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OTISFIELD CENSUS TRANSCRIPTIONS
I am currently in the process of
transcribing the census for Otisfield as time permits. My
special thanks to Jean Hankins for assistance on interpretation
of handwriting and proofreading! Please scroll down the TABLE below to see which years are on
line.
Last Updated Sept 2005
In the U.S., a census has been taken every 10 years from 1790 through 1990. All censuses taken after 1920 are still confidential and the information they contain is not open to the public. The census from 1790 through 1840 only named the head of the household and the numbers of people in categories - 3 males over 16, 2 males under 16, etc. The census from 1850 through 1920 lists each member of the household and usually gives the relationship to the head of the house. It also gives age (later years give birth month and year) and place of birth (usually just the state or foreign country). The 1890 census was almost totally destroyed by fire so there is a 20 year gap between 1880 and 1900.
Census abstracts are
forms that you can fill out when you are doing research
with census records. They allow you to copy information from the
census records in an organized way, helping ensure that you don't
miss any important information. If you want to print an
abstract, go to the page containing that abstract...........http://www.familytreemaker.com/00000061.html
Added
Jan 8, 2001
Previously published in RootsWeb Review: 9 March
2005, Vol. 8, No. 10. Knowing What Enumerators Were Instructed
...
Searching for American families is pretty easy these days --
especially if you subscribe to the U.S. census records at
Ancestry.com. Just type in the names and narrow the search to a
particular census year and state, right?
Alas, it is not always that simple. And, even when you find them,
how can you be sure they are yours, when the ages and other
information do not quite match?
Did our ancestors really lie to the enumerators? Did the census
takers "pad" the records? Of course, there is no way to
know for sure in a particular instance, but knowing what the
rules were and how the answers were suppose to be recorded can
make you a better family historian. Such knowledge might enable
you to sort out some anomalies you encounter during your census
searches.
The enumerator instructions for the 1850-2000 census
years are online (see links in table below )and well worth the
time to read them in order to understand the questions asked and
how the responses were to be recorded. American censuses are
available for searching for the years 1790-1930.
For example, in the instructions for the 1910 U.S. census under
"ages of children" the enumerator was instructed to
take particular pains to get the exact ages of children. The
instructions were that in the case of a child not two years old,
the age should be given in *completed months,* expressed as
twelfths of a year. If a child was not yet a month old, enter the
age as 0/12, but note again that this question should be answered
with reference to April 15 [Census Day]. A child who is just a
year old on the 17th of April 1910 should nevertheless be
returned as 11/12, because that is the age in completed months on
April 15.
So, if you, like many researchers, have assumed that the ages
given were those as of the day of the enumerator's visit, take a
closer look, noting what the official Census Day was for each
census. You might have made an assumption that is erroneous.
U.S. Censuses for 1790-1800-1810-1820 had a Census Day of the
first Monday in August, which ranged from August 2 to August 7.
For the years 1830-1900, Census Day was 1 June. In 1910 it was 15
April; in 1920 it was 1 January; and in 1930 it was 1 April.
The 1910 instructions pertaining to Column 8 were: Persons who
were single on April 15 should be so reported, even though they
may have married between that date and the day of your visit;
and, similarly, persons who become widowed or divorced after
April 15 should be returned as married if that was their
condition on that date.
In Column 12 (place of birth of this person) if the person was
born in the United States, give the state or territory (not
county, city, or town) in which born. The words "United
States" are not sufficiently definite. A person born in what
is now West Virginia, North Dakota, South Dakota, or Oklahoma
should be reported as so born, although at the time of his birth
the particular region may have had a different name.
Enumerators also were cautioned not to rely upon the language
spoken to determine birthplace, noting that this is especially
true of German, for "more than one-third of the Austrians
and nearly three-fourths of the Swiss speak German. In the case
of persons speaking German, therefore, inquire carefully whether
the birthplace was Germany, Switzerland, Austria, or
elsewhere."
Column 12--about "mother tongue"--can trip you up if
you are not aware of the instructions given to the enumerators.
They were told that the question "What is your mother tongue
or native language?" should be asked of all persons who were
born in any foreign country, and the answer should be written in
column 12, after the name of the country of birth. In order to
save space, the abbreviations (which were indicated on separate
"List of foreign countries") should be used for the
country of birth, but the language given as the mother tongue
should be written out in full. For example, if a person reports
that he was born in Russia and that his mother tongue is
Lithuanian, write in column 12 Russ.--Lithuanian; or if a person
reports that he was born in Switzerland and that his mother
tongue is German, write Switz.--German. The name of the mother
tongue must be given even when it is the same as the language of
the country in which the person was born. Thus, if a person
reports that he was born in England and that his mother tongue is
English, write Eng.--English;
For tips on pre-1930 U.S. censuses and other
countries, please see:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~rwguide/lesson9.htm
The entire 1790 Federal Census for the State of Maine is on-line at the US GenWeb Archives.
Ocupsyshun - Census Taker
"I am a sensus taker for the city of Bufflow. Our sity has groan verry fast in resent years & now in 1865, it has become a hard & time konsuming job to kount all the peephill. There are not many that kan do this werk, as it is nesessarie to have an ejucashun, wich a lot of pursons still do not have. Anuther atribeart needed for this job is god spelling, for meny of the pephill to be kounted can hardle speek inglish, let alon spel there names!" Hopefully this explains why you see your "names" spelt differently in some places.
For more laughs, see: http://genealogy.about.com/hobbies/genealogy/library/humor/blmiscellaneous.htm
| YEAR | TOTAL POPULATION | COMMENTS | Latterday Saints FHC Film # | NARA Film# |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1790 | 197 | Has only Head of Household name - all others enumerated by gender & age | ||
| 1790
Raymondtown Plantation a/k/a Phillips Gore |
68 | Has only Head of Household name - all others enumerated by gender & age | ||
| 1800 | 451 | Has only Head of Household name - all others
enumerated by gender & age Transcript contains 4 pgs numbered 203-206 TEXT Version |
Copy 32, Roll 6 | |
| 1810 | 912 | Has only Head of Household name - all others
enumerated by gender & age TEXT Version |
Copy 252, Roll 11 | |
| 1820 | 1291 | Has only Head of Household name - all others
enumerated by gender & age TEXT Version |
Copy 33, Roll ? | |
| 1830 13 Feb 04 |
1273 | Has only Head of Household name - all others enumerated by gender & age | Copy 19, Roll 46 |
|
| 1837 - Special Maine Agricultural | ||||
| 1840 |
1307 | Has only Head of Household name - all others
enumerated by gender & age TEXT Version |
Copy 704, Roll 139 |
|
| 1840 | 10 | Census of Pensioners for REVOLUTIONARY or MILITARY SERVICES | ||
| 1850 |
1171 | Has name, age, sex, occupation, birthplace, for each
free person in household Instruction to Enumerators added Sept 2005 |
0009719 | |
| 1860 | 1199 | Has name, age, sex, occupation, birthplace, for each
free person in household Instruction to Enumerators added Sept 2005 |
0803437 | |
| 1870 | TOO FADED to transcribe. I've tried Me. State Archives, & LDS Family History Center 26 Apr 2002 1100 |
Has name, age, sex, occupation, birthplace, whether
parents foreign born for each person in household Instruction to Enumerators added Sept 2005 |
0552039 | |
| 1880 | 927 | Head of Household listed in the Soundex only if there
is a child age 10 or under living in the Household Has name, sex, age, relation to Head of Household, marital status, occupation, birthplace, father place of birth, mother place of birth for each person in household Instruction to Enumerators added Sept 2005 |
1254477 (Ed 1-34), 78 (Ed 35-49) OR 79 (Ed49-End) | |
| 1890 | Fire burned RECORDS 838 |
Fire burned all but 6,200 records of
entire US Census, these are indexed, but no Maine.
Ancestry.com is attempting to recreate the census from
city directories. Aug 15, 2000 Instruction to Enumerators added Sept 2005 |
NONE | NONE |
| 1900 | 728 | 12th Census of
the United States Transcript by Marilyn Strout, Proofread
by Tammy Richards, Complete 11/16/2001 Instruction to Enumerators added Sept 2005 |
FHC#1240590 | T623-590 |
| 1910 | 633 | 13th Census of the United States Transcript Completed 12/21/2001 TEXT Version Instruction to Enumerators added Sept 2005 |
FHC#1374551 | T624-538 |
| 1920 | 581 | All Soundexes are arranged by Head of Household's
name; all other family members are listed under that
person and not separately Has name, relation to Head of Household, sex, age, marital status, year of immigration to U.S., naturalization and year, education, place of birth and native language of this person, the father of this person and mother of this person, ability to speak English, occupation for each person in household Instruction to Enumerators added Sept 2005 |
1820639 | |
| 1930 | 568 | 15th Census of the US (more
info) The census day was April 1, 1930. Instruction to Enumerators added Sept 2005 |
||
| 1940 | 488 | Instruction to Enumerators added Sept 2005 | ||
| 1950 | Instruction to Enumerators added Sept 2005 | |||
| 1960 | Instruction to Enumerators added Sept 2005 | |||
| 1970 | Instruction to Enumerators added Sept 2005 | |||
| 1980 | Instruction to Enumerators added Sept 2005 | |||
| 1990 | Instruction to Enumerators added Sept 2005 | |||
| 2000 | 1560 | Census Statistics Instruction to Enumerators added Sept 2005 |
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