Terry's TMG Tips

Terry's Census Tag
for 1850 and Later U.S. Census

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
What It Does
Understanding the intended functions of this approach
Household Members
How it records the relationships between between members of the household
One or Both Parents
How it deals with one or both parents in the household
Sentence Structures
Sentence Structures used for 1880 and later years
Entering Data
How data is entered in the Census Tag
Expected Output
The expected results in narrative output
Relationships for HoH
Recording relationships to appear in the head of households' narratives
Relationships for Others
Recording relationships to appear in the narratives of others
How It Works
For those who want to understanding how the system works
1850 to 1870
Simpler Sentence Structures for the 1850 to 1870 censuses
Downloading
How to download Terry's Census Tags

What It Does

The Census Tag described below records and provides narrative output with the following information:

For the head(s) of household:

For the other members of the household:

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.

Dealing with Relationships Between Household Members

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.

Dealing with One or Both Parents and Children

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.

Sentence Structures for 1880 and Later Census

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.

I prefer separate Tag Types for each census year, so it is apparent from the Tag labels which censuses have been found for a person. If you prefer a single Tag Type for a range of years, substitute the variable [Y] for the actual year in each of the Sentences below.

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:

  • Enter the named head of household, and spouse if present, as Principals.

  • Assign each of them the Role "Principal" if they have no children of theirs listed, or if there is more than one child listed.

  • Assign each of them the Role "one Son" or "one Daughter" as appropriate when they have only of their children listed.

  • The presence or absence of any other members of the household in not considered at this point.

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:

  • Enter the children of the head(s) of household, as Witnesses.

  • Assign them the Role "with Parents" if both their parents are listed.

  • Assign them the Role "with Father" or "with Mother" as appropriate when only of their parents is listed.

    (The Sentences above uses the Variables [SP] and [SPP] which are not available in TMG 8 – for TMG 8 create separate male and female Sentences, and type in "He" and "his" or "She" and "her" use instead.)

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:

  • Enter each person you want to record in your data set, who is not either the head(s) of household or their children, as Witnesses.

  • Assign them the Roles "Witness," "Other," or "Other2." Assign the same Role to members of the household who have a like relationship to the head(s) of household. For example, you might assign the Role of "Witness" to the parents of the head of household, the Role of "Other" to his son-in-law, and the Role of "Other2" to the children of that son-in-law.

  • These entries are customized as described below in the Relationships for Other Household Members section so that the narratives for them will correctly reflect the relationships to the head(s) of household, and optionally, to other members.

Notes:

  • These Roles do not need to be used consistently from one tag to the next. They are given general labels so they can be used for a variety of relationships.

  • I've found three of them to be generally adequate, but in a few cases of complex households have had to add more. Just go back to the Tag Type definition for that census year and add "Other3," "Other4" etc. as needed.

    (The Sentence above uses the Variable [SF] which is not available in TMG 8 – for TMG 8 use [W] instead.)

Entering Data in the Census Tag

The Expected Output

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.

Example 2 – Household including Other Persons:

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.

Recording Relationships for the Head(s) of Household Narrative

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:

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, reporting the family owned its home. Their daughter Dorothy E. was listed as living with them, as were her husband, Donald C. Sligar, and their children, John and Mary.

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:

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, with her mother, Anna Maria Stöppelwerth, and widowed sister, Catharine Maria Fruner, listed as living with them.

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:

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, with a 32 year-old hired hand, Edward Lipps, listed as living with them.

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."

Typing in Role variables can be tricky and error-prone. Instead, right-click in the Memo field and chose the desired Variable from the menu that appears. To double-check your work, click the Sentence button and examine the Preview there.

Recording Relationships for Other Household Members

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:

She appeared on the 1920 Federal Census of Richmond, Indiana in the household of August H. Rodefeld and Amelia D. Smith, her son and his wife.

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:

She appeared on the 1920 Federal Census of Richmond, Indiana in the household of her parents, August H. Rodefeld and Amelia D. Smith, with her husband, Donald C. Sligar, and their children, John and Mary.

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.

How It Works

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:

Sentence Structures for 1850 to 1870 Census

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]>

Downloading this Tag Type

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:

  1. Down load my custom Tag Type file here: Terry's 1850-1940 Tag Types
The file formats used for exporting and importing Tag Types was changed with TMG version 8.05. This import can only be used with that version or later. If you are using version 8.04 or earlier you should install the free upgrade. (The file above uses variables not available in TMG 8 – for TMG 8 use this version.)
  1. You have a choice about where to save the file. You can save it in an easy-to-find location, such as on your desktop, and then locate it when you import it in Step 3 below. Or, you can save it in your TMG "Export" folder, which is were TMG first looks for it. I recommend that location if you might want to import the Tag Types again into different Projects. The default location of the Export folder is shown below, but it may differ on your system if you have customized your file locations:
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 yet another misguided attempt by MicroSoft to be helpful, Internet Explorer insists on changing the file extension when you save the file, making it unusable. The best solution is to use a "real" browser, such as Opera or FireFox. But if you prefer to use Internet Explorer you can solve the problem by correcting the extension as you save the file. To do that, when the Save As dialog opens, change the "Save as type" drop-down at the bottom of the screen to "All Files." Then edit the File name just above, changing the ".zip" at the end to ".xtt" (for eXchange Tag Type).
  1. Open TMG, then use the Tools > Tag Types menu command to open the Tag Types screen. On that screen, click the Import Button, and on the Import screen that opens select the "terry's census tags 1850-1930.xtt" file. If you have saved it someplace other than the Export folder, you will have to navigate to that location to locate it. Click the Open button, and the Import Tag Type screen opens:Import Tag Types

In that screen, you may choose to either:

For further details on exporting and importing Tag Types, see my article Exporting and Importing Tag Types.


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