The challenge of using the 1930 census is that a soundex index exists only
for the twelve states that had no organized vital records—Alabama, Arkansas,
Florida, Georgia, Kentucky (partial), Louisiana, Mississippi, North
Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. This was
the last project the Works Progress Administration (WPA) carried out for the
Bureau of the Census.
The catalog, like those we now have for earlier census
records listing soundex rolls and census rolls by enumeration district (ED),
will be available on paper and on-line so you will continue to have the
possibility of planning your research before arriving at the Archives.
Additionally, the ED descriptions prepared by NARA Pittsfield volunteers will
detail the content of the rolls.
The ED descriptions (NARA publication T1224), which are
already available at the Archives, cover 1920 census microfilm as well as 1930
(though sequenced for 1930), so if your people didn’t move in that decade this
publication will help you with both the 1920 and 1930 census. And you can begin
using it now to facilitate 1920 research.
You will use the ED descriptions in conjunction with city directories (listed
in this and the previous issue of Archival Anecdotes). If your search is
for people living in rural areas with a small population you can go directly to
the census microfilm from the ED description and read the town, county or area.
If your target resided in a city you will use the city directory to locate the
street address and then go to the ED descriptions to determine which roll of the
census to search.
