Primer time: (If you
know this cold, jump to ***.)
Directly to the left of the first name of each family enumerated, most of the census years carry 3 columns with numbers. In order they are "street number," "dwelling number," and "family
number." (In the early census', there are 2 columns.)
Street number is the
numbers part of the address; the street name is written vertically just inside
the left margin. Combine and
"walla" you know their postal address. No biggie, street addresses are understood,
and still used for bills, birthday cards, and shipments from Amazon.
Dwelling number and family number may need a bit of explanation.
When a census taker started on his/her area (as defined by the header at
the top of the page) the first family contacted lived at dwelling #1 and is also
family #1. On to the next house. That house is labeled dwelling #2, and the family is also family #2. The next dwelling is a 2-flat. Now the census taker is
looking at ONE building, so this is dwelling #3, but inside this building live
two distinct families, who become families #3 and #4. Next is another 2-flat: dwelling #4, families
#5 & #6. Rinse & repeat for
each.
NB. Sometimes it gets interesting in those
U-shaped apartment buildings in cities.
The building may have 5-8 doorways, all emptying out into the courtyard,
which is the interior of a U or an L. Often
each door has a different address, with 6-8 families off that one doorway (3-4 floors, with one apartment on each side of the stairway rising from the street). Sometimes this is enumerated as ONE dwelling
with the street address of 102-122 Jefferson, and each family counted
separately. I have also seen it,
however, where each doorway is considered its own dwelling, with each family
counted. This second makes it harder to
keep track of who is really where, and what sort of neighborhood is really
there. I go to Google maps, and often the building is still there, but if that particular building has
turned into a library, the neighborhood will offer suggestions -- comparing
what you see on Google maps to how that next address with a U-courtyard was
enumerated.
*** So why do we
care about these numbers, dwelling and family, which seem to be something
devised to give the census takers one more column to fill out?
- In the early census' and continuing in rural areas where there weren't street addresses, dwelling/family numbers signaled an extended family living in that one building.
- In areas with 2-3 families at one address, flares should go up to look for family connections between the different floors of the building. In Chicago, easily through the 1980's, and even into the 2000's, generations were divided by floor. The grandparents would live on the first floor (easier in and out), one of their children, with kids of their own, would be on the 2nd floor, and perhaps a cousin would be in a studio carved out of the basement.
- Looking at the spread between dwelling number and family number offers clues to the density of the area.
- If you think that your family was missed, you can go into micro mode, and plot the route taken by the enumerator by plotting the addresses as they were recorded. It's a long shot, but when you are looking for straws…
Three columns, and
absolutely not as interesting as the names and ages, and birth places, and all
the other facts that you can slam into the pedigree charts and family group
sheets, but when you are done with that, and ready to think about the less
obvious relationships -- or when you are totally frustrated because everyone
seemed to have gone to Mars -- have a look at those three columns.
Till next time,
Liz
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
2018
begins with an "ABC-darium," a walk through the alphabet expanding
into short comments on matters genealogical. Published on Tuesday and
some Fridays, a letter may be visited more than once before moving
on.
©
2018, SE Ross