Kentucky Ancestors, Volume 46, Number 1 - Kentucky Historical ...

John Hardesty, 1850 U.S. census for Meade County, Kentucky
district, but also the present and future needs within
the district.
Policy makers then and now needed accurate
demographic data to determine which states and
counties were most in need of funding to build
schools, train teachers, and meet the unique needs
of constituents that were foreign-born. The practice
of gerrymandering – altering congressional district
boundaries to suit political preferences could be more
precise when demographers could state with relative
accuracy exactly how many Italians or Germans,
for example, were residing in specified enumeration
districts. Oh yes, politics was alive and well in the
nineteenth-century. Consider, too, that industry and
commerce benefited from Federal census data and
the projected changes in population. You would not
want to build a railroad to a town that might not be
around in ten years.
Later, the 1900 U.S. census provided much
helpful genealogical information such as the number
of years of marriage for each married person on the
schedule. It is also important to note that this was the
first census enumeration to note the month and year
of birth. Earlier census records just gave the age as of
the last birthday.
Researchers who have reviewed the 1930 census
will see that one of the questions asked is whether or
not your ancestor owned a radio set. 3 My guess is that
radio manufacturers and advertisers were interested
in their current and future advertising markets.
The Federal Communications Commission (or its
John Austin Hardesty Jr., ca. 1880 (Courtesy of the author)
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