Here's something of interest. I can not provide any information on the
quality nor is my intention to promote this CD rom product, I just want you
to know it is available.
==============================================================
The following article is from Eastman's Online Genealogy
Newsletter and is copyright 2001 by Richard W. Eastman. It is
republished here with the permission of the author.
- 1880 United States Census on CD-ROM
This week I had the opportunity to use a monumental new database;
the 1880 United States Census Records as produced by the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons). This huge
offering fills 56 CD-ROM disks. No, that is not a typo error. This
census database really does fill FIFTY-SIX CD-ROM disks. The 1880
census contains information about 50 million individuals. The
disks are packaged in a nice-looking, three-ring binder. While one
CD-ROM disk only weighs a half-ounce or so, the combined binder
plus all the 1880 census disks weighs a total of several pounds.
This is a big database!
The release of the 1880 United States Census is a major
announcement for several reasons. First, the availability of this
resource on CD-ROM is news by itself. Next, this new resource
contains a complete, nationwide index. The 1880 census has never
been indexed before. In order to find a listed person, you had to
already know where he or she lived at that time. If you have
ancestors with unknown locations at that time, you probably were
unable to find their census listings until now. Even if you knew
they lived in a big city, finding their entries in the 1880 census
was a tedious task until the release of this new CD-ROM tool.
The 1880 United States Census Records CD-ROM set contains
transcribed records, not original images. That is, hundreds of
volunteers spent hundreds of thousands of hours reading census
records on microfilm and then typing pertinent information into
the database. These transcribed records contain the following
information about each person:
* Last name
* First name, often including middle name or initials
* Age
* Sex
* Race
* Marital status
* Occupation
* Relationship to the head of household
* State or country of birth
* Father's state or country of birth
* Mother's state or country of birth
* National Archives microfilm number and page
* Family History Library microfilm number
Keep in mind that the above items are only a subset of the
original records. The following information appears in the
original 1880 U.S. Census records but is not on the CD-ROM
version:
* The street name and house number in cities
* Whether or not an individual was married within the year
* The number of months an individual was unemployed during the
census year
* Whether or not an individual was sick or temporarily disabled
so as not able to function normally, and if so, the nature of
the illness
* Whether an individual was blind, deaf, dumb, idiotic, insane,
maimed, crippled, bedridden, or otherwise permanently disabled
* Whether or not an individual attended school within the year
(although the CD-ROM version does often list an occupation of
"student" or "attends school").
* Whether or not an individual can read and write
As always, you will want to use the transcribed records on CD-ROM
as a guide to the original records. Once you find a record on CD-
ROM, you will want to view the original record on microfilm to
obtain the rest of the details. Each record on CD lists the
microfilm number and page number of the original record. You can
view these microfilms in many libraries or rent them for about
$3.00 each through a local Family History Center near you.
Installation of this CD-ROM set was simple. One of the CD-ROM
disks contains the Windows software that you first install. The
software is called Family History Resource File Viewer version 4.0
and apparently is based upon Folio Views, a product of the Folio
Corporation. The software requires a Pentium processor (or
equivalent), Windows 95, 98 or NT 4.0; 8 megabytes of RAM minimum
(16 megabytes recommended); a CD-ROM drive (4-speed or faster
recommended), 8 megabytes of hard disk space and a VGA monitor
with 256-color-capable video card. While Windows 2000 was not
listed as a supported operating system, I installed the software
on my Windows 2000 Pro system, and everything appeared to function
perfectly. The entire software installation took a minute or so to
complete.
I have been told that Macintosh owners have successfully installed
and used this software by using a 32-bit Windows emulator on their
Macs. While you probably can do the same, keep in mind that such
operation is not guaranteed or supported by the software
producers.
There is no manual included within the CD-ROM package, and I
didn't feel that I needed one. Operation was intuitive most of the
time. When I had a question, I pressed F1 or clicked on "Help" and
was soon able to find the answer in the built-in help files.
I first started by looking for one ancestor and found him quickly.
Very conveniently, he was listed on Disk #1 of this 56-disk set.
Admittedly, I had found him before in the census records that I
had viewed on microfilm, so I simply verified the data I already
had. Everything on CD-ROM matched my earlier notes.
I then moved on to other families. I searched and searched for
this person and that. Next, I started looking for information that
I know is of interest to a few of my friends. I then looked for
still others. The next thing I knew, I had spent six hours using
this database. These CD-ROM disks are addictive!
When searching for names, be sure to check for variant spellings.
For instance, my grandfather, Mike Deabay, and his father, Andrew
Deabay, were both listed with a last name of Debeay. I have seen
the microfilms of the original census records and know that the
enumerator (census taker) wrote it with a space in the name -- "De
Beay" -- although that space wasn't shown on the CD-ROM
transcriptions. I also know that my grandfather could not read or
write and wasn't sure how to spell his own name. I doubt if his
father could read or write either. In 1880, many people could not
read or write. My other French-Canadian great-grandparents were
listed with a last name of "Tareo" whereas it is spelled Theriault
in church documents I have found. At least both names are
pronounced the same. I would assume that the census takers had to
guess at the spelling of many such names.
Such variations are common in census records, and the genealogist
will always want to try various spellings. Luckily, this is easy
to do in the 1880 U.S. Census CD-ROM disks as you can search by
wild cards. That is, you can search for "d*b*y" will find all
occurrences of Deabay, Debeay and De Beay as well as Debey,
Danbury, Darby, Deboy, Derby and many more.
You can even use wildcard on the first letter of a last name. For
instance, census takers have been known to use the letter K
instead of C or V instead of D. In addition, transcription errors
creep in when the census taker's handwriting is difficult to read
or the ink has faded. The Letter R may be mistaken for a K or
something similar; For example, the Rencher family may be listed
as Kencher. You can easily find many spelling variations with wild
card searches.
You can also use the Boolean operators AND, OR and NOT. For
instance, you can specify a search for all the men with first
names of John or James but without the middle name of William.
In other instances, you may not even need to specify a name. If
you do not know great-grandmother's maiden name but do know her
first name was Ida and that she was born in Massachusetts in 1868,
you can specify a search of all the females named Ida born in that
state and in that year. You can search by any combination of the
following criteria:
* Gender
* Year of birth and you may specify plus or minus 0, 1, 2, 3, 4,
or 5 years
* Race
* State or country of birthplace
* Residence in 1880 by any of the following:
o Region of the country (such as New England or Mid-Atlantic
states)
o State
o County
o City or Town
Historians may find this CD-ROM collection to be a helpful tool as
well. Anyone doing a study of a certain race in a certain location
can use these CD's to speed their research. For example, one could
identify all Black families in Michigan by searching for all
families in that state with the Race field entered as "Black."
Other race entries listed are Asian, Mexican, Mulatto, Native
American, and White.
The Nationwide Index is especially useful when you have no idea
where an ancestor lived in 1880. It won't help much on common
names like Smith or Johnson; however, if you are fortunate enough
to have ancestors with less-common surnames, you may find this
resource to be the most valuable of all. You may be able to locate
their 1880 residence quickly and easily, something that would have
been impossible before.
Another great feature of the 1880 U.S. Census database is the
ability to quickly find neighbors. All you do is first locate the
household of the individual you are looking for, and then click on
the Neighbors tab. Voila! A list of neighbors appears. Scrolling
up will show all households that were listed before the person's
home. Scrolling down will show all households listed after your
person's home.
I found this to be very useful for finding relatives. One of my
great-grandfathers had a family with the same surname living
nearby, a family I am not familiar with. I now will do some
research on this other family to see how they fit into the family
tree.
Neighboring households were not always listed consistently in the
census index. Each census taker recorded households in a way that
was most convenient at the time. A census taker may have worked
on one side of the street for several blocks before crossing the
street and working his way down the other side. Another census
taker may have crisscrossed his way back and forth, working his
way in the same direction across town. The information on the CDs
does not include street addresses, so you cannot know what path a
census taker followed in any given case from the CDs alone. You
will need to view the referenced microfilm to decipher the pattern
the census taker used to enumerate an area if you want to
determine the position of these "neighbors."
Individual records are easily printed. I also found that I could
cut-and-paste records from the CD-ROM into other Windows programs,
such as the word processor I used to write this newsletter. Even
better, you may export data (up to 100 records at a time) in ether
GEDCOM format or as text files in RTF format. Any modern genealogy
program can read the GEDCOM files so that data can be directly
imported into a genealogy database. I suggest you only import into
an empty database, never directly import into your primary
genealogy database. Almost any modern word processor can read the
RTF files as text that looks almost identical to the data
displayed on the screen. For example, I found it easy to create a
file of all the EASTMAN entries in Penobscot County, Maine.
As you move around in this database, looking for different family
names in different parts of the country, you can expect to swap a
lot of CD-ROM disks in and out of your computer. One CD-ROM disk
can hold 550 to 650 megabytes of data, depending upon formatting.
Therefore, the 56 CD-ROM disks in this set probably hold about 33
gigabytes of data. That's 33,000 megabytes, or 33,000,000,000,000
bytes. Those of you who have a DVD drive might hope for a version
on DVD, but keep in mind that DVD disks have just started to
appear in the past 2 or 3 years. Such disks commonly hold 4
gigabytes of data each, and some of the newer designs will hold as
much as 16 gigabytes each. I suspect the Family History Department
will offer this CD-ROM set on DVD disks within a few years, as
soon as DVD drives become more common in American households.
However, don't look for a DVD version this year.
The 1880 U.S. Census and Nationwide Index is a great resource for
many genealogists and one that should become very popular soon. I
suspect the Family History Department of the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints will sell many thousands of copies of
this huge collection of CD-ROM disks. If you have ancestors living
in the U.S. in 1880, you want this collection!
OK, here is the best part: This set of 56 CD-ROM disks, including
software, sells for $49.00. That low price even includes the
postage for shipment to a U.S. address. A high-quality genealogy
resource that sells for less than a dollar per CD-ROM disk is
bound to be very popular.
To order your own copy of the 1880 U.S. Census on CD-ROM, go to
http://www.familysearch.org, click on "Order/Download Products"
and then click on "Software Products." Continue to follow the
menus until you find the 1880 Census listed for $49.00. You will
note that the order form is on a secure Web server, so you can
safely enter your credit card number and other personal
information.
==============================================================
Tim Singleton, tsingleton(a)iclub.org
105 Nancy Drive
Richmond, KY 40475-8613
Volunteer INGenWeb Coordinator
Adams Co. -
http://www.rootsweb.com/~inadams
Randolph Co. -
http://www.rootsweb.com/~inrandol/