1910 Census Info about Your Ancestor



Each of the US Censuses has been unique, varying in what questions were asked, providing some important family information, not just names. Go over the 1910 census with a keen eye to look for the following items about your family – great grandparents and grand uncles-aunts.

As in any census record, look at the top, above the listing of names. Note the date the census was taken and the location. The name of where you thought your ancestors lived in 1910 could be quite different than what if really was in 1910 – county and town names have changed. Next check for any street name given – it is on the far left side written vertically – make a note of the road / street name. In some smaller newer towns, streets were not named in 1910.

Then in column #7 if there is a married couple in the household, it has the number of years they have been married. You could learn what year they married and if it matches with what you had as info already.

For columns #10 and 11, this can be very interesting, covering about the number of children born. Adult ladies were asked how many children they gave birth to and how many of that number were alive in 1910. It was rare to find the two sets of numbers being the same, Usually, one or more child had died.

Then did each adult in the column #20 household work for themselves or were they a wage earner.

In column #26, it covers about if the head of the household owns or rents the residence. It is surprising how many rented in 1910.

Even in 1910, records were still kept about those who served during the Civil War of 1861-1865. In column #30, each person indicated ‘yes’ if they were a veteran of the Union or Confederacy.

Then to the far right side, the last two columns with being questions relating to a person (child or adult) having a handicap – deaf, mute, dumb or blind. That really could be previously unknown information on an ancestor.

Here is an example: My grandmother, Eva, was age 18, single in the April 1910 census, living with her grandmother (her mother’s mother) because Eva’s mother had died when she was 2 years old. Her widowed grandmother listed she had given birth to 6 children and in 1910 only three were living. They lived on North Main Street in Manchester, Maryland and many of their neighbors were family members.

Photos: Opening of 1910; Ladies in 1910; Main Street in 1910 in Manchester, MD; and Civil War Veterans together in 1910.

Related FamilyTree.com Blogs:

Photos Over the Years

Remembering the Early 20th Century

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