Finding Grandma: Resources for 20th Century Research (part 2)

Introduction: In this article – the second in a two-part series – Gena Philibert-Ortega gives more tips and links to help you research your family’s 20th-century women. Gena is a genealogist and author of the book “From the Family Kitchen.”

In this second part of my Resources for 20th Century Research series, let’s take a look at a few more 20th-century records that can help you document and tell the story of your female ancestors. (The first part of this series is found here.)

Let’s start with a source everyone is familiar with: the U.S. Census.

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20th-Century U.S. Federal Censuses

The U.S. Federal Census is a must for research, and its 20th-century versions provide information for the women you are researching. Luckily for us, the U.S. Federal Census is readily available on GenealogyBank, making it a convenient first step for our research project.

What do 20th-century censuses tell us about female ancestors besides their name and residence? When researching women pay careful attention to these census columns:

1900 Census

• Relationship to the head of family
• Marital status
• Number of years married
• Number of children born to females and the number of children still living
• Father’s and mother’s place of birth
• Year of immigration

1910 Census

• Relationship to the head of family
• Marital status
• Number of years in present marriage
• Number of children born to females and the number of children still living
• Father’s and mother’s place of birth
• Year of immigration

1920 Census

• Relationship to the head of house
• Marital status
• Whether naturalized or an alien
• Year of naturalization
• Mother’s and father’s place of birth and mother tongue

1930 Census

• Relationship to head of house
• Marital status
• Age at first marriage

1940 Census

• Relationship to the head of house
• Marital status
• Where lived in 1935
• Occupation questions
• Code to indicate who gave the household’s information (x inside a circle)

There’s more to the census than what I have highlighted. Still, these examples give you an idea of how important these records are for understanding a woman’s familial relationships, work, and life.

When you conduct a search on GenealogyBank, the search results page will show the record categories at the top of the web page, including the census, and how many records are in each category for the name you searched. You can easily access census records that way.

Or you can go directly to GenealogyBank’s census page and conduct your search there.

City Directories and Telephone Books

A companion to census research are city directories and telephone books since they cover the years in between the decennial census.

Many researchers equate city directories with contemporary telephone books. While there are significant differences, they both are essentially a names list. Names lists are important to search since they place an ancestor in a specific location and time.

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While these are great genealogical resources, keep in mind that a woman may not be listed in either source. It’s possible the listed person is the head of household or the person whose name the account is under (in the case of the telephone book). Do not make assumptions about her absence.

In addition, if she is listed in either book and is suddenly not in a subsequent edition, don’t assume that a disappearance means she died. Remember that moving or remarrying may result in her not being listed in the directory or not in the place where you expect her to be.

As mentioned previously, city directories are a great companion source to the U.S. Federal Census. When searching for my paternal great-grandmother in the 1920 and 1930 U.S. Federal Censuses, I knew that she lived in Los Angeles County and worked outside the home. I was surprised to find that those two censuses listed her as having no occupation. A 1924 city directory clarified what she was doing in those years between the censuses: she worked in a laundry. A bonus was that the listing provided me with the name of the laundry she worked at. This information was an important clue in reconstructing her life.

Social Security Death Index

The Social Security Death Index (SSDI) is a go-to resources for family historians researching American 20th-century family members. In the absence of a death date or possible place, it can provide valuable clues. However, before you use the SSDI, there are a few things to keep in mind.

The Social Security Act was enacted in 1935. The Social Security Death Index is a product of the Social Security Administration Death Master Index. Although the Social Security Act passed in 1935, you won’t necessarily find an ancestor from the first three decades of the advent of Social Security. The Social Security Death Index has very few deaths before 1962.

Also, keep in mind that the SSDI is NOT a national index of every adult who has died – these are only deaths reported to the Social Security Administration. It is not uncommon to not find a female ancestor because she never had a Social Security number. Unlike today when every baby born is issued a Social Security number, individuals use to have to apply for a number and your female ancestor may not have if she didn’t work.

The Social Security Death Index is an index, so it has limitations. An index is not an original record, and it is prone to errors. For example, even though the SSDI provides a birth date, you shouldn’t rely on that to confirm your ancestor’s birth. You should seek out, when possible, original records that give birth information, such as a birth certificate. Likewise, you should seek the death certificate to confirm the death date and place.

The Social Security Death Index is one of the collections available on GenealogyBank.

Yearbooks

Yearbooks are not a new phenomenon and have origins in the 18th century. Yearbooks are valuable as a genealogical and historical source. They give us a snapshot of our ancestors’ younger lives, but they also place our ancestors in a time and location. They may confirm the names of other family members (cousins, siblings that attended the same school), friends, or acquaintances. Don’t forget: yearbooks aren’t limited to students, they include adults who worked as teachers, coaches, or administrators at the school.

Yearbooks aren’t the only school record to search. More common during the 1800s through the 1900s, Alumni Directories include lists of students and biographical information.

To find yearbooks online, consult Cyndi’s List’s – Yearbooks and Annuals web page. FamilySearch has some yearbooks in the Catalog, but the majority are to be found in the FamilySearch Digital Library because this collection includes their collaboration with 20 other libraries.

Online yearbooks are a type of digitized book, so don’t forget to search on digitized book websites, especially Internet Archive. Internet Archive has a Yearbooks collection with over 98,000 items.

Start Researching Now

It’s easy to get caught up in researching ancestors from centuries past – but in reality, we should always start with ourselves and work our way backward. Spend some time filling in your 20th-century family tree today!

Explore over 330 years of newspapers and historical records in GenealogyBank. Discover your family story! Start a 7-Day Free Trial

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Related Article:

• Finding Grandma: Resources for 20th Century Research (part 1)