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The 1920 census was begun on 1 January 1920. The enumeration was to be completed within thirty days, or two weeks for communities with populations of more than 2,500.
• Name of street, avenue road, etc.
•
House number or farm
•
Number of dwelling in order of visitation
•
Number of family in order of visitation
•
Name of each person whose place of abode was with the family
•
Relationship of person enumerated to the head of the family
•
Whether home owned or rented; if owned, whether free or mortgaged
•
Sex
•
Color or race
•
Age at last birthday
•
Whether single, married, widowed, or divorced
•
Year of immigration to United States
•
Whether naturalized or alien; if naturalized, year of naturalization
•
Whether attended school any time since 1 September 1919
•
Whether able to read; whether able to write
•
Person’s place of birth
•
Mother tongue
•
Father’s place of birth
•
Father’s mother tongue
•
Mother’s place of birth
•
Mother’s mother tongue
•
Whether able to speak English
•
Trade, profession, or particular kind of work done
•
Industry, business, or establishment in which at work
•
Whether employer, salary or wage worker, or working on own account
•
Number of farm schedule
Since nearly everyone has some knowledge or access to knowledge
of family names, relationships and the family’s state of
residence in 1920, most genealogical instructors recommend the
1920 census as the best starting point for research in federal
records. Working from known information about the most recent
generations, an efficient researcher works backwards in time
to discover family relationships and to determine where additional
records may be found.
The 1920 census is a good tool for determining approximate dates
and places to search for marriage records, birth and death records
of children, and the marriages of children not listed. The 1920
census sometimes makes it possible to verify family traditions,
identify unknown family members, and link what is known to other
sources, such as earlier censuses, school attendance rolls, property
holdings, and employment and occupational records. In several
instances, women, rather than men, have been listed as head
of household in
the 1920 Soundex index (figure 5-3); therefore, a search focused
on a male name may be unsuccessful.
The 1920 census asked the foreign-born for the year of their
arrival in the United States, making it easier to pinpoint
the date of
passenger arrival records. It also asked the naturalization
status of every foreign-born person and inquired about the
year of naturalization
for those individuals who had become U.S. citizens, thus facilitating
searches in naturalization records.
Due to the more specific questions asked of immigrants from
Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia, and Turkey regarding their
birthplaces
and those of their parents, many researchers will be able
to discover the exact towns or regions from which their families
emigrated.
The fact that the 1920 census asked for the mother tongue
of
each respondent and that of each parent will further help
to define
the origins of many families.
The date of the enumeration appears on the heading of each
page of the census schedule. All responses were to reflect
the individual’s
status as of 1 January 1920, even if the status had changed between
1 January and the day of enumeration. Children born between 1 January
and the day of enumeration were not to be listed, while individuals
alive on 1 January but deceased when the enumerator arrived were
to be counted.
Unlike the 1910 census, the 1920 census did not have questions
regarding unemployment, Union or Confederate military
service, number of children, or duration of marriage. It did,
however,
include four new question columns: one asked the year
of naturalization and three inquired about mother tongue.
The 1920 census also
asked
the year of arrival and status of every foreign-born
person and inquired about the year of naturalization for those
individuals who had become U.S. citizens. In 1920 the
census
included,
for
the first time, Guam, American Samoa, and the Panama
Canal Zone.
Also unlike the 1910 census, the 1920 census has a microfilmed
index for each state and territory.
Due to boundary modifications in Europe resulting from
World War I, some individuals were uncertain about
how to identify
their
national origin. Enumerators were instructed to spell
out the name of the city, state, province, or region
of respondents
who declared
that they or their parents had been born in Germany,
Austria-Hungary, Russia, or Turkey. Interpretation
of the birthplace varied
from one enumerator to another. Some failed to identify
specific birthplaces
within those named countries, and others provided
an exact birthplace in countries not designated in the
instructions. See Department
of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Fourteenth Census
of
the United States, January 1, 1920: Instructions
to Enumerators (Washington,
D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1919).
There are no separate Indian population schedules
in the 1920 census. Inhabitants of reservations
were enumerated
in the
general population
schedules.
Enumerators were instructed not to report servicemen
in the family enumerations but to treat them
as residents of their
duty posts.
The 1920 census includes schedules and a Soundex
index for overseas military and naval forces.
Soundex cards for institutions are found at the
end of each state’s
Soundex index. It is important to note that
many institutions, even if enumerated at their
street addresses, are found at the
end of the enumeration section.
The original 1920 census schedules were destroyed
by authorization of the Eighty-third Congress,
so it is
not possible to
consult originals when microfilm copies prove
unreadable.
The information above is an excerpt from
The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy,
edited by Loretto
D. Szucs
and Sandra
H. Luebking, Chapter 5, “Research in Census Records,” by
Loretto D. Szucs (page 117).
More 1920 Census Information |
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