1930 Census Blog

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The 1930 census was taken on April 1, 1930. The official census population count was 123,202,624.

Questions Asked in the 1930 Census
The 1930 Census form called for: street, avenue, road, house number, number of dwelling house in order of visitation, number of family in order of visitation; name of each person whose place of abode on April 1, 1930, was in this family; relationship of this person to the head of the family; home owned or rented, value of home, if owned, or monthly rental, if rented; radio set; does this family live on a farm? sex; color or race; age at last birthday; marital condition; age at first marriage; attended school or college any time since Sept. 1, 1929; whether able to read or write; place of birth - person, place of birth- father, place of birth- mother; language spoken in home before coming to the United States; year of immigration into the United States; naturalization; whether able to speak English; trade, profession, or particular kind of work done, Industry of business, class of worker; whether actually at work yesterday, If not, line number on unemployment schedule; whether a veterans of U.S. military or naval force-yes or no, what war or expedition; number of farm schedule (Note: The farm schedules have not survived).

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This article will be part of an ongoing series containing techniques for acquiring the census image once an entry and page number has been located in a census index. While the image discussions concentrate on the images at Ancestry.com, users of library microfilm will also find much of the discussion relevant as the census images were created from the microfilm that genealogists have used at libraries for decades.

Most of the 1800 census index references at Ancestry.com are linked directly to an image. Our discussion here is applicable for those situations where the link does not appear to be correct or the user is working from an index printout and not directly from the linked index. As always, it is worth remembering that census pagination (especially in the early years) is far from consistent.

While we will try and “hit” the correct census image or page with as little scrolling as possible, researchers should not focus solely on the one desired entry. Other family members may be lurking on the same or nearby pages. Going a few pages forward and backward, or even viewing the entire township or district, is generally a recommended idea and an excellent way to locate additional family members.

The census entries located in this week’s article are for various men named James Rampley. They are not all the same man. The Maryland individuals are related, but their relationship to the South Carolina entry is not known at this time.

James Rampley, 1800 Maryland Census, Harford County, Page 118
My procedure for locating the image:
I maneuvered my browser to the main page of census images for Harford County, Maryland 1800 from the main Census Images page. The images were organized by district and my index reference only provided a page number, without the district or township. I would have to do a little experimentation.

Based upon scrolling through some images from this census, it appeared that each image represented one “page” in the census, but it looked like generally one “page” in the census was actually two sheets of paper (the left and right hand side). The page numbers were on the bottom left corner of the image.

I viewed the districts one at a time, starting at the first image within each district. The fourth district started on page number 113 and contained 16 images. James was on page 118. Fortunately each image contained only one census page. Census page 118 was five more pages than the page I was on (113). Page 113 was image No.1. Since each image was one census “page,” I simply added five to the image number and went to image No.6 from this set. There, at the very bottom was the desired entry for James Rampley.

James Rampley, 1810 Maryland Census, Harford County, Page 155
My procedure for locating the image:
I had the same problem that I had in 1800. The index did not provide the “township” and the images were broken up using various villages within the county and a set of pages for “other townships.” I was not certain of where James lived within the county, but I decided to start with the “other townships.”

Again, based upon the first image, it appeared the book had been laid open and two facing sheets had been filmed and included on one image. The problem was the “top” (actually left hand) page had three page numbers on it. 102, 722, and 694 (crossed out) were listed. 102 was a stamped page number and the others were handwritten. Based upon experience, I decided to start with the stamped page numbers.

Then, I had to think.

Using the stamped page numbers, there are two census pages on each image. I began on pages 108 and 109. I needed to be on page 155. This means I have forty-six (155-109) census pages to go. But there are two census pages on each image. This means I have twenty-three (forty-six divided by two) images to go. I am on image No.1. This means I need to try image No.24 and hope that I am close to page 155, the desired page.

Image No.24 is census page 155. And there is the entry for James Rampley. Whew.

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The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration released the 1930 U.S. Federal Population Census Records on 1 April 2002. You can view those records right now by visiting the National Archives in Washington, D.C. or at one of the thirteen National Archives Regional Libraries in Boston, Springfield (Massachusetts), New York City, Kansas City, Philadelphia, Fort Worth, Seattle, Chicago, Atlanta, Denver, San Francisco, Laguna Niguel (California), or Anchorage.

However, even with a total of fourteen locations, millions of Americans still cannot easily travel to those locations. Luckily, there is an answer: view the census records on your own computer from the comfort of your home. For the first time ever in U.S. history, images of the census are being released simultaneously on microfilm and online.

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I haven’t yet seen an official announcement, but an employee of Heritage Quest has told me that the company plans to release the 1930 U.S. Federal Census records in the same manner as they have for the previous U.S. Federal Censuses. It will be available both for rental and for purchase on a roll-by-roll basis - and, at the normal prices.

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The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration will release the 1930 Federal population census for the first time in just a few days. On 1 April 2002, microfilmed copies of the original, hand-written census records will become available for research at the National Archives Building in Washington, DC, at thirteen of the National Archives regional facilities across the nation, and through the National Archives rental program. Private companies also will be releasing copies of the same census records on that date.

Federal laws restrict access to private information about individuals that has been collected by the Federal Government. A previous Archivist of the United States interpreted the laws to mean that all census records must be kept private for seventy-two years. The 1930 census has always had restricted access but will now be opened to the public on the 72nd anniversary of the date the information was recorded: April 1.

The 1930 census records can be valuable to many people researching twentieth-century ancestors. As in earlier census efforts, the 1930 enumerators (census takers) asked for the name and age of each resident of every household. They also asked for place of birth, place of father’s birth, place of mother’s birth, citizenship, year of immigration to the United States, sex, color or race, marital status, relationship to the head of household, and more.

The 1930 census was the first unemployment census. Enumerators collected a separate set of data for those reported to have a gainful occupation but were out of work prior to the day of visit. This trial method, carried out by the Civil Works Administration, was accompanied by other experimental techniques, such as crop sampling and surveys of retail stores.

The 1930 Census also broadened its scope of race and ethnicity by adding several groups to the list, including Mexican, Filipino, Hindu, and Korean. Black was referred to as Negro, and Hindu, actually a religious group, served as an ethnicity. Also, for the first time, each family was asked if they owned a radio.

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Recently I visited NARA (Chicago) to continue my research. I noticed some new filing cabinets and walked over to check on them. What I found was drawers and drawers of new microfilms of U.S. city directories from around 1928, 1930, 1931, or 1932. On top of the cabinet was a 53-page index of all the films available from numerous cities around the country. Apparently, the files contain over 850 rolls of film. It looks like NARA is preparing for the release of the 1930 U.S. Census next year. In the meantime, researchers can already check for addresses of their families using these new films of city directories. I did.

An interesting article by Chad R. Milliner

Making the 1930 Census Count

Excerpt:
When the enumeration of the Fifteenth Decennial Census of the United States occurred in 1930, the 87,756 enumerators (at a cost of $40 million) wrote the names and statistics of over 137 million individuals. Federal law kept these names confidential for seventy-two years, but the wait is now over. On 1 April 2002, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) will release on microfilm all 137,008,435 names. But we really don’t want to look at all of these names, just the ones that identify our ancestors and relatives. How do we sort through this abundance of riches and find just those names that are of interest to us?

Among the names my wife wants to find is that of Jeani Marie Emoire. According to family legend, Jeani was born in France in 1862, and came to the United States as a French maid. (And, yes, there are legends of an affair with her employer.) Eventually, Jeani married a labor union organizer, and they moved from mine to mine around the West. Legend has it that in 1911, in Arizona, a union foe fed Jeani’s husband some poisonous mushrooms, that killed him. Nine years later, the 1920 federal census reveals that Jeani was then living in the household of one of her children in South Dakota. However, according to tradition, Jeani died in Nevada, but no one in the family can remember precisely when or where Jeani died. My wife wants to learn whether Jeani was enumerated in Nevada in 1930. If she can find Jeani, then she will have a place in Nevada in which to search for records associated with Jeani’s death–records that could reveal the names of Jeani’s parents and where in France she was born.
The 1930 Soundex
If Jeani had resided in Nevada when the 1920 federal census was enumerated, this search would have been relatively easy. All of the 1920 population schedules are indexed on cards by the name of the head of household. These cards are arranged by a coding system known as the soundex, which attempts to group surnames of similar pronunciation together.

Unfortunately, while all states have 1920 census soundexes, only a few states have soundexes for the 1930 census, all of which are in the South. The government created most of its census indexes during the 1930s so people who did not have a birth certificate could prove their age to Social Security officials from census data. While it is unknown why only the Southern states were soundexed in 1930, the fact that two states have incomplete soundexes indicates that the project to index the 1930 census was prematurely terminated, possibly by the advent of World War II. Along with the 1930 population schedules, NARA is releasing the 1930 soundex microfilms on 1 April 2002.

Soundexes exist for the states of:
• Alabama
• Arkansas
• Florida
• Georgia
• Louisiana
• Mississippi
• North Carolina
• South Carolina
• Tennessee
• Virginia
• Kentucky (counties of Bell, Floyd, Harlan, Kenton, Muhlenberg, Perry, and Pike)
• West Virginia (counties of Fayette, Harrison, Kanawha, Logan, McDowell, Mercer, and Raleigh)
An Alternative to Searching the Soundex
Since many of us are not fortunate enough to have Southern ancestors, our search for our ancestors’ names will be more difficult, but, nonetheless, possible. For instance, if family members could remember more precisely where in Nevada Jeani had lived, my wife could examine the census microfilm frame by frame, since in 1930 Nevada had no large cities. The largest incorporated place was Reno, with 18,529 residents. Las Vegas had only 5,165 inhabitants; but the entire state had 91,058 citizens–too many to make a page-by-page search of the entire state advisable.

Jeani and her husband had at least four children, but my wife has spoken only with descendants of the child through whom she descends. She plans to identify living descendants of the other three children and then talk with them, in the hope that one of them will have information about Jeani that my wife’s more closely related family members do not.

Suppose my wife learns that Jeani resided in a small mining town called Beatty, which is in Nye County, Nevada. The 87,756 enumerators who compiled the 1930 census had defined geographic areas in which they worked. These areas are known as enumeration districts. Each enumeration district was assigned an identification number. During World War II, when the 1930 census schedules were microfilmed, microfilming was done in order by these enumeration district numbers. The original schedules were then destroyed to make storage space available for World War II records.

It would be easy for my wife to locate the 1930 census schedules of Beatty if she knew the enumeration district number assigned to Beatty. There is an easy way to identify enumeration district numbers. NARA has microfilmed, in full color, thousands of maps that show the boundaries of the enumeration districts. In 1930, the Census Bureau bought large maps of each county in the United States. Census Bureau officials then marked with orange lines the boundaries of each district and wrote the numbers of these districts in orange. Hence, my wife simply needs to examine the map of Nye County, Nevada, to learn the enumeration district number assigned to Beatty.

Unlike the enumeration district numbers used in previous censuses, these numbers have two parts separated by a hyphen. The number before the hyphen is the number of the county, while the number following the hyphen is the enumeration district number proper.

The Census Bureau’s county maps did not provide enough detail to clearly show the enumeration district boundaries for cities and large towns. Therefore, the Census Bureau obtained maps of these cities and towns and marked on them in orange the enumeration district boundaries. On the NARA microfilm, these town and city maps are filmed immediately after the map of the county of which they were a part.

In case a map was not filmed well enough to clearly show the enumeration district boundaries, or if a household is believed to have been close to one of the orange lines, written descriptions of the enumeration district boundaries can be consulted to clarify the boundaries. These descriptions were created in 1930 by the Census Bureau, and have been microfilmed by NARA. NARA has placed additional details about these census maps and enumeration district descriptions on its website at www.nara.gov.

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I came across this great article on Ancestry.com by Michael John Neill:

1930 Census Project for Kids

My daughter had to do a family tree display for her 4-H project. Tired of run of the mill family trees and pedigree charts, we decided not to create a display of the names of 4,000 relatives. We chose to concentrate on eight ancestors instead of 1,024. Her project (or was it mine?) would focus on locating her eight great-grandparents in the 1930 census. The specific nature of our project would allow us to dig a little deeper and include information other than just names and dates in our project.

We could do more than simply list each great-grandparent’s age. After all, the 1930 census provides significantly more insight into a family’s life than the mere age of each household member. The desired individuals had already been located in the 1930 census, so her actual searching would not be too difficult.

Let the Child Search

Allowing the child to make the finds themselves is part of the work and part of the fun. It also gives the child some confidence in the process. My daughter was going to perform the searches herself and print out the located census entry for each relative.

However, her tolerance for difficult-to-locate ancestors would be short, so I gave her some guidance when conducting her searches. Before my daughter searched the census, I searched for each entry and made notes as to what search strategy was most effective for each ancestor. This way my daughter’s searching would not take an inordinate amount of time and neither of us would run out of patience before the project had even begun. Age-appropriate comments about handwriting and spelling errors were made when necessary and when applicable to the search at hand.

Kids Need Organization Too

I created a sheet for each ancestor, so my daughter could abstract specific census information as each entry was located. The form asked a few simple questions that served several purposes.

Some questions revolved around the location of the census entry, state, county, town (or township), address (if given), district, and page number. These questions served two purposes: One was to assist us later in the geographic aspect of our project. The other was to make a point about keeping track of where we find things.

Our discussion about documentation and citation was not lengthy, but specific and to the point. For our purposes, it was sufficient to say that the census was taken in books based on where people lived. If we kept track of where the entry was located we could easily find it again without having to search all over again.

The remaining questions revolved around the census entry itself and included the name, age, place of birth, and occupation (if applicable) of the located individual. We also noted whether the family had a radio. (Note: The form we used can be downloaded here: www.rootdig.com/1930kids/)

Picture the Location

Maps were an integral part of our project. Visualizing where family members lived is an important analytical tool for genealogists, regardless of age. Our eight relatives were spread out over the northern half of Illinois and were living in the following locations:

- Bear Creek, Prairie, and St. Albans Townships in Hancock County, Illinois

- Keene Township in Adams County, Illinois.

- 1528 4th Ave., Rock Island, Illinois

- 1207 19th St., Rock Island, Illinois

- 542 Forest Ave., Glen Ellyn, Illinois

- 221 E 115th St., Chicago, Illinois

We started with a map of the state of Illinois. Our families have not moved too much in the last seventy-five years. Others may need to start with a map of the United States or of the entire world.

While the state map provided a nice overview of our locations, we realized that it did not show adequate detail and decided to also include maps more narrow in scope so that the precise locations could be shown.

For the rural ancestors, we printed out township maps of the counties involved and indicated on those maps who was living in what township. We were fortunate that the county USGenWeb site (www.usgenweb.org) and searches on Google (www.google.com) easily located township maps for the counties involved.

For those urban dwellers, we used Mapquest (www.mapquest.com) to print out street maps showing the location of each address. Before this was done, I made certain that there had been no street renamings or house renumberings since 1930 (these determinations can be made by visiting the appropriate county or city USGenWeb page or posting the question to the county or city mailing list via lists.rootsweb.com).

Can We Have More Detail for Those Rural People?

After mapping out the specific urban addresses, my daughter wondered why we were not as precise with the other four ancestors (the ones living on farms whose residences are only given down to the township level). I told her that in the 1930 census, street addresses were not usually given for rural dwellers as knowing their precise residence would require additional work. We would have to use other records besides the census (such as plat maps, deeds, and other records). In our case, I knew where the four rural ancestors lived, so we could mark the locations more precisely. (Note: Those whose ancestors were renters or tenant farmers will have more difficulty pinpointing the location if is not known what farm or house the family rented.)

What About Other Migrations?

An additional project might have been to map out the family’s migration from 1930 until the present. My own families all ended up in central Hancock County, Illinois, where I was born. My wife’s families ended up in Rock Island County, Illinois, where she was born. A map showing as many moves as possible would have been a nice visual addition to this project or even a separate project in and of itself.

What Were They Doing in 1930?

Three of our people were too young to have a job in 1930. For those that were employed, we listed their employment:

- Farm laborer on a farm, working for father

- Servant on a farm, working for a neighbor

- Pinsetter in a bowling alley

- Worker for sewer department

- Clerk in a drugstore

While in our report we simply listed the occupation, we could have learned more about these jobs and written brief descriptions (or even included clip art depicting the work if possible). Some jobs are fairly self-explanatory. Some are not. We had a difficult time reading the “pinsetter” occupation on the actual census, and it was difficult for one of us to imagine a time when people, instead of machines, actually set the pins back up!

Did They Have a Radio?

Half of our families had radios and half did not. From eight families it is hard to extract any general tendencies, although for my side of the project (the rural side) the only family with a radio was one that was ‚Äúbetter set‚Äù than the other three. On my wife’s side (the city side) the only family without a radio was the one that most likely had the greatest difficulty making ends meet (not that any of them were well-heeled). We concluded that in our families it appeared that rural families were less likely to have radios. However, we made the point that eight households out of millions is NOT a representative sample. (We even snuck in a few statistics, too!)

There were several things we did as a part of this project:

- Performed searches, providing us with time to discuss spelling (and sounds) and handwriting (especially sloppy handwriting).

- Cited our sources, discussing the importance of knowing where we obtained information and why sometimes we need to be able to go back to it again.

- Used maps to visualize where people lived and determine their relative proximity to each other.

- Discussed the differences in occupations between our rural and city dwellers.

We (rather, I) tried to avoid making this a project of the parent. It was necessary for the author to remember that this presentation was not for a speech at a genealogy conference. However, all the discussion and preparation caused me to think of some things I had not noticed when locating these entries a few years ago. If there’s a school activity or assignment where this type of project might be appropriate, consider doing it with your child, grandchild, niece, or nephew. You might learn just as much as they do during the process.

Additional References

Here are a few related articles from “Beyond the Index:”

“My 1930 Census Experiences"

“1930 Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous”

(Contains search suggestions for the 1930 census)

While the following two are about the 1920 census in particular, the search methods are similar for 1930, except that the 1930 census index at Ancestry.com is an every-name index and the 1920 census index is not.

“Finding My 1920 People-Part I”

“1920 Census, Part II: Michael Locates His People”

Michael John Neill is the Course I Coordinator at the Genealogical Institute of Mid America (GIMA) held annually in Springfield, Illinois, and is also on the faculty of Carl Sandburg College in Galesburg, Illinois. Michael is the Web columnist for the FGS FORUM and is on the editorial board of the Illinois State Genealogical Society Quarterly. He conducts seminars and lectures on a wide variety of genealogical and computer topics and contributes to several genealogical publications, including Ancestry Magazine and Genealogical Computing. You can e-mail him at mjnrootdig@myfamily.com or visit his website at www.rootdig.com/, but he regrets that he is unable to assist with personal research.

Radio Ownership in the 1930 Census

By Susan C. Hopkins

It has intrigued me why the ownership of a radio is one of the questions asked in the 1930 census. I don’t have the definitive answer, but I bumped into background information in a paragraph in Seabiscuit, by Laura Hillenbrand (page 128 in the paperback edition). She starts out by talking about how technological innovations in photography, cinematography, and wire services offered the public "unprecedented access to its heroes."

"But it was radio that had the greatest impact. In the 1920s the cost of a radio had been prohibitive–$120 or more–and all that bought was a box of unassembled parts. In ‚Äúun-electrified‚Äù rural areas, radios ran on pricey, short-lived batteries. But with the 1930s came the advent of factory-built console, tabletop, and automobile radio sets, available for as little as $5. Thanks to President Roosevelt’s Rural Electrification Administration, begun in 1936, electricity came to the quarter of the population that lived on farmlands. Rural families typically made the radio their second electric purchase, after the clothes iron. By 1935, when Seabiscuit began racing, two thirds of the nation’s homes had radio. At the pinnacle of his career, that figure had jumped to 90 percent, plus eight million sets in cars. Enabling virtually all citizens to experience noteworthy events simultaneously and in entertaining form, radio created a vast common culture in America, arguably the first true mass culture the world had ever seen. Racing, a sport whose sustained dramatic action was ideally suited to narration, became a staple of the airwave…."

So, if your ancestors are in the 1930 census, you can find out whether they were "first on the block" or what is currently called "early adopters" of a new technology.