Genea-Musings: The Nebraska State Censuses

Thursday, December 10, 2009

The Nebraska State Censuses - 1860 to 1885

Ancestry.com announced the release of the Nebraska State Census records for 1860 to 1885 today - see Crista Cowan's blog post Ancestry World Archives Project Releases Nebraska State Census, 1860-1885.

I love it when new databases that contain records of my ancestors and research targets come online. The only ancestors I know about in Nebraska in this time period were my SMITH family - Devier J. Smith, his wife Abbie, and their children, Della, David and Matie.

Here is the record summary for D.J. Smith:

It shows four people in the family - with Albret listed first, then D.J., Della and Matie.

Here is the actual census record (1885 Nebraska State Census, Red Willow County, McCook Township, Page 3, Dwelling #35, Family #35, National Archives Microfilm Series M352):

The information for this family shows:

* Smith D.J. - white, male, age 45, wife, married, Lineman (?? unreadable, may be liveryman), born NY, father born NY, mother born NY

* Smith Albret (should be Abbie) - white, female, age 41, daughter, married, at home, born NY, father born England

* Smith Della - white, female, age 23, single, born Wisconsin, father born NY

* Smith Matie - white, female, age 19, single, born Wisconsin, father born NY

The enumerator mistakenly put "wife" for D.J. and "daughter" for Abbie in the relationship column. He didn't write in the mother's birthplace for Abbie or the two daughters. The indexer couldn't read Abbie's name on the page accurately and indexed it as "Albret" - I can't fault the indexer here - it does look like "Albret." I submitted an alternate name saying that the enumerator had erred.

I have several other related families to search for and find in this census database - maybe I will be able to add information to my genealogy database as a result.

Labels: Ancestry.com, Census Records