1920 Census Records

What Can You Learn From The 1920 Census Records?

Do you know what your ancestors were doing during the Roaring Twenties? Well, the 1920 census records can give you a glimpse into their lives by looking at what they were doing at the start of the 1920s.

1920 Census Records

Please read on as I will show you what you can uncover about them by using this resource.

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What’s In These Records?

The 1920 census records can give you a glimpse into their lives, a snapshot into their world which was taken on January 1st, 1920.

1920 Census Records Blank Form

* Please visit National Archives for full blank form *

All fifty states were covered as well as Military and Naval Forces.

Places such as the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and also for the first time American Samoa, Guam, and the Panama Canal Zone.

Besides the street address and the number of farm schedules, (a number deferring to visiting a farm), nine other key elements make up the 1920 census records.

Some of these key elements are further broken down into several parts which I will discuss in turn.

9 key elements in the 1920 census records!

Name

This is the key element that will help you to search for your ancestor and also help you to identify whether you are looking at the correct individual or not.

If you are unsuccessful in finding your ancestor I do suggest that you try alternative spellings of their name.

I have found some of my ancestors spelled with the surname Cauch and Cooch, even though my surname is Couch.

You could also try just searching for your ancestors by just their initials as sometimes individuals were recorded that way.

Relation

The first person of a family was listed as the head of the household and then you have the relationship between him/her to the other people.

So, you could have a wife, son, daughter, boarder, servant, and so on.

This is quite helpful to you for one important reason.

For example, if you had a male and a female living together with the same surname and similar age you may think that they are husband and wife.

But did you consider that they may be brother and sister?

That is a possibility!

Sometimes you need to think about all the different reasons and not jump to conclusions. That is something that I have realized through genealogy research.

Tenure

The government wished to know whether individuals owned their homes or not. And if they did own their home whether it was free of mortgage.

House and Land

Personal Description

This key element is broken down into four parts which are:

Sex

If you are unable to read the name of the individual because of the handwriting you can refer to the sex of the person.

This can help you to decipher what their name was.

Color or race

If you are unsure as to your ancestor’s ethnicity then this can help you to look further into other records that contain them.

Age at last birthday

If you already know your ancestor’s date of birth then you can compare their age at the time of the census to see if you do have the right person in front of you.

Please be aware though that there may be some errors with this value. This could be due to forgetfulness or the individual lying about their age.

Marital status

Answers could have included single, married, divorced, or widowed.

Citizenship

This key element is divided into three parts:

Year of immigration

If your ancestor was an immigrant into the United States then you can find out when they first entered the country.

This can then help you to find them within passenger records.

Naturalized or alien

Find out whether they had been naturalized by the time of the 1920 census records or whether they were still an alien.

Year of naturalized

And if they were naturalized then you can find out the year that this took place.

This can help you to pinpoint when you should be looking for this record.

Education

The government wanted to know whether individuals had attended school since the time of the census and September 1st, 1919.

Also, were they able to read and write.

Nativity and Mother Tongue

You can learn more about your ancestor and his/her parents by this key element of the records.

Find out which state or country that your ancestor was born in.

Also, finding out whether their parents were born can show you where to look for their birth records and other information about them.

Literacy

Besides knowing whether the individual could read and write the government also wanted to know whether they could speak English as well.

Education

Occupation

What was your ancestor’s trade or profession? What was their industry or the establishment that they worked for? And were they an employer or an employee?

All of these questions will be answered for you within the last key element of the 1920 census record.


Where Can I Find These Records?

By now you are probably wondering just where can you find these records so that you can start looking for your ancestors.

Where can I find the 1880 census records

Well, there is a free option that I would like to share with you first. And then there are a couple of paid options that you can consider as well.

Your FREE option!

Whenever you can I do suggest that you try to find your ancestors by choosing the free method. Why would you spend money that could be better spent?

It doesn’t make sense!

OK, so where should you go?

My free option for you is to go to FamilySearch.

This website offers millions of records.

I have used this site extensively and have found my ancestors through many records, besides census records.

It is a good option to check this out first.

But there is a drawback to this site and that is that you may not find your ancestor.

Sure they have millions of records but there is still the possibility that you will unfortunately not find them.

Your PAID options!

For that reason, you should check out two paid websites that I regularly go to for help.

The two sites that I suggest are Ancestry and FindMyPast. They again contain much more records within their database compared to FamilySearch so there is a better chance of finding your ancestors through these sites.

Credit: Ancestry

Your first stop is …

The first site that I go to is Ancestry because it was the first genealogy site that I discovered.

We have all heard of Ancestry, right?

There are TV adverts on all the time either promoting what you can uncover about your ancestors, or explaining to you about AncestryDNA.

Besides census records, you can also uncover other records and documents about your ancestors.

These can include birth, marriage, and death certificates, wills and probates, military records, business directories and so much more.

So. all of that information is in one place.

You don’t have to go from one site to another searching for your ancestor’s records.

Pretty convenient right?

You can also check out family trees that have been submitted by other Ancestry members.

This has proved helpful to me as I have looked at how I can expand my family tree.

You do have to be cautious though by using this feature of Ancestry as some member’s trees contain glaring mistakes.

So why use FindMyPast as well?

Sometimes though you may not find your ancestors within the Ancestry database.

The three reasons that this can occur are that either the record does not exist, it hasn’t been uploaded yet, or it has been updated but has been indexed incorrectly.

What do I mean by this last reason?

Well, quite simply the transcriber may have entered your ancestor’s name incorrectly.

This could be because they miskeyed the name of the enumerator’s handwriting was illegible. This was a common occurrence as sometimes I have seen some quite fancy writing on these forms.

You know full well how your ancestor’s surname was spelled but the transcriber does not know him so they have to enter their best guess sometimes.

I can try alternative spellings of my ancestor’s name but sometimes that is not enough.

So, that is why I will turn my attention to FindMyPast.

This has proved successful as I have found several ancestor records through this second site when Ancestry has failed me.

It may be costly to join two genealogy search sites but it has helped me immensely find my ancestors and build my family tree.


My Final Thoughts!

In this post, I have covered what you can expect from these records.

There is a lot of information that you can find out about your ancestors. But the information does not stop there as I have also discussed.

Like me, you can benefit by writing your very own family history book.

By doing so you can spot any holes in your knowledge of your ancestor. And then you can go off and try and find those records that can help you.

For me, I was able to discover some interesting newspaper articles concerning my third great grandfather Henry Couch and his brush with the law.

They were very minor but my father did not even know about them. So it was quite surprising for him.

All of this information is out there, you just need to look.

These census records can give you a glimpse into your ancestors’ lives. You can then start to ponder this information and look for more information.

I wish you all the best in your genealogy research.

Further Information!

After reading this helpful guide you may want to check out further information regarding US Census Records.

Why not head on over to the United States Census Bureau for help with your genealogy research.


Thank You and Please Leave A Comment

I hope you enjoyed this post explaining what you can learn from the 1920 census records. If you have any questions or comments then please leave a comment below.

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Summary
Article Name
What Do The 1920 Census Records Hold?
Description
The 1920 Census Records contains a wealth of information. This comprehensive guide shows what is included in these records and where you can access them.
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Publisher Name
The Genealogy Guide
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4 thoughts on “What Can You Learn From The 1920 Census Records?”

  1. Wow! This is really interesting. I did not know you could do this. I think it is very cool that you can track your ancestors and see what they were doing like their occupation. I will look into it. Thanks for the post.

    1. You’re quite welcome Rob. There is so much that you can learn from census records. I was just amazed at other records that I cauld track down. And also the stories that I uncovered.

  2. Hello,
    This is very interesting! I only wish I can use it. I’m pretty much the first generation of my family that lives in my family. I might be able to look up my wife’s family, at least. Thank you. I will definitely start with the free access.

    1. If your going to research your wife’s family tree then I would suggest you first ask her relatives for help. Get names, dates and places so you have something to work with.

      All the best.

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