The weekly prompt is provided by www.amyjohnsoncrow.com. The prompt for the week of July 13 is "A Source I Want to Understand Better." While Amy Johnson Crow provides a prompt, she understands that people will interpret it in many different ways. I have chosen to interpret a "source" as the specific document used to prove a fact, rather than a broader collection. For this week's post, I am going to get a better understanding of the 1920 U.S. Census for Elizabeth Sulki in the Borough of Brooklyn, Kings County, New York.
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| This 1920 Census entry serves as the "fingerprint" of the family after they fled Washington. While the surname is recorded as "Sulki," the seven sons listed confirm the identity of the family. |
Who was Elizabeth Sulki and how does she fit into the Soltis/Summers family? My grandfather, Charles William Soltis/Summers, had told the family that when he was a teenager, his mother, Elizabeth, had taken the children and left her husband, Charles, in Washington State. They eventually settled in Brooklyn, New York. After my grandfather died, my mother began to research his family, from whom he had "disappeared." In her research, she had a gap for the 1920 census in Washington State; she searched for a possible entry in Brooklyn, NY, and found this entry for an Elizabeth Sulki.
In trying to better understand the source and the difference in names: my great-grandmother had taken the children and was in hiding from her husband, who was a violent man. Was it a deliberate attempt by Elizabeth to stay hidden from her husband, or was it simply an enumerator's phonetic error when recording "Soltis"? In either case, how can we be sure that this is the exact same family from across the country in Washington State?
First, we look at the names. We have Elizabeth, and then we have seven sons listed below. Six of those names we recognize: John, Charles, Joseph, Stephen, Andrew, and Peter. But who was Edward? We will get back to him shortly. For now, these seven names serve as a "fingerprint" that confirms this is indeed the family that fled Washington.
This 1920 census entry lists Elizabeth as illiterate, unable to read or write. While the 1910 census entry for Elizabeth indicated that she was literate—that she could read and write—the 1930 census also indicates that she could read and write. The subsequent 1940 and 1950 censuses do not ask this question.
So, could she read and write? Perhaps she believed she was being asked not about general literacy, but specifically about her ability to read and write English, a language she may not have been confident in at the time.
Circling back to that last name on the census entry: Edward. We didn't know anything about Edward, so are we looking at the same family? The census indicates his age at 1 and 1/12. When my mother wrote a family narrative in 2021, she had apparently misinterpreted the entry and thought he was 1 1/2. So, instead of being born in July 1918, he was born in December 1918.
While we know that Elizabeth and the six sons match, we still haven't proved that we are looking at the same family. Back to my mother's family narrative: in that document, my grandfather had told the family that he remembered his mother had lost two babies. In her research, she had only been able to identify one of these babies, named Michael. This leads us to believe that Edward was the second baby. Since my grandfather knew that she had two babies who died and that he effectively "disappeared" from his family, then he knew that Edward died while he was still living with his mother and brothers, before their father reached New York to bring them back. A search of NYC vital records has not turned up a death certificate in the searches I have done for him.
This better understanding of this source helps me to create a timeline to visualize the experiences of the family from 1918 to 1920+ with other known family facts.
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| December 1918 | Edward is born in Ronald, Washington. |
| July 13, 1919 | Charles William Soltis (your grandfather) is confirmed. |
| Late 1919 | Elizabeth and the boys must have left Washington State and traveled to New York sometime after the confirmation and before the census was taken. |
| January 14, 1920 | The family (minus father) is enumerated as "Sulki" in Brooklyn, NY; Edward is listed as 1 1/12 years old. |
| c. 1920–1923 | Edward passes away while the family is in New York. |
| c. 1922–1923 | The father discovers the family's location and forcibly returns them to Washington. |
| c. 1922–1923 | Your grandfather "breaks" from the family and changes his name to Summers. He temporarily roomed with a co-worker from the cider company where he worked (noted in the 1920 U.S. Census). |
As I have mentioned, my mother and my aunt began diligently researching my grandfather's family to learn more about it after he had died. I am happy that I am building upon the foundation she laid.
My grandfather's silence was a protective mechanism. He didn't just run away; he "disappeared" to ensure his father could never pull him back into that life. After Charles and Elizabeth had died, several of the brother tried to locate my grandfather and were unsuccessful. Not only did he tell his family that his father was abusive, but in connecting with the descendants of his brothers, one of the brothers and several cousins affirmed that Charles was very abusive.
And while my grandfather never mentioned many of his brothers' names to his family, I now wonder about the name of my uncle. He was named Edward, and I have always thought that he was just named after my grandmother's father, Edward. Did my grandfather remember that the last baby to die was Edward? Did he tell my grandmother the coincidence, or did he just secretly know that he was honoring his brother?
By taking the time to better understand this source, I have a much clearer picture of this tumultuous time for Elizabeth and her children, and I am glad that I took the time to look back at it and better understand the story it told.
Key References:
- 1920 U.S. Federal Census, Kings County, New York, population schedule, Brooklyn Assembly District 15, Enumeration District 867, sheet 13B, household of Elizabeth Sulki [transcribed as "Sulki"]; digital image, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/imageviewer/collections/6061/images/4313515-00056 : accessed 3 July 2026); citing NARA microfilm publication T625, roll 1167.
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