Genealogy and Local History Blog

Monthly Archive: December 2023

Genealogy

Colonial and State Census Records

Censuses are not conducted in a vacuum. They occur amidst internal and external crisis, shifts in cultural interests, and events that become ‘defining moments’. They also reflect growth of the population as well as changing values and interests of Americans. Therefore, they can add valuable information that can enhance your family’s history and should be sought out. Content ranges from statistical tables only, to significant genealogical information, and will vary widely in content depending on the time and place they were taken. Thirty-seven states took censuses separately and apart from federal censuses. The number taken ranges from one census year, such as California in 1852, to 24 years, such as Mississippi between 1792 and 1866. Budget constraints during the Great Depression prevented further state enumerations, although Florida’s last state census was taken in 1945. Non-federal censuses generally have content similar to that of the federal records of the same time period...

Genealogy

Epidemics and Genealogical Research

“Philadelphia 11th october 1793 11 OClock A.M. “The fever from all that I can learn is more fatal than ever, yesterday a vast number of burials – I do not expect any abatement of the fever before we have rain and high winds – The day before yesterday we were witness to what appears to me Shocking – a Coffin was brought to the entrance of Welsh’s alley, where it stayed sometime for the man to die before he was put into the Coffin, Such hurry must burry many alive.” The role of disease-causing microbes in human history has long been studied. When conducting genealogical research, however, knowledge of disease becomes just as important. Disease could be the reason why you can’t find an ancestor somewhere, or why long-residing families suddenly relocated, or why an ancestor may have remarried. But it also has wider genealogical ramifications. Disease affected entire communities....