Terry's TMG Tips

Census Source Type – Special Schedules

This page created 15 Apr 2014

Version Note: Applies to Versions 8 & 9

My Census Source Types article describes my general approach to citing US Census records. That article lists the five different Source Types I have developed, and provides a means to download them so they can be imported into your Project. This article describes in detail the Source Type I have developed for recording a variety of special schedules which were used in the 1850 to 1940 Population Schedules.

Topics Included in this Article
The Templates
The Templates used in the Source Definition
Style Notes
Some notes about the general approach used in this Source Type
Technical Notes
Notes about technical issues
Usage Notes
Notes about using the Source Type
Downloading this Source Type
Where to download the Source Type

This Source Type is designed to record one entry in the special schedule used in the US census. These schedules include the Agriculture Schedule, Industrial Schedule, Veterans Schedule, and Mortality Schedule, which were used in various years from 1850 through 1940. These schedules used a format quite different than the Population Schedules, with each entry focused on a single, farm, business, or individual, and thus require somewhat different entries in the citations than those schedules. The following discussion describes how the Source Type is constructed, and provides notes about its construction and usage.

The Templates

The following templates are used in this Source Type:

Full Footnote: [HOUSEHOLD]< [GROUP LEVEL]>, [TITLE]<, [COUNTY]>, [STATE], [SCHEDULE]<, [LOCATION]><, Enumeration District [ENUMERATION DISTRICT]>, sheet [PAGE], line [LINES]<, National Archives micropublication [FILM NUMBER]><, [COMMENTS]><, [CD]>
Short Footnote: [HOUSEHOLD]< [GROUP LEVEL]>, [TITLE], [SCHEDULE]<, [COUNTY]>, [STATE]<, [CD]>
Bibliography: [STATE]<. [COUNTY]>. [TITLE], [SCHEDULE]. Micropublication [FILM NUMBER]. Washington: National Archives
Reminder:

Source Definition:
- Title - enter "1XX0 U.S. Census".
- County - enter name of county (omit for DC).
- Household - enter name of subject person, in given name surname format.
- Location - enter name of post office, town or township if given.
- State - enter name of state.
- Enumeration District - enter enumeration district number (omit prior to 1880).
- Group Level - enter enumeration unit - e.g. "entry" or "farm"
- Schedule - enter type of schedule - e.g. "farm schedule" or "mortality schedule"
- Page - enter sheet or page number(s).
- Lines - enter line number.
- Film Number - enter film and roll numbers, as "T9-637".
- Comments (Supplemental tab) - enter location viewed and date if desired.

Citation:
- Citation Detail - optionally enter any notes about how this source relates to the information recorded in this tag.

Style Notes

There are some differences between the notes produced by this template and the example in Elisabeth Mills' Evidence!. The principal one is that I repeat the name of the subject person in the short footnote instead of the dwelling and family numbers. I believe this makes the notes easier to follow, especially if you have a lot of census cites in your report. I've eliminated the listing of the Supervisor's District, as I've never found it to be useful in finding a census listing.

I have included the Comments element, in which I record when and where I saw the census. This is based on comments by Ms Mills that some copies of the census may be more clear than others, so recording the date and location of the copy viewed is a good idea. Now that "enhanced" copies of the census images are available online and on CDs, this seems like an especially good idea.

Many census sheets have both a hand written "sheet" number and a rubber stamped page number and letter. There seems to be no consensus on which to use, but I have decided to use the original number hand-written in the space provided, and the letter since in most cases it seems the number remains the same for each letter.

Technical Notes

The following may be helpful to those interested in creating a Source Type using this method:

Usage Notes

In the Source Definition Screen, enter the following in the fields provided:
Field Comments Example
Title Enter the census name and year 1900 U.S. Census
County Enter the county Clark Co.
Household Enter the name of the subject person Frank Reigel
Location Enter town or city La Center
State Enter the state Washington
Enumeration District Enter the ED number, if any 156
Group Level Enter the enumeration unit used entry or farm
Schedule Enter the type of schedule farm schedule
Page Enter the sheet or page number 3B
Lines Enter the line number 4
Film Number Enter film and roll numbers T9-637
Comments
(Supplemental tab)
Enter location and date viewed, and any other general notes that apply to the whole household record image viewed on Ancestry.com

When the Source is cited enter any notes specific to the individual citation, which will vary by type of schedule. The following might apply to a Mortality Schedule:

Downloading this Source Type

For those who prefer to down load this Source Type and Import it into their Project rather than create their own version, it and my other census Source Types are available from my Census Source Types article.


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