New family info from the 1930 census

[libertango]

Jarda:

There's an outfit called Footnote.com that's allowing free access to the set of 1930 census records for the month of August. I've taken advantage of that, and have been able to find a pair of relevant pages, and upload them to my Flickr account:

John O'Brien: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hal_seattle/3815112430/

Pius MacIsaac: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hal_seattle/3814331517/

On the "John O'Brien" page, there's an entry for 9 Elmore St, Boston. Your mom is on line 43, as "J. Myrtle." But the interesting thing, to me, is that John O'Brien, our great-grandfather, is listed as Head of Household, with his son Harold (Harry) and his family under the same roof. They rent the house, for $35/month. John and our great-grandmother Agnes say they were 19 and 14 respectively when they got married. Both John and Agnes say they were born in Canada, and John says his father (our great-great-grandfather, unamed) was born in Northern Ireland. John and Agnes came to the US in 1885, but were not naturalized, and so were not US citizens. John's occupation is "Gateman" for the "Elevated," which matches up with the uniform in his picture. (Picture is here if you've forgotten: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hal_seattle/3214630974/ )

Pius MacIsaac, our great-grandfather, and Teressa MacIsaac, our great-aunt is on the other page. Teressa is the sister of Marjorie, Harry O'Brien's wife, and our grandmother. Just like John the elder, I have a picture of Pius from you:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hal_seattle/3788508223/in/set-72157594358566771/

They lived at 2554 Washington St in Boston, just a few blocks from the other household. Pius is listed as a 59-year-old widower, and Teressa is just 14. An entry says Pius entered the country (presumably with our great-grandmother, Janet Ellen Enman MacIsaac) in 1892, and was never naturalized, thus, never a citizen. It says his occupation was being a teamster for an ice cream wagon. (!)

I hope this sheds a bit of light on our common family from that time.

-- Hal

*^*^*

UPDATED TO ADD: Another interesting thing I've realized as a part of this is, I'm genuinely surprised how little time both sides of my family have been in the US. All four of my great-grandparents on my father's side immigrated in from Canada. At least 3 out of 4 on my mother's side came from the UK, and 2 went back. That's 7 out of 8. It's only my grandparents' generation that's native born to the US. I was just reading about the naming of this among folks of Japanese heritage -- one could say I'm a Canadian-British analogue to the Yonsei.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I just signed up thanks to your recommendation. Neat! I just wish my Mom were around to see it - after years of poring over old photos and such with her, she would have got a real kick out of it.

Could I ask how you got all the additional information though? Did you pay for the records individually, or am I missing something? For example, I found my Mom's family (Mom, her parents, her dad's mom) listed, but when I try to click to see more than just the initial listing of the names and birthdates, I get an invitation to sign up for a Premium account, or to buy the individual record. I must be missing something?

Thanks again for posting about this.

[hal-obrien.livejournal.com]

All the information in this entry is on those Census pages. They're just very densely packed, and you have to keep going up to the top of the page to see what the columns mean. That's why I wrote it all out -- in case you (or anyone else reading) wasn't able to readily decipher the page. :)

The direct link to the John O'Brien page is:

http://www.footnote.com/image/159462698/

You can save your own copy for free by using the Save icon. I made a quick screen capture to show you where it is (look for the bright red ellipse):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hal_seattle/3815674623/

Once you click on it, choose "Select Entire Image" next, so you can get the entries for the page, and also be able to see those column headings at the top.

The Pius MacIsaac page is at:

http://www.footnote.com/image/162585058/

Pius and Teressa are the first two lines, which makes it a lot easier to use the column headings for them.

[hal-obrien.livejournal.com]

OK, that's annoying. Those are the correct direct links, but Footnote isn't letting people access the pages that way. You have to do a search, and then drill down.

Bugger.

Yeah... I'd recommended saving those .JPGs. Or just use mine from Flickr. :)

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks for trying to help, but I actually get the same "canned" message when I click on that first link (where you are trying to show me how it looks) as I do when I try to look at my family docs. It says that "You need an all-access membership" to see it.

I registered for the free 1930 Census access through August and activated it. Did you also add the 7-day free trial where you have to give your credit card number and then if you don't actively cancel you get the monthly $79.95 membership automatically? I have not done that.

Sorry to be treating you as if you are Footnote support, but shoot, those records are RIGHT THERE and I want to see them now!

[(Anonymous)]

Oh, sorry, I should have made clear that I'm looking up a different family :) Those hand-written sheets just look so compelling that I would like to see the same ones for my family. I just can't figure out how, and I'm falling victim to low tolerance for interwebs frustration.

But thanks for the help.

[(Anonymous)]

By the way, I did look up the image you linked to on Flickr, where you circled the pertinent place at the top. What's happening for me is that I can't open any images in that viewer (that requires "all access" membership, so there isn't anything to view or save). I can only access the first page that comes up on a name search, where it shows the names and birth dates, and then has a tiny tiny image of the hand-written part on the left, that can't be opened. If I were to that viewer stage I think I would be okay.

Oh, and I should say, for anyone else reading, that the $79.95 is for a year, not a month. I think it was about $12 for a month. I haven't signed up for that though.

Aside from not being able to get in, I can see that this is really nifty. Makes the long-gone relatives feel so ... real.

R. (not in your family - just happened to read your post on the Census).

[hal-obrien.livejournal.com]

OK, I thought you might have been my cousin Jarda. It's not like this LJ is hard to find (number one hit on my name).

I signed up for a Footnote Basic Account. It's free, and I don't remember them asking for any billing info -- just a name and contact email.

They're clearly allowing access as a loss leader. I'll say this: Their scans of the 1930 census are far and away the most detailed and clear I've seen of any similar provider (ancestry.com, heritagequest.com, etc.)

[(Anonymous)]

I should have clarified when I first posted, since your post was technically addressed to one of your relatives.

I still can't figure out why I can't get any of the detailed records to open up - it's weird. It seems like for some reason I would have to pay for an account to see them. The records you have that you linked to on your Flickr account are really neat, and I'd love to see them for my family (whose names I have found).

Has anyone else reading this either been able to successfully see the handwritten info, or had the same problem I'm having and NOT been able to see it?

I thought about contacting Footnote, and I still may, but of course I was feeling impatient and wanted to figure out how to see the records RIGHT NOW. :D

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

I've had no luck finding either side of my family, which is frustrating.

[hal-obrien.livejournal.com]

Yeah, things appear to be spotty.

For example, I have access to another provider called heritagequest.com through my local public library.

If we take as read the dates for immigration cited for my two examples (1885 & 1892), then they should both be in multiple censuses. You'd think "pius macisaac" would be particularly easy to find, and he should be in at least four: 1900, 1910, 1920, and 1930. I can only find him in '20 and '30, though.

Possible explanations:

* These images are accessed through indexes -- it's not like one's search is against the document itself, since that's an image file. So there are database/transcription issues, no doubt.

* Door to door enumeration may not work as reliably as one would want. If they're not home, or resistant to come out...

I wish I could search by address, rather than by name, to track a residence over time. But I haven't seen anyone yet who'll let you do that.

[farmgirl1146.livejournal.com]

Just an FYI, I could not find my grandfather, who has a rather different name, "Erford" without his middle initial. So, if you do not get a result, use the name of another member of the household.

Thanks Hal

[hal-obrien.livejournal.com]

Other members of the household is a good thing to try. The bias is to index whoever was the "head of household." That was the surprise to me -- that John the elder, his son Harry, and Harry's family were living under one roof, with John as head. Prosperous late 20th century bias on my part.

You're quite welcome. The records available online keep getting better, so it's a moving target. What one remembers may be quite short of what's actually available today, so I thought letting folks know about this might get an audience.