New attendees:
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Presentation - Speaker:
Stephen Keller speaking on The US Census and Famous People and Census Mistakes
Notes from Stephen's Census talk:
The Census (U.S.) began in the year 1790 when there were only 13 colonies and territories; To film that census only took 3 rolls of microfilm.
Between 1790-1820 states had to made their own forms for the federal census. So the forms may vary from state to state. In 1830 the federal government standardized the form.
A tibit about Detroit; Cadillac didn't want a Fort here. He just wanted a city. St Anne's is the original Catholic Church in Detroit and was the only one in the area until the 1840's when L' Assumption was built in Windsor/Sandwich across the river.
Films of many churches in Detroit can be found in the Burton room. When it reopens. There are no centralized indexes. You will need to know which church to look at films for and a specific time period. The records sometimes very hard to read. Language was sometimes a problem as the priest wasn't always native to the language of the people of a specific church. So always expect misspellings.
In 1805 there was a fire in Detroit and the entire city was destroyed. Someone (not known who) went around the city and wrote down all the names of persons he knew or others knew of who lived here before then. The list is supposed to still exist.
Now back to the census; the census in years 1790-1840 listed the names only the head of each household. Everyone else is a number in an age category, by sex.
Starting in 1850 all persons in a house had their names listed on the census.
In 2 years the 1930 census will be released. The Feds release each census as it reaches it's 72nd year. This year (72 years old) was picked because it was believed that by that year most people on the census would be dead. Many people objected to having this information made public and that was the governments way to get around their complaints. In 1992 they released the 1920 census and there were people angry about that because they appear on that census and they didn't want people to know this information; about them. Usually just how old they really are or perhaps it made it known that someone in the family was adopted, but was never told they were. They argued again at that time but lost and the 1930 will be released in due course.
One thing you need to know is that the 1930 census is not soundexed. People stopped soundexing when the war started creating jobs in the industries; People doing the soundexing were WPA workers.
Another item to remember is that the 1880 soundex ONLY covers families with a child 10 years of age or less. It does not list any other family heads. Some states have indexed the 1880 for their state but Michigan is not one of them. The 1910 in not all soundexed either. For some reason only part was soundex before they moved on to the 1920 census. Then as stated above the war started and the WPA projects were stopped..
Soon the census images will be found on the internet. Bits and pieces are already out there.
The 1860 & 1870 censuses were very similar. Their information is about the same. The 1870 census was the last time they used US Marshals to take the census. After that they started using regular people.
In 1990 the theme to the census was housing. What kinds of house did people have or want in the future. They went back to some specific houses every 90 days to see if they had added or subtracted items from their houses.
In all the censuses from 1790 through 1880 the government required 3 copies of every sheet of the census. Each was hand written no carbon copies. 1st copy was for the county 2nd for the state and the 3rd was for the federal government. So guess where most of the copying mistakes would be?
After 1880 they decided it costs too much to make all those copies so they required only one copy in 1890.
In 1921 I think we all know what happened. The 1890 census was destroyed in a fire. What didn't get burned, most of it was not burned, was destroyed in the water used to put out the fire. The civil war or Vets Schedule taken that year was partially lost. Letters A-J were lost in the fire but letters K-Z still exists and are filmed.
In 1930 use the ED # to find your ancestors since there will not be a soundex. If they lived in the same place the ED #'s should help. Some was soundexed (1930) but mostly southern states were soundexed and none of the others.
In 1920 it was required of people who came from the central powers; such as Central Europe, Germany, had to tell what city or province they came from not just the country name.
The 1960, 1970 & 1980 censuses were put on computers. Old computers that aren't used anymore. They tried to run the tape on newer computers and it was destroying the tape so they have to figure out what to do with that. They have some time to work on it before those censuses get released.
Remember a census was taken as of a 'certain; date. If a person died before the census taker visited but after the 'as of' census date the person is listed on census as alive. If a baby was born before the census taker visited the home but after the census 'as of' date the baby would not be listed.
If you are having trouble finding someone on the census look for a neighbor to your ancestor. Then find that family on the census. You ancestor should be near by.
Remember that sometimes information on the census is in error. The person's work or age or whatever can be in error. Census takers wrote down what they were told and that wasn't always the truth. People lied on the census to hide their heritage if their heritage was discriminated against or some people lied about their age. Sometimes census takers were vague as they didn't want to write any more than necessary .
They, census takers, were told to be specific on a person's occupation, so if you see 'gentleman' listed it could mean a man of means but it could also mean a valet. Stephen showed us an example of a census taker that went all out on listing occupations. He found what appears to be a house of ill repute as the occupations listed were mostly ''prostitute'.
In the past a double 's' was written like a 'fs' that means two 'ss'. Sometimes people not educated would use a fs for a single s.
Be careful of 'everyone in the house' as there just might be a neighbor visiting and listed because they were 'in' the house. Stephen mentioned this and the 1850 census. But it might apply to more than that one until they started listing relationships to the head of house.
Always check up and down the street on the census, where your family lived because you might find more family. It was common for neighbors to marry neighbors.
Sometimes with soundex they (the soundexers) made mistakes so if you can't fine your people check other possible soundex codes. Check phonic spellings because they might not have used the correct first letter even. Or the first letter could have been misread. An "O' for an "A" etc.
Non direct line family living together is crossed indexed in the soundex.
The 1910 miracode not soundex; is soundex like. Only the visitation number is used instead of a page and line number. Sometimes the census taker used the same visitation number on different days. So you might have to look through the entire ED # to find the right family.
In 1920 they soundexed a mother-in-law (mother of the wife) living with them, if she was, and that helps you get the woman's (wife's) maiden name.
Soundex gives you the ED #, page number and line number for the person or head of house listed.
Stephen shows us many overheads of census records of famous people. Some with mistakes and some without.
They were really neat to see.
I didn't copy notes on these people.
End of talk. Stephen's handout will be placed in member folders for pick-up at the next meeting, November 9.
Stephen will return next month to talk to us about Genealogy Correspondance. This is one you guys voted to have so please come out in force. Show your support. Stephen says he uses examples of real letters received that don't make sense and he'll try to show us how to not make the same mistakes. It should be real interesting.
Old Business:
New Business:
Roundtable:
The roundtable was brief due to Stephen's entertaining talk and subsequent discussion on Club participation.
FGC October Meeting Last updated October 31, 2000. Comments?