Early MI Census Surprises

I just checked back at Seeking Michigan to see if they had added any more early Michigan Census images to their site since my previous and they had. I searched for “Smith” in the collection and found a few surprises. But wait. . . before you start doing your happy dance, like I did, let me temper your enthusiasm. In many cases you will not be able to compare the people in your family tree with a bunch of age check marks. Although the forms used in many cases were the lovely census forms I described in my previous post (More MI Census) the enumerators ignored all of those columns and simply listed the names (it appears) of men over 21. Some of the records for Washtenaw county are poor (the right portion of the image is very dark so you may not be able to find your people even if they are there). Most other images I looked at were fairly good, however.

These records come from the holdings of both the Library of Michigan, and the Archives of Michigan.

Here are the records that have been added since I posted about this earlier in the week and the type of information you can expect to find. If I don't include a note after the record available it means that the census form was used as intended. It is possible that more counties and years are represented in this database, but this is what I found in my search for “Smith.” I'm not sure how common this name was throughout the state, but there were a lot of Smiths in Eaton county. As of April 4, here are all of the early census records available at Seeking Michigan.

Branch, 1854, 1874 (Industry schedule that lists names and occupations of men over 21)

Clinton, 1864

Eaton, 1845, 1854, 1874 (Heads of households or men over 21 [not sure which] & occupations)

Houghton, 1864, 1874 (Heads of households or men over 21 [not sure which] & occupations)

Kalamazoo, 1874 (Heads of households or men over 21 [not sure which] & occupations)

Lenawee, 1845

Sanilac, 1864

St. Joseph, 1845

Washtenaw, 1827 (in some, but not all, cases the column headings were missing, so look for images from the same year), 1845 (Names of white males over 21), 1854 (Names of males over 21)

It looks like some of these records, 1874 for at least some counties and perhaps other years as well, may have been transcribed from another record or list. While examining an 1874 record for Houghton county I noticed that each name was numbered, but the first name on the page was not number one. Then mid-way down the page I saw “P16” and the numbers started from one. I can't think of a simpler explanation than that this list was compiled from another record, though don't quote me on that.

When you begin looking for your kin, remember that Seeking Michigan does not do fuzzy searches. Only exact matches will turn up. So, be prepared to search by first name and county if at first you don't find what you are expecting. That's what I had to do, but it paid off. Now, if only I could go back in time to give those enumerators a piece of my mind.

MI Census Good News, Bad News

The good news is that Seeking Michigan has completed it's project to post images of the Michigan 1894 census on the website. In addition, they have included images for the 1884 Michigan census. The bad news is that not all counties are represented (insert sigh of disappointment here). The story goes that the missing records were either donated during a WWII paper drive or perished in a 1951 fire.

The counties and years covered by these records are as follows:

Baraga (1884), Barry (1884, 1894), Bay (1884, 1894), Benzie (1884), Gratiot (1894),

Hillsdale (1884, 1894), Ingham (1884, 1894), Iosco (1894), Jackson (1884, 1894), 

Kalamazoo (1884, Pavilion-Wakeshma twps only; 1894), Kent (1884, 1894), Keweenaw (1884), 

Lake (1884), Lapeer (1884, 1894), Lenawee (1884, 1894), Livingston (1894), Menominee (1884, 1894), 

Midland (1894), Montcalm (1884, 1894), Muskegon (1884, 1894), Newaygo (1884, 1894), 

Ottawa (1884, 1894), Roscommon (1884), Sanilac (1884, 1894), St. Clair (1884, 1894), 

St. Joseph (1884, 1894), Washtenaw (1884, 1894), Wayne (1884, 1894).

To start searching go to the Seeking Michigan website and choose “Advanced Search” at the upper right of the screen. Be sure to de-select “Death Records.” Keep in mind that the search algorithm only finds exact matches. To work around this you can type in multiple spellings and select “or” from the drop-down menu. The download feature now works nicely. Good luck finding ancestors and answers. And don't forget to check in Jackson county if you have any lawbreakers in your past.

More 1894 MI Census Online

For those of you who saw my post about Seeking Michigan uploading images of the Michigan 1894 census, I have good news.  There are now images for at least 22 counties available.  They are as follows:  Barry, Bay, Hillsdale, Ingham, Iosco, Jackson, Lapeer, Lenawee, Kalamazoo, Kent, Keweenaw, Menomenee, Midland, Montcalm, Muskegon, Newaygo, Ottawa, Roscommon, Sanilac, St. Clair, St. Joseph and Wayne.

It is possible that other counties are also searchable.  To determine which county's images had been uploaded I searched for the surnames Smith and Brown, hoping that there was at least one person in each county with one of these all too common names.  If you are searching for someone in a sparsely populated Upper Peninsula county, for example, it may be worth checking in case no one there bears the Smith or Brown moniker.

Images for Washtenaw county were briefly available, but were hopelessly blurred such that they were completely unreadable.  Washtenaw county no longer appears in the search results so I hope that means the problem was detected and is being addressed. 

You can start your search on the 1884-1894 Census page to see the images that are available.

Update:  April 2013.  Seeking Michigan is currently adding census images between 1827 and 1874.  To see what records we can look forward to see my post.  

Michigan State Census Records

I have good news and bad news. The good news is that Michigan conducted its own population census about every ten years during the latter half of the 19^th century. The bad news is that most of these records were either destroyed or have vanished. However, depending on where your ancestors lived you may be able to find some of these records for your family.

The first time Michigan attempted to enumerate its inhabitants was in 1827, before statehood, but very few of the early records still exist. With a few exceptions, the ones you are most likely to find are for the years 1845 (head of household only, transcription available at www.Ancestry.com), 1884 and 1894 (transcription available at www.familysearch.org). And now, thanks to Seeking Michigan you can find images for existing state censuses from 1827 to 1894 on their website.  Their website lists which years are available by county.

The Library of Michigan holds many of these state census records. Coverage is spotty so you will definitely want to go to this website to see which records exist for which counties.

For Kalamazoo county the records available at the Library of Michigan are 1837 (abstract of records, with an index), 1874 (no index), 1884 (incomplete, no index), 1894 (no index). The Kalamazoo Valley Genealogical Society has 1884 census pages for Kalamazoo county available for Pavilion, Portage, Prairie Ronde, Ross, Schoolcraft, Texas and Wakeshma townships (I believe the records for the rest of the county are missing). These records can be found by searching the KVGS database.

The WMU Archives has state census records for Kalamazoo county (1837, 1884, 1894), Ottawa county (1884) and St. Joseph county (1845, 1884, 1894). The Van Buren District Library also has some state census records: Allegan (1894, incomplete), Kalamazoo (1884, Pavilion through Wakeshma), St. Joseph (1884 or 1894) and Van Buren (1845).

If you have military men in your tree who may have served in the Civil War (or possibly Mexican or Indian wars) you should also check the 1883 census of pensioners. Note that only men who were receiving a pension in 1883 are on the list. Some veterans may not have begun receiving benefits until later. If that is the case, you can look in the 1890 union veterans/widows schedule, which you can find at Ancestry.com.

It is unfortunate that many of the state census records no longer exist, but you may get lucky and find them in one that remains. Why bother looking if you already have your family pegged in the US Federal census? Don't underestimate the power of your ancestors to surprise you? Some of them moved around quite a bit and you may be able to track them to a new location with additional records you can pursue. Another good reason is because you may find a child who was born and died between federal censuses. You never know what you might find, but you'll certainly never find anything unless you turn over that stone and look.

Fortunately, the fine people at Seeking Michigan have scanned the existing census records and have made them available on their website.