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1920 Census: abbreviation "NS" for place of birth

Joy Schwarz

Can you tell me what the abbreviation "NS" might mean on the 1920 U.S. census for place of birth? Might it mean "not stated"? (I do not think it means Nova Scotia.)

In column 19 of the 1920 census for a person's place of birth, the census enumerator wrote "NS" for many of the people on the pages for Ward 4A of Butte, Montana. Both FamilySearch and Ancestry.com have indexed NS to mean Nova Scotia, but the person I'm researching -- surname Grant on line 51 of sheet 4B -- was born in Massachusetts, not Nova Scotia. The page I'm looking at is https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M8QQ-TP3 at FamilySearch and https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/6061/images/4313244-00293 at Ancestry.

Considering the number of people residing at 132 West Granite Street in Butte whose relationship to head of the family is "lodger", I think this residence might be an apartment building. And based on the prevalence of "unknown" for age and marital status and "US" as parents' place of birth, my guess as that many of the residents were absent when the enumerator knocked on their door; hence the placeholder "NS".

I've checked the 1920 Census Instructions to Enumerators at https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial-census/technical-documentation/questionnaires/1920/1920-instructions.html and didn't see "NS" mentioned as an option for a person's nativity.

Thanks,
Joy

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    Usually questions like your can be answered by looking at the instructions given to the enumerators.  The 1920 instructions can be seen at: https://usa.ipums.org/usa/voliii/inst1920.shtml  Paragraphs starting on #138 discuss what should be put down.  That doesn't mean the enumerators always followed their instructions.  Abbreviations were discouraged.  NS is not covered in the instructions.

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    Joy,

    It appears that the heads of households didn't know much about their (often numerous) lodgers and/or no one was at home at the hotel or apartment house. The best guess for NS might be "not stated" given, as you indicate, since their marital status and age are also usually unknown. Why the enumerator simply didn't indicate unknown or US (since the same people's parents' birthplaces are indicated as US) is certainly also a mystery. 

    If indexers at other websites are indicating that "NS" means Nova Scotia, they were wrong to make that assumption, and, unfortunately, many people may be misled as a result. 


    Claire Kluskens, National Archives