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There are sometimes, obvious records that I believe
we tend to overlook when researching our ancestors.
Some being Non-population Schedules.
These include: Agricultural, Industrial, Mortality and other
Special Schedules. In this
article, I will discuss the Mortality Schedules.
Please look in our future quarterly issues for more information
on the others listed.
During the Federal Census years from 1850 to 1900,
the census takers were asked to collect information on all persons who
had died during the twelve months preceding the census. Census day was
“officially” declared to be June 1st of the census year.
In the 1870 census, the census taker would have
asked for information about persons that had died between June 1st
of the previous year and May 31st of the current year.
This information would have included: the name of the deceased,
age, sex, color, birthplace, month of death, occupation, cause of death
or disease, number of days ill, the attending physician and birth place
of the parents.
In 1880, there were do additional questions that
were to be asked; the place
where the disease was contracted and the number of year the deceased
person had live in the area.
The 1890 and 1900 mortality schedules were
unfortunately destroyed.
Keep in mind that the information on the census and
the mortality records was only as good as the census taker or the person
giving him the information. This
is why we sometimes have varying information on the same person in
different census years. It
is estimated that census takers missed at least 20 percent of the deaths
that they should have recorded. They
were very inconsistent.
If you find a family member in a mortality
schedule, this will give you the information you need to then research
obituaries, cemetery records, mortuary and funeral records, probates and
wills, and so on. These
records can also help you trace genetic diseases.
As long as you are searching the census records you
may as well look at the mortality schedule.
These are usually at the end of the census microfilms.
These original schedules can be found at the Idaho State Archives
in Boise, the National Archives or the DAR Library in Washington D.C.
and the Genealogical Society of Utah has also microfilmed a number of
them that are available at the Salt Lake City depository or their Family
History Centers. Some are
available online through some subscription genealogy sites.
Be aware that mortality schedules are not available for all
states and years. Please
check with the repository for availability.
Steve Barrett, Library Assistant and Bonnie Fuller,
Volunteer for the Idaho State Historical Society have done tremendous
work in transcribing the 1870 and 1880 “non populations” schedules
for Idaho |