1820 Census
Each of the different Federal Census asks different questions to arrive at the need of the country at the time of that census. The 1820 is no different from any of the rest of them. Most all of the Census from 1790 through 1840 are primarily interested in the number of young men that could be pressed into militia/military duty at any one time. You always notice that these age breakdown of men in the 16 to 45 age group is the most divided. These are the men that would be necessary for military service.
The first thing that you notice is the name of the head of the household, be it male or female or white or freed blacks. This is the only name that you will find on this particular census. Sometimes the census is re-written into a more or less alphabetical order. This format does not allow you to find others in the neighborhood, which is very important in most cases. If this is the case, then you have to take what you are given. Hopefully, the census taker is lazy and just copies the names in the order in which he takes them. You can now get a number of names in the neighborhood. This is important because it is generally from the neighborhood that the wife comes as well as the spouses of the children. I personally like to write down the information for about ten to twenty before and after the person of interest to collect the neighborhood.
Only one other source is as good as the census for collecting the people in the neighborhood and that is the road orders of the county. In the early nineteenth century, the county kept its road in good repair by having each person down a particular road give so much time each year to work on the roads, thus you find the listing in the County Court minutes and this gives a great listing of those living on that road.
Following the name of the head of the household are the age/sex groupings of those living in the household at this time. In 1820, both the male and female fall in the same age brackets which are [0-10] [10-16] [16-26] [26-45] [45-up]. Notice that the 16-45 age group is most important for the military service.
The next column in the listing is very important and is the one most often missed. This is the check mark for foreigners not naturalized. What it is telling us is that someone in that household is not a citizen meaning they probably have just come from the old country. If you find this, look into the ships passenger listing for the oldest person named in the census. By the 1820s no one wanted to be considered a “loyalist” or “foreigner”. There is no indication of their country of origin on the census, but the ships listing will have that information.
After the age groupings and the “foreigner not naturalized” columns is the note on the occupation of the head of the household. You will find that most of them are given under the “agriculture” column, but note that there are columns for Commerce and Manufacturing. In some cases, there are workers within that household that fall into each of these latter two columns. Some large households might have others, usually slaves, who were into smithing, harness making or even coopers. They would be noted as “manufacturing”.
Next come the listing of the number of slaves by sex/age groupings, but different than those for the white citizens. Here the male and female are listed separately but by the same age groups as follows: [0-14] [14-26] [26-45] [45-up].
The final set of numbers given in this census is those of the “freed blacks” which also are grouped by sex/age groups. When one is head of the household, their name is given, but when they are employed by the white family their names are not given. The age groupings are the same as for the slaves and fall into “male” or “female”.
The 1820 census, like most of the ones from 1790-1840, people tend to give a minor role in their research. However, this is a big mistake. Granted you don’t have a whole listing of names, but you can glean a great deal from the information that is given. It just takes a little thought and comparisons with other materials to gain the full riches of this census. Make sure you record any side bar note that the census taker might put on the original census. Sometimes, these are very helpful. No matter how good the transcriber might be, always go back to the original pages to glean every single scrap of information that is contained in the records.
Happy Hunting!!!