Thursday, September 6, 2012

Treasure Chest Thursday - 1870 U.S. Census Record of Thomas Richmond Family


It's Treasure Chest Thursday - time to look in my digital image files to see what treasures I can find for my family history and genealogy musings.

The treasure today is the 1870 United States Census record for my Richmond great-grandparents and their family in Stonington, New London County, Connecticut (two pages): 




The Thomas Richmond family is on two census pages - the bottom two lines of the first page, and the top line on the next page.  Here are snippets for these three persons:




The extracted information for the family, residing in Stonington, taken on 11 July 1870, is:

*  Thomas Richmond - Age 23, male, white, In Wn mill, born in England, father of foreign birth, mother of foreign birth, male citizen of U.S. upwards of 21 years of age.
*  Julia Richmond - Age 21, female, white, Keeping house, born Connecticut
*  Anna Richmond - Age 1, female, white, at home, born Connecticut

The source citation for the census image is:

1870 United States Federal Census, New London County, Connecticut, Population Schedule, Stonington 2nd Ward: page 775, dwelling #272, family #386, Thomas Richmond household; online database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 29 October 2011); citing National Archives Microfilm Publication M593, Roll 114.

I consider the 1870 U.S. Census records to be an "Original Source" (because this "family snapshot" in July 1870 is in its first written form), although the image in the National Archives is likely a record copy (since the enumerator made two copies of the original, and the Archives has the third copy); mostly as "Secondary Information" (since we don't know who provided the information - although it was probably Julia Richmond), and as "Indirect Evidence" for most of the information (the exception being the birthplaces, and Thomas's occupation which were certainly known by the informant).  

I see one obvious errors in this census record (based on what I know about these persons from other records, including birth and marriage records):

* Thomas Richmond's age is listed as 23, but he was born 16 June 1848, so he was age 21 on 1 June 1870 (the official census date), and 22 when the enumerator made this record.  

Thomas and Julia Richmond had a son, Frederic J. Richmond, sometime in 1870.  He is not listed in this census, and so his birth date is likely after 1 June 1870.

I noticed that Thomas Richmond is listed as a U.S. citizen over age 21, although he was an immigrant from England in 1856.  I doubt that he applied and was granted naturalization since he's only age 22 in 1870.  My educated guess is that he became a citizen of the United States when he married Julia (White) Richmond in 1868.


Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

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