Daily AncestorThe 1930 U.S. Census
The 1930 census, dated April 1, 1930, asks the value of each home or the monthly rent, whether the family had a radio, and each person's age at first marriage.
The fifteenth census was taken as of April 1, 1930, the date used again in 1940 and 1950. It came just months into the Great Depression, and a separate census of unemployment was taken alongside it.
Familiar questions return, plus several new ones that add color to a family story: the value of the home or the rent, whether the household had a radio set, age at first marriage, and which war a veteran served in.
The questions, column by column
| Home owned or rented, value or monthly rent, radio set, on a farm | Value or rent hints at the family's means. |
|---|---|
| Name and relationship to the head of the family | As in 1920. |
| Sex, color or race, age, marital status, age at first marriage | Age at first marriage helps date a wedding. |
| Attended school, able to read and write | Marks of Yes or No. |
| Place of birth of the person, father, and mother | For American Indians, these columns give degree of Indian blood and tribe instead of parents' birthplaces. |
| Mother tongue, year of immigration, naturalization, speaks English | Status only; the year of naturalization is not asked. |
| Occupation, industry, class of worker, employment | A No in column 25 sent the enumerator to the separate unemployment schedule. |
| Veteran, and which war or expedition | An abbreviation, such as WW for the World War or Sp for the Spanish-American War. |
New this census
- Value of home or monthly rent.
- Radio set.
- Age at first marriage.
- The specific war a veteran served in.
Watch out for
- Code numbers after some answers were added by Bureau clerks and tell you nothing more about the person.
- Race followed strict Bureau rules. In 1930 only, people born in Mexico or with Mexican parents who were not definitely white, Negro, Indian, Chinese, or Japanese were recorded as Mexican.
- Soundex indexes were made only for some Southern states and a few counties in Kentucky and West Virginia.
Other schedules
- The unemployment, farm, and supplemental Indian schedules were destroyed or have not been found; farm schedules survive only for Alaska, Guam, American Samoa, the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico.
Where to see it
- Microfilm T626 (2,667 rolls), partly in the National Archives Catalog. FamilySearch (free with an account) and Ancestry (free on computers at National Archives facilities) both index it and show the images.