Genealogy News Near and Far

Long-Lost Census Records Discovered from Perry County, Missouri

For decades, people in Perry County, Missouri, knew there was a gap in the 1880 census in Enumeration District 99, Union Township. The problem was that no one knew where the pages had gone; they were just missing. Recently, however, the pages have turned up in a most unexpected location.

According to the Missouri State Archives, in 2015, the state began to work with the Missouri Historical Society "to digitize and make publicly accessible all Missouri's non-population schedules. Through this project, Archives staff identified the population schedule pages mixed in with those from the state's 1880 agricultural schedule."

For those of you unfamiliar with non-population census schedules, throughout much of the history of the census there have been separate counts of mortality, agriculture, manufacturing, and other important topics that reveal many details about our ancestors not found on the general population pages. However, not all of these censuses were indexed and made accessible until recently. It appears that the Perry County pages were misfiled by U.S. Census Bureau officials before the pages were bound and stored, which explains why no one knew where they were.

To learn more about Missouri's special censuses and/or to view the missing Perry County pages,
click here to go to the page on federal census records on the Missouri Secretary of State's website.

Some Talks of Interest in October

St. Louis Community College Continuing Education presents: "Missouri's Statehood and Its First State Capital" by Dorris Keeven-Franke
Missouri History Museum, Forest Park, lower level
Tuesday, 23 October at 10:30 a.m.
Free, but registration required via the Community College; call 314-984-7777

The St. Clair Genealogical Society presents: "Cemetery Myths and Symbolism" by Teri Bromley
Belleville Public Library (121 E. Washington Street), Belleville, Illinois
Wednesday, 24 October at 6 p.m.
Free, no pre-registration required