This week Ancestry.com/ released an update to the 1880 Federal Census, woo hoo! I do not as yet know what revisions have been made, but will happily run names through to see if new leads appear. Perhaps the images themselves have been made clearer? The 1880 Census is the last big census taken of American citizens before the 20th century. Sadly, the 1890 Census suffered a near complete loss from a 1921 fire at the Commerce Department. There are various state and county censuses that help fill in the gap between times the federal censuses were "enumerated." Did you know that the United States government has counted its citizens every ten years since 1790? What an effort!
Each census asked different questions. The 1880 Census was the first to specify a resident's relation to each head of household. So rather than just list Tom, Dick and Harry living with Ma and Pa Kettle, this census indicates if Tom was a son, nephew, boarder, or father-in-law to Pa Kettle. This census also was the first to ask if someone was blind, deaf, dumb, idiotic, insane, maimed, or crippled. Yes, many people answered honestly. Enumerators asked if residents were unemployed, and if so, how long. My favorite question asked was of the state or country of birth of a person's mom and dad. These answers have helped push through many a "dead end" in my research.
Problems with accuracy are frequent, but it still provides valuable clues. Ancestry dot com's WIKI page notes:
For a number of reasons, ages are always suspect in census records. Many people tend to be secretive about their age; women may have been particularly sensitive about revealing the truth. One woman tracked in the census taken in New York from 1850 to 1880 claimed to have aged only twelve years in the thirty-year period.
Curious about your family in 1880? Holler at me. I'm off to browse that census now. Fingers crossed!
