Census Scribbles & where’s the “farm schedule” and should I care?
LINES 89-92 SHIFLETT/DOUGHERTY What are all the scribbles in the boxes? Ex: 2R? 4-4? Also Joseph is listed as hoh but he’s renting from mother in-law Mary? How did a woman own property back then? Also what is farm sched number for? Is there a “farm scheduled” somewhere that’s related to these records? Who is Joseph Dougherty? Hannah’s brothers kid? Which brother? And why is he living with them? Lots of Dougherty’s -all Hannah’s fam in the area... when, where, how and with whom did Joseph Shiflett enter the picture? Maybe he worked for Hannah’s father? Friends with her brothers? Where is his family and his history?!?!?
Answers
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I can answer a few of your questions.
1-The agricultural schedules with the 1900 census were destroyed (bummer!).
2-Women could own property in 1900. Here is a brief article about women and property in the U.S.:
https://www.thoughtco.com/property-rights-of-women-3529578
Hope that helps.
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Women could own property in the 1800s also. Because times were so hard, people often had family members and even strangers living in the same house. If someone had a child and a parent died someone in the settlement would agree to take the child.
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Ty for your informative responses @C. Jones & @PDavis2 ! What about the random scribbled “codes” in the name boxes? Anyone know what that was for? Anyone noticed anything like that on any other 1900 census records? Also, back to the farm schedule . .. I think I’ve seen that on other census years as well .... and I know they did some non pop census’ for certain places and time periods... like I’ve found mortality schedules but I can’t seem to find a “farm schedule” anywhere
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The scribbled codes on the U.S. Federal Census Schedules are the tabulations made for statistical analysis by the U.S. Census Office (now, the U.S. Census Bureau). They have no genealogical value.
The farm schedules are listed as Agricultural Census Schedules. They were taken from 1840-1910. The ones from 1890-1910 have been destroyed. The originals are located in various repositories, and I'm unsure if all of them have been digitized. The 1885 State Census included an Agricultural Schedule that is listed as Schedule No. 2. It was taken only by Colorado, Florida, Nebraska, and the territories of Dakota and New Mexico.
Hope this helps.
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Most of the 1890 U.S. Federal Census Schedules, including all of the Agricultural Schedules, were destroyed by a fire at the Commerce Department in 1921.
The 1900-1910 Agricultural Schedules were destroyed by Congressional order.
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Thank you @Judy Wolverton I read about The 1890 census and that’s a shame. But I wonder why they decided to destroy the later stuff? I guess back then, folks weren’t thinking about how important that info would be to their descendants:( often times, the value of something isn’t appreciated until it’s too late
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