Does the Date Really Matter? For some unknown reason, the date the count was made for the census has changed over the decades. From 1850 until 1900 it was June 1 of the census year. In 1910 the date was changed to April 15, and in 1920 it changed again to January 1. In 1930 […]
Reading, Writing, Rithmetic! Another question related to schooling is whether a person could read or write. Although phrased differently, the basic question was asked in 1850-1930. This question can tell us several things. You might wonder why the question stopped being asked after 1930. By that time education had become standardized in the United States,
Have You Got the Smarts? Most of the census returns since 1850 have asked about schooling. School related questions are on each census from that year until 1940 except for the 1880 census. The 1950 census asks about schooling in the supplemental questions, so you have a one in five chance to learn about your
Disabilities One thing about the 19th century censuses that I have always been curious about are the questions about various disabilities. From 1830 through 1880 and again in 1910 the census these questions appeared. Some Possible Answers It’s important to remember that often people answered the census based on what they wanted others to know.
How Much Are You Worth? The 1850, 1860, and 1870 U.S. census returns all asked how much each person’s real estate was worth. Believe it or not, this is a valuable question for many reasons. The 1860 and 1870 census also asked the value of a person’s personal property. This can be almost as useful!
Nativity The last question that was asked on every U.S. census from 1850-1950 was where a person was born. I, like many of you, lament the enumerator not asking the name of the county as well as the state. After all, how hard would it have been? Other Countries Sometimes when a person was foreign
They Pay You For That? One of the last questions that has been standard over every census since 1850 is occupation. Starting in 1910 the census enumerator would also ask what industry the person was in, providing a lot more detail. There are a few things to consider when evaluating this answer. The first is
Civil Condition Please? Believe it or not, that was the question asked on the 1880 census to determine whether a person was married, widowed, or divorced. Since 1880 this personal status has been required. As family historians there are several things we can learn from an ancestor’s marital status. Follow the Clues The main thing
All Present? It’s easy to imagine our ancestors in situations that are unrealistic for them. Many have seen the picture of the census taker visiting a family with mom, dad, and all the kids gathered around. Unfortunately, this was rarely the case. More realistic is that dad was gone in the early morning, the kids
Are We Related? In 1880 Congress gave Family Historians a gift. They put a column on the census form that asked each person’s relationship to the head of the household. Early On In the censuses before this one, 1850, 1860, 1870, we often assumed that the people in that home were a man, his wife,