What the Census Knows, 1900-1940

The information on the census reports for 1900 to 1940 can give you information to better flesh out the lives of your most recent dead. This is a breakdown of each census report, and what the columns tell you, left to right. It’s an interesting read on its own, without ancestral context, simply to see what questions were thought to gather important information as the country developed.

The 1940 Census was released last year. Within months, volunteers had all of the information transcribed onto the internet so that people could search the census files by ancestor name; in the beginning it could only be searched by address. I spent weeks reading every census report for my hometown, looking for the names of my relatives, searching their last known addresses. It was how I discovered that my Great-Grandparents Riddle had left Lockport. Both of their previously known addresses were properties being rented to other families.

When I inquired with my family about where they might have been, I was told that they had owned a general store in Franklinville, NY for a while, while my Poppa commuted back and forth from the Harrison Radiator Factory in Lockport. And that they had a small farm in Somerset, NY just before that. The family story goes that they were having financial difficulties due to a delinquent son (who later went to prison for bank robbery in San Luis Obispo, California), which forced them to move. I found them on their farm in Somerset.

When I discovered their 1940 census from Somerset, I was suddenly reminded of a conversation my Grandpa and I had one night. His job had brought him down to the SUNY school where I attended college and we went out to dinner, which would have been when he lived in Franklinville. I was talking about high school as if he had attended the same one I did in his youth and he told me how he had gone to high school in another town, because they had moved for a while. That evening of conversation came flooding back to me, the snippets of his life he had shared. Knowledge is wonderful, and the census information is amazing; slivers of time like samplings of the past. But the memories that surface in the hunt for the past are the true treasured gifts for the living.

1900:

·         name of street; house number

·         dwelling houses numbered in order of visitation; families numbered in order of visitation

·         name of each person whose place of abode was the family

·         relationship of each person to the head of the family

·         color (white, black, mulatto, Chinese, or Indian)

·         sex

·         date of birth with month and year; age at last birthday

·         whether single, married, widowed or divorced; number of years married

·         number of children born to mother; number of children still living

·         place of birth; place of father’s birth; place of mother’s birth

·         year of immigration to the US; number of years in the US; date of naturalization

·         profession, occupation or trade of each person, male or female over 10 years; number of months person has been unemployed

·         whether attended school within the census year

·         whether can read; whether can write; whether can speak English

·         home owned or rented; whether owned free of mortgage

·         living farm or house; number of farm schedule

1910:

·         name of street; house number

·         dwelling houses numbered in order of visitation; families numbered in order of visitation

·         name of each person whose place of abode was the family

·         relationship of each person to the head of the family

·         sex

·         color or race

·         age at last birthday

·         whether single, married, widowed or divorced; number of years or present marriage

·         number of children born to mother; number of children still living

·         place of birth; place of father’s birth; place of mother’s birth

·         year of immigration to the US; whether naturalized or alien

·         trade or profession of each person; general nature of industry or business; whether an employer, employee, or working on own account; whether worked April 15, 1910; number of weeks unemployed

·         able to read; able to write

·         attended school anytime after September 1909

·         owned or rented home; owned free of mortgage

·         farm or house; number of farm schedule

·         whether a survivor of the union or confederate army or navy

·         whether blind; whether deaf and dumb

1920:

·         name of street; house number

·         dwelling houses numbered in order of visitation; families numbered in order of visitation

·         name of each person whose place of abode was the family

·         relationship of each person to the head of the family

·         owned or rented home; owned free of mortgage

·         sex

·         color or race

·         age at last birthday

·         whether single, married, widowed or divorced

·         year of immigration to the US; whether naturalized or alien; year of naturalization

·         attended school

·         able to read; able to write

·         place of birth; mother tongue; place of father’s birth; father’s mother tongue; place of mother’s birth; mother’s mother tongue

·         whether able to speak English

·         trade or profession of each person; general nature of industry or business; whether an employer, employee, or working on own account

·         number of farm schedule

1930:

·         name of street; house number

·         dwelling houses numbered in order of visitation; families numbered in order of visitation

·         name of each person whose place of abode was the family

·         relationship of each person to the head of the family

·         owned or rented home; value of home owned or cost of monthly rent

·         whether or not the family owned a 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; able to read and write

·         place of birth; place of father’s birth; place of mother’s birth

·         language spoken before coming to the US

·         year of immigration to the US; year of naturalization

·         whether able to speak English

·         trade or profession of each person; general nature of industry or business; class of worker; whether actually at work on regular working days; if not, number of unemployment schedule

·         whether a veteran of US military; what war

·         number of farm schedule

1940:

·         name of street; house number

·         number of household in order of visitation

·         home owned or rented; value of home or monthly rent

·         does this household live on a farm

·         name of each person whose place of abode was the family

·         relationship of each person to the head of the family

·         sex

·         color or race

·         age at last birthday

·         marital condition

·         attended school or college; highest grade of school completed

·         place of birth; citizenship of those foreign born

·         in what place did the person live April 1, 1935

·         whether at work in private or non-emergency government work March 24-30; whether at work or assigned to public emergency work the week of March 24-30; if not, whether they were seeking work; if not, whether they had some other job; number of  hours worked in week of March 24-30; duration of unemployment

·         occupation and trade; industry of employment; class of worker; number of weeks worked in 1939

·         wage and salary income received from the last year; did person receive income from sources other than wages

·         number of farm schedule

The census reports for 1940 were released in 1912 and it will be another 10 years before the 1950 census is released, in 2022. In order to protect the privacy of the people listed, they are only released to the public after 72 years.