Census record confusion
Can someone pls tell me what’s going on with this record? It looks like some military folks are included but why? None of this makes sense to me😖 I should add that ancestry has this record marked as July 3, 1865 which is one of the union muster dates. The location for this record is Clear Lake, Sangamon, Illinois
@Military Records
@United States Genealogy Research
@Family History Research
Best Answer
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Illinois law required to list all number of males eligible for duty in the militia. While many early state census/tax/tithables do have a military/militia requirements, this does not appear to be what is being recorded.
As you have stated the 1865 Illinois census is dated 3 July 1865, and the Civil War had officially ended 9 April 1865; but the the Illinois's 2nd Regiment was still active, they had moved to Mississippi in May 1865, thence to Shreveport, LA., 14-21 June 1865; thence to San Antonia, Texas, 9 July - 2 August 1865. The 2nd Regiment was mustered out of service on 22 November 1865. This would have been after the Census in July. I believe what you are seeing on this page is the Illinois census attempting to enumerate all the Soldiers that were still actively serving out of state.
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Answers
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Note this is not a federal census - but a state census
also note the important year as 1865 (the Civil War)
many men were away from home at the time.
I imagine this was a miltary group that were being counted as part of the census
that were not at home at the time of the census.
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also note the term on that page again that we brought up months back of "deaf and dumb"
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Looks like the army was camped in the area and the enumerator recorded the captains, as they would have a head of family, and then the number of individuals in the captains' companies as members in his household.
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Thank you for the wonderful info @Christopher L. Coleman 😊
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