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,
Your Ancestor’s Name … Maybe! The first major column in the census, and arguably the one our eyes are first drawn to, are the names. Ideally these names would be the proper names of our ancestors, would be spelled correctly, and would be legible. Unfortunately that is often not the case. 19th Century Literacy Literacy
Your Number Please! Another helpful item in the heading is the page number. Not necessarily the one that was stamped but the one that was written when the page was originally copied. Sometimes it is called a sheet number. In an effort to make things easier for us, the people who organize and provide these
Not so fast! Before we get to the body of the census, the left columns need a little more attention. Things that have been in these columns consistently since 1850 are the dwelling and family numbers. These numbers can help you determine your ancestor’s living conditions. If the dwelling number remains the same – or
First Things First Before we jump into the body of the census let’s look at other information on the outside of the body of the census, the heading. The heading contains some information that will help you better understand what is contained in the body of the census. One of those is the date. When
Enumeration District??? You have probably noticed a line in the heading of some census documents for Enumeration District. Even though they weren’t labeled, they have been around since the first census in 1790. The enumeration district was the area that an enumerator, the person recording information for the census, stayed within when recording census information.
Location, Location, Location One of the things often overlooked on the U.S. Census is the location of the households. One reason is they weren’t recorded consistently. The other is because they were written sideways and often unrecognizable. Add That Street! Starting with the 1880 U.S. Census the Instructions to the Enumerators (Enumerators were people conducting
