The Fifteenth United States Census records for Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan, for 1930. The census divides the population into categories of name, age, sex, race, marital status, occupants and relation to head of house, whether the home is owned or rented, value of home or rent, whether home is a farm residence, whether the home has a radio. It also records college attendance, literacy, birthplace and birthplace of parents, citizenship status, language spoken before coming to United States, year of immigration, occupation or business, class of worker, whether they worked the previous day, military status, and the war or expedition participated in.
A notable resident listed in the record is Gerald Wilford Near (1922-1995). Born on May 27, 1922, in Detroit, Michigan, Near married Ruth Marie Harris in Fulton County, Ohio, on August 17, 1941. On October 15, 1942, Near enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. He was assigned to the 12th Defense Battalion in January 1943, where he would remain for the majority of his military career. Near’s unit arrived at Woodlark Island, New Guinea, in June 1943, where they protected a United States airfield that screened the landings in the Solomon Islands. Near left the 12th Defense Battalion around June 1944, when the unit became redesignated as the 12th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion. He returned to the United States and reported to the Marine Barracks at the Navy Yard in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in July 1944. Near was discharged from the Marine Corps as a Corporal on February 14, 1946. He died on November 17, 1995, in Venice, Florida, and was memorialized at Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell, Florida, on January 9, 1996.
In 2017, the University of Central Florida was one of three universities selected to launch the National Cemetery Administration’s
Veterans Legacy Program Project. The program engaged a team of scholars to make the life stories of veterans buried in the Florida National Cemetery available to the public. The project engages UCF students in research and writing and fosters collaboration between students, faculty and local Central Florida schools to produce interactive curriculum for k-12 students. The corresponding website exhibit uses RICHES Mosaic Interface to create a digital archive of related data. The public can use the project-developed augmented-reality app at more than 100 gravesites at the Florida National Cemetery, where they can access the UCF student-authored biographies of veterans.