1930 Census - What is it and interesting fact about it.

I'm going to start this one a little differently.  When you transcribe the census you have to familiarize yourself about the questions/information they are gathering.  Sometimes some of the answers are misleading, you have to read the instructions provided to the enumerators, first. I've already done that part, but you might be interested in what the questions are.  The abbreviations used for some of the answers are located at the bottom of the census.

For example: by just reading the question "Whether at work" the response yes or no can be misleading. If you read "No" for example, it might lead you to believe that they are not actually working at all, when in fact, it's actually aksing if you did or did not work on your last regular working day.

Below is an easy breakdown of the list of questions. So if my transcription is confusing..... Refer to the below list.

The 1930 Census contains records for approximately 123 million Americans.  The census gives us a glimpse into the lives of Americans in 1930, and contains information about a household's family members and occupants including: birthplaces, occupations, immigration, citizenship, and military service.

What questions were on the 1930 Census?

Place of Abode
Street, Avenue, Road, etc.
House number
Number of dwelling house in order of visitation
Number of family in order of visitation

Name
Name of each person whose place of abode on April 1, 1930, was in this family. enter surname first, then the given name, and middle initial, if any.  Include every person living on April 1, 1930. Omit children born since April 1, 1930.

Relation
Relationship of the person to the head of the family

Home Data
Home owned or rented
Value of home, if owned, or monthly rental, if rented
Radio set
Does this family own a farm?

Personal description
Sex
Color or race
Age at last birthday
Marital condition
Age at first marriage

Education
Attended school or college any time since Sept. 1 1929
Whether able to read or write

Place of birth - Place of birth of each person enumerated and of his or her parents.
If born in the United States, give State or Territory.
If of foreign birth, give county in which birthplace is now situated.
Distinguish Canada - French from Canada - English, and Irish Free State from Northern Ireland.
Place of birth - person
Place of birth - father
Place of birth - mother

Mother tongue (or native language) of foreign born
Language spoken in home before coming to the United States

Citizenship, etc
Year of immigration into the United States
Naturalization
Whether able to speak English

Occupation and industry
Trade, profession or particular kind of work done
Industry or business
Class of worker

Employment
Whether actually at work yesterday (or the last regular working day)
Yes or No
If not, line number on the Unemployment schedule (These schedules no longer exist)

Veterans
Whether a veteran of U.S, Military or Naval forces Yes or No
What War of expedition?

Farm schedule
Number of farm schedule (These schedules no longer exist)

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Interesting Facts about the 1930 Census

• This is the last census in which individuals were asked whether they could read or write.
• Unlike previous censuses, this census did not ask individuals for the year of naturalization.
• This is the first census in which individuals were asked: the value of their home, or the amount of rent paid each month; their age at the time of their first marriage; the specific war a man had fought in.
• The 1930 census is the only census to ask whether the occupants of the home owned a radio.
• Based on the census, the average number of people in a household was 4.1.
• In 1930 the average life expectancy for an American was 59.7 years
• The leading country for people of foreign birth was Italy (1.8 million)

John Berech - 1930 Census

Below is the transcription of the 1930 Census for John Berech which also includes Olga and John Jr., and a copy of the census itself.  As always.  If you would like me to email you a large copy of the census so that you can look at it closer.  Let me know.

1930 Census - 22 April - Taken in Portchester - County of Westchester - State of New York

Address - 193 Austin Place, Rye New York - Owned - Value $11,000 - Owned a Radio - Not a Farm

John Berech - (Line 60) - Head of House - Married White Male age 33 - First Married at 33 - No schooling in 1929 - literate - Born approx 1897 in Czechoslovakia - Father born in Czechoslovakia - Mother born in Czechoslovakia - Spoke Czech before coming to USA - Immigrated in 1913 - Naturalized citizen - Occupation Proprietor - Industry Restaurant - Waged worker - Whether actually at work yesterday or the last regular work day, No - Unemployment Schedule 6-na *  - Not a veteran

Olga Berech - (line 61) - Wife - housewife - Married White Female Age 21 - First married at 18 - No schooling in 1929 - literate - Born approx 1909 in Connecticut, Father born in Czechoslovakia - Mother born Czechoslovakia - Speaks English - No Occupation

John Berech Jr - (Line 62) - Son - Single White Male Age 2 (0/12) - No schooling in 1929 - Born approx 1928 in New York - Father born in Czechoslovakia - Mother born Connecticut

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Sooooo -  What the Hell!!??  Born in Czechoslovakia !? Mother tongue Czech!? Olga born in Connecticut!?  I know that in the 1920 Census Olga is listed by her Father that she was born in Russia.  So why the Czechoslovakia?

I had this discussion earlier in the year with Carolyn and Cheryl. We were trying to decided if the state of Country was such that is was easier to say Czechoslovakia to the Enumerator than to say Russia. I've actually looked online a bit... (not extensively) about just that, and I see nothing really in history to cause someone to not want to mention their Mother Country.  WW 2 is ten years off and WW 1 has been over for 16 years and the Russian revolution was just a few years after that. Maybe there was unrest locally, or in the neighborhood.  Looking at their neighbors and a couple of pages before and after Johns listing... Most people are listing as their birth locations as New York, Connecticut, and various other States.  Listings for people born outside of the US, England is the most prominent, and Poland.  I just don't know.

This information has caused me to decide to start reading some books based on the History of Russia. The first on my list is: Nicholas and Alexandra based on their lives, their love of each other and the Russian Revolution.  Starting small before I decide to delve into War and Peace.  A book that has been on my reading list for years, but the sheer size of it daunts me.  I think I'm ready though.

Finally....  There is the possibility that Neither John nor Olga were interviewed for the 1930 census and the answers were given by a neighbor.  Not a totally unlikely situation, if no one was home the day the Enumerator arrived.  I hope the answers will present themselves in the future.

Comments??!!

Some cool stuff on this census is the value of the home.  Johns house is in the median range of his neighbors. Almost everyone in this neighborhood owned a radio, which show a certain affluence. I've looked at a lot of 1930 census' and owning a Radio was not a common thing.

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NOTES: 1930 census *
 Unemployment Schedule (listed in John Sr. profile) If the respondent did not work the previous day (or last regular work day, if the previous day was a weekend, holiday or day off), there was an unemployment schedule. The # refers to that particular unemployment schedule addendum to the ED's population schedule. The unemployment schedules have not survived.   I am of the opinion that the number 6 is the code here and na may just mean Not Applicable..  (I could be wrong)

Here is the web page/forum where I found that information. (you will have to copy/paste)
http://boards.ancestry.com/thread.aspx?mv=tree&m=5133&p=topics.census.us.general

What happened to the Farm Schedules, Unemployment Schedules?    RE:  http://www.archives.gov/research/census/1930/general-faqs.html#schedules

None of these records have been located with the exception of the farm schedules for Alaska, Guam, American Samoa, the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico.

April 22, 1930 was a Tuesday - So not a normal "day off" kind of day.  That being said... If a neighbor dictated the information to the Enumerator, would they have known that John didn't work the day before??

Audience of my blog

This is cool!

I can track how many views of my blog there are:  daily, monthly and per blog post, the browsers they are using, the internet systems and  the location of the viewer. So, even though there are no comments, I can see there are people reading my blog. But I can't see who.

Up until today all locations have been in the United States.

Today... I see someone from Belarus took a peek at my Blog.........  I wish I knew who.  This was the reason I added "Biricz" to the title of the blog recently.  Hoping that something like this would happen.

You can see the light green highlight sitting over Belarus.

Maybe they will Peek again someday and add a comment. #fingerscrossed

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(Copied and Pasted from my Stats Page)

Pageviews by Countries Entry Pageviews United States 33 Belarus 1

Getting Started - Ancestry.com

About 6 or 7 years ago my Mother in Law was needing something to fill her empty hours of the day with something enriching and interesting.  We were having a discussion about family history and the idea of getting her started in doing family research for her family and Ricks Dads family was appealing to her.  It would do several things.  Give her a long lasting interest, teach her to become more computer literate (something she had been trying to do but nothing really kept her interest to cause her to learn more), Therefore giving her a genuine enrichment in her life, and give her something to talk about to other people. At the time she was alone and not involved in much of anything.  She had a great time for years with her family research.  She took Ricks Dads family back to 1435!!!  It's pretty incredible stuff. She got me started, and I enjoyed it so much.

When we were looking into how to get her started, Rick and I found a cool software called Family Tree Maker (The software I'm using today) and found it was a subsidiary of a Huge company called Ancestry.com., based in Utah and owned by the Mormons.  As a kid growing up in a primarily Mormon based community I remember hearing "If you need to know anything genealogy based, you go to the Mormons."  As the internet grew all their research starts getting stored digitally, and it becomes the mass industry..... Ancestry.com.

Anyone can build a tree in ancestry.com, but the research is a paid subscription.  If you are interested in looking at my research directly online, A free registered guest account is required (first name, last name and email is all that is required) and then I can invite you as a "viewing" guest to my tree.

The information online is pretty basic, My software "Family Tree maker" is really cool.  Software by it's nature is more robust than any online programs.  Online is really only a place to do the research and store documents you find and put photos.  But FTM takes all my information and creates data bases based on the information I input.  I'm really only just starting to understand the depth of this program.  I've been taking classes about the software on You Tube (Luv you tube) and I'm learning the correct way to use the software.  That being said.  A lot of the information I entered years ago needs to be reorganized and reentered correctly in order for the databases to work. (This has seriously cut into my transcribing of census' time).   For example, I can create maps with pinpoints of all the locations that a person or family lived, I can  I can create pedigree charts and family group sheets, relationship carts or descendants reports.  

Now I'm boring you!

When my Mother in Law passed, she asked if I would take care of her tree so it wasn't lost.  I'm happy to do it. I played a bit with it, but recently decided to really dive into my own tree.

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Finally, I have a the 1930 census for John Berech  transcribed and ready to go.  I will be posting it very soon....

I think you will find it...........Interesting to say the least....  I hope it generates  questions and conversation among everyone when you read it.

1934-35 and 1939 Greenwich City Directories

The 1940 census John and his family are living on Harris Blvd (no house number listed). Also on the census it asks where they lived in 1935 and has Greenwich, Fairfield County, CT.

The following page is from the 1939 Greenwich City Directory - Page 59

Transcribed:

As listed -   Berech John (Olga; Depot Lunch)  h189 Henry (EPC)

John and Olga Berech - Business Depot Lunch - House number 189 Henry - East Port Chester

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I peeked at Google Earth and didn't actually see 189 Henry, East Port Chester.  It took me to 188 Henry Street. So either 189 doesn't exist anymore or the houses have been renumbered, and either "street" was added later or just wasn't deemed necessary to publish in the directory.  Since I don't know what the Henry House looked like I can't tell.  

I need to review some of the photos I have..............  

The following page is from the 1934-35 Greenwich City Directory - Page 55

Transcribed:

1934 - 35 - Greenwich Connecticut, City Directory 

Berich  John mgr Depot Lunch h Portchester

Berich  Olga (Depot Lunch) h Portchester

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I was having an email conversation with J3 today and he mentioned that he remember his Dad (John Jr) saying -

"Dad also said he thought the last name could have been "Berich" but I think he was just dreaming "BeRich" lol"

Well J3..... there ya go!

Learned a hard lesson

So this past weekend I had a major boo boo occur. I have been researching the Greenwich City Directories and found quite a few listings for Berech over the period of 1935 to 1960.  So many that I was reviewing all the media and deleting duplicates before I start transcribing.  Soooo, late Saturday night, tired and eyes crossing. I ended up deleting John Berech Sr..... in his entirety. Everything, all of it, kaput.........  I looked at the computer and thought.  What happened??? ... Oh shit.  NO... NO.... NO!!  OMG I did!! Not only that, everybody "above him (Mother - Father) and links that they were attached to also disappeared....  No "Undo" option, No "Recycle bin"........

A total meltdown proceeded over the next couple of days complete with, tears, pacing the floor and scolding myself for being so careless.

So several calls later to tech support for the software I am using.  I find, I have a choice.  I can reboot my most recent backup, (March) and put John back on the tree, (but I would lose all the media work I have been doing for the last 2 months IE: sorting, labeling, transcribing, and attaching said media to the proper places, AND all my notes of research questions that arose from all the previous work),

OR

re-enter all of John's information and media and the people above him by hand and keep the other  2 months of work.

I opted to keep my 2 months of work and re-enter John.  It took me all week.  But I'm back to status quo.  So 1 week of work as opposed to 2 months........  For such a major error, I think I got off easy.

Note to self: Back up more often than every couple of months........................!

Will have a new piece of media for you soon.

Charlotte

1939 Timeline

After transcribing the 1940 census I became curious about the temperament of the people in that time. Since we all know that WWII started in the European theater in 1939, I wondered what kinds on things people would be reading in the newspapers, or talking to friends and family about over the course of the year before the census.  

Well.... there was a lot of stuff to talk about in 1939: So much so I had a really hard time just narrowing it down to this epic list:  

Timeline 1939
	1939
	Jan
Superman Comic Strip Debuts	6
	30	Hitler threatens the Jews during his speech to the German Reichstag
	Feb
Spanish Gov't Flees to France	6
	9	Belgian Gov't Falls
Bette Davis and Spencer Tracy win Academy Awards for "You Can’t Take it With You:	11
	15	German battleship Bismark is launched
	Mar
Glamour magazine begins publishing	7	Guy Lombardo records "Auld Lang Syne"
Nazi Germany occupies Chechoslovakia	16
	20	7000 Jews flee German occupied Memel Lithuania
Lithuania surrenders Memel to Germany	22
	28	Spanish civil War Ends
Britain & France agree to support Poland if invaded by Germany	31
	Apr
	5	Membership in Hitler Youth becomes obligatory
Great Britian and Poland sign military pact	6
	7	Italy invades Albania
Marian Anderson sings before 75,000 at Lincoln Memorial after being rejected by the DAR to sing at their constitutional Hall due to the fact she is Black, Causing thousands of DAR members to resign including Eleanor Roosevelt	9
	14	John Steinbeck novel "The Grapes of Wrath" published
Stalin requests British, French & Russian anti-Nazi pact	16
	19	Connecticut finally approves Bill of Rights (148 years late)
Whitestone Bridge connecting the New York boroughs of Bronx and Queens open	29
First public TV with FDR opening the NY worlds Fair	30	New York Worlds Fair Opens (2 years)
	May
Batman Comics published	1
	2	Lou Gehrig ends 2,130 game streak, Yanks beat Tigers 22-2
Germany & Italy announce alliance Rome-Berlin Axis	7
	13	SS St. Louis departs Hamburg with 937 Jewish Fugitives
First Food Stamps are issued	16
	20	1st Transatlantic airmail (NY-Marsseille)
Hitler & Mussolini sign "Pact of Steel"	22
	23	British parliament plans to make Palestine independent by 1949
	Jun
1st televised boxing match - Lon Nova defeats Max Baer	1	British submarine Thetis sinds in Liverpool Bal with all 99 on board
George VI & Elizabeth become the 1st King & Queen of Britain to visit USA	7
	17	Last public guillotining in France
Test flight of 1st rocket plane using liquid propellants	20
	21	Lou Gehrig retires after ALS diagnosis
Pan Ams 1st US to England flight	24
	Jul
Lou Gehrig Day - Makes "Luckiest Man" speech	3
	13	Frank Sinatra makes his recording debut
Clara Adams (NYC) is 1st woman to complete round world flight	15	"Wizard of Oz" Premiers at Grauman's Chinese Theater
	Aug
USSR & Germany sign a non-aggression pact	23
	26	Belgium Mobilizes
Netherland mobilizes	28
	30	Poland mobilizes
Japanese army driven out of Mongolia	31
	Sept
Switzerland proclaims neutrality then mobilizes	1	Hitler orders extermination of mentally ill
	1	WW2 starts, Germany invades Poland, takes Danzig
German submarine U-30 sinks British passenger ship SS Athenia 117 people die (28 Americans)	3	Britain declares war on Germany. Then 6 hours later France and then Austrailia, New Zealand, South Africa & Canada
Netherlands and Belguim declare neutrality	4
	5	FDR declares US neutrality
1st German air attack on Great Britain	6
	7	NY WRUL begins radio transmission
Iraq & Saudi Arabia declare war on Nazi Germany	11
	17	German U-29 sinks British aircraft carrier Corageous, 519 die
German regular army Wehrmacht murder 100 Jews in Lukov Poland	19
	28	Soviet-German treats gives Lithuania to USSR
1st televised football game (Fordham vs Waynesburg at NYC)	30
	30	41 U boats are sunk in Sept
	Oct
Hitler announces plans to "regulate" Jewish problem	6	Hitler denies he intends to go to war against France & Britain
Albert Einstein informs FDR of possibilities of atomic bomb	11
	14	German U-47 sinks British battleship HMS royal Oak, 833 die
Laguardia Airport opens in NCY	15
	17	"Mr Smith goes to Washington" Premiers starring Jimmy Stewart and Jean Arthur
Nazi requires wearing of Star of David by all Jews	24	Nylon Stockings go on sale for the first time
Polish Jews forced into obligatory work service	26
	31	27 U boats are sunk in October
	Nov
First animal conceived by artificial insemination (rabbit)	1
	4	US allows "cash & carry" arms sales during WW2
WRGB TV channel 6 in Schenectady-Albany-Troy NY (CBS) 1st broadcast	6
	8	Failed assassination attempt on Hitler in Burgerbraukeller, Munich
FDR lays cornerstone of Jefferson Memorial in Wash DC	15	Nazis begin mass murder of Warsaw Jews
US Social Security Administration approves 1st unemployment check
USSR invades Finland	30	21 U Boats sunk in November
	Dec
"Gone With the Wind" Premiers in Atlanta	15
	26	Montgomery Ward introduces Rudolph the 9th Reindeer
First flight of the Consolidated B-24 Liberator bomber prototype	29
	31	25 U Boats sunk in December