1930 Census Index

Blog: Remembering how the HCSCC archives helped a Purple Heart find its home

By Mark Peihl, HCSCC Archivist

In 2009, we received a call from Gerry Henry of Pelican Rapids. Gerry had a mystery to solve. We love those. Some years ago he had purchased a dresser at an estate sale near Breckenridge. When he got the piece home he discovered a Purple Heart in one of the drawers. The Purple Heart is one of our nation’s most respected and recognized military honors, going to those wounded or killed in combat. On the back was inscribed “For Military Merit Albert H. Norby.” Presumably Norby was the fellow who earned the medal. Knowing its significance, Gerry (a twice-wounded Vietnam War vet and Purple Heart recipient himself) had tried off and on over the years to get the medal back to Norby or his family. He called us on a whim to see if we could help. We quickly agreed to assist any way we could.

The Purple Heart has a very long heritage. It was not always awarded for wounds received. According to the US Army’s Center for Military History, in the 18th century no European powers awarded medals to enlisted men for valor or service – those were reserved for officers. In 1782, General George Washington devised an honor specifically for non-commissioned officers and enlisted men. Called the Badge of Military Merit, it was to be awarded for “any singularly meritorious action.” Washington decreed the decoration be a “Figure of a Heart in Purple Cloth or Silk edged with narrow Lace or Binding” to be worn over the left breast. Three Connecticut soldiers received the award but it dropped out of sight after the Revolution.

In 1927, the US Army Chief of Staff General Charles Summerall attempted to revive the Badge of Military Merit. Things didn’t work out but in 1931, Summerall’s successor, General Douglas MacArthur (later of World War II fame), tried again. MacArthur knew that with the bicentennial of Washington’s birth in 1932, the nation’s attention would focus on our first president. MacArthur worked with the Washington Commission on Fine Arts to come up with a design. An Army heraldic specialist in the Office of the Quartermaster General, Miss Elizabeth Will, created a sketch for the present medal.

Army regulations describe the medal as “a purple enameled heart within a bronze quarter-inch border showing a relief profile of George Washington in Continental uniform. Surmounting the enameled shield is Washington’s family coat of arms, the same used by the heart shape and the coat of arms of the obverse is repeated without enamel; within the heart lies the inscription, For Military Merit, with space beneath for the engraved name of the recipient. The device is 1-11/16 inches in length and 1-3/8 inches in width, and is suspended by a rounded rectangular length displaying a vertical purple band with quarter-inch white borders.

1930 census - pesky PIDs - FamilySearch Forums - Beta

Yes, you always accept the key A answer when the PID's do not match. There is almost no way for the PID numbers on the A key to get off but it is easy for the key B numbers to get off. It is my understanding that Ancestry has given us the images for this project and the A key (why it is partially indexed already) The PID numbers are the original identification numbers for the individuals. The Blank B key comes with PID numbers to match the original A key. The numbers won't match if the indexer indexing the B key misses a record. Once a record is missed in a B key all the rest of the records' PIDs will be off. When the missed record is inserted, the PID numbers are still off and the inserted record has no PID on the B key. Another way the PID numbers get off is when there is a blank line or lines between records. If the key A indexer inserts a blank line, nothing happens to the PID numbers, the individuals and their PIDs stay the same, the blank line will have no PID number like it is supposed to. The problem comes when the key B indexer comes to a line in the middle of other records and marks it blank. That line had a PID number on it that should have gone with the next individual on the page. All the PID's on the B key will be off, starting with that line. If you are indexing a B key and want to avoid having your PID numbers off and come to a blank line in the middle of other names, you should insert a record before marking it blank. Ancestry was the first to index the 1930 census and apparently by so doing gained a proprietary right to the images. Their index was apparently done by cheap foreign labor, and without the duplicate Key A and B and arbitration that is a part of FamilySearch indexes, so has an unacceptable error rate. FamilySearch made a deal with Ancestry that we would use their index as one key and reindex this census to improve the accuracy. When the key A batch comes to us, the PID number field is hidden so that indexers will not have to deal with it. However, arbitrators must deal with the field because in arbitration, even hidden fields must have their discrepancies resolved. Normally when the hidden PID field is revealed, Key A should have numbers and Key B should be empty. In fact, since indexers do not normally deal with the PID fiellds, I have no idea how some Key B batches end up with PID numbers.

1930 census index, an every name index to the Fifteenth Census of the United States : Ponchatoula, Louisiana and surrounding areas

1930 Census Index, Bucks County, Pennsylvania

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