Don't Overlook Agricultural CensusAlthough the population schedules of the federal censuses are far more telling as far as identifying members of a household, agricultural schedules also record information of interest to the genealogist. These records are largely overlooked, perhaps because researchers are just not familiar with them. Most libraries do not have these film rolls, which like the population schedules, were filmed by the National Archives. Beginning with the Seventh Federal Census (1850), a schedule of "Agricultural Productions" listed the holdings of individual farms. The first agricultural census recorded the name of owner, agent or manager of the farm, value of farming implements and machinery, horses, asses and mules, milch cows, working oxen, other cattle, sheep, swine, value of livestock, bushels of wheat, bushels of Indian corn, bushels of oats, pounds of rice, and pounds of tobacco. The 1880 Agricultural Schedule added even more detailed information, including the cost of building or repairing fences, wages paid for farm labor, number of whites hired, number of blacks hired, estimated value of farm productions sold, consumed or on hand; number of calves dropped, number of cattle sold alive, number of cattle slaughtered, number of cattle died, strayed or stolen; pounds of butter produced, acres and bushels of oats and wheat; cords of wood cut; and value of wood sold or consumed. This information, when combined with annual county tax rolls, presents a clear impression of an ancestor's farm.
A-U.S. Agricultural Schedules
|
GenealogyMagazine.com - Copyright © 2000-2010 Datatrace Systems |