Can someone answer a question about the U.S. Federal Census?

Question

I was double checking some of the info on my family tree and found what we thought was accurate info conflicted with the 1870 census. I have a death date of July 30, 1870. I found several other trees on ancestry.com that showed a death date of Aug. 24, 1870 for this man. As usual, it appeared they had all copied one another, so I don't take any of that information as fact, however, the 1870 census that I found on this man and his family (all seemingly very much alive) was enumerated on Sept. 20, 1870, which I take to mean both of the death dates would be incorrect. Am I correct in thinking he was still alive on September 20th or have any of you run across a census that had the wrong month on it? I'm just a little puzzled........

Answer 1

The July death date is likely correct, and the listed enumeration date is correct. I know that it's confusing, but census records are taken as of a specific date (the "official" enumeration date), so infants born after that date are not enumerated and people who died after that date are listed as living. For the 1870 census, this date was June 1st, 1870.

It's necessary to have an official date because it took months to take the census and gather it together, then begin making calculations based on the data. The official date is often in the wording at the top of the name column. In 1870, the column read "The Name of every Person whose place of abode on the first day of June. 1870 was in this family." (Check the image to see for yourself.) Some of the enumerators wrote the official date at the top of the page, but they were supposed to write the actual date they did the enumerations.

It's also important to remember that although the only schedules we usually see in genealogy are the population schedules, they aren't the only schedules taken. Many people know of the 1890 Veterans schedule, and the slave schedules taken in 1860 and 1870. Mortality schedules were taken in 1850, 60, 70 and 80 listing individuals who had died in the year previous to the date of the census. There were also agricultural schedules, which told about equipment and animals used for farming, and manufacturing schedules. It's easy to think of the enumerators as lazy or not caring about accuracy, but they were gathering an incredible amount of information in a short time with little training and all by hand.

Answer 2

yes, I would assume that also.

But as you should know Census data is not always accurate either.

I would try to find out where the Aug 24 death date came from,

A family bible or other more reliable source.

See if there is a Newspaper account of the death in the home town.