Census Question

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Permalink Reply by Sue McCormick on November 20, 2009 at 11:02pm

Wife-H means wife of head; 1930 enumerators seem to have used this form; I have found it in several states. I don't think that you actually do have any Wife-N entries — I think the apparent Ns are merely blurred entries.

In one 1930 census I examined recently someone was listed as wife of grandson (or something like that) but the relationship was spelled out in full.

Permalink Reply by Tammy Mellard Wheeler on November 21, 2009 at 11:56am

Thanks Sue,

That was what I figured. I figure on the first of the census the H's were clear, but, by the end of the census and all that writing, they were less careful and it slurred.

Tammy Mellard Wheeler

Permalink Reply by Catherine Davis on December 12, 2009 at 9:28pm

Wife-H does not mean wife of head. It means homemaker or housekeeper. In most cases the wife of the head will be this person, but in some cases you will see it on a daughter or daughter-in-law or other family member, particularly if the wife of the head has an occupation listed. It was an attempt by the census to determine who was actually doing the housekeeping tasks in the home when women were beginning to move into the out-of-home workforce.

Permalink Reply by Sue McCormick on December 12, 2009 at 9:31pm

I am glad to know this; where did you get this information (in case I need to learn about additional interpretations)?

Sue

Permalink Reply by Catherine Davis on March 19, 2010 at 7:03am

I found it on ancestry.com. You don't need to have a membership to read about the different censuses, just to look at the actual census data. On the home page, just under the search box, is an area labeled "Browse our Collections." Click on the year of the census in which you are interested. You will get a page with a search box for that census, and underneath the search box is all the defining info on the census.

Permalink Reply by Tammy Mellard Wheeler on March 19, 2010 at 8:22pm

The census' that confuse me are the really old ones, like the 1830's