Dr Weintraub gave a public talk at Stanford University 2/4/2013. His talk centered around the United States Decennial Census Manuscripts aka Enumerators' Notebooks, the history of the Census Questions, including controversial questions, undercounts, and truthfulness. For more on Dr Weintraub's census work see his 1940 census site and his collaborative work with Steve Morse at http://stevemorse.org.

1. Unique Aspects of the
United States Census
Joel Weintraub, PhD
Dana Point, CA

2. http://tinyurl.com/6upkocy

3. Demographers Market Researchers
Historians Social Workers
Politicians
Health Providers Economists
Librarians
Genealogists Sociologists
Planners

4. Census Bureau Report 1943

5. Topics
1. Why a US census?
2. History of questions
3. Copies or originals?
4. The census takers
5. Undercounts and overcounts
6. Controversial questions
7. Truthfulness?
8. Name and locational searches

6. United States
Constitution 1787
“The actual enumeration shall be
made within three years after the
first meeting of the Congress of
the United States, and within
every subsequent term of ten
years, in such manner as they
shall by law direct.”

7. Census Use
Reapportion
House of Representatives
http://www.psmag.com/politics/is-the-house-of-representatives-too-small-3465/

8. 1911: House set at 435 members,
previously, kept adding members
after each census so no state
lost representatives
Vermont had 6 Representatives in
1910, but after the 1930 census they
were down to 1 Representative
Exhibit: Letter from Rep

9. 2010 Census Use
Distribute Federal Funds
(~$400 Billion/Year)
$14,000 per person
over 10 years

10. The Federal Census
Reality:
The US Census is a
DISRUPTIVE
process
and it always has been

11. 1790
Family Based.
Senators Recommended
Marshall Appointments
Exhibit: Assist. Marshall Appt
http://www.shieldzone.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/jefferson.jpg

12. First Questions US Census
• James Madison wanted age (2 groups
added) and occupation (denied)
• Too many questions raise suspicions
• Extra data useful only for
“idle people to make a book”
Margo Anderson 2000. Encyclopedia of the U.S. Census http://www.earlyamerica.com/portraits/madison.html

13. 1790-1840
Harper’s Magazine: 1870

14. Edmonds: Taking the Census 1850
1830: 1
printed,
st
uniform forms
1850: 1 uniform instructions
st
and all names in household
http://www.flickr.com/photos/maulleigh/1285984329/

15. 1850-1860
Slave Census
X
Harper’s Magazine: 1870

16. 1870 Considered Worst Ever
Fraud and Missed Areas
Recounts in Philadelphia,
Indianapolis, St. Louis and
New York City
“Carpet Bagger” Census
Undercounts South by 10%
Harper’s Magazine: 1870

17. 1850 & 1870
Population
Schedules
1870
Exhibit: Original Forms
Mortality
Schedule

18. Census Copies vs Originals
= originals
Thorndale & Dollarhide: Map Guide to the U.S. Federal Censuses 1790-1920

19. 1880
• Major revision of census law
• New census bureaucracy

20. 1890
East Side, NYC, June 1890
http://www.maggieblanck.com/NewYork/Life.html

21. 1899
Exhibit: 1899 Application

22. 1910
Competitive exams for enumerators
http://www.census.gov/main/.in/php_module/lightbox/media.php?I_1d6272af5fe0ccf54ca2467acb7b8866

23. Exhibit: 1910 Test & Badges

24. 1940 Enumerators
• Examination Required
• Legible handwriting and following
written instructions considered
• Paid on a piece basis, usually 4 cents a
name for urban areas and for other
forms
• Went through training classes

25. Enumerator
Handbook
Exhibit: 1940 Handbook

26. Followup Confidential
Questionnaire
115,433 sent
16,025 sent back
Read entire instructions?
Yes: 12,256
No: 857 (7%)
Left blank 2,912
Narrations: 18 Nov 2011

27. IPUMS Website
• Integrated Public Use Microdata
Series
• Enumerator Instructions
• Census Questions and Forms

28. IPUMS Website

29. http://www.thoughtviper.com/new/new74.html

30. Exhibit: 1940 Forms

34. 372: Procedure for Absent Households:
…….
“a. Try to obtain the desired information
from neighbors or from some other
person who may be able to furnish it.”
1940 Enumerator Instruction Book

35. An outside informant should have their
name in the left-hand margin as:
“Information from John Brown neighbor”
. http://www.census.gov/pubinfo/www/photos/Histforms/1940/cenform/His40cenFQ.html

37. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/97502086/

38. The New York Times, June 1915

39. Census Undercount
• “in 1940 the Census Bureau
began to systematically
estimate the undercount in the
decennial census”
•http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/cmb/cmbp/downloads/99feb1.html

40. Census Undercount
• 6 1/2 months after the Census, a mandatory
Selective Service Registration for males 21
through 35
• Penalties for non-registration: a fine of up to
$10,000, a prison term of up to 5 years
• (Palo Alto males… #18 among Stanford’s
registrants was young John Fitzgerald
Kennedy … a student at the graduate school
of business) [Palo Alto Wiki]
A Check on Underenumeration in the 1940 Census by Daniel O. Price American Sociological Review, Vol. 12, No. 1 (Feb., 1947), pp. 44-4

41. 13% more Blacks,
and 3% more Non-Blacks
registered than predicted
from the census
Calculated that 8.4% of Black
Americans and 5% of Non-Blacks
missed on the 1940 census
Social Science History 19:4 (winter 1995) http://news.yahoo.com/1940-us-census-records-show-black-undercount-175820718--spt.html?_esi=1

42. Census Overcount
• Tacoma 1910 counted 116,268 people
• In 1900 they had 37,714 counted
• Massive fraud shown, and 33,296 names
thrown out

43. Census Overcount

44. Census Date = 1/1/1920
Enumerated on 1/5/1920
San Francisco, CA

45. Enumeration Date (1/5/1920)
San Francisco,
CA

46. Privacy

48. Are
#!%#!! you a
pauper?
Exhibit: 1890 Harper’s Magazine

49. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_W._Tobey

51. Catherine Curtis Senate Testimony

52. Commerce Sect. Hopkins Solution
Two weeks before the census the
Secretary of Commerce ruled that
the income question could be answered
in unsigned, sealed letters.

53. “Your Signature Is Not Required”
Exhibit: Confidential Form

54. Envelope

57. Truthfulness?

58. New York Times April 1930

59. The Last Laugh…
How the hell do you think I
could answer if I couldn’t
write?
So-called English
In 1897. In the
Yes front room.
No
1930 Census Slip
A bootlegger

60. I consider this questionnaire
a great joke. Congress is bad
enough. Why make it
worse?

62. Name Indexes
• Efficient way of finding people
• Don’t have to know much about
the census format
• Can go directly to right page
image
• Subscription services but some
years are free at websites

63. Census Taker Situations
• Unusual sounding names
• Incorrect and false names
• Abbreviated names or nicknames
• Confidentiality and penmanship
• Name entry mistakes

64. “Be particularly care-
ful when enumerating
a household that no
person is reading the
entries you are making
or the entries you have
Exhibit made for other house-
holds.”
1940 Enumerator Handbook Sects 20

65. Stoltz: “… many people from the
West Coast wrote to Rockwell
asking what the funny-looking
stick at the feet of the census
taker was and why he was
wearing rubbers in a place
where the sun always shines”

66. Exhibit: 1950 Enumerator Tools
http://www.census.gov/pubinfo/www/photos/img/highres/Histo10h.jpg

67. Transcriber Problems
• Poor quality census images
–Faint writing, blurry, taped, ink
blots, ripped, water marks,
obscuring statistical marks
• Handwriting interpretation
• English not primary language

68. Transcriber Problems
1910 Census
Pennsylvania

69. Watchnatenedget
“Not christened yet”

70. Transcriber Problems
• FamilySearch led volunteer project of
160,000 transcribers
• 2 people saw same page, and a 3rd if
conflicts in the transcription
• Housing Schedule 1940 EXHIBIT
• Housing Information from Blocks

74. Name Search Advice
• Use Wildcards * ?
–Smi* = Smith, Smithson, etc….
–Sm?th = Smith, Smyth, Smuth…
• LESS IS MORE
• Search for Children
• Don’t Use Last Name
• RELAX YOUR ASSUMPTIONS

75. Ray Lyman Wilbur
Born April 13, 1875

76. https://www.flickr.com/photos/usnationalarchives/6935831733/galleries/

78. The Birth Year Assumption
•March 1876
•Feb 1876
•Jan 1876
•Dec 1875
•Nov 1875
64
yr
•Oct 1875
•Sept 1875 9/12 (75%)
olds •Aug 1875
•July 1875
of 1875 births
•June 1875
•May 1875
are 64
•Apr 1875 on the 1940
Census
•Mar 1875
65
yr •Feb 1875
olds •Jan 1875

79. Why Location Searches?
•Sometimes name indexes fail
•To confirm a missed address
•To look up “John Smith”
•To find the history of a house
• If there isn’t a name index

80. • Where to look:
• Address Books
• Birth/Death/Marriage Certificates
• City Directories and Telephone Directories
• NYC Digitized Phone Books 1940
• Diaries
• Employment Records
• Letters, Envelopes, and other correspondence
• Local Newspapers
• Naturalization Records
• Photographs
• Relatives
• School and Church Records
• Scrapbooks
• Social Security Application

81. Enumeration District
• Abbreviated ED
• Area an enumerator counts
• Has a unique, two-part number
• Boundaries and ED number
often change between censuses

82. Page Geography,
Numbering

83. 100% were asked these questions
Short Form
40 Entry Lines
Long Form
Supplementary Questions
5% were asked these questions

84. Special Census Day
8th April- temporary lodgings, tourist
facilities, flophouses, hotels

86. Regular Page 26
coverage 1
13
Page 27
Follow-ups
& Missed 61
Page 29
4/8
Transients
81
1940 Enumerator Handbook: Paragraph 401

87. - Started as partnership between Steve
and Joel in Jan. 2002 for 1930 census
- Has search aids for a Site”
- Known as “One-Step number of
- censuses
At stevemorse.org NOT .com
- Over 200 utilities on it
- Free site

88. 1940 Tutorial Quiz:
How to Access the 1940 Census
in One Step

89. In 2011, One-Step site:
about 80,000 hits/day
2,500,000
2,000,000
2,248,987
1,500,000
One-Step Hits
1,000,000
500,000
399,840
135,833 0
14-Mar 21-Mar 28-Mar 04-Apr 11-Apr 18-Apr
2012

90. 1940census.archives.gov
Designed for 10 million hits a day
First 3 hours 22.5 million hits
Later in 1st week- 100 million hits per day
http://www.archives.com/blog/us-census/

100. http://www.archives.gov/research/census/presidents/images/hoover-
1940-transcript.pdf

103. 3,343 days
until the 1950
census!
1950

104. 1950 Census Project Planning
1. Phase 1: What’s Possible, Get Resources
2. Phase 2: Protocols and Entry Software
3. Phase 3: Transcriptions, Volunteers
Fewer unincorporated names
4. Phase 4: Correlate with namesCensus
Less institutional 1950
No block definitions large cities
Images, Online ED Maps?, NARA ED
No 1940 to 1950 ED correlate data
definitions, and Population Schedule
No online 1950 ED maps
Images Websites
or ED definitions
No 1950 films at NARA branches
No budget (as usual!!)

105. 1950 Census Project Planning
1. ~19 million more people than 1940
2. ~80,000 more EDs than 1940
3. 38 Reels of ED definitions (28 in 1940),
cost $125 x 38 = $4,750!!

106. Scans taken
= >30,000

107. STREET INDEXES NAME INDEXES
SOCIOLOGISTS ONE-STEP NARA
ED MAPS
ARCHIVES.COM
GENEALOGISTS
ED DEFINITIONS
PROQUEST
ANCESTRY.COM
HISTORIANS
1930 TO 1940 #S FAMILYSEARCH
DEMOGRAPHERS LIBRARIANS
MYHERITAGE.COM HEALTH PROVIDERS
ECONOMISTS HERITAGEQUEST.COM