A directive from Walker further restricted their size to 2, residents. In practice, enumeration districts for the Tenth Census were even smaller, encompassing 1, inhabitants on average. The task of defining enumeration districts fell upon census supervisors, but the basic rules for setting the boundaries were set by francis Walker. Enumeration districts were to maintain the territorial integrity of counties and other civil divisions towns, townships, parishes, militia districts, hundreds, election districts, precincts, or beats.
Clear boundaries like streams and roads were to mark off these divisions. And if a civil division were broken up, its subdivisions were to be of approximately equal population size. Supervisors' plans for defining enumeration districts and estimates of their population were forwarded to Walker, who sometimes demanded revisions. Walker's specifications for subdistricting precluded a problem observed in the preceding census: "township divisions were not then recognized, and it is highly probable that many enumerators did not Know where their county stopped and another began.
Limiting the population of enumeration districts to between and 2, people ensured that the territory could be covered quickly. While a shorter enumeration period was believed to increase the accuracy of the census, the resort to small enumeration districts had its own advantages. Enumerators were expected to reside in the districts they canvassed, and, in the case of such limited territory, to be familiar with the area and its inhabitants.
Explained Walker, "The advantage to the Government of such close limitation of districts will be found in the high degree of local knowledge secured. The enumerator knowing, as will presumably be the case, every house and every family of the town of which he is a resident, will be placed almost beyond the danger of omissions, which are liable to occur in the canvass of larger districts, and will also be above being imposed upon by false statements which to a stranger might appear plausible enough.
Enumerators "working at short range through a district extending in no direction far from their places of residence, will not be obliged, as was generally the case under the Act of , to fit themselves out expensively for traveling, [or] to close up their business or make arrangements for its being carried on by others in their absence.
However well justified the resort to smaller enumeration districts, supervisors found dividing up their territory to be "a work of some difficulty," requiring "much time, travel, and labor" or "a long and thoughtful correspondence. Estimating the size of the population within small areas proved to be the most difficult element of districting.
Ohio supervisors contended, "It would have been comparatively easy to do this by maps and charts had it not been necessary to a nearly equal division to ascertain the distribution of population within the precinct to be subdivided.
The population of a precinct could be estimated by its vote, [but] not so with a part of a precinct. This was accomplished by correspondence and consultations with citizens from all parts of our territory. Estimating the population of small areas was further complicated by the disturbingly permeable boundaries of civil divisions. Even county boundaries changed between and Illinois supervisors testified that voting precincts in their state "cannot be regarded as 'permanent civil divisions of the country,' as they are liable to be changed from year to year to serve the convenience of any neighborhood which may wish to be attached or detached for the purpose of bring brought nearer to the Voting place, as to avoid a river, a swamp, or other obstacle.
The shifting and indistinguishable nature of some civil divisions may partially explain enumerators' failures to clearly mark the change from one civil division to another on their schedules, as required by the instructions to enumerators. In urban areas, enumeration subdistricts were commonly political wards or voting precincts, but these sometimes exceeded the specified population limits.
In an era when Western cities sometimes more than doubled in population in a decade, estimating the number of residents within parts of an urban area proved challenging. In some rapidly growing cities, "the task of districting for enumeration districts was not only arduous, but in some cases took longer than the enumeration. However carefully enumerators might be selected, the quality of their returns was shaped by the mechanisms in place to "instruct, supervise, and finally correct the work of.
In early May, supervisors received from Washington advance samples of the schedules; in late May, the actual blanks arrived. The schedules were given to enumerators when they received their commissions and were sworn into office. For their guidance, enumerators also received a letter of instruction that spelled out pay rates in their district, commissions and oaths, a pamphlet containing "clear and minute" instructions on how to conduct themselves and fill out the schedules, a model completed schedule, and, in at least some districts, copies of the census law.
Because few records from the central Census Office have survived, it is impossible to reconstruct all the directions coming from washington on the training and oversight of enumerators. It is clear that walker was determined to change the situation from , when enumerators "were entirely independent of me, and I had no control of their work.
These daily reports indicated the number of hours and minutes engaged on the service, and the number of persons, farms, manufacturing establishment, and deaths enumerated that day. Whatever Walker's desire for uniform practice, press reports indicate that the details of oversight varied across localities.
As a Missouri supervisor put it in a letter to the Superintendent, "each Supervisor devised such plans and resorted to such proper means as in his judgment would best subserve the interests of the Government and best promote the efficiency of the service in hand.
So widespread were efforts to check the quality of the first few days' fieldwork that Walker probably dictated this step to the supervisors. But supervisors carried out the check in different ways: in baltimore, the supervisor ordered enumerators to report to his office; the Atlanta supervisor had enumerators send in their schedules; in Philadelphia, prominent citizen volunteers and a contingent from the city paper met with enumerators in local schoolhouses to check their work.
By whatever the method adopted, in those cities for which information is available, this early fieldwork was pronounced satisfactory. In some areas, other periodic checks on the enumeration were in place.
Philadelphia was divided into ten districts overseen by "Commissioners. Other supervisors employed positive incentives, like the Missouri man who awarded an honorary "diploma" to the enumerator in each county in his district who had done "the best work. Enumeration procedures put in place for the census continued to serve as a model for succeeding U. In other domains, the Census Bureau implemented major changes, such as introducing automatic tabulating Hollerith machinery to process the returns of the census.
But in the areas of local administration, enumerator selection, and oversight of fieldwork by the Washington office, successive enumerations largely refined and elaborated methods introduced at the Tenth Census. The census was taken under the model of training and oversight instituted by Francis Walker at the Tenth Census. The only discernible change from to in the training and oversight of fieldstaff was the creation of a "supervisors' correspondence" position within the census Office held by a single special agent and an increase in the detail of enumerator instructions.
With a greater intensity than at previous censuses the superintendent of the Census lamented the lack of a permanent census office to facilitate all aspects of the census work. It was agreed by all those close to the census and those outside the Office interested in census work, that the gains made in needed to be merely the beginning of procedural reform. One of the difficulties the Census Office faced in facilitating a reasonable degree of training and oversight of fieldstaff in the latter part of the nineteenth century was the inadequate amount of time given to procedural preparation.
For example, the census act was not approved Until 3 March , and legislation affecting the work of the enumeration of the population was not passed until 20 April , thus leaving only two months to prepare for the Tenth enumeration. In a similar problem was faced by the Census Office.
The census law for the Eleventh enumeration was passed in early March of , and legislation inserting additional inquiries on the population schedule was not passed until 22 February , about three months before the census began. The Census Office had a mere ninety days to coordinate the printing with the Government Printing Office and the delivery with the U.
Post Office of 20,, schedules, as well as to print and deliver instructions, oaths, and the census law to over 46, enumerators. The pressing nature of this effort and the logistics involved in coordinating all of the pre-enumeration tasks left little time for supervisors to train enumerators and for enumerators to study the instructions and schedules. An important innovation in the oversight of enumerators-the street book-was instituted at the census.
The street book remained part of the enumerator's portfolio for succeeding censuses. The Census office used the street book to aid in the enumeration of larger municipalities and to counter any complaints against the "completeness and the correctness" of the returns.
The street book facilitated organization and completeness of the canvass on the part of the enumerator; canvassers used it to record "the number of families and persons found in each house or building," houses or buildings where no persons were found, and the date visited. The street book had another important purpose: supervisors used it to verify the completeness of each enumerator's canvass. Just as in , the decennial census of population increased the volume of instructions for facilitating training and oversight of supervisors and enumerators.
According to a article on American census methods, through roughly a two month period, "The amount of material sent out to the field from the central office [was]. In all, three hundred tons were sent out by registered mail.
The instructions booklet was a whopping fifty-one pages, delineating everything from general instructions-the census act, care of schedules, enumerator's rights use of the telegraph-to special instructions regarding the schedules of population, agriculture, and manufactures. The establishment of a permanent Census Office, renamed the Census Bureau or the Bureau of the Census , in , did not significantly alter enumeration procedures.
Hopes were high on the eve of the Thirteenth Decennial census that this enumeration would represent the most accurate one ever produced by the Census Bureau. The permanent Census Bureau had been up and running for over six years.
For the first time in the history of the census the administration in Washington believed it would have ample time to prepare for all aspects of the enumeration. The decennial census administration refined the training process of census supervisors. In addition to "very full written and printed instructions" issued to each supervisor, conventions were held to train supervisors "in convenient cities in different parts of the country.
Even though the appointments were made thus promptly, the supervisors had scarcely enough time to prepare satisfactorily for the enumeration of their respective districts. The decennial difficulty in training and supervising a nationally dispersed and temporarily employed enumerator force, numbering over 71, in , is evident in the report of the Director of the Census to the Secretary of Commerce and Labor. The Director lamented that "The enumerator is.
First, the pamphlet of instructions was "revised with great care. It was reported after the enumeration that "In the larger cities practically all of the enumerators were thus assembled and given oral instructions either by the supervisor himself or by his special agents.
Finally, during the enumeration, arrangements were made in the large cities for "a continuous personal supervision and instruction" as work progressed. This "continuous personal supervision and instruction" was carried out by the supervisor and his special agents, called inspectors. Enumerators were expected to report to their inspector or supervisor within a day or two of the first day of work.
The supervisor or inspector examined the day's work and "gave such instructions as were found necessary. Supervisors examined the schedules, corrected them if necessary, and returned them to enumerators. While the census administration believed that the "actual number of inhabitants [was] ascertained with approximate accuracy" in and "that the principal interrogatories" on the population schedule were "answered with a fair degree of accuracy," it was the "less important inquiries" that had "less than satisfactory results.
The decennial census of population continued the process of refinement of the training and oversight of census fieldstaff. The innovation of supervisors' conferences, directed by the census administration, begun in , was continued at the census of population. A total of eleven conferences were held across the United states, at which all but thirty-four of the total supervisors attended. This conference was of a "general character" and was attended by the director, the assistant director, the chief statisticians for population and agriculture, the geographer, and the disbursing clerk.
The remaining ten conferences were directed by the chief statistician for population. Presumably these conferences were similar in nature to those held in , at which the Director or his chief statisticians gave oral instructions and answered the "numerous" inquiries of supervisors.
As in , supervisors were directed by the Census Bureau to orally instruct enumerators whenever possible "in convenient numbers and at convenient points. The points of oral instruction included the legal obligations of enumerators and emphasized the importance of familiarity with enumeration instructions. Certain enumeration instructions were highlighted, including: who was to be enumerated; "carefully distinguish[ing] civil divisions; the "family" and "dwelling" distinction; year of immigration and citizenship; place of birth and mother tongue; and occupation and industry.
The emphasis on these questions reflected concerns with their accuracy from the previous census. Apparently, the Census Bureau wanted to direct enumerator attention to these problematic questions to insure greater accuracy than had been the case in Inspectors were again a factor in the oversight of enumerators in Inspectors received their instructions orally from their supervisor.
These special agents were in essence an extension of the role of supervisors. In large cities supervisors were authorized to employ one or two special agents inspectors for the purpose of "exercis[ing] as close supervision as possible over the work of the individual enumerators" and "assist[ing] and instruct[ing] them for day to day. To these meetings enumerators were requested to bring their schedules and street book for inspection, at which time they were also encouraged to ask questions about the work.
The Fifteenth Decennial Census of Population continued to refine and elaborate methods of training and oversight introduced at the Tenth Census. The number of supervisors increased while the number of enumerators actually decreased slightly.
As in previous twentieth- century censuses, supervisors received advance instructions for carrying out the details connected with the enumeration. These instructions again took the form of pamphlets, supplemental written instructions in the form of letters, and oral instructions given at conferences. With only one exception all supervisors attended a conference. The training and oversight of enumerators at the Fifteenth census also elaborated on procedures implemented at previous censuses.
Just as marks a turning point in the administrative machinery of the census at the local and national levels, so too does the census of The Sixteenth Decennial Census significantly expanded local administration and enumerator training and oversight.
The planning for the Sixteenth Census, including the population schedule, administrative machinery, the structure of the field organization, and post-enumeration processing and tabulation, all represent a radical departure from previous censuses.
All field activities in connection with the census were directed by the chief of the Field Division. Assisting the chief of the Field Division were three regional assistants-each representing one-third of the United states. Each region was then divided into areas, which in turn were each administered by an area manager.
The territory under the purview of each area manager was further divided into districts, each of which was headed by a district supervisor. The Sixteenth Census introduced the use of "squad leaders" to coordinate and assist enumerators.
Squad leaders were used in cities of 50, or more population and were appointed for every twenty enumerators. Area managers, with the approval of the chief of the Field Division, appointed squad leaders. Interpreters were also Used in districts or territories where a considerable number of non-English speaking people resided.
Supervisors were to hire interpreters only in "extreme cases" where no persons could be hired as enumerators who spoke the particular foreign language. Interpreters were not regarded as enumerators, they simply accompanied enumerators on their rounds. Rounding out the field organization was of course the enumerator.
The training and oversight of fieldwork staff expanded significantly with the Sixteenth Census. Workshops, training seminars, practice exercises, and constant correspondence were required of fieldwork staff at all levels. Area managers, district supervisors and enumerators all were given training programs varying from about two months for area managers to one or several days for enumerators.
Training films, filmstrips, and other audiovisual aids were also used extensively. An expanded hierarchy meant more checks on procedure at all levels of fieldwork. Evidence regarding the extent of census publicity is scanty for the first eight decennial censuses of population. Part of the reason for the paucity of census publicity during the early years of the federal census lies in the fact that daily newspapers and magazines were relatively rare and had a narrow readership until the middle of the nineteenth century.
These developments significantly affected daily newspapers and magazines. Press coverage of the United States census to a large degree follows the growth of daily newspapers and magazines. The appearance of an enumerator on the doorstep in June of could hardly have surprised those who read their local newspaper.
While some papers reported on the census without prompting, some of this coverage came at the petitioning of census supervisors, enumerators, and public-spirited citizens. Stories about the census in commonly included pleas for full public cooperation. Most newspapers even encouraged people to prepare by writing down their answers in advance. The public relations campaign that city papers voluntarily carried on for the census in the last two decades of the nineteenth-century can partly explain the rarity with which enumerators encountered resistant respondents.
Superintendent of the Tenth Census Francis Walker credited the importance of favorable press publicity enough to tell supervisors, "I think it would be quite the correct thing for you to make acknowledgments through the press of the aid which has been given you by the public-spirited cooperation of the press of the city.
In the twentieth century the Census Bureau became more sophisticated in its campaigns to publicize the enumeration and the work of the Bureau at each decennial census. The Bureau was acutely aware that "The completeness and accuracy of the census depend[ed] in no small measure Upon the interest and intelligent cooperation of the people themselves.
These publicity efforts consisted of a number of means of drawing attention to the census and educating the public. First, a proclamation by the President of the United States was considered "the most important feature" of the campaign. In proclamations were translated into twenty-four languages and hung by supervisors and their office assistants in post offices and other conspicuous locations.
Second, "numerous" articles on the census were furnished by the Census Bureau to newspapers and magazines. Finally, circulars brief memos of factual information for general circulation were given to supervisors to distribute to school teachers, preachers, and employers, instructing them to inform those whom they came in contact regarding the census. Another form of publicity used for the first time at the census, was the advance schedule.
These schedules were distributed by enumerators a day or two prior to 15 April the first day of enumeration to heads of families. It was hoped that the advance schedule would "prepare the way" for the enumerator by "announcing his approaching visit" and informing the public of the questions to be answered. Secondly, the advance schedule would not only save time for the enumerators but also garner more accurate returns.
The use of advance schedules was experimental, and they were only employed in cities of , or more inhabitants. The decennial censuses of population for , and built on the innovations of publicizing the enumeration. Supervisors of the census were instructed to publicize the work of the enumeration and to "keep the pot boiling" all during the enumeration period.
In addition to the presidential proclamation which continued to be issued in numerous languages , newspaper and magazine articles, and distribution of circulars and the advance schedule, the Census Bureau gave public addresses to various groups and organizations.
Radio programs and "moving picture theaters" provided other mediums for the Census Bureau to publicize the coming census and to encourage the public to cooperate with the canvass. The Sixteenth Decennial Census of Population received a media blitz unprecedented in census history. In August of a Division of Public Relations was organized "under the specific authority of Congress to plan and execute an educational campaign for enlisting Nation-wide cooperation" in the decennial census of population.
The Bureau also employed the "consultative service" of "technical experts" on the various media of publicity. In the six months prior to the April enumeration, the Census Bureau "sow[ed] down the county" with folders, posters and proclamations and radio programs. School officials, church leaders, fraternal organizations, editors of newspapers and magazines, radio broadcasting chains and "other agencies and groups, too numerous to detail" also contributed to the census publicity campaign.
The returns canvassers had collected by the end of the enumeration period were subject to three general correction mechanisms throughout most of the decennial censuses through the exceptions are noted. The first drew upon participation by the general public; the second was carried out by the marshal as in or the district supervisor as in ; and the third was completed in Washington by the national census office staff.
From the first decennial census of population the public was strongly encouraged to cooperate with the process of insuring a complete and accurate enumeration. The method of initiating public cooperation remained Unchanged from the First through the Ninth Censuses. Beginning in , and continuing through , minor refinements in the mechanisms for public participation were implemented.
At the first decennial census of population assistant marshals were required by the census act to post a copy of the returns "at two of the most public places" within his division to "remain for the inspection of all concerned. The census act refined this instruction by requiring enumerators to "give written advertisement at three or more public places in his district that he will be at the court house of said county on the fifth day after filing said list, not including sunday, from nine o'clock ante meridian to six o'clock post meridian and the following day, for the purpose of correcting his enumeration by striking out or adding the designation of persons improperly enumerated or omitted.
In , at a pay-rate of ten cents per one hundred names, enumerators recopied the names from their population schedules into an alphabetized ledger, together with information on each individual's age, sex, and race. Beginning at the Tenth Census, those who believed themselves Unenumerated were also invited to report to the supervisor's office by mail or in person.
These opportunities were well publicized by the press. The logic behind the provision to require public inspection of returns was threefold: to provide a check on politically-motivated fraud, to secure an additional copy of the returns lest any were lost by fire or other accident, and to record the unintentionally uncounted. While the first two goals may have been met, the results of the third remain questionable. The second mechanism for correcting final returns was carried out by the marshal as in or the district supervisor as in After sitting in a conspicuous public place to amend their schedules, canvassers turned their work over to their superior, for a second round of corrections.
At the first six decennial censuses of population, assistant marshals turned their work over to the marshals who in turn filed them with the clerks in their respective district courts. No mention is made in the census law of the expectation by the Census Office that marshals were to scrutinize the work of their assistants before filing the returns with the district court clerk.
It was merely the responsibility of marshals to file the returns and mail the aggregate figures back to Washington. The census implemented formal checks on assistant marshal work by their respective marshals.
The instructions to marshals specifically directed that it was their duty to "carefully examine whether the returns of each assistant marshal be made in conformity" with the census law and "where discrepancies are detected, require the same to be corrected.
Under the "General Directions" heading Walker instructed assistant marshals to read over entries made "to the party giving the information, that all mistakes may be corrected on the spot, at the time. Beginning in , enumerators turned their completed schedules over to their district supervisor for a second round of corrections.
If household members engaged in agriculture i. Not all farmers owned land or livestock, of course, but it is always worthwhile to check all extant records for the place where a person is known to have lived.
If household members engaged in manufacturing, the researcher should examine NARA microfilm publication M, Records of the Census of Manufactures 27 rolls. According to the instructions given the U. Three cautions are in order, however: First , a person listed as a manufacturer in the population census may not be included in the manufacturing schedules in M For example, M contains information about 13 manufacturing establishments in Batavia now Middlefield , Burton, Chardon, and Parkman Twps.
Second , a household may include only persons "engaged in agriculture" according to the population census, yet have a manufacturing schedule in M Again, researchers should check land and tax records kept by county officials, especially when the household was engaged in agricultural pursuits.
Conclusion Experienced genealogical researchers use clues found in one record to locate other records about the same individual. However, it is always best to thoroughly exhaust all extant records for the place where the person is known to have lived, as shown by the above analysis of the surprises found in the manufacturing schedules for Geauga Co.
Top Skip to main content. Census schedules can help solve many genealogical problems. The first U. Federal privacy laws restrict census records from public use for seventy-two years in order to protect the privacy of the living. Consequently, the census of is the most-recent census available for research. Early census schedules listed heads of families and listed other individuals within age categories by sex.
The most significant change in the census came in , when focus was shifted to the individual as the primary census unit. One line of the census was used to record information on each person. A mortality schedule also was added in , which collected information on deaths that occurred during the twelve months prior to the census day. Other useful census records include: slave schedule and ; agricultural schedule , , , , and ; and defective, dependent, and delinquent schedule The latter lists persons who were insane, blind, deaf, homeless, or generally dependent on the government for services.
Availability Federal population schedules that are open for research are available for research at the Georgia Archives through Ancestry. A total of seventeen volumes of censuses were lost by the federal government, evidently before , and the cause is unknown. Tax lists for various years for a few of the counties have been published in Some Early Tax Digests of Georgia, ed.
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