Earnings reported to Social Security

The Itemized Statement of Earnings for my grandmother, Jeannette ODonnell (1920-1993), arrived from the Social Security Administration. This information was requested in June of 2023 for a fee of $100. Proof of death and direct descent was required. (Form SSA-7050-F4.)

The point of requesting this information was to see when and where she worked and possibly ascertain when important life events happened.

The Social Security Act of 1935 created federal old age benefits. Not all workers and employers were required to participate.

One of many newspaper articles explaining the new Social Security Act of 1935.

Jeannette was born in Bayonne, Hudson County, New Jersey in 1920. She applied for a Social Security Number on December 2, 1941. 

Form SS-5 "Application for Social Security Account Number"
completed December 2, 1941.
The year of birth and name differ, but that's another story.
To locate a deceased individual's Social Security Number, search in the Social Security Death Index.
Then fill out form SSA-711 and submit $30.

Jeannette probably worked before December of 1941. The wages were not reported to Social Security.

Her first reported employer was W T Grant. She earned $39.55 in the last quarter of 1941 and $26.75 in the first quarter of 1942.

W T Grant was a bargain store that sold household items. In 1975, the national chain declared bankruptcy, hence the attorney name of Joseph Pardo and the address in New York City. Jeannette probably worked for the store located at 493 Broadway in Bayonne.

Advertisement of sale for W T Grant Co Store in Bayonne.

Help Wanted ad for W T Grant Co Store.
Maybe Jeannette saw this in her local paper.

In 1942 Jeannette began working at the telephone company. This was a national chain, so the current names and addresses do not reflect their names and addresses when Jeannette worked for them. Her last reported earnings from a telephone company were in 1957. Some quarters were little or no earnings. This is probably when she needed time off to have babies.

Jeannette's yearly earnings from what is now called AT&T and Verizon.

Jeannette is seated and third from the left, wearing the dark suit.
Supposedly the other people are her coworkers at the phone company.

Help wanted ad for New Jersey Bell Telephone Company, 1944.
"The telephone company needs more girls to handle war calls."

Jeannette needed a paycheck for personal reasons. The country was at war and women were called upon to work outside the home. This could have made Jeannette's jobs seem natural for the time period without indicating problems in her personal life.

Wages for operators and service assistants at Bell Telephone.
This was published in 1950 to address concerns over rate hikes.
We do not know Jeannette's hours, so we do not know her hourly rate.

After twenty years of no reported wages, Jeannette returned to work in 1978 at Freedman's Bakery in Belford, Monmouth County, New Jersey. She worked there until 1981. This was another national chain, so the current address of the employer is not where Jeannette physically worked.

Jeannette's earnings at Freedman's Bakery 1978-1981

Jeannette behind the counter at Freedman's Bakery

Ad for Freedman's Bakery, Monmouth County locations

The printout of earnings by quarter provides leads as to Jeannette's whereabouts and activities during her younger years. This was worth the fee and effort to obtain.

Personnel File for the Works Progress Administration

Certification of Eligibility
Works Progress Administration file of Clifford Lutter

From the National Archives and Records Administration ("NARA"), I received nineteen pages of the personnel file of my paternal grandfather, Clifford Lutter (1915-1980), for his work with the Works Progress Administration ("WPA"). I knew he worked for the WPA because he wrote them as his employer when he applied for a Social Security number in 1936. (You can request a copy of this application for a deceased person, no relation necessary.)

Form SS-5 "Application for account number"
Clifford Charles Lutter, dated December 1, 1936.

The information was originally requested on October 14, 2023 via postal mail using NARA's form 14137 (found here on their website).

On January 9, 2024 NARA sent an email indicating that the file was located and the fee for copying was $70. I remitted payment the same day.

Email from NARA
"Please allow time for the scanning and uploading process to be completed. Our staff is minimal and all requested records need to be digitized and redacted prior to delivery, so we care currently looking at a much longer turnaround than is typical."

On January 11, 2024 the file was received via an email link.

Email from NARA
"We apologize for the quality of the documents. Our WPA records were microfilmed and the originals destroyed several decades ago. The images we provide are the best possible quality that we can produce."

The Works Progress Administration, later renamed the Work Projects Administration, was created in 1935 to ease the high unemployment rate in the United States during the Great Depression.

Clifford Lutter entered his adulthood during the Great Depression. He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1915 to Howard Lutter (1889-1959) and Ethel Laurel "Laura" Winterton (1891-1962). They lived in Newark, New Jersey, but Howard was performing as a musician in Philadelphia, hence the out-of-state birth. His sister, Beryl, was born in 1918. His parents divorced in 1927. His father remarried in 1928. Clifford resided with his father's newly created blended family.

1930 federal census: 171 Ampere Parkway, Bloomfield, Essex County, New Jersey

Howard Lutter, head; owns a home worth $8,000; owns a radio; age 41; first married at age 23; born in New Jersey.

Fiorita Lutter, wife; age 40; first married at age 21; born in Germany.

Rita Lutter, daughter; age 16; born in New Jersey.

Clifford Lutter, son, age 15; born in Pennsylvania.

Beryl Lutter, daughter; age 12; born in New Jersey.

*Rita was Fiorita's daughter from her first marriage.*

The Great Depression was in full swing as Clifford finished high school and sought employment as a young man.

In 1935, he sought relief from his unemployment through the WPA. He resided in Newark, New Jersey at 8 Gouverneur Avenue with his mother. He began work in December of 1935 as a laborer in Newark at a rate of $55 per month.

Clifford Lutter with his mother, Laura Winterton

Clifford stopped working for the WPA on June 18, 1937 because he became privately employed. He was working as an observer at City Hall Annex in Newark.

A "Reassignment Slip" appears a few times in the file. This informed of a new job title, location, and rate of pay.

Clifford Lutter reassigned to work as a laborer at Port Newark on April 8, 1936
under the WPA.

On September 4, 1936, Clifford was laid-off from his position as a junior statistical field clerk.

At the end of September of 1936, Clifford was reinstated as a junior clerk on the Radio Survey project at the firehouse on Congress and Lafayette Streets in Newark. His salary was 55 cents per hour and 130 hours were allotted. This is the first time that a new home address was used- 55 Chester Avenue.

On November 2, 1936 Clifford signed a Review of Workers Status. He was unemployed for one and a half years. His household grew from two people to three with the addition of his maternal grandmother, Kate Winterton, age 72.

Clifford Lutter's grandmother and mother-
left: Catherine Butterfoss Dunn, wife of William Winterton, (1865-1944)
right: Ethel Laurel "Laura" Winterton, wife of Howard Lutter, (1891-1962)

The most informative page was the Questionnaire filled out on November 10, 1936. Clifford provided information on his background that I did not know. He attended schooling after high school. I cannot make out the name of the school's initials- looks like "N. I. A. (N.Y.C.) 9 months newspaper co." He also attended the American School of Graphology, where he studied handwriting classification for one year. (I'm not sure where this was located.) He worked as a police reporter for the Star Eagle newspaper in Newark for two years before leaving in 1934. His rate was $22 per week. His other occupation was hand writing expert.

In the 1940 census, Clifford was still living at 55 Chester Avenue in Newark with his grandmother and mother. I think that his employment line was misattributed to this mother. He was working as a photographer for the N.Y.A. Project and earned $360 for working 26 weeks in the previous year. This would average out around $13.85 per week, far less than the $22 per week he reported earning when he worked for the newspaper in the early 1930s. N.Y.A. probably stood for National Youth Administration, another program to ease unemployment.

Note: As of this writing, the newspaper Star Eagle is not online. At Newspapers.com is a collection with this title for the years 1907-1916, but is actually the predecessor, The Evening Star.

If your person of interest lived his or her working years in the 1930s in the United States, you may want to inquire of NARA for a WPA personnel file.

Take a ride on a roller coaster

My paternal grandfather, Clifford Lutter (1915-1980), was a photographer, among other careers.  I have many of his photographs and have a separate page for them on this blog.  Some of the aerial shots include what I figured was the Jersey shore.  People offered names for the roller coasters in the pictures.  Most people have named the Jet Star roller coaster of Seaside Heights, which was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

I was recently contacted by someone who with two new names:  Twister for the coaster next to the pool and Jack Rabbit for the coaster at the end of the jetty, formerly located in Keansburg, New Jersey.  I researched these coasters online and to my delight I found a picture of the Jack Rabbit in Images of America:  Keansburg, New Jersey (Arcadia Publishers).  You can view portions of the book at Google Books.

Google Books
Images of America:  Keansburg, New Jersey
page 41

The picture in the book is dated 1940; no photographer is credited.  The picture looks like it would neatly fit into the series of shore pictures taken by Clifford Lutter.  Look at the placement of the cars on the street and the two ships in the Atlantic Ocean.

Picture by Clifford Lutter from the Lutter Family Collection

This helps us date the picture and provides us with some insight into Clifford's life at the time.  In the 1940 census, Clifford is living in Newark with his mother, Laura Winterton, and his mother's mother, Katherine Dunn.

1940 United States Federal Census
Newark, Essex County, New Jersey
Ancestry.com

Clifford's mother's occupation is listed as a photographer for N.Y.A. Project.  I think this is an error and that this was actually Clifford's occupation.  N.Y.A. was the National Youth Administration, a federal program to provide work for unemployed young people under the Works Project Administration.  This tells us that Clifford was a skilled photographer at this point of his life, but had difficulty finding paid private work.  When Clifford applied for a Social Security number in 1936, he listed Works Project Administration as his employer.

This is a wonderful discovery that one of Clifford's pictures was published.  I made this discovery because I posted the pictures here and someone contacted me about the roller coasters in the pictures.  This makes me think that more of his pictures may be found in published books, awaiting discovery.