Family History by Sid

Melody Ilyse Amores Sumpter and Jason Amores Sumpter        The weekend of May 14th and 15th was a very special weekend for the Levine/Boxinbaum branches of my family tree. We celebrated the wedding of Melody Ilyse Snyderman (my niece) and Jason Amores Sumpter. It was a long anticipated event, postponed due to Covid but its spirit was not at all diminished by the delay. I haven’t seen that many happy faces in one room in a long time. Their perseverance in the face of a worldwide pandemic is a testament to the love and dedication these two young people have for each other.        Jason and Mel are two intelligent, hard working, and independent adults. They are both successful in their chosen careers. They are fun loving and enjoy traveling within and out of the country. They recently bought a condo in Miami where they have lived for several years.       All weddings are a melding of two families and this one was no exception. Jason’s mother, Lupe, is from Spain and many relative

       The 1950 census was released to the public on April 1st and genealogists, both professionals and amateurs alike, were chomping at the bit to analyze the millions of records that are now available. I was no exception. The mechanics of searching for records from 1950 is a little different than simply typing in a name, a place, and a date. The records have not yet been indexed by the major genealogy sites like Family Search and Ancestry. They did not get an early viewing but they have beefed up their staff and have called for volunteers to help enter the names, dates, places, occupations and other pertinent data associated with each person counted.        I started my search in my home city of Erie, Pennsylvania. I was born in 1952 so I will not be in the census but my older sister, Marian just made the cut. She was born in December of ‘49 and nobody born after April 1st of 1950 would be included. I met somebody who works for the census and she informed me that the state of