In a message dated 8/17/2004 4:00:57 PM Pacific Standard Time, MIOAKLAN-D-request@rootsweb.com writes: jnsford" jnsford@sdcoe.k12.ca.us Subject: Help! Can you solve this mystery? Farmington Oakland Co MI My first attempt to find the family in the area starts with a poor census record. I need all the information pertaining to Ethel Eroth ...Can anyone tell me what it says: 1930 Farmington Oakland Co MI ED 114 sheet 18B John W Lathrop 70 MI VT NY Eroth Ethel ??????????? ( Help!) Eroth Jane 5, MI SWE NY Eroth Oscar 46, SWE SWE SWE Sue First I will state at the outset that I can't answer the question about Ethel; however, there is more to the 1930 census than just the person's name, age and birth origin of the individual and the parents origin. There are a number of questions that will help you learn about your family 1. question about owning a radio. It may sound like a ridiculous question, but if you stop to think about it, it isn't so ridiculous. The truth behind the question comes down to whether there was electricity in the home. If you owned a radio, you had electricity. 2. yes or no to living on a farm - they were looking to see the movement from an agriculture economy (farmers) to the big cities. 3. questions about education/read/write - these same questions were asked starting back in 1850 with the education question for the children, but it continued on after that and starting in 1900 it became a common question, and particularly the reading/writing/speak of English. They were looking to see how many people who were foreign born now were speaking English. 4. Employment question - this question started in the 1900 census. The 1920 census asked a double question about unemployment that carried back to the year 1919. Times were tough. They wanted to know the economic condition of the United States. The 1930 census was also a precursor to the 1933 stock market crash, but times were tough in 1930 and we were still in a slide carried over from World War I. Therefore, it is important to make a note when doing the 1900-1930 census research to note all the information (except that strange coding that appears which is not explained and is only known to the Census Bureau) about an individual. This information can become useful when looking for land records -- such as the answer about owning or renting property. Also note any street names that appear down the left side of every page if the census taker so noted it. Street addresses start appear in the census records starting in 1900 and continue on through to the 1930 census. This question starts in the 1900 census when it has the letters at the end of the head of household. O F F = owned free a farm O F H = owned free a home R F = rented a farm R H = rented a home O M F = owned with mortgage a farm O M H = owned with mortgage a home From this little bit of information you know whether or not to start looking for deeds and/or even probates. Owning land or owning a home means there is a deed somewhere and you need to find it in the county where the census record originated. When a person does not appear in a census records it can mean they died, or they were missed by the census taker for a variety of reasons, or they moved. I have also discovered that the on-line versions can be harder to locate people because you need to know exactly how the name was spelled in the census. Most of the time it is not searched like soundex reels of film, therefore you need to check a variety of spellings to find your person. This is particuarly true for first names. For example the name William can be Wm, W. William, Willam, Willim, Willm, etc. Unless you know for a fact that the online version has spelled it any of these various ways to find your guy, you may think he is not in the census at all if all you look for is the name William and don't think about the other variations. Another fact that I'm fast discovering that not all counties or all towns in a county are on line yet. I know there are families residing in the Oakland county are and have been since the 1830s, but when looking for the more recent family names, they don't always show up. Whether they were completely missed or just not interpreted correctly, I have no idea. When I mean interpreted correctly, that means you know how it should be spelled, but the person who was preparing the index for the on-line names thinks that the name reads something else. I happened to have found this situation and the only way I located the name was through another name that appeared on the same page I was looking at and I saw it when it was coming up on the screen. When I went back to type in the name for searching - not there, but did find it when I typed in the misspelled name that showed on the page. Strange but true. The next query has to do with marriage lookup. The index covers the time period, but the actual film for the time period is not available. I would volunteer to do a lookup for the Eroth marriage; however, as I posted a message last week about my unavailability to do the search due to my mom falling and breaking her ankle, I'm going to have to beg off unless you can wait until the end of September. However, all I could give you would be the date the marriage took place and the book and page as that is all the index provides. You would have to order the record from Oakland County directly. As for death indexes for the 1963 time period, - the answer is no. There are no filmed indexes for that time period. I would suggest you try to do a lookup via the local newspaper where the death took place. Hope you find your person(s) and that you have lots of luck finding your family members. Christie Trapp