth as June 1885. She is the oldest of the children still at home. The others are: Kate, 12; Leon, 10; Prosper, 8; Marie, 5; and Anna, 1. Her father Charles, then 40, is a fruit huckster. His father was born in Pennsylvania and his mother was born in Ireland. Her mother immigrated in 1880 from England. Apolina, then age 37, also reports that all seven of her children are still living. The two have been married now 17 years. Julia was the only of the six children still at home to be working already and she worked as a packer at a bulk factory.

I also tracked Julia on later census records. In 1910 she was still at home with her mom and siblings. Her father, Charles, was murdered in July 1909 so Apolina was widowed by the time of the census.

By 1920, still single and living with mom and siblings, Julia and the Coursault family are now living on Frankford Avenue. Apolina now lists that she immigrated in 1871 and was naturalized in 1880.

In the 10 years that passed between the 1920 and 1930 Census, Julia met Morgan Deyoe. They married in late 1920 or early 1921. They had three children at that time: John, Anne and Dorothy. They did have two more children later. The family lived on Church Lane in Philadelphia in 1930. Julia did not work. Morgan was a mechanic.

I found Julia and Morgan on the 1940 census but by then the couple was living in Wrightstown, Bucks County and had already given up the children. The children were living in Pennspark, Bucks County under the guardianship of Harvey and Katie Leatherman.

Julia died in 1945. I have been unable to find her on Census records prior to 1900, although she would have only appeared on the 1890 one.