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
A Census by Another Name We’ve been talking about the population schedules of the U.S. census. They are the ones you normally think of as the census, the schedule that counted everyone in the nation. Pictures of census enumerators often show them with a one book, although usually a large one. In reality, census enumerators
Pay Attention to the “Other Questions” The 1820 – 1840 censuses asked questions, usually buried within the hash marks on the second page, that can not only give you more information about your ancestors, but also can point you to other areas of research to pursue. Questions on Health On the 1830 and 1840 censuses,
Counting the Enslaved Population Most of us are familiar with the 1850 and 1860 Slave Schedule of the U.S. Census, but did you know that the enslaved were counted much earlier? Starting in 1820 the enslaved population was counted, giving the age range and sex of each individual. The number of slaves a person owned
The Math Can be Tricky Unless you are a math whiz, which I am not, don’t be afraid to use a calculator on this step. Especially since you are switching the ages to date ranges, it can be confusing. On the children, often you will only have two or maybe three decades to compare. If
It’s Better Than You Think! At first glance the 1790-1840 census seems like not much help. All you see is rows of hash marks with not much information. However, if you look closely the information is there, it just takes a little more work to pull it out. Here’s what you may find. We’ll discuss
Serving Their Country Throughout the decades the census would ask questions about military service. Here’s a summary. As you can see, these questions varied a lot and depended on the time period covered by each census. I have not mentioned the 1890 Veterans Schedule, we’ll discuss that when we talk about the non-population schedules. When
Do You Own or Rent? Starting with the 1900 census, enumerators asked questions about the type of place a person was living in. Like a lot of census questions, these varied a lot over the following decades. The basic information asked each decade was: Prosperous or not? One of the primary things these questions can
Chasing the Records-Application Now that all our heads are spinning, let’s get down to basics and see how we can actually use this information. Born Elsewhere? One thing to look for is if a person’s parents were born outside the U.S. The 1870 census asked if a person’s parents were foreign born. The 1880 and
Chasing the Records Until 1820 there were no manifests or passenger lists required in the United States. Before that, passenger identification was not required, but that does not mean there is no record of your immigrant ancestor. Here are three possibilities. Who’s on Your Ship? After 1820 The Steerage Act required that ships captains submit
