More Than Just Names in the Census

The writing prompt for week 5 is "in the Census". Census records are interesting things. Sometimes they can be immensely helpful. Sometimes they can be immensely frustrating. They have been taken on the Federal level every 10 years since 1790. The information found on them varies from census to census ... the earliest census records (1790-1840) list only the name of the head of household, along with the number of people in the household that fall in certain age brackets. It is only broken out by male/female within those age brackets, and sometimes between "white" and "slaves/colored". So, if you're doing genealogy, you may see something like this, and have to try and make the best of it you can.

Fortunately, in 1850 census takers began recording additional information, including the names of each person in the household. Even then, however, information varies widely from census to census. In 1870, columns were added for the birthplace of the individual's parents. In 1880, a column was added that finally showed the relationship of each individual in the household, which can be great help when there are extra family members, etc. If you can find your family on the 1890 Census AT ALL, you've acquired what amounts to the Holy Grail of genealogical research, because most of that census year was destroyed by fire in 1921. A few fragments for a few states remain, but they are very few and far between.

My first remembrance of a census record was actually a copy of an census index card from the 1880 Census for my ancestor Nikalaus Zahnd of Florence, Alabama. I was about 11 years old, and my Grandmother was exclaiming over it, because it listed Nikalaus' son Johannes (or John) as "Harness".

These days, I realize that could have happened for any number of reasons. Perhaps the census taker couldn't spell very well. Things like that happened. More likely, Mr. Ott (did you know the census taker's name is on the record, too?) may have only been writing what he heard. Family stories say that Nikalaus spoke eleven languages, but none of them was English. Since he is listed as a farmer, and 11-year old "Harness" was listed as working on the farm, it's quite possible they were both in the fields when the census taker came anyway. If so, that would have left Katharine (sometimes spelled Catherine) and the two daughters at home. Family stories indicate that Katharine spoke 4 languages, including a little English. Perhaps she had learned it in her time working as a servant before she married Nikalaus. Regardless, the primary language spoken in the household would have been German ... a fact we can actually learn by looking at the 1920 census for Johannes' family. It lists the birth country and native tongue for both of his parents.

Johannes' shortened name, Hannes, spoken with a German accent, could easily have been heard as "Harness". Perhaps that is why later in his life he went by John, a more Americanized version of his name.

John (Johannes) Zahnd, was born on June 20, 1869. He was the oldest of the three children of his parents, although not the oldest child of his father. Nikalaus, a Swiss immigrant, had been married and had a family while in Switzerland, but his wife and his son had passed away, and so he left his young daughter, presumably in the care of relatives, and came to America in 1866. Katharine was also from Switzerland, and had come over about the same time as a house servant for a Lauderdale County family named Falconnett. She and Nikalaus met and were married in October 1867. Some of this information can be found in the census records (such as the 1900 census below) for Nikalaus and Katherine. The rest can be gathered from other records, such as marriage records, and from family stories. If you look at the census record below, the year of immigration (1866) is listed, alongside the number of years they have been a resident. The "Na" that follows that, in Nikalaus' case, indicates that he was a naturalized citizen.

John Zahnd, by 1900, was married and had his own family. The census record for their family shows how things have been changing with time.

John and his wife Florence are renting a farm, where they live with their four children. But there are clues to follow in this census record. If I didn't already have their marriage date, the column almost dead center with an "8" in it tells me how long they have been married, which gives me a place to start looking. Immediately to the right of that, there is a "5" and a "4" connected to Florence's name. Those two columns tell me that John and Florence have had 5 children, but only 4 of them are living as of the time the census was taken. I still haven't found this little lost child. Perhaps one day I will find burial records or a death notice in the paper. For now, all I know is that it was most likely born between 1892, when John and Florence married, and 1900. Based on the other children's ages, I can narrow that window down a little bit, and surmise that it was most likely born in the gap between 1894 and 1897. That is the way genealogy research works ... you give it your best guess, and then see if your theory proves correct.

Census records can be an amazing resource for folks who are researching their family tree. It is a researcher's bread and butter, if you will ...  often the first source genealogists go to, because it provides so many clues to follow. And the more you learn, the more you want to know.