Ancestry Magazine

The much-anticipated release of the 1930 U.S. Federal Census is giving every family historian a boost up in his or her research goals.

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 Ar chives 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 Coun ty, 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 enu meration 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.

Census Availability
Most libraries with large genealogical collections have ordered copies of the soundex, map, and enumeration district description finding aids, along with copies of the microfilm of the original census schedules. Before traveling to one of these libraries, however, call ahead to make sure the library has received its order. Libraries will not begin receiving films until after 1 April 2002. The only places in which you can view the census films on 1 April 2002 will be at the National Archives building in Washington, or at one of NARA’s regional archives. For a listing of the addresses of these regional archives, go to www.nara.gov.

If there is no genealogical library close to you, you can have copies of census microfilm sent for a small fee to your nearest Family History Center, where you can view the films. To locate the center nearest you, go to FamilySearch.org. Census microfilm rental programs are also offered by several other organizations, including NARA.

For small towns like Beatty, it is easy to locate a household by reading every census schedule until the schedule containing the household is located. But for cities, this doesn’t work, because cities may have contained dozens of enumeration districts. Suppose that, contrary to family tradition, my wife learns that Jeani was in San Francisco, California, in 1930. Before my wife could use the enumeration district map of San Francisco effectively, she would first have to learn where in San Francisco J eani resided. Eventually, commercial genealogical firms are expected to place every-name indexes to the 1930 census schedules on their Web sites, along with scanned copies of the microfilm images. Hence, my wife should eventually be able to locate Jeani in San Francisco merely by typing on her keyboard.

But my wife doesn’t like to wait for the indexes to appear online. So if she found that one of her ancestors resided in a city in 1930, she would examine residential directories of that city that were published during the late-1920s and early-1930s in order to determine the street address of her ancestor. NARA has purchased copies of city directories from commercial vendors for this purpose. The complete list of these directories is available on the NARA Web site. These city directory microfilms are also available at NARA’s regional archives, but NARA does not sell or rent these directory microfilms. Fortunately, many large genealogical libraries, including the Family History Library in Salt Lake City have excellent collections of microfilmed city directories from the late-1920s and early-1930s. Also, local libraries and historical societies may have original copies of the city directories for nearby cities.

Once my wife locates a city street address of an ancestor, she can use an online gazetteer such as Mapquest to determine where in the city that street address is located. She would then (assuming that street names or numbering had not changed) be able to locate that address on the map marked by the Census Bureau with the enumeration district boundaries. For approximately fifty of the largest cities, the National Archives has microfilms that list all of the streets in those cities, and the enumeration district numbers assigned to those streets. For the cities for which these street indexes exist, my wife may find these indexes a faster way to locate enumeration district number s.

Information in the Census
Once she locates Jeani, what information will my wife learn from Jeani’s listing? For each household enumerated in 1930, the enumerator first recorded the street address of the dwelling place. The person whom the enumerator interviewed was asked for the name of each household member, based upon the composition of the household as it was on 1 April 1930. The enumerator also asked how each household member was related to the household head. The enumerator then wanted to know whether the dwelling was owned by the household head, or whether it was being rented. The value of the dwelling was listed, along with whether or not the household owned a radio.

The household members were asked to identify their race, age, marital status, and age at the time of their first marriage. The question about age at first marriage is a new question not asked in previous censuses. By knowing from the 1930 census how old a person was then, and also how old that person was when he or she first married, it will be possible to determine the approximate year of the person’s first marriage, which can be helpful in locating the original marriage record. However, enumerators asked this question only of those individuals who were currently married in 1930; the question was not asked of people who were then widowed or divorced.

The enumerators asked for the name of the state or country where each household member was born, and where each household member’s parents were born. For immigrants, the enumerators asked what language was spoken in the home prior to coming to the United States. Each immigrant was asked for their year of immigration, their present naturalization status, and whether they were presently able to speak English.

As in previous censuses, the enumerators asked for information about the occupations of the household members. However, in 1930 the enumerators asked for additional details. The enumerators asked not only for the particular type of work a person performed, but also the type of industry that job was performed in. The census also asked whether each person had been at work at that job on the previous work day. If a person had not been at work the previous work day, then the enumerator completed a special schedule that asked additional questions, such as why the person had not worked on the previous work day, in order to determine whether the person was unemployed. Unfortunately, these special unemployment schedules were not microfilmed when the main schedules were microfilmed in the 1940s, and they were destroyed along with the main schedules.

Instructions to 1930 Census Enumerators
The enumerators were given specific and detailed instructions regarding what to write on the census forms. For example, in the column in which relationship to the household head was written, the enumerators were also told to “indicate which member of the family is the ‘home-maker,’ that is, which one is responsible for the care of the home and the family. After the word ‘wife,’ ‘mother,’ or other term … add the letter ‘H,’ thus: ‘Wife-H.’ Only one person in each family should receive this designation.” Hence, when my wife analyzes Jeani’s census listing, she should also study the enumerators’ instructions, in order to ensure that all information is correctly understood. Deciphering Employment Codes
During the initial processing of the census schedules at the various census offices, officials wrote four-digit codes in the employment area of the census forms. Some census users believe that these codes contain no worthwhile genealogical information. However, this is not the case. These census codes attempted to categorize the information listed on the census form for each person’s occupation and type of industry. In many cases, because of either poor handw riting or poor microfilming, it will be difficult to read what the enumerator wrote, but the four-digit code will be legible. In 1930, the Census Bureau published Classified Index of Occupations, Fifteenth Census of the United States in which these codes are explained. Most libraries with large government document collections should have this work. It explains how the coding scheme worked. The first two digits categorized each person’s specific type of work, while the second two digits categorized the type of industry in which the work was done.

If one of my wife’s ancestors has the code 9994 next to his name, even if all that can be read of the occupation information is the initial letter, a “w,” then my wife would know from the guide that the enumerator likely wrote that this man’s occupation was “waste elimination man”–the term of the day for an efficiency expert. Interestingly, code 9994 was also assigned to genealogists and psychoanalysts. All three occupations, and the others that were assigned code 9994, were classified as miscellaneous professional pursuits.

Accompanying the Classified Index of Occupations was another guide entitled Alphabetical Index of Occupations, Fifteenth Census of the United States. The classified index was arranged numerically by the occupation code, while, as the name suggests, the alphabetical index was arranged in the reverse fashion, by the name of the occupation, which then lists the code assigned to it. In the introduction to the alphabetical index, the Census Bureau warned its staff members to be on the lookout for enumerator errors. For example, “in case a woman is returned [listed] as following an occupation which is very peculiar or unusual for a woman, examine the schedule carefully to determine whether an error was made … it is unusual for a woman to follow any of these occupations … boatman … butcher … conductor … electrician … engineer … foreman … forester … inspector … loom fixer … marshal … plumber … railroad official … sailor … wheelwright.”

The census staff members were especially warned in the alphabetical index to be wary of women listed with the occupation of housekeeper. “In case the wife … or the mother of a large family of minor children, is returned as ‘Housekeeper,’ consider her not gainful, unless there is evidence that she is working out.” In other words, don’t count “mere” housewives as having a “real” job. Part of the fun of genealogical research is in finding out not only details about our ancestors, but also finding out how the biases of the day influenced our ancestors’ lives, as the 1930 census’ occupation instructions demonstrate.

While Jeani is but one of the 137,008,435 names in the 1930 census, my wife will find her. Fortunately, that still leaves 137,008,434 names. Perhaps one of them is your “Jeani.”

Note: Ancestry.com recognizes the amazing resource the 1930 census will be to its subscribers and plans to devote considerable time and resources to quickly making the images available to its subscribers. The 1930 addition to the Census Images Online offerings will include scanned images of all 2,667,000 pages and full-color maps of enumeration districts. Ancestry.com has also planned an aggressive schedule to create and release a census index for its users. Visit Ancestry.com for weekly updates.

Chad R. Milliner, AG, is a professional genealogist specializing in British research. He resides in Salt Lake City, Utah and is a member of the Records Preservation and Access Committee of the National Genealogical Society and the Federation of Genealogical Societies.