This page updated 15 Apr 2014
Applies to Version 8 & 9
This article describes the Census Tag that I have developed for the 1850 and later US census – the years in which every member of the household was named. I have used these the techniques for some state censuses, I expect they could be adapted to any other census that list each member of household by name.
My article on Recording Census Information describes my approach to recording census information, which is aligned with the Census Tag I describe here, and some important caveats about its application. Two companion articles describe my Pre-1850 Census tag, and a simplified version some users may prefer.
My method treats the official head of household and his or her spouse, if present, on an equal basis. In this description I refer to them as "head(s) of household." Users who prefer a strict definition of "head of household" may have to make significant changes to this system to satisfy their needs.
Topics Included in this Article |
|
Understanding the intended functions of this approach | |
How it records the relationships between between members of the household | |
How it deals with one or both parents in the household | |
Sentence Structures used for 1880 and later years | |
How data is entered in the Census Tag | |
The expected results in narrative output | |
Recording relationships to appear in the head of households' narratives | |
Recording relationships to appear in the narratives of others | |
For those who want to understanding how the system works | |
Simpler Sentence Structures for the 1850 to 1870 censuses | |
How to download Terry's Census Tags |
The Census Tag described below records and provides narrative output with the following information:
For the head(s) of household:
- Census title, e.g. "1850 Federal Census"
- Date of enumeration, and address (when available), municipality, county and state of residence
- Miscellaneous notes, e.g. "reporting real estate valued at $600" or "reporting the family did not own a radio"
- Lists children of the head(s) of household, then other members of the household, optionally mentioning people not entered in the Data Set, such a servants, boarders, etc. Relationships to the head(s) of household are described.
For the other members of the household:
- Census title, e.g. "1850 Federal Census"
- Municipality, county and state of residence
- Name(s) of head(s) of household
- Relationship to head(s) of household
- Miscellaneous notes, e.g. "attending school"
- Other members of the household may be listed, i.e. for a son of the head of household whose wife and children are also present, they can be listed in his narrative
This provides a complete picture of the household in the narratives about the head(s) of household, as well as key information in the narratives about other members. This works well in narrative output to Second Site where each person's narrative stands on it's own, but at the price of some repetition in Journal narratives when the whole family may be listed together.
There is a virtually endless list of possible relationships of members of the household have to the head(s) of household and each other daughters-in-law, sons-in-law, with or without their children, mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters, grandchildren with or without their parents, uncles, aunts, and many more.
My Census Tag deals automatically with households of one or two parents and their child or children. All other relationships are dealt with by entries in the Memo fields, as described below. Only in rare cases might one choose to customize Sentence Structures for individual Tags to obtain desired output.
For simplicity, children of the head(s) of household are described as "children," "son," or "daughter." Thus sons and daughters are not listed separately when both exist in the household, and a family with only sons or only daughters still has them listed as "children." Describing the children more precisely is possible but adds considerable complexity to the system, for little gain, in my opinion.
The system deals automatically with:
This is done by what at first seems to be a counter-intuitive use of Roles. We specify the number and sex of the children by assigning the following Roles to the Parents:
Likewise, we specify which parents are present by assigning the following Roles to the Children:
Keeping this roundabout Role assignment scheme in mind may make it easier to understand the discussion in the sections below.
Below are the Roles and corresponding Sentence Structures I use for the 1880 Census Tag. Those for later years are the same except for the change in the year. Slightly simpler ones can be used for 1850 through 1870, as described at the end of this article.
My system requires custom Sentences for the standard Principal and Witness Roles, and the creation of the custom Roles listed below. If you are not familiar with modifying Sentence Structures, you may find my article on Modifying Tag Sentence Structures helpful. If you are not familiar with using Roles, my Tutorial on Creating and Applying Roles may be helpful.
Roles used for head of household and spouse:
Role | Sentence |
Principal | Male Sentence: [P] <|and [PO]> appeared
on the 1880 Federal Census of< [LCI],>< [LCN],> [LS]<,
at [LD]><, enumerated [D]><, [M]>. <Their children
[RF:with Parents] were listed as living with them><His children
[RF:with Father] were listed as living with him><, [M2]>
Female Sentence: [P] <|and [PO]> appeared on the 1880 Federal Census of< [LCI],>< [LCN],> [LS]<, at [LD]><, enumerated [D]><, [M]>. <Their children [RF:with Parents] were listed as living with them><Her children [RF:with Mother] were listed as living with her><, [M2]> |
one Son | Male Sentence: [P] <|and [PO]> appeared
on the 1880 Federal Census of< [LCI],>< [LCN],> [LS]<,
at [LD]><, enumerated [D]><, [M]>. <Their son [RF:with
Parents] was listed as living with them><His son [RF:with Father]
was listed as living with him><, [M2]>
Female Sentence: [P] <|and [PO]> appeared on the 1880 Federal Census of< [LCI],>< [LCN],> [LS]<, at [LD]><, enumerated [D]><, [M]>. <Their son [RF:with Parents] was listed as living with them><Her son [RF:with Mother] was listed as living with her><, [M2]> |
one Daughter | Male Sentence: [P] <|and [PO]> appeared
on the 1880 Federal Census of< [LCI],>< [LCN],> [LS]<,
at [LD]><, enumerated [D]><, [M]>. <Their daughter
[RF:with Parents] was listed as living with them><His daughter
[RF:with Father] was listed as living with him><, [M2]>
Female Sentence: [P] <|and [PO]> appeared on the 1880 Federal Census of< [LCI],>< [LCN],> [LS]<, at [LD]><, enumerated [D]><, [M]>. <Their daughter [RF:with Parents] was listed as living with them><Her daughter [RF:with Mother] was listed as living with her><, [M2]> |
Use: |
|
Roles used for children of the head(s) of household:
Role | Sentence |
with Parents | [SP] appeared on the 1880 Federal Census <of [LCI],>< [LCN],> [LS] in the household of [SPP] parents, [P] <and [PO]><, [WM]><[M0]> |
with Father | [SP] appeared on the 1880 Federal Census <of [LCI],>< [LCN],> [LS] in the household of [SPP] father [P]<, [WM]><[M0]> |
with Mother | [SP] appeared on the 1880 Federal Census <of [LCI],>< [LCN],> [LS] in the household of [SPP] mother [P]<, [WM]><[M0]> |
Use: |
|
Roles used for other members of household:
Role | Sentence |
Witness, Other, and Other2 |
[SF] appeared on the 1880 Federal Census of< [LCI],>< [LCN],> [LS], in the household of [P] <and [PO]><, [WM]><[M0]> |
Use: |
|
Notes: |
|
Enter the head of household as Principal, and if that's a man with a wife listed, enter her as the second Principal. Exception: if the people I care about are listed a roomers or the like, and I don't care about people listed as the "official" head of household, then I enter my target people as Principals, and note the official head of household in the Memo, e.g. "listed as boarding with G. G. Jones and his family." Assign Roles as described in the table above.
Enter the enumeration date as the Date field.
Enter the location, with as much detail as is available, in the Place fields.
If the household includes one or more children of the head(s) of household, enter them as Witnesses. Assign Roles as described in the table above.
Enter other members of the household (those that you choose to enter as people in your Data Set) as Witnesses. Assign them the Role of "Witness," "Other," or "Other2" as described in the table above.
Before proceeding with a discussion of how to manage the relationships, some examples of the expected output may be helpful:
Example 1 – Heads of Household and their Children only:
Head of Household Narrative |
Child's Narrative |
He and Amelia D. Smith appeared
on the 1900 Federal Census of Richmond, Wayne Co., Indiana, at 201 South
10th St., enumerated 5 Jun 1900. Their children August, William, Edward,
Dorothy and Caroline were listed as living with them. |
She appeared on the 1910 Federal Census
of Richmond, Indiana in the household of her parents, August H. Rodefeld
and Amelia D. Smith. |
This example shows a family with their five children. The narrative for the parents is shown on the left, and that for one of their daughters on the right. This output is created automatically by the system by simply assigning the correct Roles to each person as they are entered into the tag. |
Head of Household Narrative |
Son-in-law's Narrative |
He and Amelia D. Smith appeared
on the 1920 Federal Census of Richmond, Wayne Co., Indiana, at 201 South
10th St., enumerated 7 Jan 1920. Their daughter Dorothy was listed as
living with them, as were her husband, Donald C. Sligar, and their children,
John and Mary. |
Donald appeared on the 1920 Federal Census of
Richmond, Wayne Co., Indiana, in the household of August H. Rodefeld and
Amelia D. Smith, his wife's parents, with his wife, Dorothy E. Rodefeld,
and their children, John Malcolm and Mary Sue. |
This example shows the same family 20 years later, when a daughter, with her husband and two children, are living with her parents. The parent's narrative is again shown on the left, and the narrative for the son-in-law is shown on the right. In this case, language was added to the tag Memo and to the son-in-law's Witness Memo to produce these outputs, as described below. |
As we see above, children of the head(s) of household are automatically managed by selecting the appropriate Roles. But household members with other relationships must be managed manually, using the tag Memo. (Readers who wish to understand the mechanics of the Tag may want to refer to the How it Works section, below.)
For example, to include the son-in-law and his children in the parent's narrative in Example 2 above, the following was entered in the tag Memo:
||as were her husband, [R:Witness], and their children, [RF:Other]
Note that the entry starts with a pair of vertical bars, because the list of household members who are to be appended to the list of children must be in Memo segment 2. There is an introductory phrase "as were" and then entries for each different group of household members, together with their relationship statements. In this case we have two such groups; "her husband, [R:Witness]" and "their children, [RF:Other]."
It would be possible to type the names into the memo instead of using the name variables you see here. I use the variables for four reasons: 1) it avoids mistakes typing the names, 2) the names automatically change if I later change the names of the persons involved, 3) when I output my data to a website using Second Site, each name becomes a link allowing the reader to jump to that person's entry, and 4) when there is more than one person with the Role, as with the children in this example, a single variable produces the entire list of all of them.
Note that the Role of "Witness" is a true Role, and is used as any other Role in the name variable. Also, note that used the first-name variable for the children - [RF:Other] - to be consistent with the way I list the names of the children of the head(s) of household.
If there was some notation that I wanted to appear before the list of members of the household, I would enter it in the first segment of the tag Memo. For example, this entry in the tag Memo:
reporting the family owned its home||as were her husband, [R:Witness], and their children, [RF:Other]
would produce this narrative for the parents:
Should there be no children of the head(s) of household present, but only others, a slightly different approach is used. In this case, the list of other household members goes in the first Memo segment, because there is no list of children being produced by the tag. Say the household contains only the mother and a sister of the wife. In such a case the entry in the Memo would be something like:
with her mother, [R:Witness], and widowed sister, [R:Other], listed as living with them
would produce this narrative for the heads of household:
If you want to mention others, such as servants or boarders, that you do not enter into your Data Set, enter whatever you want to say about them directly into either the first or second memo segment, depending on where you want them to appear. For example, if this household included a hired hand, you might enter this in the Memo:
with a 32 year-old hired hand, Edward Lipps, listed as living with them
which would produce this narrative for the heads of household:
As seen from these examples, most situations can be managed by adding text to the tag Memo. In using this system, I've only found a few cases were I decided to make local changes to the Sentence Structure for the Principals to get the results I wanted. Most of them involved heads of households with multiple marriages, with children from several marriages present in the home. In such a case I might chose to edit the Sentence Structure, and assign the Roles "with Mother" and "with Father" to the children, rather than assigning some of the children to general Roles, like "Other."
Narratives for children of the head(s) of household are automatically managed by assigning their correct Roles, in general. Only if you want to mention relationships with others, such as a spouse or child in the household, would you need to take any special measures. That is done by adding text to the Witness Memo, as described next.
In most cases explanatory text is entered in the Witness Memo for the other members of the household. Perhaps the simplest case is a parent, sibling, or other relative in the household. For a mother living with her son and his wife one might enter in the Witness Memo:
her son and his wife
This would produce a narrative for her like this:
When you want to mention in one household member's narrative others who are present, it becomes a bit more complicated. For example, to obtain the son-in-law's narrative in Example 2 above, the following would be entered in his Witness Memo:
his wife's parents, with his wife, [R:with Parents], and their children, [RF:Other]
Note that the first part of the phrase, "his wife's parents," describes his relationship with the head(s) of household. This is similar to the example above, for the mother of the head of household.
The second part - "with his wife, [R:with Parents], and their children, [RF:Other]" - is used only when this person has a special relationship with other members of the household that you choose to mention, in this case that his wife and children were present. This same method can be used for the children of the head(s) of household as well. For example for his wife we might add to her Witness Memo:
with her husband, [R:Witness], and their children, [RF:Other]
This would produce a narrative for her like this:
One can obtain a bit more variety if desired by editing the Witness Sentence Structures, but that's not really required. I think most situations can be handled by entries in the Witness Memo.
For those who what to understand in more detail how the tag works, and especially for those who what to modify it to meet their own preferences, the following discussion may be helpful. We will consider separately the control of the head(s) of household's narratives, those for their children, and those for the other members of the household, since these controls are largely separate.
The narrative for the head(s) of household is produced by a Sentence Structure with the following five elements, each providing a specific part of the narrative output. The male Sentence for the Principal Role shown is used for illustration:
Sentence Structure Element
|
Function
|
[P] <|and [PO]> appeared on the 1880 Federal Census of< [LCI],>< [LCN],> [LS]<, at [LD]><, enumerated [D]> | Produces the name(s), general text, place, and date of enumeration. |
<, [M]>. | Produces any general notes, such as "owned a radio." Also used for "other" members when no children of the head(s) of household are present. |
<Their children [RF:with Parents] were listed as living with them> | Produces the list of children of the head(s) of household when they are the children of both of them. * |
<His children [RF:with Father] were listed as living with him> | Produces the list of children of the head(s) of household when they are the children of the male only (whether or not there is a stepmother present). * |
<, [M2]> | Produces the list of any other members of the household. |
* Note that the Sentences for the "one Son" and "one Daughter" Roles say "son" or "daughter" instead of "children." |
From this we might observe that the narrative for the head(s) of household is controlled by:
The narrative for the children of the head(s) of household is produced by a Sentence Structure with the following four elements, each providing a specific part of the narrative output. The Sentence for the "with Parents" Role shown is used for illustration:
Sentence Structure Element
|
Function
|
[SP] appeared on the 1880 Federal Census <of [LCI],>< [LCN],> [LS] | Produces the general text, and place of enumeration. |
in the household of [SPP] parents, [P] <and [PO]> | Produces the text saying it was the household of his parents, and names them. * |
<, [WM]> | Produces any notes about this person, such as "reported attending school within the year." Optionally may produce text relating this person to others in the household, such as a spouse or child. |
<[M0]> | Used to prevent the printing of the main tag Memo for this person if one of the memo options is turned on in the Report Definition screen. |
* Note that the Sentences for the "with Father" and "with Mother" Roles say "father" or "mother" instead of "parent." |
From this we might observe that the narrative for the children of the head(s) of household is controlled by:
The narrative for the other members of the household is produced by a Sentence Structure with the following four elements, each providing a specific part of the narrative output:
Sentence Structure Element
|
Function
|
[SF] appeared on the 1880 Federal Census <of [LCI],>< [LCN],> [LS], | Produces the first name, general text, and place of enumeration. |
In the household of [P] <and [PO]> | Produces the text saying whose household it was. |
<, [WM]> | Produces a statement about the relationship of this person to the head(s) of household, any notes about this person, such as "reported personal estate of $500," and may produce text relating this person to others in the household, such as a spouse or child. |
<[M0]> | Used to prevent the printing of the main tag Memo for this person if one of the memo options is turned on in the Report Definition screen. |
From this we might observe that the narratives for all the other members of the household is controlled by:
The discussion above described the Sentences I use for 1880 and later. In 1850 through 1870 the census did not report the full address of the household, so I use slightly simplified Sentence Structures for these years:
For the three Roles for principals, the term: < [LCI],>< [LCN],> [LS]<, at [LD]>
is replaced with simply: < of [L]>
For all the Roles used for Witnesses, the term: <of [LCI],>< [LCN],> [LS]
is replaced with simply: < of [L]>
You can modify your existing Census Tag Type or create custom ones by copying the Roles and Sentences from this page, editing them as you prefer. Or, you can download and install a copy of my Tag Types using the Tag Type Import function (Not available in TMG 7).
This download contains a set of Tag Types, one for each census year. I prefer a separate Tag Type for each census year, and there are slight differences between some of them.
If you choose to download you can import in either of two ways:
I recommend that you add them as additional Tag Types, even if you already have separate ones for each year. Doing so will avoid problems with your existing Census Tags if you don't plan to convert them to the new system immediately.
If you want to proceed with the download and import process:
Operating System |
Default Folder Location |
Windows Vista Windows 7 Windows 8 |
C:\Users\{user}\Documents\The Master Genealogist v9\Export |
Windows XP Windows 2000 |
C:\Documents and Settings\{user}\My Documents\The Master Genealogist v9\Export |
In that screen, you may choose to either:
- Replace your existing Census Tag Types – if you have separate Tag Types for each census year with the same names I use. To do that, select the first option, "Import and overwrite if the tag type already exists." Click the OK button. If successful, you will get a confirmation message that the new Tag Types have been imported. If you have used any Roles not included in my custom Tag Types, you will receive a message that one or more Tag Types were not imported. You can then either create the new Roles manually, or use the alternate method below (recommended).
- Add as an additional Census Tag Types – recommended. To do that, select the second option, "Import and don't overwrite." If you have Tag Types with the same names, the imported Tag Type will be numeric suffix unless you check the "Add a Prefix" box below and enter a prefix, which will be applied to the Tag Type name. Click the OK button and you should get a confirmation message that the new Tag Types have been imported.
For further details on exporting and importing Tag Types, see my article Exporting and Importing Tag Types.
The Second Edition of my sell-out book, A Primer for The Master Genealogist, is now available.
Details are can be seen here.
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