Margie R. Pearce
URL:
http://www.angelfire.com/la/ancestors
-----Original Message-----
From: Wanda R Tracy [SMTP:wrtracy@juno.com]
Sent: Friday, February 13, 1998 11:28 AM
To: OWEN-L(a)rootsweb.com
Subject: renee-l(a)juno.com (Renee' LaViness): Census Subs & More
Hello,
This message was forwarded to me and I think it has some good information
for us all in our research.
Wanda
wrtracy(a)juno.com
-
Subject: Census Subs & More
Date: Thu, 12 Feb 1998 03:47:08 -0600
Message-ID: <19980212.035638.13022.1.Renee-L(a)juno.com>
Hey, here is some really good info that I hope will help at least one of
us.
Take care! Renee'
--------- Begin forwarded messages ----------
This came from the Ancestry daily newsletter
Thought some of you might find it interesting
===============================================
From The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy
Edited by
Loretto Dennis Szucs and Sandra Hargreaves Luebking
Census Substitutes
Page 136
In the absence of official census records, genealogists and historians
have shown ingenuity in filling the resulting gaps. An interesting 1776
census was compiled from oaths of allegiance ordered by the colonial
government of Maryland. Several of the lists are arranged in family
units, with ages given for each person. The pattern was later used for
U.S. federal schedules. In 1778, a second census tallied those who
opposed the American Revolution. Included on this second list are
Quakers, Mennonites, and others who refused to take oaths, as well as
some remaining Tories. Tax lists often make acceptable substitutes for
missing censuses.
School Censuses
Traditionally, school censuses have been taken to insure that local
facilities and teachers are adequate and to plan for future
appropriations. These schedules count the children of school age. Some
lists are in family units with parents' names included. Some list
children with ages only.
Constable's or Sheriff's Census
The constable or sheriff's census (also called a police census) actually
had little to do with law enforcement; but the local constable, often
under the eye of the sheriff, was the official most often used to
assemble data required for administrative decisions. For example, in
1769-1770, the governor of Connecticut required an enumeration of "how
many parsons partayn to ech family, and how many boshels of wheat, and
of Indian corne, ech famyly hath."
Another sheriff's census was taken to the Committee of Safety and
Relief, 16 April 1814, to account for settlers on the Niagara Frontier
(western New York) who were "victimized during the War of 1812." Money
was raised in Albany by voluntary donation to provide aid for these
settlers.
Pennsylvania's tax assessors took septennial (every seven years)
censuses from 1763 to 1807, listing taxable inhabitants by township.
Occasionally, the list covered males age sixteen to forty-five only,
thus making a militia census. Tax assessors were exempt along with
teachers, physicians, provincial and state government leaders, militia
captains, and others. Their names were not included on the same lists.
Exempt status was set by law.
Church/Civil Censuses
In areas where a church was established and supported by the civil
government, enumerating the population was often the responsibility of
church officials. The most common examples come from New England, but
others can be found among church-wardens' records in Virginia and South
Carolina.
As a more modern example, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints enumerated its members in Pottawatomie, Iowa, as part of the Iowa
state census ordered in 1847 for all residents. These church schedules
contain the standard information asked for in the Iowa tally but also
include wagons, guns, number of family members ill, aged, or infirm, and
oxen/cattle/horses. These data suggest a dual function for the census to
comply with the Iowa law and to prepare for transporting a large body of
people westward, a project even then under way. Emigrating companies
were enumerated in tens and hundreds before they embarked the
organization under which they traveled to Utah.
Other censuses were taken in Utah in 1852 and 1856. These tallies are
valuable because many people did not survive the trek across the Great
Plains and the Rockies; comparing the two censuses helps clarify
mortality figures. Many of the companies that Brigham Young sent to
colonize the Mormon Corridor before 1872 (Rocky Mountain valleys
stretching from Mexico to Canada and from Las Vegas to San Bernardino,
California) made summaries of individuals, professions, states of
health, wagons, cattle, and weapons. Many of these schedules are among
the collections of the LDS Church Historical Department, 50 North West
Temple, Salt Lake City, UT 84150. More widely known are the
twentieth-century census cards (1914 to 1960), which enumerate all LDS
families in organized wards. They are available for research on
microfilm at the Genealogical Society of Utah.
Settlers Census
Still another example is the Holland Land Company Census of 1806. The
Holland Land Company had great difficulty getting payments from settlers
on their lands in central and western New York. Its census assessed the
resources of these settlers and, hence, their ability to pay. The 1806
data is especially valuable, as many of these people moved on before the
1810 federal census. For some, it is the only record of their stop in
New York City.
Importance of Local Censuses
Local censuses can be useful in discovering the names of children who
are listed in pre-1850 census schedules by age groupings only.
Similarly, these censuses may be used to determine the number living in
a household and compared with birth and death records. They may also
verify specific residences of individuals who moved too rapidly to be
recorded in other sources; and they may identify neighbors and other
community members whose records can provide additional clues for tracing
families and individuals back in time. Comparing local census schedules
with tax records and other property sources is often one of the best
ways to distinguish individuals of the same or similar names.
African American Census Schedules
From about 1830 on, northern cities increasingly felt the need to
monitor African Americans who were moving from the South seeking freedom
and work. In 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, Ohio called for the
number and names of African Americans who had immigrated to Ohio from
other states since 1 March 1861, their current township of residence,
and their state of origin. Thirteen counties in southeastern Ohio
submitted schedules. Hamilton County refused because the numbers were
too great and its staff too limited.
Household censuses of Philadelphia's African American population were
taken in 1838 and 1856 by the Pennsylvania Abolition Society and in 1847
by the Society of Friends. In addition to the variables listed in the
federal census, the records of 11,600 households contain information
describing membership in church, beneficial, and temperance societies;
income, education level, and school attendance; house, ground, and water
rent; how freedom was acquired; and the amount of property brought to
Pennsylvania. These superb records constitute the most detailed
information we have describing any population group in the
mid-nineteenth century; they are being computer-processed as part of an
urban-immigrant study of African Americans in Philadelphia conducted by
Temple University.
The National Archives has issued a separate list of "Free Black Heads of
Families in the First Census of the U.S. 1790" as Special List 34. This
compilation by Debra L. Newman is available free upon request from the
National Archives. An expanded version for New York is Alice Eichholz
and James M. Rose, comps., Free Black Heads of Households in the New
York State Federal Census 1790-1830, Gale Genealogy and Local History
Series, vol. 14 (Detroit: Gale Research Co., 1981).
Michael Reck
2434 Forest Home Ave.
Riverside, Ohio 45404-2410
E-Mail: moreck(a)juno.com
"Better to Praise Him than to doubt Him, there is Victory in Praise"
-Rev. Pete Hood
-----------------------------AND
MORE-----------------------------------------
In 1866, the state of West Virginia minted a medal for each
of the
soldiers
who participated in the Civil War. Originally, 26,099 were
minted and
many
given to the soldier himself. However, the state was unable
to find all
the veterans, leaving the medal unclaimed. In fact, there
are still
about
5,200 which have not been claimed and presented to the
families of these
veterans. The WV Archives are working to locate the
descendants of
these
soldiers.
The claim process is simple:
1. Go to the site, read about the medals and check the
list.
2. If one of the names on the list matches your ancestor,
follow the
claim
submission process detailed at the site.
3. They will work with you to verify your claim, and if
validated you
could receive the medal on behalf of your ancestor.
Simple as that, here's the site:
http://www.wvlc.wvnet.edu/history/medals.html
==== STEWART Mailing List ====
"My" Stewarts are described in "Oak Leaves A Family History of the
Descendants of Daniel Stewart of Appin, Argyll, Scotland 1751-1819"
------------------------And MORE-----------------------------------------
The historians can be found through the TN Genweb page.
Carroll County Genealogy and Historical Society
640 North Main Street
McKenzie, TN 38201
Lauderdale County Historical Society
957 Doctor Hall Road
Halls, TN 38040-8727
Lake County Genealogical and Historical Society
110 Cherry Street
Tiptonville, TN 38079
Mid-West Tennessee Genealogical Society (Madison County)
P.O. Box 3343
Murray Station
Jackson, TN 38303-0343
Gibson County Historical Society - is in Trenton - don't know address
Hope this helps you and anyone else who can use it.
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