Down on the Farm

I always get excited when I find an Agricultural Schedule for someone I am researching. It tells me a lot about their lives, even details like how often they went on vacation! But first, let’s talk about some background information

The agricultural schedules we have available for the federal census are from 1850-1880.  Often states would gather their own information about agriculture.  To find these, consult records under the specific state or county.  As with other non-population schedules, the agricultural schedule is not available for every state and county.   The easiest way to determine if the schedule is available for your state is to visit the NARA non-population schedules page at https://www.archives.gov/research/census/nonpopulation  (be sure to scroll down to the bottom of the page).  This guide will tell you what agricultural and other schedules are available for which states and where you can find them.

Perhaps I am prejudiced about the agricultural schedule because I have spent time in agriculture.  It helps to know about life on a farm or ranch.  Being familiar with how things work in an agricultural operation will help you interpret what is on that schedule. 

If your ancestor had ten dairy cows, that tells you a lot about their lifestyle.  Dairy cows for hundreds of years have needed to be milked twice day.  They also need to be milked every day.  They don’t shut down on weekends or take a vacation from producing milk!  What this meant for your ancestor is they were usually early risers, often starting before daylight.  It also meant that if they ever went on a trip, they had to have someone else come in and milk the cows for them, so they did not go on many trips.

If they were producing crops, such as oats or corn, their lives were not unlike farmers today.  They worked long hours during the growing season and had some leisure time during the winter.

If you find your ancestor on the population schedule of the census, and they were a farm laborer, the agricultural schedule will still give details about their lives as well.  Look at the families around them and see if there was a large landowner or farmer with a large property value.  If one is close by, your ancestor may have been working for them.  Finding that landowner on the agricultural schedule could give you some insight into what your ancestor did during their days. 

The agricultural schedule also revealed many things about the community where your ancestor lived.  We’ll talk more about that next time.