Census Records - map to the past

Although census records exist in many countries, I will be talking about U.S. Federal Census records. The Constitution states that an actual count of the U.S. population will be made every 10 years, and that census will provide the basis for determining representation of states in the House of Representatives and to determine direct taxation. As I discuss each census, a link will be given to a blank census form (Adobe Reader required - download here).

In 1790, the new country was still worried about war - war with Britain, war with the native peoples, maybe war with the Spanish. To establish representation, only voters were named, and that was usually a male head of household. The counts were for free white males under 16, free white males over 16, females, all other persons, and slaves.

This tells us that the number of men of fighting age was very important to the government. After all, the Constitutional requirements just required a count for representation or taxation. The future crop of soldiers (males under 16) was also important. In general, the government wanted to know how many women or "other persons" lived in the country, and lastly, how many slaves.

In 1790, slavery was practiced almost everywhere in the western world, and slaves, almost entirely of a different ethnicity than the slave holders, were not considered to be "persons." Out of an estimated population of 3.8 million people, 695,000 were slaves and slave owning families were both "white" and "Free Colored."

Today, 1790 census returns exist for the states of Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and South Carolina and the territories of Maine and Vermont. Unfortunately returns for Delaware, Georgia, New Jersey, and Virginia, as well as the territory of Kentucky have been lost. In those states, locating your families will become more difficult. Land and tax records, wills, probate files and marriages are your best bets, but they all have limitations. I have a n-times great grandfather who lived to be 95, dying in 1841. He fought in the Revolution, but was never a landowner. Since he didn't die, get married or transfer property between 1746 and 1841, I would never have known where he was if he had been in Virginia in 1790 instead of North Carolina.

In Bladen County, North Carolina, there were 633 families and only 53 of them were headed by women. A family unit was needed to make a life in the wilderness. You needed someone to hunt, someone to clean, preserve and cook -- someone to plow and sow, someone to weed, someone to preserve and cook. Children were your real wealth, and there wasn't really anything that you could do to limit your family, if you wanted to. An older woman left alone went to live with her family if possible, or maybe moved in with another family and helped as she could. A woman or a man who was widowed and left with small children had to remarry - or risk not surviving.

Pioneering was hard work -- harder I think than I could stand. After all, a week backpacking every now and then, with freeze dried food, portable stove and fuel, matches, water purification tablets, a collapsible, weather proof tent and sleeping bag -- well, I think you can see the difference.

More census years to come!