This week we pick up where we left off last week: continuing our examination of the evolution of federal census questions from a purely “what they asked & when” standpoint:
1840
1840
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1850
HUGE changes came with this census. Dwellings and families were numbered and each individual in the abode was enumerated on their own line. Census takers asked eleven questions about each person:
- name
- age
- sex
- color (“colored persons” were now “Black” or “Mulatto)
- profession, occupation or trade of males over 15 years of age
- value of real estate owned
- place of birth—state, territory or country
- married within the year
- attended school within the year
- over 20 years and unable to read & write
- “pauper” and “convict” added to the deaf and dumb, blind, insane and idiotic section
1860
value of personal estate added
value of personal estate added
1870
1880
- “In Cities” section added including name of street and house number
- relationship to head of the family
- “Civil Condition” section added (single, married, widowed/divorced)
- number of months person had been unemployed during the census year added to Occupation section
- if the person was sick or temporarily disabled and identification of the sickness or disability
- “paupers” and “convicts” dropped and “Maimed, crippled, bedridden or otherwise disabled” added under Health section
- Place of birth of the person’s father and mother added under the Nativity section
1890
Tragically, most of the next-to-the-last census of the 20th century was destroyed. In January 1921, a fire in the basement of the Department of Commerce—where the 1890 census was stored—became the scapegoat for its destruction. While the fire did do its fair share of damage, there is more to the story. Documents which survived the blaze were water-logged as one can imagine, but the failure of the government to attempt to save them is simply ridiculous. In the mid-1930s, they were destroyed by a Congressional destruction authorization. Kellee Blake’s The Fate of the 1890 Population Census, Part 1 tells this story. |
Up until 1890, each census return page held multiple families. The 1890 census gave each family its own page. There were five questions at the end about the abode and its use as a farm. There were 25 questions asked of each person by the census taker. It was a build on the previous census.
- Christian name in full and initial of middle name requested
- surname moved to a separate line
- whether a soldier, sailor or marine during the Civil War or the widow of one
- “quadroon” “octoroon” and “Japanese” added to race question
- mother of how many children and how many living added
- number of years in the United States added
- whether naturalization papers had been taken out
- months employed during the census year
- ability to speak English and if not, language spoken
- “convict” and “pauper” resurface with “prisoner” and “homeless child” added
- supplemental schedule and page
Next week will conclude this series of “When Did They Start Asking THOSE Questions?”