Secrets of the Census, Part 1

American genealogists take for granted that we have access to our census records. We understand there are privacy limits that keep us from seeing more recent censuses, but we also enjoy almost unlimited access to all of them from the first in 1790 to the most recently released, 1950. Yes, we know that some early censuses are missing, and most of us have heard the sad story about the loss of nearly all of the 1890 census due to the effects of a fire. Those of us who remember the days of cranking microfilm or plowing through Soundex cards are luxuriating in having the census enumerations digitized and forgiving of spelling mistakes in the online indexes. We now can breeze through dozens of pages, building our families with comparative ease. But, in our eagerness to collect census information, do we spend enough time really looking at what is on all those forms? We'll take a closer look at the secrets of the census in the next few weeks, beginning with the earliest and working our way forward in time.

The early censuses are useful for a variety of reasons:

• To verify what you know about families, even though these sheets only list the heads of household until 1850
• To pinpoint where people lived so you know where to look for more records
• To identify possible relatives or close neighbors who may have traveled together
• To spot spelling variations of surnames
• To determine possible slave holders
• To get a general picture of the ages and gender of children. 

By 1830, the census was asking for those who were “deaf, dumb, and blind” to be identified, leading to possible guardianship or institutional records. Those who were not naturalized were also identified, helping to point to possible court records.

The 1840 census, the last before all members of a household were identified by name, was the first census to ask for Revolutionary War pensioners and those who were working in a variety of specific occupations. This census is also important because it asked questions on adult literacy and identified those who were blind, deaf, and “insane.” However, the 1840 census included so many questions that it spreads over two sheets that were originally back-to-back, leading to two potential problems:

1. Some of the second pages are heavy with "bleed through." Be careful with those because what looks like check marks or numbers may just be the ink from the first page staining the page behind it.
2. Because none of the lines on the second sheet are numbered, you need to refer to the first page, count the lines, and note where your ancestor appears so you can find the rest of the information on the family.

Let's look at some families in Washington County, Kentucky. First is Samuel Booker, whose name is misspelled as "Book" on the second page of his enumeration. We learn he was receiving a pension from the Revolutionary War, and he was eighty-two years old. Like many in this county, he had a significant number of enslaved individuals in his household. They are not named but tallied by gender and age. (Note the bleed through on this page.)

The next households are that of Harrison McEntire (misspelled; should be McIntire) and Joseph Graves. Counting from the bottom of the page, Joseph is entry number five and Harrison is number eleven. Here we see the enumeration of their family members, separated by gender and age. Harrison's family is known to this researcher, and this census helps to pinpoint the death of a son who is not on the 1850 census. We may never learn his name, but the census shows that he was a part of the household and may have died as a child.

When we go to the second page and count upwards from the bottom, we see that Harrison has one individual in his home who is considered "blind and insane" living "at private charge." (Maybe that little boy who did not survive being cared for at home?) Joseph, fifth from the bottom, has a "colored person" who is "deaf and dumb" and another who is "insane and idiot." Certainly not politically correct but perhaps helping to identify at least two of his enslaved individuals.

How do we know all of these details when the column headings may be hard to read? The good news is that the National Archives has a complete set of census forms you can reference, including those from Great Britain and Canada, on its website, and you can go directly to the links in the FamilySearch wiki at 

https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Genealogy_Research_Forms#National_Archives_and_Record_Administration

We'll continue our census tips in another post or two, so stay tuned!