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Volume 067-2 - April 2013 (6 pages)
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Page: of 6
“Grass Valley Township
Hard Field for Census Taker”
by Maria E. Brower
T HE TOTAL POPULATION FOR NEVADA COUNTY IN 1940
was only 19,283, according to official census figures
for that year. Of the 25 enumeration districts in Nevada
County, twelve were in Grass Valley township, and William
T. George was one of the eleven men and women who enumerated portions of Grass Valley.
On April 28, 1940, The Morning Union newspaper described Mr. George’s current activities beneath the headline
“Grass Valley Township Hard Field for Census Taker”:
Will T. George, who as a census enumerator, was allotted a large segment of Grass Valley township, has virtually
completed the canvas after traveling 385 miles by car and
walking unrecorded distances into locations which no automobile could penetrate.
Mr. George’s territory was the southeast portion of the
township and county, bounded by both the Colfax and
Auburn highways and extending from the Grass Valley city
limits to the Bear River bridge in each case.
Remote farm families, cabin dwellers, woodchoppers,
itinerant miners, were sought out by the enumerator at
whatever cost of driving and walking. In one instance he
traveled three and a half miles each way to record two individuals. Call-backs were not lacking and a few remain to be
made before closing the record prior to May Ist. In all about
350 families were visited. Persons who may have been
missed are asked to communicate with Will T. George, 115
Neal Street.
Mr. George reports a fine reception every where and that
no difficulty was experienced in securing the desired information. Fortunately, he was not required to report the
condition of the many back roads which he traveled over.
When the first federal census was taken in 1790, it was
determined that after 72 years most people enumerated in
that year would be deceased. (Even as late as 1900 the average life-span in the United States was about 45 years.)
To assure individual privacy, it was decided that 72 years
should pass before details of each U.S. Federal Population
Census could be made available to the public.
The 1940 census is important to many of living
Americans, as it will be the first time they have appeared
on a federal population census. “Baby Boomers” will have
to wait for the opening of the 1950 census in 2022.
Because every new census includes different questions
that are peculiar to that particular enumeration, it is with
great excitement that researchers and genealogists wait for
the 72-year expiration. Each census can provide answers
( Nevada County Historical sooiaty .
NUMBER 2 \ VOLUME 67 APRIL 2013 /
that will help to resolve problems and solve long-time
“brick wall” problems. Information provided in the census
may not be found in any other record group.
Although census records are a primary record group,
there is an inherent weakness in the process: anyone in the
household could have given the information to the census
taker—including a child or in-law who did not have the correct information. If respondents were elderly their memories may have been faulty, and they might have mixed up
family information.
If a family was not at home the enumerator could ask a
neighbor or landlord to provide information. In later years
the census-takers were instructed to go back to those households where no one was home, but this didn’t always happen. In early census years, when most of the population
lived in a rural setting and distances were significant, it is
suspected that some information was given by a neighbor
when there was no one home in a household.
This is why it is important not to depend too heavily
on the information found on one particular census, but to
check every census for a particular person every-ten years
during their lifetime, to compare the information, and
weigh and evaluate the evidence in light of the above facts.
A few hours of research will often clear up and enlighten
us, give us facts about an ancestor’s life that we were not
aware of. It was the small article that appeared in The Union
on April 28, 1940 with the title “G.V. Township Hard Field
for Census Taker” that sparked my interest, and led me to
additional research to glean the rich facts in William T.
George’s life.
The 1940 Census and Will T. George
Looking at the household of William T. George in 1940
we learn that his household included himself, age 66, and
his wife Annie J., age 62 and born in Vermont. George’s occupation was listed as “piano tuner” and we might deduct
from that that he led a quiet life and may have decided to
become a census taker for adventure!
Just as a picture is only a moment captured in time, census information does not tell the whole story. Researchers,
genealogists and historians know that to base an assump-