This extraction of the Federal Census for 1870 was done for the convenience of genealogists. We owe many thanks to the County Clerk, Sandra Sopak and County Historian, Michelle Henry for allowing us use of the microfilm produced by the Genealogical Society of Utah from the original copies of the census in the County Court House. The information herein may not be 100 percent accurate, but is our best attempt at extracting the information written more than 130 years ago in sometimes difficult handwriting. For example, if you find a name that begins with an L or an S, consider that it may have begun with it\’s opposite. There were times when we had no clue which was which, no matter how long we puzzled over the matter. We admit to altering some information when we actually knew what the family name was, but did our best to be true to the original.
For some unknown reason, these census books were bound in a hodgepodge order with pages, even towns or sections of towns out of order. We also found that records for six towns- Carroll, Cherry Creek, Ellington, Poland, Ripley and Westfield were missing from the county\’s collection. We supplemented these by using the microfilm held at Reed Library on the campus of New York State University College at Fredonia. In looking at the two microfilmed records, we concluded that these two copies were quite different, showing evidence that both were copied from a third, perhaps the original record. We inquired as to the existence of a third copy and learned that such a copy was sent to New York State but has since been destroyed by fire.
The record held in Mayville is the one most closely followed for this extraction. In some instances where information was significantly different in the two records, the information from Reed Library was included in parenthesis in the info column. The courthouse copy included a list of deaths for many of the towns and these lists are included herein. The record in Mayville also contains agricultural and business information not included in the copy at Reed Library, though no attempt was made to include such data in this work.
If the enumerator noted the start or end of a specific area within the town, we included this at the place it was entered in the record.
Explanation of column headings: family #. . The family number was assigned by the enumerator. This number can be used by a researcher to find the original record at the courthouse. The numbers used in the county record are used here. There are major differences in the record at Reed Library, especially within the town of Pomfret. The surname is not repeated when more than one individual with that surname is listed consecutively. The given name, age/sx are all straightforward. The occupation was recorded as close as possible to the original. The value of real property and personal property is given to the nearest tenth of thousand (K). The birtbplace of each individual was given only by state if within the US or by country. The two letter postal abbreviations are used for states, including DC. We used the best three capital letters we could think of to designate a country of birth. When there was a specific place designated such as \”The Isle of Man,\” or \”on the ocean,\” or even a specific village in NYS, we did our best to fit the information into the line for that individual. Next a column headed P indicated whether the parents were of foreign birth, ff for both, f- for father or -f for mother. In the column stating whether that person was born of married withing the year ending June 1,1870 will be found ab or m for such event. The info column will contain the date of event. There is a check in the s column if that individual attended school within the year. A check or double check in the r/w column indicates that person could not read and/or write. The column headed information is a catch-all for anything else within the census about the individual. Included in this column is any statement of disability.
This census also included a column to record whether the individual was White (w) Black (b) Mulatto (m) or Ind\’n. For the few individuals designated (b) or (m) this was spelled out in the information column.
Lois and Norwood Barris
2001
