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| 1850 U.S. Federal Census, Schedule 1 |
A little break from census forms as I drove from Texas to Pennsylvania, but time has now permitted me to continue with another form to share. This week I created an inputtable form for the 1850 census. It was easier than in some of the past censuses I did. It's not that there's not a lot of good information on the form, there is. Rather they became a little smarter with how they recorded that information, leaving room for more detail (in my opinion). Still it's not all the information we data-hungry genealogists would like to have, but it's better than a sharp stick in the eye!
For the first time we've got the names of everyone in the household and not just the head of the household. Major improvement. No relationships are listed, but we know if they lived under the same roof and what their names were. Make sure you don't go into making hard and fast conclusions just because they lived in the same household. You need to verify relationships. Sometimes people brought in lodgers and there was no relationship!
Also recording people by age range rather than putting their exact age. Gone. We've got a spot for occupation, but only recorded for those aged 15 and up. I don't know about you, but I've got plenty of ancestors that were working in the coal mines well before the age of 15!
Sadly, no marital status, but if they were married within the past year, ya got lucky...there'll be notice of that! There's also a column to be marked if the person was, "Deaf and dumb, blind, insane, idiotic, pauper, or convict." So obviously we'll know the name of the unfortunate person, however my smart-aleck side says that there's a huge difference between all of those groups and we won't even go into political correctness!
This is also the first census I can use in my family tree. Experience level. Still low. Only one ancestor came over by 1850 on my side of the family and a couple on my hubby's side.
As before the people who bring you 1930census.com have some good information. A map of the US at the time and the US is certainly starting to look a bit more like what we know today. The western states are still fewer, but there more boundary lines. A good history for the decade is included. California became a state in September 1850. Even though the census date was set for June 1, 1850 they were included in it.
The US Census Bureau's website has lots of yummy information as well. For example:
"The Seventh Census of the United States: 1850. Embracing a statistical view of each of the States and Territories, arranged by counties, towns, etc...with an introduction, embracing the aggregate tables for the United States compared with every previous census since 1790..."
There are also mortality statistics as well for you to check out. All of this can be reached through their 1850 census page.
Remember that there were 6 schedules of data collected for this census and the form is only for Schedule 1:
Schedule 1 - Population
Schedule 2 - Slaves
Schedule 3 - Mortality
Schedule 4 - Agriculture
Schedule 5 - Industrial
Schedule 6 - Social Statistics
As always, if you have any trouble viewing or downloading the spreadsheet, just comment or send me an email and I'll see what I can do to fix it. So far there hasn't been any trouble since the very first sheet I posted. I'll cross my fingers!
When you view the census through Google documents it does appear as if it were 3 pages, but rest assured that when downloaded it looks like the image at the top of the blog and in one simple page.
Let me know if there are any mistakes as well. I'm sure you can imagine my eyes were starting to go crossed by the time I was done with this form! Corrections and suggestions are always welcome!
To access the form simply click on the image at the top of the page or click on anywhere it says "1850 census".
Next week I'll post an inputtable Slave Schedule for 1850. Until next time, have fun tending those roots!
