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From: <>
Subject: Re: 1840 Census, what to do next?
Date: Sun, 01 Jun 1997 10:21:39 -0700
References: <l03020901afb6fc645ecc@[206.173.40.39]>

Rich Holmes wrote:
>
> I'll be interested in seeing replies to your question, but let me tell you
> my own story...
>
> My 2nd great grandfather Hiram Holmes was born in 1804 (according to his
> gravestone) in Connecticut (according to census records from 1850 and
> later). The 1855 New York State census has the wonderful question, "How
> long have you lived in this place?" According to that, he settled in
> Hamilton, Madison Co. around 1825.
>
> He appears as head of household in 1850, 1855, and 1860. (He died in
> 1864.) But no sign of him in Madison Co. as head of household in 1830 or
> 1840. So where was he?
>
> I decided to assume he was living in the household of some other Holmes. I
> knew that in 1840 he would have been 36, his wife would have been 37, his
> son would have been 5, and his daughter would have been newborn or perhaps
> not born yet. In the 1840 census they give totals of people aged under 5,
> 5-10, 10-15, 15-20, 20-30, 30-40, etc. up to 90-100 and 100 & over. I
> looked at all the Holmes households in Hamilton for ones with people in the
> right age brackets.
>
> Discouragingly enough, there were none. In fact, there was only one
> household that had a male age 30-40, and that couldn't have been him
> because that was the only adult male, i.e., the head of household: Ira
> Holmes.
>
> Waitaminute... Ira... Hiram... could it be?
>
> "Ira's" household consisted of a male, 30-40; a male, 5-10; a female,
> 30-40; and a female, under 5. This hardly constitutes proof, but I believe
> it's pretty likely the census taker got the name wrong and "Ira" is really
> Hiram.
>
> There are plenty of pitfalls in this sort of thing. It's entirely possible
> for more than one family to have the same age profile and same or similar
> head of household name. It's also possible for a family to have the
> "wrong" age profile due to departures from the family (kids moving out,
> deaths, etc.) or additions (births, adoptions, hired hands, etc.) or just
> errors in reporting or recording. But you can at least get evidence, if not
> concrete proof.
>
> Still no idea where Hiram was in 1830, by the way. I'm still waiting for
> the census film to come in.
>
> - Rich Holmes Morris: FLYING BARK (Newport News)
> Genealogy: HOLMES (NY,CT), COLLINS (NY,RI),
> Newport News, VA / Syracuse, NY BELDEN (NY), YORK (NY,CT), HANSEN (NY),
> JOHANSEN (NY), CURRIER (NY,NJ), HAYES (NY)
>
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> http://www.rootsweb.com/~nozell/GEN-NYS-L/
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------Rich
Is it possible that he just did not participate in the census during that
time?
Laurie Manell Kiriakou


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