Come to Your Census!

1
Come to Your Census!

• Using Census Records in the History Classroom
• (Bozeman)
• Jim McNeill
• Silver Bluff High School
• Aiken, SC
• For NCHE

2
What information can be found in historical
census records?

• Categories of measure reflect a changing society
  and the evolving interests of the United States
  government.

3
Comparing Census Years 1790 and 1840

• 1790
• Name of family head
• Free white males of 16 years of age and up
• Free white males under 16
• Free white females
• Slaves
• Other persons

• 1840
• Name of head of family
• Age, sex, race
• Slaves
• Number of deaf and dumb
• Number of blind
• Number of insane and idiotic and whether in
  public or private charge
• Number of persons employed in each of six classes
  of industry and one of occupation
• Literacy
• Pensioners for Revolutionary or military service

Items colored green show changes.
4
Comparing Census Years 1840 and 1870

• 1840
• Name of head of family
• Age, sex, race
• Slaves
• Number of deaf and dumb
• Number of blind
• Number of insane and idiotic and whether in
  public or private charge
• Number of persons employed in each of six classes
  of industry and one of occupation
• Literacy
• Pensioners for Revolutionary or military service

Items colored green show changes.
5
Comparing Census Records of 1840 and 1870

• 1870
• Name
• Age
• Sex
• Race
• Occupation
• Value of real estate
• Value of personal estate
• Birthplace
• Whether parents were foreign born
• Month of birth if born within the year
• Month of marriage if married within the year

• School attendance
• Literacy
• Whether deaf and dumb, blind, insane or idiotic
• Male citizens 21 and over and number of such
  persons denied the right to vote for other than
  rebellion
• Supplemental schedule for persons who died during
  the year

Items colored green show changes.
6
Population Census Items 1910

• Address
• Name
• Relationship to family head
• Sex
• Race
• Age
• Marital status
• Number of years of present marriage for women
• Number of children born and number now living
• Birthplace and mother tongue of person and
  parents
• Occupation, industry and class of worker

• If foreign born, year of immigration, whether
  naturalized, and whether able to speak English,
  or if not, language spoken
• Occupation, industry and class of worker
• If an employee, whether out of work during the
  year
• Literacy,
• School attendance
• Home owned or rented, if owned whether mortgaged
• Whether farm or house
• Whether a survivor of Union or Confederate Army
  or Navy
• Whether blind deaf or dumb

7
Population Census Items 1940

• Address
• Home owned or rented
• Value or monthly rental
• Whether on a farm
• Name
• Relationship to household head
• Sex
• Race
• Age
• Marital status
• School attendance
• Educational attainment
• Birthplace
• Citizenship of foreign born
• Location of residence 5 years ago and whether on
  a farm

• Employment status
• If at work, whether in private or non-emergency
  government work, or in public emergency work
  (WPA, CCC, NYA, etc.)
• If in private work, worked in week
• If seeking work on public emergency work,
  duration of unemployment
• Occupation, industry and class of worker
• Weeks worked last year, income last year

8
Information about population change
Table 33 Louisiana Race and Hispanic Origin
1810 - 1990
9
Louisiana - Race and Hispanic Origin 1810 - 1990
10
Agricultural Census Schedule

• Measures of agricultural output

11
Wealth of Selected States
Wealth, Taxation and Public Indebtedness, table 1
12
Wealth, Taxation and Public Indebtedness, table 1
13
Wealth of geographic regions within the United
States
Most wealth gained in all regions in Real Estate
and Improvement. Wealth, Debt and Taxation, table
1
14
Mortality Records
Special Tables of Mortality
15
Common Causes of Death in the United States, 1850
1870

• General Diseases A scarlet fever, enteric fever,
  hooping cough, measles
• General Diseases B Consumption, dropsy, cancer
• Local Diseases Encephalitis, Convulsions, other,
  paralysis
• Circulatory Diseases other
• Respiratory Diseases pneumonia, croup
• Digestive System Diseases cholera infantum,
  enteritia, dysentery, diarrhea
• Accident and Injury drowning, burns and scalds

16
Population for Louisiana 2000 census
Population patterns
17
Table DP-1. Profile of General Demographic
Characteristics 2000
18
Population Change in DeKalb County, GA for All
Races 1970 - 2000 ( Composite Line Graph)
Changing demographics of cities and towns
19
Finding the Information

• All information was gathered from materials
  provided by the United
• States Census Bureau website.
• http//www.census.gov/
• To access the records used
• Go to the home page.
• Type in decade of search in search box.
• Click on decade results. Then use the link to The
  Historical Statistics of the United States
  Colonial Times to 1970.
• http//fisher.lib.virginia.edu/collections/stats/h
  istcensus/php/start.php?yearV1830
• The University of Virginia interactive census
  records site

20
Activity 1
21
Activity 2
22
Activity 3

• California
• Oregon
• Washington
• New York
• Nevada
• Montana
• Idaho
• Colorado
• Arizona
• Pennsylvania

23
Activity 4

• Individual written responses

24
Activity 5

• Indian Territory
• South Dakota
• Montana
• New Mexico
• Arizona
• Minnesota
• Washington
• Utah
• North Dakota
• Idaho

25
Activity 6
26
Activity 7
27
Activity 8

• Individual written response

28
Activity 9

• New York
• Pennsylvania
• California
• Ohio
• Michigan
• Illinois
• Texas
• New Jersey
• Massachusetts
• Oklahoma

29
Activity 10