This will teach some of us, what we may be missing
from, census records.
Earl
__________________________
Clues in Census Records, 1850-1920
Experienced genealogical researchers use clues found in one record to
find other records about the same individual. This article describes
some of the clues found in census records.
Date of birth
The 1900 census (column 7) indicates the person's month and year of
birth; the 1850-1880 and 1910-1920 censuses indicate the person's age.
The 1870 census (column 13) and 1880 census (column 7) indicate the
month in which the person was born, if born "within the year," that is
between June 1, 1869 and May 31, 1870 for the 1870 census, or June 1,
1879 and May 31, 1880, for the 1880 census. The official census day was
June 1 in both 1870 and 1880, although the enumerator may have visited
the household at a later date.
While the person's age is not an exact date of birth, it at least
provides a "ballpark" figure useful (1) for tracking the person from one
census to the next, especially if other people have the same name, and
(2) for locating the person in any existing vital records.
Place of birth
The 1850-1920 censuses indicate the person's state or country of birth,
which helps narrow the geographic scope of search for the specific town
of birth.
Date of marriage
The 1850 census (column 10), 1860 census (column 11), 1870 census
(column 14), and 1880 census (column 12) indicate whether the person had
married within the year.
"Within the year" means during the year before the official census day,
that is, between June 1, 1849 and May 31, 1850, for the 1850 census;
between June 1, 1859 and May 31, 1860, for the 1860 census; between June
1, 1869 and May 31, 1870, for the 1870 census; and between June 1, 1879
and May 31, 1880, for the 1880 census. The official census day was June
1 in each of these census years, although the enumerator may have
visited the household at a later date.
The 1900 census (column 10) and 1910 census (column 9) indicate the
number of years of marriage for each married person.