1920 Census of
African Americans  
in Steelton

Introduction

In 2003, the Friends of Midland Cemetery received, on loan, copies of a set of 1920 census sheets from the borough of Steelton, Pennsylvania.  The sheets did not cover the entire borough, but rather were copies of census sheets that included African American residents of the borough.  These forty-four sheets covered those street blocks that included most of the African American community of Steelton:  Ridge, Adams, Lincoln, Furnace, and Harrisburg, as well as parts of ten other streets.

After months of transcribing the sheets into a Microsoft Access file, we came up with a database containing 1,353 persons in 290 distinct families, a snapshot of this important African American community in a northern industrial town at the height of the Great Migration.  As a genealogical tool, this database is invaluable.  It contains details of family connections, states of origin, occupations and addresses.  It also has many applications for historians.  We have just begun to mine this treasure-trove of data for valuable information regarding settlement patterns, accumulation of wealth, family connections and other social and historical trends.  Whatever your interest in this data, we hope that you not only find valuable data, but that you eventually share your findings, research and family stories with us.

Transcription Methodology

We set the database up with a field to match each column on the census sheets, using two separate forms, one for heads of households only and one for non-heads of households.  The form containing the non-heads of households was then set to be a sub-form to the heads of households, so that members of each household were always kept together.

To aid in deciphering some of the handwriting, we referred to a 1919 edition of Boyd's Directory of Harrisburg and Steelton.  Spelling of all names, even though we found different spellings in the city directory, was kept the same as recorded by the census taker.  Similarly, all occupations, familial relations, employers, and other data, was all transcribed as found on the census sheets.  We will be adding notes to the listings regarding correct spellings, family history, corrections of known errors, and other relevant items as we research them.

Columns and Categories

The following columns (along with instructions to the census takers), which appeared on the 1920 census sheets, were used as fields in the database:

• Place of Abode

• Column 1, "Street, avenue, road or etc."

• Column 2, "House number, or farm."

• Column 3, "Number of dwelling house in order of visitation."

• Column 4, "Number of family in order of visitation."

• Name

• Column 5, "Name of each person whose place of abode on January 1, 1920 was in this family.  Enter the surname first, then the given name and middle initial, if any.  Include every person living on January 1, 1920.  Omit children born since January 1, 1920."

• Relation

• Column 6, "Relationship of this person to the head of the family."

• Tenure

• Column 7, "Home owned or rented." (recorded as "O" or "R")

• Column 8, "If owned, free or mortgaged." ("F" or "M")

• Personal Description

• Column 9, "Sex." (recorded as "M" or "F")

• Column 10, "Color or race." (recorded as "B," "Mu" or "W," for Black, Mulatto or White)

• Column 11, "Age at last birthday."

• Column 12, "Single, married, widowed or divorced." (Recorded as "S," "M," Wd" or "D")

• Citizenship (the following columns applied to very few African Americans on these sheets)

• Column 13, "Year of immigration to the United States."

• Column 14, "Naturalized or alien."

• Column 15, "If naturalized, year of naturalization."

• Education

• Column 16, "Attended school anytime since Sept. 1, 1919." (recorded as "yes" or "no," or left blank)

• Column 17, "Whether able to read." (recorded as "yes" or "no," or left blank)

• Column 18, "Whether able to write." (recorded as "yes" or "no," or left blank)

• Nativity and Mother Tongue, "Place of birth of each person enumerated.  If born in the United States, give the state or territory.  If of foreign birth, give the place of birth and, in addition, the mother tongue. (See instructions.)"

• Column 19, "Person. Place of birth."

• Column 20, "Person. Mother tongue."

• Column 21, "Father. Place of birth."

• Column 22, "Father. Mother tongue."

• Column 23, "Mother. Place of birth."

• Column 24, "Mother. Mother tongue."

• Whether able to speak English (column 25)

• Occupation

• Column 26, "Trade, profession, or particular type of work done, as spinner, salesman, laborer, etc."

• Column 27, "Industry, business, or establishment in which at work, as cotton mill, dry goods store, farm, etc."

• Column 28, "Employer, salary or wage worker, or working on own account."  (Recorded as "W" or "OA")

In addition, we also recorded the date of enumeration, the name of the census taker, the Enumeration District (E.D.) number, the Ward number and the census page number.

If no data appears in a particular field, it is because the census taker did not record anything.  Some census takers were more complete than others.  Note that on some of these data pages, if an entire column contained no data for everyone on the page, we omitted that column from the page to save page loading time and presentation space.

For a complete transcription of the written and detailed instructions given to census takers, click the following link:
1920 Enumerator's Instructions  from IPUMS.org.

Arrangement of Data

For family groups, use the alphabet list below.  Heads of households are listed alphabetically with sub-lists of all those other persons in their households:

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H  | I | J | K | L | M | O | P | R | S | T | W | Main Page |

Use the following lists to access only heads of households, or residences by streets:

Heads of Households, Surnames A-K list, Heads of Households, L-W list  | Streets list

For all non-heads of households, listed alphabetically, use the alphabet list, below.  People in these lists are not necessarily grouped by families:

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H  | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | R | S | T | V | W |