Hanson Genealogy Research Info

This genealogy research was done for Richard by Staci Lindsay, one of Nathalie's grand daughters. We are very grateful that she took the time to do this! It's amazing to see the information that Staci was able to find.

What is significant about this history is that we have never known much information regarding Richard's father, Carl. He left the family in approximately 1933 to seek better fortunes in California, due to the hard times of the Great Depression. Richard's mother, Signe, was advised not to join him there when he was ready for her and the kids to join him. No one heard of Carl after that time until Richard tracked him down in 1939 near Sacramento, California.

Around 1934, Signe had received a letter from Carl stating that he had a job at a parking lot in Sacramento and that he had invented a signal that would let him know a car entered the parking lot. In 1939, Richard, then 23 years old, decided to take a week off from work to attend the 1939 San Francisco World's Fair and to track down his father, armed only with the information from the 1934 letter. Richard rode the trains, hobo-style, from Tacoma to Sacramento. Sacramento was a much smaller city back then so Richard walked around until he found a parking lot that had a 2"x12" wooden plank for the cars to drive over as they entered the lot. The wooden plank was rigged to ring a bell signaling the attendant that a car had entered. Richard quizzed the attendant on the whereabouts of Carl Hanson. Unwilling to share any information at first, the attendant finally told him that the last he heard Carl was living in a small cabin court in Broderick (now West Sacramento). Richard walked across the Sacramento River into Broderick and as luck would have it, saw his father sitting in a chair on the porch of his cabin. He walked up to Carl and asked if he remembered him, which he did not. He spent the night with Carl and then made his way to the World's Fair.

The following links are PDF files that were created from the scans of the hardcopy print outs Staci provided. They include family trees, individual information, and period documents relating to Richard's father, Carl.

Pages 1 - 5 (9.8 MB)

Pages 6 - 10 (9.8 MB)

Pages 11 - 15 (9.6 MB)

Pages 16 - 20 (9.9 MB)

Pages 21 - 25 (12.5 MB)

Pages 25 - 29 (11.1 MB)

Census 1900 - Hardin County, Ohio

Census 1910 - Crawford County, Illinois

Census 1920 - Pierce County. Washington

Census 1930 - Pierce County, Washington

Census 1940 - Yolo County, California

Army Enlistments 1906



Selfie of Richard "Hobo" Hanson riding on top of a train on his way to Sacramento in 1939 to search for his father


Signe Hanson and her children (April 5, 1942)
Left to right: Ellen, Richard, Signe, Dave, Ruth, Ingwer, Lois

Carl & Josie Hanson
Picture taken by Carl's granddaughter, Vikki Renneckar, in April 1969