Technology has generally made it much easier to look for people in the census. Some digital platforms for researching family history, for example, make it possible to actually search the handwriting on the census page. However, this is not foolproof. You might have difficulty finding somebody if the census worker misspelled their name, for example. In these cases it helps to have backup research strategies. Here, location is one of the most powerful tools available.
A research strategy: Knowing where someone lived can help you find records. If you know somebody’s address in 1930, you could look for them in 1940 at the same address. Or imagine you know that a Veteran was buried in the same state where they were born. Probably you will also find them in the census in that state.
Cover of Bureau of the Census, Urban & Rural Enumerator’s Reference Manual, 1950 Census of the United States, Washington, DC, 1950 (HathiTrust)
What can location reveal? Geographic thinking can illuminate many aspects of a Veteran’s life. Did they live in a dense urban environment or a sparsely populated rural one? Who were their neighbors? What places or things could they access easily? What lay beyond their reach?
Model of San Francisco based on 1938 aerial survey by Harrison Ryker, 1940. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
Hand-drawn map to Lillian and Franz’s House by Lillian Polgar, 1943. (Gilder Lehrman Institute, GLC09414.1568). Sylvia Weiner, whose husband Moe was serving in the Army at the time, saved this invitation to a party at the Polgars’ house.
By the end of the lesson, you will know how to find a specific address in the census. You will also develop spatial-thinking skills that will help you interpret aspects of a Veteran's life based on where they lived.