Nonpopulation Census Records
Introduction
Nonpopulation census records can add "flesh" to the bones of ancestors and provide information about the communities in which they lived.
Agriculture, mortality, and social statistics schedules are available for the census years of 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880. Manufacturing schedules are available for 1820, 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880. These records are arranged by state, then by county, and then by political subdivision (township, city, etc.).
Schedules of business are available for 1935 for the following industries: advertising agencies, banking and financial institutions, miscellaneous enterprises, motor trucking for hire, public warehousing, and radio broadcasting stations.
Agricultural Schedules
Agricultural schedules of 1850, 1860, and 1870 provide the following information for each farm:
The 1880 schedules provide additional details, such as the amount of acreage used for each kind of crop, the number of poultry, and the number of eggs produced.
Manufacturing Schedules
The quantity and quality of data in manufacturing schedules varies by census year.
1810
On May 1, 1810, the Congress passed an Act directing that "an account of the several manufacturing establishments and and manufactures" be made. However, neither Congress nor the Secretary of the Treasury provided U.S. Marshals with specific instructions about the information that they should collected. As a result, the quality and quantity of the information collected about manufactures varied greatly.
Information is usually included as annotations on the population census schedules found in the descriptive pamphlet for National Archives Microfilm Publication M252, Third Census of the United States, 1810.
1820 & 1850–1880
Manufacturing schedules in 1820, 1850, and 1860 provide the following information for each farm:
The amount of detail reported in these schedules increased in 1870 and again in 1880. In 1880, supplemental schedules were also used for specific industries, such as boot and shoemaking, lumber and saw mills, and flour and grist mills.
Mortality Schedules
Mortality schedules recorded deaths in the year preceding the taking of the census. For example, the 1860 mortality schedules include persons who died between June 1, 1859, and May 31, 1860.
For each person, the following information is listed:
These schedules may be the only record of death for some individuals, as many states did not require recording of deaths until the late nineteenth century and gravestones or cemetery records may not exist.
Social Statistics Schedules
Social statistics schedules provide information about communities. In 1850 through 1870, these schedules indicate the following information for each political subdivision:
Note that these schedules only provide statistical data, not information about specific individuals. In contrast, the 1880 schedules of delinquent, defective, and dependent classes list deaf, dumb, blind, and criminal persons by name and provide information about them on an individual basis.
Business Schedules, 1935
The 1935 Census of Business was the largest and most inclusive inventory of business establishments undertaken by the Bureau of the Census up to that time. The Census was designed to provide a picture of essential items of business information concerning most lines of business activity in the United States.
Fifteen categories of businesses were originally surveyed. Upon completion of tabulations and reports, the Department of Commerce, under authority granted by Congress, disposed of the schedules relating to construction; distribution of manufacturers' sales; and hotels, retail trade, and service and amusement. See the following Congressional reports for more information:
- Construction: 75th Cong., 1st sess., H. Rep. No. 1538, July 21, 1937, and 78th Cong., 1st sess., H. Rep. No. 555, June 16, 1943
- Manufacturers' sales: 81st Cong., 2d sess., H. Rep. No. 3208, Dec. 19, 1950
- Service and amusement: 78th Cong., 1st sess., H. Rep. No. 555, June 16, 1943)
The schedules relating to advertising agencies, banks, bus transportation, financial institutions, insurance and real estate, miscellaneous, motor trucking for hire, public warehousing, and radio broadcasting were retained and transferred to the custody of the National Archives in 1941 and 1946.
In 1953, in order to dispose of the paper schedules, the National Archives transferred to microfilm the following categories of schedules: advertising agencies, banks and other financial institutions, miscellaneous enterprises, motor trucking for hire, public warehousing, and radio broadcasting. Disposal of the original paper schedules after microfilming was authorized by Congress (83d Cong., 1st Sess. H. Rept. 573, June 17, 1953).
The remaining schedules, relating to bus transportation, insurance and real estate, service and amusement, and wholesale trade were retained in paper form because "resources required for extensive rearrangement prior to microfilming were not available."
Available 1935 Census of Business Microfilm Publications
Roll lists are available for the six 1935 Census of Business microfilm publications:
- M1797, Advertising Agencies
- M2066, Banking and Financial Institutions
- M2067, Miscellaneous Enterprises
- M2068, Motor Trucking for Hire
- M2069, Public Warehousing
- M2070, Radio Broadcasting Stations
Nonpopulation Census Schedules by State, 1820-1930
Additional Research
For more detailed information about nonpopulation census forms and instructions before 1900, consult:
- Caroll D. Wright, History and Growth of the United States Census (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1900; reprinted by Johnson Reprint Corporation, New York, 1966).
- Claire Prechtel-Kluskens, "The Nonpopulation Census Schedules," The Record, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 9 & 25 (Sept. 1995).