NARA Cartographic Records staff member Amanda Pritchard brings you up to speed in “Census Enumeration District Maps for 1940 and 1950 Available Digitally in Our Catalog.”
1810 Census for Salem, Essex County, Massachusetts
In 1810, Salem, Massachusetts, was the 9th largest city in the United States, with 12,613 people. New York City was first with 96,373, and nearby Boston was fourth with 33,787.
From 1790 to 1870, U.S. Marshals and their assistants conducted the census. Preliminary Inventory 161, Records of the Bureau of the Census, on page 94, states: “Under the provisions of the decennial census acts, 1790-1820, the population schedules were to be deposited with the district court clerks, ‘who were to receive and carefully preserve the same.’ … A resolution of May 28, 1830 (4 Stat. 430), directed the clerks of the district courts to forward the population schedules for the first four censuses to the Secretary of State. … It is known that the 1790 schedules for Rhode Island were forwarded to Washington on June 22, 1830, as a result of the May 28 resolution. Presumably other extant population schedules, 1790-1820, were forwarded at about the same time, but no documentation of such action has been found.”
The Bureau of the Census bound the extant 1810 census schedules into volumes sometime between 1902 and 1934, but the volume that included Essex County lacked the town of Salem. Decades later these same records were microfilmed as National Archives Microfilm Publication M252, Third Census of the United States, 1810, which can be found digitally on popular genealogy websites. It’s likely that many people looking through the 1810 census schedules for Essex County have wondered why Salem was omitted. The answer finally came to light this year.
For unknown reasons, the 1810 census schedules for Salem, Essex County, Massachusetts, became aliened (separated) from Federal custody. Somehow, they eventually came into the custody of the Peabody Essex Museum Library in Salem, Massachusetts. A National Archives staff member noticed a reference to these records on Instagram in February 2021, which set NARA’s Permanent Records Capture team on a mission to return these important records to federal custody. Read more about it here: “Instagram Post Leads to Recovery of 1810 Census Rolls.”
Digital images of the 1810 census for Salem can be viewed in the National Archives Catalog at https://catalog.archives.gov/id/205601220.
Premiering Today, May 19, at 1 p.m. EDT – Tips and Tools for Engaging Family with Your Research Finds
Premiering today, May 19, 2021, at 1 p.m.! As the family historian, you have amassed information and records that will one day pass to the next family historian. How do you share your findings with others? How to engage young family members involved with all your hard research may be another story. Education staff members Missy McNatt and Dorothy Dougherty will demonstrate fun and engaging ways to connect research to your family, including younger family members. This lecture will highlight activities related to our most popular genealogy records, such as Immigrant Ship Arrivals, U.S. Census Records, Naturalization records, and Military and Pension files. The presenters will also demonstrate new ways to share your research finds online, using social media tools.
It’s No Joke, There’s Just One Year to the Opening of the 1950 Census
No April fool’s joke here. It really is just one year – 365 days – to the digital opening of the 1950 U.S. federal population census on April 1, 2022, 72 years after the official 1950 census day.
Keep up with 1950 census news and information. Here are some recent blog posts you may have missed:
Preparing for the 1950 Census by Archivist of the United States David Ferriero.
Counting Down Until the Release of the 1950 Census! by NARA Digitization Director Denise Henderson
Countdown to the 1950 Census from NARA Catalog staff
1950 Census: The Official Census Day – April 1, 1950
1950 Census: T-Nights, April 11 and 13, 1950
1950 Census: Field Enumeration Procedures
1950 Census: The Beautiful Portfolio Control Label
1950 Census: The Answer Is … a Lot of Numbers and Publications
Register at the History Hub and follow the “Census Records” community. We’re aiming to publish one 1950 census blog post a week to opening day.
Yes, Research is Often Difficult
Yup, you already knew that. Check out “Twenty Reasons You May Have Trouble Finding an Ancestor in the Census” on the History Hub. Undoubtedly, there probably other reasons that ancestors are hidden in census records besides these, which focus on reasons pertaining to the 1850-1940 censuses.
The 1950 Census Training Timetable
Successful accomplishment of a project requires a plan. If that project involves other people, they need to be trained to do the task correctly the first time. No do-overs, please!
The Bureau of the Census needed to hire and train 140,000 enumerators (all temporary workers) to count 152.3 million people during the course of the 1950 census. A four-month training plan was devised beginning with “Chief Instructors” who taught “Instructors” who taught “Crew Leaders” who then taught the Enumerators. The time schedule was tight for a reason. If you train people too far in advance of when before they need the information, they will forget important details. Adapted from 1950 Census: It Took More Than 148,000 People to Make it Happen!
Counting Down to the Opening of the 1950 Census!
The “countdown clock” to the right shows you how many days remain until the digital opening of the 1950 census on 1 April 2022. It will be here faster than you think! Time to get ready!
Therefore, I’ve started writing about the 1950 census on the History Hub website with the first installment today: “1950 Census: How the Census Forms and Procedures Were Developed.”
The Ubiquitous Card File
The National Archives recently digitized the Card File of Population Data Relating to the 17th Census, 1950 (National Archives Identifier 2990400). While this card set is mundane and may not be extraordinarily useful, it serves as a good reminder that BCE – “before the computer era” – people, businesses, and government alike used “card files” as a data management tools for quick storage and retrieval of important, useful, or frequently accessed information as discussed in my recent blog post, Census Fun Fact #5 – The Geography Division’s Quick Reference Card File of 1950 Census Population Data. Check it out.
P.S.: The 1950 population census will become available to researchers on April 1, 2022.
Census Fun Fact #4 – The Nonresident Schedule of the 1940 Census
Census Fun Fact #4 – The Nonresident Schedule of the 1940 Census is the fourth installment of my “Census Fun Facts” series on the “History Hub” website. This post takes a quick look at how people away from home were enumerated – and how evidence of one Wisconsin couple’s trip to Florida in the winter/spring of 1940 came to be preserved in the 1940 census.
Census Fun Fact #3 – Do You Own a Radio Set?
Census Fun Fact #3 – Do You Own a Radio Set? is the third installment of my “Census Fun Facts” series on the “History Hub” website. As the “internet” and “social media” of its time, statistics on the rise and extent of radio ownership were important to leaders in government, business, education, and other fields. The 1930 census was the first census to feature a question about technology in the home.