Elizabeth’s Journal

Yay for Public Libraries

I have spent about six hours over the last two nights gathering information from the 1920 and 1930 federal censuses, and it has all been for free from the comfort of my own home, in the middle of the night. The Austin Public Library offers remote access to Heritage Quest Online—all you need is a library card. That is just too cool.

I located the census schedules that show my grandma Sprong’s Aunt Lillie & her son in 1920, and then in 1930 it’s Aunt Lillie with Grandma (just Elene Ensign then, of course) living with her. I also found Grandma Sprong living at home in the 1920 census, with her mother and 7 siblings; her father was living elsewhere, by himself, and I found him too. Also in 1920 I found Grandma’s maternal grandfather, Lemuel Richards, who was living close by in a National Military Home; I would have never known to look for him there except that she mentioned it last summer when I did an oral history with her. In 1930 I located her mother, still living without her father, with only the two youngest children still at home. One, Elene’s sister Ester, was an artist, and Eston is listed as a salesman at a fruit stand.

The reason it took so long to find this stuff is that HQ does not yet have the 1930 census, which was released last year, indexed. Once I found people in the 1920 census, I had a reasonable place to start for 1930—but it’s a matter of browsing page by page. I guess not only thanks for the Austin Public Library, but thanks to Roadrunner for my broadband connection to the Internet.