Secrets of the Census, Part 2

The first federal census to list all members of a household appeared in 1850, but that's not the only thing that makes this enumeration so important to genealogists. This census also asked for the birthplace of each individual, and even though they didn't always do it, enumerators in this census were to read the information they recorded back to the interviewee so errors could be corrected, adding to its accuracy. This census, and the one following it, also included Slave Schedules for southern states (although New Jersey and the District of Columbia also participated). As we mentioned in our previous post about the early censuses, there were non-population schedules during the mid-nineteenth century, and in 1850, these schedules were created for agriculture, industry and manufacturing, mortality, social statistics, and veterans. Read on for much more on this census.

Only heads of households appear on census sheets until the 1850 census. Now, everyone in a household was listed for the first time; however, there are no relationships (they wouldn't come for another thirty years!), so you do need to be careful not to assume how members of a household connect to each other. Let's travel to LaRue County, Kentucky, and check out a page from the Hamiltons Precinct, enumerated on 5 September 1850. 

The first family on this page, that of James Ewing, contains a woman named Sarah and seven small children. Is Sarah his wife? Probably. Is she the mother of all the children? Maybe, but maybe not. She is fifteen years his junior. She's old enough to be the mother of a thirteen-year-old, but that gap of ages between James and Sarah might lead you to investigate this family more closely.

The third family is headed by Elizabeth Fairleigh, who is just thirty-four. She's got five children in her household and a woman named Sarah Quinn, who is sixty-one-years old. Elizabeth and her children were born in Kentucky, but Sarah was born in Virginia. If you guessed that Sarah was Elizabeth's mother and that Elizabeth's maiden name was Quinn, you'd be correct. But if you didn't know that, now you've got a great clue to go by, since Sarah's full name is given here.

What you don't know by looking at this sheet is that Elizabeth's husband had died just a few years previously, leaving her a very rich widow with a thriving farm and enslaved people to work it. We can learn more by looking at the 1850 slave schedule for Elizabeth's household. 

Elizabeth had eleven enslaved people, none of whom are identified by name, but simply by gender and age. One of those, the forty-year-old woman, was "mulatto," an old term for biracial. Although you cannot be certain, it is likely that at least some of the children belong to the older adults. If you were descended from any of Elizabeth Fairleigh's enslaved workers, you would want to work in the LaRue County courthouse records to see if you could find more information on the Fairleigh family. This possibly could lead you to the names of those enslaved people and other relationships to the household. 

Finally, we can learn more about Elizabeth's farm by investigating the 1850 agricultural schedule. As you can see below in her entry on the last line, Elizabeth had a little more than 400 acres of land, half improved and half not, all-told valued at $5,000. Her farm implements were worth $150. She had $600 worth of assorted livestock, including horses, oxen, cows, and pigs. The farm was growing wheat and oats, but the bulk of their crop was corn, with 1,200 bushels on hand.

The 1850 census and the non-population schedules are all available for free on FamilySearch.org. If it's been a while since you've looked at copies you've collected in the past, why not go back and see if you've overlooked anything? We'll dive deeper into the next census soon. Did you miss the first post in this series? You can go back and read it here.