While looking up family members in a rural town (though with factory employment nearby), I noticed that many people on the page were listed as "lodgers". I wondered if that meant the counted individual rented a room in a house or if the census considered apartment dwellers lodgers as well?
That's a great question! You can probably find some interesting research on History Hub (forum through NARA), or even ask it yourself! https://historyhub.history.gov/welcome
From this page: "The U.S. government will not release personally identifiable information about an individual to any other individual or agency until 72 years after it was collected for the decennial census. This "72-Year Rule" (92 Stat. 915; Public Law 95-416; October 5, 1978) restricts access to decennial census records to all but the individual named on the record or their legal heir."
While looking up family members in a rural town (though with factory employment nearby), I noticed that many people on the page were listed as "lodgers". I wondered if that meant the counted individual rented a room in a house or if the census considered apartment dwellers lodgers as well?
That's a great question! You can probably find some interesting research on History Hub (forum through NARA), or even ask it yourself! https://historyhub.history.gov/welcome
I just did a quick search for "lodger" - and for example, I found this post that mentions about lodging/boarding houses in the 1910 Census: https://historyhub.history.gov/community/genealogy/census-records/blog/2020/10/06/census-fun-fact-2-fictional-names-just-call-me-another-time. I'll definitely be investigating this further!
Oooo, thank you! And a new resource (for me) too!
Interesting question!
Thanks for the shout-out, Audrey! This is yet another fascinating post. Is there a delay in releasing all census records?
Great question, Joan! The 72 year-old rule pertains specifically to access restrictions on personally identifiable information in Census decennial records. I don't think I linked to this page in the newsletter (it would've been useful if I had!), but check out this information page on Census.gov: https://www.census.gov/history/www/genealogy/decennial_census_records/the_72_year_rule_1.html.
From this page: "The U.S. government will not release personally identifiable information about an individual to any other individual or agency until 72 years after it was collected for the decennial census. This "72-Year Rule" (92 Stat. 915; Public Law 95-416; October 5, 1978) restricts access to decennial census records to all but the individual named on the record or their legal heir."