census records are cool
I’ve been going through some census records this morning. I know what you’re thinking, “you’re crazy, why would you want to go through census records?” Simply put, I’m a genealogist - I like to study my family’s history.
So, anyway, I found the record from 1930 of my great-grandparents, on my mom’s side. Actually, I’m looking at this now, and wondering why I didn’t have it before today, but that’s beside the point.
It’s interesting to me, some of the information on these things. 1930 is the most recent you can get (in the US anyway) and it mostly records what 1900-1920 do.
So this morning I learned that in 1930, my great-grandparents were living in town, renting for only $12 a month.
Wow. I wish our mortgage was $12 a month. :-) My, how times have changed since then.
The census also states that they owned a radio set. Not everyone did at that time. This was during the Great Depression, also, so I guess they were probably doing halfway decently. I wonder how much $12 from then would be equal to today? The guy next to them was paying $15 a month, he was a judge in a “police court.” My great-grandfather was a machinist in the lead mill. He worked in the mines like his father before him (electrician in 1930) and his father before him (always a miner as far as I’m aware) who came from Kentucky when the mines opened, or somewhere around there. However, when it got to my grandpa, he lit the heck out of there and moved to the bigger city and made a life for himself with his own business where he now lives quite comfortably. Again, besides the point.
The census states that my great-grandfather was 24 years old, the same age as I am now. It says that he’s married, and was 21 at the time of his marriage. My great-grandmother’s age is given as 19, and states that she was 16 at the time of her marriage, which is actually incorrect. Technically she was still 15. I don’t guess that was the little mistake that led to her social security number and information listing her as a year younger than she actually was? When the time came for her to draw pension, she had to wait another year because the government couldn’t get it through their thick skulls that they were wrong on something.
So, yes, when they married, my great-grandmother was 15 and my great-grandfather 21. Yet they did not have any children until a year after this census, when my great-grandmother was a couple months short of being 21, and my great-grandfather just short of being 26. Hmmm… I was 21 when Elijah was born, and Steve was 26. I was a bit older than 15 when I got married though, haha.
Anyway, you may now return to your regularly scheduled day…
Addendum: I would just like to put on the record that right now I really hate the state of California. No offense to those of you who live there, but your state is ticking me off. Why is it you have to be a spouse, sibling, child, grandchild, or domestic partner of someone to request their death certificate? Even if they’ve been dead for over 100 years? Sorry, people, if I knew who those people are… or knew that they were not all already dead also, I would not be needing the record!!!!!!!
