UM library finally gets 1930 census

The wait for the 1930 Census is over. Fogler Library, located on the University of Maine campus in Orono, has received the microfilm reels for Maine and keeps them in the drawers with other census records in the first floor government documents and microforms department.

In addition, the Maine State Archive in Augusta has received its copy. The facility is open 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Keep in mind that UMaine’s library is now on summer hours – 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday. Come September, the facility will resume its longer hours, including evenings and Sundays.

The census listings I perused for Piscataquis County were recorded in April 1930, so if you were born before April 1 that year, you can look up your own family. You’re a part of history!

What fun I had seeing so many familiar names, including those of my Steeves grandparents, enumerated in the town of Sangerville. My mother wasn’t born until later that year, so of course she’s not listed.

I was immediately intrigued with the very readable penmanship of the census taker for Sangerville. Might it be someone I knew? Yes, indeed.

The information was carefully recorded by the town librarian, Addie M. Hamilton. Thirty years later, my family lived across the street from Mrs. Hamilton on Pleasant Avenue, and how well I remember the sugar cookies she kept in a crock in the stairway to her cellar.

The Abbot census included my dad as a young child. He was listed as 5 years old, his “Age at last birthday,” because he wouldn’t be 6 until June.

In the left-hand margin of each page, actually the first column, the census taker wrote the name of the road or street. The second column listed the house number, a piece of information that didn’t apply in many small towns until the implementation of E-911.

Adjacent columns listed the household number, in order of visit by the enumerator, then the family number. Abbot had a total of 122 households and 127 families – one house could be home to more than one family.

The intent was to list every person “whose place of abode on April 1, 1930, was in this family,” surname first, then the first name, then the middle initial.

Especially important was that person’s relationship to the head of the family, information added beginning in the 1880 census. Before that, the reader had to guess.

Home data included whether the home was owned or rented, the value of the home if owned, and whether the property was a farm. Rentals in Abbot that year went for $2 to $10 a month.

Personal information included gender, color or race, and “marital condition.” And, rather than the number of years married, the census asked the age of each person at the first marriage. One item omitted in 1930 was the number of children the mother had borne.

Next came whether the person had attended school during the past year, whether he or she could read and write, and the birthplace. Just as importantly, the census recorded – as it had in 1880, 1900 and 1910 – the birthplace of the father and of the mother. When the place was Canada, records also indicated “French” or “English,” most helpful for a genealogist pondering whether to look in Quebec or some part of New Brunswick, for example.

Some of the other categories were language spoken before coming to the U.S., year of immigration to this country, whether naturalized or alien, occupation, industry, “whether actually at work yesterday,” whether the person was a veteran, and, if so, of what war. The 32nd column was the corresponding number on the farm schedule, if applicable.

Don’t expect perfection in these records. My uncle Carroll’s name was misspelled, yet my dad’s more unusually spelled Gayland was right. Keep in mind that many a person was identified by first name in one census, but by middle name in another.

The U.S. Census for 1930 covering Maine is a welcome addition to microfilmed records at both Fogler Library and the Maine State Archives. We’ll share more information about these records when time permits.

The Old Canada Road-St. John the Baptist Festival will be held noon-11 p.m. Sunday, June 23, at Gaddabout Gaddis Airport in Bingham. Admission is $5 for adults, or $10 per family.

Sponsored by the Upper Kennebec Valley Chamber of Commerce, the event celebrating the diversity of people who traveled the Old Canada Road will offer bagpipers, folkloric singers, Irish singers and dancers, and performers from Quebec and the Acadian region.

We send congratulations to four new members of the Sons of the American Revolution in Maine. During Saturday’s Flag Day ceremonies at Monticello in Thomaston, Edmund Branch was inducted with his three sons – Bertram Edmund Branch II, Stuart Branch and Robert Branch.

They are descended from Col. Silias Wheelock and 1st Lt. Simeon Wheelock, Massachusetts Minutemen who were in the Battle of Lexington.

The first MacDougall-MacDowell Family Reunion will be held 10 a.m. July 6 at the Recreation Hall in Upper Kintore, near Perth-Andover in New Brunswick. Participants will include the chief of the MacDowell Clan, Dr. Fergus Macdowell of Garthland, who will be traveling to the Highland Games at Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina.

Reservations for the meal should made by calling Walter Macdougall at 943-2331. Call the same number for information or a map.

Next week we’ll share some queries.

Send queries to Family Ties, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor, ME 04402; or send e-mail to familyti@bangordailynews.net.