Tallies Provide Knowledge On Ancestors
Most everyone who received the long form for the 2000 U.S. Federal Census, stewed about it. Invasion of privacy was the cry. But, I’ll bet most of those complaining were not genealogists.
Genealogists understand the value of censuses in a way that has nothing to do with their original purpose. In fact, we genealogists love censuses. Census sheets provide a wealth of information about our ancestors, and with tally taken every 10 years, we learn a bit more about who they were. Most of us will be history when the 2000 census is made available in 2072 for our descendants to research. Just imagine how tickled they’ll be to read about how many toilets were in the house, how many cars were parked in the garage, how much money was in the bank. The latest census available is 1920.
That first census in 1790 determined how many men each state could elect to the House of Representatives, based on their population. Government officials, who amended the Constitution to take a head-count every 10 years, also wanted to know how many able-bodied men and boys would be available to defend this newly formed country of ours. The hard-fought rebellion with England for the original 13 states had been won at great cost, and other European countries were hungry for a piece of this new, huge, beautiful pie that seemed ready for the taking. Questions on that first census covered only the basics: how many males in the family were at least 16 (and could bear arms); how many were under 16. How many free, white females lived in the house (no names or ages asked); how many other free persons and how many slaves lived there? I cringe when I find ancestors who owned slaves.
It was 1850 before the names of women and children were listed.
To research census records, begin with your most recent ancestors and work your way backward, hopefully to the immigrant ancestor.
Early ancestors can be difficult to locate because there is so little personal information. And, to find an ancestor on more current censuses means using Soundex. At first, its an irritant to work with Soundex that phonetically lists names together. Some names have been so mangled by some census takers that they often don’t even resemble the correct spelling. One needs to be a bit of a sleuth to find some ancestors. One of my family members of a hundred years ago is McElroy McDowell, whose first name was his mother’s maiden name. McElroy was crunched through a variety of spellings, ending up as Muckelroy, the spelling he legalized. Uncle Muck, they called him. My husband’s great-grandfather was impossible to find on several censuses even though we knew he lived there. Finally, we got creative with spelling. Vorpahl has been reduced to Vorpel, Vorpaul even Tripfall. It’s spelled Werphal on his marriage license. If censuses for Vorpahl had been Soundexed, the misspellings would have turned up, and I would have found this great-grandfather years earlier.
Some microfilmed censuses can be found in Eastern Washington Genealogical Society’s corner of the third floor of the downtown Spokane Public Library; and on the shelves are index books to most censuses.
If the census you want isn’t there - and isn’t that always the case - order a copy through the public library, or from area Family History Centers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: 13608 E. 40th in the Valley; 401 W. Regina on the Northside; and 1620 E. 29th on the South side.