Vancouver / Names / R / Ranta

A family name in Vancouver's city directories

The Rantas

In the city directories 1940 · three people at three addresses

The directories print three people named Ranta at three addresses in 1940, all on Main Street. No first name or initials tie one address to another: we can't tell if they're one family.

Reserve this family's book, freeThe name in every directory we hold from 1901 to 1945, at every address, each line with its page, to read here or save as a PDF. About $29 when orders open.

Where the Rantas lived

Each pin is on its own block, numbered as the households below. Today's land, parks, main roads and local areas: City of Vancouver Open Data (Open Government Licence – Vancouver).
  1. 1

    318 Main Street

    Strathcona, 1940

    • Oliver Ranta 1940

    Next door in 1940: Lanning Pool Hall at 314 and N Aihoshi at 320. The block, door by door

  2. 2

    917 Main Street

    Strathcona, 1940

    • Mrs Marie Ranta 1940

    Next door in 1940: Better 'Ole (The) at 915 and Machinery Jobbing & Junk Co at 925. The block, door by door

  3. 3

    4123 Main Street

    Riley Park, 1940

    • R Ranta, a waiter at the Union Steamship Company 1940

    Next door in 1940: Irenes Drsmkg Studio at 4121 and Miss K E Barritt at 4127. The block, door by door

What they did

The name section prints a trade for one of the three: a waiter.

Their neighbourhoods

The addresses are in Strathcona (2) and Riley Park. Each neighbourhood's page shows its trades, its people and every street in it, the way the directory printed them.

The story, address by address

The 1940 name section, where each person's work is printed, lists Oliver Ranta at 318 Main Street. The 1940 name section lists Mrs Marie Ranta at 917 Main Street. In 1940 the directory lists R Ranta at 4123 Main Street. The 1940 name section lists Rex Ranta there as the householder, a waiter at the Union Steamship Company.

Today

917 Main and 4123 Main still have their buildings from before 1946; the City no longer lists 318 Main, so that building is probably gone (inferred).

Streetcars on Main Street, past a row of billboards
March 1940 Streetcars on Main Street, past a row of billboards. Not at the house at 4123 Main: no archive photo of the 4100 block is known that we can show. City of Vancouver Archives, CVA 136-513. Public domain.

Every line as printed

All 4 lines printed under the name through 1945, each with its page at the Vancouver Public Library.
1940

British Columbia and Yukon Directory, name section, where each person's work is printed

The book of the Rantas

Every directory, as one book

The family book reads the Ranta name in each Vancouver directory we hold from 1901 to 1945: everyone printed under it at every address, their work from the name sections, who lived next door, and the page behind every line, to read here or save as a PDF to print or give.

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Another name, or a house

Sources

Henderson's and successor city directories for Vancouver, read by us line by line: the street sections for 1905, 1915, 1925, 1935, 1940 and 1945, and the name section for 1930 and 1940 where we've read it (Vancouver Public Library, BC City Directories). Names are shown through 1945, as printed. Close spellings are grouped, as on the house pages, since a family's name was often spelled differently from one year to the next; one name can still be several families, and we join lines only where the first names or initials agree. Many Chinese, Japanese and other residents weren't named by the canvassers, so they can't be listed by name: their houses' pages say where. More family names under R. Want a name removed? Tell us.