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Anticipation awaits the 1930 Census
Heritage Hunting: Beverly Smith Vorpahl shares some helpful ways, as written by an Ancestry.com writer, on how to get the most from the 1930 census.

Beverly Smith Vorpahl
The Spokesman-Review

Genealogy columnists are burning up online wires discussing the April 1 unveiling of the 1930 U.S. Census, with an air of giddiness in one column and dread in another: utopia and doomsday. Classes have even been conducted on the 1930 Census without the benefit of having the actual census to work with. No one will see it until the April Fool's Day release, which will be exactly 75 years from the date it was taken.

The excitement about the new census is because they're taken only once every 10 years. The worry comes from not having an index to make finding your ancestors an easy project like it is with most censuses. No index and no Soundex except for Southern states.

But here are a few helpful hints to light your microfilm reader right to your people, adapted from Megan Smolenyak's column for Ancestry Daily News, a part of Ancestry.com:

•Determine your ancestor's exact address.

•Don't know the address? Talk to relatives who were either alive in 1930 or know where their parents were living at that time.

•Look through family papers. Maybe you'll find letters or postcards written to your ancestors, complete with their address. Other possibilities include photos with notations on the back (right -- Not!) or official documents like deeds or vital records.

•Note where your family lived in the 1920 census. They might still be there a decade later.

•Search city directories, which could provide an exact address, plus a whole lot more.

•Then determine the enumeration district (ED) where your ancestors lived, which will allow you to search just one neighborhood in Pittsburgh, say, rather than the whole city.

The National Archives and Records Administration has made 8,345 enumeration district maps on 36 microfilm rolls. But not all cities have been identified with EDs, including Spokane. ED maps are available for several of the nation's largest cities at NARA regional branches, which, for us, means a drive to Seattle for the Pacific Alaska Region, which covers Idaho, Oregon and Washington. The address is 6125 Sand Point Way, NE Seattle, WA 98115-7999. Telephone: (209) 526-6501. Website: merrimack.nara.gov/genealogy/1930cen.html. (There's no www in front of this address. It's fun to browse around in that site.)

Another helpful source to learn your EDs is home.pacbell.net/spmorse/census/ (No www, either. Hmmm). This is the site of Stephen Morse, Joel Weintraub and David Kehs, which also has helping aids for Ellis Island research.

Finding our ancestors in the 1930 Census won't be easy, but here's hoping it will be more fun than frustrating.

Tell me about your 1930 Census experience.

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