Daily AncestorHome owned or rented
Home owned or rented was a 1900 to 1940 census column, marked O for owned or R for rented, on the line for the head of the family.
A home counted as owned if the head, wife or another relative in the house owned it wholly or partly, even if not yet paid off. The next column, from 1900 to 1920, gave F for owned free or M for mortgaged. In 1930 and 1940 the census asked the home's value, or the monthly rent.
In 1890 the same question was answered as hired or owned. An O is a cue to look for a deed or mortgage in the county land records.
As seen in a recordHome tenure columns of the 1900 to 1920 census
Brandt, Gustav | Head | O | M
Sources
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Home owned or rented." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/census-terms/home-owned-or-rented. Last checked 2026-10-03.