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For Mother's Day this year,
the kids and I got Melanie a
23andMe DNA testing kit. She has spent a fair amount of time over
the years researching the family lineage which, in case you care, traces back primarily
to Germany and Switzerland. Along with some of the online ancestry websites, she
searched the U.S. Census database for immigration and early American household information
(number of people, ages, names, occupations, etc.) The entire 1930 Census form consisted
of a single page seeking basic information on whether you own or rent, value of
the home, live on a farm or not, color or race, place of birth, veteran or not,
etc. Interestingly, the 1930 census also had a question asking whether there was
a radio set in the house. Station
KDKA, in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, made the first commercial radio broadcast in November of 1920 (reporting
the Harding-Cox presidential election results), so having a radio in the household
was a relatively new phenomenon.
 If you look on the
U.S. Census website's
page listing the questions included on the
1930 Census form, the radio question is not there! The
1930 Census Form 15-4a for which an image is provided indeed
does not include the radio question or any space for household data. 1930 Census
Form 15-6 (image above), which Melanie found, contains the radio question.
 Evidently there were multiple versions of
the form, so that raises the question of how accurate the summarized data was. This
is why whenever possible, I look for original documents when researching historical
data rather than relying on somebody else's research. A combination of ignorance,
stupidity, laziness, and personal prejudice often results in incomplete and/or incorrect
data being presented by 'authorities,' which is then cited as gospel by successive
authors.
Beginning with the
1940 Census, separate questionnaires were used for personal data
and household data. The
1940 Household Census form asked about the presence of a radio,
and the
1950 Household form asked about both radio and television. The
1960 Housing Census was the first to ask about air conditioning
and telephone. The
1970 Household Census asked specifically whether there was a battery-powered
radio in the household. None yet have asked about computers or the Internet. This
information assumes the page author actually got it right.
Images of U.S. Census forms:
2010 |
2000 |
1990 |
1980 |
1970 |
1960 |
1950 |
1940 |
1930 |
1920 |1910 |
1900
Posted June 9, 2017
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