Card Index (Soundex) to the 1900 Population Schedules

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CARD INDEX (SOUNDEX) A card index to the 1900 census schedules was prepared by the Works Projects Administration during the 1930's. Information was abstracted from the census schedules and placed on filecards. The cards give name, race, month and year of birth, age, citizenship status, place of residence by state and county, civil division, and, where appropriate for urban dwellers, the city name, house number, and street name. The cards also list the volume number, enumeration district number, and page and line numbers of the original schedules from which the information was taken. Three types of cards were prepared: household cards; individual cards; and cards for institutions, military posts, naval stations, and U.S. flag vessels. Household cards show the name of the head of the household, race, month and year of birth, age, birthplace, and citizenship status if foreign born; a street address may be included. The card then lists each member of the household by name and shows the relationship to the head of the household, month and year of birth, age, birthplace, and citizenship status if foreign born. For persons living within the house who were not members of the immediate family of the head of the household, an individual card was also prepared. Individual cards were prepared for persons living alone; persons living with families who were not immediate members of the family; members of an immediate family but who had different surnames; persons in hotel, boarding and rooming houses, and institutions; persons on military posts and naval ships and at naval stations, and persons enumberated on U.S. flag vessels in all U.S. ports on the first day of the census only. These cards give the individual's name, month and year of birth, age, birthplace, citizenship status, address, name of person or institution with whom enumerated, and any relationship to that person or institution. Institution, military post, naval station, and U.S. flag vessel cards show only the.

address of the establishment and the number of persons enumerated. Names of the individual persons are not listed. The cards are arranged by State or Territory (a separate microfilm publication for each) and thereunder by the Soundex system; i.e., alphabetically by the first letter of the surname, thereunder by a code number representing the sound of the surname, and thereunder alphabetically by first name.

GUIDE TO THE SOUNDEX SYSTEM The Soundex filing system, alphabetic for the first letter of surname and numeric thereunder as indicated by divider cards, keeps together names of the same and similar sounds but of variant spellings. To search for a particular name, you must first work out the code number for the surname of the individual. No number is assigned to the first letter of the surname. If the name is Kuhne, for example, the index card will be in the "K" segment of the index. The code number for Kuhne, worked out according to the system below, is 500. SOUNDEX CODING GUIDE CODE KEY LETTERS AND EQUIVALENTS 1 b,p,f,v 2 c,s,k,g,j,q,x,z 3 d,t 4 l 5 m,n 6 r The letters a, e, i, o, u, y, w, and h are not coded. The first letter of a surname is not coded. Every Soundex number must be a 3-digit number. A name yielding no code numbers, as Lee, would thus be L 000; one yielding only one code number would have two zeros added, as Kuhne, coded as K 500; and one yielding two code numbers would have one zero added, as Ebell, coded as E 140. Not more than three digits are used, so Ebelson would be coded as E142, not E1425. When two key letters or equivalents appear together, or one key letter immediately follows or precedes an equivalent, the two are coded as one letter, by a single number, as follows: Kelly, coded as K 400; Buerck, coded as B620; Lloyd, coded as L300; and Shaefer, coded as S160. If several surnames have the code, the cards for them are arranged alphabetically by given name. There are divider cards showing most code numbers, but not all. For instance, one divider may be numbered 350 and the next on 400. Between the two divider cards there may be names coded 353, 350, 360, 365, and 355, but instead of being in numerical order they are interfiled alphabetically by given name. Such prefixes to surnames as "van," "Von," "Di," "de," "Le," "Di," "D," "dela," or "du" are sometimes disregarded in alphabetizing and in coding.

The following names are examples of Soundex coding and are given only as illustrations. NAME LETTERS CODED CODE NO. Allricht l,r,c A 462 Eberhard b,r,r E 166 Engebrethson n,g,b E 521 Heimbach m,b,c H 512 Hanselmann n,s,l H 524 Henzelmann n,z,l H 524 Hildebrand l,d,b H 431 Kavanagh v,n,g K 152 Lind, Van n,d L 530 Lukaschowsky k,s,s L 222 McDonnell c,d,n M 235 McGee c M 200 O'Brien b,r,n O 165 Opnian p,n,n O 155 Oppenheimer p,n,m O 155 Reidemanas d,m,n R 355 Zita t Z 300 digit number. A name yielding no code numbers, as Lee, would thus be L 000; one yielding only one code number would have two zeros added, as Kuhne, coded as K 500; and one yielding two code numbers would have one zero added, as Ebell, coded as E 140. Not more than three digits are used, so Ebelson would be coded as E142, not E1425. When two key letters or equivalents appear together, or one key letter immediately follows or precedes an equivalent, the two are coded as one letter, by a single number, as follows: Kelly, coded as K 400; Buerck, coded as B620; Lloyd, coded as L300; and Shaefer, coded as S160. If several surnames have the code, the cards for them are arranged alphabetically by given name. There are divider cards showing most code numbers, but not all. For instance, one divider may be numbered 350 and the next on 400. Between the two divider cards there may be names coded 353, 350, 360, 365, and 355, but instead of being in numerical order they are interfiled alphabetically by given name. Such prefixes to surnames as "van," "Von," "Di," "de," "Le," "Di," "D," "dela," or "du" are sometimes disregarded in alphabetizing and in coding. * Indicates mixed codes continued on next roll. ** Indicates same given name continued on next roll.

Microfilm of original records in the National Archives in Washington, District of Columbia.

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