What the Census Knows, 1850-1890

Albert & Rosella (LaValley) Durant, my 3x Great-Grandparents.

The information on the census reports for 1850 to 1890 can give you information to better flesh out the lives of your ancestors. After trolling through them for months, the information will become more clear, but even still, not all the handwriting is legible enough to discern what questions are being answered. This week I will be sharing a breakdown of each census report, and what the columns tell you, left to right. There may be some slight variations.

The US Census is an interesting read on its own, without ancestral context, simply to see what questions were thought to gather important information as the country grew and developed. On the personal side, these set of reports include job information and locations of birth, as well as clues to infirmities and education levels.

1850& 1860:

·         dwelling houses numbered in the order of visitation; families numbered in the order of visitation

·         the name of every person whose usual place of abode was within the family

·         age

·         sex

·         color (white, black or mulatto)

·         profession occupation or trade of males over 15

·         value of real estate owned; value of personal estate owned (1860 only)

·         place of birth

·         whether married within the year

·         whether attended school within the year

·         persons over 20 years who cannot read or write

·         whether deaf, dumb, blind, insane, idiotic, pauper or convict

1870:

·         dwelling houses numbered in the order of visitation; families numbered in the order of visitation

·         the name of every person whose usual place of abode was within the family

·         age at last birthday

·         sex

·         color (white, black, mulatto, Chinese, or Indian)

·         profession occupation or trade of each person, male or female

·         value of real estate owned; value of personal estate owned

·         place of birth; whether father and mother were of foreign birth

·         if born within the year, list month

·         if married within the year, list month

·         whether attended school within the year

·         whether cannot read; whether cannot write

·         whether deaf and dumb, blind, insane, or idiotic

·         male citizens of the US over 21 years

·         male citizens older than 21 whose right to vote is denied or abridged on grounds other than religion or other crime

1880: (the first time women were allowed to be enumerators)

·         name of street; house number

·         dwelling houses numbered in order of visitation; families numbered in order of visitation

·         name of each person whose place of abode was with the family

·         color (white, black, mulatto, Chinese, or Indian)

·         sex

·         age at last birthday; if born within the census year, list month

·         relationship of each person to the head of the family

·         whether single; whether married; whether widowed or divorced

·         profession, occupation or trade of each person, male or female; number of months person has been unemployed; whether person is sick or temporarily disabled and unable to work, list sickness

·         whether blind; deaf or dumb; idiotic; insane; maimed, crippled, or bedridden

·         whether attended school within the census year

·         whether cannot read; whether cannot write

·         place of birth; place of father’s birth; place of mother’s birth

1890: Only 6,160 census reports out of 62,979,766 survived a great fire at the Commerce Department in Washington, DC. It occurred January 10, 1921. For 1890 only, each family was enumerated on a separate sheet of paper. 

·         full Christian name with middle initial; surname

·         whether a soldier, sailor, or marine in the civil war, or a widow of one

·         relationship to head of family

·         race (white, black, mulatto, quadroon, octoroon, Chinese, Japanese, Indian)

·         sex

·         age

·         whether single, married, divorced or widowed; whether married during the census year

·         mother of how many children and how many of these still living

·         place of birth; place of father’s birth; place of mother’s birth

·         number of years in the US; whether naturalized; whether naturalization papers have been taken out

·         profession, trade or occupation; number of months unemployed

·         attendance at school

·         able to read; able to write

·         able to speak English, or language spoken

·         whether suffering from acute or chronic disease, list disease

·         whether defective in mind, sight, hearing or speech, whether crippled, maimed or deformed

·         whether a prisoner, convict, homeless child or pauper

·         home rented or owned and if owned; whether free from mortgage or not

After I had accumulated enough Census reports, I noticed that I didn't have a single one from 1890 and went on the search to find out why. The only surviving fragments are from Alabama (1 county), District of Columbia (10 streets), Georgia (1 county), Illinois (1 county, 1 township), Minnesota (1 county, 1 township), New Jersey (1 county, 1 city), New York (2 counties, 2 towns), North Carolina (2 counties, 2 towns), Ohio (2 counties, 1 town), South Dakota (1 county, 1 town), and Texas (5 counties, 10 precincts).

Coming next week, What the Census Knows, 1900-1940. See last week’s post for the census reports from 1790-1840.