Beginning the Search – Census Information
By Angelo Coniglio
I have spent much time describing what I have called the first ‘key’ in finding our immigrant ancestry: how to determine an ancestor’s name as it may have been given in a variety of records. Having identified the name of an immigrant ancestor, you’re prepared to search for records that may contain other keys: his date of immigration and/or his place of birth and date of birth. These may be contained in family records such as passports, marriage records, naturalization papers or membership documents of the mutual aid societies, the Società di Mutuo Soccorso that were so common in America for Italian and Sicilian immigrants.
If these records aren’t available in your family, but if you know the approximate date of the ancestor’s death, check your public library for archives of local newspapers to be searched for obituaries, death notices or articles of the period, which may give information about your ancestor.
If you know where the family first settled, visit the appropriate County Clerk’s office, and see if naturalization records exist there for your family member. If not, the clerk may direct you a Federal District Court where such records may be available. Naturalization papers, especially the Petition for Naturalization, can have a wealth of information, including the immigrant’s name, birth date and place, date and ship of immigration, the address of the applicant and names and dates of birth of each family member.
Still no luck? Then it’s time to turn to US and/or state Census records. The first US Federal Census was in 1790, under Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson. There have been 22 since then, taken at ten-year intervals. The last was in 2010. Censuses from 1790 through 1940 are available in hard copy at many sources, including local libraries and genealogical societies, except for the 1890 census, most of which was destroyed by fire. For privacy reasons, federal censuses are not released to the public until 72 years after they are made, making 1940 the most recent census available. You need to know the community your family lived in during a given period, then search for the census or censuses, for that community, that fall into those dates.
The census questions varied over the years, from simple identification and place of residence in 1790, to much more detailed information in later versions. Below is a list of questions from a typical US census, that of 1930, just after the peak of Italian immigration to America:
Street, avenue, road, etc.; House number
Name
Relationship of this person to the head of the family
Home owned or rented?; Value of home, if owned, or monthly rental, if rented
Does this family own a Radio set? A farm?
Sex
Color or race
Age at last birthday
Marital condition
Age at first marriage
Attended school or college any time since Sept. 1, 1929
Whether able to read or write
Place of birth__person, Place of birth__father, Place of birth__mother Native language of foreign born; Language spoken in home before coming to the United States
Year of immigration into the United States
Naturalization status: Na (Naturalized), Pa (Papers applied for), or al (alien). Whether able to speak English
Trade, profession, or particular kind of work done; Industry or business; Class of worker
If you find your ancestor listed in such a census, you’ll find his immigration date and nationality, and be able to estimate his birth year by subtracting his age from the year of the census. Consider all dates approximate. They were not backed by documentation, but simply by the statement of the interviewee. Most libraries with hard copies of censuses cover only the city or county where the library is located.
If your ancestor settled elsewhere, before the advent of the internet, you would have had to go to that place to search the census, or pay a local researcher to do it for you. Luckily, all US Federal Censuses through 1940 are now searchable and viewable on-line, and I’ll discuss how to do that next time.
Coniglio is the author of the book The Lady of the Wheel (La Ruotaia), based on his genealogical research of Sicilian foundlings. Order the book in paperback or on Kindle at www.bit.ly/racalmuto. Visit his website, www.bit.ly/AFCGen, and write to him at genealogytips@aol.com.
