South Dakota State Census - "There's Gold in Them Thar Hills!"

Mount Rushmore, SD 1

An assignment in my ProGen class had me re-examining some of my previous work on my great-grandfather. I looked at many of the sources including the South Dakota State Census records. In doing so, I was re-examining the source itself and started gaining a new appreciation for the information within. And the phrase that came to mind immediately was, "There's gold in them thar hills!"

My maternal grandmother's father, John J. Moe, was one of three brothers who emigrated with their parents from Norway to Iowa, and then to South Dakota 10 years later. As adults the three brothers farmed close to each other, although one was in a different county. Between them they had 20 children and over 60 grandchildren.

The three brothers' families have been well documented over the years due to the efforts of several hard-working family members who created hand-written family genealogies in 1961, 1981 and 1996. But I thought it would be good practice to find the South Dakota State Census records for all of the families.

So I spent several hours (more like days) pouring over the state census for these families. And I found some real "nuggets" of information. I highly recommend using this resource if you have family that resided in South Dakota in the first half of the twentieth century. But there's good news and bad news.

First the bad news:

• The South Dakota State Census records are individual records. There is one card per person in the census. So documenting the source, at least in my family history program, is more work than when all the family members are found in one federal census record.
• The South Dakota State Census records are filed alphabetically by last name, then first name. The counties are all mixed together. Family members are probably within the same film but are not necessarily filed next to each other unless they have an unusual last name.
• I found that because of the number of family members I was researching, it was worth my time to navigate to the beginning of the "Moe" records and page through each record. I could have done a search, but this method allowed me to view each record and then focus on those from Brookings and Kingsbury counties. When I tried searching, I found many records didn't show in the results due to transcription errors of the first and/or last names.
• Like all census records, some of the handwriting is very difficult to read: written in pencil, poor penmanship, too light to discern all the information, etc.

Now the good news:

• In almost all of the records that I found, the cards for the members of one family were numbered sequentially making it easier to tell if you had the right family member. For example, my John J. Moe family members' census cards were numbered 606 to 615 even though they weren't filed sequentially.
• South Dakota State Census was taken 1905, 1915, 1925, 1935 and 1945. We have to wait several more years for the 1950 federal census records to be released. But we can see our South Dakota families in 1945 already.
• All of the state census records are available for free on the FamilySearch.org website (and also with a paid subscription to the Ancestry.com website.)
• There is wonderful information contained within these census records that is not generally found in federal census records. For example, in the 1915 census:
• Church affiliation
• Military Service record: which war (Civil, Mexican or Spanish) and State, Regiment & Company 
• Maiden Name of wife
• Year Married
• Extent of Education and (School) Graduate Of
• If foreign born, number of years in United States and number of years in South Dakota.

So here are some examples of what I found. The illustration below shows the 10 cards for my John J. Moe family in the 1915 census. You can see that John J. Moe, the top card in the left column, is card number 606 and the rest of the family is sequentially numbered on cards 607 to 615. As I scrolled manually through the census, I watched for Moe's in Kingsbury County, and then could tell by the card number that I had the right family.

1915 South Dakota State Census cards for John J. Moe family2    

And here is a close up of John J. Moe's 1915 census card. Some of the information found is very similar to that found in federal census records. But some of the information is not on all federal records and can give wonderful leads to the researcher.

1915 South Dakota State Census card for John J. Moe3   

Items number 1- 7 are fairly common census items:
Item 1 - his full name
Item 2 - his age
Item 3 - his residence
Item 4 - his occupation
Item 5 - his birthplace & ancestry, his parents' birthplace
Item 6 - basic demographics: gender, ethnicity, marital status
Item 7 - literacy, and you can see my great-grandfather was listed as blind

Gold Nuggets4

Other "nuggets" of information available:
Highlighted in green: Extent of Education including his school
Highlighted in orange: Military Service
Highlighted in yellow: Maiden name of wife
Highlighted in blue: Year married
Highlighted in pink: Church affiliation
Highlighted in purple: Years in U.S. and Years in S. D.


What could I do with these "extra nuggets" information?

Note that the card said "Graduate of" and the response was, "Iowa for Blind." The school for the blind in Vinton, Iowa has gone through a variety of name changes. The name at the time John J. Moe attended was "Iowa College for the Blind." If this was new information for me, I could write to the school to see if there was information about my great-grandfather available.

My great-grandfather didn't serve in any wars but if he did, there would be detail regarding his service, regiment and company that would give me a research lead.

I love, love, love that the South Dakota State Census includes the wife's maiden name. I noted that sometimes the information is filled in on the husband's card, sometimes the information is filled in on the wife's card. This area is often a brick wall for families. The two facts, maiden name and the year married, give the researcher two great clues for finding additional records.

The church affiliation points the researcher toward potential records for baptisms, confirmations, marriages, burials, church memberships and more. All these records either give additional information or substantiate information already found.

In particular, the Norwegian Lutheran Church records give detail that can be very surprising. My maternal grandfather's half-brother was born out of wedlock in Wisconsin a few years before my great-grandparents were married. When I found his baptismal records in the Wisconsin Norwegian Lutheran church records, it named his actual father. Then when I found his confirmation record in the South Dakota Norwegian Lutheran church records, the actual father's name was again listed. I never expected to find his birth father's name so I was extremely surprised to see it in records 15 years apart in two different states.

Panning for gold5 

Lastly, the years in U. S. and years in S. D. give residence information. Where was the family for the first 11 years before they moved to South Dakota? I happen to know that the family lived in Burr Oak, Iowa when they first arrived in the United States. But if I didn't, this information would give me another research question.

If you have family that lived in South Dakota between the years of 1905 and 1945, I heartily recommend "panning" through the South Dakota State Census records. You might also be saying, "There's gold in them thar hills!"



1. “Mt_Rushmore_workers.jpg” by Jake DeGroot is licensed under Creative Commons, accessed 2/20/2016.

2. "South Dakota State Census, 1915," database with images, <i>FamilySearch</i> (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-266-11686-7124-92?cc=1476041 : accessed 7 February 2016), 004245619 &gt; several images of 3126; State Historical Society, Pierre.

3. South Dakota State Census, 1915," database with images, <i>FamilySearch</i> (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-266-11686-7124-92?cc=1476041 : accessed 7 February 2016), 004245619 &gt; image 611 of 3126; State Historical Society, Pierre.

4. “Gold_in_Falsche_3.JPG” by Alice Chodura is licensed under Creative Commons, accessed 2/20/2016.

5. “GA_gold_panning.png” This image is a work of the Forest Service of the United States Department of Agriculture. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain, accessed 2/20/2016.