This interactive digital map features the names, addresses, and other information of nearly 2,500 Mexican and Mexican-American individuals who lived in Berkeley during the first half of the twentieth century. This dataset was compiled by BHSM volunteers using U.S. census records from 1900, 1920, 1930, 1940, and 1950 accessed through the Berkeley Public Library’s Ancestry.com portal. The 1910 census was not available through BPL, so that decade is not represented.

To make best use of the map, first open the left panel by clicking the icon at the top left of the map. In the panel, you will see each census year represented by a map layer.

To view census years individually, select the check box  next to only the map layer (or layers) that you want to see.

To see an alphabetical list of all the individuals listed in a census year, click the down-pointing arrow at the left of the layer name, next to “All items.” Click a name to see that person’s location on the map and to read other information about the person. 

To display information about the people who lived at the location of a map marker, click any marker on the map.

To search the maps by name and by address, open the map to full-screen view by clicking the icon at the top right of the map. Then enter a name or address in the search bar. 

If you are an Ancestry.com user, clicking the link within a person’s information will take you to the census page for that individual. You can then see all the information that the census included for that person and others in the same census area.

For this project, we included individuals who were either born in Mexico or had at least one parent born in Mexico. It’s important to note that census records vary from decade to decade. In some years, such as 1940 and 1950, parental birthplaces were only selectively recorded, which means that this dataset likely underrepresents the full number of Mexican and Mexican-American residents of Berkeley during this period.