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1930 Census Released
A slice of history comes alive in Washington, D.C.
The National Archives had a ribbon-cutting ceremony Monday to release the 1930 census.
Officials released that federal population census for the first time by opening microfilmed copies for research.
Information on individuals and families is restricted by law for 72 years for privacy reasons.
It's an involved process to find which of the 2,667 rolls of microfilm you need, but the hunt can be rewarding.
Lewis Kincannon/Acting Census Director: "Now those records are going to be available to you and to anybody in the country to reconstruct the past and their own personal past in ways that I hope they find fruitful and enjoyable."
Access to the Census
- Ancestry.com
This website offers actual scanned images of the Census to subscribers. Click the link for details.
- 1930census.archives.gov
Allows you to "know exactly which roll(s) of microfilm you need." It is not a family- or individual-name index or a digital version of the original records.
- According to AncestorHunt.Com: "The records will be available for purchase, which means they will be increasingly easier to find in
genealogy libraries, state archives and other genealogy facilities across the United States."
- Microfilm available for viewing at National Archives Building in Washington DC, and at 13 NARA regional facilities.
- The Family History Library of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (35 North West Temple) will make microfilm rolls of the 1930 Census available for viewing as it receives them from the National Archives. All rolls of microfilm should be available by late summer or early fall.
- Rental Information:
National Archives Microfilm Rental Program
P.O. Box 30
Annapolis Junction, Maryland 20701-0030
Phone: 301-604-3699
Have the state, microfilm publication number, and roll number available if you call.
- Purchasing Information: Archives II Customer Services Center at 1-800-234-8861. ($34 in U.S.)
Highlights of 1930 Census
- In 1930, life expectancy in the United States was less than
60 years, compared to 77 now.
- The 1930 census found just 5,165 people residing in a dusty, desert
outpost called Las Vegas, Nev., where the railroad was the principal
industry; and 48,118 in another desert town to the south called Phoenix,
Ariz. Both Western cities today are among the fastest growing in the
nation: Census 2000 tabbed Las Vegas' population at 478,434 and Phoenix at
1,321,045.
- It was the last census that asked U.S. residents if they could read or
write. It also was the last census in which everyone was asked the
same set of questions. In 1940, a scientifically selected sample of
households received a "long form" with a set of questions in addition
to those that were asked of all households.
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In addition to the 1930 Census of Population, enumerators took the
censuses of employment, agriculture, manufactures, mines and quarries
and distribution (wholesale and retail trade).
- Census Day was April 1, 1930, a change from the 1920 date (Jan. 1)
because of weather-related difficulties encountered in data collection.
- Five months after the 1929 stock market crash, California's
population was 5,677,000. Its nation-leading population in 2000 was
33,871,648 nearly six times as many residents.
- According to the 1930 census, 12 million people had access to radios.
A new question, "Does this household have a radio?," was designed to
measure the extent of the nation's leap into new home-appliance
technology.
- In 1930, veterans could indicate service in World War I, the
Spanish-American War, the Civil War, the Philippine Insurrection, the
Boxer Rebellion and the Mexican Expedition.
The original
1930 documents were destroyed long ago, but not before their photographic
images were transferred to rolls of microfilm in 1944 and 1945 and kept in
locked vaults at the National Archives.
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