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1910 US Census
The 1910 US Census
By Dan Gallagher
[for group discussions, use the Presenter View in the Slide Show mode; <|> indicates a transition point]
* The US Census is one of the most important paper trails and data sets for Genealogy investigation, in the United States. What is it, how to use it and what can we learn from it? These are the questions we’ll discuss today. It’s been conducted every 10 years since 1790, to identify how many people are here, and where they live. Luckily, it has evolved over these 220 years to tell us much more than that. The process to find the US Census form for your relatives and ancestors, will undoubtedly lead you through a digitized version of some of the included data. It is all rooted in, and based on, the physical form populated by the Census Taker at each residence, at least for all of those currently available (through 1940 – 72 year rule).
* This is the US Census form for Birmingham Ward 16, Jefferson County, Alabama. <|> That’s my great grandfather, J H Gallagher and his family on April 16, when the Census Taker (Enumerator), Charles Slator dropped by the house. The information for each of the family members was given verbally by “someone” at the address (often illiterate), recorded by the Enumerator based on what they heard, their spelling and writing capability; then many years later transcribed by someone else based on their interpretation of what was written, based on their reading, spelling and entry capability. This is true for most of the older genealogy documentation. You will often resort to this original document for resolution of questions, for reasons we will discuss.
* The Census would be called a spreadsheet in todays technology jargon. While there have been changes with every census since 1790, most have been adding a field, or dropping a field. The 1840 to 1850 shift was the biggest change, when the approach shifted from counting free white males, free white females, black male slaves, and black female slaves; by age group; by residence; to actually recording information for each person in each location, starting with their name.
* The digitization effort of public documents (Census, Birth Certificates, Marriage Certificates, Death Certificates are mostly volunteer operations that range from very sophisticated to non-existent, depending on the county, state, region and type of record.
* The various web sites that provide search and access to the Census forms are unique. The digitization of some of the fields enable specific searches, and the functionality provided to view, save, sort and filter is different for each site. Most sites are free for the Census searches, but many are membership and fee based for access or copies. Popular sites include Ancestry.com, Family Search.org and archives.gov. Many sites and much information is available through the public library system as well.
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\Research-Training\US Census 1910
By Dan Gallagher 2/29/16

2. District and Census Taker Information
State, County and area
Institutions if applicable (nursing homes, prisons, etc)
* On the top of each page are the key Census organizational fields.
* In the upper left are the State, County and Institution (normally blank).
* In other years it included the Post Office District as well.
<|> The upper right includes the
<|> City of the residence
<|> Date the page was completed - important when the birthdate is not given, but can be calculated based on age and this date
<|> Enumeration District number and Page number - critical for source documentation purposes
<|> Ward of City – this number is sometimes included in the location when in rural areas and there is no city
<|> Name of the Enumerator – this is the person that actually asked the questions and filled out the sheet.
City of Residences
Date of the page completion
Enumeration District and Sheet Number
Ward of City (often displayed in location field)
Name of Enumerator (Census taker)
\Research-Training\US Census 1910
By Dan Gallagher 2/29/16

3. First Column: Line Number – 50 in 1910
Census Details
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First Column: Line Number – 50 in 1910
* The lines of my great grandfather’s (John Henery Gallagher) record, up close. Starting from the left side of the form, the 35 columns, 33 of which are numbered are
<|> Line Number; 50 in 1910
<|> Street, Avenue or Road Name – most often left blank. Martin Station, listed here, is not on current google map in Birmingham?
<|> House Number – not often populated
<|> 1. Dwelling number – 1st family visited by this Enumerator in this district
<|> 2. Sequential family number visited by this Enumerator in this district. So when two families are in one household the family numbers might be 55 & 56, while the dwelling number might be 30. Even that tells you something about the living conditions and behaviors of the members.
Second Column: Street, Avenue or Road Name (often blank)
Third Column: House Number or farm (often blank)
1. Dwelling Number – sequential residence visited by Enumerator
2. Number of Family in order of visitations – sequential number
recorded by Enumerator (multi-family households)
\Research-Training\US Census 1910
By Dan Gallagher 2/29/16

4. 3. Name of each person living at the location on April 15, 1910
Census Details
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3. Name of each person living at the location on April 15, 1910
3. As with JH, initials are often used as well as Nicknames. This field further complicated based on illiteracy, spelling errors and transcription errors. Unknown what happened when you are being questioned in October when you lived someplace in April, and weren’t surveyed in April?
<|> 4. Enables clear identification between married children, grandchildren, grandmothers, aunts, uncles and boarders
<|> 5. Jasie (spelling error, Joseph), Eliza (Ezras and Ezekiels?), R.L.,
<|> 6. Since many slaves took the plantation owners names, after the civil war and the addition of the freed black men, many more instances showed up with the same name. This is a helpful filter for those situations.
<|> 7. This is where the Enumeration Date becomes important to determine the year of birth
<|> 8. Very helpful when trying to determine why someone didn’t show up in the next census
<|> 9. Not consistently included in other years, but helps target a year to search for marriage Certificates
4. Relationship of this person to the Head of the Family
5. Sex (great filter and you can’t always guess based on name)
6. Color or Race
7. Age at last birthday
8. Whether single, married, widowed, or divorced
9. Number of years of present marriage
\Research-Training\US Census 1910
By Dan Gallagher 2/29/16

5. Mother of how many children born Number of children now living
Census Details
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Mother of how many children born
Number of children now living
10. Mother of how many children & 11. Number of children still living. Very helpful in determining how many children have moved on, in one way or another. Child mortality high pre Indicates how many of the missing children should be included in another census location. Particularly helpful when you are going to elaborate the family back into the present to find living relatives
<|> 12. – 14. The birth place of the person, their father and then their mother – very helpful when identifying which John Smith is correct after knowing their parents country of immigration. Also helpful in starting to research the immigration path of parents. They will be on the ships roster years before they show up in the next Census.
Place of birth of this person
Place of birth of Father of this person
Place of birth of Mother of this person
\Research-Training\US Census 1910
By Dan Gallagher 2/29/16

6. Year of immigration to the US Whether naturalized or Alien
Census Details
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* Continuing to the right side of the page:
* 15. Year of Immigration & 16. Whether Naturalized or Alien. 2nd hint to help identification of ship and port of arrival for first immigrants of the family tree
<|> 17. Able to Speak English? Along with the birth place, this aids in immigration research as well.
<|> 18. Trade or Profession. This starts to build the story about what was the life of this person like. It may also facilitate trade research into Unions.
<|> 19. General nature of industry, business or establishment where worked. Employment records perhaps identified.
<|> 20. Employer, employee or working on own account. These last two may help to identify specific associations for additional research
Year of immigration to the US
Whether naturalized or Alien
Able to speak English, if not give language spoken
Trade or Profession of, or particular kind of work done by this person
General nature of industry, business, or establishment where worked
Whether an employer, employee, or working on own account
\Research-Training\US Census 1910
By Dan Gallagher 2/29/16

7. Number of weeks out of work in 1909 Whether able to read
Census Details
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21. Out of work on April 15, 1910? This is where you start to see changes based on what’s important at the time. There was a recession\depression in In the 1930 census there was a question as to whether or not there was a radio in the house !?
<|> 22. Number of weeks out of work in 1909? Attempting to gauge the measure of recovery and impact of the depression.
<|> In the Education section - 23 & 24. Able to read, able to write. Have been consistently included from 1850 through the 1930 Census. You will be surprised at the level of illiteracy before This helps explain the high error rate on name spelling and transcription. Many of the folks providing the census information could not provide proper spelling of their own names.
<|> 25. Attended school since Sept 1, 1909? The Attended School query was utilized from 1880 through My maternal Tucker ancestors, from Tennessee, demonstrate a consistent pattern. They were farmers, for many generations. The children all show up as attending school if they are 6 or 7 years old, but after age 8 or 9, they show up as farm hands, and are unable to read or write.
Out of work on April 15, 1910?
Number of weeks out of work in 1909
Whether able to read
Whether able to write
Attended school anytime since Sept 1, 1909
\Research-Training\US Census 1910
By Dan Gallagher 2/29/16

8. Owned Free or Mortgaged Farm or house Number of farm schedule
Census Details
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Owned or Rented
26. Owned or Rented? Relative to the place where you reside
<|> 27. Owned Free or Mortgaged.
<|> 28. Farm or house
<|> 29. Number of farm schedule
These fields were added in 1900 and continued through at least In 1850 – 1870, and then added back in 1930, were two additional elements to record the Value of the Real Estate and the value of Personal Property. Would be interesting to understand how and why these were added, and how and where the input was utilized.
<|> 30. Whether a Veteran of the Civil War (45 years ago at this point). Another interesting addition in 1910 that was not repeated.
<|> These two fields surfaced in 1880 and again in 1910, and then disappeared. In 1850 & 1870 they were part of a larger selection which included whether insane or idiotic. Also in 1850 they added pauper or convict. You have to wonder who came up with the changs, what was the vetting process to get them made, and what was the objective of each. How did they actually use the data without the yet invention of the computer to enter and crunch the numbers?
* All of the censuses to date were first moved to microfilm when that became available (which still just a picture of the page) and then manually digitized when computers and data entry became available. The combination of a digitized index of some of the field, leading back to the picture of the document is where most of the Federal Documents have ended up. Many of the countly and state level documents remain in transition from original paper to more current digital creation, depending on which decade and county the trnasaction was executed in.
Owned Free or Mortgaged
Farm or house
Number of farm schedule
Whether a survivor of the Union or Confederate Army or Navy
Whether blind (both eyes)
Whether deaf and dumb
\Research-Training\US Census 1910
By Dan Gallagher 2/29/16

9. Tips & Hints
Record other families on the Page – if your family disappears, look for them. Review the page before and after – look for immediate family, as well as maiden names that you have run into with this branch of the family.
1890 Census was lost in a fire, so you have a 20 year gap from 1880 to 1900 in which whole families are born and grow up making this period difficult
1790 – 1840 is a completely different format: Head of Household, how many free white males, free white females, black male slaves, black female slaves, each by age bracket categories. The age brackets changed census to census, but no additional info. Helpful if you have plantation owners in your tree, and somewhat able to postulate going backwards from 1950, or correlate to other family data sources.
Some food for thought based on several years of examining these and other types of genealogy documents.
<|> Get Neighbors
<|> Many States took Census (MN 1885) in the x5 periods, which can help close this gap
<|> There are other Census “Schedules” in many years – Slave, Tax Lists, etc
<|> You might also visit my website at GallaghersInGA.com or my youtube page at
The easiest, and next best data source is FindaGrave.com. It’s the WikiTree of Cemeteries, and can provide great research input, but also a communications link to other family members, both living and deceased. Check it out.
Visit: GallaghersInGA.com and YouTube.com/user/CIMpleBS
\Research-Training\US Census 1910
By Dan Gallagher 2/29/16

10. Census Research & Analysis
In 1920, LD (Louy Daniel, my grandfather) is living in Gadsden, Alabama, is married, and already has 2 children. He is out of his parents residence.
Unable to locate any 1930 Census, and is in Florida in 1940.
Census taken Jan 6, Harry Ezra (my father) not born until May 26th.
<|> * Don’t really need the 1930 to explain any people, but need it to determine when they relocated as that’s part of the missing story. But first I need o find out who his parents were, so we’ll go backwards to 1910.
<|> The month of birth (Harry – May 26, 1920) vs. the month of Census (Jan 6) explains why Harry isn’t listed.
<|> Where was Louy in 1910?
Where was Louy in 1910?
\Research-Training\US Census 1910
By Dan Gallagher 2/29/16

11. Census Research & Analysis Where was James Henery in 1890?
We wouldn’t know about Myrtle G. or Arthur L. at this point, but Myrtle would be 7 in 1890, so the family should already exist on a Census by itself.
<|> Where was James Henery in 1890?
* We can’t look at the 1890 census, as it was lost in a fire. We’ll try the 1880 and see what we get.
In 1910, Louy was living with his father James Henery and mother Flora Ellen in Birmingham, Alabama, 60 miles north of Gadsden.
Where was James Henery in 1890?
\Research-Training\US Census 1910
By Dan Gallagher 2/29/16

12. Census Research & Analysis Where was James Henery in 1870?
In 1880 we find James Henery with wife Flora Ellen living with Flora’s family in Minnesota.
Where was James Henery in 1870?
* We’ve just added another generation to the branch: Harry’s great grandfather on his mother’s side.
* They have no children yet, so the 1870 Census for James Henery should lead us to his father, which would be Harry’s great grandfather on his father’s side, completing that generation for this branch.
It raises a natural question: How did John Henry meet and marry this gal from Minnesota? We’re moving into Civil War time frames with the next Census.
\Research-Training\US Census 1910
By Dan Gallagher 2/29/16

13. Census Research & Analysis
* So through the US Census we were able to add and validate four generations of Gallaghers from Harry (born 1920) to Louy Daniel (born 1888) to James Henery (born 1854) to James (born 1824, Nova Scotia), almost 100 years of leneage.
* We also added the 3 generations of the Farnums from Louy Daniel to Flora Ellen to Reuben & Roxana.
* We now have a clear location to seek the birth records (Birth Certificate, Baptism, Christening, etc) to start to build the story of this family branch who has been on the move since the early 1800 from Canada to Maine to Minnesota to Alabama.
In 1870 we find James Henery and his 7 siblings with his father James and mother Rachel Ann living in Maine, where James Henery was born.
\Research-Training\US Census 1910
By Dan Gallagher 2/29/16