Fast Fact: 1930 Census Update Each of the fifteen U.S. censuses from 1790 to 1930 provide valuable information that help to bring success to U.S. researchers. The 1930 census, which just became available to the public this year, includes information that gives clues into the daily lives of Americans, such as where they worked, their military veteran status, and whether or not they owned a radio The complete 1930 census of the United States could unearth a wealth of information about your past. =============== A Lesson in Boundary Lines – Karen Frisch When exploring the world of your ancestors it pays to remember the differences between their lifetime and ours. The town they knew was undoubtedly very different in their day. Knowing their geographic landscape will make your search easier. While tracing my family history I discovered that my great-grandfather's sister had lived in my hometown. She was the only ancestor of mine to have done so, and I wanted to know more. Ernestine Frisch came to America in 1884 at age 21. When she married Fritz Schwab, an ice peddler from Providence, the 1887 marriage index listed her as a resident of Lincoln. Before then she was absent from city directories, as many women were. Since other female family members lived at home until they married, it is possible she worked as a domestic in a private home. Lincoln was established as a town in 1871. At the time town leaders in northern Rhode Island wanted governments that focused on the interests of their own villages. Since traveling to town meetings was problematic, the larger towns were divided. Lincoln took its name from the popular president who was still mourned years after his assassination and the end of the Civil War. A complicating factor was that when Lincoln broke apart from the larger town of Smithfield, tiny Central Falls was part of Lincoln for a time before it became its own city. The addition of that square mile makes it far more confusing to determine where Ernestine Frisch Schwab might have lived. Today many of the Victorian homes remain in the area. The likelihood is strong that the house where Ernestine lived still stands. It's even possible she lived on the street where I grew up since many homes on the street were built in the 1870s. It's also possible she lived in what is now Central Falls. Obscurity also shrouds the final resting place of Lavinia Williams Keene, my five-times-great-grandmother, descended from Rhode Island's founding father Roger Williams. I know little about her except that other family members lived in northern Rhode Island. In an old volume on local cemeteries I discovered that Lavinia was buried "to the east of the road by the river." Today, no cemetery exists near the Blackstone River in that area. Lavinia died in 1856, recently enough for her gravestone to remain. I found a small historic cemetery that runs east of River Road in the town. There were headstones from the late 1700s and 1800s with engravings that time had made indecipherable along with tombstones that had been broken off at the base. I also found the graves of ancestors related to Lavinia by marriage, increasing the chance that she was among them. Once you've learned an ancestor's address in a nearby city it's essential to make a point to drive by the house. For years, I rode by the clapboard house at One State Street in which three generations of my French-Canadian ancestors had lived. The opportunity to obtain a picture disappeared when I drove by one day and saw a crane taking down what was left of the house. On the spot where my ancestors' house once stood is now a modern office building. Had I not seen the house when I had the chance I would merely be guessing where the original home once stood. The more precise we can be in pinpointing the paths our ancestors walked, the clearer our picture of their lives will be. Learning about the places they lived can help cut through the confusion of obscure references and the changes brought about by time. =============== Karen Frisch has spent years getting lost in cemeteries. With a background in Victorian studies, teaching, and writing, she has traced her lineage back thirty generations. Her interest in genealogy began as a child when her grandmother gave her a collection of old photographs from Scotland. =============== reprinted with prior permission of Juliana Smith, Editor of Ancestry Daily News; issue dated 10 Dec 2002